Why You're Still Tired: The 5 Hidden Causes of Chronic Fatigue & Long COVID with Evan H. Hirsch, MD

Why You're Still Tired: The 5 Hidden Causes of Chronic Fatigue & Long COVID with Evan H. Hirsch, MD

00:00

So what if everything you've tried has been actually treating the wrong thing? Hey, I'm Evan Hirsch, the founder and CEO of the EnergyMD method. And welcome back to the EnergyMD podcast where we help you resolve your long COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome naturally so that you can get back to living your best life. So if you feel like you've tried absolutely everything and you're not getting better, it's because you're treating the wrong thing. So these

00:34

The right things are actually what I call the toxic five. And these are the five hidden root causes draining your energy that contribute to chronic fatigue, long COVID, brain fog, chronic pain, autoimmunity. So let's get into it. So most of the people that I see have already tried lots of supplements, diets, protocols, and they're still not better, right? Your doctor's been working a lot on optimizing your hormones and your vitamins.

01:02

And maybe that helps, but then you plateau, you know, your energy crashes after basic tasks and rest doesn't fix it. You've got brain fog, chronic pain, autoimmune symptoms, and they just keep getting worse. And you're wondering really if this is your life right now, right? It can be incredibly frustrating.

01:24

See if I can figure out my computer. It's important to know that this is not your fault. You know, you're not crazy. You're not lazy. This is not just stress or aging. Something real is going on and you just have to know what you're missing. You know, whenever I talk to people, the question is always in my mind, what is missing here and what needs to be fixed? Okay. So fatigue has three levels and most providers stop at level two. So let's talk about this. So level one is lifestyle habits. So

01:53

If you fix your sleep, your nutrition, your hydration, your movement, there are a segment of people who can get better. They can resolve their fatigue, their brain fog, their body pain, their sleep issues just by doing that. Okay. It's a small segment of the people um that I see. It's almost none of the people that I see. um But it can be incredibly helpful for a lot of people. And that's really where people have to start.

02:20

So that's a level one problem if you can fix it by addressing your lifestyle habits. And then if you go on to, um, fixing your deficiencies, so these are deficiencies, these are things that are not in the body, oops, that are supposed to be. So vitamins, minerals, hormones, thyroid. So when you replace your deficiencies, everything works better in the body. Now there's a segment of people who get better from doing this for the people who

02:47

aren't getting better doing level one and level two, that's when they come to see me and that's when we address level three, which is the toxic five. And these are the real root causes. And part of that is because 80 % of these deficiencies that we're talking about are actually caused by the toxic five, right? So yes, you have adrenal gland dysfunction and B vitamin deficiency and sex hormone issues and thyroid issues, et cetera, but you have to think about

03:13

the why underneath the why, what is causing those deficiencies or those autoimmune conditions? And those are the toxic five. So what are the toxic five? They are the heavy metals, chemicals, molds, infections, and nervous system dysfunction that have been building up in your body since day one. There are studies to show that over 300 different chemicals are found in babies, cord blood. So that basically means that we already come out of the womb.

03:42

with a lot of these toxins and infections already in our bodies. Okay. And then we just continue to accumulate them throughout our lives. You know, for me, I ate lots of tuna fish growing up that it was high in mercury and had exposure to lead paint, you know, ate non-organic food. had pesticides and herbicides and glyphosates took plastic food, took food, put it in plastic, stuck it in the microwave, right? And then I've got plastic in my food, stored food in plastics, had lots of

04:11

exposures to plastics, bromides, that new car smell, right? There's a lot of these exposures that we have. And then mold exposures over half of the buildings in the world have water damage and most of those have molds. So, you know, if you ever live in a place that has, that smells musty or has water damage in any part of your life, from the moment you were born, that those, can move on to the next home, but those that will still stay in your body, unless you actually do something.

04:40

to pull out those molds and mold toxins. And then there's infections, everything from the spike protein now, COVID, Epstein-Barr virus, parasites, bacteria, Lyme disease, Lyme-Clo infections that can uh play a significant role in the symptoms that we've mentioned already. And then nervous system dysfunction. This can be significant trauma or abuse.

05:06

Um, or it can be more mild trauma, regardless, it changes the way your body sees the world and changes how you perceive your, your life and yourself as safe. Um, all right. So here's an interesting analogy. So your body is like a phone on 5 % battery when you have chronic fatigue. You know, most people try is charging harder, you know, more supplements, more protocols, more medications.

05:34

but the apps draining your battery are still running. What actually works is closing the apps, which is finding and removing the toxic five, the heavy metals, the chemicals, the molds, the infections and nervous system dysfunction. And these are 99 % of all of the causes of chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic fatigue and long COVID. So when you address 99 % of all the causes of anything, success is imminent.

