night sweats, weakness, sick feeling??? - General Health Message Board

shellywh · 09-11-2002, 10:47 AM

My husband is 43 and moderately overweight. Over the past few years each fall and winter when the temperature outside goes below 70 or so he starts feeling sick. In general he is very tired all the time and has no energy. Most days he cannot go to work (self-employed as a remodeler) and when he does go he often comes home early because he is too weak. Sometimes he can sleep but at night he often cannot. He states he feels weird inside all the time, has chills and is weak. At night he has profuse sweating where the bed sheets become soaked. He usually has a low grade temperature. In addition but it comes and goes he has frequent heartburn, diarrhea and bloody (dark) stool. He has seen a specialist for chronic sinus infections and antibiotics (when we can get them) sometimes help but only temporarily. He has been tested for all the usual things such as H-pylorie, TB, Hep. HIV, etc. None indicated anything. He has hypoglycemia but this is under control. We have monitored his glucose levels but they do not correlate with any of the symptoms. We have also tried all kind of vitamins including Melaluca. We have also been to a chiropractor for some back pain and those adjustments did not effect the symptoms either. We do not have insurance so we cannot afford to visit doctor after doctor. We have to be very selective on what we do. He (we) is frustrated and refuses to even go to the local clinic now that we have been many times with no results. So basically at the moment we are doing nothing. (except praying for directions and answers) Can any one help or have any ideas on which direction to go next?? Thank you.

09-11-2002, 03:38 PM

Go and see a good GI doc and get checked out. All these symptoms can be caused by old bleeding possibly from the stomach. Tiredness from anemia too.

Jay Tor · 09-11-2002, 08:12 PM

Basic blood work such as a CBC Diff [complete blood count, differential] would help rule out some other serious possibilities. This is a very basic blood test.

Another possibility is SAD [seasonal affective disorder], a relatively new syndrome. SAD is linked to, or possibly caused by, inadequate light exposure. Sunlight is important to the proper production of certain hormones as well as Vitamin D. SAD is most severe or apparent during those seasons when exposure to natural sunlight tends to be low and/or infrequent [late fall, winter and early spring.] The treatment for SAD is relatively simple - about 30 minutes exposure to a special, bright full-spectrum light first thing in the morning, each morning during late fall, winter and early spring. This is NOT the same type of light that is used in tanning salons.

Here's more information:
[url="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001532.htm"]http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001532.htm[/url]
[url="http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct/gui/action/SearchAction;jsessionid=794A3033B5491F9A F21EBC8D5A60282B?term=seasonal+affective +disorder&submit=Search"]http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct/gui/action/SearchAction;jsessionid=794A3033B5491F9A F21EBC8D5A60282B?term=seasonal+affective +disorder&submit=Search[/url]