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