do you feel tired to have like no energy
all the time well if you avoid these six things that I'm about to tell you you can
increase your energy levels and feel great as someone who's been through residency and
fellowship and working crazy hours on average 80 hours a week and then I was also on call
every fourth night where you're up for 24 hours straight sleep cycle gets all messed up I speak
from experience when I say I feel tired all the time or at least I used to and just have periods
where have very low energy so there are actually six things that you can avoid to feel like that
and these are based on the latest medical science evidence-based medicine so without further ado
let's gonna get started for one thing as we get older we lose mitochondria which are the energy
producing engines in ourselves and because of that we produce less adenosine triphosphate or
ATP for short ATP is the molecule that provides energy to cells throughout the body other causes
of fatigue like medication side effects or chronic illness like depression or heart disease COPD
can make you feel tired or sluggish but age and disease related factors aren't the only things
that suck your energy lifestyle habits play a big part in fatigue the first one being lack of
sleep and when I say lack of sleep I mean lack of adequate amounts of high-quality sleep so it's
not just how long sleep it's how good the sleep itself is lack of good sleep increases cortisol
levels and promotes inflammation in order to get good sleep you need to have good sleep hygiene
this means going to bed and waking up at the same time each day you keep your room on the cooler
side and keep it quiet and free of electronics which stimulate your brain the blue light from the
cell phone from the laptop from the iPad whatever stimulates your eyes since your brain no bueno
so no using your phone in bed also don't exercise before bed at least within two hours because this
stimulates you and it's put you in a adrenergic state and you need to be in a parasympathetic
State a calm relaxed state before going to bed if you do drink caffeine don't drink too
much and make sure it's early in the day and absolutely do not drink caffeine within eight
hours of bedtime and the same applies to alcohol even though alcohol may help you fall asleep it
actually interrupts a sleep cycle and diminishes the quality of sleep also alcohol relaxes the
muscles in your throat while you're sleeping that's why you're more prone to snoring when
you're drinking alcohol and you're more prone to sleep apnea when alcohol is in your system if
sleep issues are caused by sleep apnea which are pauses in breathing during sleep the dips in blood
oxygen levels lowers the ATP in energy levels so talk to your doctor about the possibility of
having sleep apnea other things that may rob you of sleep include medication side effects and
frequent trips to the bathroom so it's another reason to avoid alcohol and caffeine too close to
bedtime and if you think you might be snoring too much or have apnic episodes definitely check
with your doctor okay so we talked about the first thing to avoid which is not getting good
sleep so in other words get good sleep the second thing to avoid on the list which is sucking your
energy away is inactivity some people think that if they exercise they'll become more tired and
that's true but it's only temporary over time with regular activity and especially with regular
exercise your baseline energy levels increase why does this happen well at least part of the reason
is related to your muscles if you have less muscle mass that means you have fewer mitochondria and
less ATP being sedentary results in weakening and shrinking of muscles causing them to use
energy inefficiently physical activity which is not exercised per se strengthens muscles
helps them become more efficient and conserve ATP and increases the production of energy
producing brain chemicals although general physical activity is good like standing
and walking routine exercise is even better the third thing that might be sucking your energy
level away is too much stress in your life chronic stress can raise cortisol levels cortisol is a
hormone produced by the adrenal glands and when this is released bad stuff happens it reduces the
production of ATP it increases inflammation too much cortisol not good so using stress reduction
techniques lowers cortisol levels so you can do things like exercise yoga mindfulness Tai Chi
breathing exercise even 10 minutes a day of one of these is helpful the fourth thing that might be
sucking your energy away is having a poor diet if you're not eating healthy you're less likely to
get the right vitamins and minerals necessary to produce enough ATP and you end up feeling more
tired also eating too much processed food can increase inflammation which impairs production
of ATP in energy eating foods with added sugars is also bad because it causes the blood sugar
spikes and the crash that you get afterwards and it causes more chronic fatigue overall so
eating healthy means eating all foods including vegetables fruits whole grains lean proteins
like fish chicken nuts seeds fatty acids and protein rich foods also help boost ATP and go
for smaller meals with healthy snacks in between to provide your body with a steady supply
of nutrients and fewer blood sugar spikes okay so the fifth thing on the list that
might be sucking your energy away is pore fluid choices pore fluid choices can make
you tired here's why the things that you drink actually matter drinking sugary sodas and
juices has the same effect as eating sugar also for patients with diabetes consuming too much
sugar causes dehydration this is why patients with diabetes will often present with increased
thirst and increased Jar nation that's a tip-off as to how we make the diagnosis this happens as
a result of blood sugar overload in the kidneys the kidneys can't retain all that sugar and
it ends up being spilled into the urine so sugar in general is bad but sugary drinks is even
worse because you're delivering a huge sugar load and rapid time to the body and there are other
things that can cause dehydration too which in turn leads to fatigue so what else do i Dre to
you will first starters are simply not drinking enough water healthy people need on average
eight cups of water per day and more if they're exercising especially if they're exercising on
a hot day drinking too much caffeine leads to dehydration caffeine suppresses ADH secretion from
the posterior toward pituitary gland of the brain so when this is suppressed these low ADH levels
force the kidneys to retain less water in the body and so you end up peeing more so caffeine by
itself makes you pee more but then we add water to the tea or the coffee that we're drinking so
you're gonna pee a lot peeing a lot means you go to the bathroom so it's gonna interrupt
your sleep which means less adequate sleep and alcohol will have the same effect as caffeine
because it also suppresses ADH levels which means you're gonna pee more and lose more water from
your body alright so the sixth thing on our list that might be sucking your energy away is social
isolation isolating yourself from other people is associated with depression and depression is
linked to fatigue connecting with other people can bring a different outlook and give a spark
to your energy levels and sorry I'm not talking about Instagram and Twitter here I'm talking
real life face-to-face so don't neglect your friends family may or new acquaintances unless
they're just bad people in that case get rid of them so I knew I talked a little bit about sleep
in this video but I'm actually gonna make a whole series of videos on sleep because there's just
so much to know and there's so many different sleep issues with different people and there's
so many people that have sleep issues so I'll make a series of videos and look for the next
one coming up soon I'll see you in the next one
