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Reducing Fatigue with Traditional Chinese Medicine
Fatigue is an issue that affects countless individuals worldwide. Whether it’s due to stress, situation, or circumstance, fatigue and exhaustion can make simply getting through the day extremely challenging.
While there are identifiable medical issues, such as anemia or hypothyroidism, which can lead to excessive fatigue, most cases of chronic exhaustion can be traced back to lifestyle choices. Western doctors would suggest restoring balance to your life through exercise, proper diet, and better sleep habits to help combat fatigue. But as it turns out, Traditional Chinese Medicine may also be able to offer guidance in dealing with persistent fatigue.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TMC) has been used for centuries to help patients achieve and maintain a state of physical and mental wellbeing.
TCM is all about balance, particularly balancing your energy, ensuring the cold, slow energy of the yin and the fast, hot energy of the yang are always in perfect harmony. If you are suffering from fatigue and exhaustion, a holistic traditional Chinese medicine approach to wellness could help you address not only the symptoms of fatigue but also the underlying causes. Here’s how:
Acupuncture has been used for thousands of years in Traditional Chinese Medicine to correct body imbalances. With great precision, thin needles are inserted into specific pressure points in order to either trigger a release of yang energy or stimulate yin energy.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, what you eat plays a huge role in balancing your yin and yang energies. TCM encourages eliminating or limiting alcohol from your diet, reducing sugar intake, and choosing to consume more fresh and fewer processed foods, as these substances can lead to or worsen fatigue symptoms. Instead, patients should focus on nourishing their body’s Qi (pronounced “chee”) with healthy foods low in complex carbohydrates and more whole grains, lean meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
In addition to a healthy diet and exercise, TCM is often supported by herbal medicine and nutritional supplements, typically teas or capsules. For patients suffering from exhaustion, ginseng root and sweet wormwood are often used to help reduce fatigue and increase energy.
Whether you use Traditional Chinese Medicine or Western medicine, treating fatigue where the is no medical cause is all about finding balance. TCM aims to restore balance in the body but treating the source of fatigue – imbalances within the body –to achieve long-term healing.