Exhausted All The Time? Here’s How To Fix It!

It was about 5 AM, and I was so excited that I just couldn’t sleep anymore. It was my 50th birthday. It was also the day that I was going to attempt something that I had only dreamed of before this date. It was time for my first half-marathon run. Oh, I had jogged 5k and 10k races and enjoyed them, but one half of a marathon, or 13.1 miles, hadn’t been attempted.

It was a newspaper article months earlier that made me want to meet this particular challenge more than ever. The article said that people over 45 shouldn’t challenge themselves too hard, (heart problems, you know…). It said that a 10-mile run would be out of reach for 96% of us.

That was all I needed.

I wasn’t going to shave before the race, but the possibility of meeting a new friend at the starting line without first having a shower made me rethink my “starting line hygiene”.

I had a grapefruit for breakfast, and I ate a green apple on my 30-minute drive to the starting line. I drank a bottle of water before the 8 AM start of the 1999 White Rock Half Marathon Race.

At 10 miles, I couldn’t get the newspaper article out of my mind.

At 12 miles, I knew they were right, and at 13.1 miles, the article really didn’t matter, because I had no mind or memory left!

I’ve always enjoyed getting up early and jogging, but this didn’t feel like a morning jog. This was a race! At the balloon-lined finish line, a 10-year-old boy was right on my heels. I remember being willing to fall face first across that line before letting him pass me.

And so it was that on that cool morning, I completed my first, and my last, half-marathon in about 2 hours, 8 minutes and 30 seconds. It is with some pride that I tell you that the young boy on my heels completed the race in 2 hours, 8 minutes and 30.5 seconds. He was smiling, talking and seemed so fresh.

I proudly walked from that finish line like I had completed a case of beer instead of a race. Nothing worked, including my legs, which felt like spaghetti. I was done… in more ways than one!

The ride home was uneventful, but my legs cramped up a few times. I soaked in a bathtub full of Epsom salts for twenty minutes after arriving home. A few hours later, I was so exhausted, I just had to lie down.

Fatigue, they say, comes in many packages, and while most would say that I deserved a 3-hour nap that day because my fatigue was justified, others scoff at the idea of napping, even after a full marathon! For me, it was exhausting, but for others, it’s simply one of many marathons they will run during the year.

Why is it, I wonder, that millions of Americans barely climb out of bed in the morning before exhaustion sets in? They literally wake up, tired after sleeping 8-9 hours.

A diagnosis of “chronic fatigue” does not fix the problem, but it does label it correctly. Now, the larger question looms; why do you have it? I feel like a broken record every time I write on health problems because I find myself repeating this next sentence over and over: According to researchers, doctors do not know the cause of chronic fatigue…

The Mayo Clinic states that chronic fatigue, (CFS), is characterized by memory or concentration loss, sore throat, enlarged lymph nodes in neck or armpits, mobile pain, headache, un-refreshing sleep and extreme fatigue lasting more than one day after physical and mental exercise.

It is interesting to note that CFS is accompanied up to 70% of the time with another diagnosis called fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia patients suffer from intermittent and mobile pain. On Monday, their hip is so painful that they can’t get out of bed. By Thursday, that pain might clear, but now neck pain prevents them from wanting to get up. The pain is relentless, and to add to the problem, 70% of them are chronically fatigued.

This is no way to live.

Finding a physician to diagnose and then prescribe medications it is the easy part. Fixing it is the tough part.

Texas’ own Great Plain Laboratory has stated that they have found fungi and fungal metabolites present in abnormally high levels in the urine of patients with fibromyalgia. This is a great jumping off point for us to give you some options that you might consider if and when CFS and fibromyalgia are diagnosed.

(Mind you, please don’t ever allow me to diagnose your health problems – doctors do that. Rather, since fungus may be playing a role in your diagnosis, let me share with you what I would do if I were diagnosed with either CFS and/or fibromyalgia.)

GIVE IT TIME

These syndromes take years, perhaps decades to develop. I’m willing to tell the doctor that I want 90 days to try to learn everything I can about why these problems are plaguing me because, in learning, I can experiment on myself.

Some of these experiments may work, some may not, but I’m not willing to endanger myself. I try everything I can within a reasonable time frame. If nothing changes, I will!

IF FUNGUS IS CAUSING FATIGUE, I’D TRY AN ANTI-FUNGAL APPROACH….TO EVERYTHING!

Based on the above referenced lab data, and knowing that I have quite a history with fungi in my diet, (alcohol in the past, sugar, sugar, sugar, grains, peanuts, corn, and many rounds of antibiotics), and my lungs, (old ducting, my home once leaked, etc.), I’d do everything I could to stop exposing myself to fungus, mold, and their poisons. If you have no idea how to even begin doing this, yourself, look here for some ideas.

