Eating And Drinking Habits
Diet can affect how tired or energetic a person feels. Maintaining a moderate and well-balanced diet can lead to better health and better sleep.
Here are some tips to try:
- Eat small, frequent meals throughout the day.
- Eat snacks that are low in sugar.
- Avoid junk food and follow a well-balanced, healthful diet.
- Consume plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Avoid consuming caffeine in the afternoon and evening.
You Have Muscle And Joint Pain
Do your shoulders hurt all the time? âOftentimes those with anxiety tense their muscles unknowingly and have a hard time relaxing their bodies,â Noel tells Bustle. âIf your fatigue is accompanied by body soreness/tension and you have not been working out, this may be a sign it was due to anxiety.â
Food Allergies Food Intolerance And Fatigue
Symptoms: Fatigue, sleepiness, continued exhaustion
Although food is supposed to give you energy, medical research suggests that hidden food intolerances — or allergies — can do the opposite. In fact, fatigue may be an early warning sign of food intolerance or food allergy. Celiac disease, which happens when you cant digest gluten, may also cause fatigue.
Ask your doctor about the elimination diet. This is a diet in which you cut out certain foods linked to a variety of symptoms, including sleepiness within 10 to 30 minutes of eating them, for a certain period of time to see if that makes a difference. You can also talk to your doctor about a food allergy test — or invest in a home test such as ALCAT — which may help you identify the offending foods.
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Depression Acts On Neurotransmitters To Make You Tired
Depression is likely associated with changes in brain neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. “These neurotransmitters play important roles in regulating energy levels, sleep, appetite, motivation, and pleasure,” Ricke says.
According to Harvard Health Publishing, depression is a complex disease with many possible and interlinked causes, including genetics, medical conditions, stressful life events, and brain chemistry. And it can be challenging to tell the difference between everyday tiredness and depression-related fatigue.
“Fatigue and depression can look quite similar,” says Alex Dimitriu, MD, psychiatrist and sleep medicine expert, and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine.
Can Stress And Anxiety Cause Muscle Loss
A recent study showed that daily stress and anxiety are associated with muscle loss. There are two major adverse muscle-related outcomes of chronic stress. During chronic stress, your muscles might feel tense and you might feel a decrease in lean muscle mass.
This may eventually lead to muscle atrophy due to the disuse of the body muscle.
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What Are Some Tips For Good Eating Habits That Help Encourage Sleep
The Dietitians of Canada have made the following recommendations:
Establish Regular Eating Times
Our bodies need energy provided by food to be able to perform our daily activities. Having meals at regular times is important to function at our best. If you tend to skip meals or eat at irregular times, you may experience fatigue, food cravings or increased eating at the next meal. Aim to have at least three meals a day including a variety of foods as described in Canada’s Food Guide. If working night shifts, try to have your âmain mealâ before going to work. A heavy meal during the night may cause heartburn, gas or constipation, as well as make you feel sleepy or sluggish.
Snack Ideas for Your Work Break
Having snacks in between meals is a great way to keep us nourished and give us the energy we need to complete our work shifts. At breaks, opt for healthy snacks that include combinations from a variety of foods from the four food groups. Here are some ideas:
- crackers or fruit and cheese
- social tea cookies and milk
- yogurt and a small low fat muffin
- celery sticks with peanut butter
- baby carrots with low fat cream cheese dip
- cut up fresh fruit or have nuts mixed with plain yogurt
Check your Caffeine Intake
Excessive intake of caffeine can cause insomnia, headaches, irritability and nervousness. It is recommended that foods containing caffeine should not be consumed up to 8 hours before sleeping.
Common caffeine sources include:
You’re Having Trouble Getting Out Of Bed
It can be nice to stay in when you’re feeling tired, or like you need a night alone. But if this becomes your MO, take note. “When isolation seems like a good idea, perhaps the symptoms are not just from a long week, or year, but perhaps even years of the drain that stress has taken,” Davis says. If that sounds like you, consider checking in with your therapist to give yourself a mental health tune-up.
Experts:
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Men Can Have Hormone Problems Too
While most people are familiar with hormone imbalances in women, such as estrogen and progastrin, it isnt as widely recognized that men can have hormonal problems too. When a man is experiencing a hormonal imbalance, he will often be fatigued. He may also experience diminished sexual interest or performance and may not be able to maintain muscle mass.
Weight Gain And Fatigue In Prediabetes
Weight gain in diabetes results in insulin resistance which then has a domino effect culminating in high blood sugars and fatigue. Even a 20kg increase in weight has an enormous impact on our body carrying the extra around so it is not surprising that it can be a vicious cycle as tiredness leads to less activity poorer food choices as no energy to prepare or shop for meals poor body image and depression.
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Make Healthful Lifestyle Choices
Living a healthful life can improve physical and mental health and foster resilience. To do this:
- Eat a balanced diet, rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean sources of protein.
