Tiredness And Fatigue: Why It Happens And How To Beat It
'Tired all the time' is a popular complaint; tiredness and fatigue are common problems. Often, it is not a medical issue but one that can be reversed by a change of lifestyle. Tiredness can negatively impact performance at work, family life, and social relationships. Fatigue has a reputation as a vague and difficult problem for doctors to investigate, and many people with fatigue do not report it to their doctor. Doctors who are conscious of this take the problem seriously and attempt to determine an underlying cause. There are many reasons people become tired, and, consequently, there are many ways to rectify the situation. Contents of this article: Fatigue is also known as tiredness, reduced energy, physical or mental exhaustion, or lack of motivation. Causes of fatigue can be psychological, physiological, and physical. To diagnose the reasons for fatigue, a doctor will ask questions and take a sleep history, and may perform a physical examination and blood and urine tests. Treatment is focused on the underlying cause of tiredness. What is the definition of fatigue? Simply put, fatigue is the feeling of being tired. It is generally different from the sleepy feeling of drowsiness, or the psychological feeling of apathy, although these might both accompany fatigue. Other terms to describe fatigue include: reduced or no energy physical or mental exhaustion lack of motivation Reasons for tiredness and fatigue Fatigue is a common experience - all humans become tired. However, this is not usually due to disease. There are numerous medical and non-medical causes of fatigue, including personal dietary and lifestyle habits. The following factors can contribute to fatigue, either alone or in combination: Physiological - pregnancy, breast-feeding, inadequate sleep, and excessive Continue reading >>
Cinnamon For Diabetes? A Half Teaspoon A Day Could Help Control Cholesterol
Researchers have been investigating a number of powerful natural agents that can help you stabilize your blood sugar, and once again, cinnamon has proven itself as a viable contender in the fight against diabetes, as the study in Diabetic Medicine reveals.(1) One of cinnamon’s most impressive health benefits is its ability to improve blood glucose control. For example, just half a teaspoon of cinnamon a day has previously been shown to significantly reduce blood sugar levels, triglycerides, LDL (bad) cholesterol, and total cholesterol levels in people with type 2 diabetes. (2) The more you can make use of natural therapies such as nutrition and exercise, the better your health will be. However, as helpful as supplements like cinnamon can be, they should not be misconstrued as cures. They are not substitutes for proper diet and lifestyle choices. You cannot properly address your diabetes if you still maintain a sedentary lifestyle and poor dietary choices — cinnamon supplementation or not! How Cinnamon Can Benefit Diabetics Below are five known ways cinnamon can be helpful to your metabolism: 1. Cinnamon can increase your glucose metabolism about 20-fold, which significantly improves blood sugar regulation. (4) 2. Cinnamon has been found to have “insulin-like effects” due to a bioactive compound, qualifying it as a candidate for an insulin substitute. 3. Cinnamon slows the emptying of your stomach to reduce sharp rises in blood sugar following meals, and improves the effectiveness, or sensitivity, of insulin. 4. Cinnamon actually enhances your antioxidant defenses. A study published in 2009 stated, “Polyphenols from cinnamon could be of special interest in people who are overweight with impaired fasting glucose since they might act as both insulin sensitizers a Continue reading >>
Tired Of Your Diabetes? Here’s How To Keep Going
When you have diabetes, your daily to-do list can seem like a lot. You track your blood sugar, take medicine, watch your diet, and exercise. It can make you feel overwhelmed and burned out. If you’re there: 1. Know that no one is perfect. There are no vacations from diabetes. Even the most diligent people can’t keep their blood sugar or diet or physical activity on target all the time. “Diabetes is unique because [you’re] actually making medical decisions, day-to-day, minute-to-minute,” says Alicia McAuliffe-Fogarty, PhD, a clinical health psychologist. This can be stressful, says David Nathan, MD, director of the Diabetes Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. “If people are always stressed out about diabetes, they’re miserable,” Nathan says. He says people need to forgive themselves if they miss their goals for a day, a week, or even more. “Chill a little bit,” Nathan says. “We’re going to do the best we can. We need to recognize no one is perfect.” 2. Pay attention to what stresses you out. Living with diabetes can cause fear, anger, worry, and sadness. Lawrence Fisher, PhD, director of the Behavioral Diabetes Research Group at UCSF School of Medicine, has studied what doctors call “diabetes distress” in people with type 1 and those with type 2diabetes. He learned that during any 18-month period, from a third to a half of people with diabetes will feel a good bit of it. He cites seven common sources of diabetes distress among people with type 1 diabetes. The most common is a feeling of helplessness. *CGM-based treatment requires fingersticks for calibration, if patient is taking acetaminophen, or if symptoms/expectations do not match CGM readings, and if not performed, may result in hypoglycemia. Please see important risk and safety i Continue reading >>
How Does Having Diabetes Affect My Cancer Treatment?
