Fatigue: Why Are You Tired All the Time?
We’re a culture of tired and stressed people. What’s the typical response when you ask someone how they are doing? They reply “I’m tired,” or “I’m busy.” Why are we all so tired all the time? Yes, life is busy and stressful, but there are many factors contributing to our fatigue, some of which may not be obvious.
On this week’s episode we speak about eight common reasons people may be experiencing fatigue. Lack of sleep is the obvious answer, but environmental factors, medications and physical dysfunction can all play a role in our sluggishness. Listen in as we offer up some simple ways for you to live your best.
Some Topics We Discussed:
What is fatigue and why do we feel it often? (1:33)
What are the primary causes of day to day fatigue and what can we do to help fight back naturally? (6:24)
How does thyroid function affect fatigue? (22:03)
Key Takeaways From This Episode:
Chronic fatigue is different from the day to day fatigue that many of us face. (2:11)
Omega-3 levels play an important role in your ability to have sustained energy because they impact so much of our overall body function. (12:24)
Excess carbohydrate and sugar consumption play a huge factor in fluctuating energy levels. (16:08)
Products & Resources:
Thank you to this episode’s sponsor: Natural Factors
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Brian Strickland 00:43 What's going on everyone? Welcome to a another episode of the Holistic Navigator Podcast, where we believe in the body's ability to heal itself. I'm Brian Strickland, the producer of the show, and I'm joined today, as always with Mr. Ed Jones. Ed, how are we doing today?
Ed Jones 00:59 You know, some days you're rocking on with all cylinders and some days you don't but today is the all 12 cylinder machine. Because I had a wonderful breakfast of my magic super drink. Then I had some 85% chocolate, apple cider vinegar, a one hour workout at the gym and one hour of reading at Starbucks. So I am rocking and rolling.
Brian Strickland 01:22 Alright, well, that's a lot of you to get accomplished in the morning. What time did you wake up?
Ed Jones 01:26 I get up every day about 5:05.
Brian Strickland 01:30 That's a little early for my blood.
Ed Jones 01:31 Oh, come on.
Brian Strickland 01:33 Alright guys. Well, today we have another important topic, it seems that more and more people complain about being tired. Everyone seems to suffer from fatigue and adrenal dysfunction and stress. And so we wanted to take a little time today and talk about what are the common causes and some natural solutions to help combat fatigue. So without further delay, let's go ahead and dive right into this conversation. And, Ed, if you could get us started? Could you just start by defining fatigue, and how your perception is actually different from maybe the common definition?
Ed Jones 02:11 Yes, and thank you, Brian, for that. You know, we all know the feeling of fatigue. But the topic today we're going to digest is the kind of fatigue that is uncalled for. And it's really not defined as to why am I feeling so unable to function to the level of capacity that I used to function. And it is different than the word chronic fatigue. Chronic Fatigue is more of an autoimmune and has many other issues that we actually Brian will be doing a podcast solely on chronic fatigue. But today, I want to talk about the epidemic that is of course everywhere. If you don't believe it, just watch Starbucks was they line up because that's, you know, where people is so many things to try to make wrong choices. But the fatigue where, you know, you just literally could go back to home, crawl on the couch and not move for hours. Despite the fact that you're in the sunlight. You're you're in the normal day to day activity. But you're struggling, you're dragging it's like you're you have a chain around you and you have a tower and you're trying to pull it every single hour. Many people this fatigue does come and go down. I'm not talking in all day fatigue. And it is normal to have those wanes and ebbs and flows. But I'm talking about the type and it's kind of just this abling and you know, when you're really tired, life doesn't have the spark, and it doesn't have the delight that it it would when you're feeling like you're running on all 12 cylinders.
Brian Strickland 03:50 So what would you say would be the difference between just regular fatigue and chronic fatigue?
