by Nikki Moses © May 2013
On a Nutritional Balancing program, one of the key things we work to accomplish is increasing energy production in the body. That is why many people are surprised when they experience a bout of fatigue at some point after starting the program. Almost everyone on this program experiences one or more of these episodes of fatigue. It is one of the most common symptoms of healing. There are various reasons for this, one or more of which will apply to you at different points along your healing journey.
It takes energy and the right nutrients to heal. When your body has enough of both of these, it can heal just about anything. This is important to know, because it relates to much of what follows.
Reasons For Fatigue During Healing
1. The Body Gets Nutrients it Needs and Diverts Existing Energy to a Healing Process: “Once the building materials get here, we can start rebuilding this house!”
The first thing to know is that it takes a lot of energy to accomplish any type of healing. When you start on the supplements and diet, you are getting the exact combination of nutrients you need, maybe for the first time in years. Your body has likely been quite aware of many issues it has wanted to correct, such as toxic metals, infections, damaged tissue, etc., but without the proper nutrients, your body couldn’t address these issues. Now that it is getting the correct materials it needs, your body will dig in and start to fix these long-term issues, and it will suddenly start using a lot of energy to do this, and you may feel tired or more fatigued while the healing is happening.
To use an analogy: imagine you had a house to rebuild, and you had a construction crew waiting to start but didn’t have any building materials. The crew would just be sitting around and would have energy to do other things. That’s the state of most people’s systems today: they have some crew members (some energy) but do not have the building materials (the nutrients they need), so the body isn’t doing much repair. Therefore, the energy the body is making is entirely available to the person for their day-to-day living. (Of course, this energy can be very slight in the case of people who are already very fatigued before they start the program, but the analogy still applies.)
Now, in our analogy, what happens when you deliver the building materials to the crew? They dive in and start to work, and all of their energy goes to rebuilding the house. That’s exactly what happens in your body. It finally has what it needs to heal, so it pulls energy away from your day-to-day living (your muscles, your brain, etc.) to direct it towards using those nutrients to repair and heal. You may now suddenly feel even more tired than before you started, but it is not a result of less energy production in your body. In fact, your energy production has likely increased by this point.
The body cells are programmed to make the internal environment perfect. The genetic coding is such that this is always a priority for the cells. Your cells don’t care that you need to go to work or want to go socialize or even raise children. They want to heal. So the moment the body is able to do so, it will divert energy to healing.
2. Energy Increases Enough to Tackle a Large Healing Process: “We need more crew members to lift this huge beam!”
This is a variant on number 1 above. In number 1, the body needed more nutrients to heal (building materials). In this one, the body needs more energy to heal something (more crew members). Some healing jobs take more energy than is currently available. So the body waits to address the problem until it has enough energy. In our construction analogy, this would be like having a huge beam that needs to be elevated, but you need 5 crew members to do the job and you only have 3, so there’s not enough energy to lift the beam. So the 3 guys sit around waiting for the other 2 to arrive. When the other 2 arrive, everyone gets up and the work begins again as they lift the beam.
In the body, you may not feel much fatigue while the “sitting around” period is occurring. The body is meanwhile working to do smaller healing jobs that raise the energy level. As the energy comes up, you will often feel better and better and can even feel really good. But then once enough energy is now available, it’s time to go to work, and you are suddenly drained of your energy as it is all sent to do the big healing job. This can be very confusing, because you were feeling so good before the healing reaction happened, and now you suddenly don’t feel good. It is tempting to think something suddenly went wrong, but of course, that isn’t the case. Experienced clients on the program get to the point where when they feel really good, they laugh and say, “I wonder what big thing is going to start healing next!”
So the diet and supplements are providing a continual flow of nutrients (the building materials), and your body is continually building up the energy systems (adding more and more crew members), and all of this allows even more healing to occur. Now, it may be a while before your body takes a break from healing and allows you to feel these increases in energy, or you may find you go in and out of healing phases, in which case you will feel ups and downs in your energy. Eventually, of course, enough healing is done that you are able to fully feel and enjoy the usually large increases in your body’s energy production.
