Speaker 1: (00:00)
Hey guys, what's going on in Doctor Chad Woolner here and Dr. Buddy Alan. And this is episode 20 of the Health Fundamentals podcast. And on today's episode, we're going to be answering one of Google's most top searched questions. And that is what, why am I so tired? Why am I always so tired? So let's get started.

Speaker 2: (00:18)
You're listening to the health fundamentals podcast. I'm Dr. Chad Woolner and I'm Dr. Buddy Alan. And this show is about giving you the simple but powerful cutting edge tools you need to change your health and your life. So sit back and enjoy the show as we show you the path to your best life down to a science.

Speaker 1: (00:37)
So, hey everybody, on today's episode we're going to be discussing one of the most commonly searched questions, uh, on Google was this from this last year. This was 2018, 2018. And the question was, why am I always so tired? Fatigue is a big issue and I think in my own life, personally, I feel like, uh, energy becomes more valuable to us. The older we get, maybe you better believe it. And maybe I'm just getting old. Um, but energy and of [inaudible] and that's really the thing I think that we start to clue in on is that energy is like the currency of life in the sense that you needed, you need energy to do the things you need to do on a day to day basis. Uh, whether you're self employed and entrepreneur met, whether you work for a company, whatever it is that you do, all of us start to realize that energy is such a valuable resource, um, that, that we use on such a day to day basis in the problem with those watching, if they're dealing with that, this same question, wanting to know the answer to the same question.

Speaker 1: (01:36)
So often what happens is we find ourselves spending our energy in areas that matter least, right? One of my favorite sayings is making sure we live our life in situate that we don't allow that which matters least to become subject to that which matters most, right? What I mean by that more specifically as like how many people can relate to feeling you're expanding your energy at work all day long. And then your family gets whatever's left, whatever leverage you spent by the end of the day. And so increasing energy is a really important topic. Well, and this is one of those topics also that relates to some of our prior episodes episodes. This isn't something that's just out of the blue. Generally it's our routines that are creating, whether, you know, if we have good energy, it's because of the routines we've created our lives. Occasionally you may have a health issues or other things going on and we're going to kind of talk about that here today.

Speaker 1: (02:26)
But more often than not, these are all things that are very simple for us to, uh, if we can establish the right routines in our lives, we can dramatically change how we feel on every front, right? Barring a few rare exceptions with health issues, you bet. Um, in this, in this category, it's typically not something that's like spontaneous out of the blue, like you said. You know, usually there's a very clear and obvious reason as to why people struggle with lack of energy. You Bet. Well, and, and even w with certain health struggles that, you know, make it difficult for people to sleep. There are all the things that we'll talk about today will impact that in a, in a beneficial way. Absolutely have. So, so we're going to be talking about three general categories. If you look at the most common culprits or causes behind why people deal with, uh, uh, fatigue, um, consistent fatigue, daily fatigue, we'll call it.

Speaker 1: (03:18)
There are three broad categories. So let's start with category number one. The first one is going to seem kind of like a Duh to obvious, little obvious. It's, people are not getting enough sleep, either enough sleep quantity and quality quantity and quality of sleep. And honestly, a lot of people don't even think, they don't even know what the actual, what they should be getting. You know, generally speaking, they say we should get somewhere between seven and 10. And I'll tell you right now, even though I tried to have a good sleep routine, um, I probably am on the lower end of that scale generally. And there have been times when I've struggled with sleep. Yeah. So, uh, yeah. And, and there's lots actually different things that can mess up some mezcals. Yeah. Like the subcategories. There's things like, first of all, by not getting it, but some people snore.

Speaker 1: (04:01)
I'll tell you right now, that's probably one of my issues is I think I might even have a little bit of apnea and I haven't yet been tested, but, um, the, I know that that's a, I certainly know I snore, bless my wife's heart, but um, you know, that's a huge thing for a lot of people not getting good sleep and honestly that, that one extrapolates into other negative health consequences as well. So that's something needs to be looked at. Um, the probably one of the biggest things that people screw up with as they have a terrible bedtime routine, poor, poor bedtime hygiene. Exactly. So it's just like, you know, we are very cyclical in nature, right. When if you get up everyday for work at six o'clock in the morning, um, even on the weekend, you're going to probably pop awake at six o'clock in the morning because your body's used to it.

