Fatigue To Fit: Connecting The Dots On Energy And Chronic Diseases

By Lisa Silvani

The problem with health in general in our society today is the lack of energy. It might seem obvious when we look at what our day looks like, the constant hustles, targets, and goals. But not many realize how far it would go influencing our health. What's worse is that not many know where to look when this happens.
Our energy is made in the mitochondria, microscopic structures that are present in the core cells in the body. When we eat food and fuel our body with nutrients, these nutrients will then be used by mitochondria to produce ATP, the actual energy that forms in the body. ATP has several functions, but its main role is to power up the cells. When the cells have enough power, the organs work wonderfully together, and metabolism can be at its optimum level. But then, this condition is also vice versa. Lack of energy can halt many cells' and organs' functions. This causes a metabolism goes imbalance and leads to health problems, especially chronic illnesses.
Inspired by studies and research around the world about energy and mitochondria, the Fatigue To Fit book offers an approach that maps the pathway to restore the body's energy and balance the energy production system. To do this, our body must meet the required conditions for mitochondria to function fully. In the book, you will learn what factors contribute to energy and what drains them, and how to restore the process. By following the restoration of our energy production system, we are also rejuvenating our entire body.
Following the guide inside, expect to achieve several things:
• More energy to do daily activities
• Easy weight loss and weight maintenance
• Increase muscle performance
• Better focus and attention span
• Better working and long-term memory
• Better mood and mental health
• Better hormonal balance
• Reduced immune-related problems such as allergies and infections
• Healthier skin and hair
• Reduced signs and symptoms of previous chronic pain

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Sep 30, 2022

Book preview

Table of Contents

My Fatigue Story

Getting To The Core Problem

The Fatigue Epidemy

How Our Mind Shapes Us

Energy Production

Start From The Gut

Our Defense Mechanims

Nourish Yourself

Where Do You Put Your Time

Improving Body Energy

About The Author

Resources

References

Index

Back Cover

CHAPTER 1

MY FATIGUE STORY

Since childhood, I experienced Rhinitis allergy that were so severe that I had to get Infrared treatment every week. Mainly, I had dust allergy but my runny nose also got worse on raining season and when the weather were cold. I remember spending my Sunday morning getting light treatment at the doctor's office, where my eyes were closed with an eye mask for an hour or less to 'dry up' the sinus. My runny nose got better after every treatment but I need it every week or 2 weeks or else I sneezed all day.

Unfortunately my alergy didn’t end there. I also had skin rash and it was more bothersome for me since I spent 1 - 2 hours scratching and using creams that didn’t really help but a little. The skin rash is the one that still being bothersome even after years of growing up. At 30 years old, it started to reside and has been that way until now.

I wish I could tell that it’s all there is, but I also had food allergies which mainly because of egg and seafood. One of the odd thing about allergy is, it’s usually the ones we crave for. I really like omelletes. On one month, I ate so many eggs on multiple days, that made my parent furious and worried at the same time. The weird thing happen. I started to get less and less rash after eating eggs. Which made it look like it worked out by itself. And not until years later, I found out why.

Yes, the medical field is a fast-paced ecosystem. When we are introduced to a new set of treatments or even improvements of the current procedures, another breakthrough is already on its way—waiting for a human trial or even an FDA approval. It is so fast that we must keep up all the time to ensure that we give the updated treatment version.

Once, I experienced it myself. When I was still in medical school, I found out that I had endometriosis. It was a long process to get that last diagnosis. Only to be offered surgery which was not something I would want to do, not surprisingly. I gathered around for second and even third opinions until I found out about an injectable treatment that could help me to shrink down the cysts and normalize my hormonal imbalance. At that moment, it was a new treatment. The doctors told me it was a good option, even if it was still on research. So I went with it, fully understanding that it's new and could not have worked out. But considering the other option, I was somewhat relieved to choose this one. After finishing the series, which was three times of injections, I began to feel better, and the cysts slowly shrank. I never thought of it too much since then and went along with my life. Not until a breakdown that it opened up my eyes.

Practicing medicine was never that fun for me. Between the harsh reality of the medical environment and my romantic nature, it was meant to clash from the start. So many moments of What if..?? and Why can't we...? made me question whether we already give our best to patients and the community. Until I finally settled to get an excellent job and earn a living. And then I got so busy. I enjoyed life again, and energy did sway me until an awakening moment arrived.

Losing my uncle took a toll on me and my idealistic nature. I somewhat couldn't understand why no one could give us the exact diagnosis of what happened to him until his last day. A part of me blamed myself for settling down and not being able to help him and be the doctor he needed me to be at that moment. Even though I know it was all in my mind, and no one has ever blamed me, I still carry the burden years after that happened.

The grief triggered me so bad that I finally resigned from my job, got myself back into medical school, and finished my Master's degree in Anti Aging Medicine. I learned a lot, and it changed how I look at medicine. It brings up the spark back—a little bit.

