Fatigue is an ongoing concern that affects millions, and yet there are few reliable treatments for it, and worse yet, no agreed-upon way of diagnosing it. Where does plain tiredness end and fatigue begin?

An article in yesterday’s Washington Post examined the issue of fatigue:

In this era of burning candles at both ends (whoever works the longest hours wins), with stops only for caregiving and a few stolen winks, most everyone gets tired now and then. Sometimes all you need to recover is a solid night’s sleep or an actual vacation, sans BlackBerry. But in some instances, tiredness moves to the next realm and becomes the soul-sucking, energy-draining condition called fatigue.

[...]

DeLuca notes doctors have no concrete way to assess a patient’s fatigue. “It’s totally nonscientific. A clinician asks the question ‘Are you fatigued? Is it mild, moderate or severe?’ . . . Everybody defines it the way they think. We need objective ways to measure it.”

And regular fatigue shouldn’t be confused with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) which is severe, disabling fatigue lasting for 6 months or more.

I find my own fatigue hits after lunch, nearly everyday like clock-work. I avoid eating certain foods for lunch that seem to make me more drowsy, and try and keep my overall intake limited.

This past weekend while I was in Houston, I was eating more organic foods and noticed feeling generally less tired overall. Could the two be related? My physician friend who has been on an all-organic diet for years now swears by it.

Something to consider…

Read the full article: Tired Beyond Relief

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 5 Mar 2008
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.