Why You're Always Tired and What You Can Do About It

Feeling constantly exhausted no matter how much you sleep isn't something you should accept as normal aging or just part of modern life. Millions struggle with unexplained fatigue while doctors often dismiss their concerns, leaving them dependent on caffeine just to function.

The real culprits behind chronic fatigue go far deeper than most realize. This episode dives into the science of energy production, revealing how mitochondrial dysfunction, hormone imbalances, blood sugar dysregulation, gut health problems, and environmental toxins systematically drain your vitality. Each of these factors disrupts your body's natural energy systems in different ways, creating a perfect storm of exhaustion that conventional medicine often misses.

What makes this conversation particularly valuable is the actionable roadmap it provides. From specific nutrition strategies that stabilize blood sugar and support mitochondrial health to the surprising benefits of cold exposure, red light therapy, and targeted supplementation, you'll discover evidence-based approaches to reclaim your energy naturally. Learn which adaptogens regulate cortisol levels, how gut bacteria influence fatigue, and why detoxification pathways matter for sustainable energy production.

Whether you're dealing with brain fog, afternoon crashes, or persistent exhaustion, this episode offers a comprehensive framework for understanding and addressing fatigue at its source. Stop masking symptoms with stimulants and start rebuilding your body's innate energy systems. Your path to waking up refreshed and maintaining steady energy throughout the day begins with understanding these hidden energy thieves and implementing the practical strategies shared here. Ready to transform your relationship with energy? Listen now and take the first step toward breaking free from the fatigue cycle for good. Subscribe to Living a Full Life for more science-backed health guidance that addresses root causes rather than symptoms.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Are you constantly exhausted, no matter how much
sleep you get?
Do you wake up feeling drained,rely on caffeine to push
through the day or hit anafternoon crash that leaves you
struggling to focus?
If so, you're not alone.
Millions of people are dealingwith unexplained fatigue and the
frustrating part.
Most doctors will tell you it'sjust normal or part of getting

(00:24):
older, but I'm here to tell youit's not.
In today's episode of Living aFull Life, we're uncovering the
real reasons why you're tiredall the time and, more
importantly, how to fix it.
We'll break down the hiddenculprits behind chronic fatigue,
from hormone imbalances andmitochondrial dysfunction to
nutrition deficiencies, guthealth issues and even

(00:46):
environmental toxins.
I'll also share cutting edgeresearch and real, actionable
strategies to help you reclaimyour energy naturally, without
relying on caffeine for quickfixes that mask the problem.
So you are ready to wake upfeeling refreshed, power through
your day with ease and finallybreak free from the fatigue
cycle.
Stick around, because thisepisode is going to be going to

(01:09):
change the way you think aboutenergy.
Last week, we went throughhormone dysregulation.
This week it's a greatfollow-up about chronic fatigue,
because that came up withcortisol, insulin and the sex
hormones.
Chronic fatigue isn't just aboutbeing tired.
It's a signal that somethingdeeper is off in the body, the

(01:29):
root cause of chronic fatigue.
The latest research and realstrategies to restore your
energy, naturally, is how we'regonna uncover this.
So what is chronic fatigue?
More than just tiredness.
It persists, it's debilitating,it's exhaustive and that
doesn't improve with rest.
The CDC defines chronic fatiguesyndrome as a long-term illness

(01:53):
affecting multiple body systems.
Studies show mitochondrialdysfunction plays a key role as
well, and the most commonsymptoms that people have of
chronic fatigue is brain fog,muscle weakness, unfresh sleep,
dizziness and immunedysfunctions.
It's often misdiagnosed asdepression or burnout.
So chronic fatigue takes timeto develop and as it develops

(02:18):
over time, it dismantles thehormone system.
But there are a few hiddencauses to chronic fatigue that,
if we uncover it, will give youpower to help get through it if
you're dealing with it or if youknow someone that's dealing
with it.
The first one is mitochondrialdysfunction.
Your cells can't produce enoughenergy.
The science behind this is thatthe mitochondria are the