3. Removal of Stimulant Toxic Metals: “Taking away the crew’s coffee.”
Another cause of fatigue is the removal of stimulant toxic metals. Our bodies are very smart, and they will hold onto toxic metals to keep tired adrenals and other energy glands running. Most people today are quite propped up by these toxic metals, and it can seem like they have plenty of energy. It is just like a person who is getting by on 12 cups of coffee per day; they can seem quite energetic.
When you start the program, your body realizes it will finally get to fix the energy systems and will finally be able to make real, nutrient-based energy, and it doesn’t need the toxic sources of energy. The body will then start releasing these toxic metals, and you may suddenly feel tired because the stimulant is no longer there. Just like the coffee drinker — if he suddenly went down to 2 cups of coffee per day, he might feel more tired. We call this process “getting rid of crutches,” because the body has been using these metals as crutches to get by.
The truth of the matter is that most of us are like a tired horse being whipped to go faster. The toxic metals whip the adrenals — and even the thyroid — to go faster, and we feel like we have more energy than we really do. When you stop whipping a tired horse, what happens? He slows down. And it’s a very good thing he does because he can’t run like that forever. The same goes for your body: you can’t live on these toxic metals forever. Your body needs to release them, and it’s okay for it to slow down while it does this. Your body will only release these metals when it knows that it can replace that energy with healthful energy. That is why these fatigue episodes are temporary. Your energy will climb again and you will feel better, which may be followed by another release of more toxic metals, causing another temporary bout of fatigue, and so on. Think of it as a roller-coaster that climbs higher and higher but has many dips along the way.
This process can be seen on a hair test graph. The sodium and potassium levels (which reflect adrenal energy) are almost always propped up by toxic metals. Therefore, these readings often look better than they really are (this is often true even when the readings are very low, meaning without the toxic metals, these levels would be even lower or non-existent.) When the stimulant metals are released, the sodium and potassium levels can fall on the test graph. If this happens quickly, one can feel extremely tired and even depressed, and if these symptoms are severe, it is important to contact me so that I can tell you what to do to help you through it. The body then continues to heal the adrenals, and the sodium and potassium levels rise again. These readings may yo-yo up and down for a while on the program as the body converts toxic-source energy to real energy.
Other stimulants affect the body, too, such as too much exercise, sugar in the diet, caffeine, alcohol, medications, cigarettes, etc. Stopping the use of any of these can also cause temporary fatigue.
4. Dumping Toxins Takes Energy To Accomplish: “Getting the asbestos out of this house is hard!”
Another cause for fatigue is that the toxin itself can be very draining on the system when it dumps. It may take a lot of work for the kidneys, liver, etc. to process it out. The person’s fatigue will lift once the toxin is finished being eliminated. Cadmium, for example, can make a person extremely tired when it is coming out. This metal is very hard to get rid of, and it takes a lot of energy to remove it.
5. Tissue Repair: “Gutting the entire house” and “Closed for business during repairs.”
I have found that one of the most fatiguing processes in the body is tissue repair. This is when the body breaks down damaged tissue to replace it with healthy tissue. This can occur in almost any part of the body and is an important part of the healing process. By the time most people start this program, they have weak cells and weak tissue structures all over their bodies that are hindering proper strength and functioning of the organs, joints, bones, etc. It is quite amazing that the body can repair all of these tissues, but it certainly takes a lot of energy to do so. So you can feel very fatigued while a tissue repair is occurring. Additionally, while that particular tissue is healing, it may be “closed for business during repairs,” meaning the organ or area of the body may function less during the healing. This can directly cause fatigue if the organ that is healing is involved in energy production, such as the adrenals or thyroid.
6. Clearing Old Infections: “Oh, no! We have mold!”
Almost everyone today has old, chronic infections stuck in the body in various places, such as the gums, teeth, sinuses, ears, lungs, liver, intestines, etc. These include parasites, viruses, fungus and yeast, and bacteria. Why this happens is that when the person originally was exposed to the infection, if the body was deficient and tired, it couldn’t fully fight off the infection, so it did what it could to keep it at a low level until it had the resources to fully finish the job. Unfortunately, for most people today, the resources do not later become available to finish the job, and the body continues to “collect” these infections.
