The Concierge Doc Podcast with Dr. Jason Littleton, M.D.
The Concierge Doc Podcast is hosted by Dr Jason Littleton, M.D., where he features medical content to make smart lifestyle choices for optimal health, wellness, energy, youthfulness, longevity, balance, and happiness.
The Concierge Doc Podcast with Dr. Jason Littleton, M.D.
This Is Why You Are Tired
Feeling constantly drained and eager to reclaim your zest for life? Join us as we unlock the secrets to vanquishing persistent fatigue with personalized medical strategies that go beyond the generic solutions found on social media. As your host, I promise you'll gain a comprehensive understanding of how to tackle energy issues by delving into metabolic profiles and thyroid health, including the crucial factors of TSH, free T3, and free T4 levels. Discover the important role of optimizing B12 levels through diet or supplements to keep your energy at its peak. Our discussion emphasizes the need for thorough medical evaluations, providing you with a structured roadmap to achieve your energy goals and live your best life.
In our exploration of natural energy boosters, we uncover key energy drainers like anemia and dehydration, which affect a staggering number of Americans. Learn how regular medical checkups and colonoscopies can be your allies in this fight. We also tackle the pitfalls of poor sleep and lack of focus, introducing you to the MEDS formula—Move, Eat, Drink, Sleep—from my book, "Wellspring: The Energy Secrets to Do the Good Life." Gather insights from sports legends like Tom Brady and Kobe Bryant, and explore the "Energize Again" wellness protocol that champions movement, nutrition, hydration, and sleep. Tune in to rejuvenate your vitality and maintain a vibrant lifestyle, and don't forget to connect with us on social media for more energizing tips!
Visit Dr Jason Littleton's website: https://www.jasonmd.com/
Follow Dr Jason Littleton on Instagram and Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/therealdoctorjason/
Watch Dr Jason Littleton on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@therealdoctorjason3340
Disclaimer:
Access to the Information and materials contained in this podcast is at your own risk. The information contained is presented for the purpose of educating the consumer on a variety of wellness and health care topics (the “Information”). Nothing contained is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. The Information contained is compiled from a variety of sources. The Information should not be considered complete and not exhaustive and should not be in place of a visit or consultation with your own primary care doctor.
Hey friends, welcome to the Concierge Doc Podcast. I'm your host, ceo and founder of Littleton Concierge Medicine, dr Jason Littleton. Welcome to the podcast. I'm super excited today. Super excited because we're gonna talk about a topic that's dear to my heart. Why are you so tired? That's our topic for today and I am America's energy doctor, so I'm ready to dive into this. Let's get going. Before we get going, I want to read a message from my compliance team.
Speaker 1:Access to the information and materials contained in this podcast is at your own risk. The information contained is presented for the purpose of educating the consumer on a variety of wellness and health care topics. The information nothing contained is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. The information contained is compiled from a variety of sources. The information should not be considered complete and exhaustive and should not be in place of a visit or consultation with your own primary care doctor. I say this all the time. Let's be instinctive, friends. You know it's so important to get in front of your PCP or, better yet, make an appointment with me here at Littleton Concierge Medicine so that I can make accurate diagnosis and treatment. That's so important. You don't want to just grab snippets from what people say you want to be properly evaluated. Snippets from what people say you want to be properly evaluated. You want them to look at the whole picture, and that's exactly what I do.
