How Would You Describe Fatigue Associated With Pots
People with POTS experience fatigue differently. Many describe it as feeling beyond exhausted. Its as if your energy is completely depleted. The fatigue is probably hundreds of times worse than your worst flu. People with POTS may also have trouble concentrating and thinking straight. Doing simple tasks may feel like youve just run a marathon.
This fatigue might come and go, hitting you without warning daily, weekly or less frequently. For some people, extreme fatigue lasts for days. Others may experience periodic attacks. It can come on at any moment even if you just woke up. And there is no amount of sleep or coffee that can make it go away.
What Are The Signs & Symptoms Of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
There’s a long list of possible symptoms that someone with chronic fatigue syndrome can have. The most common ones include:
- severe fatigue, which can make it hard to get out of bed and do normal daily activities
- sleep problems, such as trouble falling or staying asleep, or not having a refreshing sleep
- symptoms getting worse after physical or mental effort
- symptoms or dizziness that get worse after standing up or sitting upright from a lying down position
- problems with concentration and memory
- headaches and stomachaches
Womens Health Problems Doctors Still Miss
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Women may feel like their symptoms and health problems are not taken seriously
- Some live with symptoms for 10-plus years before finally getting the right diagnosis
- Hard-to-diagnose women who cant get the help may have autoimmune disorder
- Learn names, risk factors, symptoms, and treatments for misdiagnosed illnesses
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Ashley Price felt terrible. She was tired, dizzy spells came and went, dark splotches popped up on her chest for no reason, and shed gained 50 pounds in two years. Some days she was starving other days she could barely eat. Her doc suggested that her problems would go away if Price just ate less and exercised more, even though she was dieting and working out regularly. Price demanded thyroid tests, only to have them come back normal.
Her doctor told her: I have no idea what it is. Wait for it to go away. It didnt go away. I could no longer think straight, no matter how hard I tried or what I did, Price says. Worse, she suffered three straight miscarriages.
Finally, four years after this nightmare began after the third miscarriage an ultrasound revealed that her ovaries were riddled with cysts. She had polycystic ovary syndrome, a hormonal disorder symptoms include irregular periods, infertility, brain fog, and obesity.
1. Polycystic ovary syndrome
What is it, and who gets it?
How does it feel?
What is it, and who gets it?
4. Lupus
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Can A Sinus Infection Affect Your Mood
Yes, especially if youre in pain.
Many people in pain become irritated, annoyed, frustrated, or even sad, depressed, and heavy-hearted. Infections can really mess with your mood, and like I said earlier, sinus infections are not the exception.
There are many different things that could happen to your mood if you are suffering from an infection. Everybody is different. Some people develop more anger, others get anxious, some get just plain irritated, others get sad and sometimes even depressed.
There are so many different ways of having a sinus infection could affect your mood, although typically all of them are not considered good ways. The ones I wrote about above are just a few feelings having a sinus infection could bring on, and just a few ways that having a sinus infection could affect your mood. It could go in many different directions, depending on who you are, but having an infection almost never affects your mood in a positive way, usually only negative.
But, if you experience any of these mood changes due to a sinus infection , just remember its not you. Its the infection causing it, and hopefully with treatment, when the physical symptoms get better, the mental and emotional ones will too.
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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Home Remedies For Fatigue
If youre having fatigue but arent sure if it warrants a trip to the doctor just yet, Dr. Waters recommends trying to make a few changes at home to see if they help. Those include:
- Take breaks during the day. This can help you refocus.
- Alternate boring tasks with more active ones. That can be as simple as getting up and walking to check your mail after paying your bills online.
- Try to be more physically active. Sometimes fatigue can be due to a lack of activity, Dr. Waters says. Making a point to get the recommended 150 minutes of physical exercise a week may help.
- Make sure you take time for things you enjoy. Stress and even boredom can lead to fatigue, Dr. Waters points out, so trying to get hobbies and other things you like into your day may help.
How K Health Can Help
Fatigue can be caused by a number of thingsfind out whats causing your fatigue. Did you know you can get affordable primary care with the K Health app? Download K to check your symptoms, explore conditions and treatments, and if needed text with a doctor in minutes. K Healths AI-powered app is HIPAA compliant and based on 20 years of clinical data.