(02:41):
powerhouses of our cell.
Research shows that people withchronic fatigue have impaired
mitochondrial function, and thisis from the Internal General of
Clinical and ExperimentalMedicine from 2009.
And how to fix it is we need toincrease coenzyme Q10
management, magnesium, bvitamins and even use

(03:02):
L-carnitine amino acid.
Cold exposure and exerciseenhance mitochondrial biogenesis
.
So let's dive into mitochondriaa little bit here and what we
can do.
We want to stimulate itsproduction.
Mitochondria produce somethingcalled ATP, adenosine
triphosphate.
It's the energy source of everycell and it's produced on a

(03:25):
regular basis by every celluntil its death, at a constant
frequency, depending onexpenditure of energy.
And what we can do throughscience, through light therapy,
and we use things like classfour lasers, red light therapy,
blue light, uv different thingsthat can stimulate the
mitochondrial of each cell toproduce more ATP, which gives
the cell more energy andtherefore does things more

(03:48):
efficiently.
So using red light but wetalked about cold exposure as
well this is where cold plungescience comes in a little bit
Plunging into cold temperaturesfor short amounts of time can
actually increase ATP production.
But a more comfortable way ofdoing this is using red light
therapy.
Full body red light therapy hasbeen shown to increase
mitochondrial function anddecrease inflammation at the

(04:10):
same time.
But exercise in itself canenhance mitochondrial biogenesis
.
So we have to stimulate thebiogenesis of mitochondria
producing more energy byexercising.
That's the long-term goal.
With that, as we start tostimulate that function in the
mitochondria, producing moreenergy by exercising that's the
long-term goal with that.
As we start to stimulate thatfunction in the mitochondria
throughout the entire body andall the trillions of cells in it

(04:32):
, we start to get better energyproduction.
That is the long-term solutionto fatigue in general.
But we have to start feelingbetter before we can exercise
right.
And cold exposure and coldplunges are maybe quick little
fixes but you can't sit in acold plunge all day and the
effects of the cold plunge onlylast a few minutes and then
start to plateau.

(04:52):
So it's that initial effect ofthe cold plunge and decreasing
our body temperature thatinspires and increases
mitochondrial production.
And that's where you get thosescientific events from the blood
tests that are done at thattime in those moments.
But it plateaus after a certainamount of time, just like red
light therapy.
As soon as our body and ourcells absorb a maximum dosage of

(05:13):
light that it can, it saturatesthe cell and there can't be any
more light exposure.
So same thing with that.
Number two is hormone imbalances.
We talked about this last week.
Listen to that podcast Choosehormone imbalances.
We talked about this last week.
Listen to that podcast Lowthyroid and cortisol
dysregulation leads to chronicfatigue, leads to fatigue in
general.
Adrenal dysfunction leads toerratic cortisol levels,

(05:34):
affecting energy regulation.
Okay, hypothyroidism is aleading but often overlooked
cause of fatigue.
These are the two things withthe hormones, as far as cortisol
from the adrenals and thethyroid, with hypothyroidism,
that lead to fatigue.
So how do we stimulate this?
How do we fix it?
We need to support adrenalfunction with adaptogens.

(05:58):
Adaptogens we brought upashwagandha last time and
rhodiola.
These are great herbs that youcan add and tinctures that you
can add to your diet assupplements to help support the
adrenals and the thyroid.
We want to optimize thyroidswith iodine, selenium and zinc

(06:19):
through our diet.
This is what we have to makesure we have a steady diet of
good quantities of iodine,selenium and zinc and this comes
through red meat, fish, shrimpand leafy green vegetables.
So we want to have that on adaily basis, a well-balanced
diet.
Then we want to have somedoctor supervision if we do run

(06:40):
into hypothyroidism, to makesure that we are triggering that
from a medical perspective tobalance the blood levels of this
to help us overall with thefatigue.
I mean we can't deviate aroundthat.
That is just the way it works.
Then we get into blood sugardysregulation.
Then we get into blood sugardysregulation.