Speaker 1:And, speaking on this topic, why are you so tired? There's many reasons for that. There's many reasons for that, and it's not good enough just to hear something from a social media page or to hear something that your friend said about you know you should take this so you can be more energized. You should get an injection of that. No, what you really honestly need is an appointment with myself so we can sit down and I can evaluate your whole history and figure out what's the right plan for you, what's the right supplements for you. Many times I hear people say my friend told me I need testosterone, or I want to get this new IV treatment, or I want to do this new therapy X, y and Z and look, those things are good. They just have a proper place. And in order to have a proper place, you need to have someone like myself, and this is what I do. You need to have someone tell you well, look, you're deficient in this area or we need to optimize this area. But this should be on the platform of knowing what your medical history is. We need to know what your family medical history is, your past medical history, surgical history, allergies, your story. We need to look at the whole picture because you just don't want to just put things in your body that don't have an order, a rhyme or a rhythm to it. Here at Littleton Concierge Medicine, what I do is I do a complete physical exam, I'm going to get specialty imaging and specialty labs and then we're going to sit down and we're going to find out what your goals are, and then we're going to put the picture together and when we're answering this question of why are you so tired, there's several reasons for that, and I want to go over some of these reasons today and listen.
Speaker 1:When I talk about energy, I'm not talking about something metaphysical off in left field. I'm talking about why do you feel so fatigued? Why do you not have enough energy to do your goals? So I'm not talking about something metaphysical. I'm talking about the fact that when you wake up in the morning, you still feel drained. You still feel tired. That's the answer that you need. You need a solution, you need a plan, you need an organized method and protocol, and that's what I'm here to do. But before I do that I want to. You need a plan, you need an organized method and protocol, and that's what I'm here to do. But before I do that, I want to talk to you about several reasons why you can feel tired, and when I look at that, there are many reasons.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that I think about right off the bat that I'm an expert in is when we're looking at your metabolic profile, and one of the things in your metabolic profile is when we look at your thyroid. When you come into a consultation with me, I'm always going to assess your thyroid from a physical exam standpoint. I'm going to see if there's any asymmetry, do I feel any nodules, if there's anything that I'm concerned about any thyroid enlargement. But then I'm also going to look at your thyroid panel, your thyroid profile, looking at things like TSH, thyroid stimulating hormone, free T3, free T4, total T3, total T4, reverse T3. I'm going to look at to see if your body's producing any autoantibodies against your thyroid.
Speaker 1:You know, if you have an imbalance in your thyroid function, that could be one of the reasons why you feel tired and it might not be supplementation at all in terms of other vitamins or hormones. It could be a thyroid problem where we might have to supplement with thyroid medication, and the only way to know that is to come in and get labs done and come in for an evaluation. Yeah, that's the reason why you could feel tired. Your thyroid function could be off. There could be something wrong there. Another reason that we want to look at is we want to test and see what your B12 is. Do you have adequate levels of B12? Are they optimized? So not just adequate, are they optimized? Of course, if you're deficient, we want to supplement with that, but I want to know where your B12 level is and can we get that to an optimal level? And sometimes it's because you're not eating the right foods, or sometimes you may need to take a supplement on top of your diet. So that's important to look at.
Speaker 1:You know, one of the other things that I want to point out here and I see this all the time is where people are doing very well in their health. They're healthy, they're supplementing, they're getting regular check-ins with their doctor. But there's another thing that can rob your energy and I see it all the time and you know what I'm talking about, and that's worry, fear and anxiety. When a person spends time worrying in fear about something or just being anxious, yeah, that robs you of your energy. You can feel tired, you can feel drained and you're doing everything right You're exercising, you're organized, you're taking supplements, you're eating right, you're doing all those things. But worry, fear and anxiety will actually rob you of physical health energy. It can also hurt your immune system and make you more prone to sickness.
Speaker 1:So that's an example where it's so important to discuss this with your doctor. You want to discuss this with me. You want to discuss this with your therapist? We need to get to the root cause of why you feel this way so that we can put a plan together so that we can help you to feel at peace, because when you feel at peace with your life, you're not letting worry, fear, rob you of your physical energy, and that's another reason that sometimes it goes undiagnosed or overlooked and we don't think about that, but I see it all the time, especially when someone has all the other parameters in check as far as their health.