These infections are quite draining on the body, and they emit toxic substances and damage tissues. On the program, the immune system gets stronger, and energy increases so that the body can now fully fight these infections off. The body will systematically get rid of these infections one by one, and when it is in the process of getting rid of one, you can feel a lot of fatigue. That may be the only symptom you experience, so you may not know it is occurring. But often one also experiences other infection symptoms, such as a runny nose, a cough, night sweats, fever or chills, pain in the infected tissue, etc. which are all caused by the immune system doing its job to clear the old infection.
7. Retracing Old Fatigue Patterns: “Peeling off the layers of wallpaper.”
As your body heals, it has to go back through and retrace or “re-experience” old body chemistry patterns. It is almost as if the body is rewinding itself back through time. It is removing adaptations and compensations it had made along the way so that it can now properly heal the body tissues. It’s like having 20 layers of wallpaper that have been built up for years. Each time a prior wallpaper had gone bad, instead of fixing it, the owners stuck another paper on top (an adaptation). To remove these layers, you have to peel them off one at a time. Sometimes when you do this, you expose an even worse layer underneath, and now you have to re-experience that worse layer of wallpaper until you can peel that one off. For the body, this means that when the body removes an adaptation (a layer of wallpaper), you can pass back through an earlier pattern that was a source of fatigue (the deeper, awful layer of wallpaper), and you can temporarily experience the fatigue again while the body properly rebuilds the area.
8. Temporary Shifts in Hormones: “The dust will fly.”
Your body is going to go through hormonal changes while it heals. Depending on which hormone levels are changing, one can experience bouts of fatigue. The hormones will rebalance again, and the fatigue lifts.
9. A Shift in Body Chemistry Requires Changes to the Supplements: “Oops, we need new building plans. Call the architect!”
There are times when a person’s body chemistry has changed sufficiently that the supplements need to be changed. In this case, the fatigue can be caused by being on the wrong supplements. This can occur to people coming out of a Four Lows pattern who now need another program. It can also occur to people in Fast Oxidation who shift into Slow Oxidation. Other body chemistry shifts can also require a change in supplements which could affect a person’s energy level. That is why it is important to stay in touch with me, so I can spot this and correct it where necessary. I will often temporarily change your program until it is a good time to do a retest. And, of course, this is why retests in general are so important so that we can ensure your program stays correct for you.
10. Lifestyle and Other Factors Can Cause Fatigue: “The crew stayed out drinking all night.”
There are times when a person’s fatigue is not related to a healing reaction and is simply the result of not getting enough rest, enduring emotional upsets or stress, eating too much sugar, not drinking enough water (hydration is very important for energy), etc. So if you are feeling fatigue, be sure to check that you are following all of your program recommendations closely.
The Fatigue Can Sometimes Feel Severe
Some of these bouts of fatigue can feel so severe as to be alarming to the person going through them or to the person’s family members. I’ve commented many times to clients that one can feel so tired that even the effort of picking up a remote control to change the channel on TV feels difficult (I’ve personally experienced this particular level of fatigue during some of my healing reactions and have gotten laughs from clients who have been through it, too).
Some people get scared if this much fatigue occurs, and it’s important to know not to be scared. These severe fatigue bouts are normal and usually pass within a matter of hours to, at most, a few days. That said, some people do feel more extended periods of extreme fatigue during prolonged, deep healing episodes, so don’t be afraid if it lasts longer, and please contact me for guidance if such occurs. Another thing to be aware of is that the body will sometimes move quickly from one healing reaction to another with no breaks in between, which can make one feel continually tired for a longer period of time, and again this is nothing to be concerned over; all it means is you have a very eager crew!