More than 25 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among people 65 and older, nearly 27 percent have diabetes. The vast majority of diabetes cases are type 2 diabetes, which is associated largely with older age and being overweight as well as family history. Older age and obesity also are risk factors for developing cancer, which means that people with type 2 diabetes are diagnosed with cancer more often than those in the general population. Having diabetes can complicate cancer treatment due to a number of factors. At the same time, some treatments for cancer, including certain newer targeted therapy drugs, can spur the development of diabetes, especially in patients who already had a propensity toward developing the disease, although this effect is usually reversible. Azeez Farooki is a Memorial Sloan Kettering endocrinologist who specializes in treating cancer patients who also have diabetes. We spoke with Dr. Farooki about what special considerations are taken into account when treating this group of patients. A Disease of Blood Sugar “Diabetes is a disease in which a person has increased levels of glucose, or sugar, in the blood,” Dr. Farooki explains. “It can occur because the pancreas does not produce enough insulin — the hormone that allows glucose to be absorbed — or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced. Cells should normally take in sugar from the blood; if they don’t, then high blood sugar or ‘hyperglycemia’ results.” The majority of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight, which often causes the body to become resistant to the effects of insulin. Type 2 disease may be treated with insulin injections, other hormonal inject Continue reading >>
Diabetes And Sleep Apnea: How Sleep Affects Blood Glucose And Diabetes
Treat Apnea to Control Diabetes? Sleep apnea can affect diabetes control in many ways. Struggling for air may put your body into fight-or-flight mode, releasing stress hormones that can raise blood glucose levels. If you're tired, you won't want to take that walk around the block after lunch. While you're at work, you might keep snacking to stay awake. But can treating sleep apnea lead to better blood glucose control? Arvind Cavale, M.D., an endocrinologist in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, refers about 60 percent of his patients with type 2 diabetes for sleep studies. Cavale says treating sleep apnea reduces insulin resistance, improves alertness and motivation, and leads to more stable blood glucose levels. "We use correction of sleep apnea as a tool in controlling diabetes," he says. Does This Sound Like You? This is not a happy scenario: You're soooo tired. As soon as your head hits the pillow, you're asleep. But a little while later, someone nudges you awake. You go back to sleep. Just as you get into a deep sleep, you're nudged again. Sleep ... nudge ... sleep ... nudge. All night long. The next day, you might wake up with a headache, snap at your family over breakfast, have trouble concentrating at work. Irritability. Car accidents. Depression. High blood pressure. All because of those nightmarish nudges throughout the night. If you have obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA), you're getting those nudges. It's your body fighting for air. And sleep apnea may be one explanation for difficulty in controlling blood glucose and blood pressure levels. With OSA, something partly or completely blocks your airway when you're asleep. It could be your tongue. It could be the soft tissues in the back of your throat relaxing too much. Snoring is a sign that air is being forced p Continue reading >>
9 Types Of Medications That Can Lead To Chronic Fatigue
En español | Do you feel weak or tired — sometimes to the point of exhaustion — much of the time? If so, you’re not alone. Chronic fatigue accounts for more than 10 million visits to family doctors every year. Chronic fatigue has many causes, including illnesses such as anemia and multiple sclerosis as well as depression and other psychiatric disorders. But it’s also often a side effect of drugs previously prescribed for other conditions. (I’m not talking here of the complicated disorder known as chronic fatigue syndrome, whose cause is unknown. This condition is characterized by extreme fatigue that can’t be explained by any underlying medical condition.) Could one or more of the medications you’re taking be making you feel listless or lethargic? Read below to learn about the major classes of drugs that can cause chronic fatigue. If you suspect that your symptoms might be linked to a medication you’re taking, talk to your doctor or health care provider right away. It’s important that you do not discontinue them on your own. 1. Blood pressure medications Why they’re prescribed: All blood pressure medications — and there are at least eight categories of them — are used to lower the pressure inside blood vessels, so the heart doesn’t have to work as hard to pump blood throughout the body. Top-selling blood-pressure medications include lisinopril (Prinivil, Zestril), an ACE inhibitor; amlodipine (Norvasc), a calcium channel blocker; hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ and various other brand names), a thiazide diuretic; furosemide (Lasix), a loop diuretic; and metoprolol (Lopressor, Toprol), a beta blocker. Fatigue is also one of the most common side effects that occurs with aliskiren (Tekturna, Tekturna HCT), which belongs to a newer class of drugs called Continue reading >>
