One of the most common complaints I hear from clients is that they’re just tired all the time! They never have enough energy to get through the day without crashing.
If this sounds like you, there are some things you can try on your own to troubleshoot why you might be struggling with chronic fatigue.
You May Be Dehydrated
Dehydration can easily make you feel tired. By the time you realize you are thirsty, it’s already too late. You are dehydrated.
Our cells need water to transport nutrition in and waste products out of them. When we become dehydrated, we end up feeling sluggish, toxic and fatigued. Headaches, dizziness, constipation, pain and dry mouth are all signs that you may be dehydrated. So how much water does a body need in order to stay hydrated?
How Much Water You Should Drink
There’s a lot of controversy surrounding how much water to drink during the day. The old standard was to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day, but in actuality, the amount of water we need to stay hydrated depends upon many factors. This could includes our activity level, our overall health condition, the climate we live in and how much water we are getting from food and other beverages.
How to Tell If You’re Dehydrated
One of the easiest ways to tell if you are dehydrated is to look at the color of your urine. If your urine is dark yellow or brownish, then you are definitely dehydrated. Strive to drink enough water throughout the day to have light colored urine. Taking B vitamins may make your urine appear darker than normal.
Here are some tips to help you drink enough water each day to stay healthy.
- Use glass water bottles to avoid drinking dangerous estrogens which leach into plastic water bottles.
- Adding a pinch of pink salt to your filtered, non-chlorinated water. This will help you to replace electrolytes lost during exercise or after being ill with a fever or diarrhea.
- Use a diffuser bottle and add fresh berries and herbs to your water. Add a drop of peppermint or lemon essential oil to your glass water bottle for a fresh taste.
You Might Be Lacking Good Sleep
Of course if you’re not getting enough quality sleep, you’re going to be tired! This is the time when your body resets and recharges. Lack of sleep is even considered a health hazard because it’s associated with so many negative consequences.
Do your best to wind down and be in bed by 10pm, and turn off all electronics at least an hour before bedtime and let your brain go into “rest” mode. Electronics are stimulating for the brain, plus the blue light screens emit prohibit the brain from triggering important sleep hormones. You may want to consider purchasing some blue light blocking glasses to wear while you use your electronics. It will help your brain to relax and wind down.
If you tend to wake up at a certain time during the night, it could indicate deeper stress inside your body. Here’s a Chinese Organ chart so you can see which organ might be giving you an issue:
7am-9am Stomach
9am-11am Spleen
11am-1pm Heart
1pm-3pm Small Intestine
3pm-5pm Bladder
5pm-7pm Kidneys
7pm-9pm Pericardium
9pm-11pm Triple Burner
11pm-1am Gallbladder
1am-3am Liver
3am-5am Lungs
5am-7am Large Intestine
Your Hormones Might Be Out of Whack
If your adrenal system is disrupted, it affects the circadian pattern of cortisol. Cortisol is normally highest in the morning and lowest at night when your body is winding down to rest. If this rhythm is irregular, for instance if stress causes hormones like adrenaline and cortisol to surge late at night, that will make it difficult to relax.
You can help to restore your adrenals by getting at least 8 hours sleep, maintaining a stable blood sugar, stop chugging the coffee, eating live cultured probiotic foods, addressing the stress in your job and relationships, eating minerals, vitamin c, magnesium, B vitamins, nutrient dense foods and good fats to name a few.
If you suspect imbalanced hormones are the cause of your fatigue, saliva or urine testing can be used to determine cortisol, DHEA, Estradiol and Testosterone levels. Blood testing can determine your T3, T4 and, Reverse T3 levels. One of my favorite tests for hormones is the DUTCH test. It’s a dried urine test that is done over the course of 24 hours and helps to determine how well you are metabolizing your hormones.
Your pH Might Be Out of Balance
PH is your body’s measurement of alkaline and acid. If your body is high in acid, that can keep you from getting quality sleep.
Increased levels of acid lead to susceptibility of various diseases including diabetes, arthritis and sleeping disorders.
How to Balance Your pH
Test your urine pH daily upon waking and before dinner to determine if you are mineralized. Log your ph daily and also keep a food log so you can see how the pH changes as your diet changes. Your pH may start out acidic in the morning and will increase later in the day.
Use minerals such as leafy greens, bone broth or coral calcium with aloe and cod liver oil to increase the ph to 6.4-7.0.
When your pH stays low, however, this could be a signal that there’s a high heavy metal load in the body. Heavy metal toxicity tends to keep the ph of the body lower, thus increasing inflammation.
Try out some of these new habits and see if you notice an increase in your energy. Remember it won’t happen overnight! It takes a while to develop new habits, and for those habits to start showing positive effects.