J.5/ The Mystery of Fatigue
How often do wake up and want to go straight back to bed, feel like you don’t have enough energy for the day? I am guessing this mostly everyone as I feel this way some days too.
Lack of energy, fatigue, tiredness, unfortunately these are symptoms people experience daily, I am here to help! You no longer have to feel tired everyday, you can have energy for work, exercise, meal preparation, family, friends and to do things for yourself. There is no magic one pill for everyone, it’s about finding out what the cause is of the fatigue and then treating accordingly. Through tweaking the diet, adjusting your lifestyle and supplementing with nutrients and herbs you can achieve total wellbeing.
There are a few main culprits for fatigue that I see frequently, low iron and hypothyroidism are the most common. Low iron is particularly common in women and women who are at menstruating age, as these women monthly are losing iron stores. Once confirmed through a blood test you can commence taking a good quality practitioner supplement to build up your stores of iron, it’s important to stay on iron for three months and then get retested to make sure treatment has worked. Hypothyroidism needs to be confirmed through a blood test too, it is dangerous to treat something that you may not have, hypothyroidism does need constant supervision through blood tests and practitioner support, as it can always change. These are only two of the main scenarios I see in clinic but there are plenty of other causes of fatigue.
Stress can be another cause of fatigue, this can be in the form of adrenal exhaustion or just increased stressors on the body which then leads to a lack of energy. Treatment varies person to person depending on personal symptoms and also the severity of the symptoms. The stress might be affecting the quality of sleep so it’s important to treat the whole picture rather than just focussing on one aspect. Typically I would include a B complex to be taken in the morning to provide energy the day, I would also include Magnesium as it help with stress, sleep but also energy. In addition I love using herbs to help calm the nervous system and reset it. Withania is my all time favourite herb for nourishing the adrenals, the rest of the herbs really comes down to the person what they as an individual needs.
As for foods to help with fatigue think lots of whole foods, seasonally appropriate vegetables and fruit, wholegrains, good fats in the diet such as avocado and salmon, enough protein making sure it’s good quality meat or if you’re vegetarian making sure you know about complete proteins. Ensure you’re drinking enough water and staying hydrated, particularly in the warmer months also making sure you’re having enough electrolytes.
Fatigue is never a simple process to treat, there is always a cause to why some one is lacking energy and it’s my job to help you through that process and provide appropriate treatment. Remember to put yourself first and do things for you, it does wonders!
