Expert: Suzan Jackson - 12/16/2010

Question
I'll try to keep it short as possible but I'd like you to know that I will be informing you on everything I think is important which may seem like a lot, but I only do so because this problem feels like it's taking over my LIFE, i feel paralyzed and feel like I HAVE NO LIFE, paralyzed is the perfect word. So this is something VERY serious to me. I'm sure you know what I mean. What I have writeen here is a little long but only because the more information you know about me and my life, and what I've learned about this problem and done about it, the better you can help me, so PLEASE bear with me. Ok so here we go.


An insight on my life and myself so you can better help me. First of all, I'd like to let you know that I believe I have fatigue, like 60%, if that makes sense, not all the way, because I do have a good amount of days where I can work for hours straight as long as i take my BREAKS and stop working 2 hours before sleeping.


I am 19 years old, and am male. I have been feeling this on-and-off tiredness for about 6 months now, i have not been working out in the past month because I was just to busy with homework from college but I believe that doesn't matter because I was tired even when i was working out daily (weights and cardio) before a month ago. I am healthy as an ox, as in, no sicknesses or anything of the sort - not even allergic to anything except for cat scratches. Like i said I stopped working out but I started back up again a week and a half ago, do it daily. I am 5'7 and weigh 136, even have a 6 pack (not said to be brag but just because I know physique is an important factor)..  I don't eat fruit or vegetables too much, I  drink milk once a day, BUT, I also DON'T have any fast food, pastry types of foods, cookies, no junk food whatsoever, at all, or soda or alcohol at all. I only have WATER and have a lot of meals through out the day, try to eat right. My meals are like sandwiches with tomatoes and turkey, lettuce and mayo. And my dinners are like rice with meat and vegetables, and bread, and my breakfasts are eggs with milk with my MULTI-VITAMIN. (centrum)

I AM NOT DEPRESSED AT ALL, everyone keeps saying the fatigue is porbably because I'm depressed when I ask this question online because I fail to mention I am not depressed. I actually wake up every morning EXCITED for the day, so again, I am not depressed. I sleep just fine, in fact I now am in bed about 11 hours because it takes me an hour to fall asleep and I automatically wake up early in the morning around 8am; making me take another hour to fall back asleep to wake up around 10:30am. but I make sure I get my 8-9 hours of sleep in. . ALSO--> I work from the MINUTE I EAT START MY BREAKFEAST up until exactly 2 hours before sleeping, I sleep at 11:30pm. ( I just recently began doing this: stopping work 2 hours before sleeping - helped immensley),  but the thing is, when I stop working at 9:30, in order to gain more energy than usuall for the next day, I have to LITERALLY just sit and do absolutely nothing for 2 hours before sleeping, no T.V., no computer, no music, NOTHING, blatently starting at the wall. Anyways, I have to literally work THE ENTIRE DAY, EVERY DAY. I am super disciplined because I have a goal that I wish to achieve and it takes focus so I work all day every day BUT like I said I make sure I take my 15 minute breaks every hour and a half.  Yet sometimes I will be drained out by 4pm! and sometimes even earlier.  When I say work i mean MENTALLY, doing a lot of homework for college on my laptop. (i take online classes), so I'm really sitting a lot and mentally figuring things out. That's my life.

I WENT TO THE DOCTORS and got my blood work done, everything was fine!!! along with URINE TESTS, everything was fine!!!! My doctor couldn't figure out what it could be. I've asked SOO SOO SOO many people about this on a bunch of websites and everything, and I narrowed down the answeres from most common to least common.
The most common answer was  (1) "you should probably start taking Vitamin D supplements",
second most common answer was (2) " You should probably start taking B Vitamins",
Third most common answer was (3) "You should check your Thyroid",
fourth was (4) "Check your iron Levels",
fifth was (5) "more sleep, quality not quantity",
and the others were like I need to get OUT more, Im over working,  eat better, wake up right when my body wakes me up instead of staying in bed to get that extra hour of sleep that i feel like I need,  see if I'm Gluten sensitive (that was a common one),  get testosterone levels checked (the person said 1 in 100 people get fatigued from bad testosterone levels), and take more Vitamin C.