Speaker 1:You know, other things that rob people of their energy are unbalanced hormones, and what I mean here is that for men, you know, low testosterone levels. Making sure that your testosterone is in balance and making sure that it's optimized For women. Making sure that estrogen, estradiol, estrone, progesterone are properly optimized, and that's based on age. There are a lot of different things that we have to look at when we're looking at hormone imbalances and making sure that those things are in check. But again, whenever I am replacing testosterone or optimizing it, or estrogen or progesterone with my clients and patients, I need to know is there any history of cancer in their family? Any history, for men, of prostate cancer, for women, any history of breast cancer, ovarian uterine cancer? So again, it's not just slapping on an estrogen patch on someone and saying let's optimize this. It's knowing what their background history is and making sure that the hormone replacement is right for them. And that's something that I do. That's something that you can find at Littleton Concierge Medicine. But see, I'm going to go and do the background workup and make sure that your family history is appropriate.
Speaker 1:Making sure that your physical health is appropriate For men. Making sure that your physical health is appropriate For men, making sure that they get regular prostate exams For women, making sure that they get mammograms, making sure that they have a GYN well check, making sure that all these things are in balance. Before we just throw hormones at you and supplement you, we want to make sure that it's right for you and it's appropriate, but in balance, these things can help you to have more energy. So it's important to look at Other things. You know that can rob you of energy, and things that we have to think about is just general medical wellness or medical illness. So what I mean by that is you want to be medically well, because if you're medically well, you're going to have energy period. If you're medically well, you're going to have energy.
Speaker 1:But if you're medically not well, what I mean? Medical illness that's going to rob you of your energy, and so we need to look at that. And so proper history and fiscal is important to that. I need to know that your kidneys are in line, your liver's in line. I need to make sure that all the proper screening tests are appropriate, like you've had your colonoscopies, you've had your prostate exams, you've had mammograms respectively, and I need to make sure that there's nothing hidden that we don't see. Making sure that there's no cancer in the body. Making sure that there's no electrolyte. Making sure that there's no cancer in the body, making sure that there's no electrolyte abnormalities, making sure that there's no excessive like nutrient deficiencies, making sure that you're eating appropriately all these things.
Speaker 1:I need to make sure that if you do have chronic medical illness, that it's being managed well, like COPD, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol. I need to make sure that all these things are in check, because when they're not in check, that could be robbing you of your energy too, and I know sometimes people may have a fear of seeing a doctor or they may not want to check these things for fear that they may find something's wrong. Well, I don't want you to be afraid. I want you to come see me so that we can evaluate this. I'm going to make you feel right at home, but it's so important that you come see me so that we can look into if there is a problem, because if the earlier we can detect it, the earlier we can get to the solution and get you on the right track. You don't want to have something that's undetected and go years down the road and it becomes a bigger problem. And now we're playing catch up. I don't want you to be afraid to get a medical checkup. Like I said, come see me, I'll make you feel right at home.
Speaker 1:But it's important that we detect things early so we can get you on the right track and program so that you can have the energy that you want to get your goals done. I mean, let's think about it. You want to have energy to get goals done. Everyone has goals. I only know of people who haven't discovered them yet. People say I want more energy, but why? If you don't know what your goals are, you don't know why you need more energy. You wanna have energy so that you can be productive in life and in other podcasts. That's why I've always asked people about what are their top five things they feel like they have to do in life. Everyone has top five things that they need to do in life. I just again, like I said, I just know people who haven't discovered it yet. I push that so that people can know why they need more energy. It's not enough just to say I'm tired, I need more energy, but why? What are you going to do? Just sit there and just feel a charge? No, that's not good enough. You have to have a plan for why you need to optimize your energy so you can be productive, and I can tell you what a healthy body leads to more energy. But part of a healthy body and a healthy person is knowing what your purpose is and knowing what you need to accomplish so you can apply that energy. It's so important. Let's move forward as I'm moving forward.
