Are you tired? Here’s some “chicken blood” for you - A brief talk about some truths about fatigue

Author: Lu Yuan China Rehabilitation Research Center

Reviewer: Wang Fang, deputy director and nurse of China Rehabilitation Research Center

1. Common types of fatigue

"Why do I still feel tired after getting up after sleeping for 8 hours at night?" Do you have this feeling? There are many reasons for fatigue. Work, exercise, interpersonal relationships, family chores, etc. are things that most people cannot escape. A hard day can be said to be physically and mentally exhausted. Some people still feel very "fatigued" the next day even though they have not done anything, that is, they fall into a state of "chronic fatigue".

Figure 1 Copyright image, no permission to reprint

When people in the workplace are tired, they will have a cup of coffee to get rid of their fatigue. However, caffeine only drives away the "feeling of fatigue" and does not eliminate physical fatigue. In daily work and life, there is often a discrepancy between the actual physical fatigue and the "feeling of fatigue" perceived by the brain, resulting in a continuous accumulation of fatigue without people noticing it.

The above two situations describe the current situation of most people: either they complain every day and look exhausted all day long; or they are full of energy and seem to need no rest. The former is a continuous "overt fatigue", while the latter is fatigue without fatigue, that is, "hidden fatigue".

2. Causes of Fatigue - Central Fatigue

In 1904, Italian physiologist A. Mosso proposed the concept of central fatigue and conducted research based on it. He found that people will show fatigue after doing mental work such as giving speeches. Central fatigue is caused by dysfunction of the central nervous system, which in turn affects the peripheral nervous system and the autonomic nervous system, and ultimately leads to a series of fatigue reactions in the body, nerves, and psychology. Excessive physical exercise, mental exhaustion, long-term sleep disorders, and chronic stress are considered to be the main causes of central fatigue and the main symptoms of pathological central fatigue.

Workers are the hardest hit by fatigue. Humans, creatures with advanced neural networks, can sit in the office and type on the keyboard, but monkeys cannot. This requires us to have a high degree of concentration and the ability to allocate attention. The higher the concentration and the longer the concentration time, the more fatigued your autonomic nerves will be. This is consistent with our daily cognition. This is why the interval between the referee's shouting "ready" and the starting gun in a 100-meter race is only 2 to 3 seconds. The extreme tension under the dominant state of the sympathetic nerves will make the autonomic nerves exhausted in an instant.

Eye fatigue is actually a manifestation of central nervous system fatigue. In ancient evolution, humans relied on hunting for food, and their sympathetic nerves were excited and active when they looked at distant prey. Modern humans no longer hunt, and their means of livelihood has become staring at nearby books or computer screens. In other words, they need to use their sympathetic nerves to concentrate on thinking while using their parasympathetic nerves to look nearby. Therefore, under this contradictory state, autonomic fatigue becomes more obvious, followed by a state of autonomic nervous disorder, such as head and neck pain, general fatigue, and a series of other discomfort symptoms.

In addition, many factors closely related to our contemporary daily life, such as smart phones, the Internet, and air conditioning, can be related to fatigue. Therefore, the autonomic nervous system has been working hard to help you complete various needs such as eating, drinking, defecating, running, jumping, playing, brainstorming, etc., until it is tired, it will send a "help signal" to the brain center. After receiving the signal, the brain will first read and process the information, and then issue a command: "The body is tired, take a break!" You see, it is the autonomic nervous system that is tired, but the brain says it is the body that is tired, but the result is the same, that is, the central nervous system function declines, people feel "fatigue", and begin to take the initiative to rest.

3. A terrible situation - you don't know you are tired

We mentioned "hidden fatigue" earlier, which is actually more terrible than "visible fatigue". If you overdraw your body for a long time without knowing it, the more fatigue you accumulate, the faster your body ages, until you develop various chronic diseases or even sudden death. This is not alarmist. Relevant studies have shown that the accumulation of fatigue can cause abnormal hormone metabolism and reduced immunity. The most common cause is colds. In addition, there are hypertension, diabetes, urticaria, stroke, myocardial infarction, gastritis, cancer, dementia, etc.

Why don’t people feel tired? Here are some common examples to see how many of them you meet: ① “C” (coffee) and “A” (alcohol) to “stay alive”; ② working out hard to relieve stress; ③ “smoking” to relieve fatigue; ④ having a big meal to have a good time.

As mentioned before, the so-called feeling of fatigue is a "help signal" sent to the frontal lobe of the brain through the autonomic nerves, where it is translated into "fatigue" and then sent to the whole body. At this time, if you are doing the above or other things that can make you secrete dopamine, endorphins and other pleasure substances, it is very likely that the "fatigue" is covered. Some relevant researchers further analyzed that the frontal lobe also controls human desires - appetite, sexual desire, fame and wealth, etc. In order to satisfy desires, covering up the "fatigue" seems to be necessary. In other words, "hidden fatigue" may be a byproduct of human greed.

