Reasons for a Lack of Energy

When you feel a lack of energy, it is better to know the exact reason for it, rather than just simply pop pills or pour coffee into your mouth. Apart from being a health hazard, lack of energy can also cause problems in our professional and personal lives. To undergo any kind of therapy, it is important for us to know the root cause of the lack of energy, which could range from sleeplessness to bad diet or even hormonal imbalance.

Significance

• There are many reasons for a lack of energy or fatigue. Fatigue is not a disease or an illness and it is definitely not something that happens in a single day. Most people who go to doctors with complaints of a lack of energy or fatigue are advised good rest, proper diet and physical activity rather than any medications. This is enough to get most of them back on track within a short time.

Misconceptions

• Fatigue can affect anyone at any age, although the common misconception is that it mostly affects the aged and women. Lack of physical activity can also cause a lack of energy. One might think that working at the office or at home is physical activity, but it isn't. Physical activity does not include driving a vehicle or sitting on a chair all day long. For energy to be produced in your body you need to move it in all directions and that is what exercise will make you do.

The Facts

• One good reason for a lack of energy is lack of sleep. For a woman, hormonal imbalance and menopause can be a factor. Hormonal imbalance causes night sweats and hot flashes, which in turn cause restlessness and a lack of sleep. It also affects the proper functioning of certain glands like the thyroid and pancreas, which are directly or indirectly related to the energy levels in the body. Improper sleep patterns can also cause fatigue. Partying all night, eating a heavy meal just before bedtime and increased stress and tension levels can cause sleep apnea.
  Stress is another major reason for a lack of energy. Our current lifestyle harbors tension and increases stress levels. Over a period of time stress builds up and takes away from your energy. Inadequate amounts of adrenaline hormones that help relieve stress in the body add to the condition.
  Improper diet is another reason for lack of energy. Our body needs a complete diet to function properly. It must have sufficient vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins and even fat. Many people start a diet without knowing the basics of a complete nutritional meal. A low fat high carbohydrate diet can give you a sudden volley of energy. As the diet plan continues and the lack of fat starts affecting your body, you will feel dull and tired all the time.

Warning

• When do you know that you are suffering from fatigue? Are you suffering from a lack of energy when you feel tired after having worked for over eight hours continuously? Our bodies need rest and food at regular intervals to regain the lost energy and it has different ways of showing us inefficiencies. Feeling weak, tired, exhausted all the time, faint and feeling like you will pass out, vertigo, dizziness and palpitations are all signs of a lack of energy.

Prevention / Solution

• Look critically at what you eat. You do not need to survive only on vegetables or "healthy food." Just make sure you are supplying your body with all the essentials, including recommended amounts of fat. Make sure you maintain a lifestyle that includes physical activity like walking, playing, swimming or simply gym or floor exercises. Give your body sufficient rest, a minimum of eight hours of sleep every day to help it recoup its lost energy. Our body is capable of generating its own energy with the right amount of rest, food and physical activity.