I wrote this hub in particular because I wanted to "store" information I found on what is affecting my own fatigue and energy loss. I did an enormous amount of research over the past several years and this hub/article will display what I found. This information may or may not work for you but the health benefits and insights should at the very least open your eyes to things you may not have thought about before.

I had reached the point where energy drinks, coffee, caffeine pills, 5 hour energy shots- NOTHING WORKED anymore. Desperate to figure out what it could be I turned to the body itself. I figured that their had to be something wrong with me, unhealthy about me, or that I was doing to contribute to my energy loss.

I'm only 34 years old so the "I'm getting old" thing doesn't fly with me. I started seeing people who were permanently tired around me in their "golden" years (more like bronze) and this triggered me to worry.

I figure if it is something I'm doing wrong I have time to turn it around and I could also figure out how to maintain my energy levels well into my 100's (*smiles*).

What I discovered in my research blew me away. The things we don't know can rob us of our vitality, our vanity (accelerated aging!), and it can even kill us. In this fast food nation (even store bought stuff is packed with poisons that are no better than that greasy cheeseburger from Jack n the box :)

The things I discuss in this hub are things that helped me turn my life around and retrieve my energy supply. It turns out that it was a collection of things that were causing the problem and the energy drinks and such were only compounding the problem!

In short, I hope to lend you my insights and allow you to do your own research in whatever area sounds feasible to you as your own problem (if your reading this I assume your energy is low and your not sure why).  If you have any insights to share, please comment at the bottom.

We live in a fast food/fast fix society. This is causing people not to take the time to figure out what the problems are that make them tired. People don't seem to have time to do anything like exercising or eating right, but why should they when their are so many quick fixes available that offer instant so called solutions? They figure they can do this now then later worry about "fixing" the problem... but later never comes...

They don't realize that it is these solutions that are causing the problem! How about compounding their energy loss!? They give you a lot of energy at first, but as you use them more and more they work less and less.

It's not because your body adapts to them, or builds up a tolerance so much as it is that ignoring the real reason your tired, usually health reasons that could be dealt with easily back when it started, made them worse and the energy supplements escalated how much worse they got.. By the time your fed up with being tired and nothing works anymore you get desperate enough to do some research and find out that to fix this you will have to change your lifestyle..

What blows me away is these new 5-hour energy shots. It's everything in the original energy drinks less the water-

WHAT?!?

Little dehydration anyone? Actually they've removed the sugar (whew-not!) Sugar is the least of your problems here, now you have 8,000% b vitamins... did you know that B vitamins don't give you energy alone? They help FOOD convert to energy by helping with metabolism, but without food (as many take these without food as if it were a cup of coffee) this much B vitamin in one "shot" can actually cause headaches, dizziness, fatigue (yes make you tired), and more. Take into concideration we get all of our days supplies of B vitamins in most of the foods we eat! The body expells what it cannot absorb so anything past that 100% mark is just marketing hype...

If your body is not metabolizing foods well anyway, cannot properly absorb vitamins efficiently or effectively due to poor diet and a backed up colon, these energy drinks can be akin to spoon fulls of grease in your body.

The truth is if your system was in the right shape for these things to work you wouldn't need them- Ironic? It's true. The way these products work, your system would have to be in good shape for them to truly be effective, not to mention for your body to be strong enough to protect itself from the drinks destructive nature.

Sure you may get energy the first couple times you use them, after all your body isn't used to them yet so what you consider an energetic rush is your body reacting as if you just injected methamphetamines into your blood stream.

The problem is that people are not fixing the real problem. That which is making you tired may not be what you think it is at all.

Most people are so programmed by the media that their only real source of information is the media or their friends, whom are also programmed by the media and in an effort to sound cool they often just regurgitate hearsay from television or their "smart" friends- who probably also got their data from (directly or indirectly) the media.

The other thing that happens is called third party manipulation. Say your buddy has a friend who for the most part knows what he's talking about. He's often well researched and doesn't fall for things often that aren't true- first hand.

This chap one day hears a load of crap from a commercial and decides that it makes sense, after all vitamin B and those other herbs have been known to give you energy.. and tells you trying to be cool and knowledgeable that energy drinks work, so here you are learning from a "trusted" source and when you pass on the Intel your someone else's trusted source and mayhem starts.

The body is actually designed for an 8 hour sleep cycle and a cat nap during the day. Our busy modern world has weeded out the cat nap and this I believe is responsible for most people feeling tired, used up, or worn out.

