Why Are You Tired All The Time?...

The source of pervasive exhaustion and what to do about it Although she typically sleeps soundly and has good “sleep hygiene” — no coffee after 3 p.m., a quiet, darkened bedroom and a reasonable bedtime — Rose D. always feels tired. At 54, she slogs through her workday, hitting a wall in late afternoon when she closes the door to her office, lays her head on her desk and catches a 30-minute nap. When her doctor gave her a clean bill of health, he suggested that Rose consider other factors that might account for her tiredness — the stressors in her life such as financial problems and a contentious relationship with her sister. As it turns out, they were weighing heavily on her and manifesting in a deep sense of exhaustion. While the benefits of a good night’s sleep are well documented, chronic and more ambiguous tiredness afflicts millions of people over 50. Their fatigue isn’t caused by illness, medication or any clearly diagnosable condition. It’s borne instead of leading complex emotional and psychological lives in a world fraught with stressors. At a stage in life where typical concerns such as money, children, illness and loss start to move toward center stage, the first cognizance of one’s mortality and a sense of time running out fuel an out-of-control feeling that can zap your energy. “Exhaustion is the expression not just of a lack of sleep, but a much more profound underlying response to the conditions in which we live,” says New York clinical psychologist Michele Berdy, whose clientele includes many in their 50s and 60s. Running At Full Tilt Economics and technology add to the fatigue cocktail. While one’s 50s and 60s were traditionally a time to slow down...

4 Things You Can Fix About Your Aging Body...

You can’t turn back time, but you can undo some of the damage done Most of the time, we should hold on to our wallets (and our dignity) when someone tells us we can look and feel younger — unless that someone is Dr. Daniel Neides, medical director of the Wellness Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. Neides says “absolutely” we can undo some of the damage done to our bodies by neglect and the passage of time, and not just in the abstract terms of reducing disease risk. Neides believes we can shake off some of the very real ways that we feel age creeping up on us day to day. Here are his answers to four common fiftysomething questions: I used to be able to eat anything. Now I can’t have (onions/garlic/tomatoes/fill in the blank) or acid reflux kicks in and even wakes me up at night. Can I get back to enjoying any kind of food at any time of day? We can absolutely reverse the symptoms that you just described by changing lifestyle. The answer is not taking a proton pump inhibitor, like Prilosec, or an H2 blocker, like Zantac. That’s only minimizing the symptoms. We want to get to the root cause. The major problem that we see with what we call the SAD, the Standard American Diet, is that it’s incredibly pro-inflammatory. We eat food that increases inflammation in the body and causes us to develop diseases — heart disease, vascular disease, dementia, depression. It’s just a recipe for disaster. Our immune system is always on and always fighting. There’s collateral damage associated with this. Over time, we damage the lining of our arteries, the lining of our intestinal tract. The first thing I...

The Importance of Sleep and How to Get More of It...

A couple of years ago, I was suffering through a serious bout of insomnia. I would stay awake until 4 or 5 in the morning, and then have to get up around 8AM to get ready to go to work.  After a month of getting between 3-4 hours of sleep a night, I was a mess. Physically I felt awful, my body was achy, and I displayed symptoms similar to flu symptoms. Emotionally I felt as if I was on the brink of a nervous breakdown. Things that usually wouldn’t even faze me, sent me into a downward spiral of emotional outbreaks and tears. On top of all of that, my brain just barely functioned, turning the simplest of tasks into the most difficult. After making some lifestyle adjustments, I began falling back into a regular sleep pattern. My health and emotional/mental well-being were restored, but I’ll never forget how negatively those months of sleep deprivation affected me. Sleep is one of the most important factors to living a healthy, happy life. It allows your body to rest and heal, and helps support healthy brain function. Sleep deprivation can cause serious health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure.  If you’re prone to being depressed, not getting enough sleep will only feed those symptoms. Insomnia and depression tend to go hand in hand, with sleep loss intensifying depression symptoms, and those symptoms in turn, causing sleep problems. One of the biggest side effects of my sleep deprivation was that my memory began to fail me big time. I couldn’t remember the simplest things. According to a recent study, the brain waves that are responsible for consolidating memories usually only happen during the deepest level of sleep. When you...