Fatigue and Depression
Fatigue and depression often go hand-in-hand. While people commonly think of fatigue as a symptom that can be caused by depression, the opposite can be true: depression can be caused by fatigue. When the body is very tired, it wants you unmotivated so that you rest more. If you think about it, what is one of the biggest symptoms of depression? You don’t want to do anything, and you just want to lie around all day. So depression can be the body’s way of telling you that it needs you to slow down and rest. There are, of course, other reasons for depression, and during healing reactions, these other reasons can be at play, such as dumping toxic copper, retracing a Calcium Shell (a Calcium reading over 165), temporarily reduced hormone production, retracing a traumatic event, etc. It is important to get a hold of me if you encounter depression, but at the same time, do not worry: the depression most often passes just as soon as the fatigue is gone or when the particular healing process is completed.
When Will I Get Fatigued and How Long Will The Fatigue Last?
It is nearly impossible to predict when fatigue episodes will occur and how long they will last. Each person is different and heals at a different pace. Genetic factors do come into play here, as does the degree of imbalance the person had when starting the program. Some people feel more energy the first few weeks on the program and then hit an episode of fatigue. Others experience the fatigue almost immediately. Some can go months before experiencing their first bout of fatigue. Of course, many people start the program severely fatigued, and they may notice only subtle ups and downs in the beginning, and over time the swings can be more noticeable as their energy comes up. And remember, a lot of healing takes place at night while you sleep, so it isn’t uncommon to wake up in the morning feeling very fatigued.
How to Deal With These Episodes of Fatigue
- Do your best to rest. Rest as much as possible. Even small 5-minute naps or resting periods can be very helpful during this time.
- Coffee enemas can be very helpful to speed the healing along and to reduce stress caused by the removal of toxic substances, removal of infection residues, etc.
- Rub your feet. (I know it sounds too simple to be true, but it really is helpful.)
- Drink plenty of water.
- Eat every few hours, and simple meals may be best. You will want to eat easy-to-digest meals, because digestion takes energy. You may find you have a reduced appetite during these episodes. Be sure not to stop eating altogether, because allowing your blood sugar to dip will cause further fatigue. So even if not hungry, eat a little something every few hours.
- Avoid eating sugar, as it further stresses your adrenals.
- If you are a slow oxidizer, avoid eating a lot of fats, since these will slow your metabolism.
- Have patience with yourself and the process — try to embrace the fatigue as a good thing, which it is. You may have to ignore family and friends if they discourage you from continuing the healing or if they pressure you to remain very active while tired. Do not allow yourself to feel guilty for resting. This rest is not laziness — it is what your body needs in order to heal. Your health is the single most important investment you can make, and remember that you will gain more productive time in your life, because you are taking the time now to heal and prevent future illness.
- Do a hair retest if you are due for one.
- Contact me if the fatigue is prolonged or severe or if depression is present.
- Reducing your supplements can sometimes slow the healing reaction and relieve the fatigue. If you really need a break from the fatigue, you can try taking fewer doses of your supplements or take smaller amounts at each dose or stop the supplements altogether for a few days. This won’t always work; it depends on what is causing the fatigue. For example, if you are on Megapan, Thyro Complex, or Endo-Dren, these support the energy systems and can assist during fatigue, so stopping them can worsen the fatigue. This is especially true if your sodium and potassium levels have dropped due to releasing a stimulant. On the other hand, these same supplements can cause a continuation of the fatigue if they are forwarding a different kind of healing reaction, such as a tissue repair. Whether or not stopping any particular supplement will relieve fatigue has a lot to do with what is causing the fatigue. So it can be complex, and it is often best to contact me if you encounter trouble. And please do not add any new supplements to your program without checking with me first, as some supplements may create a negative change in your body chemistry.
In summary, bouts of fatigue while on this program are a great sign the program is actually bringing about healing. So expect that fatigue will occur on the program, and do your best not to worry when it happens. Don’t give up, embrace the fatigue as a good thing and a natural part of healing, take it easy as much as you can, remind yourself that it is temporary, and contact me for help whenever needed.
Here’s to rebuilding your home into the magnificent structure it was always meant to be!