Fatigue is a sensation we all experience, at least to some degree. It's a condition that can affect your whole family's health if circumstances allow it, and every UK family is at risk. Here's our guide to spotting fatigue and defending against both the short-term and long-term implications.

Being tired in the morning isn't rare. It's normally just your body responding to immediate lack of sleep, or slowly starting its processes again. Even tiredness that lasts all day can usually be sorted out with a good night's sleep, but sometimes it can persist, for a range of reasons.

Whatever your lifestyle, if you experience symptoms of tiredness on a daily basis, you could be at risk of developming chronic fatigue. The more serious the case of fatigue, the more one feels tired all the time, both mentally and physically. Symptoms can escalate, depending on one's lifestyle, diet and mental state, and become so overwhelming that one is all but bedridden.

This sort of fatigue is most commonly caused by illness, which causes a huge change in lifestlye, where one may have to lie stationary and unmoving for prologued periods of time. But chronic fatigue is a common medical condition: it can be developed by anyone, and, though it needs medical attention to diagnose, it doesn't need medication to resolve.

Resolving Fatigue

Sleep

A good night's sleep leaves you energized and alert in the morning and plays a big role in your overall health and well being. No one is certain why this is so. Some researchers suggest that sleep gives your body tissues time to recover from daily wear and tear, others that it restores brain function. A bad night, on the other hand, leave you with slower reaction times, poorer concentration, and a smaller pool of energy from which to draw the next day. People vary widely in their sleeping patterns: Some feel rested after five hours' sleep, others need nine or 10. And sleep-wake patterns change as you age, with elderly people experiencing more wakefulness during the night than they did when younger. If you wake up feeling tired and are not comfortably alert during the day, you are not getting the sleep your body needs.

Exercise

Exercise also has a bearing on your health and now many experts believe that exercise may be the best way to stave off fatigue. Vigorous activity is energizing because it wakes up the nervous system and speeds up the metabolic rate. A fast metabolic rate ensures a good supply of energy leaving a person feeling less fatigued, not just during exercise but for up to eight hours afterwards. The long-term benefits of exercise are increased fitness, increased stamina and a higher metabolism.

Diet

Another factor that may contribute to fatigue is poor eating habits. When and what you eat does have a profound effect on your energy level throughout the day. Food is our source of energy, and also keeps the body functioning properly through essential vitamins and minerals. Carbohydrates provide the body's preferred fuel: glucose. A diet sufficient in complex carbohydrates such as grains, cereals, and starchy vegetables provides the best staying power because these foods are digested slowly. But a diet with a high proportion of simple corbohydrates - including white bread, sugary food, pasta and rice - causes a sudden surges of glucose in the blood, which is quickly followed by a drop in blood sugar. From here comes the feeling of tiredness.

Diets that are deficient in fibre (recommended 18g a day) will also be prone to these symptoms. Fibre helps to control blood sugar levels, which regulates the amount of energy in your system, eliminating peaks and troughs. Fibre is helps your digestive system to process food and absorb nutrients, and also lowers blood cholesterol.

The following are particularly high in fibre:

Dietary planning

In addition to providing fuel for the body's cells, food triggers the release of certain chemical messengers, or neurotransmitters, in the brain either to energize or to calm us. With this knowledge, you can plan individual meals to your advantage, if you know what you'll have to face during the day. A high-fibre breakfast will keep your energy steady in the morning, but if you add a source of protein, like fish, nuts or egg, your brain and body will be kick-started into a higher plane of action.

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