Special Report: Energy Crisis

Having trouble getting out of bed? Wish you could put your head down on your desk for some shut-eye after lunch? You're certainly not alone ‑- "energy" is at the top of the list of frequently used search words at iVillage.com. In this roundtable discussion, four experts from four distinct disciplines share their views on why Americans are suffering an energy crisis, and what we can do to relax, rejuvenate and renew.

In your experience, what is the number-one cause of fatigue?

Joan Borysenko, PhD, Psychologist: People are so busy they don't sleep enough. We are an incredibly sleep deprived nation. And we're losing out on sleep because we shortchange ourselves to give to others. Then we end up exhausted and trying to do for others from a depleted place.

Elizabeth Somer, MS, RD, Registered Dietician: Several things contribute to fatigue, but the first thing is eating erratically. By that I mean skipping meals, especially breakfast, and taking in too much sugar and caffeine. When you skip breakfast, you are much more likely to battle physical and mental fatigue during the day. If you grab a doughnut, a Pop Tart or a cup of coffee, you feel good temporarily, but then your energy takes a nosedive. I have also learned that people who are tired all the time are often just dehydrated. The first symptom of dehydration is fatigue.

Kenneth Cohen, Qigong Scholar and Teacher: A lack of downtime. Society today believes that people need to be constantly productive. Our bodies are in overdrive. Our stress response has become chronic. Our ancestors would have brief periods of nervous-system overdrive when they encountered danger. Today, the stresses never seem to disappear. The residual effects of stress ‑- low energy, nonrestorative sleep, libido that's too high or too low and anxiety disorders ‑- are epidemic in the U.S.

Mark Hyman, MD, Holistic Doctor: People don't realize that food and energy are connected. I recommend people look carefully at how they nourish themselves on a physical and a spiritual level. Caffeine, sugar, alcohol, trans fats and processed foods are all energy depleting. Sugar particularly depletes your energy because it raises insulin levels, and blood sugar goes up and down, causing fluctuation of energy. It creates insulin resistance, a big problem that affects conservatively 50 to 100 million Americans. The symptoms are feeling hungry all the time, craving carbs or sweets, gaining weight around the middle and experiencing hypoglycemic symptoms ‑- shaking when you haven't eaten for a while and irritability. It can lead to panic attacks, cognitive problems, memory deficit, risk of heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer's.

Are the causes different for women?

Joan Borysenko: For women, the biggest cause of fatigue is the inability to stay no. When we say yes to ourselves we feel guilty because we're going to have to say no to someone else. Out of compassion, we tend to give ourselves away to everybody else. You have to really learn to discern when you need to say no, because if you give any more of yourself away, you're going to start losing energy, losing focus and making yourself crazy. Women need to understand clearly the difference between compassion and codependence. You can't solve other people's life problems by continuing to give to them. If they can't stand on their own two feet, your picking up the pieces for them is going to disempower them. That distinction is not pre-wired. It has to be learned.

Elizabeth Somer: Women tend to battle sugar cravings more than men. Women are also more tuned in to their bodies' feelings and energy levels. Men can eat junk ‑- they just don't realize it's affecting them as much. Men also eat more so they are less likely to have deficiencies.

Depending on what study you read, anywhere from 20 to 80 percent of women in their menstrual years are iron deficient. They may not be anemic, but they're tired, they can't think, they're not sleeping well and they're more susceptible to colds. They reach for coffee but what they need is iron.

Kenneth Cohen: Just by virtue of their biology, women have always been more attuned to slower and more natural cycles, so I think women are even more adversely affected by the pace of life today.

Mark Hyman: Women tend to have more carb problems, more thyroid problems and tend to be more sensitive to adrenal stresses. It's partly biological, but partly psychological. Women are more sensitive to their bodies, and when something's not working they tend to pay attention, whereas men will ignore symptoms until they're almost dead.

What simple things do you recommend for getting your energy back?

Joan Borysenko: From a spiritual point of view, we have to do more of what makes us feel connected and less of what makes us feel disconnected. My prescription is being out in nature. It's why I live on top of a mountain. We can't all live in a gorgeous place, but we can bring nature inside. Being close to natural beauty, even if it's a vase of flowers, has a way of restoring our energy.

You also have to be clear with your boundaries. What you hear on my answering machine is that you may hear back from me and you may not, it could take months and please don't take it personally. You have to tell people the truth about your life and let them deal with that accordingly.

