Recently I interviewed Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, who is the author of the book from Fatigued to Fantastic and we talked about fatigue. If you would prefer to listen the interview you can access it by Clicking Here [1].
Dr. Eric Osansky:
I’m very excited to announce today’s guest, who is Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum. He is the author of the book from Fatigued to Fantastic. I read this book in its original version years ago; it’s now on its fourth edition. Very excited and honored to chat with Dr. Jacob. We’re going to be talking about fatigue, no shocker.
Let me get into Dr. Teitelbaum’s bio here, as Dr. Jacob is one of the most frequently quoted integrative pain and fibromyalgiamedical authorities in the world. He is once again the author not only of the bestselling book From Fatigued to Fantastic, but 10 books in total, and lead author of eight studies on effective treatment for fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Dr. Teitelbaum appears often as a guest on news and talk shows nationwide, including Good Morning America, The Dr. Oz Show, Oprah and Friends, CNN, and Fox News Health. Thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Jacob.
Dr. JacobTeitelbaum:
It’s great to be with you. Those of you who have fatigue, pain, brain fog, or don’t quite feel the vitality you want, we are going to give you a nice, organized approach on how to be feeling fantastic.
Dr. Eric:
Awesome. Can’t wait to chat with you about this. Before we do, let’s go ahead and give your background. How did you start becoming an expert when it comes to helping people overcome their fatigue?
Dr. Jacob:
People ask, “What’s a nice Jewish doctor like you doing in fibromyalgia? Natural medicine, what?” I got into it the old-fashioned way. I was in medical school in 1975 and came down with a nasty viral infection. It basically left me with post-viral chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. I was paying my own way through med school, so that meant I was homeless and sleeping in parks. The professors knew there had been a virus, but when I was still sick 6-12 weeks later, they figured, “He’s depressed.”
There I am, as if the university put a holistic homeless medical school student sign on my park bench. Naturopaths came by. Chiropractors came by. Herbalists came by. Energy workers came by. Sometimes, they had pizza, and I even ate. It wasn’t uncommon to go a couple days without eating. They taught me all the bits and pieces I needed to learn how to recover myself. I was able to recover, go back to med school, get my degree in medicine.
I focused on treating the different components of fatigue, especially thyroid, adrenals. We will talk about a whole host of ones that are essential for recovery. It’s complex, but it’s not hard. It just takes an organized approach. For those who want it, there is a lot of stuff; “I have brain fog, I can’t do this.”
There is an energy analysis program if you go to EnergyAnalysisProgram.com. Do a quick 15-minute quiz. Instead of $400, it’s free to everybody, so everybody can get care. It will tell you what’s draining your energy and how to take care of that. Mix and match. There are a lot of options for you to work with your physician. The tools are all here, and we are happy today to try to get an overview, that there is something you can do, and which things resonate with you, so you can start with those.
I’ll talk about 2-3 things that can double your energy in a minute a day. That’s not hard to do. We’ll take it piece by piece.
Dr. Eric:
A lot of people listening to this have a thyroid condition or an autoimmune thyroid condition. When we think about thyroid, especially when we think about fatigue, most of the time arguably we think of hypothyroidism, low thyroid hormone, including Hashimoto’s. I also wanted you to briefly share your experience because from what I understand, you had Graves’, correct?
Dr. Jacob:
After I’d been in practice for many years- It’s funny because I would be on the lecture circuit and talk about the symptoms and signs. Every time I’d look in the mirror, they were gone. Then I would have this period where my weight dropped 20 pounds. I am good at meditating. Otherwise, having high thyroid, and I had Graves’ with some autoimmune, and thyroid was sky high.
The joke is if you have high thyroid, it’s like a country western song. You lose your job, you lose your spouse, your dog runs away, because you’re an emotional train wreck. I was able to get centered and watch it. Oh, this is interesting.
But those of you who find that emotionally, you’re on a rollercoaster, if it’s sugar cravings, you want to look for low adrenals. For those who may be wondering if you’re manic/depressive, you’re kind of hyper and then depressed, it’s not uncommon with the high thyroid. First, we’ll make it high and overdrive, 20 cups of coffee. As it burns out and goes to low thyroid, it’s very common that you’ll see people who will be on a rollercoaster where the thyroid burns out, goes low, and there is another blast of autoimmune activity. The thyroid inflames again and goes high. You get these highs and lows.
