Why Am I Tired All the Time? Chinese Medicine for Fatigue

Everybody gets tired. Stay up too late, work too hard, chase grandchildren around the house, and the reason is usually not mysterious.

But what if you’re tired all the time?

You sleep. You drink coffee. Maybe you drink more coffee. You promise yourself you’ll go to bed earlier. And yet sometime around two in the afternoon your body announces, That’s enough for today.

Chinese medicine looks at fatigue a little differently from Western medicine. Instead of treating fatigue as one condition, it asks a more useful question:

What kind of tired are you?

Because in Traditional Chinese Medicine, several very different imbalances can leave you feeling exhausted.

You May Simply Be Short on Qi

Qi is usually translated as “energy,” although it means considerably more than that. Think of it as the functional energy your body uses to digest food, move, think, breathe, circulate blood and generally get through the day without requiring a nap after breakfast.

When Qi is deficient, you may feel:

• Tired and weak

• Worse after exertion

• Short of breath

• Easily overwhelmed

• Poor appetite

• Loose stools

• A desire to sit down whenever a chair appears

One of the most common forms is Spleen Qi deficiency.

The TCM Spleen is not exactly the anatomical spleen. It represents much of the digestive system's ability to turn food into usable nourishment and energy. It's kind of like the "brain" of your digestive system.

If digestion isn't doing its job efficiently, you may be eating plenty but still not feel adequately fueled.

Traditional formulas such as Si Jun Zi Tang (Four Gentlemen Formula) are examples of formulas designed to strengthen Qi, but whether such a formula is appropriate depends on the individual pattern.

Or Maybe Your Qi Is Sinking

Sometimes a person doesn't just feel tired. They feel as though gravity has suddenly become much stronger.

You may notice heaviness, weakness, a dragging sensation, poor stamina or difficulty staying mentally alert.

Chinese medicine sometimes describes this as Sinking Qi.

A classic formula associated with this pattern is Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang, which literally means something close to “Tonify the Center and Increase the Qi.”

But again, the important part isn't finding a formula with the word energy attached to it. It's determining whether deficient and sinking Qi is actually your problem.

You Could Be Blood Deficient

In Chinese medicine, Blood does more than circulate through arteries and veins. It also nourishes the muscles, skin, eyes, brain and nervous system.

When Blood is deficient, fatigue may be accompanied by:

• Pale complexion

• Dizziness

• Poor concentration

• Forgetfulness

• Dry skin

• Blurred vision

• Difficulty sleeping

• Heart palpitations

• Feeling tired but strangely unable to relax

This is one reason someone can be exhausted and still sleep badly.

Your body is tired. Your mind apparently didn't get the memo.

For some people, fatigue involves both Qi and Blood deficiency, particularly after illness, prolonged stress, poor diet or simply many years of asking the body to do more than it would prefer.

Then There Is Kidney Deficiency

TCM considers the Kidneys part of our deeper reserve of energy.

You might think of Kidney energy as the body's long-term battery.

You recharge some of your everyday energy through food, sleep and rest. But constitution, aging, prolonged illness, excessive work and long-term stress can gradually draw on deeper reserves.

Kidney deficiency may involve fatigue together with symptoms such as:

• Weakness in the lower back or knees

• Reduced stamina

• Feeling unusually cold or hot

• Frequent urination

• Poor sleep

• Diminished sexual energy

• Tinnitus

• Age-related weakness

This doesn't mean that being tired at age 70 automatically equals Kidney deficiency. Nor does it mean aging is an illness.

It means Chinese medicine pays attention to the difference between temporary tiredness and gradually declining reserves.

Sometimes the Problem Isn't Too Little Energy

Here is where Chinese medicine gets interesting.

You can have plenty of energy and still feel tired because something is interfering with its movement.

Dampness

Dampness tends to produce heavy fatigue.

People often describe feeling sluggish, foggy or weighed down. There may also be bloating, digestive problems, mucus, heaviness in the limbs or a thick tongue coating.

It can feel less like your battery is dead and more like you're trying to walk through wet cement.

Giving strong tonics to someone whose main problem is Dampness can sometimes make matters worse.

And Sometimes You Just Need Sleep

Chinese medicine is ancient, but it isn't required to make everything mysterious.

If you're going to bed at midnight, waking at six, working ten hours, answering emails during dinner and watching television until you fall asleep on the sofa, you may not have an exotic energetic imbalance.

You may be tired because you're tired.

One Important Caution

Persistent or unexplained fatigue should not automatically be blamed on a Chinese medicine pattern. Fatigue can also accompany anemia, thyroid disorders, sleep apnea, infections, heart or lung disease, medication side effects, depression and many other medical conditions.

New, severe or persistent fatigue deserves proper medical evaluation.

Chinese medicine can be extremely useful for understanding patterns of fatigue, but it shouldn't replace appropriate medical testing when testing is needed.