Written by The human body is so amazing. It’s sole intention is to stay alive and thrive as much as possible and it does this despite us trying to constantly murder ourselves. If our bodies could talk, I would argue that about 80% of the decisions we make would have your body saying “Really, bro?! You’re really going to force me to fix this?”.
So let’s talk about a big thing that is most likely shaving years off of our life expectancy: Fatigue. Or more specifically: chronic fatigue. Keep in mind, it will be normal for everyone to be tired, but when it becomes the way you recognize yourself then we have a problem. The complicated part is that fatigue does not just stem from one problem (i.e sleep). I mean sure, you definitely need to be sleeping 7-9 hours a night, and for those of you that think otherwise (“I only need 4 hours a night and I’m good”) are mistaken. “Sleeping less than 7 hours per night on a regular basis is associated with adverse health outcomes, including weight gain and obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and stroke, depression, and increased risk of death… [it] is also associated with impaired immune function, increased pain, impaired performance, increased errors, and greater risk of accidents.” (Watson et al. 2015) That’s for an adult, guess how many hours on average a child (6 – 12 years) needs: 9 – 12 hours. A teenager? 8 – 10. But wait, aren’t we waking kids up at 6 am to get them to school for 8 am so they can sit down and try to pay attention for 6 hours?
Let’s assume however that you are a champ when it comes to sleep. You prepare to go to sleep properly from the minute you wake up, but yet you’re still suffering from some sort of chronic fatigue. What could it be? Let’s take a look at what other branches can lead to fatigue:
- Infections/Autoimmunity
- HPA Axis & Stress Response
- Gastrointestinal System & Microbiome
- Mitochondiral Dysfunction
- Thyroid Issues
- Over-Training/Under-recovery
- Under-eating (Both Macro and Micronutrients)
- Social Isolation
- Testosterone
- Anemia
The worst part is that while one of these can be the problem, most likely you’re experiencing symptoms in another system first, so tracking down what is actually causing your chronic fatigue might be more time-consuming than you think, and will probably not really get cleared up by that magnesium supplement people so readily give for “sleep issues”.
I know what you’re saying: “How can it possibly be that complicated? Can’t it just be one of those things?” I get it, but remember how I said your body is constantly trying to keep you alive? Well, chances are it started with one issue that was then compensated for and created more problems. Remember chronic fatigue is classified as lasting longer than 6 months so chances are that you had only one of those issues 6 months ago or more but the progressive compensation leads to other problems. Let’s look at some examples of what series of events listed above can lead to chronic fatigue (this is an exceptional way of breaking things down that I learned from Dr. Ben House):
- Over-Training Syndrome → Mitochondrial Dysfunction → Low Testosterone → Fatigue
- Toxins (BPA) → Autoimmunity → Thyroid → Mitochondrial Dysfunction → Fatigue
Get the idea? Okay now lets get to a super fancy one:
- Lack of nutrients → Mitochondrial Dysfunction → Low Testosterone → Increased Stress → Lack of Purpose → Social Isolation → Decreased Sleep → GI Dysfunction → Microbiome Dysfunction → Fatigue
You can write a paper on each individual point above and their direct link to fatigue but the point that we need to get across here is that there is never one thing that can fix everything. Health and being healthy require you to improve all aspects of your life. From exercising and eating well, to finding a hobby and being more socially outgoing. All of these can promote health and each of these can also be a detriment if not taken into account. So, stop looking for the magic pill and consider fixing aspects of your life as well.
James
References:
Consensus Conference Panel et al. “Recommended Amount of Sleep for a Healthy Adult: A Joint Consensus Statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society.” Sleep 38.6 (2015): 843–844. PMC.
