Common Conditions - Chapter 4: Fatigue
Welcome back to common conditions - This Chapter is on Fatigue.
I feel like this chapter, we need to start out with a definition. Because it can be pretty difficult to define being tired versus fatigue. Here we go.
According to the Oxford Languages Dictionary, fatigue is extreme tiredness resulting from mental or physical exertion or illness. It could also be weakness in materials, especially metal, caused by repeated variations of stress. Mmm, I don't think the second one applies here.
But you get from the first one that extreme tiredness is what we're looking at. This isn't like, oh hey, I walked a little bit today and then I ended up playing two basketball games and I feel like I could use a little nap or I could sit down for a little bit and bounce right back.
Fatigue is profound. Fatigue can hit every layer of your being. From the physical, to the mental, to emotional, to spiritual, and it can make it very difficult to function.
What does it mean for fatigue to hit every layer of your being though? Fatigue can look like a variety of different things beyond feeling physically or mentally tired. It can also look like headaches. It can look like sore and icky muscles. It can look like muscle weakness or slowed reflexes.It can look like impaired decision making and judgment. It can look like moodiness and irritability. It can look like impaired hand-eye coordination, appetite loss, reduced immune system function. Short-term memory issues, poor concentration, brain fog, low motivation, and so much more.
If that is what it feels like, what can cause?
Fatigue can be caused by nutritional deficiencies causing anemias like iron and B12. Fatigue can be caused by conditions like hypothyroidism or by long-term chronic conditions like fibromyalgia and myalgic encephalomylitis. Of which, we could get into the nuances of what caused those conditions, but we'll leave it there for now.
With the definition, symptoms, and causes under our belt, the next step is to is what do we do about it?
The most obvious steps are addressing those concerns related to cause. So if your fatigue is caused by iron deficiency anemia, For instance, then we address your anemia and work to correct that nutrient deficiency. These basic steps need to occur with some specific conditions so that we are not ignoring that root cause.
Now, once we've done the basics, the question is, what do we do? And a lot of it, as per usual, comes from diet and lifestyle. The diet and lifestyle aspects like’ are you getting enough protein, fiber, and fat, and carbohydrates? Or are you skipping meals?
Are you moving your body even just a little bit? And then also, are you sleeping? Right? Is part of your fatigue that you're not sleeping? Because we really need you to sleep!
Then, if you're sleeping, you're eating fantastically, you're moving your body as much as you can, and you are still tired... Are you not pushing beyond those boundaries because creating boundaries with yourself is huge. All right.
We tend to think that we can function exactly the same as we did when we had all of the energy in the world. But when we're fatigued, trying to do some of the more basic things is a superhuman effort. So trying to continue to function like we did when we had all of that energy isn't necessarily going to benefit us.
Now, do we want you to do nothing? Absolutely not. But we have to find that balance for you and find the right way to pace it out, to push those boundaries a little bit, find where they are, and see what we can do right now. and see where we can maybe add a little bit more.
And then also, you know, figure out where our end goal is. What do you want to be able to do?
There are of course other nuances to look at and other things we can try but as per usual I can't give away the farm. So if anything here resonated with you and you feel you have more questions or want more help, I recommend a visit to your friendly neighbourhood ND, GP or NP!
I hope you found this interesting and learned something!
Stick to for our next episode on Anxiety!