By Dr. Aisha Harris
Feeling tired all the time? Not sure why you are not having enough energy to take care of yourself and your responsibilities? There may be some things in your control that are contributing to the fatigue, but there may also be some things out of your control going on medically.
There are three main reasons you may be tired, which include physiologic fatigue, secondary fatigue or chronic fatigue.
Most people may have heard of the reasons behind physiologic fatigue even if they do not know the name. Physiologic fatigue is related to the energy being used daily not being restored by the rest or sleeping. For example, if you stayed up to watch the year 2023 transition to the year 2024 at midnight. but you had to get up at 5 a.m. the next day for work, then you may feel tired from too little sleep. Or if you are in bed for eight hours but are not getting quality sleep during that time, then you are not restoring your energy.
Sleep helps restore energy. Any time there is an imbalance between energy used and energy restored a person runs the risk of feeling tired or fatigue.
Physiologic fatigue can be addressed by proper sleep hygiene, a healthy diet and balanced energy expenditure.
Secondly, fatigue is caused by a medical concern or disease that may be associated with fatigue or tiredness. There are many medical problems that can cause diseases. Some common diseases associated with fatigue include COPD, diabetes, obesity, anemia, HIV, COVID, heart failure, cancer, lupus and many more. Sometimes once these diseases are better managed or controlled the fatigue can be addressed and resolved.
Chronic fatigue syndrome or myalgic encephalomyelitis is a chronic, severe, and sometimes debilitating medical disorder that is associated with fatigue. It can be connected with abnormalities in the nervous system, inflammatory system, metabolic system, immune system and others. There can be multiple imbalances contributing to why someone is persistently fatigued, unable to recovery easily and quickly exhausted by physically demanding activities.
Physiologic and secondary fatigue can be treated through medications, interventions and therapies. But chronic fatigue syndrome, unfortunately, is more difficult to manage, with treatment individually tailored to each person to help bring some symptoms relief.
If you feel you are very tired or often fatigued make an appointment with your primary care doctor to get checked out. There are blood tests, screening tools and diagnostic tests to help evaluate the fatigue and determine the resources, medications and interventions that may be helpful.
Dr. Aisha Harris, MD is a Flint native and board-certified family medicine doctor at Harris Family Health in Flint, Michigan.
Harris Family Health is a membership-based clinic that provides personalized and full primary care to adults and children. Learn more about Harris Family Health by visiting www.harrisfamilyhealth.com.
Feel free to submit health questions to Dr Harris via theflintcouriernews@gmail.com.
