Tips on how to cope with fatigue
Hit : 3,785
Date : 2010-12-09
Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of patients seeking health check-ups or medical consultations. These patients believe they may have some serious illness such as cancer because they usually did the same work without any difficulty, but now feel fatigue.
Actually, tiredness through overwork and stress for a long period of time is the most common reason for chronic fatigue. A person can easily get exhausted at any point in life through an increased workload and stress as strength decreases due to aging. Men usually can handle their given workload even though they are tired. They are suffering from lack of sleep and rest because they are too busy but not because of insomnia. There are no other specific symptoms except fatigue. Fatigue can be managed by taking enough rest and sleep, reducing one’s workload according to age and physical fitness.
Depression may be the most common illness that can cause fatigue. Depressed patients can easily become tired without any specific reason and cannot recover even with enough rest. They have depressive mood, lack of interest and feeling of worthlessness. Usual work cannot be done like they used to do before. They appear with a variety of physical symptoms like sleeping problems, lack of appetite, dyspepsia, neck stiffness and palpitations.
In the case of hypothyroidism, fatigue can be observed with unexplained weight gain, dry skin, hoarse voice, coarse and thinning hair and increased sensitivity to cold.
Iron deficiency anemia should be considered, if someone has symptoms such as extreme fatigue, pale skin, shortness of breath, dizziness or lightheadedness, cold hands and feet.
Loud and chronic snoring or sleep apnea (long pauses in breathing while sleeping) are also common reasons that can cause tiredness.
Unexplained, persistent fatigue for six months or more, with other symptoms such as sore throat, loss of memory, headaches and enlarged lymph nodes in the neck, chronic fatigue syndrome should be considered. There is no definite diagnostic tool to confirm the presence of chronic fatigue syndrome. The diagnosis is based on exclusion. This means that other well-defined diseases should be ruled out first, and an experienced family physician can manage this properly by medical consultation and medications.
The author is a clinical instructor at the Seoul National University Hospital International Healthcare Center (SNUH-IHC).
Actually, tiredness through overwork and stress for a long period of time is the most common reason for chronic fatigue. A person can easily get exhausted at any point in life through an increased workload and stress as strength decreases due to aging. Men usually can handle their given workload even though they are tired. They are suffering from lack of sleep and rest because they are too busy but not because of insomnia. There are no other specific symptoms except fatigue. Fatigue can be managed by taking enough rest and sleep, reducing one’s workload according to age and physical fitness.
Depression may be the most common illness that can cause fatigue. Depressed patients can easily become tired without any specific reason and cannot recover even with enough rest. They have depressive mood, lack of interest and feeling of worthlessness. Usual work cannot be done like they used to do before. They appear with a variety of physical symptoms like sleeping problems, lack of appetite, dyspepsia, neck stiffness and palpitations.
In the case of hypothyroidism, fatigue can be observed with unexplained weight gain, dry skin, hoarse voice, coarse and thinning hair and increased sensitivity to cold.
Iron deficiency anemia should be considered, if someone has symptoms such as extreme fatigue, pale skin, shortness of breath, dizziness or lightheadedness, cold hands and feet.
Loud and chronic snoring or sleep apnea (long pauses in breathing while sleeping) are also common reasons that can cause tiredness.
Unexplained, persistent fatigue for six months or more, with other symptoms such as sore throat, loss of memory, headaches and enlarged lymph nodes in the neck, chronic fatigue syndrome should be considered. There is no definite diagnostic tool to confirm the presence of chronic fatigue syndrome. The diagnosis is based on exclusion. This means that other well-defined diseases should be ruled out first, and an experienced family physician can manage this properly by medical consultation and medications.
The author is a clinical instructor at the Seoul National University Hospital International Healthcare Center (SNUH-IHC).