Ed Jones 03:57 Well, chronic fatigue does have the aspect of course being very tired and fatigued. But the issue with chronic fatigue is you normally have two other issues going on. And because it is an autoimmune type of issue, you're going to have a number of pains that are chronic within your body. Very, very sensitive to some people and sometimes the pain itself can be disabling. And the other issue is you almost always if you have chronic fatigue will have insomnia and either depression and anxiety they all come packaged together. So many of us can be tired and fatigued but we're not depressed. Many of us can be fatigued and not have these joint pains and muscle pains. So again, you know, finding the right health professional to kind of go through this with you is important. But you know, I think we all have a good understanding of what the daily grind and the daily life that can pull us down into the normal fatigue we're talking about because chronic Fatigue and fatigue is totally two different subjects.
Brian Strickland 05:04 Right. And so our focus today really is just kind of on the day to day fatigue, not necessarily the chronic fatigue. But just so people know, I mean, chronic fatigue is, I mean, I would say that it's something that affects a good amount of people. So what what would be some of the common causes of chronic fatigue before we move on?
Ed Jones 05:25 Now you're talking about chronic fatigue, the autoimmune chronic fatigue, or Yeah, it's there's a lot of unknown about chronic fatigue the auto immune component, because when you deal with autoimmune, and again, I'm, I go back to the observations that I've had in 40 plus years, the gut is the absolute pivotal point of causing the immune system to attack its own body. And we did a great podcast with Meredith Mason, the nurse practitioner on leaky gut, anyone who has chronic fatigue needs to go back to that and listen to this podcast. Because you cannot address leaky gut by just eating healthy, you cannot address it by just taking glutamine, you have to be on a certain protocol to to straighten this immune system back out. And so Chronic Fatigue is a different animal than the fatigue we will be discussing today.
Brian Strickland 06:23 All right, for those who are just having some fatigue issues in their day to day life. Let's talk about some of the common causes. I know you have a list of eight items that you really believe that can be attributed to the daily sluggishness that so many people feel these include lack of sleep, adrenal fatigue, depression, blood sugar imbalances, diet and nutrition, thyroid dysfunction, EMF and medications. So let's go ahead and circle back around to that first one lack of sleep or poor quality sleep, because I think it's, it's important to differentiate between the two, right? So people can be getting eight hours of sleep and getting really poor quality eight hours asleep, and it can have the same effect. Is that correct?
Ed Jones 07:11 Well, and I appreciate that question. It does define it better, because there are people who are sleeping, well, they just go to bed too late, and they get up too early, that, of course, will still cause the fatigue. And that's a far easier solution to come to because common sense says, you know, do whatever you need to do to rearrange your sleep schedule, so you get home earlier, or do whatever or sleep later. But we both know, and I think anyone who is around or has gotten 25 years old or older almost realizes there's some nights, it doesn't matter what you do, you're in that half sleep half awake. And you can tell it's not restorative sleep, you know, we had these stages of sleep, the alpha and the beta, and you have to get in REM sleep, which is the rapid eye movement in order for the brain to actually clean out his garbage. Now, there are so many issues to this sleep, and we can't delve into it here because we've actually already done a podcast on sleep that I would highly recommend you to listen.
Brian Strickland 08:17 Let's move on to adrenal fatigue. So what are what are some natural options or supplements that people can stick with or even lifestyle changes to help combat adrenal fatigue?
