Many people often feel tired and groggy during the day. Most often, the cause of these complaints is simply lack of sleep. However, constantly feeling tired can be a symptom of many diseases. For example, this is one of the leading and most noticeable signs of anemia and vitamin deficiency. Serious illnesses can also manifest themselves as a constant feeling of fatigue and weakness: this is typical for tumor diseases or depression.

For adolescents, we can identify such predisposing factors as psycho-emotional stress during the examination session and hormonal changes - however, they tend to resolve soon (with the cessation of the action of the provoking agent), and now the “adult child” again feels a surge of strength and vigor. MedAboutMe talks about what chronic fatigue is and what diseases it can be a symptom of.

What is fatigue?

Fatigue is a mechanism that protects the body from overload. During sleep, the body restores its strength. Most often, chronic fatigue is explained by a lack of sleep or poor quality of sleep. In this case, there is simply not enough time to recover and prepare for the next day. Constant lack of sleep leads to chronic fatigue. It can manifest itself as decreased concentration, lowered pain threshold and reddened eyes.

However, chronic fatigue can also be a symptom of more serious problems in the body.

Fatigue can be a symptom of various diseases, and in order to make a correct diagnosis in this case, it must be considered in conjunction with other complaints. Fatigue can be a symptom of the following diseases:

• (dizziness and even fainting may occur)
• Sleep apnea syndrome (especially in overweight and obesity)
• Metabolic diseases
• Cancer (as a rule, fatigue will not be the only symptom in this case)
• Mental illnesses (true depression)
• Avitaminosis

It is very important to distinguish normal fatigue (due to overload or poor quality sleep) from fatigue caused by illness, and promptly seek help from a doctor.

What can help with chronic fatigue

If a teenager feels constantly tired, it is necessary to find out the cause of this condition. Check with your child whether he can overcome this disease with the help of a few simple techniques:

• Find out whether your fatigue is due to lack of sleep or stress from school (or work, if you have one). See if it goes away after a short afternoon nap.
• Drink at least 1.5 liters of fluid per day. Pay attention to your diet: unhealthy snacks and inadequate distribution of food throughout the day (no breakfast and a hearty dinner), as well as long-term use of energy drinks, do not contribute to a feeling of vigor.
• Take a contrast shower in the morning.
• Limit the time spent on the computer.
• Physical activity is mandatory for health! By playing sports, you tone your entire body. Even if during a session, for example, it seems that there is no time for such “trifles,” believe me, you will be more productive if you go for a run in between cramming and read your notes in the park.

If these tips don't help, see your doctor to explain the cause of your chronic fatigue.

Fatigue can be a symptom of not only organic, but also psychological diseases. This is especially true in cases where fatigue is accompanied by a depressed mood (particularly in the morning) and sleep disturbances.

People suffering from depression often have difficulty falling asleep and also wake up early. It is also typical that sleep does not bring rest and even after a long rest a person feels tired and exhausted. If you are familiar with these symptoms, you may want to see a psychologist or therapist for diagnosis and treatment.

Anemia

Chronic fatigue is a very common symptom of anemia. Anemia occurs either as a consequence of impaired formation of blood elements, or due to blood loss, for example, during bleeding. At the same time, a lack of iron, vitamin B12 and folic acid causes decreased hematopoiesis. Girls, due to unsteady hormonal levels and the menstrual cycle, may experience prolonged dysfunctional uterine bleeding - this situation must be discussed with a gynecologist.

Iron deficiency is the main cause of anemia. Iron is an essential element for hematopoiesis because it is part of hemoglobin, a protein that binds and transports oxygen through the bloodstream. With iron deficiency anemia, the blood carries less oxygen, and all organs suffer from a lack of oxygen, which is why a person feels tired.

Iron is found mainly in animal products - meat, milk, eggs. Cereals and legumes also contain sufficient amounts of iron. It should be noted, however, that iron is absorbed much worse from plant products. This is worth taking into account for girls who are desperately on all kinds of diets.