Speaker 1: (04:47)
Right. All right. Sleep is no different. All right, we should be getting up. Even on the weekends we should get up at the same time. We should go to bed at the same time our bodies should we establish these patterns again hormonally and just sick likely where our bodies will start shutting down if we train them to do so. And I would say too, it's not even just an issue of timing in terms of sleep hygiene. It's also the specific things that we do prior to bad meeting. Exactly. If you're watching like a game of Thrones episode before bed and your adrenaline gets cranking up because there's something really intense or some sort of show like that or you're doing other things before bed that aren't necessarily conducive to allowing your body to unwind. Probably the biggest and, and what you're talking about is probably one of the very biggest right now as far as in our culture for both our children and ourselves.

Speaker 1: (05:35)
It's actually looking at screens, electronics, the bright lights from the screens actually stimulate our brain in such a way that it takes a few hours after they say you shouldn't be looking at a screen within two hours of going to bed. Right. All right. So that's one of those things, again, we're just getting our wavelengths and our brain cranking and, and so yeah, there are some simple work arounds. You know, they have special types of glasses you do, you can order on amazon.com that help block out the blue light from electronics, that type of light that's going to stimulate your brain inappropriately. Uh, before bed. I'm trying to remove electronics as best you can in general is going to be a huge help. You know, lowering light. Your body obviously, uh, begins that process. They actually, um, you know, your pituitary, they call it your third eye.

Speaker 1: (06:19)
Yeah. Any kind of light, even through your eyelids, um, will kind of mess with that and they sold as dark a room as you can make. It is going to be a huge benefit in your, in your behalf. Temperature, temperature, temperature, that's a big one, right? Um, cool. A cool room. They say a cool room. Even if you layer up with blankets, having a cool room will generally help people sleep better. Well, and something interesting about that is in general, this is a generalization, but typically women tend to want more warmth and guys typically want things a little bit cooler. There's a really cool, um, and we're not getting paid any sort of an affiliate commission for this or anything, but, uh, uh, there's a new product out there which I'm dying to get. We need to get one of these for our, our house.

Speaker 1: (06:57)
Cause I know this is the case with my wife and I, uh, they call it the chilly pad. And I know there's other iterations of it, but basically it's a climate control unit that you can separate between two people. You can have two distinct climate regions in your bed. And so one side you can crank up the temperature. So if it's a woman who tends to be colder than, than the man, uh, she can have a warmer side. A guy can have a cooler side and everybody can be happy and satisfied in terms of that. Cool. But yeah, so temperature is going to play a role there. Honestly, not eating too close to bedtime, that's going to be a volunteer. You will always notice that if you have a huge meal late at night, you're, you'll sleep very restlessly. Um, oftentimes that's, those are some of the reasons people suffer with heartburn.

Speaker 1: (07:36)
Um, and one of the other, I would say probably the, a super big a culprit for many people is they drink too much before bed, so they're waking up having to pee one or more times throughout the night. So those, those are probably some of the biggest, um, reasons for poor sleep. You know, like the most common quality and quantity. The thing that I would say about sleep, I learned this early on clinically seeing patients is there's a very intimate connection between sleep or lack there of uh, chronic pain and chronic mental health problems like depression and anxiety. There is such a, I call it kind of the ugly triad, people who deal with and struggle with either anxiety or depression, people who struggle with pain problems and people who struggle with a sleep related issues. And so one of the first very most simple therapeutic interventions that I learned firsthand clinically is really doing everything in my power to help patients get better sleep.

