Boost your Energy and Vitality

What is Fatigue?

"Fatigue has been defined as the subjective experience of tiredness or lack of energy" (4). But normal tiredness that can be solved by resting or a good's night sleep is not the same as fatigue.

While feeling tired is not such an unpleasant situation, fatigue is definitively unpleasant. It may not even be related to physical or mental exertion, and sleep or rest may not cure it.

There are many possible causes of fatigue. Let's look into them.

What can cause fatigue?

1. Feeling fatigued? Rule out Celiac Disease

Celiac disease (CD) is caused by an immune response launched by the body of susceptible individuals when they eat food containing gluten, a protein found in several kinds of cereal (wheat, barley, and rye).

This immune system reaction damages the small intestine reducing its ability to absorb nutrients (vitamins and minerals) it causes a series of long-term digestive problems and chronic inflammation.

The malabsorption of nutrients and the symptoms of the disease affect the patients' quality of life and one of the most frequently reported symptoms is fatigue.

A study by Jordá FC and López Vivancos J. (2010) (5) found that fatigue was significantly worse in untreated CD patients and that it affected their quality of life. "Fatigue severity was also greater in patients with worse quality of life."

Fortunately CD can be easily treated by avoiding gluten: eating a gluten-free diet is the only cure for this disease.

0.5 to 1% of Americans suffer from Celiac Disease; many don't even know they do. The digestive symptoms can be quite mild sometimes, but not the fatigue and weakness it produces.

2. Fatigue in the workplace

In 2017, a team led by D. M. Rose (4) analyzed the links between work fatigue, work conditions, and other possible factors. To do so, they reviewed 7,930 people participating in a German health study, all of them employed, both men, and women. They found that work-related strains were associated with fatigue:

• More than one out of every four participants suffered from fatigue (27.5%).
• Fatigue was strongly linked to work overload, lack of vacation or leisure time, and frequent overtime hours.
• Frequent conflicts with their boss or colleagues increased fatigue.
• More women than men suffered from fatigue and also those with "lower vocational training, socioeconomic status and income and those with shorter working hours per week."
• Being ill or having poor lifestyle habits (smokers or overweight people) was associated with fatigue.

3. Illnesses that can cause fatigue

Some health conditions can make you feel fatigued (among other symptoms), so can certain treatments and medications (6):

• Cancer.
• Reumatoid arthritis.
• Painkillers, antidepressants, anthisitamines.
• Medical treatment (ie. radiation, chemotherapy) or surgery.

4. Worrying can wear you out

Stress at work or due to personal problems, anxiety, depression, bereavement, gloomy mood, and social withdrawal can all provoke a sensation of exhaustion and fatigue.

5. Poor Lifestyle habits

Unhealthy behavior can sap your energy and leave you exhausted. Check out these lifestyle habits and try to change them:

• Alcohol. Drinking alcohol affects your mood and may interact with your medications. Go dry to avoid depression and the downturns of booze.
• Caffeine. A bit of caffeine may promote vitality, but too much of it (think coffee, tea, cola sodas) can interfere with your sleep. Avoid drinking caffeinated beverages after 4 PM.
• Unhealthy Food. Food rich in sugar and fat will add pounds and empty calories. Obesity is linked to fatigue. Try to eat a balanced diet.
• Staying up late at night. Try to keep constant sleeping hours (go to bed and get up at the same time every day). Sleeping quality is also linked to feeling vital.
• Smoking. Tobacco can cause many diseases in your heart and lungs and also saps vital energy. Don't smoke

Physical Activity to ward of Fatigue

Exercise for energy

Office (and home-office) workers spend a lot of time sitting at their desks doing sedentary tasks.

Being physically active improves mood and wellbeing, and also fights fatigue; but our desk jobs, sitting down most of the day gazing at a computer screen have the opposite effect.

Bergouignan (2016) (7) studied a group of sedentary adults and divided them into three groups:

1. Those who spent their 6-hour work shift sitting down at their desks.
2. Those who sat at their desks but added a 30-minute moderate-intensity walk on a treadmill.
3. Those who also sat for 6 hours, but every hour they walked for 5-minutes on a treadmill (also a moderate-intensity walk)

The study found that those who walked on the treadmill (groups 2 and 3) increased self-perceived energy and vigor compared to those in group 1 (the ones who sat down all day).

