Fatigue is a widespread and complex
physiological phenomenon. Chronic
fatigue can
lead to cardiovascular dysfunction,
mental disorders and other serious pathological reactions. Therefore, how to relieve
fatigue accurately and effectively is an important proposition to implement the concept of "Healthy
China" in the new era. As an important part of
Chinese medicine health industry,
Chinese medicine health food has been developing rapidly in recent years. At present, there are 1 157 kinds of anti-
fatigue health food on the market in
China, most of which are single
Chinese medicine and its compound. However, their functions are generally labeled as "anti-
fatigue", and their function positioning is too extensive and unclear. With the deepened
understanding of
fatigue classification and its physiological and pathological basis, it is urgent to be combined with the progress of modern chemical and pharmacological stu-dies to differentiate and precisely position the anti-
fatigue health effects of
traditional Chinese medicine. For this purpose, the
classifications of
fatigue were summarized in this
paper, and the mechanism of
fatigue was explained from the aspects of
energy metabolism, accumulation of metabolites,
oxidative stress,
inflammation,
hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis and so on. We selected 10 traditional
Chinese medicines which are most frequently used in
health food, analyzed their anti-
fatigue effect mechanisms, and summarized the best types of anti-
fatigue food, so as to promote the scientific development of anti-
fatigue health food industry, expand the market application scope of anti-
fatigue health food, better respond to the
construction of a healthy
China and serve for people's
health.