10 easy ways to reduce your fatigue fast! Times article about Katrina Antram

[Shadrach Loom]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...atigue-fast-tips-health-advice-2023-6c886m3hb

Unpaywalled: https://archive.ph/mklII

Eventually, Antram was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome — extreme exhaustion that affects as many as 250,000 people in the UK — and resigned again, this time taking several months off to recuperate.

That proved to be not only a turning point for Antram, now 38, but a wake-up call to what she believes is an “epidemic of tiredness” plaguing the country. According to a recent YouGov study, one in four of us feel fatigued “most of the time” and one in eight say they feel “tired all the time”.

With little helpful guidance from her GP, Antram took it upon herself to find the root cause of her fatigue, identifying what she calls her “energy leaks” — or the things causing her to feel drained — in each area of her life. She overhauled her largely “beige” diet with foods that nourished her gut microbiome, mixed restorative yoga sessions with gym workouts, developed a new sleep routine and was so struck by her success that she switched professions — retraining and qualifying as a nutritionist.

Now, she has written a book, Fix Your Fatigue, which she hopes will help everyone, from the generally weary to the chronically fatigued.

GET gets a plug, too.

As an occasional reader, I’ve been deeply irked by the Times’s vertiginous transformation into a Daily Mail lookalike under Tony Gallagher’s abominable stewardship, and now health coverage is going the way of its political and social commentary.

But all papers, I guess, are vulnerable to PR from proselytisers who were misdiagnosed and then decided - as they all do, apparently - to write a sodding book.

 

[Shadrach Loom]

Commenting below the line is pointless. However, many people in public life still treat this rag as the paper of record. So it would be great to see a magisterial rebuttal published as a letter to the editor, ideally orchestrated and signed by Forward ME or one of its members.

 

[Peter T]

I am always deeply suspicious of any article that is based around a list with an arbitrary number of items in it. Also surely the Times, a purportedly serious broadsheet, should have noticed that chronic fatigue syndrome is not the official name for ME/CFS and that PEM not fatigue is the core distinguishing feature, though obviously that does not suit the ‘fatigue’ narrative central to Antram’s mission.

 

[EzzieD]

Eventually, Antram was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome — extreme exhaustion that affects as many as 250,000 people in the UK

How, oh HOW, will it ever get through to the press, and everyone else who is not conversant with the disease, that it is not 'extreme exhaustion'? What about all the rest of the, much more crippling, symptoms? I absolutely detest the day that ME got renamed CFS, and the people who invented the name. And yes, it is such a shame that the Times has gone over the years from a respectable paper to the level of the Sun et al.

 

[JemPD]

Its never going to end is it....

Person with poor diet, poor sleep, not enough exercise & plenty of stress, leading to her feeling TATT, gets misdiagnosed with CFS, then thinks that everyone with CFS feels just like she did.
Improves her diet, sleep & exercise regime, and hey presto, shocker, she feels better & thinks she has the cure for CFS.

So every doctor, dentist, nurse (including those on hospital wards deciding whether the person with severe ME/CFS who says they need a private room because of sensory sensitivities, actually get one), every health professional, benefits assessor, social services care assessor, that reads it, it ye again told that what is wrong with us is very minimal & therefore we should not be entitled to PIP or a slice of limited care funding. Since most of them feel knackered every day anyway why should they help PwME/CFS when they(PwME) could just eat some more pineapple.

2. Try the ten-minute walk trick
Exercise is key in mitochondrial function, says Antram, but if you’re already stressed, exhausted or unwell, doing a HIIT workout (high-intensity interval training) or feeling guilty about not going to the gym will only make you feel worse. If you’re new to exercise, or if you don’t have much energy, try “graded exercise therapy” (GET). Start by walking for ten minutes three times a week for two weeks. Then every two weeks increase it by 20 per cent, so in week three you are walking for 12 minutes three times a week. Ideally, you want to get to a point where you are walking for 30 minutes comfortably three times a week.

so actively ignore the NICE guideline then. I hope MEA or one of the charities will point out how actively dangerous her advice is. So Irresponsible.

I am sick to ruddy death of people who are TATT or simply need to sort out their lifestyle being dx with ME/CFS

 

[Leila]

Even the headline is just awful.

It sounds like these scams - "how to get rich online fast"

 

[DokaGirl]

How, oh HOW, will it ever get through to the press, and everyone else who is not conversant with the disease, that it is not 'extreme exhaustion'? What about all the rest of the, much more crippling, symptoms? I absolutely detest the day that ME got renamed CFS, and the people who invented the name. And yes, it is such a shame that the Times has gone over the years from a respectable paper to the level of the Sun et al.

This.

 

[DokaGirl]

Its never going to end is it....

Person with poor diet, poor sleep, not enough exercise & plenty of stress, leading to her feeling TATT, gets misdiagnosed with CFS, then thinks that everyone with CFS feels just like she did.
Improves her diet, sleep & exercise regime, and hey presto, shocker, she feels better & thinks she has the cure for CFS.

