Two sides of the same coin, if a person is unable to sleep at night they are usually fatigued during the day. Others seem to sleep through the night yet experience fatigue during the day that more sleep just doesn’t fix.
Do you…
- struggling to fall asleep at night?
- feel most awake when you should be going to bed?
- have trouble staying asleep?
- say you don’t have a sleeping problem yet wake up at night to go to the bathroom when you should really should be in your deepest sleep?
- use the excuse, “I’m just a light sleeper” to explain why you wake easily?
- wake up more tired than you went to bed?
- wake up in the morning not hungry or even nauseous?
- find yourself tired, unmotivated, and out of energy during the day
- find there are times the you can barely keep your eyes open no matter what you do?
- find you’ve given up on activities you really enjoy because you’re just too tired?
- there is nothing wrong, what you are feeling is normal
- that these symptoms are common and you just need drug XYZ
- you are just stressed, lazy, or need to exercise
Have you already tried medications and they just don’t work? Have you had blood work performed and your doctor told you there is nothing wrong because your labs are normal?
These are often the things my patients have been told or experienced by there previous doctors.
So what makes me an my office different? First of all we care for you, we don’t treat a diagnosis. We look for the cause of your symptoms not just give you a diagnosis. A diagnosis is nice but it doesn’t tell us what is causing your symptoms or condition and it surely doesn’t tell us how to fix it.
I understand how you feel. What you are experiencing is real, and there is a cause for why you are experiencing your symptoms. I help people with these symptoms every day reclaim their lives.
What makes what I do different than the other doctors you’ve seen?
I don’t care what label you’ve been given. My job is to help you identify the cause of your symptoms, to help you identify WHY you feel the way you do, and to help you identify what is CAUSING you to have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. Have your previous doctors told you WHY you have these problems? Have they offered you a real solution to getting rid of your symptoms? Or, do they give you a diagnosis and a drug to match the diagnosis?
Why do doctors think that by giving you a diagnosis like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Insomnia, they have actually done their job? You already knew what you had before you walked in their office. But your doctor feels he has done his job, he has given you a diagnosis, a label, and now can cross match that diagnosis with a list of drugs made to treat/mask the symptoms associated with your new diagnosis.
But what you and I know is that you can’t drug yourself to healthy. Drugs mask symptoms and manage conditions, they don’t make you healthy.
Where the real doctoring takes place is not in giving you a diagnosis and a drug. The real doctoring occurs when we tell you WHY you have your symptoms, when we tell you what is CAUSING your diagnosis and than help you get healthy so that your symptoms go away.
So how do I do that..
…by evaluating you neurologically and metabolically. I look at areas of the body that when they are not functioning correctly can CAUSE sleep problems and chronic fatigue. A thorough functional exam can uncover areas of the brain and nervous system that when not functioning correctly can affect sleep and wake cycles.
One of those areas is the top part of the brain stem called the mesencephalon, it determines our sleep/awake patterns. Specifically, the mesencephalic reticular activating system which is a three dollar phrase for the “top of the brain stem”. If the mesencephalon is firing you will be awake. If the mesencephalon decreases frequency of firing you will be tired and unable to stay awake. Patients who experience insomnia probably have a mesencephalon that is over firing. Patients with fatigue, but seem to get enough sleep, may have a decreased frequency of firing of the mesencephalon.
A comprehensive evaluation of your body chemistry may uncover: blood sugar problems, adrenal problems, hormonal problems, GI problems, immune system problems, inflammatory problems and other problems that can be the cause of fatigue and adversly affecting your sleep and wake cycles.
By combining neurologic and metabolic assessments with a thorough history, and lab assessments, we can uncover the causes of your health challenges and symptoms. With the problems uncovered, we can than set a non-drug plan to improve your health and your symptoms.
If you are looking for someone to help uncover the CAUSE of your health challenges and than work with you to improve your health, call my office today and secure your 2 Reduced Fee Insomnia/Chronic Fatigue Discovery Visits.
