If you're suffering from seemingly chronic tiredness this can be highly draining. However it may be that the problem is caused by allergies that you can avoid or treat. Read on for more information.
The Problem
Constantly feeling tired and exhausted is a highly draining experience and if you can't get to the bottom of what's causing you to feel tired it can be highly depressing. Many of us have experienced at one time or another the feeling of being exhausted and it completely saps the joy out of life. When you're doing something fun or exciting, feeling exhausted can mean you don't enjoy the experience and can mean that you end up not getting anything out of it.
On the other hand though those things that would normally make you stressed or depressed will suddenly seem ten times as bad when you're tired and exhausted as well – you just won't have the energy to deal with problems as you normally would. You'll find too that your tiredness levels are high when you're at work and you will be less productive and be unable to work to as high a level. It will make you more short tempered and place strain on your relationships, it will make chronic pains flare up and it will make you more distracted and more likely to make mistakes.
Diagnosing Tiredness
In other words chronic tiredness is a severe problem and something you need to address. But with so many potential causes and with such subjective criteria it can be highly difficult to diagnose. You might think that it's all in your head, and in fact you might at first not even realize that you have been tireder as it can come on slowly. Then there are many things that you might consider to be causing it – it could be the imminent onset of a cold, or a hangover from a previous cold or illness. It could be depression. It could be insomnia or sleep apnea. It could be anemia, diabetes or hypothyroidism. Chances are that if you go to a doctor they will give you a blood test and then tell you to get more sleep or ask if you might be suffering from depression. This can then be a highly distressing response as it leaves you no closer to combating the problem.
Here's something they and you might not have considered – allergies – and these are responsible for many unexplained cases of tiredness and lethargy. Whether it's an allergy to food, to pollen or to something else entirely. Once you realize this and get to the bottom of what is actually causing your allergic reaction, then you can start to address the problem and feel less tired – and if you've been not feeling yourself for a while then that can seem nothing short of a miracle.
How Does an Allergy Cause Tiredness?
But why does an allergy cause tiredness? Well this is quiet easy to understand. Essentially when you have an allergic reaction to something this is just the result of an overzealous reaction from your immune system. It notices a foreign material in your blood stream be it pollen or yeast, and it then responds by attacking it to try and eradicate it. It's not known how our body comes to mistake certain materials for toxins and why this varies from person to person, but either way it will of course result in tiredness as your body is fighting to remove what it thinks is a toxin. This then directs energy to your immune system and so away from the rest of your body causing tiredness. At the same time some of the reactions themselves can directly cause tiredness such as an altered breathing pattern. Some allergies will have no symptoms apart from tiredness and that includes things like bread often and this can make it possible for you to suffer those symptoms for years and be unaware.
Identifying Your Allergy
Of course understanding this won't in itself solve the problem – you need to know what the allergy is in order to restrict your intake of that food and address the problem. You also need to find out if it is in fact an allergy that is causing the problem.
To do this you can get a blood test that will test for various allergies. You can get this from your doctor or you can get a specific allergy test from a specialist. Alternatively to start getting an idea yourself you can try keeping a food diary and an energy diary. Every day you write into the diary what you have been eating and what your energy levels have been like and then look for correlations to identify problem foods. Likewise if it's not a food allergy causing the tiredness then you can make a note of other behaviors – such as the amount of pollen exposure or dander exposure. Bear in mind that allergies can sometimes take a while to kick in – so don't expect an immediate response. For instance cutting bread out of your diet won't immediately reduce tiredness you'll need to do so for a short while to start seeing the benefits.
Treating an Allergy
In the majority of cases knowing the cause of the allergy will be enough to make life a lot easier, you'll just have to avoid eating those foods or eating any foods that contain the allergen, or you will have to avoid pollen and take antihistamines.
However in some cases you can take this one step further and make life even easier – by getting treated for the allergy using 'immunotherapy' treatment. Here you will have your system gradually introduced to tiny amounts of the allergen but these amounts will increase with each administering. This will then allow the allergen to sneak in under the system's radar. When it doesn't cause any harm your body will then begin to recognize that it is not harmful and the allergic reactions will cease. This won't work in all cases however and is only appropriate for some allergies.
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