Dr. Diane Mueller argues chronic fatigue syndrome is just a symptom label masking real causes like hidden infections, heavy metals, or micronutrient deficiencies. She recommends specific tests like organic acid panels and DHEA-S, interpreted against optimal ranges rather than standard normal ranges.
Questions this video answers
Organic acid test.
DHEA-S (dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate).
Women: 200–300 (units implied as ng/dL); Men: 300–400 (units implied as ng/dL).
A value of 52 (speaker gives this as an example of a low value often called 'normal').
Chapters
Hey everybody. Dr. Diane, your Lyman mold and chronic illness expert here, talking today about new lab tests for chronic fatigue. So this is a very important conversation. Now when we're talking about new lab tests, one of the things that I really want to make sure that we're, we're truly talking about is with chronic fatigue syndrome. It is a syndrome because it is a conglomeration of symptoms. The number one being fatigue. That is basically, it's a label that is given when other things have been ruled out. So if you have fatigue and they checked your thyroid and they checked your B12 and they checked your vitamin D and they checked a few things and like we don't know why you're tired, you get this label. So what I'm not talking about when I'm talking about new blood tests, I'm not talking about a new blood test to diagnose you for chronic fatigue syndrome because largely the diagnosis is pointless. Why is it pointless is because it's not actionable. I like diagnoses that are actually actionable. So if you have this fatigue and we don't know why and we stick a label on you, even if there's a blood test that more easily were to come out to say put this label on you, it's not going to actually tell us why you are tired. That to me is just not good medicine. So what we want to do is we want to have lab tests that are actually going to tell us why, why do you have the fatigue to begin with? And so things to consider. So from a lab testing perspective, remember, the test is only as good as like the testing methodology that is used as well as the clinician that interprets it. So I'm going to put in the show notes here, I'm going to put a link to a bunch of lab reference ranges that are when your body is functioning optimal. So even if you get say thyroid lab tested and you're told that you're normal, normal, you can actually have, believe it or not, you can have a normal thyroid lab value, but you can still have thyroid symptoms because there's a difference between what normal lab ranges look like and optimal lab ranges look like. So many times doctors will say your thyroid is normal, but you actually have thyroid related symptoms. Your thyroid could actually use improvements. And if you bring your thyroid levels from normal to optimal, then your symptoms go away. So make sure you check in the thought in the notes down below because that's where you're going to see these, these reference ranges that I think could be incredibly useful for you okay, so besides that, besides that whole process of normal versus optimal. Right. We have more to say than just that. The other thing is what is the lab that's actually run. So I love the organic acid test. The organic acid test is an amazing test that's going to look at micronutrient levels. So we'll look at things like B vitamin deficiencies, which can lead to chronic fatigue. If you've had basic B vitamins running your blood, the blood tests for most of these vitamins are not that accurate. You'll get a much better accurate reading if you run an organic acid test. So that's really important. You also want to make sure that you are measuring something called DHEA s. Gotta get the S form, the sulfate form. So don't just order dhea. Order DHEA s. That's much more accurate of a reading that if you have low levels of this, it's a precursor hormone to things like estrogen and testosterone. But it's really building, it's really energizing to our system. So when we have enough DHEA measured in the form DHEAs we oftentimes have chronic fatigue go away. Again, normal values, optimal values. Most women want their values between 200 and 300 in the blood. Men between 300 and 400. It is very common to have a number like 52 and be told that you are normal. You can tell there's a huge difference here. It's a big soapbox of mine. Major, major, major problem. Definitely needs to be looked at. Then, of course, we want to consider, you know, things like chronic hidden infections and toxins and all these sorts of things because they can play a big role in the reason behind this. So definitely consider all of this as well. Okay, so for now, what I would recommend you do is start with some of these basics. Get an organic acid test for your nutrients. Make sure all of you look at my charts that you see below. Get your thyroid levels out. Make sure you've had these sorts of tests run. Then make sure your values are falling in the optimal range, not in just the normal range. So check for the lab value information I'm giving you below this video. If you still are having chronic fatigue and those things are been looked at, we want to consider then Lyme disease, we want to consider heavy metals. We want to consider other environmental toxins, other chronic infections, including hidden parasites. So we can talk more about that in other videos. But I want to make sure that we start with this, with the basic and the fundamentals of. Do you even have these basic labs run because so many people just get like these, even like these super pointless labs that aren't really telling us any information or the lab values are not being interpreted correctly and the problem with their chronic fatigue syndrome is just that elephant in the room. So let's start there. Let's see if you have that elephant in the room. So so look below this. Remember, if you have questions, the easiest way to ask my get questions answered. You're always welcome to drop things in the comments, that sort of thing. The easiest way to get the most information is to join my group program where you get ton of educational videos way, way way deeper in topics than we go through on here. Plus twice a month calls with me where you can show up live, you can ask me questions and you can get to directly interact with me face to face. It's my lowest price way of working with me. I try to make it super accessible for people as much as possible. So you can find that also in the show notes. Thanks again. Thanks for subscribing. Please tell your friends and family about me. I really appreciate the referrals. It helps me help others. All right everybody again. Dr. Diane, see you soon.
