Being a Health Detective
Fatigue and brain fog are two symptoms we hear about from almost every person we work with. Interestingly, they’re symptoms that don’t even register when a doctor asks where you’re at on the pain scale from 0 to 10. Even so, if I had a guaranteed way to make them disappear, the demand would form a line outside our office stretching to the moon and back.
One of the challenges people face is the noise from YouTube health influencers claiming they have the definitive answer. One might say spiking glucose levels are the issue. Another claims under-methylation is the cause. Hormone imbalance, elevated cortisol, sleep patterns—they’ll say just about anything to get you to buy their supplements. And as a side note: if a supplement is named after an influencer, it’s probably the exact same one you can get on Amazon, just twice the price.
So here’s the thing: you can guess, or you can test. Being a health detective without the clues that come from labs is the equivalent of being a bus driver with a blindfold. Sure, you might go places—but you’ll almost certainly crash along the way. Health is too important to guess. Instead, consider this: there are a few usual suspects behind fatigue and brain fog. Test those first, and only after that move on to trending YouTube health tips.
· Sleep: No test required. Track your sleep for a week and aim for at least 7–8 hours per night.
· Blood sugar: Test your fasting insulin. If it’s elevated, we learn far more than whether glucose dysregulation is contributing to fatigue and brain fog—which it very often is. We also learn about insulin resistance, prediabetes risk, and cardiovascular health. It’s a test I wish more people would ask for.
· Methylation: This isn’t the first thing I’d test, but may be worth exploring. A genetic DNA panel can reveal variants associated with low methylation capacity.
· Hormones: Again, not a first stop, but sometimes a logical next step. A comprehensive thyroid panel or cortisol tests may be the missing puzzle pieces needed to uncover a root cause.
Side note… most of these labs can be ordered through a primary care physician and may be covered by insurance. To be clear, not all doctors will be willing to order them. If you find yourself working with such a doctor, offer them grace. Imagine stepping into their shoes—caring for an army of five-year-olds coughing, and an army of forty-year-olds who were coughed on by their five-year-olds and are now coughing too. Fatigue and brain fog are persistent and frustrating, but they’re often low on a doctor’s priority list. Now, back to this blog…
There’s a lot you can do to take your wellness into your own hands, but being a health detective means pushing past the noise of YouTube influencers. There are some fabulously bizarre wellness tips out there—and some of them actually work! But don’t start there. To borrow a line often used in detective fiction, “The simplest explanation is usually the correct one.” When it comes to fatigue and brain fog, begin with sleep and blood sugar, then work your way toward less common explanations. And if all else fails, reach out to us. We’re here to help.