Speaker 1:You know, one of the things that could rob people of energy is when they're anemic. Yeah, when they're anemic, when their hemoglobin and hematocrit are low, and this can happen for several reasons. Okay, sometimes they're red blood cell problems, but sometimes they're GI problems where a person could have a slow leak, whether it's because of gastritis or ulcers, which is an upper GI tract thing, or maybe it's because of a colon polyp, or maybe there's a colon cancer risk. But that's why having a regular checkup with your doctor is how we can detect this and that's why making sure that you get appropriate colonoscopies and I'm going to tell you when you need to have that that's why I always say at the beginning of my podcast make sure you see your PCP or, better yet, make sure you come and see me at Littleton Concierge Medicine so that we can properly diagnose you and treat you, and that's what you need. Yeah, that's exactly what you need. So anemia can rob you of your energy and you know, sometimes it could be an iron deficiency, where supplementing with iron would be appropriate, but we would only know that if we do the appropriate laboratory test. So that's why it's important to make sure that you come and be seen. Come and see me again.
Speaker 1:I always say that Dehydration is another reason why people can just feel low energy. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. We don't drink enough water or we drink things that can rob us of the water in our body. I mean, look, caffeine can actually act as a diuretic and we can lose water that way. I understand people like their coffee. I understand people maybe want their soda, but that's not necessarily the best thing for you. Now, I'm not trying to get on your toes if you're a coffee drinker I'm going to give you a story about that in a little bit but what I am trying to say is that there are substances that can pull water out of you Alcohol can do that and that can lead to further dehydration and rob you of your energy. So drinking water fighting dehydration and rob you of your energy. So drinking water fighting dehydration is another reason so that you can feel optimized and feel your best and be energized to do your goals in life.
Speaker 1:Lack of focus, being overwhelmed that's another reason why people can feel low energy. You know, maybe everything is in line, they're optimized, they're supplemented, but they feel overwhelmed at work or they don't have a plan for organization and things feel scattered. And when things feel scattered, we need to clean things up, whether it's your home, your car, your routine. And when you feel overwhelmed, a lot of times it's because things aren't organized. And it's so important when you're in that state. Yeah, talk to me, talk to a therapist, write out a plan. We have to think through how can we better organize our lives, because when things are in their proper places, like in our homes, in our mind, in our cars, all sorts when things are organized, we feel pinpoint, we feel exact, we feel sharp, we feel like we're just refreshed and that's how you want to feel. So having these things that I've said and having this in order makes a huge difference.
Speaker 1:Now, poor sleep, poor sleep can make a difference when a person's not getting enough sleep. And now, sometimes poor sleep can be a medical issue. Sometimes people have obstructive sleep, apnea or they have insomnia, and these are things that we have to evaluate properly in a medical evaluation to see if this is you. But sometimes poor sleep can just be because we're going to bed too late or we're still surfing the internet or we're still surfing our favorite social media pages and we're just not putting the phone down and doing proper sleep hygiene and getting in the bed and going to sleep, or we're not staying on schedule. We're not doing those things so that we can be organized and go to sleep and so that we can be restorative when we wake up. That's another reason why people are so tired and I wanna point that out and I talk about that in my book Wellspring the Energy Secrets to Do the Good Life, and this is my second edition, energized Again, where I talk about the meds formula move, eat, drink, sleep and I talk about sleep hygiene in this book. And it's so important to get this book. It's so important to get this book so you can read it, so you can understand some of my points and why you may not be getting the best sleep. Okay, and this book will help you. It'll provide answers so that you can get better sleep and we can answer this energy problem, why you are so tired.
Speaker 1:Now I want to also talk about just having consistent routines. Consistent routines are important and you know Consistent routines are important. And you know, personally I am very routine oriented. I wake up, I go through my hygiene routine, you know. And you know, look, I'm a Christian. I'm going to wake up, I'm going to go spend time in my prayer closet, I'm going to spend time with the Holy Spirit and just get my mind organized, get ready for the day, open my Bible, meditate on scripture that's important and then the next thing I'm going to do you know that's where I'm going to go work out. I'm going to get my, you know, just get my clothes ready, get everything ready. Then I'm going to go and do the next phase of my day. And I do this routine every day and this routine keeps me mentally organized, it keeps things in check. It helps me to be on track.
