Do You Have Long Covid or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ME:CFS? with Evan H. Hirsch, MD

Do You Have Long Covid or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ME:CFS? with Evan H. Hirsch, MD

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Hey there, welcome back to the energy MD podcast. My name is Evan Hirsch and we help you resolve your chronic fatigue syndrome and long COVID naturally so that you can get back to living your best life. So today I want to discuss if you have long COVID or if you have any CFS, basically, you know, a lot of people are wondering whether or not they have any CFS or chronic fatigue syndrome.

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when they have long COVID. So we're going to talk a little bit about the similarities. We're going to talk a little bit about the differences and we're also going to be talk about how important it is to get a diagnosis. So there are definitely some, some similarities. Let's kind of get into those. So there is the chronic fatigue and there's the post-exertional malaise where when you exert yourself, you feel worse. There's the sleep disturbances, brain fog, headaches, the orthostatic intolerance, or basically when you go from a sitting to a standing position, oftentimes

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You can get lightheaded because your blood pressure drops. You don't get enough blood flow to the brain. You can get heart palpitations. You can get muscle pain, joint pain, and you can have poor temperature control, whether or not you're too hot or too cold. Some of the differences are that long COVID can more frequently cause a change of smell or taste, rashes, hair loss, cough, shortness of breath, uh symptoms that are more specifically related to COVID-19.

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With chronic fatigue patients, oftentimes they have more severe symptoms, especially with some dizziness, some instability and some muscle weakness. But really, you know, there's multi organ, multi organ systematic or systemic dysfunctions. Okay. So most of the organs in the body are affected. The causes are all the same. So when we're looking at the deficiencies or things that are not in the body, they're supposed to be there.

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hormones, vitamins, minerals, mitochondrial function, lifestyle habits, mindset, like those are all there. And then also the toxicities are all present. What I call the toxic five. This is a combination of heavy metals, chemicals, molds, infections, including COVID-19 and nervous system dysfunction or trauma. So all of those causes are all going to be there. The question is always how much of each do you have? You can't really get long COVID unless you have the toxic five.

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and you can't get chronic fatigue syndrome if you don't have the toxic five as well. And so it's never just one thing. It's always this combination, which really is the most important part of this, because so many people that I see who come to us who have long COVID, who've seen numerous other providers who are going directly after the COVID, they're like, what is, what can I use? That's an antiviral. Oftentimes you can have a little bit of success, but then you plateau. And that's because there's all these other causes that are also present. There's other infections.

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There's heavy metals, there's chemicals, there's molds, there's nervous system dysfunction and autonomic nervous system dysfunction. So all of those components need to be addressed in order to be able to get somebody better. Okay. In terms of the diagnostic distinctions, know, long COVID is, um, is really diagnosed after somebody has had persistent symptoms after two or three months.

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Um, after you've had a, sort of viral illness presumed to be COVID with no other explanation and chronic fatigue syndrome really is diagnosed after six months of having debilitating fatigue, post-exertional malaise, sleep issues, brain fog, body pain. So that's really the difference, you know, is that it's, it's lasting for a longer period of time. And there is some distinction between some of the symptoms present, but the reality is, is that the causes are the same, which is really important because if you want to fix anything.

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in life, in your health, et cetera, at work, your car, you have to know what the causes are. And so that's why it's so important to look beyond the diagnosis. The diagnosis isn't necessarily going to help you. If somebody says, yes, you have long COVID or yes, you have chronic fatigue syndrome. Sometimes it gives you something to go on, but historically, you know, you go and see a conventional practitioner.

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They don't really have much to offer you then you go and see a naturopath functional medicine integrative medicine specialist long covid clinic, etc Maybe you get a little bit better, but then you plateau it's because this whole picture all the causes are not being addressed So it is helpful sometimes to have a diagnosis because it does give you some focus You can you know put it into google and you can search long covid specialist and my name pops up But it's really important to remember that What you're looking for are the causes

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And then what you want to do is you want to address all of these causes in a systematic fashion. So we have a four step process that we take people through. The first step is to identify the causes that you have with everybody that we see. We address all of the toxic five because all of the testing that I've done over the last decade and helping people with chronic fatigue syndrome. And now the last couple of years with long COVID, I have found that everybody has the toxic five, the law, the heavy metals, the chemicals, the molds, the infections, the nervous system dysfunction.

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And I want to make sure that when you come to see me, that I, is the last program, the last experience that you end up having with this condition. And the way that I can make sure that that happens is that I am going to address all of these causes, all of the toxic five. I'm going to address adrenal gland dysfunction, mitochondrial dysfunction. And then we're going to look for some specifics to see, you know, what makes your situation unique. Do you have thyroid dysfunction? Do you have vitamin or mineral deficiencies?