I’d leave my home for a while, hoping to find a mold free environment that I can call home for the next 14 days. If during this stay, I begin to feel better, the mold that I was inhaling at home may have been causing my chronic fatigue.

Once I move back into my own home, do my symptoms come back? What a perfect way to “diagnose” my condition! Toxic building syndrome is well established, and as long as my home is causing my symptoms, I have two choices if I want to be well: Move out or remediate my home of the mold.

KNOW THAT FUNGUS CAN MAKE YOU CRAVE THE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU FEEL TIRED ALL THE TIME

Most people, including health professionals, have no idea that fungi make us crave foods that enable their own perpetuation. These are 100% selfish germs.

When fungi enter your body en masse, they can quickly become the dominant players in your body. That’s right! The chemicals these fungi excrete can actually cause you to crave the things that help them survive, but cause you to languish.

So, are you craving bread, pasta, sugar, and alcohol. Fungi thrive on these and demand more. Could this be why you’re so sick and tired?

Fortunately, to help you deal with this problem, someone has done the hard work for you. I’ve written two recipe books for people who suspect that fungus is causing their health problems, and seven other books that go deep into the science of symptoms you may be suffering with. We also have LOTS of articles, TV show episodes, and other free resources that cost you nothing but could begin helping you feel better quickly.

THE FUNGUS LINK VOL. 1

This is where it all began, and it’s your starting point to understanding the Fungus Link philosophy to health, and what to do to feel your best! This is the first installment of Doug Kaufmann’s Best selling series The Fungus Link.

Get It From Our Bookstore

DON’T GIVE UP!

Many of my clients began feeling better the first week after changing their diet. But some initially felt worse.

Either way, they needed to continue “working the plan” to experience the full effects of a changed lifestyle.

“You may feel worse before you feel better”, is something we told clients several times a day.

“Don’t go back to your old habits when you begin feeling better”, was the other thing we told clients every day.

Whether you’re feeling empowered or unsure, I’d recommend that you keep it up. It may have taken you years to get to the place where your body is tired all the time. Give it some time to return to the full energy.

….AND WHEN YOU CHEAT….

On the days I cheat on my diet, my pain or fatigue worsens. Yet, when I stay on track, I’m feeling better and better. It’s almost as if I have a “volume knob”. When I’m sticking to the plan, the “volume” of symptoms is turned way down and I feel great; but eating bread or having a glass of wine cranks the volume up to 3 or 4 – or 10!  Learn from this, don’t beat yourself up, and adjust.

WILL ANY MEDICATIONS OR SUPPLEMENTS HELP?

Every CFS and fibromyalgia patient wants to be cured. That’s why they travel from expert to expert, trying drug after drug. What they are hoping to get is what every sick patient hopes to get: An “off switch”. They want to flip the switch down and have their misery disappear. Most would even be willing to take a chance and possibly even endanger their own health or lives by taking prescribed chemicals hoping they might turn the switch off.

On two occasions many years ago, I was asked to lecture at a medical school in Fort Worth, TX on fibromyalgia. One of the secretaries came to see me and cried during our first visit because her fibromyalgia pain was so bad.

One of the doctors I worked with prescribed her Diflucan and Nystatin, (both anti-fungal medications), and I taught her the anti-fungal diet. The rest, as they say, is history!

Although it took us 6-8 months of constant work, she recovered and became our best CFS and fibromyalgia spokesperson. She told some of the doctors, and they invited me to speak to them.

If your doctor is unwilling to prescribe antifungal medication, you still have options. With their approval, I’d consider natural antifungals, such as olive leaf extract, caprylic acid, apple cider vinegar, garlic, oregano oil, along with B-vitamins, methyl-B12, TMG, and DMG. Start slowly! Don’t try everything at once because it can stress your system too much, too soon. Go little by little, and find your perfect supplement “fingerprint”.

When you have this disorder, you may feel isolated and very lost, because medical science does not have answers for this problem. Trust me, you’re not alone.

I hope you’ll carefully re-read this article and consider making a few changes that might just be the answer you’ve been looking for all along. It has been for countless thousands of people across the country.

If you’re seeing a doctor and on medications, always check with him/her first to make certain that these supplements do not interfere with the actions of the medications.

It is my hope that in a few short weeks, the majority of you will feel empowered as you navigate through the rough waters of getting started. The proof, you may find, will be in the avoidance of the pudding!

All my best!