“I’m exhausted.”

“I can’t seem to catch up on my sleep.”

“I can’t get out of bed in the morning.”

“I’m tired of being tired.”

These are common things a person with depression will say. @PJ_palits, Twitter user, artist, depression sufferer and mental health advocate, says, “‘I’m tired’ is not a complaint… It’s merely a fact of life.” 

Fatigue usually goes hand in hand with depression, and clinical psychologist Shoshana Bennett, PhD, says, “It’s unusual for fatigue not to be one of the symptoms of depression.” She adds that fatigue can affect people emotionally, cognitively and physically. “It slows down everything.” 

Ruth White says the fatigue she suffers along with depression is overpowering. “I find it difficult to get out of bed and once out of bed, just walking can be exhausting. Texting or even watching TV can seem to take a Herculean effort.” White is a clinical associate professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Southern California.

How fatigue is defined in depression

Dr Maurizio Fava explains that fatigue is one of the identified symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) as listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) criteria. It is defined as physical fatigue or loss of energy.

“However, in my opinion, fatigue is much more than that. We see apathy and considerable emotional disturbance occurring as a consequence of fatigue. We have also seen high rates of diminished focus, word finding difficulties, and recall problems in fatigued patients with MDD.”

Three categories of fatigue commonly occur in patients with MDD; these include physical, cognitive and emotional symptoms.

“The physical symptoms of fatigue include reduced activity, low energy, tiredness, decreased physical endurance, increased effort to do physical tasks, general weakness, heaviness, slowness or sluggishness, nonrestorative sleep, and sleepiness. The cognitive symptoms include decreased concentration, decreased attention, decreased mental endurance, and slowed thinking. The emotional (affective) symptoms of fatigue include decreased motivation or initiative (apathy), decreased interest, feeling overwhelmed, feeling bored, aversion to effort, and feeling low. Given the broad range of related, comorbid symptoms, it can be difficult to differentiate between independent symptoms of fatigue from symptoms directly related to MDD.”

So, why does depression make you tired?

The first issue is quality of sleep. Research by the National Sleep Foundation shows that the the average adult should get between seven and nine hours of sleep every night. 

But even if someone with depression regularly clocks between seven and nine hours of sleep per night, they may still wake up feeling tired. Researchers scanned the brains of clinically depressed people and discovered the following:

• It takes depressed people much longer to fall asleep.
• Depressed people sleep less because it takes them longer to fall asleep.
• There is little or no deep sleep, and REM occurs earlier in the night.
• Depressed people may wake up frequently throughout the night, which disrupts their sleep cycles.
• They may wake up earlier in the morning and struggle to fall asleep again, even though they are exhausted.

The second is issue that your body is constantly battling against itself. It’s fighting to stabilise your moods, it’s pushing you to do things that should come easily (getting out of bed, eating, relaxing) but often become a chore when you’re depressed.

Psychologist Fuye Ongko offers great insight into why depression causes fatigue. He says, “Energy is needed not only for physical activities. When thinking, our brain works with a certain amount of energy too. It’s like a computer that keeps processing memory. The difference is, when we’re in normal state, it will work in normal flow.”

But, when you are feeling depressed, your brain starts to process thoughts in an unhealthy way. “It keeps looping around the depressive matter, and on the other side some part of it also works to solve it. It’s a really burdening process that surely affects our physical condition. We [tend] to overthink.” 

Here’s how depression sufferers explain their fatigue linked to depression:

“It’s an energy thief. Little is known about how this happens, or even why, but it starts in the brain. For me, it dulls my emotions, my thinking, my natural enthusiasm for things I like to do, want to do, to the point where I can’t even remember that woman (me) who felt & thought like that. Depression brings on its own kind of pain in all forms, yes even physical, so that dullness I feel from my head to my toes makes me weary and sore. Then I try to sleep. Sleep is the Great Escape from the reality of living with depression. Because even when you’re awake, you don’t feel like doing much of anything other than what’s truly necessary [sic], ” says Maryjesse Johnston.

“Depression influences many aspects of your life. Personally, the amount of energy I expend completing everyday tasks is quite large. Getting out of bed, buying groceries, going to work, socialising. These are not things I do easily.  It requires a massive mental effort on my part to plan, rationalize and execute on these activities. Imagine a time, where you were so busy, so overwhelmed with work, errands, friends, and family that you wanted to walk away or scream or hide. Imagine a time where you were so overworked, so busy, so tired of everything you wanted to go home and sleep.  Imagine this is your life every day for a decade [sic],” explains Neil L Wilson.