Ed Jones 08:29 You know, the question begs itself, okay, before I even get into what are the holistic options, what really causes of green overtake? Why would a gland like the adrenals that produce cortisol and produce adrenaline and have these 50 hormones? Why do they get weak? Well, we can go back to a lot of reasons. Again, lack of sleep, too many carbs. Not enough omega three fatty acids is one word, but the biggest thing is would be like taking, if we're back in the farming days, and you work the fields every day. And it's the middle of summer, and you got this really fantastic donkey and or mule, and they're your machine that you're going to use to plow the fields because this is back in the old days. And that mule, you're pushing him and he's just drinking water, and he's eating some food, but he starts getting really tired. And what do you do, you have two choices, you can let them you'll rest, give him some good nutrition with food and water. And when he's ready, he'll get back up and plow the field. Or you can get a little whip out, kind of snap it right on his butt a couple times. He's going to perk up he's going to keep going won't hurt that noodle at all. For a few days or a few weeks. You keep doing that. The mule will finally start just finding it in lie down. And then you'll whip him really hard to get him up. And finally the meal is just going to fall over. He cannot be pushed past a certain point. we as Americans are Freaking weapon ourself with guess what number one is caffeine 200-300 milligrams, the big Starbucks cups, plus loaded with sugar and Red Bulls, Mountain Dews. Those are the things that people are using in order to whip themselves back into the frame of physical stamina to get the job done. And again, we can do that for a bit. Now, the the one particular product, if there is any, that I am hugely devoted to, and I rarely mentioned companies, but in this case on on this I will is made by a company called Terry Naturally, and it's called Adrenaplex. And what it does is, is actually, if you use any common sense at all, with your lifestyle, and take these capsules, it is giving the adrenals a mini vacation, because it's helping to supply everything, those adrenals need to be strong and vibrant. Now, if you use it, unwisely, which is you're going to take this, you're going to start feeling better, and then you're going to work harder, because now you can accomplish more, that's going to defeat the purpose. So Terry Naturally has two doses on it. Moderate therapeutic dose, that's main pro maintenance, and a dose is therapeutic. If you do the therapeutic dose, and you do it for one to six months, and you work on the sleep you work on the core five, you find some kind of practice in your life to help, you know, process some of these chaos and traumas and frustrations we all have with everyday living, you will rehabilitate your adrenal glands, unless you have waited too long. But I'm just encouraging people don't let the wind of opportunity close on this because the adrenals can only do so much for so long. And so that, along with the diet, which I do believe in, which is more of a keto lifestyle is the key to adrenal rebuilding. And that gives you a delight back in like when your adrenals are feeling like they used to.
Brian Strickland 12:09 Let's go ahead and move on to depression. And obviously, when you feel depressed, you don't feel like getting out of bed, you don't feel like doing much of anything at all. So what are some natural ways that we can actually combat that as well?
Ed Jones 12:24 Well, Brian, you know, I live my entire life, following the belief that when we become unbalanced, and we lose the alignment with the one vital energy of this universe, disease will occur, and the light and robustness of life will go down. Well, depression is certainly at a very, very outward sign of being disconnected. And it's really a symptom is not a disease as so many people talk about. Yes, there are tendencies, yes, there are some people who simply have the wrong brain chemicals. But generally, it is a fact that we, how do we expect us not to be depressed? When we're short circuiting the part of us, which is our gut and our brain function through so many things, you know, the brain is made of 50% fat, guess what fats supposed to be there, omega threes, when I look at so many people's little levels of blood test, omega 3 80 percent are so low that I don't know how they even function. And yet, they tell me most of these while I'm eating the salmon, and I'm taking one pill a day of omega three is not what we really need to be doing. And so, you know, we did a podcast on depression, I covered it very well. But you know, the small mini version of it is get back on the core five, you know, the omega threes, the probiotics, the green drink the multivitamin. And, you know, I talked about on the other podcast, the issue of mthfr, methyl tetrahydrofolate reductase gene. We have to manage that, and vitamin D in order to have any hope of this brain being stable. So again, we are not a machine you cannot simply fix one thing, we have a complexity that is that there's not a computer probably as complex as we are, because the thing about a computer is you can take one part of it out, and it's really not affecting the other parts. All you have to do is replace that one chip, or that one drive or the screen and it works again, but with us. It's like a big spider web you touch one part of it on the left hand side is going to reverberate all the way to the bottom. And that's true of depression. So and again Dr. Kelly Brogan if you Google that is my guru go to for a handling depression and bipolar. And legally I mean and ethically I want to say if you're on antidepressant medicines, you can't do anything about it without professional help so you don't get off of them thinking and nutrients gonna be replacement. And secondly, there are a few nutrients that actually can interfere. So when people need a boost of serotonin, the things that are valuable is St. John's Wort still is valuable. Five HTP and Sam E. Those are the three big ones, if done correctly.
