Fatigue and Root Cause Medicine
If you suffer with fatigue you know how frustrating it is. You want to be active and productive, but your body is just too tired. This affects you not just physically but mentally, diminishing the quality of your life.
What you want to know is why you are tired and what you can do to correct it. It is a simple and legitimate request, but if you’ve been suffering for a while you are likely frustrated from a lack of help from your doctor.
There is a reason for your fatigue, but conventional medicine is not adept at finding it unless it is caused by a disease process. As an example, if you have a condition of low thyroid, fatigue can be the result. However, if no clear-cut disease can be found, you are often told to sleep more or eat better or reduce your stress. It is vague advice and does not identify the exact reason for your fatigue and rarely results in a resolution of your problem.
Fatigue and exhaustion are common complaints and we see them often. Our success lies in the tools we possess to identify the actual root cause of your fatigue. We begin with an in-depth history and comprehensive examination and will rule out any obvious disease process that could be causing your fatigue. If no disease is found, we then utilize Root Cause Medicine to identify what is malfunctioning in your body and creating your lack of energy.
This approach has a very high success rate because we tenaciously go after what we know to be a fact: There is always a reason for symptoms and in fact the creation of symptoms is your body’s main way it communicates with you that it is overwhelmed. Therefore, when your body is creating fatigue, it has a good reason. We simply continue searching and investigating until we find the reason; and this is something we excel in.
The good news is that our programs are natural; we do not use dangerous drugs.
You can get your energy back and enjoy life again; you deserve it.
Statistics regarding fatigue
Fatigue is a very common symptom. Doctors cite it as one of the more common complaints they hear from their patients. Severe fatigue, defined as intense enough to interfere with an individual’s ability to function in their life, is present in 20% of Americans, according to the NIH (National Institute of Health).
Women are more likely than men to suffer from fatigue.
How much more? In adults aged 18-44, women were almost twice as likely to suffer from fatigue or exhaustion. The difference disappeared once both sexes reached age 64 and above.
Does your fatigue cause you to be a hazard on the road? According to a National Sleep Foundation poll, 60% of adult drivers have driven a vehicle while feeling drowsy during the past year. More than 33% have actually fallen asleep at the wheel. I can attest to that and defensive driving was something I educated my children about when I was teaching them to drive. I can’t tell you how many patients have confessed to falling asleep or nodding off at the wheel, while others are so dazed and foggy, they don’t remember driving home at night.
There are many causes of fatigue. Only the following are considered by traditional medicine:
- Thyroid disorder
- Anemia
- Insomnia
- Stress
- Poor diet
- Overweight
- Heart disease
- Diabetes
- Infections
In Root Cause Medicine, we consider the above plus many other imbalances including:
- Adrenal fatigue – this is discussed in more detail below.
- Food sensitivities
- Malabsorption causing nutrient deficits
- Maldigestion
- Leaky gut
- Hormonal imbalance
- Pain
- Autoimmune disease
- Inflammation
- Lack of exercise
- Plus, the conditions mentioned in the above list.
Have you ever been to your doctor complaining of fatigue? Here is likely what happened:
- The doctor ran a blood test(s) to rule out any disease process or a condition, such as anemia, that could be causing your fatigue.
- If the labs came back negative your doctor likely told you it’s normal to feel the way you do, or
- If you’re overweight, he or she suggested losing the pounds and increasing your exercise.
- If you continue to complain of fatigue, your doctor often recommends an anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medication.
This is what you can expect from a Root Cause Medicine Doctor
First, an extensive history is performed – very extensive. We find out your stress level, sleep hours, exercise schedule, water consumption, food preferences and cravings, digestive symptoms, and a whole lot more.
Based on the extensive history and our knowledge of getting to the underlying root cause, we begin to get an idea of what might be the problem. This hypothesis will be borne out by functional and traditional lab tests, as required.
By the way, if you’ve ever been frustrated at lab tests that fail to show anything is wrong when your “gut” tells you there’s a problem, you’ll love Functional Medicine Lab tests – they are much more sensitive and WILL reveal the actual problem.
What Root Cause Medicine appreciates is that fatigue means there is an imbalance or imbalances, plural. If your food isn’t able to turn into proper fuel, either due to inappropriate food choices, consuming foods you react negatively to, malabsorption, maldigestion, a leaky gut, the presence of an infection or imbalance of good bacteria, any of these digestive imbalances could result in fatigue.
