About Fatigue

In French, the same word – fatigue – is used to talk about phenomena as different as the acute fatigue of the athlete (figure A below) but also about the chronic fatigue of a patient (figure B) suffering from cancer for example. Obviously, there are many differences between these two situations that are reflected in English (fatigability for acute fatigue and fatigue for chronic fatigue). We are not talking about the same thing, the causes of fatigue are different in the two cases and, above all, athletes choose fatigue while patients suffer from it.

Figure A: What factors determine the athlete’s fatigue?

Figure B: Different reasons why a person may feel tired on a daily basis. Our example is that of a person who is in remission from cancer.

Actually, everything about fatigue is complicated and as soon as you take 5 minutes to think about fatigue, many questions arise.

> What is the relationship between objective, scientifically measurable fatigue and perceived fatigue?
> What is this feeling that we are not functioning optimally?
> What is the link between fatigue and pain? Or between fatigue and depression?

These few questions show to what extent fatigue is a complex phenomenon. Even if we limit ourselves to the fatigue of the athlete, the subject is vast. And if we take a look at chronic fatigue, it is even more vast. But that does not mean that we must give up trying to better understand fatigue in order to fight it more effectively.

The ActiFS Chair was created to tackle this challenge. Enjoy your visit!

Please, feel free to relate your experience of fatigue by clicking on Contact (contact @ actifs.eu)