How To Boost Your Physical And Mental Energy

Posted by Horton Tatarian, research biochemist, on 10th Oct 2018

How To Boost Your Physical And Mental Energy

How is your energy level?

Its natural for people to feel tired after a long day of physical or mental work. A relaxing evening and a good night's sleep recharges us so we can be ready to go the following day.

But if you depend on caffeine or other stimulants to keep you going, something is wrong with the chemistry inside of you. 

Chronic fatigue is not benign.

A lack of physical or mental energy suggests trouble beyond not getting your work done. 

Chronic fatigue is linked to low levels of energy in the cells of the body. Fatigue without relief is a warning sign that your body and brain lack the energy required for maintenance and repair. 

Regular periods of nutrition, sleep, and tissue repair maintain your health. All chronic diseases begin with the failure of tissue repair, as explained in  The Advice Of Experts In Natural Medicine

Since both health and healing require energy, chronic fatigue points to trouble for both. 

Fatigue is a complex issue.

The following stresses on your system are sources of chronic fatigue. (See Research on Chronic Fatigue at the bottom of this article.)

  1. Poor nutrition (food, water, air)
  2. Physical inactivity or lack of sleep
  3. Toxins (cell waste, chemicals, drugs)
  4. Physical or mental distress and trauma
  5. Infections, mostly from weak immune defenses
  6. Bioelectric disturbances from internal or external stressors
  7. Damaging thoughts, attitudes, feelings, and personal relationships
  8. Inflammation, which disrupts cell functions, from the above causes
  9. Organ and tissue dysfunction from the above or other (rare) causes

This list may look familiar if you read  The Advice Of Experts In Natural Medicine

Six or more of these stresses affect most people. These stresses combine to cause the chronic diseases that plague industrialized societies. Fatigue often precedes overt disease. 

Restoring your energy is simple.

Physical and mental energy return when the requirements for health are met. 

As discussed earlier, our body, mind, and spirit have 5 requirements for health:

  • Nourishment
  • Protection
  • Work
  • Balance
  • Purpose 

Think about how the stresses that cause chronic fatigue disrupt these 5 requirements for health.

To give you a start, let's take a brief look at the harm done by the first three stresses:

  1. Poor nutrition (food, water, air)
  2. Physical inactivity or lack of sleep
  3. Toxins (cell waste, chemicals, drugs)

Notice how our 5 requirements for health are interrelated. The stresses that disrupt them are interconnected too.

1. Poor nutrition (food, water, air)

Nourishment: Poor nutrition undermines the topmost requirement for health. Key vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients are lacking in commercial foods. Biochemists include air and water quality as nutritional concerns.

Protection: The Standard American Diet (SAD) and most commercial foods weaken your defenses against disease in two ways: 1) missing nutrients and, 2) the presence of pesticides, herbicides, and toxic chemical additives.  

Work: Fast foods eliminate the work of growing and preparing nourishing foods. The most nutritious foods are home grown and harvested soon before use. Scientists have reported on the benefits of gardening to the body, mind, and spirit. 

Balance: The natural balance of a whole food, plant-based diet is absent from most commercial foods. Factory altered ingredients replace the balance that nature provides. Dietary imbalances cause imbalances in body chemistry.

Purpose: The Standard American Diet counters the purpose of growing, preparing, and eating delicious foods for health. For most people of all ages, this purpose has given way to a need to get a fast fix for food addictions. 

2. Physical inactivity or lack of sleep

Nourishment: Physical inactivity lowers the flow of blood, nutrients, and waste products to and from all organs, including the lungs and brain. 

Protection: The body, weakened by physical disuse, becomes more prone to disease. Inactivity stalls the clearing of toxins from body tissues. Lack of sleep interrupts the clearing of toxins from the brain by its glial cells and drainage system. Inactivity or lack of sleep disrupt the maintenance and repair of the body and our most precious organ, the brain.  

Work: Physical inactivity and lack of sleep reduces personal productivity, physically and mentally.

Balance: Inactivity and lack of sleep stress the body and brain, disrupting the internal balances that maintain health. They also throw off the balance of life and joyful living. 