People try replacing the real chemicals depleted in the body (causing them to feel tired) with the so called vitamins in energy drinks but in reality this is inefficient as it gives you a jittery burst of artificial energy then you crash.

The thing is first of all taking vitamins is great but it is NOT a replacement for getting them in foods, fruits and vegitables (and minerals from pure water!). Food is literally built (by god/universe/creator of all that is) in such a way to work WITH our body to integrate the vitamins.

Getting it in a pill neglects the parts of the food that assist the nutrients along. Their is power built into food, pills are unnatural and should only be a way to suppliment nutritian not replace it.

You can't for example not eat any foods with vitamin C in it and expect that taking vitamin C pills will do the trick, it simply, contrary to popular belief and propiganda, doesn't work that way! Theirs more going on than simply getting your vitamins! Theirs no way around eating healthy, no tricks, nothing, unless they figure out a way to shrink an apple into a pill in tact for example.

Getting at least a 15 minute deeps sleep cat nap in the middle of the day is essential especially if your job is stressful. This cat nap replenishes your body's resources essentially just like the 3 day no sleep crash does. It's been proven that this helps with memory, energy and well being. It's the mid day reset.

Their are limits on cat naps for maximum efficiency. Studies show that more than 15 minutes will make you more tired than when you went to sleep, so if you oversleep to 20 minutes your better off staying asleep till the next window- 90 minutes. Never take a cat nap late in the day however as this will disrupt your night sleep patterns.

Another interresting fact is the sun. If you wake up in the morning and walk outside for 10 minutes you'll actually help yourself to sleep at night. it has something to do with melatonin production for your night time sleep cycle. If you wake up and don't go outside or get any sun at all, this could cause insomnia if it happens over several days.

Being tired is about health. That's the bottom line. Some causes for low energy are:

• Not getting enough sleep or not taking cat naps once a day is unhealthy because your body doesn't get its recharge of resources.
• Being tired is also about not eating right. Lack of nutrition or getting minerals can make the body inefficient. Did you know that Many water filters work too well? By too well I mean not only do they remove the contaminants but they also remove the minerals your body NEEDS. You can remedy this by drinking waters enriched with vitamins AND Minerals
• Thyroid function depleted. The thyroid is responsible a great deal for your health and energy levels.
• Lack of exercise. Exercise pumps the blood faster and exercises the heart which is a muscle. To keep it strong it must be worked. Exercise also stimulates the muscles which keeps them strong and protects your bones from disease. These are only a few things; but you get the point.
  
• Not drinking enough PURE water. Water mixed with ANYTHING is not getting water. Water is molecularly changed when you mix anything into it (meaning although water cannot be broken down it can be lubricated at the molecular level making it go through your body without absorbing hence although your drinking "flavored" water, your wasting your opportunity to replenish your supply of water in the body. Pure water with minerals (naturally water has minerals in it) is extremely vital to your system as it helps the body break down toxins and more..Many bottled water companies add minerals that are stripped in the filtration process back into the water. They do this for the taste mostly but it is vital to health that these minerals exist in your water! If your water taste like crap it may not be that it's "dirty" water, it may be that there are no minerals in it!
  
• water is the most important thing in your body. If your tired this could be because your drinking "tea" or "Gatorade" instead of water. Although power drinks are good for a depleted body If you drink nothing but this they become unhealthy and can cause problems. I read a news article somewhere where a guy tried to live on gatorade and died of dehydration... ironic? If you hate water just try to drink ONE glass of water a day.. When you feel the difference your body will automatically "crave" more pure water trust me.baby steps... I didn't drink water most of my life, hence part of my problem now... now I force it down, but it eventually starts to taste good and psychologically you notice the health benefit and drink it for the same reasons you drink energy drinks... it tastes like crap but gives you energy :)
  
• The body craves what it needs, nothing more. When we "want" something were not craving it were talking our mind into thinking we want it by reminiscing about the pleasures you will get from tasting it. True cravings are the body telling you it needs a vitamin or cleanser (water) or something. Listen to your body, its telling you what you need to refurbish its function!
• Negative thought stream: This sounds esoteric but the truth is the body responds to your thoughts in a very physical way. Thoughts generate Neuro-Peptides which are chemical cocktails generated by a sac in the middle of your brain and distributed throughout the body through the blood stream.Go to Youtube.com and search for "what the bleep do we know" and watch some very enlightening videos about this, there are live animations of this...