- Limit how much alcohol you drink.
- Avoid tobacco smoking.
- Exercise for 30 minutes a day, most days of the week.
- Establish a sleep routine by going to bed at the same time each night and getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep.
How To Overcome Stress And Coffee Addiction
If you currently are a coffee addict, your goal is to slowly and progressively ween yourself off of it over the coming 4-8 weeks. Decaf is your friend! Then get yourself clean for at least 3-6 weeks. I have more details on how to do this in this article on coffee and fatigue.
Trust me when I tell you that its worth it your energy, mood, and performance will all increase after you go through this process as it is step one on the way to overcome stress.
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Physical Exhaustion Vs Stress Exhaustion
When we are physically exhausted, it is the result of something we did. You may work a physically demanding job or have completed a rigorous exercise regimen. Physical exhaustion is usually a choice we have made.
With rest, the proper food, and time to relax, we can easily recover from physical exhaustion. In some cases, it may take a few days, such as when you have exercised to the point of having sore muscles. However, with a day or two of taking care of yourself, the physical aspects of your exhaustion are gone, and you once again feel refreshed.
When your exhaustion comes from stress, it is different. It is a mental exhaustion, caused by worrying or the difficulty in coping with a situation in your life. It is a result of thoughts and feelings rather than physical exertion. You may have lived with stress for so long that you no longer see the negative consequences. You believe that this is “normal.” You may not know what is wrong with you and have accepted the constant feeling of being tired as part of your life.
What Can I Expect
Having chronic fatigue syndrome can be hard. But for most people, the symptoms are most severe in the beginning. Later, they may come and go. Teens with CFS generally get better faster and recover more completely than adults do. Most teens get partial or full recovery within 5 years after symptoms began.
Many new and experimental treatments for CFS are available. But don’t use any unproven treatments until checking with your doctor.
CFS is a misunderstood illness. But scientists continue to learn about it through research and clinical trials. They’re trying to better understand its symptoms and causes in kids and teens.
Good medical care and coping techniques are the keys to helping your child manage chronic fatigue syndrome. It can also help to find support sites and groups, such as:
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Stress Causes Fatigue By Disrupting Your Circadian Rhythm And Sleep
One of the most potent ways that stress causes fatigue is by impacting our sleep and circadian rhythm . Weve all had the experience of being stressed out by something going on in our lives and how that affects our sleep. Think racing thoughts keeping you up all night. Not very fun.
It is known that stress can disturb circadian rhythm. In turn, disrupted circadian rhythm results in all sorts of other issues:
- Depression
- Lower resiliency in the face of stress
- Increased rates of dozens of diseases
- Daytime sleepiness and fatigue
Stress causes fatigue by directly impacting on sleep in many ways , :
- It prolongs sleep latency , which leads to chronic sleep deprivation
- It greatly decreases the amount of slow wave sleep
- It can impact the emotional states you experience during sleep and dreaming, and can cause nightmares. This can lead to a vicious cycle where whats happening during sleep is actually stressing you out even more instead of being a time when you are recovering from stress.
Loss of sleep is often regarded as the mother of all health issues. So the effects of stress on sleep should be a big concern of yours. This is perhaps the most common way that stress causes fatigue.
Home Remedies For Fatigue
The following home remedies may help reduce fatigue:
- eating smaller meals and healthful snacks every 34 hours
- gradually decreasing caffeine intake over the course of 3 weeks
- limiting alcohol intake and avoiding alcohol before bedtime
- drinking more water to prevent dehydration and associated fatigue
- gradually increasing physical activity
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Stress Causes Fatigue By Flushing Out Beneficial Minerals
Chronic stress and HPA activation will also impact on mineral retention by the kidneys. We end up getting rid of more potassium and magnesium and hanging on to more sodium. , This is especially problematic because most of us are already eat diets deficient in potassium and magnesium.
We need potassium to:
- Regulate electrical activity of nerves and cells throughout the body
- Regulate activity of the heart
- Build proteins
- Break down and use carbohydrates
- Build muscle
- Control the acid-base balance
- Regulating electrical activity in the brain, heart, and muscles.
- Detoxification
So it is easy to see why depleting these vital minerals can lead to all sorts of problems, including fatigue.
Depression Also Affects Your Ability To Sleep
Adults should sleep seven hours a day or more, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For people with depression, that task may be challenging.
“People with depression often have trouble falling asleep or difficulty staying asleep, or both,” says Dimitriu. People with depression may experience less slow wave or deep sleep, according to a September 2014 review in the journal Sleep Science. The end result? Sleep feels “less restful and restorative,” says Ricke.
Plus, people who are depressed can engage in “maladaptive behaviors that contribute to poor sleep,” says Ricke. For instance, depression-related fatigue can lead to someone taking a nap, which will only make falling asleep in the evening harder, she says.