As long as you know that can happen and can go to a lab and get a free T4 blood test and see if it’s high or low at the time, the TSH is one of the crappiest tests invented in humanity. But you can adjust things after that free T4 test. Then you are in control again. For those of you who have had high thyroid, that feeling of being in control instead of being spun out is a very good thing.
Dr. Eric:
When it comes to having a thyroid condition, and experiencing fatigue, sometimes it’s not always just related to the thyroid. There could be other causes, too. Can you chat about some of the other common causes of fatigue?
Dr. Jacob:
Absolutely. You know it’s low thyroid whether or not the tests are normal, or you have overt elevated TSH, and the doctors say, “You have a thyroid thing,” but they treat you poorly at least half the time. If you find that despite thyroid being optimized, the thyroid treatment, you’re still feeling crap, then it’s okay to find someone who knows how to adjust thyroid properly.
Most doctors have no clue. Most doctors look at tests, and only the TSH. If it’s in a normal range, you’re fine. Normal range just means you are not the highest or lowest 2.5% of the population. A normal shoe size would be 5-13. Eric, I imagine my size 12 shoe, if I put a size 6 on, a doctor would say, “It’s in the normal range. There is no problem with the shoe.”
Once you have optimized the thyroid hormone to how it feels to you, not to the blood test, and you still have problems, the first question I will ask is: Do you have trouble sleeping? If it’s a “Yes, I’m exhausted, I can’t sleep,” you have fibromyalgia or CFS. Two names, but in most cases, it’s the same thing, although each of them is somewhat different as well. You want to look for another thing.
If you have trouble sleeping, and you have fatigue, you have tripped the circuit breaker called the hypothalamus. That controls sleep hormones on and off. Blood goes to your heart and stays there; it’s called POTS. That’s when things like the Energy Analysis Program help.
If you look at S.H.I.N.E., that will give you a checklist for looking at probable things and how to treat it. You need to address the sleep. A lot of good natural ways. There is Revitalizing Sleep Formula, 10mg Melatonin EP120, all good kinds of natural things to start with.
The hormones. Thyroid, adrenal, reproductive hormones. We will look at each of these as time allows. You want to optimize these. The blood tests being normal means nothing. Seriously. That’s not how you diagnose. That’s one piece of information that helps. It’s about 20% of the information.
80% is the symptoms. Do you get irritable when hungry? You need adrenal support. Weight gain and cold intolerance? Thyroid support. If you are a male in your 40s or 50s and your cholesterol is going up, and your blood sugar is toying with going up, and your blood pressure is going up, you will probably have low testosterone, if your testosterone level is under 500. There are other hormones, too.
There is a 4,000-word information sheet I put together for people with chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and long COVID, which is post viral CFS. You can email me about it. My email address is FatigueDoc@gmail.com [2]. Ask for the fatigue, fibromyalgia, POTS, or long COVID information sheet, and I will send it to you.
The other agent is hypertension. You stand up, your blood goes to your legs due to gravity, and it stays there. Don’t go back. Doctors usually miss it. Very treatable.
Infection is nutritional support. B vitamin deficiencies, other deficiencies, B12, iron, a host of infections. Viral antibiotics sensitive, candida. If you have nasal congestion, postnasal drip, gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, you probably have candida. Especially if gas doesn’t have smell.
If you have these silent but deadlies, then that’s small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). That’s bacteria splitting the gut, sulfur off the amino acids. SIBO is a manifestation of low thyroid. Until you treat the thyroid optimally, the gut will be sluggish, the bacteria will back up from the colon into the small intestine and cause SIBO. In addition to clearing the bacteria, you have to optimize the thyroid, if you want that SIBO to go away.
There are all these different things. We will go through the quick list. But that’s S.H.I.N.E. I’m having trouble sleeping. Hormones. Hypertension. Infections. Nutrition. Look at those four things, and you will get a massive start at recovering.
Dr. Eric:
You didn’t mention the E.
