Healing Chronic Fatigue: Expert Insights for Entrepreneurs

Struggling with chronic fatigue that’s draining your passion and energy as an entrepreneur? In this episode, Dr. Jenny Tufenkian reveals the hidden root causes of fatigue and shares powerful strategies to help you reclaim your vitality, so you can lead your business with purpose and ease. Show Notes | Transcript "People who experience chronic fatigue hate the term chronic fatigue syndrome because it doesn't sound that bad, and it is a very, very serious illness." - Dr. Jenny Tufenkian Are you constantly exhausted, struggling with brain fog, or feeling like your body's energy reserves are perpetually depleted? You might be dealing with more than just everyday fatigue. Naturopathic physician Dr. Jenny Tufenkian shares with me the complex world of chronic fatigue syndrome, or as it's more accurately known, myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS). Discover the five root causes of chronic fatigue: The hormone triangle and how stress impacts your body's delicate balance Reactivated chronic infections that may be silently draining your energy Mitochondrial dysfunction and its role in energy production The impact of toxic overload on your body's systems How your limbic emotional brain influences your energy levels Key insights include: Why the term "myalgic encephalomyelitis" is replacing "chronic fatigue syndrome" The surprising connection between ME/CFS and long COVID How to recognize if you're unconsciously "energy budgeting" due to post-exertional malaise The role of past traumas and stress in triggering chronic fatigue Dr. Tukenkian also addresses the gender disparity in ME/CFS diagnoses and the frustrating dismissal many women face when seeking help. She offers hope and practical advice for those struggling with chronic fatigue, emphasizing the importance of finding the right healthcare provider who understands the complexity of this condition. Whether you're battling chronic fatigue yourself or supporting someone who is, this episode provides valuable insights into the root causes of this debilitating condition and offers a path forward towards healing and renewed energy. Tune in to gain a deeper understanding of ME/CFS and discover how you can take control of your health journey. Resources: Join the Soulful Women's Network Connect with Dr. Jenny: Website: drjennytufenkian.com Connect with Live Love Engage: Send Gloria Grace a message ☕ Support the podcast ❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating LinkedIn: Gloria Grace Rand Facebook: Gloria Grace Rand YouTube: Gloria Grace Rand TRANSCRIPT Gloria Grace Rand Namaste. If you are an entrepreneur who is tired of being tired, stick around because today’s guest is going to reveal the hidden causes of your exhaustion and the holistic secrets to reclaiming your vibrant self. But first, I want to welcome you to live, love, engage, especially those of you who this may be your first time listening to the podcast. I am Gloria Grace, and I help female entrepreneurs attract clients by going beyond traditional search engine optimization methods that you would use on your website to embrace my definition of SEO, which stands for to spiritually engage others. Joining us today is Dr. Jenny Tu-fen’-kian. She is a licensed Naturopathic physician, specializing in empowering health-conscious professionals to conquer long COVID and ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. And her personal battle with chronic fatigue is what led her to create a transformative system that actually addresses the five core root causes of CFS. So normally, I would be bringing her on to the show live, but we had to actually pre-record her interview. So, I’m going to go ahead and share that with you right now. And make sure technical things work. And I’m confident it’s going to be there. Welcome, Doctor Jenny to live, love, engage. Dr. Jenny Tufenkian Thank you so much for having me, Gloria. It's a pleasure to be here with you today. Gloria Grace Rand Well, I am really glad that you're here, especially to tackle this subject because thankfully I have not experienced it myself, but I do, I have known friends and acquaintances that have kind of dealt with chronic fatigue and things like that. And when I mentioned in the intro, and this was something I had to look up myself because I'd never heard of the term ME/CFS before. So I thought maybe we could start with that so you could educate our audience a little bit about especially that ME part. What does that stand for? And then we'll kind of go into more. Dr. Jenny Tufenkian Yeah. I'm so glad you were asking this because a lot of people, even in the medical profession, have no idea what ME is. It's really, it means myalgic encephalitis. And it really is talking about there is inflammation in the brain and in the muscles. And that's what we're seeing with people who have chronic fatigue. Now, this term has actually been used by most