Naturopathic approaches to reducing tiredness and fatigue.
How to feel less tired is a common question in Google searches.
Life can leave you wishing there was a ‘magic way’ to overcome fatigue or to tackle total exhaustion! In fact, the solution to low energy is rooted in basic science and there are simple things you can do to tackle tiredness.
This is important, as according to a government survey one in every eight adults in the UK feels tired ‘all the time’. A third of the population feels over-tired ‘half of the time’. This constant fatigue can seriously sap your quality of life, and your motivation to contribute fully at work.
An especially startling revelation is that young people are more likely to feel tired than older adults! The survey even found that many people would prefer more sleep to free cash.
Why am I always tired?
The answer could lie firmly in your lifestyle and diet.
We're going to explore five things you can consume more of to tackle tiredness and give yourself a sustained energy boost. However, before we do, here are five things you can DO to reduce tiredness and fatigue.
1. Balance exercise and rest
Any list of recommendations for feeling less tired will include the need for regular exercise. Even if it’s just walking instead of traveling by bus or car, or taking the stairs not the lift, it boosts your supply of the hormones responsible for feeling energised and more ‘awake’.
In contrast, another step towards beating tiredness is to stick to a consistent sleep pattern, with occasional rests in the daytime to ‘reboot’ if necessary.
2. Get fresh air and natural light
Another ‘must-do’ if you want to feel less tired during the day is to make sure you breathe in some fresh air and bask in some natural light. It’s generally good for you, and on sunnier days it helps your body create Vitamin D, which is essential to your energy levels. (More on this later).
3. Find purpose and inspiration
Tiredness can become a vicious circle, and nothing saps your energy quite like boredom. You can’t be ‘bothered’ to do anything (except watch TV and play on your phone) leading to being even more lacking in purpose, lethargic, and demotivated.
Instead, it’s highly recommended you set goals yourself. Such as increasing your exercise each week, taking up a new hobby, or engaging in career development. Perhaps you could learn a new skill, such as cooking to follow the food-related tiredness antidotes below?
4. Focus on your mental health
Take steps to tackle underlying issues that can make you feel lethargic, such as depression. Meanwhile, push yourself to do things on this list. You may find our food and activity recommendations put you on track for better mental health, as well as more physical energy.
5. Shop wisely and well
This of course links to foods that give you energy in a healthy and sustainable way.
Before you start panicking about complex meal plans, weighing out ingredients, and big supermarket bills – relax. As the next section shows, getting enough of the nutrients that combat tiredness is in most cases relatively easy. As long, as you are purposeful in your shopping.
Eat your way to better energy
Your relationship with food may be at the heart of the problem if you feel constantly tired.
Does this sound familiar? You’re busy, so you grab ready meals, takeaways, sweet stuff, or starchy foods to give yourself an energy boost. Then, reliance on processed, fatty, and sugary foods makes you feel bloated, lethargic, and annoyed you ‘gave in’. It could also lessen your ability to sleep, leaving you even more tired!
Eating the things that boost energy (and help you to sleep better) doesn’t have to be a massive chore. It is one of the many advantages of juicing, for instance. Shove the correct balance of ingredients in a blender, stick the result in a covered container in the fridge, and you have a nutritious option when time is short.
Let’s explore five things to eat (or juice) to improve energy and reduce tiredness.
1. Mineral-rich leafy green vegetables
You’ll have heard the expression ‘superfoods. High on the list is leafy green vegetables packed with important vitamins and minerals, including kale, spinach, and rocket. Buying the organic kind is preferable.
If you create a green juice blend or build a salad based on leafy greens, it re-alkalises you on a cellular level and stimulates a natural cleansing process. Add a carrot and ginger juice to support digestion and liver health, and you have a powerful (but delicious) combination to boost energy levels brilliantly. You can fortify this further with the addition of a super greens powder, delivering ingredients like spirulina, Chlorella, and broccoli powder.