06:01

It just, it just depends on how long it takes to get those things out of your body. So why just detox doesn't work? You know, a lot of people just want to go, they, they hear what I'm talking about and they're like, Oh, toxins and infections. Let me just go pick up a detox box at my local supplement store and, um, and do that. Isn't that going to work? No, it's actually not. So part of this is because your pathways are blocked. You know, toxins go in basically the top of this funnel. And if the bottom is clogged.

06:31

then they recirculate and you feel worse and you give up. ah I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say, I tried to do a detoxification. I tried to remove these toxins and infections out of my body and I felt worse and I didn't have anybody to help me get through that process. Right. And so that's, we've structured our program entirely around what works for people and what hasn't worked for them. You know, part of my story is that

06:57

I had a bowel movement once a week for the first 20 some odd years of my life, mainly from gluten and dairy that constipated me. And consequently, when you're not having a bowel movement every day, you cannot detoxify. Those toxins just get recirculated into the body. Right? So really important to open up these pathways. First, the liver, kidney, lymph, gallbladder, intestines. Then you remove the toxic five. Okay. So this is a step that almost everybody skips.

07:26

and why it's such an important part of our process. So I came up with the energy MD method about a decade ago. First step is to assess and figure out the causes that you have for people who join our program. have them fill out an intake form. Um, and I do an assessment based on their history, their symptoms, laboratory tests that they have. And then step two is to replace the deficiencies you have. So even though I said before that step two is not enough, it is still important. Replacing deficiencies is still important.

07:55

Because when you replace your deficiencies, inflammation goes down, resilience goes up, energy usually can go up by a tick and you have less crashes. And then step three is opening the exit pathways. So the liver, the kidney, the lymph, the neurolymph, the gallbladder, the intestines, all those pathways really need to be open. Um, so that when you're, so then you're prepared for removing the toxic five in step four. And that really takes four to 12 months.

08:24

Okay. And the rest of the time that people are in our program, you know, about at 12 months, people are about 60 to a hundred percent better for some people. They need to go to 18 months or 24 months, depending on how long they've been ill and how much of the toxic five they have in their body and their response to treatment. So a little uh point about timing. So assessing, you know, determining the causes you have really is based largely on your history and your symptoms. We'll talk more about.

08:53

testing and why it's imperfect in a moment. Replacing deficiencies takes a couple of months. Opening exit pathways takes a couple of months. And then the rest of the time that you're in the program is really focused on removing the toxic five. And the sooner you get to step four and removing the toxic five, the better. Okay. You also have to address all of the toxic five together. Okay. Your immune system is distracted by the toxic five.

09:21

And consequently, infections can come out and become opportunistic. Infections hide in the biofilm, which is kind of like this jelly-like material that exists on our mucus membranes. And bugs will hide in there and swap their DNA, creating superbugs. And when you have a dysregulated nervous system, it can block all healing. And that dysfunction of the nervous system comes from trauma. So whether it's abuse or other things that make you feel not safe.

09:49

but it can also come from the other toxic four, the heavy metals, the chemicals, the molds, the infections, all of those can cause nervous system dysfunction. And the reason why it's very hard to get rid of infections is when you have all these toxins and infections, the immune system is distracted. You have to have a functional immune system in order to be able to get rid of your infections. Okay. So that's why it's so important to address all of these at the same time.

10:18

They're also all bound up together, all the toxic five. And when you start releasing one, it's going to release another one and you can create what's called a whack-a-mole picture where you start pulling out heavy metals and then all of a sudden you're releasing infections. And so as we work, you know, we're introducing like a tincture with like a drop at a time. And as you're ramping up on that tincture for a particular cause, then we move on to the next one at the end of, um,

10:46

at around month six, seven, eight, when you've introduced all of the products that you're going to need as part of the process, all of a sudden that's where the magic happens. And that's when you make sure that you're addressing all of these causes so that when individual ones get released, you have good coverage. And what I found doing this work over the last decade is that everyone who addresses all of the toxic five gets better. It's just a matter of time, depending on how long it takes for you to

11:13

get all the toxins and infections out of your body. And this really comes from the idea that when you are addressing 99 % of all the real root causes, success is imminent. There is no chance but to be successful. So a lot of people ask whether or not they need to test first. So what I found over the last decade doing this work is that, and I used to do a lot of testing, every three months or so I would test for all of the toxic.

11:43

And what I found was that at the end of 12 months, all of the toxins and infections ended up coming out. And I really realized after a while of doing this, that I had been fooled by too many imperfect laboratory tests, where these tests really are oftentimes tests of excretion, where they're telling you how well you're excreting. They're not really telling you whether or not you have certain toxins in your body. And the tests for infections are really looking at how your immune system reacts to these infections.