Purpose: The body is designed for daytime physical work (and play) and sleep at night. People are often out of sync with the rhythm of life and its purposes. The purpose of sleep includes brain detox and setting of memories.

3. Toxins (cell waste, chemicals, drugs)

Nourishment: Toxins in the food, water, and air block the ability of cells to use nutrients for maintenance and repair. 

Protection: Toxins stress the body's ability to neutralize them. Toxins degenerate cells, tissues, and organs. Various patterns of degeneration determine the names of diseases. 

Work: Toxins disrupt body functions and personal productivity, physically and mentally. Toxins of all kinds (cell waste, chemicals, and drugs) impair energy production and the ability to work. 

Balance: A frequent cause of disease and death, toxins disrupt the internal balances that maintain health.

Purpose: A high load of toxins force people to devote more of their energy to survival. Poisoning by toxic overload diminish or end the other purposes and activities of life.

Recommendation

Reduce the stress on your system.

Take corrective action to counter the total load of physical and mental stress on your system. As you do so, you should see improved levels of physical and mental energy.

Begin by choosing actions from the following list as they may apply to you.

  1. Eat right. Learn how to prepare tasty, energizing meals from whole foods. Focus on a wide variety of vegetables and fruits. Look into outdoor and indoor gardening.
  2. Be physically active, but don’t overdo it. Get adequate sleep. 
  3. Minimize contact with toxic chemicals in the food, air (outdoor and indoor), and water. Help your body eliminate toxins to reduce your toxic burden.
  4. Reduce the emotional stress in your life. Work at healing your body and mind from past traumas.
  5. Strengthen your immune system. If needed, get specific support to clear infections.
  6. Reduce your exposure to EMF emissions from electronic devices and infrastructure.
  7. Pay attention to and correct your feelings, self-talk, and the quality of your relationships.
  8. Reduce inflammation in your system by the above actions and anti-inflammatory foods and supplements.
  9. Support weak organs and tissues by the above actions and specific support as needed.

For more information, use our bot at  www.lifesciences.care. Type a word such as diet, exercise, sleep, detox, stress, and immunity. Or, type "advice" and choose options that point to your needs. 

Take food supplements to boost energy.

Food supplements can counter nutritional and other stresses that cause fatigue. 

The following information comes from our bot after typing the word "energy" or "fatigue." The links take you to information on products with ingredients shown to support energy production in the cells of the body. 

For information on other supplements, use our bot. You may type blood pressure, bone, brain, heart, intestine, or muscle for recommendation on which food supplements to take.  Contact us when you need help.

Top Formulas

Use one of these top formulas or alternate them to increase energy as needed. Allow 30 to 60 days for noticeable benefits. Type "top formulas" in our bot for suggestions on how to choose between them.

1. Mitochondrial NRG, 120 vcaps

2. Active B-Complex, 60 veg capsules

Key Synergists

Use one or more of the following as needed. Synergists work well together and with the Top Formulas, above. Type "tips" in our bot for help with your selections.

Krebs Magnesium-Potassium Complex, 120 tablets

Energy Xtra

E3AFA® 400 mg

Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C, 30 pack carton

Mito-PQQ, 60 vcaps

Energizing Powder, 5 ounces

CarnitALL®, 90 capsules

The combined effect of these products can exceed the sum of their benefits when used separately.

Instructions

  1. When taking 2 or more key synergists for a month or two, less than the "Suggested Use" of each product (as shown on product pages and bottle labels) may be enough for you. Follow how you feel when adjusting how much you take. But, in any case, do not exceed the amounts recommended unless directed by a health care professional.
  2. Add one key synergist at a time every few days rather than starting them all at once. The number you need depends on your health status (good/fair/poor/failing).
  3. In time, as health improves: a. Key synergists may replace the need for a "top formula." b. You may not need as many key synergists.
  4. Effective food supplements may increase the release of toxins from body cells and tissues. Be sure your intake of purified water is sufficient for you. 
  5. Follow your progress and how you feel. Improved diet and reduced exposure to toxins and other harmful stresses lower your need for food supplements.

Research on Chronic Fatigue

Hundreds of research articles cover the causes of chronic fatigue. Here are only one or two examples for the following topics.