So every doctor, dentist, nurse (including those on hospital wards deciding whether the person with severe ME/CFS who says they need a private room because of sensory sensitivities), every health professional, benefits assessor, social services care assessor, that reads it, it ye again told that what is wrong with us is very minimal & therefore we should not be entitled to PIP or a slice of limited care funding. Since most of them feel knackered every day anyway why should they help PwME/CFS when they could just eat some more pineapple.


so actively ignore the NICE guideline then. I hope MEA or one of the charities will point out how actively dangerous her advice is. So Irresponsible.

I am sick to ruddy death of people who are TATT or simply need to sort out their lifestyle being dx with ME/CFS

Agreed.

 

[JemPD]

my family read this rag. I give it a wk before i am sent a copy.

What i want to say is For Goodness Sake! do people seriously think that if any of this stuff worked i would still be ill? Do they not realise that over the DECADES, we have tried EVERYTHING that is accessible, years ago.

Good grief i'm shocked she needed to get a CFS dx to alter her diet/lifestyle when she was feeling TATT. Its the most obvious answer to fatigue surely? I find it so insulting that people suggest a change of diet to me after yrs of being ill. Do they think i'm stupid?
Do people not bother to do any research or help themselves before they seek medical help?

 

[Trish]

One of the keys to feeling less tired, she believes, is to understand the role of mitochondria, the cells that effectively serve as the body’s batteries and can be depleted by poor sleep, processed food, environmental toxins and stress. The more exhausted you become, the less energy your mitochondria produce, a vicious cycle that makes you feel more and more drained.

What a load of rubbish. She clearly hasn't a clue.

 

[Trish]

I was so pissed off reading this that I misread these two headings

8. Top yourself up
10. Cook with ghee

I left out 'up' and read 'ghee' as 'glee'.

The trouble is a lot of it is reasonable and/or harmless advice for people who are tired all the time, stressed, burned out, but it has absolutely nothing to do with ME/CFS. For pwME it will lead to more gaslighting.

 

[JemPD]

I was so pissed off reading this that I misread these two headings

8. Top yourself up
10. Cook with ghee

I left out 'up' and read 'ghee' as 'glee'.

The trouble is a lot of it is reasonable and/or harmless advice for people who are tired all the time, stressed, burned out, but it has absolutely nothing to do with ME/CFS. For pwME it will lead to more gaslighting.

precisely, and as for using Ghee as a 'butter substitute because the fat content & smoke point are near identical', well i'm guessing they would be... since Ghee is butter.
Melted butter with the milk solids removed, to be precise.

Better Than Butter? Separating Ghee Fact From Fiction – Cleveland Clinic

 

[Peter T]

The trouble is a lot of it is reasonable and/or harmless advice for people who are tired all the time, stressed, burned out, but it has absolutely nothing to do with ME/CFS. For pwME it will lead to more gaslighting.

I would love to have the energy resources to follow all?some of this advice, to buy and prepare a wonderful diet, to afford lots of supplements. What a luxury to be able to devote so much to wellness.

It would be great for people with ME to have the best conditions for promoting health, but it would make no difference directly to their underlying condition. Twenty five years ago I was under a nutritionalist on a restricted diet for several years and did have more energy, but my condition was then milder and in retrospect the beneficial effect was not any change in my underlying condition, rather by chance my diet involved eliminating food stuffs that I later discovered I was intolerant of. Now I avoid what I am intolerant of, but have not had the energy to prepare any meal from scratch with fresh organic food for some eight years.

I do not have the budget to follow the proposed lifestyle and certainly would be in severe PEM within days of attempting to start it.

[Aside - the nutritionalist I saw was a recovered cancer patient who believed diet had cured him and then changed his career. He was also definitely a ‘born again’ wellness advocate.]

 

[DokaGirl]

my family read this rag. I give it a wk before i am sent a copy.

What i want to say is For Goodness Sake! do people seriously think that if any of this stuff worked i would still be ill? Do they not realise that over the DECADES, we have tried EVERYTHING that is accessible, years ago.

Good grief i'm shocked she needed to get a CFS dx to alter her diet/lifestyle when she was feeling TATT. Its the most obvious answer to fatigue surely? I find it so insulting that people suggest a change of diet to me after yrs of being ill. Do they think i'm stupid?
Do people not bother to do any research or help themselves before they seek medical help?

Agreed.

 

[EzzieD]

Coming back to this again, I'm just sort of wondering if she is actually the latest shill for the BPS crowd, to boost their pushback against the revised ME/CFS NICE Guidelines and their bid to take over Long COVID by claiming it's 'fatigue' and psychosomatic. I wonder if by any chance she is an acquaintance of one of their crowd? Sure seems coincidental.

She's "a registered nutritionist and graduate of the renowned College of Naturopathic Medicine and an executive coach." https://nocohealth.co.uk/pages/about . Her book is out on Amazon and has several 5-star reviews about it helped their 'fatigue'.

