26 Mar : Often feel tired? Make sure you visit a doctor, for a new study has suggested it could be due to the prevalence of anergia, is lack of energy in people with failing hearts.
In fact, with the help of a non-invasive method of monitoring human activity, researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have shed new light on anergia, a syndrome that affects 40 per cent of older adults with heart failure, the ‘Journal of Cardiac Failure’ reported.
"Fatigue has been shown to have independent long- term prognostic implications in patients with heart failure, suggesting that fatigue needs to be effectively evaluated not only because symptom alleviation is a target for treatment, but also because of the potential for the treatment of fatigue to influence the prognosis in patients with heart failure," according to the researchers.
As part of the nine-month prospective cohort study, heart failure patients were provided an actigraph — a device worn on the wrist like a watch that was used to assess physical activity, energy expenditures and sleep by measuring and recording limb movement.
Participants were instructed to wear it continuously on their non-dominant wrist for the nine months of the study.