Why am I so tired? This complaint is heard in many doctor’s offices, but as common as the question is, there are multiple reasons for fatigue and this symptom should not be ignored.
Types of Fatigue
When dealing with fatigue, there are common causes that are easier to fix. Patients dealing with transient fatigue may have just returned from an international vacation and are dealing with jet lag and disturbed sleep cycles. This will resolve itself by getting back into an effective sleep hygiene routine. Additionally, getting proper rest, recovery, and paying extra attention to nutrition and hydration during the day should resolve transient fatigue.
Cumulative Fatigue is repeated loss of sleep or extended wakefulness. This may be because of outside factors, such as a home with babies and young children. Circadian fatigue is due to a lack of nighttime sleep, shift workers are typically affected by this.
Medical Causes
Certain medical conditions cause low energy levels and fatigue. These include:
- Hypothyroidism
- Autoimmune disease
- Pregnancy
- Infections
- Mitochondrial disease
- Insomnia
At the Holistic Doctor of Charlotte we use state of the art medical testing to uncover the root cause of illness. Depending on your symptom picture Dr. Cushing may recommend blood, saliva, hair mineral or stool testing. Each patient is treated as an individual, and you are completely different from other patients.
How to increase energy levels.
Depending on your root cause, the recommendations to help increase your energy and vitality will be completely different:
- Improving your sleep efficiency through establishing a bedtime routine, avoiding blue light from screens, stretching and meditation.
- Checking your nutrition, anemia and deficiencies in iron, vitamin D, magnesium among others affect energy levels. A proper blood screening work up is necessary to address nutritional deficiencies.
- Dietary deficiencies also affect energy levels. A diet high in very processed, sugary foods will affect fatigue. Choose whole foods instead of highly processed food. Avoiding alcohol and caffeine will also help energy levels.
- Very high intensity exercise may affect energy levels. For patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome rest and low intensity exercise such as yoga and walking should be the choice for fitness activities.
- High quality non addictive sleep supplements are available with proper guidance.
Read Dr. Cushing’s biography
