breaks to sit or lie down may injure the Kidneys. Excessive mental work and straining of the
eyes at a computer monitor may weaken the Blood of both Heart and Liver. Mental work for
long hours under conditions of great stress combined with irregular eating may weaken the Yin
of both Stomach and Kidneys.
Physical Overexertion
This includes both overexertion in the course of work and excessive exercising or sporting
activities.
Excessive physical work without rest weakens the muscles and the Spleen. Excessive lifting
injures the Kidneys.
Excessive jogging damages the tendons leading, after some years, to deficiency of Liver Blood
or Liver-Yin and possible development of Liver-Wind. This would manifest with rigidity,
numbness and spasms of the legs.
Diet
Improper diet is of course a very important cause of chronic tiredness. Irregular eating directly
weakens the Stomach and Spleen and therefore very easily leads to chronic tiredness since the
Stomach and Spleen are the origin of Qi and Blood.
First of all, slimming diets can lead to malnourishment of the body and obviously to tiredness by
damaging the Spleen. In extreme cases they lead to anorexia which is, of course, a very severe
case of chronic tiredness (apart from its obvious psychological implications).
Eating too much can also lead to chronic tiredness as it puts a strain on the Stomach and Spleen
and causes retention of food.
Irregular eating habits are another very frequent cause of weakening of Stomach and Spleen:
eating too late at night, eating in a hurry, discussing business while eating, reading while eating,
having a "quick bite" standing up, going straight back to work after eating, eating too fast, eating
in a state of emotional upset, etc. All these conditions weaken Stomach-Qi and, in the long run,
Stomach-Yin.
Any imbalance in the type of food eaten can also weaken the Spleen and Stomach. Excessive
consumption of cold-raw foods weakens Spleen-Yang, eating too much meat, spicy foods and
alcohol leads to Stomach-Heat, eating too many sour foods (such as vinegar, yoghurt, sour
apples, grapefruit, oranges, pickles) can stir up Liver-Yang, excessive consumption of dairy
foods leads to Damp Phlegm, eating too much fried and greasy food leads to Damp-Heat. The
first condition (Spleen-Yang deficiency) is a very frequent deficiency-cause of chronic tiredness.