Dr. Jacob:
E is Exercise as able. That’s not so much. If you’re a couch potato, that contributes. But a lot of you who have fibromyalgia can’t walk very much, or you will be wiped out for two days and bedridden. It’s called post-exertional malaise. You’re afraid to do any exercise, so you decondition, which is just as bad.
You want to see how much you can walk, even if it’s 50 steps, whatever it is. You may be wounded. But you want to see how much walking you can do, so you can stay conditioned without crashing after. You want to find that middle path. It’s not harming you to get that crash; it’s just unpleasant. Don’t be afraid of it, but don’t try to get it. You’re not helping yourself by doing it.
Dr. Eric:
I’d like to dive more into the S.H.I.N.E protocol. This protocol alone could make a big difference in someone’s fatigue. S for Sleep. Can you talk about some of the more common reasons that people have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep? Especially those tough cases. There are some people I consult with, and it seems like they have tried everything. They have taken melatonin and valerian root and all these other supplements.
Dr. Jacob:
They haven’t. People say, “I have tried everything.” “Have you tried this?” “No.” “How about that?” “No.” “How about this?” “No.” I never once have found somebody who has actually tried everything, who has said yes to all of my questions.
Here’s the thing. Many reasons for sleep issues. 1) This is an energy crisis. Our cellular energy production goes down or can’t keep up with demand. When energy drops to a certain level, the area that uses the most energy for its size, which is the hypothalamic circuit breaker in the brain, which controls sleep hormones and autonomic function, goes offline, so you can’t sleep. That paradox of can’t sleep even though you’re exhausted, tells you have hypothalamic dysfunction, which is what fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome are. Direct low energy causes it.
2) Average weight gain. We have done studies beyond the eight treatment studies. 32.5 pounds is the average weight gain for fibromyalgia. I don’t care if you’re eating like a bird. The metabolism goes up, and you will gain weight. They get sleep apnea, sleep disordered breathing. People often wake up in the middle of the night with sweat from low blood sugar from low adrenals. Their hormones are low, so they will trigger sweats. Or infections will trigger sweat, or acid reflux.
There are a lot of things that can affect sleep. The book goes through an organized way of how to check. If you fall asleep at the TV or the wheel of the car, look for sleep apnea. If you’re waking up hungry, take a nighttime protein snack and some adrenal support at bedtime. It’s not hard. You take a Pepcid for three nights, and if you wake up and the sweat goes away, it’s acid reflux. These are easy things.
How do you fix it? If you do a high enough dose of any one thing to get to sleep all night, you will be hungover until three in the afternoon. Each treatment has its own half-life, which means it gets kicked out of your body at its own schedule regardless of whatever else you’re taking with it. If you take a low dose of several things, it’s not going to be so high as to leave you hungover the next day, but it won’t be high enough to get you sleeping. You take several, and they gang up in the middle of the night, and you’re sleeping like a kitten.
What do I start with? The Revitalizing Sleep Formula, an herbal mix of six things, including Valerian, passionflower leaf, 5-HTP, and more, It’s terrific. It’s easy.
Terrific Zzzz, a mix of four essential oils. The EP120 melatonin, which is a sustained release, which is what you want.
For natural things, the smell of lavender. A heavy blanket called a weighted blanket. Have you ever swaddled a baby, and it calms right down? The heavy blankets swaddle the nervous system. A night mask, $15 each, cheap on Amazon.
Herbals you can find on my website. All of these natural things you can try. There is ANS Rewire. If you can’t tolerate anything by mouth, any pills, or supplements, ANS Rewire by Dan Neuffer or Dynamic Neuroretraining System. No pills. They reset the hypothalamic limbic system, that whole sleep cellar. That by itself can often make this problem go away with no pills. You do it online. The DNR is $250 to get the program online. I’m not sure what Neuffer’s ANS Rewire is. Both are superb.
Medications. Trazodone. Some people need Ambien for sleep. Certainly, it has its issues. For initiating sleep, the Zzz meds are often necessary and helpful. I think the benefits way outweigh the downsides of those who tolerate them.
See how I got my college nickname of Rambling Jack?
Dr. Eric:
I appreciate that. That was great. Some of the other components of S.H.I.N.E could also interfere with sleep. Hormones, high cortisol, infections. Have you seen infections, especially stealth infections, also affect sleep?