1. Nutrition 

Logan AC, Wong C. Chronic fatigue syndrome: oxidative stress and dietary modifications. Altern Med Rev. 2001 Oct;6(5):450-9.

Werbach MR. Nutritional strategies for treating chronic fatigue syndrome. Altern Med Rev. 2000 Apr;5(2):93-108.

2. Physical Inactivity and Sleep Quality

Ellingson LD, Kuffel AE, Vack NJ, Cook DB. Active and sedentary behaviors influence feelings of energy and fatigue in women. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2014 Jan;46(1):192-200.

Milrad SF, et al. Poor sleep quality is associated with greater circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines and severity and frequency of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) symptoms in women. J Neuroimmunol. 2017 Feb 15;303:43-50.

Ward-Ritacco CL, et al. Feelings of energy are associated with physical activity and sleep quality, but not adiposity, in middle-aged postmenopausal women. Menopause. 2015 Mar;22(3):304-11.

3. Toxins

Brewer JH, Thrasher JD, Straus DC, Madison RA, Hooper D. Detection of mycotoxins in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. Toxins (Basel). 2013 Apr 11;5(4):605-17.

Morris G, Berk M, Walder K, Maes M. The Putative Role of Viruses, Bacteria, and Chronic Fungal Biotoxin Exposure in the Genesis of Intractable Fatigue Accompanied by Cognitive and Physical Disability. Mol Neurobiol. 2016 May;53(4):2550-71.

4. Stress and Trauma

Dansie EJ, Heppner P, Furberg H, Goldberg J, Buchwald D, Afari N. The comorbidity of self-reported chronic fatigue syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, and traumatic symptoms. Psychosomatics. 2012 May-Jun;53(3):250-7.

Hirsch JK, Sirois FM. Hope and fatigue in chronic illness: The role of perceived stress. J Health Psychol. 2016 Apr;21(4):451-6. doi: 10.1177/1359105314527142. Epub 2014 Mar 26.

5. Infections

Couch Y, Xie Q, Lundberg L, Sharp T, Anthony DC. A Model of Post-Infection Fatigue Is Associated with Increased TNF and 5-HT2A Receptor Expression in Mice. PLoS One. 2015 Jul 6;10(7):e0130643.

Garcia MN, Hause AM, Walker CM, Orange JS, Hasbun R, Murray KO. Evaluation of prolonged fatigue post-West Nile virus infection and association of fatigue with elevated antiviral and proinflammatory cytokines. Viral Immunol. 2014 Sep;27(7):327-33.

6. EMF Exposure

Belyaev I, et al. EUROPAEM EMF Guideline 2016 for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of EMF-related health problems and illnesses. Rev Environ Health. 2016 Sep 1;31(3):363-97.

Hedendahl L, Carlberg M, Hardell L. Electromagnetic hypersensitivity--an increasing challenge to the medical profession. Rev Environ Health. 2015;30(4):209-15.

7. Mental Attitude

Lukkahatai N, Saligan LN. Association of catastrophizing and fatigue: a systematic review. J Psychosom Res. 2013 Feb;74(2):100-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2012.11.006.

8. Inflammation

Rohleder N, Aringer M, Boentert M. Role of interleukin-6 in stress, sleep, and fatigue. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2012 Jul;1261:88-96.

9. Organ Dysfunction

Klimas NG, Broderick G, Fletcher MA. Biomarkers for chronic fatigue. Brain Behav Immun. 2012 Nov;26(8):1202-10. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2012.06.006. Epub 2012 Jun 23.

Zengarini E, et al. Fatigue: Relevance and implications in the aging population. Exp Gerontol. 2015 Oct;70:78-83.

Cell Energy and Fatigue

Filler K, et al. Association of Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Fatigue: A Review of the Literature. BBA Clin. 2014 Jun 1;1:12-23.

Myhill S, Booth NE, McLaren-Howard J. Chronic fatigue syndrome and mitochondrial dysfunction. Int J Clin Exp Med. 2009;2(1):1-16.

About Horton Tatarian

Horton Tatarian image

I’m a biochemist who examines scientific findings on health and disease. My degree in biochemistry is from U.C. Berkeley. UCLA School of Medicine granted an M.D. degree in 1974. Since then, independent research prepared me to advise clients on natural ways of self-care.

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