Dalai Lama's Exhaustion: FAQ

Aug. 28, 2008 -- The Dalai Lama is in hospital in Mumbai, India with "abdominal discomfort ... and there is no cause for concern," Reuters reports, quoting a hospital spokesman who called the Dalai Lama "cheerful."

A statement posted on the Dalai Lama's official web site yesterday attributed the Dalai Lama's discomfort to "exhaustion" and said the Dalai Lama has cleared his schedule for the next three weeks while he undergoes more medical tests.

The brief statement reads, in full, "His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been experiencing some discomfort in the past couple of days. His personal physicians attributed this to exhaustion and have advised him to cancel his engagements for the time being and instead complete the remaining medical tests that began earlier this month in Mumbai [the Indian city formerly called Bombay]. It has therefore been decided that all his schedules for the next three weeks, including the visit to Mexico and the Dominican Republic, are being canceled with immediate effect."

That statement leaves a lot of questions unanswered, such as the type of discomfort the Dalai Lama -- who is 73 years old -- has been having, what medical tests he has already had, and what additional medical tests he will get in Mumbai.

Most people don't have the religious and political responsibilities of the Dalai Lama. But feeling run down and exhausted is common. Where is the line between feeling frayed by the daily grind and being so exhausted that you need medical attention? And when exhaustion sets in, what can you do about it?

For answers, WebMD spoke with two doctors: James Krainson, MD, of the South Florida Sleep Diagnostic Center in Miami, and Erika Hyde Riley, MD, an internal medicine practitioner at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

What is exhaustion and how does it differ from day-to-day tiredness?

Krainson distinguishes exhaustion from tiredness, with tiredness stemming from too little sleep and exhaustion tied to the muscles.

"Exhaustion and fatigue are typically problems that have to do with exertion," Krainson says. "If you feel as if you have to sit down to relax your muscles ... and you don't feel like moving or you can't move because your muscles are so fatigued that they have no further ability, then that's exhaustion," Krainson tells WebMD.

Riley also sees mental exhaustion as a real problem that's typically linked to overwork and sleep deprivation. Riley calls exhaustion an "extreme level of fatigue, an extreme level of tiredness."