Brian Strickland 15:28 Hello, everyone, we wanted to pause for just a moment and tell you about our sponsor for this week. This episode is brought to you by natural factors. Natural factors is family owned, and is one of the largest manufacturers of nutritional products. They're dedicated to providing the highest quality supplements at the fairest prices. They're certified organic farmland located in British Columbia, Canada allows him to have complete control over the entire manufacturing process, from seed to finish supplement. To learn more, visit naturalfactors.com. So let's go ahead and move on to the next one. Blood Sugar imbalances. So how is it that that actually affects your fatigue levels as well?
Ed Jones 16:18 Yes, you know, blood sugar balances, again, high to keep we're using the word epidemic, but it is because of the way people treat their bodies. And the fact is, you know, when you're young, when I say young, I mean really probably under 28 years old. You can do a lot of really harmful things and the body's homeostasis, which is the word that means that it makes it basically maintains its balance does very well. But as the years go on, then it starts you know being harmed by all the bad habits and then it can't maintain it. And really old age and dying is a complete loss of homeostasis. But when you have and first off, what is blood sugar imbalances? You know, we all hear about diabetes, we know about it, this really isn't diabetes. What it is, is your running of higher level of glucose, then you should what happens when that happens? chronic inflammation we know from from so much literature from experts throughout the world who truly can think outside the box. Chronic inflammation is at the root of almost every disease we don't want from Alzheimer's to plaque in the arteries to arthritis. And so to really fix health and disease, doesn't it make sense that we go back to the cause? what the cause is chronic inflammation, we need to address some of the issues that are presenting that and causing it to happen. One of those is running a blood sugar over 92. You know what you go to your doctor every six months to year you get a physical he says oh Ma'am, you're just doing great. And you have a blood sugar of 101. They think that's great. No, what happens is anytime your glucose is over 82 your pancreas is having to work it's having to work to lower the glucose levels. It shouldn't need to work except for three hours after a meal. But you know what, most Americans are working 24 hours a day. Why do you think we have such a level of pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis? Do you know our pancreas today is about 40% larger than it used to be back in the 50s. The reason is because it's like a bicep the more it works, the bigger it seems to get. The problem is unlike a bicep, it's actually going to become weak because of its overwork. And so we need to deal with this by ideally, I want to empower people. So you get a blood test kit from the drugstore or from the internet, you start testing yourself. Because hemoglobin one se and one time shots a year is not informative enough. You need to know what you're waking up with in the morning. And what you're going on a couple hours after eating, you only have to do this for a week or two to get a great baseline. And if you want to be optimal, you want to have fasting glucose of 82. And you want to be able to return to that about to about two and a half to three hours after you've eaten a meal. If you're not a it's time to start researching in to how do we boost that there are so many good options to help balance blood sugar. Metformin is a drug that's given is is certainly one of the lesser harmful drugs. I'm not opposed to it, but it's the last resort because the world of nutrition offers some very good options for that.
Brian Strickland 19:48 Alright, and so going hand in hand with that is obviously excess carbohydrates that can can lead to blood sugar problems. So is there a simple solution for that are there things that people can do to help, you know, not only lower their blood sugar but actually cut carbs as well.
