Fatigue

Why Do I Feel So Tired?.

Firstly fatigue is a huge topic. I think it’s safe to say many of us are fatigued or worn out due to our modern lifestyles. What we are trying to achieve in a day, what we expect of ourselves, and what’s expected of us aren’t natural. Working longer hours, and how many switch off from work when we end the day? How many have young families still because we started later in life? How much downtime or self-care do you get each day? Then add to this not quite managing to eat well, sleep well, exercise? Living this way for a few years will wear anyone down, we weren’t designed to live like this! So that’s just the most basic and simple reason for fatigue, but when is fatigue something more than this?

When Is Fatigue Not A Simple Diet & Lifestyle Fix?

For some people fatigue become debilitating. It’s not just due to a bad night’s sleep, or a busy week at work. Sometimes it’s just constant tiredness no matter how much sleep, or feeling exhausted even after a little exertion. And when it gets to this point where it completely takes over someone’s life to the point just can’t do daily tasks then we move into chronic fatigue syndrome territory. And that’s a subject for a whole other post!

For this post, we’ll stick to uncovering mild to moderate fatigue and look firstly at some simple diet and lifestyle strategies that might be preventing you from having the energy you need.

5 Simple Diet & Lifestyle Adjustments That Could Help You With Fatigue.

Are You Tired Because Maybe You’re Thirsty?
It’s really common to think that you need more caffeine or food to keep you going but quite often it can be a lack of hydration. Drinking 8 glasses of water throughout the day can improve focus and decrease fatigue.

Stressed?
Stress can be exhausting for lots of reasons, it lowers nutrient levels, affects sleep quality plus stresses hormones in cells affect energy production. Find some tips here about how to reduce stress.

Get Lots Of Natural Morning Light
Your body clock which also regulates energy needs exposure to morning light, try getting out for a 15-minute walk before sitting down to work.

Is Eating Making You Tired?
We get energy from food but if you are tired or sleepy after a meal could be that you’re not digesting your food. Or the types of food you chose have either affected your blood sugar, or you have an intolerance/sensitivity to that food.  Don’t ignore this thinking it’s normal to get a slump after eating, it’s a sign that you need to investigate your diet and digestion.

B Vitamins
B vitamins are found in a wide variety of foods such as meat, fish, eggs, leafy greens, & legumes,  but remember you are what you digest, not just what you eat. If your digestion isn’t optimal, you won’t be absorbing your nutrients from food or supplements.

Beyond Diet & Lifestyle

Doing all the right things? Does your fatigue not seem to abate with good sleep, and a good diet, lessening your life load, and stress management.

Underactive Thyroid
I’ve spoken about this before, it’s really common for women over 40 to develop an underactive thyroid, so if you’re always tired, sensitive to heat and cold, have dry skin, constipated, can’t lose with, and maybe even have brain fog, it’s worth getting your thyroid tested. Please ask for TSH, FT4, FT3, and antibodies. You may find it difficult to get these via your regular doctor unless they are a functional medicine doctor, so if you are concerned and can’t get these done we can do it for you.  Many women go undiagnosed because a full Thyroid panel isn’t done, or what is also seen very often is their markers are only marginally low so they don’t get support, and continue to feel tired and not their best, again we can help you support your thyroid. Get intouch.

HPA-Axis Dysfunction aka Adrenal Fatigue
You might be much more familiar with the term adrenal fatigue, but it’s not a term I like to use because isn’t inaccurate. Your adrenals don’t get fatigued or worn out. What actually happens is HPA-Axis dysfunction. Fancy word simple meaning. HPA-axis stands for hypothalamus, pituitary-adrenal- axis and basically refers to the communication between your brain and your adrenal glands. When working well, the communication between the brain and adrenals ensures your brain tells your adrenal glands when and how much of your stress hormones (cortisol, adrenalin, noradrenaline) to release. These hormones, cortisol in particular also give you the energy you need to get up in the morning and go about your day. But when this communication is broken, often due to chronic stress, you end up with dysregulated signals and therefore energy.

Signs You Have HPA-Axis Dysfunction?

Low Sex Drive
Cortisol and the sex hormones are all made from the same precursor hormone, pregnenolone. So when you are constantly pumping out cortisol, there’s nothing left to make your sex hormones. The body will always prioritise stress hormones (lifesaving) over reproductive hormones, as there’s no point having a baby when there is danger looming. Cortisol also increases another hormone, prolactin, which can stop us from ovulating. So, if anyone comes to me with infertility, menstrual irregularities, low sex drive, I always assess stress first!

PMS
As we have discussed above, cortisol competes with sex hormones, and here PMS symptoms (heavy, painful periods, breast tenderness, bloating, irritability) can be due to cortisol steal, a term used to describe cortisol using up all the raw materials and therefore the body not being able to make progesterone.

Poor Muscle Tone
Chronic stress puts your body into a state of catabolism, so inset of building muscles you are breaking down muscle.

Salt Cravings
Due to electrolyte imbalances.