12:13

And if your immune system isn't functioning, well, you're not going to get an accurate read on these tests. And so what I find after being fooled time and time again is that it just saves you time, energy and money to address all of the toxic five. That way I know that when people are done with my program, they've addressed all of these causes and they're going to be well. And that's what I've seen time and time again. And that's why we have so many testimonials on our website of people getting better.

12:43

So what's also interesting too, is that I get a ton of data from your reaction to treatment, you know, more so than I get from any laboratory tests. So if I give you a tincture that is going to be addressing heavy metals and chemicals and you feel worse, then I know that those are significant causes for you and that you have to work through that process, maybe a little bit more slowly than you do some of the other causes. Okay. So that's where it's really nice where we're using these different

13:12

tinctures to address all of your causes. We leave no stone unturned and we can tell kind of which causes you have based on your reaction to treatment. When people, a lot of people, you know, have spent a lot of money um so far, you know, you've seen a lot of practitioners and you're wondering, you know, what, where should I put my money next? Or why are, uh

13:38

Why haven't I been successful? And it's really because you haven't addressed the toxic five. Like I said, I've never met anybody. I would really love for somebody to reach out to me one of these days and say, I have addressed all the toxic five completely and I haven't gotten better. I really, I haven't met somebody who has done that. Um, and so please, if that's you, please reach out to me. But if it's not you realize that you haven't addressed everything. You know, I know you've spent a lot of time and energy and money and you feel like you've done everything.

14:08

But hopefully this rings a bell for you that you realize you have not and that when you address everything that you are going to be successful and it's not going to cost you more. It's actually going to save you time, energy and money when you just go through a process like ours and address all these causes. Okay. People also believe that their situation is unique and it's very true. You are incredibly unique, but when we are addressing 99 % of the causes,

14:37

The reality is, that everybody who I work with who has chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic fatigue and long COVID, they have all of the toxic five. The question is just how much of each do you have? Right? So maybe some people have more mercury than another person, but this person over here has more Lyme and parasites than this person over here. So as you move through this process, like I said, when you react to treatment, when you start to have die-off or you start to feel worse,

15:05

and we have to pause and do what I call the die off dance to make sure to mitigate your die off so that you can continue to move through the process. That is a big way that we know what causes you have. It's also important to recognize that that is the causes you have is an intellectual conversation. It's not a practical one. So it's interesting to note, but it is not important in the grand scheme of things. If you address all of the toxic five causes, you're going to get better. And that's what you need to know.

15:35

Okay. So when you address 99 % of the causes with the right support, success is not an if, it's a when. The only question is how long it takes to get the toxic five out and the nervous system reset. So there are some people who might be watching this thinking trauma does not apply to me. You know, and that's kind of what I thought up until the last couple of years where, know, I grew up in a happy family, no divorce.

16:04

couple of kids, know, middle class, you know, life was pretty darn good. But the reality is, is that I was raised by imperfect parents. had imperfect siblings. I had imperfect classmates. I was rejected by a peer group numerous times. You know, I had what we call the little T trauma or it's more mild, but the reality is, is that it changed the way that I saw the world and it made me believe that I wasn't necessarily safe.

16:34

my relationships and the attachment that I had or the challenges that I had in relationships, romantic relationships that I had that ended, know, there were significant traumas in there that changed the way that my nervous system functioned. And so just by living in society, listening to the news, being in relationship with other imperfect humans, you also have trauma. may not be significant abuse like

17:04

mental, emotional, physical, sexual abuse, but it is still trauma. It's rejection, it's pressure, it's perfectionism. Everyone really has it to some degree. And for some people, it can be 90 % of their issue, which is why doing trauma nervous system retraining is so important. Whether it's limbic system retraining, amygdala retraining, nervous system retraining, whatever you want to call it.

17:32

This is why we incorporated nervous system retraining into our program about six to 12 months ago and why it's so important. So this is what I've found that recovery looks like. You you assess your causes pretty soon when you come into the program, you provide me with your intake form, I go through it. If I need some additional testing, know, thyroid, iron,

17:58

Vitamin D, B12, I'll ask you for that, but the majority of the time people have already had those within the last year or two. But I will be able to provide you with a plan based on the causes that you have that I see in the next seven days. So I've structured this so that you don't have to wait three to six months to see me like you used to. So we can get you in very quickly and we can get you started very quickly so you don't have to wait. And then you can start implementing things. And like I said, replacing the deficiencies.

18:29

for the first couple of months. people about half of the time report their energy goes from a three out of 10 where 10 is ideal to maybe a four or a five out of 10. And then the next couple of months are for opening the exit pathways. You start doing the nervous system retraining from day one. So that's really important. About month nine is when really the, oh, I should say after you open the exit pathways for a couple of months, then you go into step four and you start addressing the toxic five.