Figure 2 Copyright image, no permission to reprint

4. How to solve fatigue - sleep and diet

Good quality sleep is the best way to relieve fatigue. When you sleep, your brain is in a resting state, and the amount of "fatigue recovery substances" produced is enough to repair cells damaged by fatigue. Of course, the quality of sleep is more important than the quantity. If you hear someone snoring all night, you must not envy him for sleeping well. Instead, you should remind him to see a doctor. Snoring is a common cause of poor sleep quality. Here are some easy and effective ways to improve sleep:

1. Go to bed and wake up at fixed times: All cells in the human body have "clock genes". Living according to a regular rhythm is very friendly to your physical and mental condition.

2. Do some light exercise: You don’t have to force yourself to become a sports expert. Everyone has different physical conditions, so you should take it step by step according to the intensity you can tolerate. Avoid high-intensity exercise within 2 hours before going to bed, otherwise the sympathetic nerves will be too excited, which will affect your sleep.

3. Keeping the lower body warm is more important: when the upper body is warm, the sympathetic nerves are more active, and when the lower body is warm, the parasympathetic nerves are dominant. You can soak your feet or take a bath for the lower body one hour before going to bed. The water temperature does not need to be too high, otherwise it will also stimulate the sympathetic nerves.

4. Relax 1 hour before going to bed: Get rid of electronic products, which will only make you more excited. Put aside distractions before going to bed, say goodbye to everything during the day, and leave things to tomorrow. Just relax yourself in the bedroom and let yourself sleep peacefully.

5. Choose orange-yellow lights for the bedroom: Our ancestors’ habit of going to bed at sunset is still in our genes. At that time, there were no electric lights, and the yellow sunset was a symbol of turning the biological clock to bedtime. With the effect of melatonin, a "hypnotic substance" that the human body begins to secrete about 14 hours after waking up, it is the right time to fall asleep when night falls.

6. Others: suitable bedroom temperature, comfortable bedding, put down the mobile phone before going to bed, and do not touch coffee, tea, alcohol, cigarettes, etc.

Finally, let's take a look at the anti-fatigue ace player - imidazole dipeptide. It first attracted people's attention due to the research on the anti-fatigue mechanism of migratory birds. Scientists have proved through experiments that imidazole dipeptide has a powerful effect in anti-oxidation and inhibiting cell damage caused by fatigue. Note that it does not cover up the feeling of fatigue, but makes the body less prone to fatigue and can recover from fatigue quickly. It is necessary to take 200 mg of imidazole dipeptide every day, and it will have an anti-fatigue effect after 2 weeks.

When it comes to antioxidant effects, we will also think of substances such as anthocyanins. The disadvantage of anthocyanins is that they will react with active oxygen in various parts of the body after entering the human body, and will be consumed before reaching the autonomic nerve center where it is most needed. Imidazole dipeptide will cleverly decompose itself into two amino acids temporarily, "escaping" from being consumed in the blood, and reach the places where it is most needed, such as the brain and skeletal muscles, where there happens to be abundant imidazole dipeptide synthetase. Under the action of the enzyme, these two amino acids will synthesize imidazole dipeptide again.

So, where can you buy imidazole dipeptide? The answer is not in the pharmacy, but in the vegetable market! Chicken breast is the food with the highest content of imidazole dipeptide, and it is low in fat, high in protein, and economical. Imidazole dipeptide is resistant to high-temperature cooking, soluble in water, and suitable for daily cooking. Just eat 100 g of chicken breast every day to ingest 200 mg of imidazole dipeptide. In addition, citric acid, coenzyme Q10, and apple polyphenols can also play a certain anti-fatigue role, but the effect is far less than imidazole dipeptide.

Figure 3 Copyright image, no permission to reprint

It turns out that when you are tired, you don’t need to take a “chicken blood”, but eat chicken! You should work hard in study, work and life, but you should also learn to give yourself a rest. Start by getting a good night’s sleep and eating some chicken every day!

References

CHAUDHURI A, BEHAN P O. Fatigue in neurological disorders[J]. The lancet, 2004, 363(9413):978-988.

MOSSO A. Fatigue [M]. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1904: 334.

STOODLEY CJ, SCHMAHMANN J D. Functional topography of the human cerebellum [J]. Handb Clin Neurol, 2018, 154: 59-70.

CASERAS

NISHITANI M, MUNEKIYO Y, SUGINO T, et al. Novel anti-fatigue compound: imidazole dipeptide[J]. Japanese Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2009, 6(3): 123-129.

Zhao Jing. Research progress on the mechanism of sports fatigue and food-borne anti-fatigue active ingredients[J]. Food Safety and Quality, 2021, 12(9): 3565-3571.