Elizabeth Somer: Start eating breakfast, even if you're not hungry. You should be hungry in the morning ‑- it's been 8 to 12 hours since you ate. Eat every four or five hours throughout the day. Bring food with you so you don't end up at the vending machine. Combine quality carbs with a little bit of protein at every meal ‑- whole grain cereal with milk for breakfast, a bowl of vegetable soup and half a turkey sandwich at lunch, salmon, brown rice and a vegetable for dinner. Drink your water earlier in the day rather than later so you're not up all night running to the bathroom. Make sure that you get several sources of iron rich foods throughout the day, such as lean red meat, chicken, fish, cooked beans and peas. Satisfy your sweet tooth with fruit and other real foods ‑- for example, a dried, pitted prune with an almond inside tastes like a sweet, chewy candy bar. Quit drinking coffee after about one in the afternoon, because it may be interfering with your sleep, making you tired before you even get started. And try a solid, moderate-dose multivitamin and mineral supplement to fill the gaps on those days when you don't eat perfectly.

Kenneth Cohen: We can't control some things, like the pace of our life and the needs of our job, but we can change our reaction to them. I teach people how to relax. It sounds like a cliché, but it's not simple. In Chinese medicine there's a concept called "sinking and relaxing" that I teach my patients. When you are sitting at work or standing in line at the movies, imagine all tension in your body is flowing downstream like water on a hillside. Imagine the tension in your face and neck sinking down and out through the feet. Then focus on the tension in the shoulders, back, organs, hips, buttocks and thighs until you reach the feet.

Something else we can do to change our response to stress and make us feel more in control is to slow down our breathing. The average resting respiratory rate in the United States is 17 breaths per minute. The optimal rate of resting respiration is about seven breaths per minute. The best way to slow down the breath is with something called belly breathing. When you inhale, let the diaphragm drop and the belly move out as the air flows in. Allow it to happen very gently ‑ it's not something to force. When we let the belly expand, it may not look as good as our flat-belly-obsessed society would like, but our breathing is much deeper and slower. When our breathing slows, our pace slows, our stress hormones drop, and we eventually become more intuitive, creative and aware.

Mark Hyman: Change your diet. Cut out sugar, alcohol, caffeine and trans fats. Eat protein in the morning to reduce cravings for carbs later in the day. Eat more fiber, more omega-three fats, more whole foods and stop eating three hours before bed. You can see huge changes really quickly in terms of energy and weight loss. It's often dramatic.

Regular exercise is critical ‑- even just taking a walk ‑- and so is sleep. I can't tell you how many people who come to see me tell me they're tired. When I ask them how much they sleep, they say six hours. Take a good multivitamin to get over being nutritionally stressed. And finally, find ways to deal with stress, such as yoga, meditation or other mind-body therapies.

But the most important thing for people to realize is they need to listen to their body, even when they don't like what it is saying. When you're tired, pay attention and do whatever you need to feel better. We have a biological need for periods of rest and restoration. I encourage people not to see it as a lack of productivity but as essential to their productivity.

What do you do when your own energy is flagging?

Joan Borysenko: I go for a walk outside. If it's in the middle of a busy workday, you will often find me taking a five-minute break, doing laps up and down my driveway. I also drink a bunch of water.

Elizabeth Somer: I eat regularly. There is also a type of fatigue I feel that's a bone-draining fatigue. When I feel that way I know I'm dehydrated. I drink three or four glasses of water and wait an hour.

Kenneth Cohen: I do tai chi. It doesn't take a lot of energy to do, but it gives you a lot of energy back. I also like to go out into nature. If my energy gets low, just being outside in natural sunlight is wonderful for restoring energy. I also listen to music that I feel is uplifting. I'm a Mozart fanatic.

Mark Hyman: I have a secret treatment I give myself that's phenomenally effective. I take a steam shower, very hot, for 10 minutes. Then I fill the tub with really cold water and sit in the tub. It brings me right back to where I was first thing in the morning. The process takes 15 minutes and I get about three or four hours of energy from it.

About the Panelists
Mark Hyman, MD, is a medical codirector of Canyon Ranch in the Berkshires and coauthor of Ultraprevention: The Six-Week Plan That Will Make You Healthy for Life. His Website is UltraPrevention.com.

Elizabeth Somer, MA, RD, is author of Nutrition for a Healthy Pregnancy, Food and Mood and coauthor of The Nutrition Desk Reference.

Kenneth Cohen has more than 35 years of experience as a scholar and practitioner of Chinese and Native American medicine. He is the author of The Way of Qigong, Honoring the Medicine and more than 200 journal articles. His Website is QiGongHealing.com.

Joan Borysenko, PhD, is cofounder and former director of the Mind-Body clinical programs and two Harvard Medical School training hospitals, and the best-selling author of Minding the Body, Mending the Mind. Her Website is JoanBorysenko.com.