(07:02):
This is probably the mostcommon reason people fall into
bouts of fatigue is because ofthe energy rollercoaster that
happens with that.
Insulin resistance is linked tochronic fatigue and brain fog.
So we got to fix this by eatinga protein and healthy fat diet,
especially starting off the daywith our first meal and not
absorbing sugar first thing inthe morning.

(07:23):
The American diet has nottaught our children or ourselves
very well about how to startour days with a healthy meal and
we got to change that entirephilosophy around breakfast to
be heavily dense in protein andhealthy fats like eggs, meat and
lower in carbs like eggs, meatand lower in carbs and then, of
course, avoid processed sugarsand refined carbs.

(07:46):
Muffins, waffles, pancakes,cereal all these things are not
a good way to start the day andcan dysregulate the entire
cortisol balance in the body andspike blood sugar, which leads
to an increase in insulinproduction, which makes us more
tired.

(08:06):
Gut health and microbiomeimbalance.
We had a great series ofpodcasts, probably four or five
weeks ago, on the biome and thescience behind it is that
chronic fatigue patients oftenhave gut dysbiosis and leaky gut
syndrome.
So what we need to do isreplenish the biome as vastly as

(08:28):
we possibly can, and that'sgoing to be by eating fermented
foods like kimchi, sauerkraut,dill, pickle, these types of
things that are fermented to geta pre and post biotic for our
gut and then take prebiotics andprobiotics to restore gut
bacteria and cycling throughthese, the best way is to choose

(08:49):
a probiotic, finish it, giveyourself a two month break
between the next probiotic andcycle every two months with
different probiotics to helpbuild the flora back.
This would happen this wouldneed to happen after bouts of
antibiotics, for whatever reasonmay be.
Having a cold flu infection andneeding to take antibiotics

(09:10):
wipes out our entire gut floraby like up to 99%.
So we need to replenish thisquickly.
It happens quickly.
Through a normal diet, theflora will come back.
However, we won't get them inbalance easily and over long
periods of time of imbalancedgut flora can lead to fatigue.
Fatigue is more of a symptom ofleaky gut syndrome and

(09:33):
dysbiosis of the gut, so thatwill happen over time.
But having a healthy gut isstep one for minimizing fatigue.
So go back to those podcasts aswell.
And lastly, the environmentaltoxins.
These are the hidden energydrain that we do to ourselves
every single day.
Heavy metals like mercury andlead, mold toxins, pesticides,

(09:55):
herbicides can disrupt energymetabolism within the body.
We know this from theliterature, and the way to fix
this is to try and filter ourenvironment as much as possible,
and that's through filteredwater, eating organic foods as
much as possible, like leafygreen vegetables should be
organic.
Most of our fruits should beorganic.

(10:16):
Minimizing mold toxins bywashing our produce and use
non-toxic household products soyou're not breathing this stuff
in all the time.
Cleaning the inside of your carwith chemicals on a hot summer
day and then sitting in it is ahorrible VOC volatile chemicals
that we get into the air that weend up breathing in.

(10:38):
That's one example of not usingchemicals.
The same is in the house If youlive in there all day and
you're smelling these chemicalsfrom the cleaning products.
Not a good way to keep ahealthy hormone system and it
can really disrupt a lot ofthose things as well.
So the detox pathways that wewant to use to help with
environmental toxins, to pullthese out of the body, are going

(10:58):
to be things like sweatingthrough exercise and
cardiovascular exercise andcardio and using a sauna, like
an infrared sauna, or eventaking binders like activated
charcoal chlorella to help bindtoxins within the body and pull
them out through our waist.
These are great ways to cyclethrough, detoxing and getting

(11:22):
through some of the ways that weare making ourselves fatigued.
Now we can dive deeper intochronic fatigue syndrome and how
it's linked to major diseaseprocesses.
But that's more of a medicaltype discussion to have and
that's more of a one-on-one typething to do with your
functional medicine doctor oryour medical doctor is to go
through that if you're sufferingfrom long-term chronic fatigue

(11:44):
blood work, hormone testing,heavy metal testing, checking
for these things across theboard to see where things may be
elevated and may be the rootcause to chronic fatigue.
Short bouts of fatigue canhappen due to stress, overwork,
over-exercise, where we feelfatigued, but we should be able
to get good rest and rejuvenatequite quickly within days.