4 ways to cope with fatigue and depression

• Eat a balanced diet
  Depression often affects a person’s appetite – either they eat too much or too little, which can have a knock on effect and cause fatigue. Ruth White, author of Preventing Bipolar Relapse, says, “Making sure I eat high-fuel foods throughout the day is a way to fight the inclination to skip meals, which would then make me more fatigued.” 
• Get as much rest as possible
  Make sure you practice good sleep hygiene. For author Therese Borchard that means going to bed at the same time every night, and getting up at the same time every morning. She also makes an effort for quiet time in the morning to pray, mediate or read – anything that helps put her mind at rest. A practical tips includes making sure your bedroom is quiet, dark and a comfortable temperature (not too hot or too cold).  
• Talk to your doctor
  Antidepressants are often a cause of fatigue related to depression. Speak to your doctor about finding a medication that makes you feel less tired or drowsy. Your doctor can also give you tips on how to cope with the fatigue.
• Get moving
  For Lucy Dimbylow, a writer and mother, who is outspoken about living with mental illness, her advice is to move a little. “Notice that I don’t say ‘get some exercise,’ because when you’re severely depressed, it’s next to impossible. But there’s a strong link between physical activity and improved sleep, so if you can, build a little movement into your day – even if it’s just walking to the end of the garden and back.” 

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Compiled by Mandy Freeman

It’s said that happiness is not having to set your alarm for the next day.

Well, if that’s the case then happiness comes at a hefty price because new research suggests sleeping for more than 10 hours carries health risks.

A recent study showed that shutting your eyes for more than 10 hours or less than six hours could increase the risk of an early death, Tech Times writes.

The Metro adds that people who sleep for 10 hours are 30% more likely to die prematurely than those who sleep for eight.

They also carry a 56% increased risk of death from a stroke and a 49% increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

And that’s not all.

More than 10 hours spent in a state of slumber carries the risk of an elevated waist circumference, high triglyceride (a type of fat) levels, low levels of “good” cholesterol, hypertension and high fasting blood sugar (which is referred to as metabolic syndrome).

The study, published in the BMC Public Health journal, was conducted on 133 608 participants aged between 40-69 years, News18 writes.

“This is the largest study examining a dose-response association between sleep duration and metabolic syndrome, and its components, separately for men and women,” lead author of the study, Claire E Kim from Seoul National University College of Medicine in South Korea says.

“We observed a potential gender difference between sleep duration and metabolic syndrome, with an association between metabolic syndrome and long sleep in women and metabolic syndrome and short sleep in men.”

On the other hand, getting less than six hours of sleep is associated with higher risk of metabolic syndrome in men and higher circumference among both men and women.

So how many hours do we actually need?                            

Well, according to the United States’ National Sleep Foundation it differs according to age.

A new born baby (0-3 months) = 14-17 hours

Infant (4-11 months) = 12-15 hours

Toddler (1-2 years) = 11-14 hours

Pre-school (3-5 years) = 10-13 hours

School age (6-13 years) = 9-11 hours

Teen (14-17 years) = 8-10 hours

Young adult (18-25 years) = 7-9 hours

Adult (26-64 years) = 7-9 hours

Older adult (65+) = 7-8 hours

SOURCES: THE METRO, TECH TIMES, NEWS18, NATIONAL SLEEP FOUNDATION

Kim Wendy Abrahams

While health experts advise people to stick to a healthy diet, the current economic climate is making this difficult for many.

Diana Mathekgane, 58, is unemployed and suffers from high blood pressure. Despite trying to stick to eat well, Mathekgane says she is finding it hard to do because of high food prices.

“Being unemployed is making it hard for me to stick to a healthy diet because healthy food such as vegetables are more expensive and I sometimes cannot afford them,” she said, adding that the takes her medication as prescribed and exercises regularly.

Free vegetables to poor

To make sure that community members eat fresh and affordable vegetables, Samuel Mabusela 63, founded Boikanyo Project in 2001 at Ivory Park, near Tembisa.

Mabusela and four others run a small farm which produces various vegetables such as spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, onions and cabbage. The produce is sold to the local community and supplied to local markets. The project also gives free vegetables to residents who cannot afford them.

“We try to make sure that residents, particularly those who are HIV positive or terminally ill eat healthy food, so we give our vegetables to them at no cost,” said Mabusela.

Being in a township where crime affects most residents, the project has been hit many times, especially when it comes to water supply.

According to Mabusela, the project received electricity supply from Eskom which was meant to keep their borehole running. But this was cut short when thieves stole their electricity meter box.

Better prices than supermarkets

“The theft of the meter box has been a setback because we now have to rely on our neighbours for water. We then have to pay them because they cannot give us water for free since it is an additional cost to them,” he said.

The project has however been given a lifeline through the Department of Agriculture’s initiative to assist small scale farmers by supplying them with fencing, tunnels and seedlings.

Mokgadi Mkansi, a 24-year old resident who frequently buys her vegetables from the Boikanyo Project, said, “I love buying here because their products are fresh and we get larger quantities.”

She also prefers buying from the project because she believes that their prices are better than those of supermarkets.

A bunch of spinach bought at Boikanyo Project costs R15, while cabbage can be bought for R10. Lettuce costs R5, and a plate of either 10 potatoes, tomatoes or onions can be bought for R5.

“All of our products are fresh and we encourage community members to come and support our business,” said Mabusela. – Health-e News.

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Marcia Moyana

The tests, which provide a result in 15 minutes, are going on sale in Superdrug stores across the UK.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists warns about low success rates and high costs.

The developing brain of a growing child has incredible ways of compensating for the loss of an essential brain region, a new case study shows.

A young boy has retained his ability to recognize faces even though surgeons removed one-sixth of his brain, including the region that normally handles that task, his doctors said.

