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Addressing the Root Causes of Chronic Fatigue and Brain Fog

By |2023-01-09T16:45:04-05:00January 9th, 2023|Categories: Brain Fog, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome|Tags: , |1 Comment

Chronic fatigue is common, but it’s certainly not normal. It’s common, in that many people experience it on occasion. But a healthy body doesn’t naturally feel worn out — even when dealing with a fairly hectic lifestyle.

In fact, if you’re unsure about the underlying cause of your brain fog or fatigue, you shouldn’t be feeling that way. For example, if you’re working 12 hours a day and your baby or your neighbor’s dog is keeping you up all night, you have a clear reason to be fatigued.

However, if you’re eating healthy foods, remain physically active, get six to eight hours of sleep each night, and you still feel tired or unfocused during the day, something’s wrong. And you most likely have a medical condition that requires evaluation and treatment.

In this blog post, I discuss how to move away from brain fog and fatigue and toward increasing focus, energy, and vitality. You and your doctor need to take it seriously, acknowledge the problem, and work together to identify the root cause(s), with the end result being solutions intended to restore your energy and mental sharpness.

The take-home message here is this: Solutions exist. Stay focused and be persistent until you receive treatment that makes you feel your best.

Where Conventional Medicine Falls Short

If you have read any of my other blog posts, you already know what I think about the conventional medical approach to treating chronic health conditions, including thyroid disease, chronic fatigue, depression, menopause, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Conventional medicine focuses on diagnosing illness and treating its symptoms —typically with medication. It rarely identifies or addresses the root causes of these illnesses. These often include:

  • Poor nutrition
  • Too much, too little, or the wrong types of exercise
  • Exposure to environmental toxins
  • Poor sleep
  • Leaky gut
  • Other lifestyle and treatment options we have influence over

Imagine entering your doctor’s office and complaining of fatigue or brain fog. Your doctor orders some blood tests and tells you the results show no cause for concern. According to your doctor, you’re perfectly healthy.

Or, you go to see your doctor complaining of fatigue and brain fog, and you’re treated for high blood pressure or high cholesterol, neither resulting in a resolution to your fatigue issues. You have digestive issues, so you’re referred to a gastroenterologist who treats you for acid reflux or irritable bowel disease, but again your fatigue remains untreated. Why is this? Because none of the “solutions” were the Continue reading…

Five Gastroenterologists And Not One Stool Test

I recently had a patient whom spent twenty years with chronic GI complaints, visiting greater than five gastrointestinal specialists. In that span of time, not one of the GI specialists ordered a stool test. I found that surprising and too common. The patient found it frustrating!

Can you imagine having a gut issue for over twenty years and no one thought to perform a stool test?

This particular patient had already been through a series of tests including endoscopy, colonoscopy and abdominal sonogram, due to abdominal pain, reflux symptoms and inconsistent bowels ranging from hard or dry stools to watery diarrhea. To be fair, the tests she  had were able to screen for a variety of conditions including celiac, h-pylori infection, gastritis, polyps, colon cancer, and esophagitis to name a few.

However, the patient was told there was no pathology (this basically means your not dying and we can’t find what’s wrong, so you must be ok). The patient was happy to hear she had no pathologies and unhappy with the proposed solution. She was offered  prescription Bentyl and after trying it for several months was unsatisfied with the results.

In my Tampa clinic I use a few different labs to test for GI problems. One such test is the  Continue reading…

The Brain Fog Mycotoxin Connection

By |2018-03-22T20:52:21-04:00March 22nd, 2018|Categories: Brain Fog|Tags: , , , |6 Comments

You wake up feeling exhausted, and you drag yourself through the day. You feel as though you’ve lost your mojo. You have no pep in your step. Maybe you’re anxious, irritable, or forgetful, or you just can’t think straight. All the color has been washed out of your life. Your world has turned gray. You’re well aware that you’re suffering from brain fog, but what caused it?

Well, that’s a tough question to answer. Any number of physical and psychological factors can contribute to brain fog, including poor sleep; nutritional deficiencies; lack of exercise; overconsumption of sugar, refined carbohydrates, alcohol, caffeine, or nicotine; emotional stress; infection; dehydration; and the list goes on.

Brain fog isn’t so much a medical condition as it is a catchall phrase for symptoms related to the onset of a lack of mental clarity, confusion, forgetfulness and a lack of focus.

An often-overlooked cause (or contributing factor) of brain fog is mycotoxins.

What Are Mycotoxins?

Mycotoxins are poisonous substances produced by a fungus such as mold (microscopic fungi) to kill off competing mold species. They enter the body through foods, dust, air, and long-term exposure to water-damaged homes or buildings.Mycotoxin Fungi are a normal part of our environment and food source; they are particularly prevalent in grains. However, in water damaged buildings or homes, mold species that are harmful to your health can be Continue reading…