Fatigue, from a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective, has many different causes. The remedy will be different depending upon the type of fatigue it is. If you experience fatigue, here are tips that lead to vibrant energy.
Wired & Tired, or Passive & Pooped?
This question identifies what type of fatigue you have: are you “wired and tired,” or “passive and pooped?” Therein lies the difference between a fatigue caused by an “excess” condition versus one caused by a “deficient” condition. In TCM, a balance is always desired between qi (energy), blood (lubrication, warming, nurturing), yin (cooling, moistening, stillness) and yang (warming, drying and movement). We seek to have neither an excess nor a deficiency in any of these categories. When a person’s qi, blood, yin and yang are in balance, she has abundant health and energy. When any one of these is lacking or imbalanced, it can show up as physical, mental or emotional symptoms.
The Excess Condition: Qi Stagnation
When discussing excess conditions causing fatigue, the most common pattern is “qi stagnation.” Symptoms for this pattern include:
- feeling wired and tired
- irritability and/or depression
- feeling stressed and overwhelmed
- PMS symptoms
- frequent sighing
- tight muscles
- waking up between 1 AM and 3 AM, and being unable to get back to sleep
- tension or migraine headaches
- fatigue that occurs intermittently, rather than constantly present
- a tongue that has a purplish hue
This pattern of fatigue is experienced when people feel that they have too much to do and not enough time to do it. They feel stuck and feel like they cannot do anything about it. The pattern can also occur if there are unresolved situations that are causing repressed anger and stress.
This type of fatigue responds very well to acupuncture and Chinese herbs. Self-help treatments include exercises like taking a brisk 30 minute walk or daily swim. Diet-wise, avoid alcohol, sugar, and spicy foods. Great foods to eat include cooling foods like broccoli, cauliflower, fish and extra virgin olive oil. Also try to de-stress by doing deep breathing exercises and including more play time in your schedule. If repressed anger seems to be a part of your fatigue, consider some professional counseling or talk with a trusted advisor to help resolve the situations that you are in and thereby treat the root of the fatigue.
Deficient Conditions: Qi Deficiency
A second common pattern relating to fatigue is “qi deficiency.” This pattern’s symptoms include:
- fatigue that is worse as the day goes on, worse after activity, or especially worse after eating
- muscles feel weak and “heavy”
- fuzzy thinking, difficulty making decisions
- loose stools
- tongue may be pale, and swollen, but will have scallops (little indentations) on the sides of the tongue.
This type of pattern happens as a result of too much worry and concentrating. Acupuncture can help with this pattern, but Chinese herbs and dietary changes are the key here. Avoiding dairy and cold, raw food is a step in the right direction. Including warm soups and stews that nurture the body are a crucial element, as is finding a method to deal with excess worry and work. Adequate rest is very important with healing this pattern.
The Yin/Yang Factor
Another item to evaluate in differentiating the type of fatigue present is whether your body temperature tends to be warmer or colder than that of other people, as evidenced by the next two types of fatigue.
Yang Deficiency
“Yang deficiency” fatigue may occur as we age. Since yang is warm and encourages activity, a lack of yang in the body will be reflected by these symptoms:
- feeling cold in general
- being more fatigued when exposed to cold environments
- feeling a lack of motivation for movement (think couch potato)
- low back pain and/or knee pain
- low libido
- tongue is pale and swollen
This pattern can be associated with chronic illness or chronic physical overexertion. Acupuncture and Chinese herbs can help, but this pattern may take longer to correct than other types. For self-care, add warming spices such as cinnamon, cloves, pepper and ginger to foods. Eat easily digestible foods like warm whole grains. Nuts, black beans, onions and garlic are also beneficial. Warm baths help to tonify the yang. Staying warm is important to nourish the body, as is avoiding overexertion.
Yin Deficiency
“Yin deficiency” is another fatigue pattern. Like yang deficiency, yin deficiency may be associated with aging. Common symptoms include:
- feelings of hot flashes or night sweats
- fatigue that is worse during the afternoon and evening
- going to sleep is easy, but wakes frequently and does not experience deep sleep
- tongue is red, with many little cracks in it
- mouth always feels dry
- a jumpy fatigue = tired and easily startled
Acupuncture and especially Chinese herbs address yin deficiency. Supplement-wise, fish oil nourishes yin. Foods that are cool and moist like tofu, oats, rice, millet, black beans, yogurt and mangos (sweet, juicy foods) also nurture yin.
We Westerners think that the cure to being tired is getting additional rest, but from the TCM perspective there are many different types of fatigue which require different types of treatment. If extra rest is not resolving your fatigue, you may want to try a TCM approach to get your “get up and go” going again!
Dr. Colleen Gagliardi is a licensed acupuncturist and Naturopathic Doctor at Whole Health Center in Highlands Ranch. She is a personal energy expert and helps people find a healthy balance between body, mind and spirit. PLEASE JOIN DR. GAGLIARDI FOR A COMPLIMENTARY TALK, ENERGY ASSESSMENT AND MINI ACUPUNCTURE TREATMENT ON THURSDAY, JULY 19 AT 6:30pm Located at WHOLE FOODS MARKET HIGHLANDS RANCH 9366 S. Colorado Blvd. 80126. Seats are limited – please RSVP to 303-471-9355.
william posted at 11:56 am on Fri, Sep 7, 2012.
