Not Always Good To Fight Through Fatigue

by Glen Depke, Traditional Naturopath

Do you find yourself pushing through exhaustion on a regular basis?

I can understand that life is still going on around you all the time. Your career, your family, your personal health focus and often either your community or church.

I “get it” you’re likely a very busy person and pushing through is seemingly your only option.

Heck, I often do this myself as well.

Sometimes we need to reconsider and I can give you a recent example of what happened to me that will likely help you understand your own situation.

I have definitely been burning the candle at both ends and the middle lately. Moving out of our old office and into a new office. While doing this also moving my wife’s business Aroma Seize (offering environmentally responsible candles, room/body sprays and more) along with all the enjoyable responsibilities with my clients and work with the team at Dr. Mercola’s.

So of course, I understand that feeling of exhaustion that you may notice yourself as well.

But is important to understand the difference between normal exhaustion due to a short spurt of overdoing it and exhaustion due to your body trying to shut you down in an event of a healing crisis.

I had to decipher the difference in this myself recently and recognized that my body was more than just tired.

To understand this, let me explain the roll of what is known as reverse T3 is your body.

Thyroid Hormones

What’s interesting with reverse T3 is that is gets very little attention. Most conventional doctors never look at RT3 and this is often shared as non-essential and actually this is very misunderstood.

You see, RT3 plays a very important role in your own healing crisis.

First understand that your thyroid produces both T3 and T4 hormones but these hormones need to be converted in your liver and gut primarily into free and active forms of both, known as FT3 and FT4.

Once FT3 and FT4 are circulation through your blood, they can attach to your thyroid hormone receptors sites within your cells and guess what, this provides energy for you as well as other functional health benefits.

To understand your thyroid receptor sites, think of a garage. If your garage is empty, you can pull a car into your garage, but if your garage already has a car in it, you would not be able to pull yours in.

So for you to get your FT3 and FT4 into your garage, it needs to be clear.

After all, just like me, you want more energy all the time.

Function of Reverse T3

So what does this talk of the garage have to do with RT3?

First off, when you have produced RT3, this can take up your garage space in the thyroid receptor sites. When this occurs with significance, you will be exhausted and for a very good reason.

You see, your body will produce more RT3 when you are in a healing process because very simply, your body wants you to heal, it wants you to rest and will shut down your energy in the essence of healing.

Remember, if you’re producing more RT3, this will take up the space in your garage and not allow you to park the FT3 and Ft4.

In the end, this will make you feel exhausted.

Honor This Deep Exhaustion

If you feel this deep level of exhaustion, you really need to honor this.

I went through this last Saturday and Sunday. As I had mentioned earlier, I had been burning the candle at both ends and the middle, but this felt like a much deeper level of exhaustion. It turned out that I was exposed to food poisoning that not only affected by gut, it also infected my kidneys, heart and knees.

So did I just push through this?

Absolutely NOT!

I spent most of last Saturday and Sunday in bed. Note, this is highly irregular for me. (Just ask my wife, she’ll tell you. LOL)

I have also been taking the necessary supplements to help overcome the food poisoning, taking fermented chlorella to help as a binder, taking Epsom salt baths as well as other natural therapies.

And a major factor was honoring this deep exhaustion with two solid days of rest.

Get The Results Your Body’s Looking For

So understand that when you body is overproducing RT3, this is for a very good reason.

Your body simply wants to heal!

So honor you body’s need and desire for rest.

Find out what your underlying cause may be (mine was food poisoning), take the supplements needed and very important, make the commitment to rest.

I am typically in a very high level of health and balance, so two days with supplements and self-care put me back into a positive state. If you’ve been in a compromised state long term, it would likely take you more time of rest, but you’ll know when you’ve reached that point.

It will be a noticeable shift in energy.

Of course I am continuing with the supplementation to address the underlying issues but I know that my body is no longer overproducing the RT3 because that deep level of exhaustion has lifted.

If you have any comments or questions regarding this article please email me at info@depkewellness.com.