To solve this problem i am trying to narrow down all the possibilites one by one by keeping my routine the exact same but only changing one or two factors and then seeing the change. For example, someone said I'm over working so I tried keeping my routine the exact same except at night I would stop working 2 hours before sleeping and I would see a gain in my energy levels. Umm another thing I tried was STOPPED taking Centrum Multi-Vitamin for 5 days (because someone said that's what got them fatigued)  yet kept the routine the same, and my energy levels stayed the same. so that wasn't it. And now I am trying to take Vitamin D, someone who knows a little something somethin about this stuff said to take 50,000 I.U. (10 tablets) of Vitamin D a WEEK, for 4 weeks, and then take it normally daily, (one tablet a day) to balance out the Vitamin D levels, and I am also taking Vitamin B now, I haven't seen a difference.

So I ask you to please give me all the tips and advice you can think of, any thoughts or anything at all,  this is really stopping me from getting things done to the point where I just feel handicapped, regardless, it's just stopping me from living period; I feel paralized honestly, and it sucks to the fullest.

PLEASE HELP...PLEASE HELP...PLEASE>>>>>HELP!!!! thank you so much.

Answer
Dear Josh -

First, I need to be clear about my expertise.  I am not an expert in all causes of fatigue but only in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), an immune system disorder that causes extreme fatigue, among other symptoms.  So, I'll do my best to answer based on what I know, but you really need to consult with a doctor.

CFS does cause fatigue, but it also causes many other symptoms which you didn't mention, including recurring sore throat or swollen glands, flu-like achiness, and an intolerance to exercise.  That last symptom is a critical one in CFS:  you may be able to exercise but within hours of any kind of exertion, you suddenly feel as if you have the flu and the resulting flare-up or crash can last for days or even weeks.  You mention that you've been working out daily for the past week and a half.  If you had CFS, you wouldn't be able to do this.  The day after working out, you would feel like you had a bad flu and would be unable to get up.  Also the kind of schedule you're keeping would be impossible with CFS.

To be sure, here is a self-quiz for CFS:

http://www.cfids.org/about-cfids/do-i-have-cfids.asp

And more information about CFS (also known as CFIDS):

http://www.cfids.org/about-cfids/default.asp

You'll see in the diagnosis section a long list of other conditions that cause fatigue that need to be ruled out before CFS can be diagnosed.  Even if you don't have CFS, you can use this list of other sources of fatigue to help guide your doctor in testing for other problems.

You might need to consider that the schedule you're keeping is to blame for your fatigue.  You say you work from the time you wake up until 11:30 pm at night.  That's not healthy for anyone, regardless of how healthy they are to begin with.  Goals are great, but you need a life, too.  Try backing off from this rigorous schedule for a week just to see what happens.  Work for 2 hours, then take a break to do something relaxing, just for fun.  Take a walk (not a rigorous work-out, just a walk outdoors), read a book, meet a friend, or watch a movie or TV program you like.  Running a week-long test like this will give you a good idea of whether your fatigue is caused by your schedule or by some other, medical, cause.

Most of all, you need to see a doctor.  While I certainly appreciate how much information is available through the internet, you can't get an actual diagnosis that way.  It's critical that you see an understanding doctor who is willing to stick with you to uncover the reason for your fatigue.  The blood and urine tests were a good start, but you need to go back to that doctor (or find a new one) and explain that you're still feeling fatigued and need to get to the bottom of it.  Also, since many, many conditions can result in fatigue, it is very important that you pay attention to any other symptoms you might have - for instance, the difficulty getting to sleep and early waking.

Good luck - I hope you find some answers soon -

Sue Jackson

www.livewithcfs.blogspot.com