Dr. Jacob:
Absolutely. A reflection of a common pattern with adrenal problems is that people will be irritable and hungry. If you have relationship problems, get adrenal support because you get low blood sugar and this irritability. I see people in marriage counseling and divorce because of slow adrenals. Adrenoplex is a nice mix of glycyrrhiza glabra licorice, B5, Vitamin C, all these things that the adrenals need. It will smooth that out along with your energy.
We see the adrenal tends to be low during blood tests. Normal is useless. Helpful if you’re an interpreter, but normal means nothing. You have size 12 shoe. A size 6 shoe is normal. I can give anybody a size 6 shoe, and it’s normal, no matter if they’re a 400-pound, 6’10” Texan.
If you look at someone who is irritable and hungry, normal morning cortisol is 18. At nighttime, it has to drop below 2. Otherwise, your mind will be racing at bedtime. The blood test tells me if your mind is wide awake and racing at bedtime, your cortisol is not dropping low enough to sleep. Exhausted all day, mind racing at bedtime. Irritable all day, mind racing at bedtime. Get phosphatidylserine on Amazon. 100-300mg, 90 minutes before bedtime. Start with 100mg. The next night, 200mg. The next night, 300mg. It will drop your cortisol at sleep if that’s a problem.
What happens is cortisol is too low during the day. Doesn’t drop enough at bedtime. But then it plummets in the morning, so you wake up wide awake, hungry for more blood sugar. A simple test and treatment for that is protein. Hard-boiled egg, cheese, meat, fish. Protein, not sugar, not carbs, an hour or two before bedtime. That may cut off the drop in blood sugar until later. That’s why I start with 100mg of phosphatidylserine because it will drop your blood sugar in the middle of the night, too. That’s when your lowest dose keeps you up.
Dr. Eric:
I like phosphatidylserine. I’m glad you mentioned that. How about some other natural agents like ashwagandha or L-theanine? What do you think of those out of curiosity?
Dr. Jacob:
The Revitalizing Sleep Formula has L-theanine in it. I designed that formula. All the money from that goes to charity. I don’t take money from farmers’ international industries.
Ashwagandha, there is a study we just finished, but we haven’t published yet. I’ll talk about it. We gave a mix of ashwagandha, rhodiola, green tea extract, licorice, a couple of other things. It’s called the Smart Energy System. It increased stamina, energy, and sleep. Stamina went up 80%. 60% of people benefited within a month. It was quite dramatic.
The ashwagandha supports adrenals. I give it more in the morning, but you can give it at night along with the phosphatidylserine for what I call Sleep Tonight, for those who have mind awake and racing. The Sleep Tonight is a simple way to get the phosphatidylserine and ashwagandha together to help with nighttime sleep.
The Smart Energy System was awesome. We’ve done four studies in the last two years. If you’re outside of the United States, you can go to RecoveryFactors.com. That’s an immune serum supplement that is quite dramatic. For those in the United States, the Smart Energy System.
The only supplement I keep on my desk if I need an energy fix is HRG80 Red Ginseng. It’s a chewable tablet. I take just half a tablet when I need it. It tastes good. In the studies, it increased energy on average by about 60%. What I like to do is decrease pill count. I don’t like people popping pills. Smart Energy is two capsules that replaces how many pills by using the chewable of the HRG80 Red Ginseng tablets, it’s half a pill to one pill a day. You may want to try it, if you’re having a crazy busy day. I can feel it in seconds, as I’m quite energy sensitive. It’s quite dramatic. That study was published about a year ago.
Dr. Eric:
Might need to give it a try. That’s not something that you would want to take at night. That’s more in the day to help with energy.
Dr. Jacob:
The Smart Energy System is for the morning. It has the ashwagandha you were asking about. It balances adrenal function along with numerous other things.
Brand matters. I use a KSM-66. I use the Europharma ones. Some things like the phosphatidylserine, I don’t think the brand makes a difference. Some things like red ginseng, 95% of ginseng products are useless because the active components are gone. If it’s not wild ginseng, it doesn’t work. I’m picky when it matters.
Dr. Eric:
You should be. You don’t want people to waste their money understandably. How about sex hormones? Can those play a role in fatigue as well?