K Health articles are all written and reviewed by MDs, PhDs, NPs, or PharmDs and are for informational purposes only. This information does not constitute and should not be relied on for professional medical advice. Always talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits of any treatment.
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Can You Get Sick From Exhaustion
If your exhaustion has continued for over four months, then you may be diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, per the NHS.
According to the NHS, CFS is a long-term illness with a wide range of symptoms including extreme tiredness. Sometimes it’s referred to as ME, which stands for myalgic encephalomyelitis, however, the syndrome is the same. There is no specific test for it, so a diagnosis is based on the symptoms you’ve got, and by crossing other potential issues off the list.
CFS/ME can affect anyone, including children but it’s more common in women aged between mid-20s and mid-40s.
The common symptoms include sleep problems muscle or joint pain, headaches, feeling dizzy or sick and fast or irregular heartbeats but there are many more, which can often be exaggerated by exercise.
‘Chronic fatigue syndrome occurs when energy delivery mechanisms in the body are down, or energy is being used by the immune system to, say, fight a chronic infection, is the belief of Dr Sarah Myhill, author of Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Myalgic Encephalitis. Which means? ‘There is no energy left to live.’
‘The symptom of stress occur when the brain knows it does not have the energy to deal with the demands of life,’ Dr Myhill continues. ‘If we mask that symptom with a prop such as sugar, alcohol or caffeine then we ‘sail close to the wind’ and a minor viral infection could be all it takes to flip the body into a CFS state.’
Talking To Your Doctor About Fatigue
There are several things that can reduce the impact of fatigue. Firstly, it helps if you can work out what could be causing it.
There arent any specific tests for fatigue. However, you can help your doctors diagnosis by writing down how you feel, what could be causing it and how its affecting your life. They may also be able to provide you with a self-assessment questionnaire to fill out.
Depending on your symptoms your doctor may recommend you have blood tests to check your fatigue hasnt been caused by another condition. If it has been, treating this condition may improve your fatigue.
There arent any specific drug treatments for fatigue. However, your doctor, physiotherapist, occupational therapist or rheumatology team, should be able to help you recognise the signs and learn to manage them.
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What Is Pots And Why Does It Cause Fatigue
POTS is a group of symptoms resulting from dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. This branch of the nervous system regulates functions we dont consciously control like sweating and blood circulation.
In people with POTS, more blood collects in the lower body when standing upright. The heart beats faster to pump it up to the brain, but with little success. The causes of POTS are unknown, but the problem is thought to lie in the communication breakdown between the brain and the cardiovascular system.
POTS-related fatigue is physical in nature and the mechanism behind it is not fully understood. It may have several causes, including your body working harder to move the blood.
When To Contact A Medical Professional
Contact your provider right away if you have any of the following:
- Confusion or dizziness
- Little or no urine, or recent swelling and weight gain
- Thoughts of harming yourself or of committing suicide
- Unexplained weakness or fatigue, especially if you also have a fever or unintentional weight loss
- Constipation, dry skin, weight gain, or you cannot tolerate cold
- Wake up and fall back to sleep many times during the night
- Headaches often
- Are taking medicines, prescribed or non-prescribed, or using drugs that may cause fatigue or drowsiness
- Feel sad or depressed
Treatment depends on the cause of your fatigue symptoms.
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Fatigue And Insufficient Exercise
Being a couch potato can actually be the root cause of your tiredness and low energy. Sitting down for long periods of time can sap your energy, even if youre watching TV, or on your computer.
Medical research has shown that exercising gives you more energy and reduces fatigue. It helps to start off gradually, so that youre more likely to stick to an exercise routine. In fact, studies have shown that even minimal increases in physical activity, particularly for someone who has been mostly sedentary, can significantly reduce your fatigue.
How Chronic Pain Causes Fatigue
The Arthritis Foundation says, The pain-fatigue connection can be a vicious circle. Dealing with pain for months at a time over many years can wear you down. It can affect your sleep habits, which adds to your exhaustion. Being fatigued, in turn, can worsen pain and make it more difficult to manage.
Here are five specific ways pain can cause fatigue.
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What Is Chronic Sinusitis
When swelling causes sinus issues to occur on a long-term or frequent basis, a patient is diagnosed with chronic sinusitis. Common symptoms of sinusitis include a chronic cough, constant post-nasal drainage, headaches or facial pressure, a stuffy nose, and fatigue.