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You know, what are your lifestyle habits that we need to potentially optimize? So we're going to look at all those things, but with everybody that we work with, we address all of the toxic five adrenal gland dysfunction and mitochondrial dysfunction, because you can't get to where you are without having all of these different causes. And we know that when we address 95 to 99 % of all the potential causes, you are going to be successful. So that's, know, and you can't get to where you are without having.

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It's this combination of all these toxins and infections that ends up putting you in this situation where you have these awful symptoms that you can't get rid of. Okay. So you just have to understand that you have to address all of them. And that's generally the missing piece. And it sounds like it's going to cost you more money and more time, et cetera. It actually doesn't. It saves you a ton of time because you're not wasting your time and money and energy on lab tests that are highly imperfect because these lab tests are

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You know, if you're looking at a urine test, looking for heavy metals, chemicals and molds in the body, these, those urine tests really are tests of excretion. They're telling you how well you excrete toxins. They're not telling you what your total body burden is. So I've been burned by so many of these tests. And what I found is that success comes from addressing all of these things. Um, and if you're interested in seeing the success that people have had in our program, we've got some of the stories on our website and energy, empty method.com slash results.

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and you can kind of get a sense about where people were when they came into the program and where they are now. We have almost 100 testimonials on that page, which I'm very proud of.

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So step one is to figure out the causes you have. Step two is to replace the deficiencies. Now, long story short, this process is all about step four and removing the toxic five, which happens in step four, but we have to prepare the body appropriately. So step two is replacing the deficiencies, the hormones, the vitamins, the minerals, the mitochondrial function, the mindset, the, we're working on the nervous system retraining from day one, the lifestyle habits.

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So all of those different components, all those deficiencies need to be bolstered because that'll increase your resilience, decrease your inflammation, just give you a little bit of a bump in energy for about half of the people we work with. It takes your energy from a four out of 10 to a five out of 10. If 10 is ideal energy, something like that. just decreases your crashes, allows you to function better in your life. And life is just better after step two. But big picture is you got to remove

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the step four toxins and infection. So step three, we're opening up the drainage pathways, the detox pathways, the way with the exit pathways, the way we get crap out of the body. So this is opening up the liver and the kidney and the lymph and the neuro lymph and the gallbladder and the intestines, right? All these pathways that we need to get toxins out of the body. And then in step four, we're removing the toxic five, the heavy metals, the chemicals, the molds, the infections, the nervous system dysfunction. And I'm just.

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I just keep saying those things over and over again, because I want you to realize how important they are. And if you are not better, it's because you haven't addressed all of those. Right. You've been going through this process, seeing providers who I'm sure are very good. They get a lab test, you address the lab test, and maybe you get a little bit better, but you're not all the way better. And you wonder why. Right. And then you go on to the next cause and then you go on to the next cause. And this takes several years, but you're missing your, you know, 10 times out of 10, when I get on calls with people to see if I can help them.

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Nobody I have never met anybody who has addressed all of the toxic five and didn't get better. Okay, it's that important. So hopefully I've driven that point home. So that that's the four step process that we use in order to help people get better. So focus on the causes, focus on the toxic five and go through a four step process like that so that you can get better. Many people come to see us have been damaged by die off.

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or a Herxheimer reaction where basically you're trying to remove a toxin or infection and you have not done step three. That's why step three is so important. You know, by the nature of having long COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia as well, um you your these detox pathways are clogged. Essentially, you know, the toxins and infections are in there and they're having a hard time getting out. So you have to start off with step three. You have to open up

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those pathways in order to be more successful in step four. And then once you get into step four, that's where you're going to spend the majority of your time. Step one takes just a couple of hours to fill out the form for me to review it and provide you with a plan. Step two is, is going to take you about a month and a half and introducing the supplements. Step three takes also about a month and a half. Step four takes the next nine to 12 months. Okay. So it's introducing and we introduce everything.

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sequentially, you know, making a change every two to four days, depending on what we're introducing so that we can see how you're going to react to each individual supplement. So we know if you have a negative reaction, we know exactly what's happening. We use a lot of tinctures too. So with that, when you're ramping up by a drop at a time, we have really good control of if you're starting to feel worse, starting to have a Herxheimer reaction that we can pause that we can increase your step three support.

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so that you can continue to make progress and be successful.

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So hopefully that was helpful for you. Hopefully you realize that long COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome are not exactly the same thing, but they're pretty darn close. And the reality is, that with both, you really need to be addressing the toxic five. And if you're interested in seeing if we can help you, can get, you can apply for a free call with me and we can get on a free call and I'll go through a process of assessment to determine whether or not I feel like I can help you.

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If I do feel like that, about a third of the people that I get on calls with, I say, don't believe that we're a good fit to work together. But if I do feel that with you, then we can talk about what's included in the program, the structure of the program and the investment and all of that. So you can click on the link below and learn more and I'll see you in the next episode. Be well.