Reduce Your Fatigue

Fatigue is a common, but nonspecific, sensation of generalized weakness or exhaustion. It is extreme tiredness, often involving muscle weakness, that can result in difficulty performing tasks It can be mental, physical or both. Fatigue is normal after heavy physical exertion (like running six miles) or after a busy, tiring day, but it is not "normal" for someone to feel tired or a loss of energy with little activity or after adequate rest.

The symptoms of fatigue may last a long time or only a short time. They may strike at any time or may be predictable. There are things you can do to help reduce the effects of fatigue. Knowing how it affects you will help you handle it better. Fatigue affects everyone differently, vary from person to person. For instance, it may make you feel:

- Very tired with no energy. All you want to do is sleep.

- A loss of control. Sometimes fatigue may make you feel powerless. You may feel you have little ability to manage life.

- A loss of attention. Decisions become harder. It's as if your mind is tired, too.

- Irritable. It may be difficult to be pleasant or happy when you're persistently tired. This may put a tension on your relationships.

- Increased pain. Particularly for people who experience fatigue associated with their arthritis or lupus.

You can take steps to reduce fatigue and enhance your energy. Use the following strategies:

• Control stress and lighten your load. Relaxation techniques like meditation, self-hypnosis, yoga, and tai chi are effective in stress-reduction. Prioritize your list of “must-do” activities.

• Exercise and enjoy the outdoors. Exercise make you sleep more soundly. It also makes your body discharge hormones that can make you feel energized. You can take a walk, gardening, hiking etc. they can help restore body and soul.

• Eat for energy and don't smoke. Small meals every few hours can reduce your view of fatigue by ensuring supply of nutrients to the brain. Avoid nicotine, because it speeds the heart rate and stimulates wakefulness, making it harder to sleep.

However, the underlying cause of persistent fatigue can be hard to identify, and that doesn’t mean the fatigue is unreal. Often fatigue indicates something wrong physically or emotionally. Fatigue is a frequent and troubling symptom of many types of arthritis and other rheumatic diseases, such as lupus. Illnesses associated with fatigue are anemia, heart disease, underactive thyroid, joint and muscle pain, overextending self, poor sleep, lack of physical activity and depression, those a few of the many causes. If your fatigue is of new beginning, getting worse, or interferes with activities of daily living, it would be helpful to see a physician to diagnose and treat the source of your fatigue.

How Can I Keep From Getting Too Tired?

The simple and exciting thing about muscles and bones is that they are made for activity. A person may decide to walk or run, to swim or dance, to wok or rest as the need or desire demands. There are so many interesting things to be done in the world that most of us are eager to be ‘on the go.’ They begin enthusiastically on a new project and often annoyed at themselves when their bodies tire before their interest has lessened. They find that it is impossible for a person to do everything; hence choices must be made of activities that are most satisfactory. Each of us may practice playing tennis, playing golf, dancing, typing, or throwing a baseball. How soon do you tire? Have you lengthened the time before tiring?

There is an attitude among groups that it is ‘sissy’ to admit fatigue. Some people force themselves to keep up with their companions even when exhaustion is near. They do not realize that such extreme fatigue may cause permanent damage by lowering resistance to disease.

Many people having too short a period of rest at night find themselves so sleepy and tired in the morning that it is almost torture to drag themselves out of bed. Going to bed even one hour earlier the night before may help in preventing that early-morning misery.

You may discuss the following topics with experts or your friends: why do little children take naps? Is it a good idea to read after a person goes to bed? Is sleep before midnight better for a person than later sleep? Why is a tired person cranky?

An understanding of the many provisions within the body for producing and distributing energy and for maintaining all of these operations will help us to use them wisely. We can really see the function of rest and sleep for endurance and strength. The need for a balance between work and rest has long been recognized. Fatigue is a normal result of work. It is the body’s way of making sure that the individual will stop his activity and give muscles a chance to gather strength and energy for the next task.

It would be interesting to secure a pedometer and to have several family members wear it for a day or two to find out how far they walk during a workday. Let’s have a try.