(12:06):
If fatigue lasts for more thanweeks or months, you may have
chronic fatigue.
So here's a step-by-steppractical strategy guide to help
yourself if you are feelingfatigued.
Start with nutrition and energyfor production.
Prioritize protein, healthyfats and fiber to stabilize your

(12:26):
blood sugar first.
Then increase mitochondrialsupportive foods like grass-fed
beef, wild-caught salmon, leafygreens berries and then
eliminate inflammatory foods,especially gluten, processed
sugars and vegetable oils.
Then we want to optimize oursleep and our circadian rhythm

(12:47):
so to regulate light exposure.
We want to be waking up duringsunrise and reduce blue light at
night.
We want to use magnesium,glycinate, glycine, tart cherry
extract as great foods andsupplements to help regulate
mitochondrial production, butalso dopamine and serotonin I'm

(13:10):
not getting the right word here,it'll come back to me.
Deep sleep protocols as well noeating three hours before bed,
blackout curtains in the roomand consistent sleep schedules.
Consistent sleep schedules.

(13:30):
Then we want to reduce stressand our nervous system and to
give our nervous system somerest, and this is going to be
through breath work.
Meditation, relaxation, justlying flat and closing your eyes
and just breathing are provenways to lower cortisol.
Cold therapy and heat therapywe talked about both.
Sauna detoxes, cold showers toboost mitochondrial production,

(13:50):
grounding and nature exposure.
Just walking in the grassbarefoot has a has um effect
with our overall antioxidantsystem.
That's what, what, where it wascoming for me to help with the
negative and positive protons inthe body as well, to balance
those.
Then we have smartsupplementation for energy and

(14:13):
recovery.
Coenzyme Q10 and PQQ boostmitochondrial function.
Magnesium and B vitamins areessential for energy metabolism,
and adaptogens like rhodiolaashwagandha can regulate
cortisol.
But don't forget our omega-3s.
Omega-3s I'm a big proponent oftaking omega-3 in your

(14:34):
supplement regimen because wejust don't get enough in the
foods.
Yes, it's in coconut oil,avocados, salmon, fish.
It's in the good oils.
However, it's hard to consumeenough of these foods to get
that oil.
If you eat salmon every day,you're probably getting enough,
but not very many people eatsalmon every single day.
It's maybe a once a week typething.

(14:56):
So you're going to take a 1500milligram omega-3 fish oil base
once a day in part of yoursupplement regimen to help make
sure that you're getting a basicomega-3 intake every day.
Make sense, that is a strategyfor chronic fatigue.
So there is always a strategy.

(15:16):
No matter where we end up withour health or a diagnosis, or
wherever it may be, there'salways a strategy out there, and
the Living Full Life podcastalways delivers natural and
vitalistic protocols.
We believe that starting therejust makes the most logical
sense before we start gettinginto innovative medical

(15:38):
procedures that have their ownside effects to it.
The vitalistic way doesn't haveany side effects to it.
The worst thing that can happen.
It may not help or help alittle bit.
That may be the worst thingthat can happen, but there is
usually no side effects totrying things vitalistically.
We just don't want to beignorant to pathology and ignore

(15:58):
it.
If there is something happeningpathologically, like leukemia,
cancer, things that arehappening underneath that we may
have not been detected yet.
We want to make sure we'redoing our yearly wellness checks
getting our heavy metals testedmaybe every five years to make
sure that we're not beingexposed to any environmental
toxins and wellness checks withblood work and scans,

(16:22):
mammography, x-rays, mris thesethings can all look inside the
body to detect pathologies aswell.
So these are not things we wantto avoid, but use them
strategically in our overallhealth and wellness.
If you have any questions orany direct topics that you want
us to work on, reach out to infoat fulllifetampacom.
We love answering questions.

(16:42):
Stay well, stay healthy andtake care.