Tired? Allergies May Be Causing Your Fatigue
| By Jacob Inman | Category: Inspiration and Wellness
Photo by beckypai
Have you ever felt completely worn out, exhausted, fatigued, unmotivated, and blurry-eyed? Sure, most of us can say that we have, at some point, felt this way. But think for a minute how much one’s quality of life would suffer if this became the norm for say, a period of several months, an entire year, or even longer!
Unfortunately, this is often the case for those who suffer from seasonal or chronic allergies. Many people fail to make the connection between their chronic fatigue and the power of the allergic response, but the two are explicably linked.
Allergic Fatigue and the Immune System
It’s really quite simple. The allergic response is nothing more than an overzealous reaction from our immune systems. Our bodies recognize and sense some type of “invader” (pollen, dust, certain foods, etc.) and immediately shift into attack mode as a means of protecting themselves. In reality, the human immune system is not that smart – if it sees something that it does not recognize or know how to deal with, its only response is to “kill” it.
Take, for example, a situation in which a “foreign” object is introduced into the body in the form of a transplanted organ. The organ transplant is meant to provide a benefit to the recipient as the organ is most often essential to the continuation of life. Often times, however, it is the immune system that causes the transplant to fail because the organ is seen as an invader and rejection of the transplanted tissue occurs. This is an example in which an overactive immune system becomes detrimental to our well-being.
Constant firing of the immune response due to allergic triggers will no doubt create fatigue and exhaustion. This is the same type of tired and lethargic feeling experienced when we have a cold or the flu. The immune system is working overtime to rid our bodies of something that it thinks should not be there. Unfortunately, in the case of allergic triggers, these substances are very benign and otherwise harmless, but again, for those with allergies, the over-reactive immune system does not see it that way. The constant battle that is being waged within our cells depletes energy reserves and leaves us feeling tired and moody.
Allergic-Inflammation and Poor Breathing Cause Fatigue
The continual grinding of our immune system is not the only cause of allergy-induced exhaustion. In fact, other symptoms caused by the allergic response exacerbate the fatigue, most importantly, chronic nasal congestion. Allergies obviously cause the runny nose and sneezing episodes that we experience, but also cause the membranes of our airways to become swollen.
This inflammation is a result of the immune system’s release of histamine, a protein which causes dilation and increased permeability of the blood vessels as well as constriction of smooth muscle. Gaps between the cells in vascular tissue are created by phosphorylation, allowing blood fluids to seep out into extra-cellular space which further contributes to inflammation. The contraction of smooth muscle related to histamine is one of the major causes of asthma as the airways constrict and breathing becomes difficult.
It is easy to see how a consistent flow of histamine can cause significant breathing problems for most allergy sufferers. Short, rapid breathing such as that experienced by hyperventilation syndrome sufferers will create a sense of anxiety and will greatly contribute to chronic fatigue. Researchers are also starting to make the connection between nasal obstruction due to allergies and the impact that this has on the quality of our sleep. Just like those who suffer from sleep apnea, allergy sufferers experience many micro-arousals each night as the body senses the struggle to breathe despite significant nasal congestion. These awakenings (which may occur up to several hundred times per night) have a dramatic impact on sleep cycles and prevent us from obtaining the deep REM sleep that we need.
Overcoming Fatigue Caused by Allergies
So how do we deal with the fatigue caused by our allergies? Here are some proven methods that can be very effective:
- Minimize all other potential sources of fatigue in your life. Make sure you are getting the proper amount of exercise and rest, and maintain your blood sugar levels through proper nutrition. Drink plenty of water and stay away from foods that contribute to inflammation. Make sure that you are managing the contents level of your bucket!
- Reduce your exposure to allergens, and, if necessary, consider over-the-counter or prescription medicines to relieve symptoms. Allergy avoidance is far-and-away the most important defense against allergic fatigue. Although I am not a huge proponent of synthetic drugs, these are sometimes a necessary tool for symptom management. If these drugs can greatly improve breathing, sleep, and one’s overall sense of well-being, then they should at least be considered.
