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Fighting fatigue - top foods, herbs, supplements and tips
By John McKiernan

It's no secret that many people experience some level of fatigue on a regular basis. Whether it's at the office, at home or anywhere else, fatigue can truly make you miserable and it can cause the quality of your work suffer. Fatigue makes you feel both mentally and physically tired and weak. In short, it's no fun. All too often people that suffer from fatigue reach for an energy drink. While this method may work for the short term, it's only masking the root cause of the fatigue, while at the same time causing negative health consequences.

A smarter and more permanent approach to beating fatigue is to determine the real cause and start making the changes there. It is safe to say that the primary reasons most people suffer from fatigue are poor diet, lack of nutrients, dehydration, lack of exercise and lack of sleep.

Diet

Here is a list of types of foods that are known to cause fatigue: starchy carbohydrates such as cakes, cookies, doughnuts and foods that contain bleached and processed flour. Any of these types of high-sugar foods that contain lots of simple carbohydrates will give you short-term energy followed by a serious crash.

Certain foods do the opposite and fight fatigue by supplying long term, clean energy with no crash.

Unprocessed complex carbohydrates are the enemy of fatigue. Some of the very best fatigue fighting foods include quinoa, plums, nuts and brewers yeast. Be sure to include sufficient amounts of protein in your diet as well, as a lack of sufficient protein can cause fatigue. If you don't eat meat, buying either a whey or vegetarian protein powder can make this much easier.

Exercise

Lack of exercise can cause the body to feel tired and fatigued because the metabolism slows down and the body starts storing excess fat. Being overweight alone can cause chronic fatigue. Even mild daily exercise is extremely effective in reversing this.

Going for walks outside during the day will help increase your blood circulation. Poor circulation is a known cause of fatigue. Going for daily walks is an easy way to stay healthy and is extremely useful in weight management. Even if you only have a 10 or 15 minute break at work, going for a short walk outside can make you feel refreshed and re-energized.

Dehydration

Dehydration is an under-recognized leading cause of fatigue. Many people don't drink water at all during the day; instead they drink soda, energy drinks and coffee, all of which can cause even further dehydration. Dehydration not only causes fatigue, but a variety of negative side effects including:

-Joint pain
-Dry skin
-Muscle cramps
-Bloating
-High blood pressure
-Build up of toxins in the body
-Weight gain

Dehydration is the sole reason may people experience fatigue. Luckily this is an easy one to fix; drink a minimum of 8 glasses of water a day to avoid dehydration.

Vitamins, herbs and supplements for fighting fatigue

Supplementing a proper diet and exercise regiment with the right nutrients can give you the edge you need to stay energized and stave off fatigue.

The best fatigue fighting herbs, vitamins and supplements include:

-Ginseng
-Longan berries
-Bee pollen
-Chlorella
-Magnesium
-Carnitine
-B vitamins
-Silymarin

Other causes of fatigue

Other external factors that can cause fatigue include:

-Alcohol
-Caffeine
-Prescription drugs
-Illegal drugs
-Stress

Being sure to get between seven and eight hours of sleep every night is vitally important in the battle against fatigue. If you feel that your diet, exercise regiment, sleeping schedule and supplement regiment are all on track and you've ruled out any other external causes of fatigue, but you're still experiencing fatigue it may have another cause such as anemia, diabetes or a thyroid disorder, which is something that you should visit your doctor or natural health practitioner about.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.healingfoodreference.com/fatigue.html

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003088.htm

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fatigue/MY00120/DSECTION=causes

About the author:
John Mckiernan is a health and fitness writer. He is the owner of Supplement Helper http://supplementhelper.com/ where he writes about supplements, health, fitness and more. He also manages CNA Info http://cnainfo.net/, a small blog that is aimed at answering questions for those interested in becoming nursing assistants. All articles are contributed by Fallon C Clark, California registered CNA.

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