Heat.

Over the last few years I have noticed my body temperature has risen a little. This was compounded one Christmas when my GP sister-in-law produced a new-fangled thermometer to check the temperature of one of her children, and we had to pass it round the breakfast table and all have a go. Out of the 16 present, everyone measured within the 37-37.5C range. Except for me. I had a temperature of 38.5C. This is still within the normal range, but might indicate that I'm sickening for something. Actually, I felt about as good as I ever do that day.

One of the things that baffles a lot of my clients is how much I start to sweat when I do energy work such as reiki or reflexology, but this is quite simply explained. I'm hot. Anyone who has ever had a treatment with me is likely to have noticed that my energy is very hot, and can raise the room temperature by a couple of degrees over the course of an hour. Imagine what that is doing to my body! That is the reason that I will turn up in a short-sleeved shirt for treatments in the middle of winter.

I've learnt recently that this is really common amongst chronic fatigue sufferers, and is known as ME Fever. It's not a literal fever, but more an increased temperature as the body tries to fight off an infection that isn't there. If you imagine that is what is going on inside the body of someone with ME, the tiredness, the aching and the compromised immune system all make perfect sense too. And it also explains why so many people are first diagnosed with post-viral fatigue before being 'upgraded' to ME or CFS.

All of this does, of course, make summer quite hard work. The moment the ambient temperature increases at all I get hot and sticky, and don't want to do anything other than take cool showers and lie on the sofa in front of a fan. Knowing how bad that is for my Boom and Bust tendencies, I continue to plod on through the summer months, stopping for baby wipes and fresh clothes whenever I can. But even amidst the mediocre summer we're experiencing at the moment, I do find myself looking forward to autumn.