Ed Jones 20:06 Well being informed is number one and how do you do that? Well, hopefully you're you are listening to this, that's one reason to to listen. Secondly is you know, create a team approach in your own personal life like you know, you could you could be ordering the bloodwork through direct labs off this side, you can find a good physician or nurse practitioner or a wellness consultant, someone who has a lot of experience to help guide you through this. But you know, leaning toward a keto lifestyle, what is a keto lifestyle? It's a higher fat, being healthy fats, moderately high protein, and a low type of carbohydrate. Now, when I say low carb, we're not talking the old Atkins, you look gonna live on bacon and eggs, you have to know what you're doing, I believe heavily these days into intermittent fasting. Intermittent Fasting is of course, going somewhere between 12 and 15 hours per day without consuming calories. There's some difference of opinion whether you can do coffee or not, I'm really believing I can. Maybe I'm fooling myself. But you know, I eat at five o'clock in the afternoon, I probably I don't eat again until 530 The next morning, so I'm getting 12 and a half hours interment fasting, that's not extremely aggressive. But what that does is it helps many things, it helps lower inflammation helps burn up some of the excessive carbs. Secondly is I only drink my breakfast because trying to fat, find good foods in the morning that are low glycemic and the right parts of fat and protein is almost impossible that you can I can drink this in four freakin minutes, be out the door, and know that my day has started with perfection, that is also using the green powder within that drink. But then, you know, having a list of here's the foods we should eat, and here's the foods we shouldn't, is critical. Well, when you excessively have carbs, you're going to gain weight, you're going to be foggy thinking you're going to have fatigue. And so that is part of the you know, the solution we have to help you work toward.
Brian Strickland 22:03 Alright, tell me a little bit about the thyroid gland. I know that, you know, the people who have thyroid dysfunction know all about it. But I would say that the general population, it's one that people aren't too familiar with, if you just give me a brief rundown on the function of the thyroid, and then why it may be able or why it might be causing fatigue in some individuals?
Ed Jones 22:27 Well, it is a very important question to answer. And the thing is, again, mainstream medicine. And I do believe people in the mainstream field are very great people, it's just the system is broke and confused. So you go to your doc. And first off, they generally take between five and 20 years delay in addressing a low thyroid, what is a low thyroid it is of course the gland in your throat that's going to control many things. Some of it's your metabolism, some of it's your energy level, your thinking ability. But what's happened is through the history of our having to eat and of course, eating every day common foods, there's something in bread called bromine. And then there's something in water called fluoride. Those two ingredients we have inundated ourself with for for all of our life, basically, they lock themselves into the thyroxin producing part of the thyroid. thyroxin is the active ingredient that makes your temperature go to the normal place. Well, it's basically gummed up the works. And so here we go, you know, Now finally, the doctor said, I think your thyroid slow even though you've already lost a lot of your hair, your energy, your stamina, because they pick up on it far later. And I'm not gonna get into bloodwork analysis of that. But it's it to me that morning temperature test is the number one test and if you want to learn more, you can google Dr. Brownstein and Dr. Mercola and read all about this. So supplement wise, the last thing I'll say is there are without getting too complex to convert a T four to a T three t three is your active thyroxin. About half the people who take the formulas of tyrosine and other a few other nutrients like iodine, they're all packaged together. Many companies make these they're called thyroid complex or you know the one like a company called Natural Factors or Lifeseasons makes wonderful thyroid balancing formulas. Then you monitor yourself the month later sacred temperature went up. If not you find a functional medicine practitioner and you talk to them about armor. desiccated armor is a prescription, I feel is one of the safest drugs appropriately given this ever been given. And if it wasn't for the fact that was prescription it would be sold in health food stores. So it's not that hard to address but you got to take action to do that.
Brian Strickland 25:00 EMF stands for electric magnetic field, and they're quite pervasive in our culture. And I believe there's more and more research coming out about how detrimental these can actually be to our health. And I know that you've done your own research and have your own opinion. So can you just speak very briefly on why there's such a problem in what they're actually doing that cause fatigue?
