What Can You Do About Fatigue?

Hi, this is Dr. Minkoff, LifeWorks Wellness Center.

Today I want to talk about fatigue and what to do about it.

So, many people come to our office because they complain that they’re tired. I saw a gentleman today. He says I get a feeling of exhaustion that I can’t even move or get up

and I have to go sit in my car and just close my eyes and he said sometimes I fall into a dead sleep.

Sometimes I have trouble making it home from work because I get an overwhelming exhaustion in there, in my body.

Now in order to produce energy your body needs good food, good water, good nutrients, good supplements

and if you’re providing those and you’re still fatigued there may be other reasons.

Sometimes there aren’t enough hormones in your body, your thyroid is low or your cortisol is low. Sometimes people aren’t moving enough, you know they’re too sedentary, their body gets sludged up

so they need to exercise, get moving.

Sometimes if I feel like gee I’m tired and then I go for a walk or I go for a run or I go for a bike ride,

I perk up, like you get the cells moving and you get the heart pumping and the system functioning and the body will then start moving and wake up.

So you shouldn’t have to live with fatigue because it isn’t a normal state.

You must be sure that you’re sleeping.

So we have a whole handout for people on sleep. Like the room should be dark, there should be no electronics in the room, you should go to bed at the same time every night, you should get up at the same time every day, you should make sure that you are in bed at least seven hours every night. Some people need eight or nine.

If you’re not resting well there’s a you know we may have to debug it. Some people as they get older they get deficient in melatonin and they may need supplements to help them relax or help with sleep.

Sometimes people are deficient in magnesium and we give magnesium before they go to bed so that they can then sleep.

So these things are all really important. I think you shouldn’t be on your computer, you shouldn’t watch exciting movies and you shouldn’t get in an argument with your spouse a couple hours before you go to bed because then you’re not gonna sleep, okay.

Just like, in my house we have a rule. After nine o’clock no controversial subjects. We don’t talk about, talk about politics or problems with the kids or the grandkids or business problems, we don’t do it, okay. It’s all just nice pleasant stuff either music or sometimes I’ll do a crossword puzzle or we just talk about the highlights of our day or the successes that we’ve had with our day but nothing where we’re gonna get agitated because if you get agitated then you can’t sleep, okay.

So I suggest people exercise, they go outside in the fresh air and they breathe and they get their body moving and they get some sunshine because all these contribute to sleep.

I think when you get up in the morning as soon as you can go outside and look at the light, you know like get that circadian rhythm kicked in so that your body now knows it’s awake and at night when it’s dark many people have success if they wear blue blocker glasses. They’re glasses where the blue light is not allowed in and that gives the body the signal, hey it’s time to tone down, it’s time to go to sleep. So these are all things that can be done but ultimately they lead to sleep and if they lead to sleep, then you won’t have fatigue, if the problem is sleep.

Some people have sleep apnea or they have obstructive sleep apnea where their throat is small or their airway is small or their tongue is too thick and they snore and they don’t actually really go to sleep.

Sometimes we even send people to a sleep clinic so that they can get tested to see, are you actually sleeping or are you getting awake 50 times every hour because your body’s not getting enough oxygen.

So these all sort of dovetail into fatigue.

In an earlier video we talked about infection. We also have to enter into this thing that hormones are important in sleep. There’s supposed to be a circadian rhythm, that’s a daily rhythm of what the hormones do.

In the morning your cortisol is supposed to be high, at night it’s supposed to be low.

Sometimes we test people’s cortisol levels and in the morning it’s low and before they go to bed it’s high. Your body is going to be off kilter.

That’s why trying to align yourself with light and dark and regular bedtime can help you with getting your body on the right rhythm.

I think it’s better not to eat about three hours before you go to sleep because if your stomach is full and your colon is full and digestion’s occurring it may keep you awake. So eat earlier in the day or if you’re doing an intermittent fast eat between noon and six o’clock at night but three hours before you go to bed don’t eat solid food.

I suggest people don’t eat, drink alcohol before they go to sleep because alcohol messes with your sleep rhythms and it really isn’t good to do it, so I wouldn’t do that either. So if you’re gonna be healthy and you’re gonna be active and you’re gonna feel good,

you have to get good sleep and then you won’t be tired and then if still with that you’re tired, then you ought to come in here because we can look at infections and hormone levels and things like that, so that we can debug this and you can get your energy and your vitality back. Okay, hope this helps.