Half a Million Tired Women

The results of an Australian survey of over 1000 women aged 18- 54 showed that over 800 of those surveyed said that tiredness and fatigue were affecting their lives. The study conducted by Newspoll released April 14th 2008 surveyed women about the degree to which fatigue affected relationships, work and socializing. The results were astounding and would suggest that around 4.5 million Australian women are affected by tiredness. This would translate to tiredness affecting about 500,000 Kiwi women. Most disturbing was that most just accepted that it was part of life and did not seek help to find causes and possible solutions.

Observations are that increasing numbers of women (and men) complain of feeling abnormally tired. If you are tired the very first thing anyone should do is to get a full medical check. While in many cases there may be no obvious medical cause it may be something as simple as an iron deficiency. “Many women often blame the symptoms of tiredness on a hectic lifestyle and therefore the underlying problem is never discovered. Feeling tired and run down can actually be signs of iron deficiency,” says haematologist Dr James Biggs when commenting on the report.

Other experts agree with Dr Amanda Patterson from the Nutrition and Dietetics department, University of Newcastle, commenting “Simple solutions such as dietary changes or supplementation can result in improved concentration and reduced fatigue.” Of course with health there are no short cuts and proper attention to diet, exercise and other lifestyle patterns are essential. You cannot eat rubbish, not exercise and somehow expect supplements to patch up poor decisions.

Over the past 10 years I have spent a great deal of time looking for solutions for the many people that suffer excessive tiredness with no underlying medical condition. Probably the most interesting feature of modern health research is the amount of independent University based research into the bio-chemistry of disease. One of the very best examples is that conducted by a team lead by Martin L. Pall, Professor of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Sciences at Washington State University. Martin Pall and his team effectively identified the cascade of faulty cycles of cell dysfunction behind the serious problems of Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia and associated conditions.