Must you have overt digestive complaints for any of the above issues to be contributing to your fatigue? No, you don’t. And that’s where traditional medicine misses the boat, in my opinion. They tend to focus solely on the location of the symptom. That’s not always a bad idea certainly, but it can be. Why? Because very, very often, the root cause of the symptom stems from a different location than the symptom itself.
Of course, fatigue is generalized and therefore doesn’t have a location, per se, but still, traditional medicine will rule out the conditions and diseases mentioned above, and then stop. No wonder so many Americans turn to caffeine and energy drinks. What else are they supposed to do when given no solutions?
If you have suffered with fatigue have not found a solution, we are here to help.
Fatigue is a problem we have excellent success solving. We rule out the traditional list mentioned above and then begin with the most common root causes we have discovered while working with patients for 30 years.
Is fatigue ruining your life? Contact us here for a consultation or give us a call at 727-335-0400.
Digestion malfunction, as I mentioned, is quite commonly a cause of fatigue because your body is not receiving adequate fuel from the food you are ingesting. The next most common problem is adrenal fatigue. Your adrenal glands make adrenaline, so it makes sense that if you are tired, they may very well be playing a role.
What’s fascinating about the adrenal glands is the vast number of areas they affect in your body. I think you will be amazed at the variety of symptoms associated when your adrenal glands are not working properly, called Adrenal Fatigue or Adrenal Exhaustion.
Here’s the list:
- Fatigue
- Weak immune system
- Thyroid imbalance
- Overweight
- Craving of sugar or salt
- Inflammation
- Hormonal imbalance
- Sleep problems
- Painful joints or muscles
- Allergies
- Asthma
What is frustrating about conventional medicine is doctors fail to acknowledge that adrenal fatigue exists.
Why? Quite simply, the conventional model is based on disease. The adrenal glands can disease, but it’s rare. They malfunction however quite often, almost epidemically in our stress-ridden society. This malfunction is not disease and therefore Adrenal Fatigue and the long list of symptoms that can accompany it are missed by your conventional doctor.
This leaves you in the position of suffering with your fatigue needlessly.
There is an interrelationship amongst the causes of fatigue, and to resolve fatigue completely, these causes must be identified and understood.
This can be tough for some to understand. After all, the conventional medicine model is based on “a pill for every ill”. Patients are constantly asking what they should “take” for their problem.
The body’s organs and systems do not work in a vacuum, each part affects the next.
Too often, as I mentioned above, traditional medicine is quick to “pull the trigger” on a diagnosis of anxiety or depression when they cannot find a disease process causing you fatigue. This is more concerning when you consider the life-threatening side effects associated with psychiatric medication.
If you’ve ever experienced fatigue, you know full well that it’s difficult to be “upbeat and happy” about how you feel. You aren’t yourself; you aren’t as productive as you want to be; you often feel you are letting down your significant other, children, and/or coworkers. It’s not a good feeling.
Therefore, feeling a bit “down” is quite normal. But that doesn’t mean you’re clinically depressed. I get annoyed at the number of patients who come to see me who have been prescribed these dangerous drugs simply because no disease could be found to explain their fatigue.
Please know this: there IS a root cause for your fatigue, and finding it is not difficult. We have the right tools at our disposal and we know the right questions to ask your body.
The Root Cause program is completely natural; no drugs or surgery.
If you’ve been fatigued for a long time, this may sound unbelievable; I understand. But I assure you we have excellent success in getting to the root cause of why you feel fatigue or exhaustion.
We propose an initial consultation so that you will understand how root cause medicine can help you. This meeting can occur in person or over Zoom. We want you to have an ability to meet with us and understand our approach before you pay for any visits.
We want success for you just as much as you want to be successful in improving your health. This is a team approach. As mentioned, we do not just hand you a pill, far from it. We work extensively together to change diet, lifestyle, repair faulty organ function and restore physical alignment and strength. This does not happen overnight, and it will not occur without help.
Therefore, we want to ensure you are ready to embark upon the adventure to regain your health with a clear understanding that it will require some work and change on your part. But you are not alone; we are right here with you.
As we like to say, with patient compliance, success is all but assured.
Do you need help with fatigue or exhaustion? We can help.
Do you know someone suffering with fatigue? Please share this with them.
Contact us here for a consultation or give us a call at 727-335-0400.
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