Chronic sinusitis is different from a one-off sinus infection, and these chronic sinus problems need to be treated with specialized methods. Medications, allergy treatments and minor sinus surgery procedures are the most common and effective ways to help chronic sinus issues.
Fatigue In Chronic Rheumatologic Diseases
Unusual and chronic fatigue with various etiologies was described for 27 % of patients in a primary care clinic . Fatigue is common in RA, SpA, Sjögren syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus and vasculitis, although most publications concerned fatigue in RA or SpA . In RA and SpA, the frequency of fatigue ranged from 42 % to 80 % depending on the definition and methods of assessment . For 75 % of patients with ankylosing arthritis and 50 % of those with RA, fatigue was considered severe .
Several methods of evaluation have been used to investigate fatigue in rheumatologic diseases . The simplest and quickest scale is the visual analog scale , but this is a unidirectional scale. Multidirectional scales developed to include the different aspects of fatigue are the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 vitality subscale , the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy Fatigue Scale , the Profile of Mood States, the RA-specific Multidimensional Assessment of Fatigue scale, the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory, the Brief Fatigue Inventory, and the Fatigue Severity Scale . With the VAS scale, the mean fatigue level in patients with RA was 42.1 .
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If You Complain Of A Generalized Lack Of Energy You Are Complaining Of:
Fatigue refers to a lack of energy. It is different from weakness, which refers to a loss of strength or power, and drowsiness, because you can feel tired without feeling drowsy or sleepy. Although people sometimes use these terms interchangeably, from a medical perspective the symptoms are distinctly different.
Chronic fatigue is one aspect of the specific medical condition myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, but ME/CFS involves more than just fatigue. You can have chronic fatigue without having chronic fatigue syndrome. ME/CFS is extreme, long-term fatigue that is associated with other multiple symptoms. Also, in ME/CFS, other possible causes of fatigue have been ruled out.
You Feel Your Symptom Is More Than Typical Fatigue
David Margolius, MD, a MetroHealth doctor who manages the system’s COVID-19 hotline, told the Cleveland Clinic that if you feel completely incapacitated by your fatigue, it very well could be because of COVID. “It’s more the run-down feeling you might get with the flu,” he says. “For folks who have had H1N1 they remember that feeling of feeling like they’ve been run over by a truck.” And for information on where the pandemic is worsening, check out These Are the 7 New COVID Hotspots in the U.S.
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Exercise Can Worsen The Symptoms Of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/chronic Fatigue Stndrome
While exercise can be helpful for more common forms of fatigue, the relationship of exercise to myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome is much more complex. Exercise can, in fact, temporarily worsen the symptoms of CFS — a phenomenon sometimes referred to as “post-exertional malaise” or “payback.” This can strike ME/CFS patients about 12 to 48 hours after exercise and make their symptoms worse for days or even weeks.
Even so, ME/CFS patients are not discouraged from exercising. A carefully structured and balanced program of exercise can, over time, help build stamina. Not exercising can cause deconditioning, which can make symptoms worse.
When To See A Doctor
In some cases, home treatment cant be enough to solve the problem of painful joints and muscles. If pain lasts for a week, it is important to see a healthcare provider. You might also want to make an appointment with your doctor in case of fever, vomiting, stiffness in your neck, difficulty swallowing, and inability to move that affects your daily life.
It is also possible to prevent sore muscles by staying hydrated, exercising regularly, and doing warmups before the workout.
In case you notice some symptoms of conditions described above, avoid self-medicating since it might only worsen your condition.
Hosted by the International Pain Foundation www.internationalpain.org
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Some Illnesses Cause Fatigue
Sometimes, fatigue can be the first sign that something is wrong in your body. For example, people with rheumatoid arthritis, a painful condition that affects the joints, often complain of fatigue. People with cancer may feel fatigued from the disease, treatments, or both.
Many medical problems and treatments can add to fatigue. These include:
- Taking certain medications, such as antidepressants, antihistamines, and medicines for nausea and pain
- Having medical treatments, like chemotherapy and radiation, or recovering from major surgery
- Infections
- Chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease, thyroid disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Untreated pain and diseases like fibromyalgia
- Anemia
- Sleep apnea and other sleep disorders
Managing a health problem may make the fatigue go away. Your doctor can help.
