Strange illness turns into zombie
Baku, November 11 (AZERTAC). Are we turning into a nation of exhaustion zombies? Doctors are reporting epidemics of exotic-sounding, self-diagnosed illnesses whose core symptom is constant tiredness.
A host of new conditions with names such as adrenal fatigue, candidiasis, under-active thyroid and even 'low blood PH' are being popularized by celebrities and 'check yourself' websites.
So many patients are turning up at their GPs complaining of fatigue that doctors have invented an acronym for their woes: TATT — or 'tired all the time'. Studies show, however, that only around one in five of these patients actually has an identifiable physical illness.
Leading experts have another, simpler, explanation for our growing malaise: we're suffering from 'electronic insomnia'. We need to switch off our smartphones, laptops and other gadgets at night and get some proper sleep, lest we really do develop serious illnesses.
Many 'tired all the time' patients whose GPs say there is nothing wrong with them go on the internet or look to the celebrity world to find an explanation for their fatigue. They don`t have to go far.
UK doctors have reported an alarming rise in people self-diagnosing with this particular ailment. An editorial in the British Medical Journal has raised fears about a rise in misdiagnosis of hypothyroidism, with patients increasingly seeking access to non-standard treatments and unregulated alternative practitioners.
The internet is awash with self-testing websites — the website candidatest.co.uk, for example, offers a 'full screening test' for 'candidiasis hypersensitivity'.
The condition is said to affect thousands of westerners whose adrenal glands have been 'worn out' by the stresses of modern life. Symptoms are said to include tiredness, sleep problems, digestive upsets, nervousness, and aches and pains. But medical experts say the illness simply does not exist.
John Wass, professor of endocrinology at Oxford University, is seeing growing numbers of patients referred to him for testing by private doctors who have diagnosed adrenal fatigue.
'Adrenal fatigue is not a diagnosis that is accepted by qualified endocrinologists,' he says. 'When I test these patients' blood, there is nothing to indicate that there is anything wrong with them or their adrenal glands,' he says.
A survey of 6,000 adults by researchers at Cambridge University Hospitals found that, just before they turn in, more than 70 per cent of adults now go online to update social networking sites, send messages and check celebrity gossip.
Millions of us leave our smartphones on at night , according to a survey by the bedmaker Silentnight. But being exposed to bright light from computer and mobile phone screens while in bed can confuse our body clock, delaying the brain`s ability to get to sleep.
On top of this electronic insomnia, a number of other lifestyle factors can exacerbate the problem. These include our workaholic culture (we are up at the top of Europe`s long-hours league, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), junk-food diets, and a lack of exercise.
Professor Jim Horne, the director of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University, echoes the call for a ban on electronic gadgets at bedtime. The answer, he says, is to rely on an older form of technology at bedtime: the printed word.
'It is old-fashioned but it works: read a book in bed — this will help you to conk out naturally.'
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