Always Tired? 7 Hidden Causes For Your Fatigue
Always fatigued? Fatigue can signal an underlying medical problem, such as anemia, diabetes, hypothyroidism or hepatitis C, among other conditions. But once your doctor rules out major medical causes for your fatigue, it’s time to consider hidden ones. “As a wellness physician, I look for the less obvious roots of fatigue — that’s my job,” says Brenda Powell, MD. Hidden causes of fatigue may include: 1. A junk food diet Diets that are high in trans fats, saturated fats, processed foods and added sugars can sap your energy. Dr. Powell recommends switching to a diet high in good sources of protein — mainly fish, nuts, seeds and beans — with eight to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Watch out for grains, though. These complex carbs affect insulin. “Insulin is the storage hormone that makes us heavier. The heavier we are, the higher our blood sugar becomes, and the more insulin resistance (prediabetes) we develop,” she says. 2. Lost/missing nutrients Today’s industrial farming practices may rob the soil of key fatigue-fighting minerals, some experts say. To enjoy the greatest benefit from the foods you eat and to optimize your energy, make sure you’re always eating a healthy, well-balanced diet — and never skip meals. 3. Not enough omega-3 Try to incorporate foods in your diet that provide beneficial omega-3 fatty acids. “There is evidence that omega 3s help to reduce depression, which can make you feel fatigued,” says Dr. Powell. Foods rich in omega-3 include seafood, cold water fish, leafy greens, chia seeds and ground flax seed. Try to work more of these foods into your diet. 4. Vitamin D deficiency Some research suggests a link between low levels of this vitamin, low energy and depression. “Vitamin D is made in our skin through Continue reading >>
Tiredness & Fatigue
Fatigue is the feeling of being tired all the time, even after you have rested. Most of the time fatigue is your bodies way of saying "slow down". Tiredness and fatigue can be a sign that some part of your life is out of balance. It is unusual for tiredness on its own to be a sign that there is anything medically wrong. However, if you are getting enough sleep and generally have a healthy, low-stress lifestyle and are still experiencing fatigue. talk to your doctor. It could be a symptom of an underlying medical problem such as iron deficiency or thyroid problems. Key points One in 5 people feel tired most of the time and 1 in 10 people experience ongoing tiredness. Women tend to feel more tired than men. See your doctor if your tiredness is combined with any of the following: heavy periods, weight loss, a change in bowel habits, hair loss or extreme thirst. Blood and urine tests can rule out medical reasons such as anaemia, diabetes or underactive thyroid gland. Once a medical reason has been ruled out, try to identify stressors or events in your life that may have triggered or be contributing to your tiredness. Fatigue is the feeling of being tired all the time. It is different from the feeling of sleepiness you get at bedtime or tiredness you have after a late night. Fatigue is the sense of having such low energy that you have little or no motivation to do your regular daily activities. Fatigue may be physical (in your body) or psychological (in your mind). People at greatest risk of fatigue include: women people with low income people with physical or mental illness. Most of the time fatigue is not due to just one thing, but rather to a combination of factors. Fatigue is an important body response to life stressors such as: emotional distress poor diet physical exer Continue reading >>
Feeling Tired All The Time? How To Beat Fatigue And 'brain Fog' By Improving Your Diet
Feeling tired all the time? How to beat fatigue and 'brain fog' by improving your diet Millions of people suffer from fatigue and tiredness but Nick Zanetti says energy levels can be boosted by focusing on your diet and digestion Sign up to FREE daily email alerts from mirror - daily news We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights Thank you for subscribingWe have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email Tiredness, 'brain fog' and fatigue are not just occasional problems, every day they affect millions of people. According to the NHS website at any given time one in five people feel tired all the time , and one in ten have prolonged fatigue. That means around 12 million people in the UK feel unusually tired each day and women tend to feel tired more often than men. In order to discuss fatigue we must start with energy, being energetic is the opposite of being tired and lethargic and where does energy come from? It comes from the food you eat, digest AND ABSORB! It's important to digest food properly to boost energy levels (Image: Gareth Morgans) If you eat your food and you do not digest it or absorb it properly it becomes very difficult for you to extract the energy out of the food which can lead to you feeling tired and brain fogged. Joe Pasquale opens up on loss weight loss and 'sacking off sugar' after dad's diabetes diagnosis Digestion starts in the mouth and chewing your food properly is ALWAYS step 1 to get optimal energy out of foods. Apart from your mouth, your digestive system should work well if you want optimal energy, you need your stomach, your intestine and even your gut flora working together towards extr Continue reading >>
