08/13/2022
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Why Am I Always So Tired and Have no Energy?
Do you feel tired and have no energy all the time? Well, if you avoid these six things that I'm about to tell you, you can increase your energy levels and feel great.
As someone who's been through residency and fellowship shifts and working crazy hours on average 80 hours a week and then I was also on call every fourth night where you're up for 24 hours straight, the sleep cycle gets all messed up. I speak from experience when I say I feel tired all the time, or at least I used to. I just have periods where have very low energy. So there are actually six things that you can avoid to feel like that and these are based on the latest medical science evidence-based medicine. So without further ado, let's go and get started.
For one thing, as we get older we lose mitochondria, which are the energy-producing engines in our cells, and because of that, we produce less adenosine triphosphate or ATP for short. ATP is the molecule that provides energy to cells throughout the body. Other causes of fatigue, like medication side effects or chronic illnesses like depression or heart disease, or COPD can make you feel tired or sluggish. But age and disease-related factors aren't the only things that suck your energy. Lifestyle habits play a huge role in tiredness.
And when I say lack of sleep I mean lack of adequate amounts of high-quality sleep. So it's not just how long you sleep, it's how good the sleep itself is. Lack of good sleep increases cortisol levels and increases inflammation.
Good sleep hygiene is essential to getting good sleep. This means going to bed and waking up at the same time each day and keeping your room on the cooler side and keeping it quiet and free of electronics that stimulate your brain.
The blue light from the cell phone, from the laptop, from the iPad, whatever stimulates your eyes, stimulates your brain. No Bueno, so don't use your phone in bed. Also don't exercise at least 2 hours before bed because it stimulates you and it puts you in an adrenergic state and before you sleep you need to be in a parasympathetic state, a relaxed state.
If you do drink caffeine, don't drink too much be careful about this and make sure it's early in the day.
Absolutely do not drink caffeine within 8 hours of bedtime. And the same applies to alcohol. Even though alcohol may help you fall asleep, it actually interrupts the sleep cycle and diminishes the quality of sleep. Also, alcohol relaxes your throat muscles while you sleep. That's why you're more prone to snoring when you're drinking alcohol and you're more prone to sleep apnea when alcohol is in your system.
If sleep issues are caused by sleep apnea, which is pauses in breathing during sleep, the dips in blood oxygen levels lower ATP and energy levels. So talk to your doctor about the possibility of having sleep apnea. Other things that may rob you of sleep include medication, side effects, and frequent trips to the bathroom. So it's another reason to avoid alcohol and caffeine too close to bedtime. And if you think you might be snoring too much or have APNIC episodes, definitely check with your doctor.
Okay, so we talked about the first thing to avoid, which is not getting good sleep. So in simple words, get good sleep.
The thing to avoid on the list, which is sucking your energy away, is inactivity. Some people think that if they exercise, they'll become more tired, and that's true. But it's only temporary.
Over time, regular activity, and especially regular exercise, increase your baseline energy levels.
Why does this happen? Well, at least part of the reason has to do with your muscles.
If you have less muscle mass, that means you have fewer mitochondria and less ATP. Sitting weakens and shrinks muscles, causing them to use energy inefficiently Physical activity, which strengthens muscles without exercise, helps them become more efficient and stores ATP and increases the production of energy-generating brain chemicals.
Although general physical activity is good, like standing and walking, routine exercise is even better.
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The third thing that might be sucking your energy level away is too much stress in your life, chronic stress can raise cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands, and when this is released, bad stuff happens. It decreases the production of ATP, which increases inflammation. Too much cortisol is not good. So, to lower cortisol levels use stress reduction techniques.
So you can do things like exercise, yoga, mindfulness tai chi, and breathing exercise. Even ten minutes a day of one of these is helpful.
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A poor diet might be a cause of suck your energy. If you're not eating healthy, you are less likely to get the right vitamins and minerals necessary to produce enough ATP, and you end up feeling more tired. Also, eating too much-processed food can increase inflammation, which impairs the production of ATP in energy.
Eating foods with added sugars is also bad because it causes blood sugar spikes and the crash that you get afterward, and it causes more chronic fatigue overall. So eating healthy means eating whole foods, including vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean proteins like fish, chicken, nuts, seeds, fatty acids, and protein-rich foods that also help boost ATP. And go for smaller meals with healthy snacks in between to provide your body with a steady supply of nutrients and fewer blood sugar spikes.
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The fifth thing on the list that might be sucking your energy away is poor fluid choices. Poor fluid choices can make you tired. Here's why the things that you drink actually matter. Drinking sugary, sodas and juices have the same effect as eating sugar. Also, for patients with diabetes, consuming too much sugar causes dehydration.
This is why patients with diabetes will often present with increased thirst and increased urination. That's a tip-off as to how we make the diagnosis. This is caused by an overload of blood sugar in the kidneys. The kidneys can't retain all that sugar which then ends up being spilled into the urine. So sugar, in general, is bad, but sugary drinks are even worse because you're delivering a huge sugar load in rapid time to the body.
And there are other things that can cause dehydration, too, which in turn leads to fatigue. So what else dehydrates you? Well, for starters, it's simply not drinking enough water. Healthy people need, on average, eight cups of water per day, and more if they're exercising, especially if they're exercising on a hot day. Too much caffeine drinking can cause dehydration.
Caffeine suppresses ADH secretion from the posterior pituitary gland in the brain. So when this is suppressed, these low ADH levels force the kidneys to retain less water in the body, and so you end up p*eing more. So caffeine by itself makes you p*e more, but then we add water to the tea or the coffee that we're drinking, so you're going to p*e a lot. Peeing a lot means you go to the bathroom, so it's going to interrupt your sleep, which means less adequate sleep. And alcohol will have the same effect as caffeine because it also suppresses ADH levels, which means you're going to p*e more and lose more water from your body.
The Sixth thing on our list that might be sucking your energy away is social isolation. Isolating yourself from other people is associated with depression, and depression is linked to fatigue. Connecting with other people can bring a different outlook and give a spark to your energy levels. And sorry. We are not talking about Instagram and Twitter here.
we are talking real life, face to face. So don't neglect your friends, family, neighbors, or new acquaintances, unless they're just bad people.
So, I know I talk a little bit about sleep in this video, but I'm actually going to make a whole series of videos on sleep because there's just so much to know and there are so many different sleep issues with different people, and there are so many people that have sleep issues.
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