Dear doctor,

I do heavy work, but do not feel tired at all. Sometimes I feel sickish, but recover quickly. Am I normal?

Joseph

Dear Joseph,

You have not mentioned your age. How many times every week or month do you feel sickish? Is it all throughout the day or some hours?

Does the feeling of being sickish come with any other problem like cold, cough, nausea, etc?

Sometimes one feels sickly due to mental stress or work of not being one’s liking. Even doing the same kind of work everyday can cause a feeling boredom and sickness. A short break from work and doing some creative work during your leisure time can help to solve this problem.

Lack of sleep is yet another reason when one feels sickly. This feeling can also occur due to chronic constipation, dyspepsia or after eating a very heavy meal. Skipping breakfast can also make one feel tired easily and sickish. Taking frequent small meals regularly, a balanced diet, adequate rest, and drinking much water will help in making one feel fresh and healthy all days.

Infections like recurrent malaria plus HIV cause ill health but there would be other associated features of the infection like fever and loss of appetite etc.

Endocrine disorders like hypothyroidism and diabetes decrease one’s vitality, making one feel sick and tired easily. But then it is usually persistent, unless the disorder is corrected by drugs. These problems can be detected by simple blood tests and are curable.

Dr Rachna Pande  is a specialist in internal medicine at Ruhengeri Hospital