TREATMENT OF BURNOUT SYNDROME/ OVERWORKING

Used to describe the symptoms of physical and emotional over-strain, the term of burnout syndrome refers especially to the consequences of professional overload. If in the past it was the harsh working conditions that overworked a person (overcrowded, ill-ventilated and poorly-lit rooms; very low or very high temperatures; rude tools and equipment, etc., nowadays it is too heavy an amount of activities and responsibilities, prolonged working hours, less time of rest, relaxation and recreation; less time spent with family and friends, professional demands exceeding the employee's training, very high standards of productivity and efficiency, etc., that does it. One other aspect that must be taken into consideration is the personal perception of the situations that we deal with on daily basis. A stress factor may be positive or negative. It is our mind that gives these factors an emotional charge, matching information from the environment with former experiences and with our present emotional state. Therefore, tasks and events in our professional or private life may bear a positive charge for some people or a negative one for others.

In time, professional pressure erodes the individual's emotional and physical resources and gives birth to:

chronic fatigue, asthenia;

nervousness, altered disposition, anxiety, depression;

emotional distress, apathy or indifference;

depersonalization and deterioration of interrelationships, dependence on people around;

diminished self confidence; negative self appraisal and self criticism;

poorer professional and personal performance;

attention, concentration and memory disorders; also disorders of information actualization;

muscular and articular tension;

headaches and cephalalgia;

insomnia and sleep disorders;

loss of appetite and digestive disorders;

disorders of sexual dynamics.

It is believed from a medical point of view that, if prolonged, a state of professional over-strain will trigger a number of specific reactions in the body. They damage the organic, metabolic, immune and cardiovascular activity. Consequently, a good ground is created for the onset of a number of more serious diseases.

In the traditional medicine, treatment of burnout syndrome is centered upon relaxation and tension release of the central nervous system; reconstruction of the hypo oxygenated or poorly vascularised cerebral areas; relieving the osteoarticular and muscular system of stress; dealing with the tisular and the organic disorders; balancing metabolism and immunity; improving concentration and memory; restoring the physical and emotional balance. Acupuncture procedures and medicinal herb extracts tonify the thesaurus organs and the cerebral areas, regulating their activity: lungs, to improve cell oxygenation; kidneys, to revitalize the body; liver and spleen-pancreas, to purify and to detoxify the body, but also to manage a better absorption of the food nutrients.

The physician-patient dialogue is centered upon the professional and personal reevaluation; reorganization of the emotional and affective life and upon stress relieving. Consequently, the intellectual and emotional resources will be reactivated and the patient will get reintegrated into his professional and familial environment.

Depending on the particular features of each body under treatment, the treatment protocols are individualized, so as to cope with all the necessities of a patient and so as to treat all the associated diseases, which may be cardiovascular, digestive, of the spinal column or ophthalmic.

Cardiac Diseases and Hypertension

Stress and physical and/or intellectual stress; anxiety and nervousness; discontentment caused by career accumulate a nervous tension with bad consequences upon the cardiovascular system, especially upon artery tension. Hypertension is betrayed by profuse perspiration, palpitation, tachycardia, headaches, fatigue, vertigoes, insomnia, tinnitus, pressure in the temples and on the nape, blurred vision, numbness in the arms, etc. Should artery tension show high values over a long period of time, and tension fits are also recorded, there is risk of myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular accident, retina hemorrhages, or of other, more complex, diseases (myocardial infarction).

Disorders of the Digestive Tube

Digestive disorders occur mainly because, in the absence of regular meal hours, foods are quickly ingested; people eat foods with low nutritional value or fast foods. Excess of coffee, instant coffee, and fizzy juices upset the gastric balance. As symptoms, the following can be mentioned: bloating, nausea, burning esophagus, pains of the xiphoid process, soft stools or constipation, slow digestive transit. Digestive discomfort upsets emotional processes. Therefore concentration and memory are diminished and so are body's resistance and endurance. Immunity is affected, too, taking into account that a balanced intestinal flora helps maintain a strong immunity. Unless the alimentary habits are corrected, there is threat of more serious diseases, such as: gastro duodenal ulcer, gastritis, hepatic and pancreatic (pancreatitis) diseases, biliary dyskinesia, biliary calculus, obesity, etc. Intestinal transit, hepatic and pancreatic functions are restored with the help of a diet with detoxifying and revitalizing effects; also by stimulating the energy centers that regulate the recovery of the intestinal flora; also by administering medicinal herb products with detoxifying, antispastic and cicatrizing action; protective of the digestive tube; antiseptic and anti-fungal action; regulatory of the intestinal transit; hepatic stimulatory and protective; with cholagogic action (it helps evacuating bile into duodenum).

Disorders of the Spinal Column

Scoliosis, kyphosis, inflammation of the vertebral discs, of ligaments, and paravertebral muscles are pathologic manifestations caused by a bad body posture, which is maintained for a long time during work. Spinal column disorders must be treated without delay, especially because of the negative impact they have upon the entire body. There are many nerve centers in the spinal column. Therefore, any vertebral displacement will affect their activity and, consequently, the activity of the innervated organs.

Cerebral circulation will also suffer (because of a damaged spinal column: spondylosis, dischopathy): poor cerebral oxygenation, concentration and memory disorders, vertigo, headaches, vision disorders, etc.

Treatment of the spinal column disorders involves acupuncture and osteoarticular manipulation, but also medicinal herb products that optimize cerebral oxygenation by stimulating blood circulation; they also fortify muscles by restoring muscle tone.

Ophthalmic Disorders

Work at computer for more than eight hours a day, without a break at every hour; reading of official documents without a pause and working rooms without natural light or poorly lit strain eye muscles. The accumulated eye tension will travel to the optic nerves' ramifications, posing the threat of irreversible lesions. Vision grows poor because of overstrain, and an extra effort is required to fulfill professional duties. Eye tension will be restored, too, within physiological limits with the help of certain medicinal herb extracts, which restore local metabolism, tonify and fortify eye muscles, but also by acupuncture procedures with similar action. All these therapies will recover the elasticity of the eye muscles and they will restore the circuit of ocular humors.