Fatigue? You're Not Tired, You're Deficient: The Root Cause of Your Symptoms and How to Treat It

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So I'm so delighted to have Evan Hirsch, Dr. Evan Hirsch, on the program today because he's going to be talking about something that so many of you have problems with. So, as you know, this is women to women, all about hormones, weight, trauma, and adrenals. So let's start with how have things really changed, Evan, in regards to fatigue? I mean, one of the things we see in our office all the time is people complaining of low energy. They can't think clearly, they've got brain fog, they've got so many things going on. Has there been an epidemic of this recently or is this kind of same old, same old, in your opinion?

There has been a bit of an epidemic, and a lot of that came from COVID unfortunately. So now we're seeing a lot of people with long Covid. We're seeing that long Covid can cause over 250 different symptoms, with the major one really being fatigue. And we're seeing that, you know, a quarter to a third of everybody who gets Covid ends up with these persistent symptoms. And so consequently, we're seeing a lot more people, unfortunately, with fatigue and other weird, mysterious symptoms that they can't figure out.

So we're talking about a third of the people that had Covid or having these symptoms. Oh, my goodness.

Exactly.

Incredibly busy.

So let's kind of dig in a little bit deeper because both of us practice functional medicine. So if we're looking at really what we're doing with regards to these poor people that are complaining, my life is just not the same, or those that are just coming in with fatigue. Where do you start with these people?

So I have a four step process, and my first step is always to figure out the causes. And so I'm looking now at 39 different causes. And it sounds overwhelming, but it's not really. And part of that is because 75% of those causes can be determined by symptoms alone. So when someone joins our program, we go through a process where we're figuring out those causes, and then 25% really need the labs. And so we put those together. And then the rest of the time, steps two through four, we're figuring where we're going through and we're fixing those causes.

So can we really talk a little bit more about what are some of the major things that you're seeing? Because obviously when you're in practice, you see some things that are in categories and one's a little bit higher than the other. What's the major thing that you're seeing when you're working with some of these people, and I'd like to break them up into fatigue and then post Covid as well.

Unless they're the same, they're pretty darn similar. A lot of it, it's just a different infection. So the biggest things that we see. So when I'm looking at these 39 different causes, I break them up into deficiencies and toxicities, where deficiencies are things that are not in the body. They're supposed to be. These are hormones, adrenals, thyroid, sex hormones, nutrients, mitochondrial function, lifestyle habits, neurotransmitters, and then there's toxicities. And these are the things that are in the body that aren't supposed to be. This is heavy metals and chemicals and molds and infections, whether it's Lyme, Lyme co infections, parasites, dental infections, sinus infections, Covid.

And so the biggest ones that I would say to actually answer the question is we see heavy metals, chemicals, molds and infections with molds plus infections. And usually it's a couple infections are usually the biggest ones. And then the trauma component, which I know you talk a lot about, and that's just really pervasive. And it doesn't have to be trauma with a big T. It can be little T trauma like I had, where rejection of a peer group a couple of times and changing the way that I looked at the world and increased stress on my organism. So those are the big ones that we see.

So I've got a very interesting little take on this. One of the things that I do a lot of is I have a program for weight loss. How does that play into what you're talking about? Because we have so many women. Fortunately, the program I have, they don't get stuck. We don't have plateaus. We can really get the weight off because of the homeopathic drug drops I use. But do you find when people really start to understand the underlying cause of the issue, be it Lyme, be it mold, be it whatever, that weight that they've held onto for a while just drops off.

Absolutely. And there's a couple of reasons for this. One is that when you're in a chronic stress response, where whether it's from mental, emotional, or physical stress, like one of these toxins, the body is going to hold. It's going to be in a scarcity mode, and it's going to hold onto the weight. Generally, historically, evolutionarily, as humans, we went through feast and famine on a regular basis. And when you go through famine, that's the time that you pack on Weight. And that was really the most stressful time that an infection.

That's part of what we see where you have this chronic stress picture and you're holding onto the weight. The other thing is that fat stores toxins. So if you've got heavy metals, chemicals, molds in your body, most of the time it's stored in fat cells. And there's two ways to increase your weight. You can either increase the size of the fat cells or increase the number of the fat cells. And so what fat cells are doing to try to protect us from these toxins that are stored in the fat cells is they increase in size in order to try to dilute the amount of toxin that's in them. Just so happens that then it increases the weight of the individual.

