Chronic Fatigue

Fatigue is a natural normal part of life that normally tells us it’s time to rest, often at the end of the day, or after a stressful event. A rest, good night’s sleep or holiday, is generally enough to restore the body and mind. However many people experience a chronic fatigue that is debilitating and gets in the way of living the full life they would like to live. There can be many underlying reasons for this type of fatigue. 

Here are a few: 

• Chronic, long term stress or a single stressful event that has not been fully recovered from

• A thyroid that is performing suboptimally

• A slow metabolism caused by inappropriate diet, stress or chronic dieting

• Undereating, providing insufficient calories

• Nutritional imbalances (eg low B12, iron)

• Coeliac disease

• SIBO/ gut issues

• Reproductive hormone imbalances

• Immune dysfunction, or some sort of pathogen hiding away eg Lyme

• Depression, anxiety

• General inflammation

• Autoimmunity

• Toxicity eg heavy metals

• Fibromyalgia

There are many potential causes. 

Many may be connected. 

Sometimes it is very mysterious as to the direct cause, but with a wholistic approach, we don’t necessarily need a clear diagnosis. 

Stress is the biggy. Most of us are under chronic stress and it can be connected to just about every health condition! Sometimes we have lots of energy, such as on a new diet, but it is really stress hormones kicking in to carry us for a while. It’s not sustainable. 

Fatigue is worth paying attention to, rather than pushing through with more caffeine, and there are interim measures we can take, such as taking herbs and nutritional supplements, to support the body while we work on underlying issues. They are generally not meant to be used long term, although there are also some herbs which can be taken longer term to provide resilience. 

Are you chronically fatigued?