Speaker 1: (08:30)
If you can improve their sleep, that's your body's primary restorative state. That's where your body does the vast majority of its healing, uh, of its restoration. You know, in terms of regenerating and creating all of various building blocks in hormones that your body needs to, um, to manage itself, you know, on a day to day basis. So sleep supercritical sleep's huge. So, all right, our second, uh, kind number two sub category or a, I guess, yeah. Sub or common reasons. Reasons behind poor poor, a fatigue. Sleep. Yeah. Sleep is number one. Number two, number two, metabolic reasons, metabolic reasons. All right? So, um, how many times have you laid awake at night because you're stressed out of your mind or you're thinking about stuff in your brain won't shut down and, and then, and then you get frustrated because I'm not sleeping again. And so you create this vicious cycle of frustration and anxiety and stress, and then, or even more, you've slept during the night or so you think, and yet you're still dead tired every morning.

Speaker 1: (09:27)
I am not a quote unquote morning person, right? Or you go throughout the day and you hit a wall, then, then you're just spent the rest of the day, you know, these are all. And then on top of that, you know, all the other signs and symptoms of other metabolic issues. So for women especially, it might be things like changes with your hair. Maybe you're losing hair, losing eyebrows, all of these kind of telltale signs of maybe thyroid problems, right? Skin, uh, your nails are more brittle. Uh, you feel cold in your extremities all the time, you know, all these common issues. And they can be tied back to thyroid problems, which we've talked about in one of our previous episodes. And or adrenal problems are stress hormones. Um, you know, and then other metabolic conditions and problems, things like diabetes, um, being overweight is obviously going to, uh, impact that negatively.

Speaker 1: (10:13)
Absolutely. Absolutely. So, yeah, when it comes to, you know, just we all deal with, um, I think everyone deals with stress in their life, but some people certainly have a lot more, uh, it weighs on him, hit more heavier at times or more heavily at times. And so, I mean, if that's something you're always worried about are always stressing, you know, make sure you go and see someone, get checked out, make sure your stress hormones are functioning appropriately, and make sure that's not one of the barriers preventing you from getting good rest. And if nothing else, you know, in terms of what you can do in empowering, uh, our, our listeners to do something right now, you know, uh, making any sort of positive change as you can to your diet is always going to be something really powerful that you can do. That'll help, especially with metabolic issues, you know, um, I mean it should make perfectly common sense to people that if you're carrying extra weight that your body wasn't intended to carry, that's going to create a certain level of fatigue that's going to create a drain on your resources, namely energy, right?

Speaker 1: (11:09)
It's going to be huge. Right? So, um, so that's number two, metabolic problems, the number three, our third. And I'm thinking most everybody has suffered with this at one time or another. And it's pain. Yeah. All right. There is a huge number of people that, you know, they toss and turn all night long and every time they have to roll over, they're in excruciating pain, right? And so every time they toss and turn, they wake up. And so they don't, that's where they may be in bed for 12 hours, but they don't get any kind of restful sleep. They don't ever hit that are different. You know, you've heard of different sleep cycles, um, the different phases of sleep and you need to make sure you hit all of them to be able to get that restorative sleep, that repairative sleep. So if you're in pain or you suffer from chronic pain, it's, you know, there's, again, there's a lot of things you can hit.

Speaker 1: (11:53)
Make sure you're eating appropriately because what we eat affects how much pain we're in. You band, make sure you're treating your body right, exercise, make sure you're getting the right fueling. You know, like we talk about frequently is make sure you're feeling yourself correctly and then get help if outside of outside of that, you know, like that's what we work with people every day is pain, you know, help them manage that in a, in a healthy way. And one of the most common questions, I don't know about you, but one of the most common questions that I've been asked clinically over the years, um, that I wish I had a more satisfying answer for patients with is what type of mattress should I sleep? You get that question right? Which mattress is the best mattress? Right? That's kind of like saying that, that's kind of like the question, which car is the best car?