The bottom line is this:
Don’t assume that the chronic fatigue that you are experiencing is “normal”. Fatigue can be a very real and very troublesome symptom that many people do not connect with their allergies. Taking the necessary steps to help alleviate your allergic symptoms will very likely increase your motivation and level of energy, as well as greatly enhancing your mood.
Do you notice a dramatic difference in your energy levels when your allergies flare up? If so, how do you cope? Please share your thoughts with the Revive Your Life community in the comments section below!
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For me, its all about the food allergies and intolerance. I defiantly have to stay away from certain foods that causes inflammation in my body such as soy, grains, sugars and a few other foods. I have more vitality when I eat keep those substances out of my body.
@ Carla – Good point! Allergies come in many forms and those who have food allergies have limited treatment options other than diet elimination. Fatigue is a very common symptom of food allergies as well.
Well this is why i could be tired all the time in this article. I have chronic sinusitis and body aches. I cannot move for nothing. Its to the PC and couch for me. Its not right!
thank you for this article. I am definitely experiencing this – though allergy doc confirmed only allergic to dust! How to avoid that??!! do over the counter prescriptions stop your body’s immune system from working over time? or just block the histamine reaction? I ask because I don’t think OTC meds have helped with my energy, but have with my sinusitis. But allergy doc also told me these shouldn’t be used all the time. and all prescription allergy meds I’ve tried have their own sleepiness factor.
@ Cinnamon – Yeh, it’s really hard to avoid dust, but focus on keeping your house clean, use air cleaners if possible, mattress covers are a must. Also, it’s important to keep your body healthy…eat well, sleep much and stay hydrated. If you are still bothered, consider allergy shots, they worked quite well for me!
For the past two years, I have suffered from chronic fatigue. If I do yard work for 15 or 20 ,minutes, I have to sit down and rest as I am tired and out of breath. Just walking upstairs to my bedroom tires me out. Playing 9 holes of golf at our club (5 minutes from my house) exhausts me. BUT i do go to workouts 3 times a week across town and do 60 minutes of exercise with no trouble at all. I was in Calif last month and played 18 holes of golf two days in a row without fatigue. I have had every test known run including sleep apnia which I now sleep with the machine. I have had two stents put in my heart for blockages but no change in my fatigue. Blood tests, xrays are all normal. I have been an insulin dependent diabetic for 46 years but well controlled with very good HA1Cs. Is it possible that something at home or near by is causing allergic problems? I am 68 years old and KNOW that I am not suppose to feel this tired!
My constant fatigue has been with me for almost 3 yrs.! I do not get a stuffy nose and really don’t have much in the way of a scratchy throat. Sneezing occurs here and there so I never considered my state of constant tiredness to be allergies. I could sleep 12 hrs. a night and still be tired! I know gluten is a bigger problem than people realize as a cause of allergies but it is sooo hard to avoid. I have been taking claritan d and almost immediately noticed a HUGE difference in my energy level. Today for experiment I decided not to take one. BAD DAY. I feel like a zombie again. I eat VERY well, exercise and my house is clean and I use the dust protectors on my mattress and pillows but I am allergic to something. Of course I don’t want to rely on claritan d and it can’t be good to take that daily but what are my options? If I have NO energy and can’t concentrate I can’t work:(
This whole allergy thing is new to me and its driving me crazy. I dont really like taking medicine, so I kind of just deal with it. But now it is by far the worse it has been. My eyes constantly burn, I have excessive amount mucus in the back of my throat/nose, and most of all i am always tired. I think im tired cause i just want to close my eyes. They dont burn as much when i do. As soon as I get home the first thing i do is go straight to my bed and I slept during my lunch break. The mucus is getting out of control and honestly it is grossing me out. Please help with any home remedies that will help. thanks
I have battled allergies all of my life. I am now 30 years old and some days when my allergies are bad I have a hard time at work because I am tired. I’ve had purifiers, shots, medication, and nothing seems to help. It is miserable!
