Natural remedies for fatigue/low energy

What dietary or behavioral changes, herbal remedies, or other natural medicine stuff do you use to help with fatigue and low energy levels?

This is no recommendation for anyone, just, as you asked, what do I do.

I cut sugar and bread right out, eat nettle soup, exercise more especially deep breathing exercises, take Olive Back Flower remedy.  If weather is not so good, increase vitamin D intake. I try to assess why I would feel that way: hormones, stress, grief, overwork, lack of sleep, worries and see if I can make changes.  Depending on the reason behind it, I might add another Bach remedy appropriately.   I also have an array of homeopathic remedies at my disposal.

It's a subject of controversy, but I've tried the supplement kratom with great success. One other person I've recommended it to thanked me for suggesting it to her. It will make you feel ten years younger.

I think it's harmless, but it's only controversial because it works. Anything that works is generally illegal. It works like coffee, but it doesn't give you the jitters.

I hope all you permies buy up seeds and put this stuff in your gardens upon reading this in case our government should think to invoke their all-powerful commerce clause and shut the plant down.

Years ago, I was feeling really tired all the time.  I went to my Dr. who ran tests and could not find anything wrong.

I found a book on zero carb. It changed my life and the way I still eat today.

I am happy to have a meal with only meat. I may eat only meat or I might have a lot of veggies and a piece of meat, usually chicken.

When I worked, I always took my lunch which was half a tuna sandwich with the amount of tuna for a whole sandwich, a huge salad, some cheese, and nuts.

I ate that way for so many years that I got where I could not even look at a salad.

The point I am trying to make is it is all about diet, no processed foods and cutting out sugar and starches.

I have so many friends and relatives with chronic fatigue, it is surprising. There is no single cause - many predate the pandemic for example. I know chronic fatigue is a thing, as I suffered a very mild form as a student, which luckily went away after a while. I didn't really realise I was sick until I wasn't, but it is one of those unapparent disabilities that some people are sceptical of.
The only thing I've heard that people seem to use that works is spoon theory - pacing oneself to ration the energy you use. Has anyone found a magic cure and come out the other side of chronic fatigue, or is it always something you just have to learn to live with? I'd love to know.

Anne Miller wrote:The point I am trying to make is it is all about diet, no processed foods and cutting out sugar and starches.

I personally know a dozen people with this same testimony and I have read about hundreds.

I would only add that it is recommended to stick to changes for up to 66 days to get a good feel for the effectiveness of things. That is with diet or exercise or a new habit.

For me, fatigue and low energy tend to come about after I have poisoned myself with excessive sugar and starches. The poisoning can be acute (eating a whole loaf of bread), or it can be chronic, (constantly eating lots of high carbohydrate foods).

My strategy for avoiding fatigue and low energy centers around eating low carbohydrate and fasting.

By low carbohydrate, I mean less than 60 grams per day if highly active, or less than 40 grams per day if sedentary. By fasting, I mean both intermittent fasting (fasting 18 hours, and eating only during 6 hours) and longer term fasting like eating only every other day, or fasting for 3 days, or 5 days.

Fasting leads to high energy? Oh yes!

When I was at my heaviest, I was carrying around 300,000 kilo-calories (120 days worth) of fat stores that could have been used to create energy, but I couldn't access the energy, because I was constantly eating carbs that spike my insulin. Insulin stores fat in the body, and prevents the body from accessing it's fat stores. Insulin removes sugar from the blood. Both lead to low energy. Snacking between meals keeps insulin high, again leading to low energy.

When I'm low carbohydrate, and fasted, by body has easy access to amazing amounts of energy.

On the vitamin D issue. I started sunning during the winter to minimize seasonal affective disorder. It worked so well for me that now I sun all year long.

Personally, a change to a (much) lower carb diet and supplementing Vitamin D has been transformational.

For a quick reference on Vitamin D, you might try Michael F. Holick's paper in the New England Journal of Medicine (attached).  You may note in his Table 3 that he recommends 50,000IU of Vitamin D3 per week for adults suffering from Vitamin D deficiency due to inadequate sun exposure (probably seasonally common for those of us living at higher latitudes and/or cloudy places).  This recommendation squares pretty well with what I personally take (6-8,000IU per day, with 100 micrograms of K2, plus magnesium [which is locally deficient in our soil and water, but may be useful in any case]).

Do what works for you, but this has helped me.

Lastly, when I am more physically active, I tend to sleep better at night and am thus more energized during the day.  It's not infallible, but is true on average.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:On the vitamin D issue. I started sunning during the winter to minimize seasonal affective disorder. It worked so well for me that now I sun all year long.

I have read that vitamin D is the only vitamin that the body produces (converting sunlight).

That, to me, indicates it is pretty important.

Edit to say not just important but amazing. If you are on a fast intentionally or unintentionally, you can still get this vitamin without food.

I'm currently at my lowest weight in 30 years. I attribute it to fasting and eating low carb. I'm down 35 pounds in the last year, and down 75 from my maximum weight.

Sure, I had to change my personality, and that sucked. I feel better and more flexible than I remember at any time in my adult life.