Leafy green vegetables are a wonderful source of electrolytes. What are electrolytes? These are vital minerals like sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium that support many of our biological processes and play a key role in re-alkalising our bodies, a process that’s essential to promoting optimum health. We tend to get more salt (sodium) than we need which is considered healthy in our diets, and we normally get optimal levels of calcium from the average British diet.
However, unfortunately, due to modern intensive farming methods and over-processing of foods, it can be quite challenging to obtain adequate levels of magnesium. Unless you are consuming lots of leafy vegetables obtaining optimum levels of potassium can be an issue too.
Magnesium
This electrolyte is especially important to beating tiredness, as it enables us to metabolise the foods that produce our energy; so, a symptom of magnesium deficiency is lethargy.
Apart from vegetables, you can also improve your intake of magnesium by eating wholegrain cereals, eggs, and nuts. Opt for an organic magnesium supplement if you struggle with dietary sources, for example in the citrate or chloride forms.
2. Omega 3
The good v bad fat debate is important to answer, “Why do I feel constantly tired?”. Particularly if you have tried too hard to remove fats from your diet and follow a vegan or vegetarian diet.
Your body needs essential fatty acids – especially Omega 3 - to function properly and can’t produce them itself (which is why they are called essential fatty acids).
Omega 3-rich foods include oily fish, and eggs, though it can also be found in meat and dairy products. Plant-based sources of Omega 3 are harder to find and include chia seeds, flax seeds, and walnuts.
If you need a quality supplement containing Omega 3, the best option is one based on fish oils, especially Krill Omega 3 which offers various advantages including antioxidant protection.
3. Lecithin
Not as widely discussed as Omega 3, lecithin is also a type of fat essential to our bodies. It supports our liver function, and our ability to extract and use important minerals like iron, and vitamins A, B12, D, E and K (water-soluble vitamins).
Our bodies also convert lecithin into acetylcholine which supports nerve impulse transmission. Also, there is strong evidence that lecithin lowers cholesterol levels and may improve cardiovascular health.
Natural sources of lecithin include soybeans, sunflower seeds, and eggs. As it is stored in the liver, eating animal liver also gives you a big lecithin boost and therefore increases your energy. You can also select either a soya or sunflower source of lecithin, to supplement your diet. However, do make sure it contains a good level of phosphatidylcholine, as this is the main active part.
4. B Vitamins
B vitamins are a group of eight nutrient compounds that work best when consumed together.
Nutritional research is constantly finding new ways that these vitamin compounds impact our health and wellbeing, but it’s already clear they play a role in how our body breaks down and uses carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Too little B Vitamins, and we can’t access the energy those substances provide.
B vitamins are also important to nerve function and our immune system. Too little can make it harder to fight off everyday illnesses too.
The best natural sources of vitamin B include meat, fish, lentils, nuts, eggs, and milk. They are also present in fortified wholegrain cereals. Supplements delivering B vitamins are often recommended for anyone on a plant-based diet, in particular a need to supplement extra vitamin B12.
5. Vitamin D
Mention was made earlier of the role the ‘sunshine’ vitamin plays in combating tiredness. It’s important to how we absorb calcium and phosphate - to support our bones and muscles - and to our immune health. Research has already shown that too little vitamin D results in lethargy, and there’s work underway to establish its connection with optimal respiratory function.
If you can’t get enough from natural light, what foods are good sources of vitamin D? Eggs, red meat, and oily fish are rich in Vit D, and it’s in many fortified products such as cereals, milk, and yogurts. You can also obtain a wide range of Vitamin D food supplements, in both vegan and non-vegan forms. To understand this further you may want to read this article on mitochondrial function.
Go for a rainbow!
One of the best bits of advice for making sure you get balanced nutrition – and enough of the vitamins and minerals that boost energy – is to experiment with plant-based foods. Including a ‘rainbow’ of fruits and vegetables, as each colour brings its own dietary benefits.
Regularly add in other foods mentioned above, and consider a well-formulated, high-quality food supplement from a reputable source. You may banish tiredness and enjoy many more health benefits too!