Dr. Jacob:
Absolutely, and in sleep. Progesterone is the body’s natural Valium, and it’s important to men as well as women. In women, the tests FSH, LH, and others for menopause and perimenopause do not start to become abnormal until 5-12 years of hormone deficiency. You don’t want to wait for that test and then for your periods to stop. If you are in your 40s, and I want to distinguish between irritable around your menses, which is PMS, which is progesterone deficiency. Omega-3s. For Omega-3s, Vectomega, which is one a day. If you have this around your menses, you get headachy, you have trouble sleeping, the insomnia, brain fog, or energy plummets, that’s progesterone deficiency.
I would use a bioidentical progesterone, which you can get over the counter. Those tend to be pretty good. You are looking at 30mg of topical. I will use bioidentical estrogen, not the poison that people tend to use because it’s profitable. Around your menses, you crash and burn. That tells you that you need it. If you take it and feel better, then you know.
The testosterone in men. Men go through perimanopause. Before you drop to a testosterone of 200, which is what you must be abnormal on the labs, you will be normal at levels of about 400 or 500. The way that you tell, cholesterol goes up, blood pressure goes up, spare tire waste, diabetes or prediabetes, those numbers go up. Other things won’t go up.
Libido goes down. That gives you a sign of low testosterone. There was a study on lost libido, where 30% of people say that. It’s not because your spouse is ugly or fat or whatever. That’s just part of the condition. It takes longer to improve, but it does.
Certainly, low testosterone in men, low estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone in women plays a big role in the whole process. Again, you go by symptoms predominantly. You go with bioidentical treatment. If the labs are low normal, or if you have the symptoms, then you treat. Unless there is a reason not to. Then I see how they respond. If they got better, then their hormones were low. To me, that is how the diagnosis is made.
Dr. Eric:
Makes sense. Infections, including long haul COVID, because people don’t have an answer who are suffering from that. People suffering from Lyme, bartonella.
Dr. Jacob:
Long COVID is very treatable. It’s just a lack of physician education. There are no expensive medications. It is very treatable.
Dr. Eric:
It doesn’t take a really long time, it sounds like, to treat either?
Dr. Jacob:
No. It just takes knowing what you’re doing, or having a doctor who does it. Let’s look at infections. There are dozens of infections that can trip the hypothalamic circuit breaker. How many ways are there to blow a fuse or a circuit breaker in your home? Countless. Same in your body.
A lot of antibiotic infections, we talk about Lyme or coinfections. The Lyme tests are grossly unreliable. The holistic tests are positive for virtually everyone. I’ve seen two negative tests in the main Lyme lab that did not have some infection positive in 30 years. To me, a test that is positive on everybody is not a useful test. You can go to the standard labs, the main national labs most doctors use. They are just so wrong that don’t bother with the test. Flip a coin. It will be just as accurate. In terms of whether you have it. So we have no good testing.
So, I go by symptoms. Since a lot of people have a positive Lyme test, whether or not they have it, low dose naltrexone (LDN) helps people even in the absence of infection. It shuts down microneedle activation. You can see brain inflammation, even though it’s a little over vivid. It settles that down. LDN settles that down. When you have the Lyme, and it doesn’t go away completely with the antibiotics and stay gone, you want to go after the S.H.I.N.E. protocol. You want to consider LDN. Your Lyme doctor will know about that. That’s a prescription.
Candida, very important. Nasal congestion, postnasal drip, chronic sinusitis, gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, mouth sores. If I get two or three of those symptoms, I am going with the antifungal for 6-8 weeks. I am going with a natural antifungal and a probiotic. There are all kinds of great natural ones out there, like grapefruit seed extract and dozens of others. I am going to give it for a long period.
I am going to stop feeding the yeast. Yeast grows by fermenting sugars, so you are going to have a sugar craving, not an irritable, “get out of my way or I’ll kill you” adrenal fatigue, low blood sugar, but more like a happy Twinkie, something sweet would be nice, so you go into the cabinets looking for it. The yeast is putting out a chemical, saying, “Feed us,” and look for the sugar. You kill the yeast with an antifungal protocol.