Allergies are definitely a pain. I get red itchy eyes, mucus, sinus problems, and headaches every time together. The only thing that keeps me going is 2 benadryl or equate that are “severe allergy and sinus headache” pills along with 2 excedrin migraine “gel tabs” every night before bed. I tried excedrin migarine tablets that are white, but didn’t seem to help very well. The gel tabs are half green and half white. I wake up feeling great and can get throught most days.
As for fatigue, i don’t think i’m really tired when i feel like it. I believe it is actually soar muscles making my body think it is tired.
I lay down, but am wide awake. My legs get soar and my bottom back gets soar and stiff, and my neck gets stiff, then comes the headaches and itchy watery eyes. After a while, the headache moves to severe which in some cases is just actually soar eyes (from irritations and contacts) making me feel like i have a headache. But not all the time.
i use to take claritan-D 24 hr. every night before bed, but moved away from it. At first, i felt like a new man full of energy and motivation. But it was raising my blood pressure higher than it already is and the benefits slowly faded away. It almost seemed as if my body went into overtime because i would wake up with very irritated eyes because it was loosening the sinuses and were draining into my eyes.
Most of my troubles are in the winter time. Spring gives me one last push and then summere is o.k.
i recently moved to a house where the cats rule the roost, so to speak. My symptoms are very intense from around the time i moved.
Is it possible that cats may be causing my red eyes, extreme fatigue, sinusitus, stuffiness and stomach complaints ? are these all signs of allergy ? i don’t want the cats to be chased from their home, but need some relief !
Great article! I definitely can relate as my seasonal allergies wear me out all day during the allergies season. I get very tired even by midday. Antihistamine does help alleviate the symptoms but it causes me to be drowsy which is a double whammy when combined with the fatigue caused by the allergies in the first place. I believe more public awareness of these issues is needed as some of us with the allergies problem are often seen as lazy, unmotivated or draggers. Only if they suffer like we do will they know the difference.
I have symptoms similar to those described above by Ashley. The symptoms are post-nasal drip (almost constant), burning eyes, some body aches – but most importanly – fatigue!!! It is the fatigue that is the most bothersome and it is hard to know what to do about it. Does anyone have any good ideas on the fatigue??
Thanks
I just went to the theater and I couldn’t follow anything because I was so tired that I was struggling to keep awake and miserable the whole time. My eyes kept closing involuntarily back and forth until the show was over and I would have enjoyed it more if I just went to sleep. I frequently fall asleep on the couch at home and struggle to stay awake and have for most of my life. Sometimes I will show allergy symptoms when I wake-up so I am guessing that this is not psychological or chronic fatigue. But it could be. Also I typically liked staying up late and without allergies had no problem staying awake because as an only child it was the one way for me to avoid my parents. My problem is I can never seem to find any information about what to do to end this msery. I got prescribed something by a doctor and it did nothing. None of the medicines I have taken do anything. Yet this does not seem to be lack of exercise or depression albeit the quality of my life is low and I can’t change it for at least an indefinate period of time. I spin, I walk the dog, I lift weights, I would do more like swim and I would try to do a lot of things in my life. I am 6 feet and in the low 160s weight, I eat pretty well, I don’t sit a whole lot. I don’t over-exercise and seem to be doing it correctly. The spinning teacher goes to great lengths to insure we are getting the right combination of spinning exercise and graphs charts for each class according to the people in class in order to do this. I would want to lead a much more active life if I wasn’t in a difficult position that is very hard for me to change. Yes I don’t get the situations that most people have utilized to know what to do and relate in life in various situations. But I don’t think that means I am too depressed and tired as a result. Albeit I would have no way to verify that. What can I do to figure out the problem? Is this mold, is this chronic fatigure, is this something else? What allergies would cause this from childhood and are they ones that can be stopped or alleviated with the right medicine? When I wake up on the couch later I do have slight allergy conditions and often am not as tired. When I am too exhausted to stay awake and miserable I do not have allergy symptoms. What can I do to fix this that isn’t over $10,000 out of pocket each time to see a doctor who thinks you are depressed and you get the sample of allegra or whatever they are giving now?. Please help this is miserable. I wished I could give it to everyone so they would shut-up and realize the reality. Then maybe I would find out what to do to solve it and probably in about 20 minutes on the internet.
