Today is our third and finally clip on fighting fatigue. We've reviewed how the body makes mitochondria, the important role they serve as well as ways to temporarily boost blood flow, and energy to stimulate the desire to exercise.
While there are loads of small helpful pieces of information that I can provide on fighting fatigue, I want to re-iterate that if you're battling fatigue, scheduling an appointment with a Naturopathic Doctor such as myself would be one of the fastest ways to uncover the cause and provide a strong treatment plan on the road to recovery.
Anemia is a deal breaker for fatigue. Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is common, but you don't have to have (IDA), you can also be just iron deficient. This is an issue for women who are menstruating monthly. Unfortunately this becomes a vicious cycle very quickly as being iron-deficient can cause women to have heavier periods, and therefore lose more blood (which contains iron) leaving one even more tired.
Ferritin is a blood test that commonly assesses iron deficiency, but many practitioners are only using the standard lab range to assess for deficiency. You might be interested to know that several clinical trials have investigated this scenario and found that woman quite commonly suffer from fatigue when their ferritin levels are sub-optimal even though they are not deficient.
Be Well,
Dr. Mark Woodall ND MS