Speaker 1: (12:35)
Yeah. Right. And so, uh, that answer, you know, I wish I had a more concrete like, oh, hands down, it's this mattress, you know, and as much as marketers want to paint this picture for you, that there is one best mattress above all, really at the end of the day, what I always tell patients is it really depends upon what's going to suit your needs best. And so I say do your research. I actually lay on the bed, you know, most mattress companies out there will have some sort of an in house trial period where you can try it for a period of 30 or 60 days or whatever. Um, but I just see, do enough research in terms of what you feel is going to be best for you because there is no one size bed fits. All I know were saying was pillows. Pillows. Exactly. Um, and so it's going to be one of those things where really what works best for you?

Speaker 1: (13:17)
I would say, um, the one piece of advice that I would say is don't skimp on a bed. Don't go and try and find the cheapest deal for bed. I mean you spend, how much of your life, a significant part, I mean literally half of your life you spend on that thing. So don't like it to me is always been surprising how people want to cut corners and, and, and not pay for that. And yet they'll, they'll, they'll go above and beyond and buy a car. You know, they'll, they'll have no problem forking out 40, $50,000 for a car, but when it comes to a bed, let's keep it under $500 because anything above that is like an extravagant expansion, I would say. You know what? Uh, go for a quality mattress, one that, you know, um, they've really done a good job producing, you know, and there's a lot, my wife and I, we personally, and again, this is no a endorsement, affiliate endorsement.

Speaker 1: (14:02)
We sleep on the purple mattress. I think we were sold on the marketing. If you saw the commercial shirt, the goldilocks commercial social, really funny. Um, we'd love it is a great mattress. Um, it's been, it's been a great mattress for us. But um, but there's others too that I know that are out there that are really, really good. But I would just simply say that's my one piece of advice to really try and find one she can sleep on. Yeah, don't go cheap. Um, be willing to invest in that because it's worth the investment. It will pay huge dividends. You Bet. So pain. So yeah. So what, what are they again? So sleep obviously all these diff, the routine really, that's huge. Don't set yourself up for success because you are completely in control of your routine, right? Just like you brush your teeth at night, set yourself up for sleep hygiene, learned to shut your mind down slowly so it knows when to go to sleep.

Speaker 1: (14:44)
And then one other thing I'll add into that real quick too, in terms of your hygiene routine at the end, getting habit too, of journaling in the evening, reflect on the day, focus on what's been good for the day. You know, we talk about that in the morning. Journaling in the morning is a powerful tool. It's just as powerful at night in terms of kind of reflecting on the day, looking at, you know, and for those who maybe are religious looking at kind of things through a religious lens, you know, seeing God's hand in your life and those things. For those who maybe aren't religious focus on gratitude, what went right that day? What was good that day? What were you really pleased with with the day he focused on it. That puts you into a proper state as well as a really powerful tool as well. So yeah, putting your mind right.

Speaker 1: (15:19)
Yeah. So sleep in terms of your sleep, routine, quality and quantity of sleep. Number one, why else are people tired? Uh, the metabolic reset, Pollock issues. We'll make sure. Yeah, make sure your body's function and right on the, on the internal side. And then the lastly is if you're, if you're in a lot of pain figured out, fix it. Yeah. Getting to the root of it. Get the help, get the help you need, not just symptom relief. It really fixed the problems. Absolutely. Get them fixed and there is a way to fix them. They're really a cell. We help patients each and every day at our clinic. So, uh, hopefully this has been valuable for you guys. Hopefully this has given you maybe a little bit of insight and answer as to maybe why you're dealing with fatigue, maybe why you're tired all the time and if you know somebody that's tired all the time, maybe this can help them as well. So, um, yeah, share this with him and we will talk to you guys on the next episode. Have a great day.

Speaker 2: (16:04)
Thanks for listening to the health fundamentals podcast. Be sure to subscribe so that you stay in the loop and in the note with all of the cutting edge health information that we share, if you know other people that could benefit from this information, please share it with them as well. Also be sure to give us a review. These really help us to ultimately help more people. Last but not least. If you have questions that you want answered live on the show, or if you have ideas for topics that you would like us to cover, please shoot us an email and let us know at info@thehealthfundamentals.com.