Is Your Health Being Held Up by Focus and Energy Robbers?

Everyone has filled out forms when visiting the doctor’s office. Aside from providing your doctor with background information, there is survey information that is used to identify more general trends. One of them has been easy to spot.

The number one reported health complaint in medical office across the country every year is fatigue. So many people who visit Natural Healthcare Center are dealing with a lack of energy, which has gone beyond a national epidemic to become a worldwide pandemic.

We all should be able to focus with our brains. We all should be able to wake up with an abundance of energy, and we should never wake up exhausted. But our society is almost universally challenged by a lack of focus and energy.

Here’s the frustrating part. We have energy-manufacturing resources built into our bodies, but as always, man steps in and damages those resources.

As Dr. Daniel Amen outlines in his book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, there are a number of focus robbers and energy robbers that prevent us from enjoying optimal health. Here are the most common focus and energy robbers:

• Inherited and acquired brain disorders, such as anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder
• Infectious diseases such as Lyme’s disease
• Lack of sleep
• Erratic blood sugar levels, such as the spikes and crashes caused by the bad kinds of sugar
• Anemia
• Environmental toxins found at home, in the workplace and throughout the industrialized world
• Chronic stress
• Lack of exercise
• Hormonal issues
• A dysfunctional gastrointestinal system
• Medications such as Xanax and Oxycontin
• Poor nutritional habits that put the body in an inflamed state
• Drug and alcohol abuse
• Any systemic inflammation

Your brain has to regulate all of the energy throughout your body. It’s like a master computer that tells energy where to flow. We end up tired and unable to focus because all of these things are using up our energy.

Instead of using energy for the things we enjoy, these robbers drain the body’s energy supply. The brain has to redirect our energy to process inflammatory foods, compensate for a hormonal imbalance or help us cope with stress.

What can you do to find out if focus and energy robbers are at work in your body? The most important step is a thorough blood test.

Unfortunately, many doctors order different things in their blood tests. I wish more doctors could get on the same page and look at factors outside of a CBC (complete blood count) and a chemistry, which assesses blood glucose levels and kidney and liver function. In addition to CBC and chemistry, ask your doctor to include the following

• Vitamin B12: B12 deficiency is a common cause of anemia and lethargy
• Folate: Also called folic acid, folate is a derivative of B9. Folate is important to DNA synthesis and repair, as well as cell division and growth.
• Vitamin D: A lack of vitamin D is commonly associated with depression and memory problems.
• C-reactive protein and homocysteine: This will show if you’re living in an inflamed state.
• Lipid panel: This measures fats.
• Fasting Insulin: This has a number of functions, such as helping to diagnose hypoglycemia or identify insulin resistance.
• Hemoglobin A1c: This test measures a person’s risk for type II diabetes.
• Thyroid panel: This test evaluates thyroid gland function and includes T3, T4 and TSH.
• Free and total testosterone: Testosterone is important for men and women!
• Fatty acid profile: This profile will show the ratio between pro-inflammatory essential fatty acids (Arachidonic acid) and anti-inflammatory fatty acids (EPA).

Most focus and energy robbers can be controlled by living a wellness lifestyle and making smarter decisions. If you’re dealing with a lack of focus and energy, talk to your physician or come see me at Natural Healthcare Center, and make sure your blood test includes all of the above items. There are others depending on your specific history and exam findings. Don’t let focus and energy robbers prevent you from feeling better, functioning better and living longer.

Dr. James Prood­ian is an accomplished chiropractic physician and health educator who founded Proodian Healthcare Family of Companies to help people feel better, function better, and live longer. His expertise for the past two decades has been in physical rehabilitation, and he has successfully established himself as a spinal specialist. In his practice, he advocates the science of functional medicine, which takes an integrative approach to treating patients by addressing their physical, nutritional, and psychological needs. Alarmed by the escalation of complex, chronic illness in our country, Dr. Proodian has been speaking to companies and organizations through his “Wellness at Work” program since 1994, motivating thousands of people to make positive lifestyle choices and lead healthier, more productive lives. He can be heard weekly on his radio program, “Proodian Healthcare By Design,” on Tandem Radio.