The hormones in your body must be balanced in order to maintain energy levels, alertness, appropriate stress responses, mental health, and physical strength. If you suffer from certain health conditions the processes are easily disrupted.
Exercise intolerance is a condition which produces an inability or decreased ability to perform physical exercise at the normally expected level or duration for people of any age, size, sex and muscle mass. It also includes experiences of unusually severe post-exercise pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting or other negative effects. Exercise intolerance is a reduction of the body’s ability to utilize or deliver oxygen throughout the body. Exercise intolerance is not a disease or syndrome in and of itself, but can result from various disorders. Dysfunctions involving the pulmonary, cardiovascular or neuromuscular systems have been frequently found to be associated with exercise intolerance, with behavioral causes also playing a part.
Exercise in this context means physical activity, not specifically exercise in a fitness program. For example, a person with exercise intolerance after a heart attack may not be able to sustain the amount of physical activity needed to walk through a grocery store or to cook a meal. In a person who does not tolerate exercise well, physical activity may cause unusual breathlessness (dyspnea), muscle pain (myalgia), tachypnoea (abnormally rapid breathing), tachycardia (having a faster heart rate than normal) or increasing muscle weakness, or exercise might result in severe headache, nausea, dizziness, occasional muscle cramps or extreme fatigue, which would make it intolerable.
Some reports say that exercise intolerance is the primary symptom of chronic diastolic heart failure. It is a part of the definition of heart failure and is intimately linked to its pathophysiology. Further, exercise intolerance affects the diagnosis and prognosis of heart failure. in addition, understanding the mechanisms of exercise intolerance can lead to developing and testing rationale treatments for heart failure.
Exercise intolerance testing includes a timed walking test (6 minute walk) and graded exercise treadmill or bicycle exercise tests. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing on a treadmill or a bicycle ergometer provides the most accurate, reliable, and reproducible assessment of exercise tolerance, and yields multiple important outcomes, including METS, exercise time, exercise workload, blood pressure and heart rate responses. However published studies suggest that the 6 minute walk testing has only modest accuracy for predicting peak exercise capacity in individual patients compared with direct measurement with cardiopulmonary exercise testing.
ADRENAL GLAND FATIGURE
When exercising with this condition your body will react in several ways that may cause problems for those with Adrenal Gland Fatigue. One of the most important is the release of norepinephrine and epinephrine. These help the body with aerobic exercise, keeping your heart rate up. Without norepinephrine and epinephrine you can’t stand up. Never mind move. These two hormones are therefore critical for our daily activities as well as exercise. There are blood tests for both of these. However, tests for these are often done when there is suspicion of an adrenal gland tumor.
Epinephrine is also known as adrenaline. Norepinephrine and epinephrine produce the “exercise high” that gets you through your workouts. The adrenaline helps your heart pump and increases the oxygenation of your blood. At the time you are exercising, you are not fatigued because your norepinephrine and adrenaline output is high. These hormones drive your body and give you energy and perform physical tasks. However, upon finishing your exercise, the levels of these hormones fall, and you often feel completely different.
Unfortunately, excessive or incorrect exercise can be harmful and become one of your causes of fatigue if you have Adrenal Fatigue. When the adrenals are already weak, exercising can add additional stress that further depletes the adrenals. Along with excessive stress in life, exercise uses up your body’s energy reserves. When the adrenals are weak and your body is already low on energy, exercise is like pouring gas on a fire. It leads to your body being completely burned out.
When the level of adrenaline starts to drop in and after exercise, the body will naturally compensate and continue to provide you with energy through your metabolism, energy stores, and nutritional reserves. However, when the adrenals are weak, metabolism slows, energy stores are low and nutritional reserves are often also depleted. This can leave you exhausted, and it can take three or four days to recover.
CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME
Everyone feels fatigued sometimes, and many people feel fatigued most of the time.
In chronic fatigue syndrome isn’t just being tired. It is a new state of fatigue that has lasted for at least six months, and it can be so severe that it gets in the way of your normal daily activity, at home and at work. Rest and sleep doesn’t seem to help. More exercise increases fatigue. It may not happen right after exercise, sometimes a day later. This condition is called post-exertional malaise.
You tend to awaken almost every morning feeling as if you did not get enough sleep, and often you wake up a lot at night, for no apparent reason. You may have trouble concentrating and multi-tasking.
When you stand upright from a sitting or lying position, you can feel lightheaded, and your heart can beat rapidly. After you are on your feet for a while, you can feel terrible, and need to lie down flat.
Chronic fatigue syndrome is also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS). It tends to cycle through flareups and remission, good days and bad days. Even on good days you aren’t back to normal. There isn’t any known cure, but different treatments can help the symptoms.
Exercise is important even if you walk at a slower pace. If you are fatigued right after, rest.
THE TAKEAWAY
A healthy diet and regular exercise is essential for good health and wellbeing. However some conditions can make these conditions worse.
Find a medical professional who specializes in whatever condition you might be experiencing.
Start with gentle exercise first to give your body the time to acclimate to the strain and stop immediately if you notice any side effects. Get as much extra rest as needed.