I would kill to have post nasal drip instead of this miserable fatigue and not knowing what to do to overcome it. It is totally interfering with my life and if it was different I would want to be a very active person.
It’s a relief to find that this could be an explanation, even if there’s no obvious solution. I’ve had seasonal allergies since I was a child, but have more recently picked up a few other allergies to nuts and certain fruit. This is the first year I’ve had almost no ‘traditional’ symptoms (eyes, nose, etc), and have just felt totally physically drained instead. Apart from the misery of never feeling refreshed, even after a good, deep sleep, one of the most difficult aspects is people commenting that I seem to be much better this year! Nobody seems to take me seriously when I tell them I’m actually doing much worse. And explaining my zombie-like state at work is becoming increasingly difficult. I’m sure my boss thinks I’m on heroin or something. Like Donny, above, I would kill to have the nasal drip back.
every spring thru the end of summer, I experience bouts of unexplained fatigue, I know believe it is some sort of seasonal allergy issue because Mid Fall and thru the Winter months I have plenty of energy…. I’ve have experimented with every potential cure out there with no results… I’m going to try Benodryl at night to hopefully open my nasal passage and induce sleep……
I’ve experienced significant allergic fatigue every spring and early summer for a number of years. I find it comes and goes, but here are some things that have helped me immensely.
First, back off of the carbs and simple sugars. Focus on lean proteins instead. Carbs make you retain water (nasal passage swelling) and cause additional histamine release (more allergy symptoms).
Second, stay hydrated. This one is so important. Water and green tea (decaf).
Third, watch out for poor breathing patterns. Allergic symptoms (stuffiness, etc) cause you to change your breathing patterns unknowingly. The best resource I have found for breathing correcting and the related symptoms (fatigue, low mood, dizziness, inability to focus) is the book Hope and Help for Hyperventilation Syndrome. Google it and you will find it – a must have resource.
Last – Omega 3s and vitamins.
Best of luck
Wouldn’t allergy shots do the trick? I have only one symptom I attribute to airborne allergens and that is FATIGUE. I got an allergy test recently and my doctor recommended immunotherapy allergy shots.
I have suffered from severe year round allergies since I was a child. I have been on every prescription and I did allergy shots for 3 years in high school. Nothing has helped me. I take 1-3 benadryl every day. I have been overly exhausted for years and just thought that was my normal, OR assumed it was the benadryl. I am so tired now I can hardly stay awake during the day to care for my 1 year old son. I am 33 and can not imagine living the rest of my life like this. I made an appointment today with yet another dr. I am basically going to beg her to help me find a solution. I have tried everything holistic and not. With the exception of acupuncture. I may look into that next.??? I also suffer from Hashimoto’s Hypothyroid and Hemochromatosis. I have been on treatment for both of those for awhile now and my iron and thyroid levels are normal. I guess basically, I am trouble shooting here. I was happy to find this article.
When I was younger (just before junior high), I had allergies really badly, then chronic fatigue and depression started developing in junior high and high school. Then in my twenties, I even started developing arthritis, which is also related to allergies. I went through many kinds of treatments for the fatigue and depression. I found it was odd, but when I started treating the allergies, these treatments did more for my fatigue and depression than the depression medication did. Treatment included prescription allergy medication and then allergy shots (immunotherapy). Those were awesome, especially the latter. The former (the allergy pills) seem to have stopped working after a year or two. I plan to do the allergy shots again in a few years, since the effects have worn off, being a few years since that treatment ended.