Keep in mind the mind is the central biological processing unit, it controls EVERYTHING. The mind is controlled by thoughts through chemical interventions so don't think for a second that your being tired has nothing to do with your mental thought stream. You may have a toxic internal dialogue which is triggered by associations in your environment. If this is so then your environmental triggers could be responsible indirectly for your low energy. The cure is to change how you talk to yourself, how you think, and how you talk to others or out loud, including how you chat on the internet, write things down or type them.. ANYthing that requires thought processes must be changed to positive habitual formats!

More things that cause energy drain due to bad health/toxins in the body:

• Colon Health can cause toxins and gases to back up your system through your blood stream causing you to suffer organ meltdown. If your organs are being shot with toxins they don't do their job efficiently, which will cause a wrench in the cogs of your biological system causing- ENERGY LOSS and FATIGUE! Scared? You should be..
• read this article and get a clue about this problem most people (inlcuding myself) refuse to check out. I had to write a blog for my boss on colon health for a suppliment their client was selling, and in my reluctant research I found this page and was completely blown away.. I had no clue but now I'm dying to get an enema! Source ----> Here It's not a beautiful page but it is truly an eye opener, scroll down past those pictures.. but realize that they are real!
• Liver is overwhelmed. The liver converts toxins in your body to benign elements and the blood stream flushes them out when you go to the bathroom. Processed foods and many others are full of things toxic to the body, all be it in small doses but collectively and over time these become a problem because for example if you eat processed foods all the time, soda, and other junk foods the liver cannot keep up, it becomes this angry worker.. remember I love lucy and the chocholate factory? that becomes your liver.. it becomes overwhelmed and cannot filter properly everything that comes in so most of it gets released containing toxins still hence the body floods with toxins.. this is a serious cause of energy drain and is consistent. Energy drinks don't help this they make it severe!
• This next one may sound silly but trust me it's not. Watching TV too much. The thing about this one is that it is not so much the watching of television as it is about WHAT YOU WATCH. When you watch TV your ingesting information into your brain. The wrong information can cause your brain to start to think in negative directions. Some things actually force you to rethink your mortality and can depress you Literally by releasing toxic chemicals into your body (see videos above about neuro-peptides). Watching educational programs like NOVA, or E! True hollywood stories can inspire you (with E! you see how someone struggled but succeeded which is inspiring) watching murder movies, or prison movies can actually cause toxic chemicals in your body and believe it or not this can rot your body through your eyes! Theirs a reason couch potatoes look like crap, their unhealthy not because they eat potatoe chips and beer (although this contributes to bad health) but mainly its because of the steady stream of violence and crap on TV. If you must watch TV watch movies that are inspirational and positive, like the titanic, sit coms are good because they make you laugh most of the time, and they make you even laugh when you relate to the negative things which is healthy! Filter what you watch as if you were doing it for your kids, trust me it makes a difference in your energy levels. If you don't watch alot of television you will find your energy levels will be higher, and the negitive shows won't affect you as much.
• I used to wake up every day and turn on the TV watch it for an hour before I went to work (I am a professional blogger/copywriter) but this really took alot of energy out of me, I felt too lazy to work. Watching television to wake up is not a good thing! good music helps. The best way to wake up is doing something physical like clean your home, room, do your laundry, or go swimming in the pool. The thing about waking up to the television is it doesnt matter what you watch it can make you tired if you do it too much, I watched positive shows like leave it to beaver, I love lucy and so on and was still tired. When I woke up and went right to writing I found I got more done and the thinking wakes the brain up better than being a tv vegitable.

This hub is my attempt at decoding the sleepy syndrome problem. For years I've felt tired and walking an uphill battle all day every single day. I've tried all the fluff and none of it works. It used to at some point but I believe that this is part responsible for my fatigue. I drink coffee now days and fall asleep. I drink energy drinks and feel MORE tired. I needed to figure out what the hell was really going on.

I needed to figure this thing out once and for all and over the past year I think I've stumbled upon the answer. Not only that but I realize it was always there but like most people, when you hear the same thing over and over again with no explanation as to why, you tend to discard it as a choice that would make you feel better or motivate you to make lifestyle changes to cope with the problem. No you hear it then go buy an energy drink hoping it will work.