How Juicing These 20 Foods Can Prevent Or Reverse Type 2 Diabetes
Diabetes type 2 is caused by years of faulty eating. Begin to include plenty fresh plant foods in your dietary and bring it under control, maybe even reverse it. Understanding Diabetes Mellitus Doctors often use the full term “Diabetes Mellitus” rather than “diabetes” alone, to distinguish this disorder from “Diabetes Insipidus” which is another rare disease that does not affect blood sugar levels. There are two types of diabetes mellitus: Type I: Known as juvenile diabetes, occurs when the pancreas fails to produce adequate insulin. Insulin is the hormone used by the body to make blood sugar (glucose) available to cells. Recent evidence reported by John Hopkins University suggests that consumption of dairy products by sensitive children causes the immune cells to respond with excessive aggressiveness to antigens in cow’s milk. These antigens may attach themselves to cells in the pancreas. Once attached, the antigens are attacked by immune cells that, in the process, destroy both the antigens and the pancreatic cells that produce insulin. Most people who have type I diabetes develop this disorder before age 30. Type II: The most common form of diabetes, usually occurs in adulthood in people older than forty; but these days, the age number is getting smaller and smaller. For most adult-onset diabetics, the pancreas actually produces more insulin than is necessary, at least in the early stages of the illness. Dietary fat and cholesterol infiltrate the blood and block insulin from making glucose available to cells. As the disorder continues, the pancreas weakens, and production of insulin diminishes until insulin injections may be prescribed. Constantly overeating the wrong kinds of foods over the years is the main risk factor for developing type II diabetes. Continue reading >>
7 Warning Signs Of Type 2 Diabetes
Many people get a surprise when the doctor hands them a diabetes or a prediabetes diagnosis. They go to the doctor for a routine checkup or because of some specific complaint, such as back pain or fatigue, and their lab work comes back with the bad news that their blood sugar is way too high. More: 15 Common Risk Factors of Type 2 Diabetes If they were really paying attention to their bodies, however, they wouldn't be surprised. As diabetes develops, it announces itself in all kinds of ways, some of them subtle and others really in your face. Your mouth feels dry, and you want to keep your lips planted on the water fountain, despite the line of people forming behind you. Dehydration is actually about your brain, not your mouth, even though your mouth is dry. Don't believe me? Your brain cells need a steady supply of glucose. When your brain is bathed in overly concentrated sugar water, it will summon fluid from any source to dilute the uncomfortable fluid surrounding each cell. Your brain gets this fluid from other cells, which leads to dehydration. You may have the urge to drink copious amounts of fluid as your body tries to overcome the lack of water. Soda pop junkies, you're fooling yourself if you think that drinking soda will hydrate you. It never will. For now, drink more pure, filtered water. You can do it! It makes sense that if you are drinking more water because of constant thirst, then you will be urinating a lot too. You are staring at (or sitting on) the potty more than normal because there is too much sugar in your blood and your kidneys are getting a serious sugar bath. If your kidneys could speak, they'd say, "Hey, what's the deal here? I'm overwhelmed, so I'm going to pull extra water out of your blood to dilute all this sugar!" Essentially, the floodga Continue reading >>
Cause Of Fatigue For Days After Exercise In Diabetics
So when a person with diabetes is still suffering from fatigue even days after exercise, there’s a particular situation going on. “The main cause of fatigue after exercise that lasts is being low on muscle glycogen stores,” explains Sheri Colberg, PhD, Professor Emerita, Exercise Science, Old Dominion University, founder of Diabetes Motion, and one of the world’s leading experts on diabetes and exercise. “Depending on how much of these carbohydrate stores that you use up during an exercise session, it can take 24 to 48 hours to fully replenish them — assuming you’re eating a diet with enough carbohydrates in it. “If you are on a low-carb diet [as many diabetics are], it can take much longer for glycogen to be repleted, and that can make people feel tired when they try to do any type of activity. “If you’re eating enough carbs (usually at least 40 percent of total calories coming from carbs when you’re training regularly is required for optimal recovery), you also have to keep your blood glucose in good control for glycogen restoration to occur in a timely manner.” Causes of Longer Lasting Fatigue in Diabetics After Exercise “Thus, longer lasting fatigue can be related to: 1) not enough carbohydrate intake after workouts so glycogen levels remain lower; 2) poorly managed blood glucose levels (which also can impact glycogen restoration); or possibly 3) low iron levels (anemia).” It’s important to check your blood sugar at various points in the days following your exercise sessions to see if there’s a predictable depletion. A diabetic who works out should have a convenient source of carbohydrate with them so that it can be taken right after the exercise or soon after. For hardcore weight workouts, a healthy carb source may need to be taken e Continue reading >>