Viruses, countless viruses. Some viruses trigger other virus release, like Epstein-Barr. The EB tests are positive in 95% of healthy adults. That doesn’t mean you got it. But if you have current viral symptoms, like flu-like symptoms, when you feel sick, you feel flu-like. I am going to go with antivirals for four months. Celebrex can be helpful.
I will use things like ViraPro, which is elderberry mixed with other things. That’s what I take myself when I’m traveling because I travel quite a bit. I will take ViraPro twice a day if I’mtraveling, or if I have COVID, or if I am sick for a lengthy time. I will be stimulating my immune system, keeping it healthier with ViraPro and a good multivitamin.
There are a lot of infections. The book tells you about if it’s antibiotic sensitive, viral, fungal. They have different symptom patterns. They stand out once you know the patterns. Then I treat them, and the person gets better if they had it.
Dr. Eric:
The LDN, how long do you typically keep people on that? I’m sure it varies depending on the person.
Dr. Jacob:
It takes two months before you see anything. It may mess with your sleep in the beginning, in which case they can go make a starter pack. People don’t expect anything. I started using LDN 35-40 years ago. Take it for a month. Didn’t help anybody. Tossed it. Onto the next thing. I didn’t do it enough times. It takes two months to start.
For most people, once they are feeling better for nine months, I can wean them off almost everything. But I encourage them to stay on the multivitamin, the Clinical Essentials multivitamin tablets, two a day. I will keep them on something for sleep, whether it’s herbals or 25mg of Trazodone long-term because otherwise, they will have stress push them over the cliff again. The LDN, 70 cents a day. Once you have been on it, it’s benign and well tolerated.
When people are feeling back to themselves for nine months, I pop the question: “Are you ready to come off the stuff?” Half of them are like, “Oh yes, what can I get rid of?” The other half is, “The only way you are getting any of this away from me is out of my cold, dead fingers.” I want to see if that matches people who are against gun control. It’s a 50/50 split. It’s fine. You can take this stuff as long as you want. Let me know when you want to come off it.
Dr. Eric:
Makes sense. Getting back to long haul COVID, do you recommend Ivermectin, or is that more for acute COVID?
Dr. Jacob:
Yes, yes, yes. It works. Even for post vaccine. I am not an anti-vaxxer. I think vaccines, used wisely, are one of the four main benefits of modern medicine. People don’t remember polio or smallpox. That crap was nasty. It’s been turned into a major business, where we turn our kids into pincushions. I took the vaccines because I was traveling. I couldn’t get into Berlin to visit my grandkids without it. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have bothered because I feel quite comfortable getting my immune system strong enough to handle without.
The studies on Ivermectin show that it decreases death by 30-70% in COVID. Why all of this, there no evidence? Evidence is defined by if there is not a 95% statistical probability, if you have a study that decreases death by 70% but not one with enough people in the study to meet that 95% statistical mark, that’s no evidence.
Using their definition, there is no evidence that parachutes work. I can see Fauci now in the airplane. The captain is saying, “We’re going down. Distribute the parachutes.” Fauci would be like the steward, going, “No, there is no evidence that parachutes work.”
I took it when I had it. I had a very pleasant COVID experience for four days, drinking my iced tea and reading my Kindle. It’s okay not to. There are no bad people here. It’s just the economics. Anything cheap is being suppressed by the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry controls our government. We are the only country in the world where Medicare can’t negotiate drug prices. Whatever they say, we have to pay. I can see them in the board room, pouring shots of expensive tequila, saying, “What’s 3x this? Oh, $1 million.” They say, “The law says they have to pay whatever we charge.” Congress is controlled. That’s not Congress’ fault. We tell Congress they are going to raise 1,000x, pay you in bribes. Then represent us. That’s not going to happen.
The media, once it became legal, only one of two countries in the world where the pharmaceutical industry can advertise to the public, so they own the media now. The media will not publish anything to piss off their advertisers. They’re all good people. There are no bad guys here. It’s just the economics of the situation.
The short answer is yes, Ivermectin works very nicely, including for reasons I can’t even begin to fathom: post vaccine fibromyalgia. In those cases, they have to take repeated courses of it. The dosing is usually about 27mg a day for 4-5 days. It works nicely, but you need proper dosing.