Speaker 1:I think people need to have a wake-up routine. Then they go through their day, they go to work and then they have a bedtime routine, and I think people need to be able to be consistent. Some of the greats always talk about that Tom Brady, kobe Bryant. These people were just so routine oriented. It didn't matter what was going on in the day, they would always hit it, and hitting it can keep you focused, not overwhelmed, and it can conserve and promote you feeling energized, not tired, not fatigued, but on point and sharp, and that's how you want to feel.
Speaker 1:And so I always give examples about my life, and I want to end on this. I want to also, I want to circle back to the caffeine issue. I want to give you a personal example about my life, and I'm not trying to get on people who love coffee, and I kind of alluded to this earlier. But you know I've been a coffee drinker for years. I don't drink coffee anymore Now.
Speaker 1:I'm not a big coffee drinker. I was only drinking about eight ounces a day and that would be it and I'd go on with my day. But I personally started having eye twitching from drinking coffee just eight ounces. Now I know people can drink up to 32 ounces of coffee, some people who drink coffee, all you know, through the day I was only drinking eight ounces of coffee in the morning and from that, and it was doing it consistently. When we talk about consistency, I was doing it consistently and then I found out that I was getting eye twitching just a little bit and see, the nerves in the eyes are so responsive. Right, because a person's able to shut their eye without even thinking about it, like if a bug or anything tries to come at your eye, your eye's going to close reflexively. And so what was happening? Caffeine is a stimulant. It was causing me to have eye twitching and when I realized this, I stopped and I've been off of caffeine, meaning no coffee, no energy drinks. I don't do that anyway, but I, I, I have been off of coffee for like we're just talking here. I've been off of coffee for like two and a half months and I'm not going back. I almost treat it like it's an allergy.
Speaker 1:And you would think that, well, where's my energy boost gonna come from? Well, it's gonna come from just being healthy. It's gonna come from being hydrated. It's gonna come from being Well. It's going to come from just being healthy. It's going to come from being hydrated. It's going to come from being focused and organized. It's going to come from making sure that I do all the regular medical checks that we just went through. It's going to come from making sure that. You know, I write my thoughts down, I write my plans out. I'm always consistent. I'm always doing everything that I can do to be in my best shape.
Speaker 1:I understand people drink coffee so that they could have a little pickup, but let's think about this for a while. If you need a pickup just to get your energy levels up every single day, maybe that's just not the best way. Now I think I probably stepped on some toes there, because I know some people who are healthy, do everything, right, everything that I'm talking about and they still drink coffee. Look, go ahead, drink coffee, do your thing, but for me it was resulting in a medical problem. I had eye twitching that I no longer have because of that simple thing. But one of the things that I've found since I've been off of coffee is that I feel better than when I was drinking coffee. I feel super energized, I feel great, I just. It's just something I'm not going back to and I just want to give food for thought there. Maybe that's not the answer.
Speaker 1:I listed a multitude of things that could be robbing your energy and why you could be tired, and so again, taking everything in balance, you still need to meet with me, you need to have a consultation or you need to meet with your PCP if you're not in the area. These days, I'm having people who fly in to come see me and that's always an option for you, but I would love to meet you. I would love to sit down and find out what your story is, and I'd love to come up with a plan so that we can optimize your body, optimize your life and get you on the road to having more energy. Now, friends, that's my time today. I'm so excited we had an opportunity to spend this time together.
Speaker 1:I want you to go ahead and get my book Energize Again Wellspring Energize Again, so you can learn about my meds book. Energize Again, wellspring Energize Again, so you can learn about my meds protocol. Move, eat, drink, sleep. Follow me on all my handles. I cannot wait to see you. Check out my YouTube channel, download my podcast and let's stay energized. My friend Again, dr Jason Littleton, I can't wait to see you next time. Talk to you later, thank you.
