Fatigue

It might be easy to label fatigue as a lack of energy. However, if fatigue were this simple, using energy boosters and B12 supplements would help you more easily conquer your day. In reality, these commonly touted options leave much to be desired. The most common reason is that fatigue is not merely a loss of energy. Such an approach is too generic. Rather, fatigue is your body’s expression of the detrimental effects of toxicities and deficiencies.

Deficiencies are the loss of key substances that the body depends on. Without them, body function is impaired, including your ability to produce energy molecules, often know as ATP. ATP is the most desirable compound to overcoming fatigue. You have to routinely produce enough of it. That means not producing enough is definitely associated with your fatigue. Deficiencies in nutrients, hormones and neurotransmitters all equally affect ATP production.

Toxicity is a common cause of deficiencies. We live in an ever-increasing toxic environment. As toxicity increases, fewer of the key ATP producing nutrients are available. Toxicity comes at us from all directions. The food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe. What’s worse is that most don’t even realize they are toxic, and becoming more toxic daily. Toxins come in the form of chemicals, metals and infections and can ravage our ATP energy producing systems.

Symptoms of Fatigue

Nothing is more frustrating than dealing with fatigue. It is the most illusive symptom to mainstream medicine. It is not a disease, so there is not a medicine or procedure for it. But anyone dealing with fatigue will easily argue that they are not optimal either. This is the frustration of fatigue. Left in a place of sub-optimal health with no answers. Most suffers of fatigue never find the reason they have it. This is why so many just give up on finding solutions. Frankly it is easier than continuing to hear nothing is wrong, when you now it is. Worse yet, being told it could be in your head.

This was Pauline. For years, Pauline was a multi-task master. She juggled home, husband, kids and work. She exemplified the term professional in all aspects of her life. Sure, she felt a little fatigue from time to time, but who doesn’t she thought. For her, retirement was not far away and if she could just hold out, she could finally get some well-deserved rest and wave good bye to fatigue permanently. Unfortunately, this did not become reality. Rest she was able to achieve, yet more energy she was not.

After long nights of sleep, Pauline woke up expecting to feel more energetic, only to be disappointed by the drudgery of another day of heavy eyes, lackluster motivation and a lingering to do list. There had to be answers for what she was experiencing. How could someone so productive in the past be facing persistent, unrelenting fatigue. She saw the best local doctors, followed up on referrals to renowned specialists, and still was no closer to an answer than when she started her journey.

Why am I so Tired?

“Why am I so Tired?” Pauline asked herself this every day. Chances are you have asked the exact same question. Did you ever stop to really ask, “why am I so tired?” Not how to get past the fatigue, but why your fatigue is actually present. This is the real question. Too many are looking for the solution. However, knowing the cause gives the solution. Applying “solutions”, better stated band aids, to an unknown cause never produces results and leaves you feeling the fatigue of frustration.

Herein lies hope though. “Why am I so tired?” does not have to become your daily motto. The causes of fatigue become more apparent with acceptance that between optimal health and disease lies dysfunction. The first sign of dysfunction is often fatigue. Dysfunction is not without cause. Just the opposite is true. The causes of dysfunction are well known and addressing them can make fatigue a memory.

Deficiencies are the number one cause of fatigue. We all know that if a car runs out of gas, it will not move. We might call this a “gasoline deficiency”. It impaired the function of the car. What if you ran out of gas? The substances that keep you going are nutrients, hormones and neurotransmitters. And when any of these are insufficient, well you are as productive as a car without gas and fully embracing fatigue.

It might seem unreasonable to think that you are plagued with nutrient deficiencies. Nutrients are vitamins, minerals and metabolites that humans cannot do without. They should be found in the diet, but far too often poor food choices and lack of nutrient dense food open the door for nutrient deficiencies. The more nutrient deficiencies you accumulate, the harder it is to produce energy. Though you don’t see nutrients when you eat food, they are at the core of overcoming fatigue. Trying to increase energy without knowing your nutrient levels is simply wasting time and efforts.

Yet, nutrient deficiencies are not the only limiting factor for energy production. You could be missing others as well. This is especially true for hormones. Hormones are long-acting chemical messengers. They tell the body how to produce energy over a long time frame. When you are missing hormones, you feel it. Waking up in the morning tired and having your energy nose-dive in the afternoon are the direct result of insufficient hormones. And just like with nutrients, the more deficiencies you have, the worse you feel.

What about the short-acting chemical messengers? If hormones are long-acting, there must be a short-acting. Indeed, there is and we call them neurotransmitters. Low neurotransmitters are the true neurological cause for fatigue. Deficiencies drain you physically and emotionally. The reduction in motivation that accompanies fatigue arises from low neurotransmitters. It can even be linked to low thyroid function as a cause of fatigue. Correcting these deficiencies can be one of the fastest ways to more sustained energy.