The group that got up every hour and walked for 5 minutes "improved mood, decreased levels of fatigue and reduced food cravings at the end of the day" compared to the sedentary group and group 2 (those who only walked once each day, for 30 minutes).

The authors concluded that spreading out physical activity throughout the day improved energy, decreased fatigue, enhanced good mood, and as a bonus, reduced appetite.

Exercise and physical activity

When you feel worn out, getting up and doing exercise seems counter-intuitive but, research by the University of Georgia (8) showed that engaging in regular exercise increased energy levels and reduced fatigue.

The study reviewed 70 controlled trials and over 6,800 subjects (including healthy adults, cancer patients, and people suffering from heart disease and diabetes).

It found that fatigue levels dropped in sedentary people that exercised in comparison to those who didn't.

The positive effect of exercise is probably due to the neurochemicals that are generated in the brain such as dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine as a consequence of the physical activity. Exercise boosts the output of mood-enhancing neurotransmitters.

More Energy Boosting Tips

You may be asking yourself how can I improve my vitality? or how can I restore my energy naturally?

But don't think along the lines of supplements or medications, you can enhance your vitality with simple natural energy-boosters.

A couple of cups of coffee or tea per day will keep you physically active

A recent study (Torquati et al., 2018) (9) involving 7,580 Australian women reported that those who drank 1 to 2 cups of coffee per day were 14% more likely to fulfill the weekly physical activity goals of 500 minutes⁄week than those who drank less than one cup a day (if they drank 1 - 2 cups of tea, they were 26% more likely to meet the goal.

For higher doses of caffeine, drinking more than 2 cups of coffee didn't have any impact on promoting activity, but women drinking more than 3 cups of tea, on the other hand, were 9% more likely to fulfill their physical activity targets than those drinking less than one.

The authors concluded that caffeine reduced the perception of fatigue, and increased the feeling of vitality and energy. Coffee encourages you to exercise.

Add protein to your diet to retain vitality as you age

Muscle mass peaks between 20 and 30 years of age, and then decline by about 0.5 to 1% each year (8% per decade).

By the time you are 70 to 80 years old, you will retain about 70% of the muscle mass you had when you were thirty, and by the time you are in your eighties, it will have dropped to less than 50%.

Loss of muscle mass leads to a loss in strength and vitality. Strength decreases even faster than muscle mass: around 3-4% in men, and 2.3 to 3% in women each year.

Many older adults don't include enough protein in their diet, and that is a serious issue as it may lead to increased muscle loss and as a consequence physical inactivity.

Poor nutrition coupled to lack of exercise accelerates muscle mass decline, so eating an adequate amount of protein is crucial.

A paper by Witard et al., (2016) (10) addressed this issue and came up with the following recommendations to grow older with health and vitality:

• Resistance exercise training, aerobic exercise (carrying groceries or doing chores at home), or high-intensity interval training (HIT) all help to increase and maintain muscle mass and strength in both older men and women.
• The current daily allowance recommendation for protein (0.8 g⁄kg of body mass per day) is too low, and older adults should aim at 1.2 to 1.5 g⁄kg of body mass (BM) daily.
• The daily goal of protein intake should be spread out through the day's three meals to optimize its uptake for muscle building: eat 0.4 - 0.5 g⁄kg of BM per day.
• Some polyunsaturated fatty acids from fish oils (omega-3) such as EPA and DHA in combination with protein help maximize muscle protein synthesis.
• Adding fat and carbs to the diet could improve the body uses the essential amino acids found in protein to build muscle, even if the protein intake is insufficient.

But eating too much protein won't help

Aging also causes the cells' powerhouses, the mitochondria to reduce their output of ATP, a molecule that is the energy source for cellular functions. Lower ATP output contributes to a drop in vitality in elder people. A team led by Stephane Warland (2008) (11) ran a test to see if eating more protein (beyond the recommended daily intakes) improved muscle mass and mitochondrial function.

They examined a group of healthy young (average age 24.3 years) and old people (average age 70 years) and split them into two groups, one eating the usual diet, the other eating a diet with twice the protein content.