Dimitriu and Ricke note that staying active may be hard for someone with depression, but resisting the temptation to stay on the couch can go a long way in fact, getting some physical activity each day may even help you sleep better at night.
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What Are The Signs And Symptoms Associated With Fatigue
Fatigue is a symptom that usually has some underlying cause. Fatigue may be described by people in different ways, and may include some combination include weakness, lack of energy, constantly tired or exhausted, lack of motivation, difficulty concentrating, and/or difficulty starting and completing tasks.
Other symptoms such as fainting or loss of consciousness , near-syncope, rapid heartbeat , dizziness or vertigo may also be described as part of the fatigue experienced by the affected individual. The presence of these symptoms may actually help lead a health care practitioner to discover the underlying cause of the fatigue.
The potential causes of fatigue are numerous. The majority of diseases known to man often list fatigue or malaise as possible associated symptoms. This is complicated by the fact that fatigue can occur in normal healthy individuals as a normal response to physical and mental exertion. However, normal fatigue may begin to become abnormal if it becomes chronic, extreme or prolonged fatigue usually this occurs when a person experiences chronic or prolonged physical or mental exertion. For example, unusually hard physical or mental exertion for one day can result in normal fatigue that may last about a day or sometimes more, depending on the exertion level, while daily unusually hard physical or mental exertion may result in prolonged fatigue . This latter situation may develop into abnormal fatigue.
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What Exams Procedures And Tests Diagnose The Cause Of Fatigue
For the evaluation of fatigue, the health care practitioner will take a complete history of the patient’s fatigue, along with questions in regard to associated symptoms. The health care practitioner may inquire about the following activities and symptoms to determine the probable cause of the fatigue:
Quality of Life
Does the level of fatigue remain constant throughout the day? Does the fatigue get worse as the day goes on, or does the fatigue begin at the start of the day? Is there a pattern to the fatigue ? Does the fatigue occur at regular cycles? How is the person’s emotional state? Does the person feel unhappiness or disappointment in life? Sleep pattern determination. How much sleep is the person getting? During what hours does the person sleep? Does the person awake rested or fatigued? How many times does the person awake during sleep? Are they able to fall back asleep? Does the person get regular exercise? Any exercise? Has the person had any new stressors in their life? Change in relationships, jobs, school, or living arrangements? What is the person’s diet? Is there a high intake of coffee, sugar, or excessive amounts of food?
The definitive diagnosis depends on discovering the underlying cause of the fatigue this is determined by evaluating the history, the physical exam and the appropriate test results.
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What Is The Treatment For Fatigue
The treatment for fatigue depends upon the cause. Some treatments for conditions that cause fatigue include medications, antibiotics, vitamins, and exercise. Medical treatment of fatigue depends on the treatment of its underlying cause. Fortunately, many causes of fatigue may be treated with medications, for example, iron supplements for anemia, medications and machines to help sleep apnea, medications to control blood sugar, medications to regulate thyroid function, antibiotics to treat infection, vitamins, and/or recommendations for dietary changes and a sensible exercise program. Again, treatment of the underlying cause is the key to treatment of the symptom of fatigue.
Too Much Or Too Little Activity
A person with fatigue may not feel able to exercise, and a lack of exercise can cause further fatigue. A lack of exercise may eventually cause deconditioning, making it harder and more tiring to perform a physical task.
Fatigue can also affect healthy individuals after prolonged, intense mental or physical activity.
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You Wake Up A Lot During The Night
Waking up a lot during the night will obviously contribute to feelings of fatigue. But have you ever wondered why you keep waking up? “Perseverating on triggers like finances or relationships it challenging for the person to turn their head off,” Noel says. “This can cause a restless nightâs sleep and tiredness and fatigue in the morning.”
Your Sleep Rhythm Is Disturbed
Often, we only focus on how long we sleep. You should try to get somewhere between seven and eight hours a night. This is very important because people who are continually sleep deprived tend to put on weight.
However, we frequently forget that our sleep rhythm also plays a crucial role. This means that if you constantly go to bed at different times , this can have a negative impact on your health .
Do you feel especially wiped out in spring or fall? It could be due to daylight savings time. Give your internal clock time to get used to the time change this can take up to two weeks.
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How The ‘lost Art’ Of Breathing Can Impact Sleep And Resilience
Another way that chronic stress makes us feel exhausted is by interfering with sleep, says Bufka. “When we’re feeling stressed, our sleep can get disrupted, which naturally leads to feelings of tiredness and exhaustion,” she says.
“We really rely on sleep to recover each day,” explains Epel. “And so for many of us, even though we might think we’re sleeping the same number of hours, it’s not the same quality. It doesn’t have the same restorative ability, because we’re getting less deep sleep, and we think that is tied to this chronic, subtle uncertainty, stress.”