Getting to know Functional Medicine

It took a while from being interested in Anti Aging to knowing Functional Medicine. While both may look the same, what intersting from Functional Medicine is how it put perspective on solving chronic and complicated diseases through a framework. Understanding the connection between system, the immune, hormone system and gut makes it easier to pinpoint the possible root cause that may not be the same for everyone with othewise same disease.

Functional medicine brings back the passion in me to learn medicine more and more. Who would have thought that reading journals can be a fun thing. I realize that there are many things that I still need to learn and Re-learn.

Borderline Hypothyroidism

Focusing on Anti Aging and Functional Medicine, I took several courses to upgrade my knowledge. On one occasion, I took blood tests that revealed borderline hypothyroidism at 28 years old. I couldn't believe it. The hardest part was not taking it in but getting myself treatment. At that time, borderline hypothyroidism was accepted as normal. But I knew something was up, and I could relate to my body and my long-time fatigue and daily mood swing better when I got the result. But there was no other way since no one saw it as something serious or needing to be treated. I could have backed down and gotten on with my life. But then I thought, I had all of these wonderful experiences and knowledge from my Anti Aging school and also a little bit here and there on FM, so why not do something about me with all my knowledge? So, I made myself my own guinea pig.

Eventually, I tried to follow Functional medicine framework. Doing a self-consultation, made up my own personal health history and even do personal assessment. Until finally, creating my own treatment plan, I tried to follow the protocol. It was far from perfect but I did follow the treatment plan.

The Progress

After the first initial treatment plan, I felt better but not enough. Finally I made several redo’s that include some uncommon things at that time, such as fasting. After six months, I felt generally better. I was taking some supplements, doing yoga, HIIT, managing my daily meal and doing weekly fasting. After made some changes based on my daily needs and habits, the result was quite impressive. The lab result ultimately showed improvements. But, at that time, I know it would showed differently because my mood, energy and even my allergy were improved. I remember that I used to get sick now and then. But after those six months, it seems I was so much better in years than at college.

It’s not a severe case

My cases were not severe ones, and I know that. But what I experienced probably relates to many more people who were underdiagnosed and dismissed because what they were having was not severe enough. Nonetheless, the approach can produce good results even for severe cases, although the time, the work to get it done, and the treatments will vary from case to case and person to person.

This is my story. It could be something that you've heard before, but it can also be something new to you. I only ask that you are willing to be open to the possibilities of what can happen with our health and body when we start doing the right thing.

CHAPTER 2

GETTING TO THE CORE PROBLEM

ROOT CAUSE MEDICINE

Nowadays, the development of medicine has enabled us to see many ways of treating diseases and healing the body, whether preventive or curative. One of the newest concepts rising and getting more fame these days is root cause medicines.

Root cause medicines are based on the way to treat a disease or a person or case by finding the root cause and not only relying on the sign and symptoms. That is the definition. And that is what most people think about the root cause. But most people don't know that there are many faulty ways to see the terms of root cause medicines.

Some people will say that all root cause is based on stress or the gut. How we eat our food and stress management is essential, but enabling the gut and stress as the primary root cause of all diseases also can't be justified. This is because many other things can be the main problems to the gut issues themselves.

To understand the root cause, we must also realize that several other things around us will influence our health. Those things are our lifestyles and habits. In Functional Medicine, these can be defined as the trigger or antecedents, which are the factors that provoke and aggravates the imbalances within.

Find the root cause. It's not as simple as trying to read between the lines of the lab results or trying to find out what kind of disease someone has. Because in functional medicine, we're not talking about diseases or diagnoses any longer. From a functional medicine perspective, we are talking about imbalances and metabolic pathways. With this framework in mind, we can find the real root cause behind a person's health problems.

Seeing a person's condition through a functional medicine framework gives us a better perspective on the things that conflict in the body and how they connect. Within the framework, we need to see through all the things happening around the person's history, signs, and symptoms and define which one is the trigger, which one plays the role of antecedents, and what exactly happens to this person's overall picture.

Although it sounds easy, it's not as easy as it might seem. It's more of a puzzle. To see the whole picture, you must put it together piece by piece until it makes the correct image showing what happens inside the person's body. But this will not be apparent in the first consultation, probably not even during the second encounter. It takes time to develop an accurate picture. But when you finally complete the image, you can find the root cause. When that happens, it's easy to recognize all the problems entangled in the signs and symptoms and heal thoroughly.

The first part of the puzzle usually is our genetic predispositions. Our genes hold everything that sets our bodies and controls our metabolism. This is like our instruction manual and the code that rules our daily metabolism processes. It is not something that we can eliminate or delete, although the possibility is there through DNA modifications. But this technology is still in the research process, and the possibility of using one is quite far from our current timeline. So, let's keep that thought as a dream for now.

What we can do now is influence how our genes react to our environment. We first have to understand our genetic predispositions and then act on changing our habits and environments based on our genetic predispositions to heal and prevent any disease from appearing and progressing. This is what nutrigenomics science brings, which helps us to correlate the proper lifestyle with genetic predispositions for each person.

The second thing is our lifestyle and habit; as we know, these are always based on how and what we do daily. We can have diabetic genes, but it doesn't matter if we have an excellent lifestyle, if we don't