Weakness is “a lack of physical or muscle strength and a feeling that extra effort is needed to perform daily activities that require you to move your arms, legs or other muscles”

FATIGUE on the other hand is “a feeling of tiredness, exhaustion or lack of energy”

According to the folks at Mayo Clinic, all our complaints of fatigue can be grouped into three (3) main categories:

1. Lifestyle Factors e.g. lack of adequate sleep, cigarette smoking etc
2. Psychological Factors e.g., stress, depression, grief etc
3. Medical Conditions e.g. thyroid disease, liver and kidney disorders

Dear reader do not attempt to make any ridiculous diagnoses just because you experienced fatigue for a few days. Only a trained healthcare professional can combine the information you provide, her examination findings and relevant investigations to make a diagnosis.

1. Lifestyle Factors
   1. Lack of adequate sleep: you may be able to rob yourself of sleep for a while but consistently sleeping for four or five hours a day will eventually bring on fatigue. Some of us may think we get adequate sleep but we may be suffering from sleep apnoea and hence interrupt our sleep several times without knowing. Fatigue and dozing during the day becomes our trademark. Look out especially if everyone complains about your snoring. If you are overweight it may be a brilliant idea to start off with some weight loss
   2. Not enough fuel: Food is fuel for our body and if we starve it or deprive it of certain components of a balanced diet, then it will come as no surprise if we feel tired often.
   3. Caffeine overload / Excess alcohol consumption : Caffeine like alcohol may have some good points but never be deceived, a glass or cup too many will surely bring fatigue in its tracks and some even more heart troubling news that will cause you to lose more sleep and worsen your fatigue could also be in the pipeline
   4. Shift Work Sleep disorder: The challenges of modern life means some of us need to work when our biological clocks and other physical factors make sleep so welcoming. Working for long periods on the night shift for instance makes it difficult to sleep during the day sometimes through no fault of ours though there are instances they are purely self made.
   5. Dehydration: This could be self inflicted by not taking adequate fluids (e.g. water). I actually read a few times that we should only drink water when we are thirsty. NEVER try that!!!! Your body always needs water. If you need to restrict your intake of water, then your doctor will advise you on that. In some cases dehydration may be as a result of severe burns, an illness, trauma(with bleeding) etc

1. Psychological Problems
   1. Stress: Whether physical or emotional can often lead to fatigue and the yawning and stretching go unabated. Please do not start pointing to all yawners as being tired. Who knows it may be from good old hunger – the body’s own prompting to refuel it. Normally the fatigue from stress will persist till cause is removed
   2. Depression/Anxiety: These bed-fellows are notorious for causing a lot of woe and quite often they attack together. Yes one may be predominant but always look out for the other. They torment you so much that you feel fatigued all the time. A favourite path they plough is to mess up your sleep and also stress you out psychologically.
   3. Grief: Mourning the loss of someone dear or crying over “spilt milk” has its own mode of payment and you my brilliant reader guessed right. Fatigue is the price we pay

1. Medical Conditions:
   1. Anaemia: Whatever the cause may be, it affects the effective transfer of oxygen to the cells and fatigue is one of the symptoms. Some anaemia may be purely self-inflicted. We may skip meals (fuel for the body) in a dangerous attempt to lose weight and may end up developing anaemia.
   2. Thyroid Disease: Both hypo and hyperthyroidism may present with fatigue
   3. Diabetes: Sometimes Type II Diabetes may only present as fatigue. Time to check your blood sugar if you haven’t since we launched this crusade.
   4. Heart Disease: Many of these including heart attacks may present with just fatigue. This feeling subsides when we manage the condition appropriately.
   5. Infections: Impossible to run away from these. They are numerous and we will only mention a handful. “Hidden” urinary tract infection, (malaria), typhoid and even viral infections such as the common cold.
   6. Cancers
   7. Food Allergies: Sometimes instead of the often common tell-tale signs of an allergy, fatigue is the only way our body may react to certain foods it would rather do without.

Of all the causes of fatigue my favourite is “The Working Mom’s Syndrome”. (remember stay at home moms have a lot on their plates). Mothers working fulltime and taking care of under ten year olds will swear they are destined for the Intensive Care Unit. Make no assumptions my dear reader, this diagnosis is purely one of exclusion. Essentially your doctor should have considered all the various causes of fatigue before settling on this.

When fatigue persists for over six (6) months then we are wading into the area of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and our management may require medical/psychological means.

So when you next feel extremely tired,

• Go through your check list
• Talk to your healthcare professional
• Start moderate intensity exercising five (5) days a week after seeking clearance from your doctor and surely all other things will be added unto you.

AS ALWAYS LAUGH OFTEN, ENSURE HYGIENE, WALK AND PRAY EVERYDAY AND REMEMBER IT’S A PRICELESS GIFT TO KNOW YOUR NUMBERS (blood sugar, blood pressure, blood cholesterol, BMI)

Dr. Kojo Cobba Essel

Health Essentials Ltd/Mobissel/St. Andrews Clinic

(www.healthessentialsgh.com)

*Dr. Essel is a medical doctor, holds an MBA and is ISSA certified in exercise therapy, fitness nutrition and corrective exercise.

Thought for the week – “When it comes to breast cancer, size does not matter; big, small, medium sized breasts can all have cancer and the size has NO bearing on how aggressive the cancer may be.”

References:

• Mayoclinic.com
• Webmd.com