Sleep apnea syndrome

The term “Sleep Apnea Syndrome” refers to pauses in breathing that occur during sleep. They occur due to significant relaxation of the muscles of the larynx, leading to closure of the upper respiratory tract, which prevents air from entering the lungs. These pauses can last up to a minute - then the body sounds the alarm and the person wakes up, often gasping for air. Most often, a patient with this disease falls asleep almost immediately, and the next morning does not remember waking up at night.

Due to pauses in breathing, the body, firstly, does not receive enough oxygen, and, secondly, the normal structure of sleep is disrupted. This leads to fatigue during the day and even constant short episodes of falling asleep.

Characteristic symptoms of sleep apnea include headaches and dizziness upon waking, dry mouth and night sweats. At night, this syndrome manifests itself as snoring, interrupted by pauses in breathing. The end of such pauses is accompanied by noisy inhalation or particularly loud snoring.

The risk of developing sleep apnea syndrome is being overweight, drinking alcohol, or having untrained muscles.

Avitaminosis

If you have chronic fatigue syndrome, you should think about whether you are eating right. A lack of vitamins () can lead to a person feeling tired and overwhelmed. If you think that chronic fatigue syndrome is caused by this particular cause, you should consult a doctor so that he can order the necessary tests and prescribe treatment.

Everyone knows the feeling of fatigue and the constant desire to sleep during a cold. This happens because during an infection the body spends all its energy fighting viruses and bacteria, and, as you know, the best restoration of strength occurs in sleep. This becomes most obvious during the flu. But if the flu is a fast-acting disease, the symptoms of which in mild cases disappear a week after the onset of the disease, then there are infections that last for months, even years - and they often go unrecognized due to the lack of typical symptoms.

One such disease is infectious mononucleosis, caused by the Epstein-Barr virus. As a rule, the course of this disease is practically indistinguishable from the course of the flu, and only a doctor can make the correct diagnosis. After the disease, the virus remains in the human body forever and is harmless for people with a normally functioning immune system, but some researchers believe that the Epstein-Barr virus may be to blame for chronic fatigue syndrome.

Metabolic diseases

The feeling of chronic fatigue can also hide diseases of the endocrine system, such as diabetes or hypothyroidism. Thus, elevated blood sugar levels in undiagnosed or poorly controlled diabetes mellitus lead to damage to nerve cells, their malfunction and, as a result, a feeling of constant fatigue.

The level of thyroid hormones also affects our well-being. In (a condition in which the thyroid gland is not able to produce normal amounts of hormones), in addition to constant fatigue, characteristic symptoms are also increased fragility of hair and nails, weight gain, decreased appetite, high susceptibility to infections, and impaired concentration.

Tumor diseases

One of the many reasons why a person may feel constantly tired is tumor diseases. This fatigue is special, often described in Western literature by the term “fatigue” (exhaustion). This feeling is especially familiar to those patients who are undergoing chemotherapy. As a rule, a patient with cancer will have other complaints according to the affected system or organ.

Chronic fatigue syndrome (or benign myalgic encephalomyelitis) is perhaps a diagnosis of exclusion. This means that as a medical diagnosis it can only be made when all other diseases have been excluded. This diagnosis refers to a feeling of constant fatigue and weakness that lasts more than six months and is accompanied by headaches, neck pain, and problems with concentration. The cause of chronic fatigue syndrome is still unclear. Experts believe that many factors may play a role, such as previous viral infections or psychological reasons.

As a rule, a feeling of chronic fatigue that does not go away after good rest and normalization of the regime can be a symptom of numerous diseases. If you notice that the feeling of fatigue is also accompanied by other symptoms, you should not delay in contacting a doctor and making the correct diagnosis.

If we have a teenager in front of us, as a rule, there are certain easily removable reasons for feeling tired: vitamin deficiency, anemia, violations of the daily routine and food intake. However, if these factors are excluded, it makes sense to visit a specialist to rule out more serious causes.