Dr. Eric:
Wonderful. The N, nutrition. I assume whole healthy foods, plenty of vegetables.
Dr. Jacob:
Common sense. Down the sugar. Increase your salt intake. If you do salt restrictions, your system will crash and burn because of the adrenal issues. Everybody is different. Feel what is best for you. High protein is the most common diet that feels best to people.
A good multivitamin. Clinical Essentials, two tablets a day. The capsules are fine, but you need more of those. I like to keep the pill count down. During periods of COVID, I will do ViraPro. But if you use Clinical Essentials, get the Smart Energy System. Go to the home page of EndFatigue.com. I put those three there, the third one being the HRG30 Red Ginseng. Get those for a month. For most people, it doubles their energy. The studies we did with red ginseng and the smart energy, more than doubled. That’s a quick, easy start for people. It gives overall nutritional support.
Australia was founded because Britain sent all their criminals and crooks and hookers to Australia because they didn’t want to pay for prisons. They sent all their Puritans to the United States. “Anything that feels good to you is the Devil.” Australia, even though we call it the stain, they are much more fun. The Puritans were so annoying. Can you imagine, whether you are looking at evolution or a divine being that created people, that either one of them would make people that say, “Whatever feels good and you enjoy is actually bad for you.” Why? That’s insane.
When the food industry gets hold of things, they try to addict you by modulating foods in ways that will feel good but are incredibly unhealthy. If you are getting natural, whole foods, chocolate is a healthy food. You don’t get 140 pounds of sugar in your diet each year if you are eating a whole food diet. You get that from the food processors.
Things that you enjoy. How is it working for you? That’s how you figure out your diet. What leaves you feeling the best? Not just an hour later because sugar will give you a zing, but the pow, crash.
Dr. Eric:
You already touched upon exercise. Some people aren’t able to incorporate exercise right away. They may have to focus on the first four.
Dr. Jacob:
In 10 weeks, their energy will skyrocket, and then you will be able to condition instead of crashing.
Dr. Eric:
CFS, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia. Years ago, most doctors thought it was psychological, in people’s heads. Even these days, there isn’t really a great test. I think it comes down to what you said earlier, going by symptoms and how people feel.
Dr. Jacob:
Yeah, you’re exhausted, lasting more than three months. You can’t sleep because you’re exhausted. You have widespread pain and brain fog. I can give you 30 other symptoms. It’s a symptom thing. If you’re not sure if you have it, go on EndFatigue.com. There is a free quiz that will tell you if you meet the criteria for CFS or fibromyalgia. It’s not rocket science. There is a test that is $700, but I wouldn’t waste your money on that. It gives me no more information than doing the free quiz to have diagnostic criteria.
If things are very complex, there is not a test for it, and it affects women. What I have just described are immune and autoimmune illnesses and conditions. Medicine has a habit of saying, “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, so you’re crazy.” That’s abusive. Multiple sclerosis used to be called hysterical paralysis. Rheumatoid arthritis used to be considered neuroses. If you want to understand how the medical profession views women, despite half of doctors being female now, it’s an institutional thing. If you look at the word “hysteria,” it comes from “hystero,” which is Latin for “uterus.” If you walk into a doctor, and they imply to you and your family, “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, so you’re crazy,” say, “I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Let’s find somebody who does.” If you read my book, I don’t do heart surgery. I don’t know it. Doesn’t make me a bad doctor.
But if the doctor implies to you or your family that “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, so you’re crazy,” what I want you to do is stand up, walk over to the doctor, smile, give them a kiss on the head if you want to, and say, “Doc, thank you for letting me know right away what a complete, utter idiot and asshole you are, so I don’t waste my time with you. I will let everybody know that you’re an abusive schmuck who is clueless.” Walk out the door. Slam it. Say, “This doctor is abusive and crazy. I recommend you all leave and go.” You can put enough ratings online. That abusive behavior is no longer acceptable. Can you imagine if you had MS, and a doctor was too lazy to learn about it and just said you’re crazy? You’re paralyzed and can’t see out of one eye. That’s not acceptable. It’s not to be tolerated anymore.