Diabetes And Fatigue: Everything You Need To Know
What exactly is fatigue? Is it just being tired after working a long week or not getting enough sleep? The answer is no. Fatigue is excessive tiredness that makes carrying out simple tasks difficult and interferes with one or more life functions. Sounds terrible, doesn’t it? Well imagine having a chronic illness along with the fatigue. Diabetes and fatigue have a strong relationship, and it can make a person’s life very difficult. The following article will discuss the relationship, along with ways to beat and reduce the risk of living with diabetes and fatigue. What is diabetes fatigue? As it was mentioned above, diabetes fatigue is an extreme tiredness that individuals with diabetes can experience. It is a tiredness that disrupts a person’s life and makes it difficult to function. It is very common, and studies have shown that 85% of those with diabetes experience fatigue. Some signs of fatigue include: Dizziness Irritability Headache Inability to concentrate Problems remembering things Blurry vision Slowed reflexes and muscle weakness Is feeling fatigue a sign/symptom of diabetes? Feeling fatigued is definitely a symptom of diabetes. However, fatigue can also be a sign or symptom of many other diseases, so it is important that you talk to your doctor about any problems that you are having. I advise reading the following: Reactive hypoglycemia, a term used to define the crash that a person gets after eating a lot of sugar and carbs, can be an early sign of diabetes. In order for the body to use the sugars and carbs that are consumed for fuel, each molecule must be paired with insulin to get into the cell. If there isn’t enough insulin available, then the sugar molecules stay in the bloodstream and cause high blood sugar. What happens is that over time, eating Continue reading >>
How To Curb Hunger At Night With Type 2 Diabetes
Whenever I meet with patients for the first time, I always ask them to “take me through a typical day” describing the foods they eat and meal patterns they follow. Often I will hear something like this: “Well I’m not of a breakfast person…” “So is the first time you eat, lunch?” “…well sometimes I don’t eat lunch either.” “If you do eat lunch, what will it be?” “Oh a sandwich or something quick…maybe some chips.” “Ok, so how about dinner?” “A meat, a vegetable and a potato…or sometimes something quick like a pizza.” “Ok, do you snack after dinner?” “Well, see that’s my problem…” Touche. It certainly is a problem, especially when they go on to describe what the evening snacking routine consists of. I’ll give you a hint: it’s not celery and carrot sticks. So what is the deal with eating at night? How can we avoid nighttime eating? Or more importantly, nighttime overeating? I've got plenty of tips for you to consider. 3 Reasons NOT To Munch Out At Night First things first. Whatever you've heard about not eating after a certain time (I’ve heard 5 pm, 6 pm, 8 pm) because everything turns into fat, is just not supported by research. While it IS the case that, generally speaking, the body is more efficient at burning calories when it needs them (ie during the day), compared to when we're sedentary, the rule about a specific time of day is not substantiated by research. That said, I strongly discourage eating much in the evening for the following reasons: 1. Most people make relatively poor food choices in the evening. This is likely due to poor inhibition – we are less likely to make smart choices as our bodies and minds fatigue at the end of the day. Or it's often due to making up for insufficient food intake thr Continue reading >>
Fatigue
Fatigue (either physical, mental or both) is a symptom that may be difficult for the patient to describe and words like lethargic, exhausted and tired may be used. Taking a careful and complete history is the key to help making the underlying diagnosis of the cause for the symptom of fatigue. However, in about a third of patients the cause is not found and the diagnosis is not known. There are numerous causes of fatigue symptoms. Examples of some treatable causes of fatigue include anemia, diabetes,thyroid disease, heart disease, COPD and sleep disorders (Table). Long lasting complaints of fatigue do not equate to chronic fatigue syndrome. Specific criteria as set by the CDC need to be met to make that particular diagnosis. Fatigue can be described as the lack of energy and motivation (both physical and mental). This is different than drowsiness, a term that describes the need to sleep. Often a person complains of feeling tired and it is up to the health care professional to distinguish between fatigue and drowsiness, though both can occur at the same time. Aside from drowsiness, other symptoms can be confused with fatigue including shortness of breath with activity and muscle weakness. Again, all these symptoms can occur at the same time. Also, fatigue can be a normal response to physical and mental activity; in most normal individuals it is quickly relieved (usually in hours to about a day, depending on the intensity of the activity) by reducing the activity. Fatigue is a very common complaint and it is important to remember that it is a symptom and not a disease. Many illnesses can result in the complaint of fatigue and they can be physical, psychological, or a combination of the two. Often, the symptom of fatigue has a gradual onset and the person may not be aware o Continue reading >>
