If you selected the latter, you are either well informed or suffer from chronic tiredness yourself. Fatigue is generally defined as a lack of energy or motivation, both physical and mental. That includes extreme tiredness resulting from physically or mentally taxing functions. The fatigued person may have complaints of the inability to start a project because of lack of motivation; or may tire quickly upon starting the project, or perhaps mental fatigue, or difficulty with memory or concentration may prevent finishing the project.
Signs of fatigue are diverse and, at times, perplexing. The list includes: mentally and physically exhaustion; headaches; joint pain; poor short-term memory and confusion; inability to bounce back from illnesses; depression; food cravings for sweets or carbohydrates; tired after sleep, or getting a second wind after 6 p.m., making it more difficult to fall asleep later. Other symptoms are poor immune system functioning, blurriness, slow response to stimuli; impaired judgment, apathy, irritability, slower than normal reflexes, and painful lymph nodes.
Make Some Lifestyle Changes
The easiest way to eliminate chronic fatigue from your life is to examine what you are currently doing to encourage an unhealthy lifestyle. First things first, get your blood sugar levels under control. Coffee and a sugary donut isn’t a good, sound breakfast. In fact, it will probably cause great fluctuations in your blood sugar.
Type 2 diabetes is a very real danger. For healthier meals and snacks, eat fruits, vegetables and lean protein for stable blood sugar levels.
Secondly, get enough sleep. Adults need about seven to eight hours of sleep and research has shown that the older you get, the less sleep you require. Avoid caffeine, alcohol and exercise before your bedtime, the chemicals will make it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Lastly, get moving. Exercise has been found to be the best remedy for feeling tired. It creates energy. Most studies confirm this conclusion and doctors recommend 40 minutes of exercise four times a week.
Make these changes in your life, and stick with them for a couple of months. It is not expected that you fall into them whole-heartedly right away but give them time.
"If you're still feeling the symptoms of fatigue after those changes, then you need professional help," says Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, MD, an internal medicine doctor in Atlanta via Prevention.com. Excess exhaustion could be the sign of a more serious medical condition that can be treated.
Medical Conditions that can Cause Fatigue
It is oftentimes difficult to figure out what is causing fatigue because the symptoms of diseases can be so varied. There is often an endocrine system imbalance, which worsens the symptom. Chronic inflammation caused by food allergies, or chemical sensitivities or a combination can also cause fatigue. Here are some of the diseases that play a role in chronic fatigue.
There are more than one million cases of Type 2 diabetes diagnosed each year. This long-term condition is marked by high levels of sugar in the blood. Because cells don’t efficiently use the blood sugar, it is left circulating in the body. As cells lack sugar for energy, fatigue sets because they don’t have the proper nutrients to sustain functions. Symptoms of diabetes include fatigue, weight loss, yeast infection, excess thirst, blurred vision, slow-healing cuts and wounds, hunger and frequent urination.
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is described as a crippling tiredness that continues for six months or more. Thus far, there is no known cause for this syndrome with symptoms of severe headaches, poor short-term memory and concentration skills – aka “brain fog”, bloating, joint pain, diarrhea, stomach problems similar to irritable bowel syndrome, constipation and nausea. Typically, CFS develops in one’s 20s to 40s.
Iron deficiency anemia is a common medical cause of fatigue. Anemia results in a lack of red blood cells which carry oxygen from the lungs to other organs and tissues. This can be a problem for women of child-bearing age because of heavy menstrual periods. Causes could be mineral deficiency, blood loss, internal bleeding, or chronic diseases like cancer, kidney failure or arthritis. Symptoms include weakness, fatigue and shortness of breath, lack of concentration, rapid heartbeat, chest pains, difficulty sleeping and headaches.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease, which means that the body’s immune system has turned against itself. The immune system attacks healthy joint tissue, and causes irreversible damage to cartilage and bone. Symptoms include morning stiffness around and in joints that lasts at least one hour before there is maximum improvement, and at least one joint area swollen in wrist, knuckles or middle joint of the fingers. X-rays typically confirm bone breakdown in wrist or hand joints.
Both types of thyroid disease can cause fatigue: hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism. The thyroid is a gland the size of a knot in a man’s tie, situated in the front of the neck that produces hormones that control the body’s metabolism. Hyperthyroidism is when there is too much hormone released into the bloodstream.
Signs include fatigue and weakness, first noticed in the thighs. There is also increased thirst, unexplained weight loss, increased heart rate and shorter, less frequent menstrual periods. Hypothyroidism occurs when insufficient levels of the hormone is released by the thyroid. Symptoms are fatigue, inability to concentrate, constipation, feeling cold all the time, muscle soreness with minor activity and heavier and more frequent menstrual cycles.
Those are just some of the conditions that can cause fatigue. Most in the know recommend that you make some lifestyle changes first, integrating healthy eating, sleeping and exercise habits into one’s daily life. After really sticking to these changes, if you are still feeling lousy tired, it is time to see your physician to ferret out the cause of your fatigue.