of the world for decades to explain this phenomenon that we've been calling in the United States, chronic fatigue syndrome for decades. People who experience chronic fatigue hate the term chronic fatigue syndrome because it doesn't sound that bad, and it is a very, very serious illness. I often joke and say, if you tell somebody you have chronic fatigue syndrome, they say, oh, yeah, I'm tired too. Like, whatever, you know, can you get over it now? Whereas if you say, I have myalgic encephalitis, they're like, oh, now that actually sounds like something that is serious, and maybe we should consider bringing you some lasagna or helping you drive your kids to school. There is a movement now among the physicians and researchers in the States who work with people who are struggling with these complex chronic conditions to begin to move that naming over from chronic fatigue syndrome to the more accurate myalgic encephalitis. I also consider lung COVID to be part of the same thing. So often I talk about long COVID, I talk about myalgic encephalitis, and I talk about chronic fatigue syndrome. It's a lot of words, but we throw them all in there. Somebody gets what we're talking about. Gloria Grace Rand Yeah, well, I'm, I'm really glad that they're starting to do that, because you're right. I mean, when I hear that, I mean, first thing I think of is like, ah, yeah, I mean, encephalitis, that's I mean, something that people die from, right? I mean, protect your brain. So, yeah, so I'm glad that they're making this more serious, really. Dr. Jenny Tufenkian Right. One of the things that's made it easier in the United States for us to start using this term is really recent research where we've been doing PET scans, where we put patients, people who have myalgic encephalitis, people who are controls, who are normal and are matched for the same age and gender. We put them into a PET scan with dyes, and it's more detailed than an MRI. And we're starting to see their brains and their muscles flare up, light up, literally from the inflammation. So we now have a diagnostic tool where we can see what is going on physiologically with these people. It's not used yet for people to help them diagnose if they have it. It's just used for research right now. But it does give the evidence that we've been craving and looking for to say, yes, this is what's happening in my body. Here's a picture of it. And now we can start looking for treatments that actually work. Gloria Grace Rand Yeah, that is so important because that was one question I was going to ask you is it seems like it has been really hard to diagnose. So what can people do I guess now to be an advocate for themselves? Especially until this research starts getting to be more commonplace, where doctors are going to be able to know about it. Dr. Jenny Tufenkian We still do not have a specific test to diagnose. Whether somebody actually has long COVID or actually has myalgic encephalitis. They are both diagnosis by exclusion, meaning that you have to rule out all the other causes of your fatigue, of your brain fog, of your balance issues, all the different things of your muscle pain, all the different symptoms you may have, we have to rule out and make sure you don't have something else. And then we're left with a diagnosis of myalgic encephalitis chronic fatigue, long COVID. Now that said, there are very specific things that we're starting to look for that can key you into, to realize that you may need more support. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking, I don't know, I have not been feeling great, maybe I have this. Here are some things to pay attention to. If you are dealing with ongoing fatigue that's been going on for months or years and isn't due to something super explainable, like you just had a baby and you're up all night with your kid or you’re taking care of an elderly parent, and you're up all night if there's no real explanation for it. You just feel like you're pushing yourself through the day, like you'd rather lie down after lunch, take a nap. If you could just work a half day, that's great. You find yourself fantasizing about just being in the hammock instead of being excited about your work. These are all signs that maybe you are dealing with fatigue that is beyond just normal exhaustion from your work schedule. Another hallmark of these conditions is something called post exertional malaise, also called PEM, in abbreviated nomenclature. And that's when you do more than you usually do and you pay for it. So, for example, if you're used to being able to, you know, clean your house normally. For the people who are really sick, you know, like doing the dishes may be something they normally do, but if they do the dishes and the laundry, they are more exhausted. They have to spend the rest of the day or even week on the couch or in bed due to exhaustion or pain. If you have a more mild case, you're not so severe yet at this time,...