Sleep Problems
You may find you’re struggling with the inability to fall asleep due to racing thoughts, or maybe you keep waking up in the night, due to your stress hormones interfering with your body clock and sleep hormones.

Thyroid Dysfunction
All your hormones work together, and so an imbalance in stress hormones will affect thyroid hormones resulting in weight gain, dry skin, fatigue, and more, as mentioned earlier in the article.

Anxiety And/Or Depression
Depression, anxiety, mood swings can all be caused by high or low cortisol levels.

High Blood Pressure
Cortisol increases blood pressure, in order to get oxygen into your muscles and cells quickly. Longlasting high blood pressure is a risk factor for heart disease.

Dizziness, Especially When Standing From A Seated Position
This is a sign of low blood pressure. Chronic stress can cause imbalances in electrolytes that maintain normal fluid balance in the body.

Fatigue, Particularly During The Morning And Mid-Afternoon
Your cortisol output is dysregulated, resulting in either too much or too little and at the wrong times of the day. And if under chronic stress it will be hard to keep your blood sugar in balance, resulting in dips that make you feel tired, and have strong cravings for sugar, coffee, and carbohydrates!

Immune System Compromise
Chronic high cortisol depletes many of the vitamins and minerals that keep your immune system strong, like Vitamin C, and Zinc. It also results in the reduction of key immune cells.

Slow Wound Healing
This is related to poor immune function because it’s our immune system that helps us heal.

Increased Abdominal Fat
Did you know we have around four times more cortisol receptors in our abdominal fat than any other fat? Cortisol stimulates appetite because quick fast energy like sugar and carbohydrates are vital when you need the energy to run from that tiger. (Remember the body doesn’t differentiate between a tiger and our daily modern stressors). So went we get these cravings, eat, and they are just sitting around, not running from a saber-toothed tiger, this energy doesn’t get used and is stored as fat. Then because your body released insulin to account for the surge of glucose (sugar & Carbs) in your blood you end up with a blood sugar crash a few hours later….And what does that drive you to do? Reach for the sugars carby snacks, and it feels impossible to resist the craving! You end up on a bit of a roller coaster!

Brain Fog/Poor Memory
Ever felt like a rabbit in headlights, like in an interview, or having to give a presentation? These are stressful situations, and cortisol can interfere with your neurotransmitters. Additionally, in the perimenopausal transition, this can temporality get work whole the brain and body recalibrate.

Digestive Issues
We have all felt sick to the stomach at some point in our lives, when in a stressful situation. This is due to the gut-brain connection, we have more nerve cells in our gut than in our brain, and so Emotions and stress can seriously impair our digestion. Back to the saber-toothed tiger situation again, digesting food and absorbing nutrients isn’t essential when running for your life, and this results in uncomfortable symptoms and makes it much harder to digest your food and absorb your nutrients, which long term can lead to nutrient deficiencies.

So You Think You May Have HPA-Axis Dysregulation, Now What?

The best thing is to get tested to find out exactly what all your hormones are doing. Not only do all your hormones impact one another, but there are different stages to HPA-Axis dysregulation. You need to know what control is doing, so you can add the right support. I also recommend testing because these days there is such an overlap of symptoms between different conditions, it is better to confirm with testing, as it can save you time and money in the long run.

Get in touch if you want to get tested and get the right support to get your energy back!

How To Support Your Nervous System During Perimenopause

Self Care! This is even more important if you’re perimenopausal. You are more vulnerable at this time, but it won’t last forever. This is a time of great change and recalibration of the body and therefore a time when you need to make self-care a priority.

Sleep
Quality 7-9 hours sleep, and good sleep hygiene practices.

Stress
You can’t avoid it but you can do things to reduce the impact on your life.

Carve Out ‘You’ Time
I know it’s a tendency for many women to care for everyone but themselves, but if you continue to do this you’ll burn out and be of no use to anyone. Learn to say no, learn to take time to do something you love that’s nourishing every day. Be it reading, a long relaxing bath, walk-in nature..

Stimulate The Vagus Nerve
Gargle, hum, singing…

Relaxing Movement
Choose this over strenuous exercise, until you have recovered – restorative yoga, yoga Nedra, walking, gentle swimming.

Get Off The Blood Sugar Roller Coaster
When you have blood sugar crashes it’s extremely stressful on your body– cutting out refined carbs and sugar, and eating plenty of, healthy fats and lots of colourful vegetables at each meal will help you balance your blood sugar.

Limit Caffeine And Alcohol
Both of these, especially in excess, increase the burden on your adrenals

Nourish Your Body
Stress is depleting certain nutrients such as  Vit C, B vitamins, zinc, and Magnesium (glycinate is the best type because the amino acid glycine has its own calming effects.)

Ashwagandha
Also called Withania somnifera, is an “adaptogen” that reduces neuroinflammation in the hippocampus and stabilizes the HPA axis. It also reduces anxiety and promotes sleep (hence the Latin name somnifera or “sleep-inducing”).

Need help with anything discussed in this article? Jump on a free call to see how we can help.