Ed Jones 25:24 You know, it's only going to continue to worsen because the new cell phones, the more cell towers and electromagnetic fields are, you know, invisible, you know, parts of any electrical appliance, and you can stand next to a light that is off, and you're still getting exposure to this. And it will be similar to the docks, who advertised to the 1950s on camel cigarettes that said, you know, these are good for you, or the fact that mercury will eventually and failing is the truth, we'll have to come out, well, emf is going to be devastating. We've already seen it, we know it. And the reason it does this is because it acts under a certain cell type of mechanism called voltage gated calcium channels. When you expose your brain or any cell to strong EMF, which is almost impossible not to do, you're creating an excited Tory excretion of these calcium channels. And that damages mitochondria, we keep going back to the same basic premise of what's the true underlying reason for aging, fast aging, and damage and disease. And it comes back to chronic inflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction. And so there's a hundreds of things that cause it emfs are one of the many. Well, you know what, you can't do anything much about it, other than I do have a phone case that blocks all of the EMF, it's a little cumbersome, but it works extremely well. Secondly, you can use a non electrical earpiece, where you can hold your cell phone about two feet away, it decreases significantly. But the biggest thing is I think you need what I call a sleep sanctuary. It is a least a period of time of your 24 hours that you are decreasing your levels significantly. How can we do that at nighttime. First off, everything electrical has to be five feet away from your head and your body. That means you don't leave your cell phone right next to you. Secondly, if you really want to get into it, you turn your router needs to be turned off at bedtime, you put it on a timer. That way it clicks off because your router is a cell phone tower, I can tell you from experience, once you let your brain get kind of settled down from emfs, then you start recognizing how bad it really is. So emfs have to be dealt with effects. Depression is affecting cancer, it's affecting moods. And it's only going to get worse. So let's and there's no pill to take this is going to help you to be protected and these little appliances that they say you attached to the back of your phone. I'm not saying not do it. I'm very, very skeptical, saying that I've had one on my phone, almost every phone I've ever had until the last two. But the new phone cases are far better. So I recommend those way above any of those stick ons.
Brian Strickland 28:35 Alright, lastly on the list, we've got to talk about medications. I'm assuming you're talking about prescription medications, right?
Ed Jones 28:43 Prescription medications can devastate the energy production of the body. And the thing is, you know, there's over almost 200 commonly used ones and the thing is the advice that most people are getting from their mainstream healthcare professional is they're they're kind of downplaying the fact that Well, no, the your fatigue has very little to do with you starting a beta blocker. Would you know what I got to be skeptical? Because I think we have a whole system now of people who who only have in their toolbox prescription drugs, you know, if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. It just does. Well. The only tools they're trained in is really doing surgery, doing prescription drugs, or doing some procedure. That's it. Now they might ask you how's your sleep, but then it still goes back to they're giving you a drug to treat a symptom not the underlying fix is ever addressed. And so you have to be your own advocate. But beta blockers blood pressure beta blockers negate the adrenal Strength, it makes the adrenals not secrete the hormones that give you energy. It's almost like creating an adrenal fatigue. That's one, most antidepressants end up causing fatigue. So looking into all these drugs, the opiates we know opiods common sense wise would do that. The prednisone, prednisone is weird because it's going to fire a person up temporarily, because it's it is an adrenal hormone. And when you know what I have people who say, I mean, there are older people now they're 60 when I you know, is scary for me to say older because now I'm certainly into that class, because I still think of myself as 30. But the when people take prednisone, it replaces their adrenal function temporarily, and they feel like they were 40 years younger, they have an appetite, they have no pain, they have tons of energy. Now that does end up going away quickly because it's doing harm, but temporarily it shows them what it would be like to have good adrenal function. And then you've got proton pump inhibitors. Everybody seems to take those Oh, we have acid. Let me let me take that because acid is a bad guy. No, it's not it's only bad because it's leaking into the wrong place for the wrong reasons. allergy and asthma medicines anticonvulsants like gabbeh pin, so many people are on gabbeh pin and topamax and then lastly is the hormones. Hormones is a double edged sword. You do them exactly right. They're wonderful. Then if you don't do them correctly, and they get out of balance between the estrogens or the testosterones or the majesta runs, then you start sliding down that slope again of being out of balance. Health is balanced people and it's not going to happen by grabbing the next medication that you see on the television. That's actually going to swerve you off the balance. He just buys you some time. Well until next time, I am Ed Jones. Remember, whenever a doctor cannot do good, he must be kept from doing harm.
Brian Strickland 32:06 Thank you so much for listening to the Holistic Navigator podcast. We really hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you did, please consider leaving us a rating and review, subscribing, and spreading the word about the show. For more information, previous episodes and other resources on natural health, visit theholisticnavigator.com Have a great day everyone and stay well.