No, it's interesting. One of the things that I have in my office now is a red light therapy and it's called Contralight. And I had two patients, all the others did incredibly well. It's very unusual because it's been FDA approved to help with weight loss and also works with stem cells and contouring the body. I had two people, both gain. One gained 10 pounds, another gained 12 pounds. What I've come to believe and understand now is that what happened is it just mobilized the toxins duct toxicity. And you know, anybody in the contour, like community really hasn't kind of understood that. But I've been in the world long enough that I was like, oh my gosh. So they had no way to get it out. So working with mold or working with something else is really what helped them. So you're absolutely right. If we, if we facilitate detoxification and they don't have the mechanism to get it out of their body, it makes it actually worse. So you're 100% right. So what would you say that when you have somebody coming in with fatigue and we've looked at all those pieces, how long does it take for them to really get their energy back or, you know, start to normalize things? Let's take both sections, Covid, and those that just come in with fatigue.

So all of our programs are 12 month programs. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that it takes six to 12 months to get heavy metals, chemicals, molds and infections out of the body. You know, it just takes that amount of time. But that doesn't mean that people don't improve along the way. So the way that we've kind of set up our four step process is that in step two, we're replacing the deficiencies so the adrenals, the mitochondria, the thyroid, I call those the big three. And they're a pretty big needle mover when it comes to energy. So it'll give people a significant boost. They come in and their energy is a four or five out of ten. They're going to be up to a six or a seven after you do that, you know, for a month or so. And then we can move into the other steps and start removing some of the other ones, which are, you know, which are longer term propositions, you know, but it's. It's kind of like getting a master's degree. You, like, invest the time, the energy, the money now so that you can have a great 20, 30, 40 years afterwards. Right. But it does take time and we do ask people to make that commitment because you're not going to notice a huge difference in three months or six months. I mean, sometimes with COVID depending on how young the person is, it can get better a lot faster. But I'm seeing that it takes at least a year.

So one of the things I've said to some of my patients is that Covid just is just that final straw. The system was a little bit off anyway, and it just is a final thing that kind of tipped the scale. Would you agree with that? Is that partly what you're seeing as well?

Well, absolutely. Yep. I say it's the straw that broke the camel's back. We're using the same analogy.

I know for sure. Absolutely for sure. So why, you know, one of the things that you and I both see is people are desperate. They come to see us because they've seen everyone else and no one can get the better. Why do you think this is not mainstream? Why is this not in the allopathic world in a big, big way? Because fatigue is an enormous problem. And it's not, in my opinion, really dealt with to really help the people. They're not depressed. We've got something wrong, so we need to help them kind of get to the other side of this.

Yeah, it's just not in the paradigm to get to the root cause. You know, it's symptom management. You know, when I went through conventional medical school, it was, you know, you could tell what diseases somebody had when they came into the hospital based on their medications. You know, it's a pill for every ill, you know, this for blood pressure and this for diabetes or whatever, you know, and so it's, it's managing the consequences, but it's not getting at the root cause. So it's. It's a band aid approach, you know, and. And if people really want to get to the root cause, then they go into functional medicine, environmental medicine, to actually look at those.

Absolutely. I mean, one of the things that I just want to remind the audience of is that if there is a problem, we need to find out why it started. I mean, there's, you know, there's even. I've gotten involved with the Agoscue method, which is. I don't know if you know what that is. There's a guy named Pete Egoscue who has a whole technique of looking at body architecture. And if you have, for example, plantar fasciitis, it's not just treating that, it's understanding how it got there to begin with. So it's a functional medicine approach to the body. And it's fascinating because I'm a ballroom dancer, so sometimes I dance three or four hours, and I'm going actually a little while. That can really cause a lot of pressure on the hips or the spine. And it's looking at how do you shift the fascia, how do you look at the cause of the cause, you know, or bunions. The same thing. You know, we do surgery for the bunions, but it's finding out what. What shifted in that body to cause that kind of disfiguration, so to speak.

And my lens, my lens, I would say that plantar fasciitis is caused by an infection. So I see a lot of people who have Bartonella, for example, which is a Lyme CO infection. They end up with pain on the bottom of the feet, usually misdiagnosed as plantar fasciitis. You treat the bartonella and pain goes away.

Yep, yep, yep. You know, it's so interesting because I have a friend that has gout right now. Very serious attack of gout. And for me, it's the same thing. You know, what created that problem with uric acid to begin with. Oftentimes it's the gut or Lyme or something like that with a CO infection. And the medical world doesn't do it that way. And unfortunately, what happens then is people have persistent problems with that same issue, and it gets worse and worse.

Right?

It's kind of looking at, you know, how do we begin to understand what caused the problem to begin with? So what I hear you say is that when they work with you, you'll find that it takes a while for the energy to come back. And the most important thing is to really find out for that particular person what the Problem is, be it infections, be it Lyme, be it something else that's causing the issues.

