Tired? Exhausted? At the end of your tether? Join the club.

Food chosen for speed and convenience, mostly items which have been through a factory or bakehouse, the vital minerals, vitamins and phytonutrients in short supply, our body chemistry slows down, fatigue results.

Sleep interrupted by apnoeic attacks, with reduced oxygen in the bloodstream during the night, one may wake unrefreshed and be liable to fall asleep during the day at the drop of a hat.

Exposed to environmental pollution from industry and motor vehicles, especially if one has inherited problems with detoxification and also if short of vital nutrients, our energy production slows.

So many possibilities.

Any long standing problem needs sorting out before treatment can be effective. Poisoning will not respond very well to counselling. Vitamins may not heal an unhealthy relationship.

It's a very common problem, usually mutifactorial and needing each aspect managed for a half way decent result.

Medications are seldom the answer.
If someone is already on multiple medications, my first ploy is frequently to stop them all. Some need tailing off to avoid withdrawal syndromes. The person needs careful watching in case some need to be re-started.

A plan of approach to chronic fatigue

Are you involved in lots of things because you think (or someone else thinks) you ought to be?

Are there some that you don't enjoy, that make you feel more tired?

Are you sitting on a committee which really doesn't have power to achieve its intended purpose?

This list could go on and on for a very long time.
If you knew you had six months to live, what would your life look like?

A bit of knowledge about your body is not dangerous.

You need to understand things in order to make sensible decisions, in partnership with your health professionals.

Ask a lot of questions. Take a list and have it prioritized in case time runs out - most important things first.

I'm delighted if people have studied up on the net, even if they are way off in their initial ideas.

Don't rely only on doctors. Sadly, the medical profession relies too much on standard pathology tests and on pharmaceuticals.

It is very important to check for things like chronic kidney failure and cancer. Conventional medicine definitely has it's place.

In chronic fatigue, it is a small place.

Learn about nutrition and I don't just mean proprietary nutritional supplements.

If possible grow some of your own food, without chemicals. Even if you just have a jar for sprouting seeds for your salads, or a window box for chives or strawberries, it's valuable and enjoyable.

Swapping home grown vegetables and fruit, buying organic food, do whatever is possible.

"We are what we eat" plus masticate, digest and absorb. Indigestion is not just discomfort, but difficulty with assimilation so we may not get all the goodness out of our food.

A lot of ill health starts in the bowel. Inflammations, cancers and hormone disturbances are way further down the track.

Read, read, read, on sites such as metametrix and genova for specialized pathology, Dr. mercola's site for anything.

The cdc site is comprehensive, but biased against nutritional medicine.

If all this makes you tired just to think about it, enlist some help. We are not alone. Blogs and forums abound.

Tired old notes from case histories

Mr. A had "Wind in stomach, blowing up, sore. Gurgling in throat, belching. Been to lot of doctors, had hiatus hernia operation 8 years ago without help."

When asked about general health..."Quite good in other ways, but tired all the time, lacking energy, wants to sit down all the time."

When examined, he was tender in the midline of his abdomen, just under his ribs. He looked depressed and admitted to feeling so.

A few visits later, I gave him an injection of multiple B group vitamins including vitamin B12.

The next note a week later was "got better next day - ever so much better."

The note after that was 4 months later again.."stomach back again." This time he had just vitamin B12 1mg, and later reported he'd improved again.

After that he was mainly seen for unrelated matters, plus B12 injections. There were no further notes about his stomach (or being tired.)

Blood tests for vitamins are expensive and often the best way to check for deficiency is to just give some. In a setting of obvious gastrointestinal malfunction, vitamins by mouth may not be the best way to do this "therapeutic trial."

This person was seen over thirty yeas ago. I would always get a blood test for vitamin B12 first, these days. The comments still apply to the other vitamins of the B complex, however.

Injected vitamins can have much more rapid and obvious effects.

2. Digestive enzyme supplements

Mr. B had been investigated in hospital for chronic fatigue syndrome. The only abnormality found had been that his blood sugar levels were all low. The highest was 3.8mmol/l (68mg/dl).

He had undergone a prolongued fast to ensure he hadn't a tumour in his pancreas.

He reported that he could get more tired 10 to 15 minutes after eating, especially after sugary things.

He was subject to dramatic mood swings. His bowel actions floated in the toilet water, rather than sank.

He had been tested for allergies in the past, and was "positive to everything" including the main cereals apart from rice.

Part of the treatment prescribed was to use a digestive enzyme supplement with his meals.

He reported later that if he missed taking the enzymes for a couple of consecutive meals he "gets inability to think clearly, no patience, very volatile."

Mostly, poo sinks. If it consistently floats the fat content may be high, a clue to suggest poor digestion.

Food allergy reactions can drop blood sugar levels. This is one of the tests used at Dr. William Rae's Environmental Health center in Dallas. See http://www.ecopolitan.com/dr-william-rae

One way of dealing with food allergies is to speed up digestion, so there is less undigested or partly digested food to penetrate the wall of the intestine and lead to allergic reactions.

3. Later hormones get involved and hypoglycaemia can result

Blood sugar drops are usually due to high GI foods, rather than allergy reactions.

The rapid rise in blood sugar is followed by just as rapid a fall, which overshoots the initial level.

One simple test for this condition is to give intravenous glucose and see if the person feels better.

Mrs. J felt "giddy, stupid in head, shifting headaches and palpitations" which improved after the glucose injection.

Mrs K had "high pitched ringing noises in head, ache in chest, nausea and indigestion." After the injection she felt less heavy in her chest and her ears weren't ringing.

This is a short lived benefit, and in fact Mrs J "got worse ++ later," which helped confirm the diagnosis.

Another similar diagnostic step is to have a long drink made of a tablespoon of glycerin with some lemon juice, in water.

Mrs L found this was too much and made her dizzy. A dessert spoon full still made her a bit light headed, but also gave her "a spurt of energy." She needed more water with the glycerin, as too thick it shrinks the brain (temporarily.)

To another page about hypoglycaemia

Adrenal gland weakness is usually behind such low blood sugar. This in turn can have developed due to stress and poor diet on top of inborn weakness of the gland.

Small ear lobes is a marker for the last factor, indicating need to keep stress down and nutrient supply up.

4. Tired or toxic?

Everyone has to deal with toxins. Most foods, no matter how well grown, have natural chemical compounds our body doesn't need nor want. Then add all the products of modern industrial society we inhale, ingest and absorb through out skin. Then add electromagnetic smog.

It's an impressive load.

Not all people are well endowed with inborn capacity to deal with it.

Not many people eat good enough food to realize their optimum inborn capacity to deal with it.

No wonder many people are tired, bone tired.

Fatigue and sleepiness¹

At the University of Maryland site, you can test yourself for sleepiness using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale.

In elderly men with type 2 diabetes plus obstructive sleep apnoea (median 20 events per hour,) and HbA1c 6.5% and 8.5%, the ESS was the only measure of sleep disturbance which correlated with sugar control².

It's a valuable tool.

Have A helpful tip to share, or an experience others can learn from?

You can have your own page on this site, be anonymous if you prefer, and help other people or get useful opinions from other readers.

References

2. Aurora et al, Associated Professional Sleep Societies 25th Annual Meeting: Abstract O642. Presented June 15, 2011 Minneapolis

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