18:57

And the magic really starts happening when you are, when you are on all the supplements in step four and, um, and all of sudden the light comes on, you're addressing appreciably the heavy metals, chemicals, molds, infections, you're doing the nervous system retraining. And it's just then a matter of time as this total body burden of toxins and infections decreases. And all of sudden, when you get to a level where the lights start to come back on,

19:25

It's what I call the magic starts. And that's really around month nine for most people. And so then about 12 months, about 60 people are 60 to a hundred percent better, as I previously mentioned. And so in this process, we have a lot of support for people. get one-on-one coaching, you get group calls three times a month, you get community support with a guaranteed response to any question you have within two business days. So we've kind of structured it in a way so that we can make sure that we're addressing your causes.

19:55

or your challenges as soon as you have them. So you're not waiting a month, two months, three months to see your provider and then say, by the way, 45 days ago, I had this symptom, right? Really important that we address it at the time that it happened so that you can pivot and you can keep moving forward. I generally tell people that you will pivot about 50 times over the course of uh our 12 month program.

20:21

And that's basically you feel worse, you let us know, we let you know what to do, you pivot, and then you keep moving forward.

20:29

So people ask, you know, who is a good fit for your program? Well, our program is a good fit for people who've tried everything and they're still not better. They're willing to commit to 12 months because as I mentioned, the magic happens around month nine. uh If fatigue is significantly affecting your quality of life, this is not for the worried well where you just want to improve your energy, but you're already doing well. And you're ready to really address your physical and emotional sides. You know, like if you're not willing to work on your mental, emotional health.

20:59

then our program is definitely not for you. This is also not for you if you're looking for a quick fix and if your fatigue is really solvable with the lifestyle changes and replacing the deficiencies, that's not for us. And if you're not willing to commit to uh 12 months with us, you know, so, you know, we are, we are only looking for people who are willing to go to the duration because if you're expecting to be better at six months, you are not going to be better with my program. I don't know any program that can really help people with

21:28

the long COVID chronic fatigue syndrome and who've tried a lot of different things and had not gotten better. I mean, yes, you can try ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine and there's a number of those things that potentially can help you and great, that's wonderful. But our program is really for those who feel like they've tried everything and they haven't gotten better.

21:49

Okay. So really important for you to find the right guide. you know, whenever you want to fix something or, or, or solve a problem in your life, you want to look for a specialist, right? If you want to learn how to play piano, you go to a piano teacher. If you want to fix your card, you go to a mechanic. If you want to solve your fatigue, your brain fog, your body pain, your cognitive dysfunction, that is brain fog, your sleep issues, you go to a specialist like me. Right. So the reason why.

22:19

you go to a specialist is because you want somebody who has seen this all day long. And for me, it's been obviously decades who has solved this problem in themselves. Like I did when I had my chronic fatigue syndrome, have solved this problem in other people. can see the testimonials on our site and you you invest the time, energy and money. are not the cheapest and we are definitely not the most expensive, but we are a significant investment of your time, energy and money.

22:46

But you make that investment so that you can compress time because you can probably fix your symptoms over the next five or 10 years by bouncing around and going to your local doctor or you know, this person who's been recommended or whatever. But if you want to do this in a year, maybe 18 months, like this, way to do it is to find somebody who has fixed this problem in other people and stick with them and believe what they say when they say how long it's going to take. Right.

23:17

So hopefully this is helpful for you. If you want to see if your fatigue is fixable, definitely check out my latest quiz. It's at myfatiguescore.com. We're going to drop that link in and around this video. Really, really, oh really the best step to short little quiz and assessment. And then you'll be prompted if you want, you'll get a score about how fixable your fatigue is. And then you'll be prompted to watch my latest masterclass where you can learn more about my philosophy of care.

23:46

And then you can get on a free call with me if you want to see if we're a good fit to work together. And I want to, um, it only about, about 30 % of the time, um, on that call, I'll tell people that I don't think they were a good fit to work together. So it's not a foregone conclusion. So don't expect me to say, you know, that, yes, I definitely think that I can help you. I'll do an assessment. And if I feel like I can help you, I will say yes. And then we can talk about what the program looks like. But if I don't feel like I can help you, I will let you know that as well.

24:16

because it's not worth my time, my energy, my team's time and energy, you know, um having somebody come into the program. And I also want to be very judicious and very, very mindful of your finances. And I don't want you to join a program that I don't feel like you're going to get success with. Okay. It's just, it's not good juju. And I always want to be an integrity. So hopefully this was helpful for you and, and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode. Oh,

24:45

But first, if you liked this, if this was helpful for you, please like and subscribe so you get more of these videos and share this with somebody that you care about who might be struggling with chronic fatigue, chronic fatigue syndrome, or long COVID. All right, I'll see you in the next episode.