Wondering What Is Fatigue and What Causes It?
What is fatigue?
Have you asked yourself at any time, “Why am I always tired?” Well, you are tired because you have no energy. You may think this statement is not adding much to what you already know, but the reality is that if you are always tired is because your body is not “manufacturing” energy. So, let us see what is fatigue and how your body organs produce energy.
Why am I so tired?
To you, having energy means having the zip available to get up and do things. It means being able to sustain a certain amount of effort without getting tired. To scientists, energy also refers to the biochemical processes that go on inside cells that specialize in the production of a substance called ATP.
ATP stands for adenosine triphosphate. Understanding the functions of ATP will help you understand why nutrition is so important in treating people who are fatigued.
How energy is produced in your body
ATP is a high-energy substance produced in millions of little structures called mitochondria which are found inside the cells. Mitochondria are the part of the cell responsible for producing energy. It is very much like the power supplier that provides energy to your home.
Each second the mitochondria in your body cells produce billons of molecules of ATP. They live for only a fraction of a second and are then regenerated. If your ATP production is low, your body doesn’t produce enough energy to function at its peak.
Some people with chronic fatigue produce ATP so inefficiently that they have only enough energy to keep their basic body processes going. In other words, they are always tired because their cells are not producing enough energy.
Your body can make ATP from protein, fat, and carbohydrate but in order to do so it requires vitamins and minerals such as niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, magnesium and so on. When these vitamins and minerals are not present in sufficient amounts, your mitochondria do not work properly and ATP is not produced as efficiently. The effect: low energy and fatigue.
In addition, all the body’s detoxication systems also require ATP. If your body harbors chemical toxins, these chemicals bind ATP thus preventing them from stimulating other detoxication reactions. In short, chemical toxins block energy production directly and make it more difficult for you to eliminate toxins in the future. A vicious cicle.
Cemical toxins
The more muscle you have, the better
Another factor to consider in energy production is the size of your muscles. In fact, the little mitochondria that make ATP (energy) are more concentrated in muscle than in another tissue. Thus the more muscle you have the better you will be at converting your dietary fuel into energy.
If you have more body fat than muscle, you produce less energy and you have more fat to burn. This is one reason why weight loss programs that do not incorporate exercise ultimately never go anywhere. They never increase the size of the “engine” necessary to burn the fat.
I believe one reason why sometimes doctors don’t get results treating patients with chronic fatigue could be they may not understand the effect nutrient deficiency has on the production of energy or how heavy metals and pesticides can block energy production in the cell. As a result, doctors may end up prescribing medication.
However, giving a patient who is chronically tired due to a nutrient deficiency a prescription drug to control symptoms, will never work. The disorder has to be taken care of with a different approach.
Some health conditions that cause lack of energy
- Vitamin and mineral insufficiency
- Food allergy/intolerance
- Blood sugar problems
- Overweight
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Physical inactivity
- Antibiotic overuse
- Depression
- Overuse of prescription drugs
- Cancer
- Lung disease
- Chemical toxicity
- Thyroid trouble
- Elevated blood fats
- Poor sleep/insomnia
- Overtraining in athletes
- Fibromyalgia
- Stress
- Hidden infections
- Heart disease
The bottom line
We have to understand that the progression from optimal health to disease is a gradual process that passes through phases (unless we have an accident). The process can take many years and involve many stressors. Likewise, the road back to optimum health is a continuum that takes time.
To your health!
Emilia Klapp, R.D., B.S.
www.TheDiabetesClub.com
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