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FAQs:

What Does Low Energy Means?

A person experiencing low energy may feel tired all the time and may be unable to complete basic tasks without feeling worn out or exhausted.

Other symptoms associated with low energy or fatigue include:

- feeling sleepy during the day

- brain fog, or difficulty concentrating

- lack of motivation

What Happens When You Have Low Energy?

Lack of energy is a typical symptom for most major diseases, like heart disease, many types of cancer, autoimmune diseases such as lupus and multiple sclerosis, and anemia (too few red blood cells). Fatigue also is a common sign of depression and anxiety. And fatigue is a side effect of some medications.

Is Low Energy the Same as Being Tired?

Fatigue is more persistent, constant and lingering compared to feeling tired. Feeling fatigue usually interrupts your day-to-day activities and isn't always relieved by sleeping more. Sometimes the differences between fatigue and being tired can be difficult for people to differentiate. Many say they always feel tired. Fatigue is usually found to be more than the everyday tired, which occurs after a long day of work, school or taking care of family. Lethargy and fatigue often go hand-in-hand, but lethargy generally refers to a low amount of energy. Usually when you’re feeling tired or fatigued, you also feel a lack of energy, or lethargy.

How Do I Stop Being Low Energy?

Reduce sedentary behaviours such as watching television and using computers.

Increase physical activity. Physical activity boosts energy levels, while a sedentary lifestyle is known to cause fatigue. Being active has many healthy effects on the body and mind.

Which Vitamins Boost Energy?

The eight B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, B6, biotin, folate and B12) provide the most energy, as they aid in cell metabolism, help the body transform carbohydrates and fats into energy and carry energy-nutrients around the body.

What is Fatigue?

Everyone feels tired from time to time. But fatigue means feeling severely overtired. Extreme fatigue makes it hard to get up in the morning, go to work, do your usual activities and make it through your day. Fatigue feels like you have an overwhelming urge to sleep, but you may not feel refreshed after you rest or sleep.

Symptoms of Having Low Energy

Lack of energy may accompany symptoms related to other body systems including:

- Anxiety

- Appetite changes

- Change in bowel movements or diarrhea

- Depressed mood

- Feeling very thirsty

- Fever

- Frequent urination

- Hair loss

- Musculoskeletal pain

- Nausea with or without vomiting

- Skin changes

- Unintentional weight gain or loss

- Weakness (loss of strength)

12 Reasons Why You’re Always Tired

Here are 12 potential reasons why you’re always tired.

1. Not Getting Enough High Quality Sleep

Getting enough sleep is essential for overall health. Unfortunately, many of us don’t get enough, which may lead to fatigue. During sleep, your body performs a number of critical processes, including releasing important growth hormones and repairing and regenerating cells. This is why most people wake up feeling refreshed, alert, and energized after a night of high quality sleep. Even though sleep time should be individualized adults should get at least 7 hours of sleep per for optimal health.

2. Deficiencies

Nutrient deficiencies may lead you to feel exhausted on a daily basis, even if you’re getting more than 7 hours of sleep.

3. Stress 

Although some stress is normal, chronic stress can lead to fatigue. In fact, chronic stress may lead to stress-related exhaustion disorder (ED), a medical condition characterized by psychological and physical symptoms of exhaustion. Furthermore, chronic stress may cause structural and functional changes in your brain and lead to chronic inflammation, contributing to symptoms like fatigue.

4. Underlying Medical Conditions 

If you’re experiencing unexplained, chronic fatigue, you should visit your doctor and discuss your symptoms. It’s important to know that it’s abnormal to feel exhausted constantly. If you experience frequent fatigue, there are likely one or more causes. Getting proper treatment for an underlying medical condition can help you feel better and improve other areas of health as well.

5. Poor Diet 

Your diet significantly affects the way you feel. To maintain energy and get the nutrients your body needs to perform critical processes, it’s important to consume a balanced diet high in nutrient-dense foods. When you don’t obtain enough calories and nutrients like protein, your body breaks down fat and muscle to meet energy demands. This leads to losing body fat and muscle mass, which may trigger fatigue.

6. Consuming Too Much Caffeine

Although caffeinated beverages like coffee and energy drinks feel like they boost energy, over-reliance on them may make you more tired the next day. That’s because too much caffeine can harm sleep, which may cause fatigue.

7. Inadequate hydration

Staying hydrated is important for maintaining energy levels. The many biochemical reactions that take place in your body every day result in a loss of water that needs to be replaced. Dehydration occurs when you don’t drink enough liquid to replace the water lost in your urine, stools, sweat, and breath. Being dehydrated leads to lower energy levels and decreased concentration ability.

8. Overweight or obesity 

Maintaining a healthy body weight is essential to overall health. Not only is obesity significantly linked to a greater risk of many chronic illnesses like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers, but it may also increase your risk of chronic fatigue. Obesity greatly increases your risk of obstructive sleep apnea, which is a common cause of daytime fatigue. It’s also linked to increased daytime sleepiness regardless of sleep apnea, suggesting that obesity directly affects the sleep cycle.

Other Causes of Fatigue

Many other conditions may lead to tiredness. It’s important to understand that several factors may contribute to your exhaustion.

Here are a few other common reasons why you may feel tired:

1. Drug and alcohol dependence: People who are dependent on drugs or alcohol are more likely to experience fatigue.

2. Shift work: Shift work causes sleep disruption and may result in fatigue.

3. A sedentary lifestyle: Leading a sedentary lifestyle may lead to tiredness during the day. Exercising in the day can decrease overall fatigue.