Not all causes of fatigue are the result of deficiencies. Some are related to excesses, better viewed as toxicities. The air we breathe, the water we drink and especially the food we eat are heavily toxic. The biggest concern with toxins is that they like to accumulate. Worse yet, the collection of toxins has an exponential effect. Small levels are less noticeable. Large levels are down right poison. They pollute the energy production systems. Damage can be permanent if not caught in time.

When we think of toxins, we often think of outside sources. Chemicals and metals come to mind. Yet not all toxins are from the outside. Some are from within. Infections and overgrowths are common causes of fatigue. The effort spent battling bacteria and fungus take a tool on our energy. It is one of the reasons we feel so drained when sick. In addition, the byproducts of these organisms create a continuous stream of toxins. Between the bugs and their toxins, efforts to resolve fatigue must look for these energy zappers.

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Tips for Managing Fatigue

Knowing that there are multiple causes of fatigue may make it seem difficult to know where to start. Yes, it is true that each individual will have their own combination of reasons they struggle with fatigue. However, this does not mean that there are not some consistencies. In fact, the first steps to overcoming fatigue should be similar for everyone as they create the foundation to address deficiencies and toxicities.

Create Patterns

The sun rises and sets every day. It is probably the most consistent pattern in nature. Your body reacts to sunlight. It provides a natural stimulus that sets the rhythm of your hormones and neurotransmitters. When we stay up late and rise well after the sun has risen, we are forcing our hormones to perform outside of their normal pattern. Within time, these compensations take their tool leaving a trail of deficiencies in their wake. Getting sleep at the right time is as important as getting the right amount of sleep.

Make Great Food Choices

It is not acceptable to make a good food choice. It has to be great. Poor food choices are the cause of many a day of lost productivity due to fatigue. When you compromise your food choice, you are wasting the most precious resource for creating sustainable energy. What constitutes a great food choice? First, it has to free of toxic chemicals. But this is just the start. It should also be extremely nutrient dense. And if it is rich in bright, vibrant colors, that makes it an even better choice. Therefore, whenever possible, always choose organic vegetables that are in season. If you can purchase from a local farmers market, your chance of making a great food choice drastically improved.

Be Accountable

Being accountable is a key to success in almost anything. Overcoming fatigue is not going to happen from a single action. Rather, it is a combination of actions. Initially these can seem more of a challenge to incorporate than they really are. It is important to have someone to be accountable to during this time. A family member or health professional can be an excellent option. Having someone keep you accountable will generate small successes leading to improved energy.

When Is It Time to Get Help?

Despite the best-intentioned efforts, if you are not seeing results trying to overcome fatigue, it is time to seek the help of a professional. You will often know when you reached that point. The frustration continues to increase. You are not getting the things you need to done each day. You wake up wondering if today is going to be different, but deep inside you know it will not. When you have reached this point, it is time to take a different approach. It is time to more deeply investigate the deficiencies and toxicities that are known to cause fatigue.

Remember Pauline? She had reached her breaking point dealing with fatigue. She was ready to not wake up in the morning or go through her day asking, “why am I so tired?” So here is what she did. She came to me ready for a different approach. When I asked her if she was ready to change the way she thought about her fatigue, she was onboard. Now it was time to put together a plan. But the plan had to be solid. It required Pauline implementing the very same tips I shared with you. I didn’t stop here with her though. We dug deeper into her deficiencies and toxicities.

To take a deeper look we employed laboratory testing. This allowed me to hone in specific nutrients and hormones to replete. Not to take a “stab in the dark” at what she needed, but to nail it the first time. Blood tests allowed Pauline to know the exact nutrients to consume, how to match this to her hormones and neurotransmitters. At the same time, so as to maximize the speed of recovery, she also performed testing to assess her gastrointestinal tract for infections and overgrowths. After finding the exact bugs to eliminate, I showed Pauline how to maximize her detoxification ability and eliminate the toxins that had been stealing her energy for too long.

In total, Pauline implemented the core tips for managing fatigue, she decided to work with a professional and stop guessing and get answers, she performed functional testing that previous doctors never offered and she followed up with a custom-tailored protocol to replace deficiencies and eliminate toxicities.

Now you may be thinking, well that was Pauline. That will not work the same way for me. You know what, you are right. It won’t. It is not exclusive to Pauline. In fact, Pauline is just one of numerous patients that I work with on a daily basis that I have helped overcome fatigue. What Pauline and others had was a commitment that they were going to do something different. They were going to find out exactly what their body needed with laboratory tests, work with a professional to correct it and see the process through. And as Pauline and others will attest, it is only once you commit to this that you are going to see results and overcome your fatigue.