Are your hormones making you tired?

SURVEYS REPORT that the most common complaint patients have when visiting their doctor is fatigue or excessive tiredness. In everyday life, people can often be heard complaining about low energy levels.

In simple terms, tiredness happens when the energy requirements of your body is greater than your energy production. All the cells, all the organs and systems in your body need energy to perform their function – the heart to beat, the muscles to move, the brain for mental activity, the intestines to digest, and so on.

Tiredness, a lack of energy, is really a symptom with many possible causes. So if you are unusually tired, please try to identify the cause and not just boost yourself up with a quick fix. Some common and more obvious causes include overwork, lack of adequate sleep, severe stress, depression, poor nutrition, anaemia, bloodsugar imbalance, or infections like a bad flu, to name just a few.

On the other hand, there are lots of tired, even exhausted men and women reading this article who are suffering from some form of hormonal imbalance. Hormones are powerful chemicals produced by special glands that exert an enormous influence on your energy levels.

AN UNDERACTIVE THYROID

Labeled hypothyroidism, this condition is a frequent though often unrecognised cause of low energy. Millions of tired people worldwide, mostly women, have an undiagnosed underactive thyroid gland. Often, these ladies are told that their complaints are in their heads, while the problem is actually originating in their necks.

The thyroid gland is a small butterfly-shaped organ located at the front of the neck. It produces several thyroid hormones that have many important functions, including the control of our energy production, metabolism and body temperature.

Common symptoms of low thyroid function include tiredness, weight gain, dry skin, constipation, hair loss, brittle nails, depression, irritability, poor memory and intolerance to cold. If uncorrected, hypothyroidism can lead to serious health problems like heart disease, elevated blood cholesterol, osteoporosis, infertility, anaemia and recurrent infections.

LOW TESTOSTERONE

Several hormones called androgens create and support masculinity and virility, but testosterone is the main one. Testosterone is produced by the testicles, but after age 30, a man begins to lose up to two per cent of testicular function in each succeeding year. In fact, after age 50, up to half of otherwise healthy men have low testosterone levels. This condition called andropause is the male counterpart to the menopause.

It decreases a man’s ability to enjoy sex by lowering his energy, sexual desire and erectile function. Tiredness, particularly at night, is a common feature. Sufferers may also have changes in mood and emotions, a decrease in strength due to loss of muscle tissue, and an increase in body fat.

WEAK ADRENAL GLANDS

The adrenals are a pair of glands that sit right on top of the kidneys and produce numerous hormones like cortisol, adrenaline and DHEA. These hormones influence many bodily functions, including blood pressure, heart rate, metabolism, energy levels, liver and immune function, and our response to stress.

Prolonged periods of stress, whether physical, mental, or emotional, force the adrenal glands to continually produce increased amounts of these stress hormones, particularly cortisol. Over time, persistent overdrive make the adrenals unable to supply the body with enough cortisol and adrenal fatigue sets in. If unchecked, adrenal fatigue can progress to adrenal burnout and ultimately to adrenal failure and death. The most sever form of this condition is called Addison’s disease. This problem is readily diagnosed by doctors, but many people wander around chronically tired because of earlier, more subtle stages of adrenal dysfunction. Some doctors even question whether adrenal fatigue actually exists.

But fatigue is only one of a long list of symptoms of adrenal fatigue.

Common symptoms of this disorder includes:

Morning tiredness, even after a long sleep

Disturbance in sleep pattern – sleepiness in the early evening but insomnia later in the night

Mood swings, depression or irritability

Dizziness or light-headedness, especially on standing up. I Low sex drive I Poor memory and mental focus

Aches and pains, especially lower-back pains. I Salt and/or sugar cravings. I Slow recovery from illness and injury.

THE MENOPAUSE

Menopause is defined as a cessation of menstruation or periods and usually occurs in most women in their late forties and early fifties. Twelve months without a period is the commonly accepted medical rule for diagnosing the menopause.

While a man’s testicular function slowly declines with age, women experience a much more abrupt cessation in the working of their ovaries. The resulting fall-off in the production of oestrogen and progesterone leads to many symptoms.

Common features of menopause include hot flashes – excessive heat and sweating, vaginal dryness, bladder infections, headaches, palpitations, cold hands and feet, forgetfulness, poor concentration, irritability, mood swings, poor sleep, and tiredness.

Any of the above-mentioned hormonal disturbances might be the underlying cause of otherwise unexplained tiredness. Having a thorough medical evaluation, including the appropriate laboratory tests, would identify the imbalance.

In my experience, bio-identical hormone replacement therapy along with appropriate nutritional supplementation and lifestyle modification is a very effective strategy for correcting these disorders and normalising energy levels.