 

[CRG]

About the author:
Karina Antram
Karina Antram (BSc hons, DIP-NT) is a registered nutritionist and graduate of the renowned College of Naturopathic Medicine and an executive coach.
Karina is hugely passionate about health and wellbeing after her own health struggle.

Linked-in:
Founder of NOCO Health I Registered Nutritionist I Author I Empowering people to take control of their health.

About
I am a Registered Nutritionist, author and coach specialising in fatigue. My mission is to empower people to take control of their health and regain their energy.

My career started in Human Resources working for several management consultancies and in private equity and I witnessed first hand the sheer amount of people burning out in these firms. After experiencing it myself several times over, I retrained as a Nutritional Therapist.

I am trained in Functional Medicine and Biomedicine and continue to further my academic education in the fields of chronic fatigue syndrome, mitochondrial function and energy management. I am an author, having recently secured a book deal with Penguin Random House and my book ‘Fix Your Fatigue, how to regain your energy in 5 steps’ was released on March 2nd 2023.

Noco Health clinic is rooted in evidence-based science and the ethos is a one size fits all approach does not work. A tailored, bespoke approach to every client is always taken.

Noco Health:

Karina Antram (BSc hons, DIP-NT) is a registered nutritionist and graduate of the renowned College of Naturopathic Medicine and an executive coach.

Karina is hugely passionate about health and wellbeing after her own health struggles led her to seek out naturopathic practices. After being diagnosed with IBS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Lyme Disease, Karina tried out a multitude of tests, diets, health practices, different foods and herbs to try and combat her debilitating symptoms which, at times, led her to being hospitalised. Karina is now recovered, having made numerous changes to her diet and lifestyle, but is fully aware that consistency and continuity is key.

Prior to becoming a Nutritionist Karina spent 15 years working as an HR leader for organisations such as The Boston Consulting Group and Deloitte. She studied Biomedicine at The Institute of Optimum Nutrition and is currently a member of three governing bodies in the industry, BANT, ANP, CNHC. She is also a member of the Institute of Functional Medicine based in the US and a management graduate from Leeds University Business School.

Forum members may recognise the "College of Naturopathic Medicine": https://www.s4me.info/threads/uk-dr-sarah-myhill.18699/page-2#post-398133

The Institute of Optimum Nutrition https://www.ion.ac.uk/Pages/Category/bsc-hons-nutritional-therapy claims to offer a BSc however as it does not appear to be on the OfS Register it is not a recognised degree.

But hey grifters gotta grift. Though it would be nice if supposedly eminent media organisations didn't give them a platform.

 

[Shadrach Loom]

Coming back to this again, I'm just sort of wondering if she is actually the latest shill for the BPS crowd, to boost their pushback against the revised ME/CFS NICE Guidelines and their bid to take over Long COVID by claiming it's 'fatigue' and psychosomatic. I wonder if by any chance she is an acquaintance of one of their crowd? Sure seems coincidental.

She's "a registered nutritionist and graduate of the renowned College of Naturopathic Medicine and an executive coach." https://nocohealth.co.uk/pages/about . Her book is out on Amazon and has several 5-star reviews about it helped their 'fatigue'.

Very unlikely. The College of Naturopathic Medicine is a shabby outfit which also trains people in homeopathy. The BPS crowd may be wrong and bad, but their arrogance derives from eminence. Self help authors who foist ghee on Saturday supplement readers are a bit downmarket for them.

 

[EzzieD]

Very unlikely. The College of Naturopathic Medicine is a shabby outfit which also trains people in homeopathy. The BPS crowd may be wrong and bad, but their arrogance derives from eminence. Self help authors who foist ghee on Saturday supplement readers are a bit downmarket for them.

Well, the BPS crowd endorse the Lightning Process, eg Esther Crawley's SMILE trials and the official stamp of approval of LP by a few other countries' national health services we've seen discussed on this forum. And they claim that FND is a thing. So I wouldn't put anything past them.

 

[Sean]

10 Easy Ways To Reduce Your Fatigue.

You won't believe number 6!

Or any of the others.

 

[Peter T]

There seems to be some confusion around her diagnosis:

My career started in Human Resources working for several management consultancies and in private equity and I witnessed first hand the sheer amount of people burning out in these firms. After experiencing it myself several times over, I retrained as a Nutritional Therapist.

After being diagnosed with IBS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Lyme Disease, Karina tried out a multitude of tests, diets, health practices, different foods and herbs to try and combat her debilitating symptoms which, at times, led her to being hospitalised.

Though there is no necessary reason why someone should not either simultaneous or sequentially experience burn out, ME/CFS and Lyme’s Disease, I would imagine this is pretty unusual and would require very careful differential diagnosis. I don’t doubt she experienced significant health issues, but I would have hoped any expert in this medical field would want to clarify the circumstances of being diagnosed with three overlapping but also significantly distinct conditions. Also I would worry how any self proclaimed expert would not be aware that GET is at best a controversial intervention that though potentially useful for burnout is counter indicated for ME/CFS.