4. Certain medications: Some drugs, including steroids, blood pressure medications, and antidepressants, are linked to side effects like insomnia and increased tiredness.

Medications that Can Result to Low Energy

Fatigue can be a side effect of several different medications. Some of the most common medications which may cause fatigue include:

- Antibiotics (used to treat bacterial infections)

- Antidepressants (used to treat depression)

- Antihistamines (used to treat allergies)

- Antipsychotics (used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other serious psychiatric conditions)

- Benzodiazepines (used to treat anxiety, muscle spasms, seizures)

- Blood pressure medications

- Diuretics (used to treat high blood pressure, glaucoma, and edema)

- Narcotic pain medications

- Proton pump inhibitors (used to treat stomach conditions such as acid reflux)

- Statins and fibrates (used to treat high cholesterol)

Dietary Suggestions to Prevent Having Low Energy

Have a good look at your diet – it’s very important if you want more energy in your daily life. Suggestions include:

1. Drink plenty of water – sometimes you feel tired simply because you’re mildly dehydrated. A glass of water will help do the trick, especially after exercise.

2. Be careful with caffeine – anyone feeling tired should cut out caffeine. The best way to do this is to gradually stop having all caffeine drinks (that includes coffee, tea and cola drinks) over a three-week period. Try to stay off caffeine completely for a month to see if you feel less tired without it.

3. Eat breakfast – food boosts your metabolism and gives the body energy to burn. The brain relies on glucose for fuel, so choose carbohydrate-rich breakfast foods such as cereals or wholegrain bread.

4. Don’t skip meals – going without food for too long allows blood sugar levels to dip. Try to eat regularly to maintain your energy levels throughout the day.

5. Eat a healthy diet – increase the amount of fruit, vegetables, wholegrain foods, low fat dairy products and lean meats in your diet. Reduce the amount of high fat, high sugar and high salt foods.

6. Don’t overeat – large meals can drain your energy. Instead of eating three big meals per day, try eating six mini-meals to spread your kilojoule intake more evenly. This will result in more constant blood sugar and insulin levels. You’ll also find it easier to lose excess body fat if you eat this way.

7. Eat iron rich foods – women, in particular, are prone to iron-deficiency (anaemia), which can lead to feeling fatigued. Make sure your diet includes iron-rich foods such as lean red meat.

Sleep Suggestions to Prevent Having Low Energy

A common cause of fatigue is not enough sleep, or poor quality sleep. Suggestions include:

1. Get enough sleep – two-thirds of us suffer from sleep problems, and many people don’t get the sleep they need to stay alert through the day. Some recommendations on getting a good night’s sleep include: go to bed and get up in the morning at the same time every day, avoid naps through the day, and have a warm bath or shower before bed.

2. Limit caffeine – too much caffeine, particularly in the evening, can cause insomnia. Limit caffeinated drinks to five or less per day, and avoid these types of drinks after dinner.

3. Learn how to relax – a common cause of insomnia is fretting about problems while lying in bed. Experiment with different relaxation techniques until you find one or two that work for you – for example, you could think of a restful scene, focus on your breathing, or silently repeat a calming mantra or phrase.

4. Avoid sleeping pills – sleeping pills are not a long-term solution because they don’t address the causes of insomnia.

Lifestyle Suggestions to Prevent Having Low Energy

Here are lifestyle suggestions to prevent having low energy:

1. Don’t smoke – cigarette smoke contains many harmful substances. There are many reasons why smokers typically have lower energy levels than non-smokers – for example, for the body to make energy it needs to combine glucose with oxygen, but the carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke reduces the amount of oxygen available in the blood.

2. Increase physical activity – physical activity boosts energy levels, while a sedentary lifestyle is a known cause of fatigue. Physical activity has many good effects on the body and mind. A good bout of exercise also helps you sleep better at night. Seek advice and encouragement regarding the steps you can take toward a more active lifestyle and talk to your doctor if you haven’t exercised in a long time, are obese, are aged over 40 years or have a chronic medical condition.

3. Move more, sit less – reduce sedentary behaviours such as watching television and using computers, and break up long bouts of sitting.

4. Seek treatment for substance abuse – excessive alcohol consumption or recreational drug use contribute to fatigue, and are unhealthy and potentially dangerous.

5. Workplace issues – demanding jobs, conflicts at work and burnout are common causes of fatigue. Take steps to address your work problems. A good place to start is to talk with your human resources officer.

Treatment for Tiredness or Fatigue

Treatment for tiredness or fatigue depends on the cause.

Possible treatments include:

1. talking therapies, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

2. advice on how to get better sleep

3. advice on how to relax or change your lifestyle

A GP may refer you to a specialist if they do not know the cause of your tiredness or fatigue. You may need tests, such as blood tests to check for anaemia, diabetes or hyperthyroidism.

Sources:

Medical News Today

Healthline

Better Health

Health Grades

NHS

Very Well Mind

Cleveland Clinic

Harvard Health Publishing

Unity Point Health

Health Link BC

CNET

The content herein is provided for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Medical information changes constantly, and therefore the content on this website should not be assumed to be current, complete or exhaustive. Always seek the advice of your doctor before starting or changing treatment. If you think you may have a medical emergency, please call your doctor or 9-1-1 (in the United States) immediately.