I've heard:

• "you need to exercise"
• "You need to drink/ more water"
• "You should take vitamins"
• "Herbs are the way to go"
• "Positive thought train"
• and other things like this

And although I know these are actually good things that do work, I was not looking for a health nut solution I wanted a quick fix, something that would work now not in a month from now... my excuses:

• Too much work, I'm tired already how can I exercise?
• I don't like water, I drink tea all day that has water in it
• I took B-12 and didn't feel a thing.. I can't take vitamins every day I'd feel like I was taking medications every day.. Who wants to take pills every day?
• Herbs? That's pills. Herbs in tea? Yuck! The right food? I eat all kinds of food, why I got this hamburger.. Meat group, dairy group, bread group, ketchup group, mayo group, pickles group...
• Eat healthy? I can't afford to eat healthy you know how much that food costs? and it tastes like crap..
• and many more...

Certain awareness's and information have penetrated, and made me truly understand things I never understood before. The truth is telling someone tired to exercise is inefficient. The part of their body that isn't tired usually works well (the brain) and can come up with a billion reasons why that's just ridiculous.

The better approach is to explain why you should do all this.. Not just because its healthy, or it will make you feel better, but what exactly is going on here? This is what I hope to do in part two of this hub (below)

I hope to impart this knowledge to you in hopes it brings you peace and contentment, and above all ways to not just put an energy shot band-aid on the lack of energy crisis but to fix it in a way that you will like someone quitting smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day, have enough extra money to go buy a car, put a down payment on a house, or heaven forbid treat yourself to the spa..

and guys its ok to get a pedicure and manicure.. Its pride in your appearance and cleanliness.. if however you ask for nail polish other than clear you've crossed the line and I don't know you.

You will save THAT much money on energy products you won't need or desire. Knowing what they do to you should make them as useful as an empty soda can in the fridge.

The truth is you want a lasting energy, one that will allow you to feel wonderful ALL the time. One that will make waking up in the morning a spring out of bed ordeal, not a it takes me an hour to sync up with my brain kind of routine.

You want an energy that makes a 50 year old feel more energetic than a 23 year old. Getting old is not about loss of energy, it's about giving up. You're as old as you feel and you feel as old as your health, and as good as you take care of your instrument of life- Your body.

• Colon cleansing/ colon health
• Turbo Jam or similar aerobic full body workout to work ALL the muscles and cardio systems. This alone will help the body produce more energy.
• Water
• Multi-Vitamin
• Liver cleansing/ detox
• Full body detoxing: Spa treatments, Herbal Suppliments etc..
• Clean up your thoughtstream/internal dialogue
• Goals: helps you have something to work towards which promotes ambition, which promotes energy
• Supplements for Thyroid enhancement, HGH, and Colon Health
• Pride in your appearance even when nobody is looking: for gods sake have a routine. I don't care if you work online, get up at a regular schedule and take a shower, SHAVE, do your hair, pretend your going to work every day. This jumpstarts your psychological mental state. If you wake up and bum it till noon or don't wake up till noon then bum it till 6pm your energy will be low because you won't feel that pride in your appearance. Every time you see yourself in the mirror you will reinforce you look like crap, that you look like a bum (so you should feel like one). Being too comfy is a bad thing especially if its a habit. Clean your room, make your bed, pretend a hot girl is coming over (or guy for girls).. it sounds silly but these things will affect your energy levels and ambition. You should always be ready to bounce out of the house at a moments notice and feel gorgeous doing it. If your not you will feel like crap.
• Always eat breakfast. Not eating breakfast makes your body tired because it has no fuel for the "boot-up" process and has to work too hard. If you don't like breakfast foods eat dinner foods, eat an apple, anything, just eat.. even if you don't feel like it.. you will get accoustomed to eating breakfast trust me the stomach will send a signal after a week of practice, and your energy throughout the day will increase!
• Yogurt helps with energy because the enzymes in it help break up the foods you eat faster for faster integration (which means faster energy generation!) Yogurt with berries and a boiled egg is a power breakfast.
• It sounds funny but SEX in the morning (if your lucky enough to have a partner) gets the heart racing and starts your day off better. It pumps your blood faster and generates pleasure chemicals like dopamine and endorphins! it also wakes up all the muscles in the body.
• Prepare for the next day by using affirmations before you fall asleep at night. Get to the point where you wake up thinking about those affirmations. Some ideas are.: I will wake up feeling amazing. I will be energetic. Today I will do something that will lead to wealth, health, and will change my life... etc...

I hope this information was sufficient. Everything in this hub was based on my research and personal experiences. I continue to experiment and learn, but make sure to do your own research. My opinions are my own, these things make sense to me and work for me but you may be different. At any rate... this should give you something to think about.

Thank you for reading my hub...

Jerrico