Natural ways to treat fatigue

It's normal to feel tired after a long, strenuous work day. But if exhaustion is a constant companion, sapping your energy and your zest for life, it's time to do something about it.

Many people don't really wake up until after they drink their morning coffee. But unfortunately, coffee has only a short-term effect. Instead, do as your grandparents did — wake up, open your window wide and breathe in the fresh air. Get your circulation going with a couple of deep knee bends, move your arms in a circle and follow up with a healthy breakfast. If this approach doesn't energize you, here are a few other things to try.

• Alternate hot and cold water in your morning shower.
• Eat smaller, more frequent meals. After a big meal, high blood glucose levels can switch off the brain cells that keep you alert.
• If your fatigue is a result of ongoing physical or mental stress, get moving and take a walk. Exercise releases endorphins, the body's natural happy drugs, leaving you feel revitalized and happier.
• Drink 500 to 750 millilitres (two to three cups) each day of mistletoe, stinging nettle, ginger root or hawthorn tea. They're very stimulating.
• Try a little ginseng. Ginseng tea can reduce feelings of stress and anxiety and combat fatigue. Pour 250 millilitres (one cup) of boiling water over seven millilitres (1 1/2 teaspoons) of finely chopped ginseng. Let steep for 10 minutes and strain. Drink 500 millilitres (two cups) a day.
• Drink an energy potion. A trusted home remedy is molasses with cider vinegar. In a cup, stir together 10 millilitres (two teaspoons) of blackstrap molasses and 20 millilitres (four teaspoons) of apple cider vinegar. Then fill the cup with honey and mix. Take 10 millilitres (two teaspoons) when you get up in the morning and before you go to bed and five millilitres (one teaspoon) before both lunch and dinner.
• Brew a cup of tea made from Iceland moss (which you can find at health food stores). It can help fortify you when you're feeling pooped.
• Go herbal. For thousands of years, rosemary has been treasured for both its aroma and its medicinal effects. In 1603, its price shot sky-high because Londoners believed it could ward off the plague. That proved to be a myth, but when added to a cool, brief bath, rosemary can provide an effective remedy for fatigue and exhaustion. Alternatively, try spruce needles in your bathwater.
• Have a cold arm shower; it's a real picker-upper — especially if low blood pressure is causing your chronic fatigue. Here's how:

1. Direct a cold stream of water at the outside of your arm, moving slowly from the fingers of your right hand up to the shoulder.
2. Go back down with the water, this time on the inside of your arm.
3. Do the same with the left arm.

If you don't have much time, you can take a cold arm bath in a few seconds: just dip your arms up to the elbows in a sink filled with cold water.