One of the most common reasons people visit a doctor is because they are tired or fatigued. When is being tired a risk to your health? When your fatigue makes it too difficult to carry on safely with the daily tasks of living or it causes too much of a strain on your organs or glands so that they are unable to function adequately. So, being tired can have consequences that go beyond falling asleep at your desk.
Fatigue can cause driving and operating machinery to be dangerous. An Australian study showed that going just eighteen hours without sleep caused a similar impairment to alcohol. Shift workers, parents of young children and young males are most at risk.
Relationships can suffer because a tired person is not a patient, understanding person. When a person is sleep-deprived, there are mood changes and memory impairment. Anxiety is more likely. These all put a burden on relationships with family and friends and can even put jobs at risk.
The physical stress of tiredness puts more of a burden on the organs, especially adrenal glands, which compromises your immune system and may be a factor in the healthy function of your heart. Weight gain and difficulty losing weight is a common issue, and there is a higher cancer risk, as well.
There are many reasons why someone may be tired and unable to get sufficient restful sleep:
- If you are a high achiever, or in a demanding job situation, you may simply not be spending enough time in bed to get enough sleep.
- Emotional stress and worry may impact your ability to fall asleep and/or stay asleep.
- Congested organs from toxins and processed foods, or a weakness in the hormonal system, can make it difficult for the body to relax enough to sleep.
- Eating a high sugar, high carbohydrate diet can play havoc with blood sugar, causing the body to wake up hungry when blood sugar drops too low after a sugar spike.
- Iron deficiency can cause tiredness and listlessness, because the red blood cells need the mineral iron.
- Nutrient deficiencies, such as B vitamins deficiencies, can wreak havoc on sleep, mood and general health.
The best course of action is to identify the factors that are involved in any type of fatigue. So many health problems today are lifestyle issues and can be sorted out by evaluating diet and other lifestyle factors, rather than simply labeling the symptoms with a disease name and giving medication.
You don’t have to put up with feeling tired and fatigued because there are ways to help the body generate more natural energy. One of these is adopting a diet that will help your body be more energetic and your mind more focused.
The Eat Well, Feel Great! Nutrition Program provides very valuable information about how to eat your way to better health and more energy. Click here for more information about the Eat Well, Feel Great! Nutrition Program.