Had Flu. Feeling Lack Of Energy And Suffer Sinus Infection. Lost Weight. Fasting Sugar 5.8. Stressed Out. What Can Be Done?

Posted on Wed, 7 Aug 2013

Question: I was doing wonderful. Just had my physical at the end of May and everything was perfect. Then I felt like I had the flu and the next day in the morning I was just so tired and then would get my energy back in the afternoon and be fine for the rest of the day. This went on for Sat. Sun Mon and Tues. Still was not feeling good so went to the doctor the following Friday because I thought it was my thyroid or blood sugar because years ago I got stressed out, worn out and ended up with a really bad sinus infection which they said knocked out my thyroid and pushed up my blood sugar. I lost 15 lbs. Got better in about 2 months.
Now all of a sudden. I wake up in the morning by the time I get to work I am exhausted. My TSH was normal but did not test for anything else with the thyroid. Did a blood rest right after lunch and it was a 9 so recommended that that I follow up with my doctor. Went last Monday and my fasting test was 5.8. Is this my thyroid or sugar or just stress causing it all. I have had a very stressful year with my daughters wedding, mother and brother in law passing away. taking care of my elderly father and then moving him into a seniors home and then having to deal with selling his house. It seemed like when everything was finished at the end of May my body crashed.

Answered by Dr. Nsah Bernard (3 hours later)

Hello XXXXX,

Thanks for posting on XXXXXXX

I am Dr. Bernard and I am pleased to be able to assist you with your query.

Well it will not be proper to just focus on only two possible causes of fatigue or tiredness rather than investigate further like checking if you are actually suffering from an ongoing systemic infection, suffering from a cardiac problem, electrolyte imbalance (actually abnormalities with sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium etc can cause the symptoms that you are presenting with). Your doctor will need to fully examine you and run the essential tests to determine the actual cause of your symptoms. Sugar or thyroid disorder could be responsible, but i prefer that other possible causes be ruled out too as combination of a series of disorders can cause too those symptoms.
Given, your age too, you should know that fatigue or wear-out symptoms can become common.
There are many possible causes of fatigue, including:
- Anemia (including iron deficiency anemia)
- Depression or grief
- Iron deficiency (without anemia)
- Medications such as sedatives or antidepressants
- Persistent pain
- Sleep disorders such as insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, or narcolepsy
- Thyroid gland that is underactive or overactive
- Use of alcohol or drugs such as cocaine or narcotics, especially with regular use. Many other causes exist that I might not have mentioned.
You may try taking in balance diet, increase vitamin supplements, exercise a little, stress less etc.
You might require a doctor to check on you from time to time in detect any possible abnormalities.

Hope this could help and please feel free to write back for further questions

Dr. Nsah

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Nsah Bernard (35 minutes later)

I sleep well, my physical showed a tiny bit low on iron so I am on an iron pill, no drug use, had an EKG, and checked all problems with my heart with four tubes of blood and everything was fine and doctor had suggested thyroid check. Only TSH was done not the T3 and T4. What can an imbalance in the T3 and T4 cause for symptoms. I have no pain or depression. I had an enormous amount of energy right up until two weeks ago. What is an electrolyte imbalance and what does this mean?

Answered by Dr. Nsah Bernard (7 minutes later)

Hello,

Thanks for updating,

Low T3 or T4 (hypothyroidism/underactive thyroid) or high T3 or T4 (hyperthyroidism/overactive thyroid) could always result to fatigue/wearing. Electrolyte imbalance simply means that your essential minerals such as sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus etc could either increase or decrease and therefore cause you similar symptoms. Your doctor might need to run serum electrolytes, kidney function test, liver function tests etc in order to see if any of these are responsible for your fatigue symptom.
You may even just be suffering from a transitory period of fatigue, which will get better ones you take a good period of resting.
I am pleased to know that your heart is fine and that you have no major diseases condition that could be of immediate trait. Iron deficiency could directly be responsible, but since you are already on iron pills, let us just wait and see if results get any better.

Hope this can help further.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar