Is 1 of These 10 Health Issues Causing Your Fatigue?

10 Medical Conditions That Can Cause Severe Fatigue

1. Liver Failure: The liver’s main functions are to clear toxins from your body and metabolize nutrients. When your liver is not functioning well, you are left feeling tired and listless. Find out why living with liver disease can make you so tired.
2. Anemia: Anemia is a condition where you don’t have enough red bloods cells carrying oxygen to your body’s cells, resulting in fatigue. A lack of iron in the body can cause anemia.
3. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: The causes of chronic fatigue syndrome are unknown, but this condition is known to cause severe fatigue over extended periods of time. Do you have chronic fatigue syndrome?
4. Kidney Disease: Kidneys secrete erythropoietin, which stimulates bone marrow to create red blood cells. When your kidneys are not functioning correctly, this can result in anemia, which causes fatigue.
5. COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) & Emphysema: Lack of oxygen exchange in your lungs can result in chronic fatigue.
6. Cancer: Fatigue is commonly the result of cancer treatment, some of which can even result in extreme fatigue.
7. Cardiovascular Conditions: When your heart and circulatory system are not functioning correctly, oxygen and nutrients may not reach muscle cells, leaving you feeling tired and weak.
8. Obesity & Diabetes: Obesity and diabetes involve problems with balancing insulin and glucose, and often result in a lack of energy.
9. Thyroid Conditions: The thyroid impacts almost every system in your body, so both hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid) and hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) can result in fatigue. Read more about tests to detect thyroid disorders.
10. Sleep Apnea: When air passages close while sleeping, breathing stops and starts many times during the night. When this happens, sleep is not restorative and fatigue is a major symptom of this condition. Is sleep apnea the cause of your fatigue?

Acute fatigue can result from many lifestyle activities, such as exercise, and from almost any medical condition, including the common cold. When fatigue becomes extreme or chronic, it may be time to visit a physician to rule out these serious medical conditions.