Dalai Lama’s Exhaustion: FAQ
Are You Exhausted Too, or Just Tired?
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Health News
Reviewed By Michael W. Smith, MD
Aug. 28, 2008 — The Dalai Lama is in hospital in Mumbai, India with “abdominal discomfort … and there is nocause for concern,”燫euters reports, quoting a hospital spokesman who called the Dalai Lama “cheerful.”
A statement posted on the Dalai Lama’s official web site yesterday attributed the Dalai Lama’s discomfort to”exhaustion” and said the Dalai Lama has cleared his schedule for thenext three weeks while he undergoes more medical tests.
The brief statement reads, in full, “His Holiness the Dalai Lama hasbeen experiencing some discomfort in the past couple of days. His personalphysicians attributed this to exhaustion and have advised him to cancel hisengagements for the time being and instead complete the remaining medical teststhat began earlier this month in Mumbai [the Indian city formerly calledBombay]. It has therefore been decided that all his schedules for the nextthree weeks, including the visit to Mexico and the Dominican Republic, arebeing canceled with immediate effect.”
That statement leaves a lot of questions unanswered, such as the type ofdiscomfort the Dalai Lama — who is 73 years old — has been having, whatmedical tests he has already had, and what additional medical tests he will getin Mumbai.
Most people don’t have the religious and political responsibilities of theDalai Lama. But feeling run down and exhausted is common. Where is the linebetween feeling frayed by the daily grind and being so exhausted that you needmedical attention? And when exhaustion sets in, what can you do about it?
For answers, WebMD spoke with two doctors: James Krainson, MD, of the SouthFlorida Sleep Diagnostic Center in Miami, and Erika Hyde Riley, MD, an internalmedicine practitioner at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
What is exhaustion and how does it differ from day-to-day tiredness?
Krainson distinguishes exhaustion from tiredness, with tiredness stemmingfrom too little sleep and exhaustion tied to the muscles.
“Exhaustion and fatigue are typically problems that have to do withexertion,” Krainson says. “If you feel as if you have to sit down torelax your muscles … and you don’t feel like moving or you can’t move becauseyour muscles are so fatigued that they have no further ability, then that’sexhaustion,” Krainson tells WebMD.
Riley also sees mental exhaustion as a real problem that’s typically linkedto overwork and sleep deprivation. Riley calls exhaustion an “extreme levelof fatigue, an extreme level of tiredness.”
What causes exhaustion?
That depends. If, like Krainson, you mean exhausted muscles, that’s causedby exertion. But it may accompany other serious medical problems.
“With heart disease, with lung disease, with renal disease, with any chronic disease,you may be more easily fatigued — you may not be able to maintain the sameactivities as someone else,” Krainson says.
Beyond tired muscles, exhaustion can be caused by nutritional deficiencies,illness, overwork, and too little sleep, Riley says.
“Here in the United States, everybody overdoes it,” she says, and”most people don’t get enough sleep.” Riley’s list of common culpritsalso includes anemia, especially in women, and hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid).
When should you see a doctor about exhaustion?
If exhaustion doesn’t ease up in a couple of days or a week, or if it keepsgetting worse, and there’s difficulty just getting through routine activities,”it does require more of a work-up to make sure that it’s not anyunderlying illness or disease,” Riley says.
Krainson has similar advice. “If you’re feeling exhausted going groceryshopping, if you’re feeling exhausted doing mundane activities that you used tobe able to do, then that should be evaluated,” he says.
You’d probably get blood tests and, if you have other symptoms beyondexhaustion, those would get checked out, too, Krainson says.
The Dalai Lama is 73. Does age affect exhaustion?
“It probably does, because people in general tend not to be in the samephysical shape, the same degree of conditioning as they age,” Krainsonsays.
Riley agrees.
“Age can definitely play into it,” she says, “particularly ifhe’s trying to do his usual level of activity that he’s been doing for manyyears but just can’t keep up with it anymore.”
How do you treat exhaustion?
“Sit down and rest,” Krainson says.
Exhaustion, without other illnesses, doesn’t require staying at a hospitalor spa, he says. “Can you rest any more efficiently at those sites than athome? No, probably not. So if you need to rest, home is a good place to doit.”
He also recommends building rest into the day and getting enough sleep — seven to eight hours per night. “Sleep is restorative, not only for mentalfunctioning but also for physical functioning,” Krainson says.
Riley also recommends getting enough sleep if you’re mentally exhausted.”Many people say, ‘Oh, I get four to five hours of sleep; I’m fine.’ But itcatches up to you,” she says.
“Everybody needs a certain amount of sleep just to reach the sleepstages that are restful and help us rejuvenate and feel rested when we wakeup. And if you don’t get enough hours of sleep per night, you don’t get enoughof those restful stages of sleep,” Riley says.
SOURCES: Reuters. Dalailama.com. James Krainson, MD, South Florida Sleep Diagnostic Center, Miami. Erika Hyde Riley, MD, internal medicine practitioner, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
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