In the mean time, I use air purifiers in my office and bedroom (where I spend most of my time). Because of the one in my small office, I now often feel like I gain energy throughout the day instead of feeling it drain away. Also, eating healthy foods (for me, this means less sugar) and also sleeping consistently, have been very, very helpful. Sleeping consistently, 7 hours per day (some of that time is laying down and falling asleep), is much more helpful to me than sleeping more. I used to sleep 9 hours per day, and it was hard for me to fall asleep. Now that I am strict and sleep exactly 7 hours per day, every day of the week, I fall asleep quickly, and feel pretty good throughout the day. (It took some time to work into a shorter sleep schedule, e.g. by shortening it by a half hour every 2 weeks.) During the winter I feel even better and don’t wake up feeling so sore and tired, because the pollen is gone.
I used to be ALWAYS tired! It didn’t matter how much I slept … or did exercise etc … then I found out I am allergic too gluten, wheat and dairy!
Going off gluten I have SO MUCH more energy it is like being in a different body! It is amazing and true!
My husband would also get really tired from hayfever allergies when we lived in Australia, it made him really tired also!
Seriosly, everyone get allergy testing for foods…gluten is a BIG culprit of the fatigue that alot of people experience. When I can eliminate it I feel like a new person, when I slip up I’m exhausted and have a hard time making it through the day and waking up.
I believe my main factor is dust mites. It is in dust, as well as any material that we use. Chemicals will stop me in my tracks. No hair dyes, spray or gels. My coiffure has certainly suffered. My eyes are so blurry all the time. and I have considerable pain from osteo arthritis as well as inflamatory arthritis which is caused by my allergies. Soft tissue adhema is one of my symtoms that tells me I am not far away from anaphilaxis. I can only walk a few steps at a time, and can not take car of hardly any of my personal needs, let alone take care of my house. I feel I am a terrible burden to my family. Air filters are a God send. I use the Filtrate ones in my heat and airconditioning system as well as my IQ Air. We have named this one my pool toy, It goes with me everywhere. I primarily stay in my bedroom, and do not have the energy to dress.I have to wear a silk mask to go outside. I could continue to go on, but the comment I really need to make is that there are two schools of thought as to whether allergies cause fatugue, or are they two separate things. I happen to know that throughout my life, the fatigue always followerd and asthma/allergy attach..
I did 22 years study in Nutritional Healing and Natural Health. I ate vegan, avoided dairy, any glutenous grains, eggs, sugar, honey….. In short I ate extremely well. Then a marriage breakdown, family dramas and bang!! I was suddenly worse than those I had helped.
I had allergies?? How could this be?
Diet is extremely important, make no mistake, but few realise the intricate connection between the mind and the body. If the mind is out of kilter the body sympathises.
Stress and the daily push wears us down and our body reacts to stress in many ways. Negative thoughts, unhappiness, being over-loaded, teenage pressures, no time to
Just be still and be yourself….these are all unducers of auto immune
Reactions too.
Stress kills. So when you consider your diet, and it is important, also consider the pressures you are living under. Simplify, learn to say no,
Reduce the pile of “things to do” spend time in nature and take time to pray.
Also be aware that the many chemicals and additives in even good food are growing steadily.
Even our new light globes are filled with slow poisoning mercury.
Take steps to have a peaceful life, spend time with nature & God.
Add to this a carefully studied diet & exercise plan and watch your symptoms fade.
Google : the 8 laws of health
Google: the diet and life of Paul C. Bragg
He died in his 90′s…… What was the cause of death?
A surfing accident!!
Ha…..wonderful epitaph
The more we persist in the mistakes we make, the harder will be for us to understand what`s the real cause of what is bothering us. Happiness is not so hard to achieve, but it depends on how you envision it. Psychologists say that happiness is the perfect balance of inner thoughts and states of mind, the perfect mirror between what you were struggling for and what you managed to achieve. Happiness is fulfillment. That is why you must act beginning with the first signs of anxiety and depression that you detect in your behavior and attitude.
i used to suck cock every day and now i cant becuase of post nasal drip.