Asthenia for Patient Education

What is Asthenia?
The term asthenia refers to extreme muscle weakness and lack of energy. It is described as unusual fatigue without or before any effort. Reports state that it is a frequent cause occurring in almost 30% of ambulatory settings. And, 0.2-0.7% of these cases belong to the chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or systemic exercise intolerance disease (SEID). CFS is a serious debilitating disorder that may seriously affect the quality of one’s life causing long-term illness.
What are the Causes of Asthenia?
Asthenia may be caused by a number of factors and the most common ones are listed below:
Anxiety or depression - It is the main cause of fatigue and counts for almost half of the cases of Asthenia. In fact, in most of the cases it goes unrecognized and undiagnosed. It is mostly experienced by the individuals suffering from life-limiting illness. It interferes with a patient’s functional status and quality of life. Sedentary lifestyle - According to WHO, 60-85% of people in the world lack necessary amount of physical activity in their life. This state of inertia makes their muscles weaker.
Aging - With increasing age there is reduction in the ability of cells and tissues in the body to maintain homeostasis, and particularly when the person is under stress, symptoms of Asthenia are seen more often. Infections - Prolonged infection in the body such as tuberculosis, hepatitis, or infective endocarditis can cause this condition and have a debilitating effect on muscles.
Chronic diseases - Diseases like myasthenia gravis involves rapid, generalized weakness, and other chronic conditions like insomnia, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and cancer can also affect the quality of life.