I would like to address Mr. Sphinxs' very rude slam of Dr. Gagliardi, where he refers to her as a "person pretending to be a doctor", and worse.
The medical school that Dr. Gagliardi attended is Bastyr University, in Seattle WA. I know for a fact that this is a "real" medical school, and that the students there receive the SAME kind of medical education any medical student does elsewhere, in terms of Western Sciences such as anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, etc., and have to take and pass the VERY SAME state and national boards that biomedical students do in order to be called a "doctor". Where the different educations divide is HOW one thinks about the maintenance of health, and the actual treatment of disease -- for example, where MD's might simply prescribe an antidepressant for a patient complaining of "depression", an ND might take a good look at the patients lifestyle, etc., and suggest changes in diet (which we know affects health and emotional state), exercise (ditto), and perhaps other lifestyle recommendations. Many MD's are now practicing this way as well, but a Naturopathic doctor has tremendously more education than an MD in things like nutrition. Pharmaceutical drugs, for all their positive attributes, also kill at least 250,000 people a year in the U.S. alone, and everyone knows that there are a lot of un-necessary surgeries performed each year as well, for conditions that could have been treated in safer ways.
Bastyr University is a very respected medical school, and they have received many grants from the NIH (National Institutes of Health) to do research. You can look on their website for more information regarding this if you are interested. However, by the tone and tenor of your posting, i would wager a guess that you are not.
william posted at 11:21 am on Fri, Sep 7, 2012.
Thank you for this article! Regarding qi-stagnation, which seems to be very common in our culture, i would like to add that the cause does not have to be "unresolved situations that are causing repressed anger and stress."
We live in an extraordinarily materialistic culture that requires engaging our will (what we want, what we don't want) with a lot of mental, emotional, and physical energy to pursue our various desires, and this kind of daily activity can create a lot of internal frustration when Life doesn't work out the way we want it to. This kind of inner frustration from life not working out the way we want it to, is, i feel, more of a cause of qi- constraint than "repressed anger and stress" -- although, you could say that the issue i mention creates "stress", which it does!
So, acupuncture and herbal formulas which treat qi-stagnation can be helpful in moving the stagnation and helping someone feel better physically and emotionally, but if the underlying CAUSE of the condition is not addressed, then their symptoms will return. I find that talking with my patients about their orientation to Life is very important. Chinese medicine does rest upon a philosophy that is very different from the striving for the American Dream; constant wanting; and getting what you want when you want it, or being where you want to be in Life by climbing over other people (competition and competitive individualism) -- these things and more create stress that contributes very significantly to disease.
Just my two-cents worth as a practitioner.
Barry Sphinx posted at 2:48 am on Wed, Jul 11, 2012.
So we should trust anyone who is considered a "medical doctor"
Yes, they have robust qualifications.
Many pharmaceuticals have branched from traditional medicine and made into a synthetic form.
True, this helps regulate the dose, unlike the dangerous chinese herb method. Although large pharmaceuticals are greed driven and not ot be trusted implicitly.
Many of the chronic diseases dealt with today are due to nutrition deficiencies,
And just as many are caused by bacteria, virus and downright bad genetic luck.
4,000 years ? and yet still no decent clinical evidence for lots of TCM.
Good point about mental health though. I think it is one of the most underestimated factors in our health.
jalwerdt posted at 11:23 am on Tue, Jul 10, 2012.
So we should trust anyone who is considered a "medical doctor"? Many pharmaceuticals have branched from traditional medicine and made into a synthetic form. Many of the chronic diseases dealt with today are due to nutrition deficiencies and poor habits. Eating natural foods, using meditation and relaxation methods, and using herbal remedies have been around for over 4,000 years and have worked for people. Mental health is extremely important for physical health and medical practices should incorporate a more holistic point of view of health. The body works as a whole system and just focusing on specific parts does not target the actual problems. The majority of the methods used in traditional practices also lack side effects, which in the "right-thinking countries" that take pharmaceuticals experience side effects and sometimes even develop more problems due to the drugs. The most common reason why the elderly are admitted to hospitals is due to interactions and side effects from the medications they are taking. Maybe the improvements seen with Traditional Chinese Medicine is partially mental, but that is the power of thinking.
Barry Sphinx posted at 10:42 am on Tue, Jul 10, 2012.
The most dangerous advice out there is medical advice you get from people pretending to be a doctor.
Colleen Gagliardi is such a person. She has a toady old qualification in naturopathic mumbo-jumbo and has the cheek to call herself a doctor. Which wouldn't be permitted in most right-thinking countries.
As soon as you read the words naturopath, homeopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine or Ying/Yang, be aware that you are dealing with a quacking witch doctor.