Are you feeling tired or fatigued more often than you used to? If so, you may be dealing with an issue known as chronic fatigue syndrome, and it can make daily life a lot less enjoyable. Fortunately, physical therapy can oftentimes be a very beneficial treatment for patients who are chronically fatigued. In today’s blog, we take a closer look at chronic fatigue syndrome and explain how physical therapy can help restore energy to your daily life.
What Causes Chronic Fatigue?
Medical experts aren’t exactly sure what causes chronic fatigue syndrome, but they have a few theories on the contributing factors. They suspect that the condition could be caused by issues with how food and oxygen is broken down in the body, our body’s natural immune response system, or problems with our nervous or gastrointestinal system. As you might imagine, the condition can be easily overlooked or misdiagnosed, so it’s important to be aware of the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome.
Obviously feeling tired or fatigued is the main symptom, but there are other symptoms that could suggest you’re dealing with CFS. It’s also important to recognize when symptoms set in, as they tend to be most noticeable after mild physical effort. If going for a walk or mowing the lawn leaves you feeling fatigued or with any of these related symptoms, you may want to talk to your doctor or a physical therapist about your fatigue:
- General body discomfort
- Difficulty concentrating
- Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep
- Headaches
- Nausea
- Stomach issues
Finding More Energy Through Physical Therapy
Physical therapy is one of the most common forms of treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome, as it can help improve a number of the body systems that could be contributing to your feelings of fatigue. Here’s how:
- Strengthening Exercises – Movements and strengthening exercises can improve your short-term endurance and strength so that simple movements are not as tiring to your body.
- Sleep Improvements – A physical therapist can also help improve a number of different factors that play into sleep quality. We can help explain how body positioning, your diet and your bedroom can all help to improve your sleep quality or serve to disrupt your sleep pattern so that you know how to create an ideal sleep routine.
- Stretching and Manual Muscle Therapy – With the help of stretching techniques or manual therapy techniques, we can help to decrease muscle tension in certain areas of your body. If your muscles are overly tense, especially when they don’t need to be, you can feel fatigued much more easily. Releasing this muscle tension can help conserve more energy.
- Education And Pacing – A physical therapist can also talk with clients about ways to conserve energy during tasks or how to plan their day so that they don’t take on too much stress in too short of a period and end up feeling fatigued. Simple changes to your daily schedule can go a long way in helping you find more energy.
- Dietary Improvements – Finally, we can help create a dietary plan that ensures you are getting the right foods to help in energy production. Certain foods that are high in fat or carbohydrates can leave us feeling full and lethargic, while other foods can help us maintain our energy levels and power us through the rest of the day. We can help explain which foods and drinks to target or avoid throughout the day to help with your chronic fatigue syndrome.
Going through life fatigued is no way to live, so talk with a physical therapist and become more energized each day. For more information about chronic fatigue syndrome or how you can break free from constantly feeling tired, reach out to the team at OrthoRehab Specialists today at (612) 339-2041.