Their findings were surprising:

• "No increase in whole body or muscle protein synthesis" in either old or young subjects.
• As expected, muscle mitochondrial ATP production was lower by 35 to 40% in older people when compared to younger people in both diet groups.
• "The high-protein diet had no stimulatory effect" on ATP production in old and young subjects.

Sleep and Vitality

Antje Schmitt and team (12) investigated the role of daily vitality and the quantity, and quality of sleep. They found that sleep quality (not quantity) had the greatest influence on daily vitality.

Read more about how to sleep better and wake up relaxed and fresh:

Sleep Better

The secret to better sleep: A good night's sleep is very important for your health and wellbeing. Here are scientific-based tips to sleep better at night.

Learn How to sleep better.

Take a walk in the outdoors

A research team led by Richard Ryan (2010) (13) conducted a series of experiments in which the subjects (537 college students) were exposed to natural and artificial environments.

This not only included taking a walk along a tree-lined river bank but also looking at photographs or imagining themselves both indoors and outdoors, in contact with nature.

The trial then recorded the participants' energy levels and mood.

Ryan found that those who had spent more time in actual or imagined natural settings had higher levels of energy than those who had visualized or been in man-made ones.

"Being outside in nature for just 20 minutes in a day was enough to significantly boost vitality levels."

Immerse yourself in nature, mankind's original cradle to feel best. Modern life isolates you from nature but you should try to reconnect with it by actively interacting with it: cycling, hiking, walking in the park, a forest, gazing at trees, a pond, or the horizon by the sea.

Photographs with natural scenery or even a plant on your desk also enhance your contact with nature and will energize you.

Lose Weight and gain energy

Being overweight can cause both physical and psychological problems such as depression or anxiety. Charles Swencionis, et al., (2013) (14) examined how the wellbeing and vitality of a group of 588 obese or overweight subjects evolved as they followed a 12-month-long weight-loss program.

The group as a whole lost 5 lb. at the end of the study (2.2 kg) and this weight loss lowered their anxiety and depression levels (lower) and increased their psychological wellbeing and self-control.

It also reflected on their vitality, which contributed the most to their psychological well-being change.

Relaxing and Taking life slowly

Stepping back and engaging in activities that relax your body and mind may also help reduce the effects of fatigue.

Ho and Ng (2020) (15) reported that "mindfulness meditation, a behavioural lifestyle programme, muscle relaxation, pet insect-assisted therapy, yoga, Tai Chi and cognitive behavioural therapy... elicited significant immediate positive effects on fatigue". Their research analyzed eight studies, with a total of 1093 older adults as participants.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

If your energy levels are low, and you feel constantly fatigued for several weeks, it is time to visit your healthcare provider.

Your physician may ask questions about your sleeping habits, diet, physical activity, and may order some lab tests.

In the UK, over 10% of patients calling on their doctors report at least one month of substantial fatigue (Harvey, 2009) (16) and the causes are not always easily identifiable: "only 8% of patients presenting with fatigue had a blood-test detectable somatic illness," so the lab tests may not reveal the underlying cause for your lack of energy.

Generally, the cause of your decreased vitality will be one of the factors mentioned in this article (lack of exercise, being overweight, sleep problems, etc.) but there is also the chance that the cause remains unexplained, and that is what is diagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) (if it lasts for more than 6 months).

CFS does not have any specific treatments, and full recovery is rare.

CFS may be accompanied by other symptoms such as headaches, memory lapses, muscle and joint pain, sore throat, and tenderness of the lymph nodes.

Some treatments such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) may help reduce CFS' effects.

Causes of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Many factors may interplay in predisposing you to CFS, and then triggering it: women are more predisposed to it, having suffered from a psychiatric disorder, emotional instability or suffering from a disabling illness during childhood or being an over-active child or adolescent are all factors that increase your risk of suffering from CFS.

It is more frequent among those aged 40 to 50 years old.

Its causes remain a mystery, but viral infections -such as Epstein-Barr Virus -which causes mononucleosis (17), hormonal imbalances, and immune disorders may trigger CFS, but no clear links have yet been established.