Essentially, the other side of the 10-year-old’s brain has shouldered the added burden of facial recognition on top of its normal duties, in an astounding feat of adaptation.

Even more compelling, the boy’s intellect, visual perception and object recognition skills have all remained age-appropriate, even with a large portion of his brain gone.

“In a child’s brain, there is the potential for this kind of reorganization and recovery,” said senior researcher Marlene Behrmann, a professor with Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition. “A child’s brain is still undergoing dynamic change. It can find these novel solutions.”

The study was published in the journal Cell Reports.

Cure came at a cost

Four years ago, surgeons operated on the boy’s brain to stop his terrible and uncontrolled epileptic seizures.

The 6-year-old boy had a benign brain tumour in his right occipital lobe, which processes information related to the left visual field, Behrmann said. The tumour had caused epileptic seizures from age four, and no medication could control the seizures.

Doctors worried that if left unchecked, the seizures could harm brain development and potentially threaten of the life of the boy, a bright and curious kid referred to as “U.D.” in the case report.

To stop the seizures, doctors removed the right occipital lobe, essentially taking away a third of the right hemisphere of his brain.

The cure worked, but it came at a cost.

A lot was lost

The boy permanently lost his ability to see anything within his left visual field. The world to the left of his nose simply isn’t there.

“When that part of the brain is removed, there is no receiving area for information coming from the left visual field and it’s lost,” Behrmann said. “That is a sad finding from this case.”

Doctors worried the boy also would lose his ability to recognize faces, a complex ability mainly governed by the right hemisphere of the brain in right-handed people.

It takes a lot of high-powered processing in the brain to perform complicated pattern recognition, such as distinguishing between different faces and different words, Behrmann said. Because of this, the brain divides up these responsibilities.

“In a typical right-handed individual, face recognition is done more by the right hemisphere than the left,” Behrmann said. “Both hemispheres participate, but the right hemisphere carries most of the burden of the skill. The left hemisphere is optimized for word recognition,” she added.

“The question we had is, now he doesn’t have the right hemisphere, what will the status of face recognition be? He doesn’t have that region that can acquire the skill to be an expert face recognizer like we all are,” Berhmann continued.

What was saved

Tracking U.D.’s progress through brain scans and behavioural tests, the doctors found that the boy’s brain had undertaken an amazing juggling act to make sure that he’d still be able to recognize faces.

The left hemisphere essentially jostled itself to make room for the duty of facial recognition, which wound up located right next to the area that normally handles word recognition, the findings showed.

“Because these are mature, complex skills that take time to acquire, it was still in the course of the acquisition and his brain could find a solution to accommodate both of them,” Behrmann said.

This sort of epilepsy brain surgery is rare, performed on only 4% to 6% of patients with epilepsy that doesn’t respond to any other treatments, the researchers said in background notes.

The surgery completely eliminates seizures for 60% to 70% of children who have it done, but parents are understandably worried about what abilities their child will lose as a result, Behrmann said.

Young brains bounce back

But one expert said the report showed the resilience of the young brain.

This study shows that “plasticity is real. Plasticity is key – your brain’s golden art of adaptation,” said Dr Steven Wolf, an associate professor of neurology and paediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City.

“If we get to these kids when they’re young enough, before they lay their permanent pathways, the brain is plastic enough for it to adapt and to overcome,” said Wolf. His centre has performed the procedure around 500 times over the past decade.

“I have kids who recover brilliantly and ones that don’t recover so well, and I don’t know why one is different than the other, but I always tell parents to be optimistic, that there’s a lot of adaptability and plasticity going on there,” Wolf continued.

U.D.’s IQ is above average and his language skills age-appropriate, as they were before the surgery, while his test scores are proficient to advanced, doctors said. At school, he receives vision therapy and sits on the left side of classrooms to allow him to take in more of the scene.

Adults retain some of this plasticity, as seen in stroke victims who recover abilities initially lost to their illness, Wolf and Behrmann said.

But children’s brains are much more malleable because they are still developing, Behrmann pointed out.

“We know a child’s brain has much more potential for plasticity, is much more malleable than the adult brain,” Behrmann said. “In the adult brain, all the circuits and all of the regions have come to be optimized for their own function. This is good because in adults we want to have an organised brain so we can be very precise and competent.”

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Stuart Askew helped save his son’s life with a device which he had himself installed just two days previously.

California has been dealing with record breaking fires for the past month and they aren’t even halfway through their fire season. The Mendocino Complex eclipsed last year’s Thomas fire which burned 283,800 acres last December 2017 in Ventura and Santa Barbara. Besides the huge and horrifying Mendocino Complex, there are four other extremely large fires consuming large swaths of the state as well. The Carr fire, the Donnell fire and the Ferguson fire are all taking their toll on the state.

Trying to tackle climate change by replacing forests with crops for bioenergy power stations that capture carbon dioxide (CO₂) could instead increase the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere, scientists say.

Bird communities in the Mojave Desert straddling the California/Nevada border have collapsed over the past 100 years, most likely because of lower rainfall due to climate change, according to a new University of California, Berkeley, study.