Balin: Patients Compare Fatigue With Instagram Wellness — SkimNews
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- A 43-year-old patient told Balin she had lost 50 pounds and felt better overall, yet still lacked the stamina she had at 23, when she ran 5 miles a day; her labs, vital signs and exam were normal, and two jobs and three children left no time to exercise.
- Balin says she now regularly encounters patients who can function but believe they are not feeling the way a healthy person should; she identifies their underlying question as “Am I normal?”
- Medicine can investigate fatigue for sleep apnea, anemia, thyroid disorders and cancer, and the author says lives have been saved through that work; it still cannot answer how much wear ordinary living should produce.
- Beard named neurasthenia in 1869 as “nervous exhaustion,” encompassing fatigue, headaches, poor sleep, poor concentration and an inability to keep up with the pace of modern demands.
- Neurasthenia spread as people and doctors blamed railroads, radios, telegraphs, newspapers and industrialization for overwhelming them; Balin argues that its disappearance did not end the symptoms or concerns, which now carry labels including chronic fatigue syndrome, autonomic dysfunction and somatic disorder.
- Instagram wellness influencers supply the patient’s comparison point: red-light masks, vibration plates, green smoothies, 5-mile runs and curated dinners; Balin says the algorithm replaces peers as the yardstick and makes optimized perfection leave everyone seeming sick.
- Women patients have sometimes been told their symptoms were anxiety or menstruation, sometimes waiting years for further investigation and diagnosis; Balin warns that vague symptoms and medicine’s inability to explain them do not mean they are not suffering.
Why it matters: For Balin’s 43-year-old patient raising three children while working two jobs, clinicians need a practical distinction: investigate fatigue for sleep apnea, anemia, thyroid disease or cancer, then address sleep, exercise and life demands. The source also warns that reflexive dismissal has delayed recognition of genuine illness in women for years.
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