alt=a man sits and lies on the floor in three different gentle yoga positions to ease fatigue.

Fatigue...What I Wish I Knew When I Was Diagnosed

Fatigue is tricky, namely because it can impact so much. From your work, to relationships, social life and ability to just function.

Usually fatigue is associated with high disease activity and the idea is if you bring down inflammation you can reduce fatigue.

High fatigue, low disease

However, it there is also evidence that fatigue can still be high even with low disease activity. My rheumatologist even told me if he had a medication for fatigue he would be giving it to patients but there isn’t and some medications can make fatigue worse.

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So in my opinion reducing fatigue has a lot to do with lifestyle management. There is so much that helps, from an understanding of circadian biology, nutrition, sleep optimization, the list goes on.

I will write about each of these at some point, but for today I am going to share 3 yoga practices to try if fatigue is high.

These all share a commonality is that they induce the relaxation response, activating the parasympathetic nervous system. Whether we know it or not when fatigue is high and moments leading up to experiencing fatigue, it may be that the body is stressed and in a fight and flight response (sympathetic). That is why it is common to feel fatigue and hyper stress/ jittery at the same time.

So lets dive in to the practices

Breath-work

Extended exhalations, focusing on slow deep nasal breathing, slowing down the heart rate and bringing the body into the relaxation response.

Restorative yoga

Very gentle passive yoga that involves finding very comfortable poses and resting in them.

Yoga nidra

Also called yogic sleep. A progressive relaxation technique, which is thousands of years old, training the body into deep rest similar to deep sleep whilst maintaining mindful awareness.

You can check out this free live stream to get an introduction to each of these practices.

If you want to delve deeper into these practices, or have more questions, please reach out.

Also, if you would like to learn other ways to reduce fatigue, please let me know in the comments.

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