Demi Moore may have exhaustion; is it a real medical condition?

Demi Moore isn’t the first celebrity to be hospitalized with what has been described in numerous media reports as exhaustion, and she won’t be the last. But is exhaustion a true medical condition, or a euphemism for something else?

It can be the real deal, says Dr. Kent Shoji, an emergency room physician at Marina del Rey Hospital. Think of it as an umbrella condition for a number of possible symptoms that cause the body (and sometimes the mind) to become completely run down, so much so that it requires a trip to the doctor or the ER.

“If you look at the body as a system,” he says, “any type of stressors that someone has to compensate for can really affect the overall well-being and health of an individual.”

Combine too little sleep and a bad diet with a lot of physical activity, then throw in some emotional difficulties such as job or family crises, and that can make you fatigued, wear down your immune system and render you more susceptible to things like colds and flu. It can all cascade from there, generating more symptoms that can eventually land you in the hospital with something as serious as a mini-stroke.

“In high-profile cases the press tends to focus on the psychological aspects, but there is a physical component to it as well,” Shoji said. “You can get dehydrated, causing a lot of bodily functions not to operate as efficiently as they should.”

And yes, he has seen non-celeb types at the ER suffering from various symptoms brought on by exhaustion. We just don’t hear about them because the patients are not in the public eye.

“Here at the ER we have taken care of people who work two jobs, they have a new kid, and then something else happens, like a relative dies or their water heater breaks -- it could be minor to someone else, but for them it’s the tipping point that’s enough to make them really sick.”

He added, “I’ve seen people who normally are relatively healthy be under tremendous stress, and that affects their heart, their blood pressure can go up, and their kidney functions can be affected.”

If you think you may be suffering from exhaustion, what signs should you look for, short of passing out? Symptoms could include feeling disoriented, having trouble concentrating, and not being able to do basic tasks such as eating and getting dressed.

While it’s difficult at times to take care of ourselves the way we should, Shoji said that during stressful periods it’s important to try to stay hydrated, eat well and get enough sleep. That can be tough, he says, when society tells us to just guzzle a lot of coffee and keep going. “Everybody has a different tolerance for stress,” he said, “but everyone also has a breaking point.”