Dr. Eric:
We even see this in the thyroid world. You mentioned earlier the reference ranges. Someone walks in, and their TSH is 4.2, which is within most lab reference ranges. They might not even test the thyroid hormone levels because the TSH is within the range. If the person is experiencing fatigue, brain fog, and coldness-
Dr. Jacob:
It’s insane.
Dr. Eric:
The doctor says, “I don’t know what’s wrong. Everything looks good.”
Dr. Jacob:
Give the doctor a size 6 shoe, and say, “Wear this to your next appointment. This shoe size is within the normal range.” Find a doctor who knows what they’re doing. You may want to go to a holistic doctor.
I was going to go into endocrinology when I was in medical school. I’m a science geek. They used to call me the phantom because at 3am, I would be in the medical library going through the stacks reading stuff. I know God loves me because the most beautiful girl in the world was attracted to science geeks, and she married me. I can’t imagine why she did. Worked for me.
The bottom line is find a doctor who knows thyroid. The testing is ludicrous. I was lecturing in Italy at the Fibromyalgia Conference once a year in different parts of the world. They move from place to place. The world’s leading researcher on hypothalamic thyroid disorders and fibromyalgia, I asked him point blank if the TSH tests are reliable. He said, “Absolutely not.” It’s a useless, piece of crap test. Look up the definition of TSH in the dictionary. It would say “a useless, piece of crap test.” Sorry.
Dr. Eric:
This has been a very entertaining interview as well. You speak the truth. You’re entertaining, but I can’t argue with what you’re saying. I understand many doctors just rely on TSH still to this day. Some will do a free T4 or a total T4.
Dr. Jacob:
Endocrinology is 50 years behind scientific literature and is not likely to change. I realized I could do better endocrinology as an internal medicine doctor, so I took that pathway.
Dr. Eric:
I know we’re running out of time but circling back to thyroid. Let’s say TSH looks within the perfect optimal range even though we’re dismissing it. Free T3 and free T4 within the optimal range. Everything is looking good from a thyroid perspective, but they are still experiencing fatigue. That’s when they need to dive into that S.H.I.N.E. protocol, correct?
Dr. Jacob:
Yes. You can start with red ginseng and the Smart Energy System. Make sure you’re on a good multivitamin with high levels of B complex and magnesium. Easy starting place. Start with the N in Nutrition, and build that up.
For a lot of people, that would make a big difference. After sleep, that’s the next stop. If you have nasal congestion and IBS, then that’s candida. A couple simple stops for most people can make a massive difference.
Dr. Eric:
There’s so much more we could talk about, but I will tell them to read your book. Maybe we’ll do a part two one day.
Dr. Jacob:
We may want to address pain relief in another episode. That’s another horror story in our country. Almost all pain is treatable unless you go to your MD.
Dr. Eric:
It’s treatable, but they will give you drugs. It’s not curable if you go to your MD. But if you want to be on drugs for the rest of your life-
Dr. Jacob:
A third of American adults suffer from chronic pain needlessly. A third of Americans die from ibuprofen-related medications each year. You won’t hear about that research each year because you don’t want to piss off the advertisers, and ibuprofen advertisers and NSAIDs advertise conservatively 50,000 preventable U.S. deaths a year. You have a whole host of things that can be used for pain that are more effective according to studies with fewer side effects.
Thank you for saying it’s entertaining. Sometimes, you have to laugh or cry. It’s a way of teaching.
Dr. Eric:
It was entertaining in a good way. Obviously, you also provided a ton of knowledge. Definitely recommend for everyone to check out your excellent book, the fourth edition of From Fatigued to Fantastic. Where can people find out more about you besides your book? I know you mentioned a few websites along the way.
Dr. Jacob:
Www.Vitality101.com [3] has the information. There will be a four-step program on how to recover. Email me, FatigueDoc@gmail.com [2] for the information sheets. For those with infertility, because you will see that with low thyroid, you can ask for the infertility information sheets also.
For the supplements I mentioned, Amazon has most of them. If you want to support my outreach work, EndFatigue.com.
We have a Facebook page as well. If you email me, I will send you the link.
Dr. Eric:
Thank you so much, Dr. Jacob. Appreciate your time and knowledge. We will get together for another interview on how to talk about pain and how to overcome it.
Dr. Jacob:
Be well, everybody.