Link between a history of undernourishment and chronic fatigue?

October 12, 2024 12:01 PM

Is there research on the possibility of chronic undernourishment paired with exercise, resulting in major weight loss, leading to long-term fatigue or ME-CFS? The theory would be that if you are expending a lot more calories than you are taking in, your body will make you feel tired to stop weight loss. If this happens over and over, it might preemptively make you tired whenever you burn even a small amount of energy through exercise. Especially if you are exercising on an empty stomach or even slightly low blood sugar.

I have gastroparesis and have gone through periods of major weight loss caused by undernourishment paired with exercise and laxatives. Not purposely losing weight, but by chance doing all the things to lose it. Now I have chronic fatigue and cannot figure out what is causing it. It might be Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM), but it is hard to say for sure if it is brought on by exertion or not.

I might ask a more specific 'why am I tired' question later, but in case you are curious what I have tried: I have moderate sleep apnea, but the CPAP does not help my energy much even though it sends data to my doctor saying that it is working. I have had an EEG, EMG, and Brain MRI. I’ve had blood tests for anemia (CBC), low thyroid (TSH), Lyme, liver issues, B12 deficiency, Vitamin D deficiency, celiac (HLA), mono, and others. I have had borderline low testosterone but I took clomiphene for it and it raised my testosterone but not my energy. I’ve been to neurologists including a neuropsychiatrist, and had a neuropsychological evaluation (I’m close to the autism spectrum but not on it). I have also tried talk therapy, group therapy, all the antidepressants, TMS, and Ketamine for depression and anxiety.

posted by catquas to Health & Fitness (3 answers total)

For research purposes, you might try looking at “chronic fatigue eating disorder,” since people with an ED have experienced long periods of malnutrition. This is an abstract from one paper but it might be enough to get you started.
posted by corey flood at 12:10 PM on October 12

There's a small chance that this article on overtraining syndrome could be relevant.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 7:08 PM on October 12

Gastroparesis is common with ME/CFS, but I'm unaware of any research showing a casual relationship in that direction. Is it possible that both are caused by the same thing for you? For example, one COVID infection caused the gastroparesis and a second one caused the fatigue? Or a COVID infection caused both but the fatigue wasn't noticeable or didn't manifest until later?

I'm sorry you're dealing with these symptoms - I know doctors often aren't very helpful with this kind of thing. There are a ton of Facebook groups for these conditions, and you might find that your fellow patients have some good ideas for you.
posted by equipoise at 1:13 PM on October 13