Yes, that's absolutely true. The other thing that I would add to that too is that our goal is always to get people's energy and it usually to increase about a level every two or three months, you know, so if they're, you know, five out of ten, then it's six out of ten, then it's seven out of ten, etc. Doesn't always work that way, but a lot of it is. That's generally our goal.

Yeah. Awesome. So if somebody comes in to see you and we say we have a year long program and you'll start noticing every three months that you'll start to feel better, how many of those people return after they've done the program?

Well, it just depends on how, how better they are. So if people, you know, nine times out of 10 people are better after a year and the question is, do they want to continue? How much of their mold is gone? Is it 90% of the way gone, how much of their infections are gone, you know, etc. So if they want complete resolution and they haven't had it at 12 months, then they choose to continue. So I would say that probably about half of people choose to continue.

It really just depends on the severity of the causes that they have and the number of causes that they have.

Sure. Let's do my favorite. Let's talk about trauma here because that plays into everything that we're talking about. Where does that fall into the whole display of symptoms people have or issues that they have? And what do you recommend in terms of treatment for that?

Yeah, it makes everything worse. We actually have a trauma coach on staff to help people in groups and then also one on ones because it's such an important component. In addition to that, we also have a mindset component. So I actually separate those out because oftentimes the emotional component and how they're feeling, things in their body can be different than some of the self talk that we need to program with our four step mindset process. So, so we do that in our program for people who have a lot of sensitivities and mast cell activation syndrome. Sometimes we'll have them do the Gupta program or the Annie Hopper program, the DNRS program. We find that those can be very helpful for folks, but they have to be willing to look at those things when they join one of our programs. You know, it's got to be mind, body and emotions.

Evan, one of the things that I say is that if you don't deal with your story, your story will deal with you. One of the chapters in my book is your issues are in your tissues. And it's so true if you don't look at some of those pieces to the puzzle, it will catch up with us at some point. The question is when? It doesn't make us bad, it just makes us humans in which we carry things with us. One of the things I'm in Florida right now for the next couple of months in the winter so I don't have to be minus 21 degrees, which is going to be on Friday in my hometown. And there's a couple of masseuse here that are Japanese and they get very deep, deep in the tissue and after you leave you're remembering situations that happened when you were 10 or 11. And that's what we're talking about here is we do keep a lot of that inside our body and if we don't deal with that at some point, it can co create more dis ease in our body. And that's really what you're talking about.

Absolutely. Said it perfectly well.

Good. It's true because I mean I was one of the first online to talk about this before anybody was talking about this in 2000, 2001 and would always bring emotion into it because it's such an important part for us to talk about. And it doesn't necessarily mean that we're bad people. It just means that we, you know, we store things in our body and we need to deal with them at some point. So it's so true. So if people want to get a hold of you and want to learn more about your program and you know, what are some of the things that, you know, you offer that they might be, you know, interested in? How do they go about doing that?

Evan? So most everything is on my website@energymdmethod.com there's also a little button in the bottom right hand corner of the website where you can text me directly. So if you want to chat with me, feel free to do that. We also have a free Facebook group where we're posting regularly. And then on the website we also have a learn section where we have a bunch of quizzes to see whether or not you have particular causes, including a long Covid quiz, a Babesia quiz, a Bartonella quiz and some other ebooks and whatnot.

Fantastic. And can you say that email or can you say that website again?

Yes. Energy MD method.com Awesome.

Fantastic. Any final things that you want to tell our audience because there are so many people that are dealing with fatigue and certainly health issues and related to.

That, I think I would just say have hope, you know, there, you know, we're constantly learning new things. There's lots of practitioners out there that could help you with your issues. Stay focused on finding your causes, not on treatments and make sure that you're addressing all of your causes and you're going to be successful.

Yeah, we're on the same page about all that for sure. For sure. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions and I'm sure that people will be very interested and perhaps even look you up. Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me on.

So let me tell you about my next guest. This is Dr. Evan Hirsch, also known as the Energy MD and he's actually world renowned energy expert, bestselling author and professional speaker. He's the creator of the Energy MD method, which is an amazing website. If you have issues with regard to fatigue, the science backed and clinically proven four step process to increase energy naturally. Through his best selling book, podcast and international online telehealth programs that can be assessed from everywhere, he has helped thousands of people around the world increase their energy and happiness. He's been featured on TV podcasts and summits. And when he's not at the office, you can find him singing musicals, dancing hip hop and playing basketball with his family. So a big shout out to Dr. Evan Hirsch for the amazing work that he's doing and now we can hear what he has to say and how he can help us.