THAT “TIRED FEELING”: CAUSES AND CURE OF COMPLEX COMPLAINT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 51, 1 June 1948, Page 3

THAT “TIRED FEELING”: CAUSES AND CURE OF COMPLEX COMPLAINT

(By the Department of Health)

If we could believe all we read about “that tired feeling,” it would be one of the easiest things to.cure; just a spoonful of this or that taken after meals. But tiredness is more complex than that. There are many different types of fatigue. Generally they may be put in four classes: First, muscular fatigue, consisting of aching and tired muscles, which have been subjected to unusual or prolonged action; secondly, emotional fatigue, due to fear, anxiety, heightened irritability and so on; thirdly, environmental fatigue, brought about by environment factors such as lack of ventilation, noise, glare, etc.; lastly, 1 metabolic fatigue, which is induced by lack of vitamins, loss of salt, glandular unbalance, lack of sugar in the blood and other bodily causes.

Fatigue of the body and fatigue of the mind are two different things. A tired muscle will ache, but the only symptom of. a tired brain is a disinclination for mental exertion. Certain diseases produce chemical substances in the blood which increase fatigue or make it appear earlier. Diabetes is a typical example. This will produce all the signs of fatigue without any work having been done. Where temperature and humidity are both high, and even when you dream or think about burdensome tasks—if you’re built that way—you’ll feel tired. Ambitious, spirited and strong-willed folk may drive themselves beyond the limit of their mind’s safety, and the effects of fatigue may build up to such a degree that the individual may become so changed and warped that he can rarely get back to normal without outside assistance.

How are we going to stop feeling tired? The answer is: let up doing whatever it is that makes you tired. And it is just as well to investigate and correct the cause rather than rush to some bottle of tonic for temporary relief.