395 Ari Whitten | The Energy Blueprint: Does Adrenal Fatigue Even Exist?

May 4, 2021

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Is it possible to have HPA axis abnormalities or low cortisol or low morning cortisol or dysregulated cortisol? Absolutely, that is a real thing but it is fundamentally wrong to claim that adrenal fatigue is the cause or the primary cause or even a common cause of fatigue. It's also fundamentally wrong to claim that adrenal fatigue, the chronic stress leading to low cortisol levels is a real thing - that is also incorrect. You can be exposed to chronic stressors like work or financial stress and even metabolic factors like smoking and over exercising for years or even decades and never get low cortisol levels." - Ari Whitten

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Wellness Force Radio Episode 395

No. 1 Besting Selling Author, Fatigue Specialist, and Founder of The Energy Blueprint, Ari Whitten, shares how to heal your own energy fatigue, breaks down the current dilemma with chronic sickcare in America, lessons he has learned from plant medicine, and what markers are the actual determining factor in what causes fatigue.

How do you build more energy at the cellular level? How do you create and cultivate a body that is capable of producing more energy?

Join us as Ari covers everything from A-Z in human energy and what actually causes fatigue.

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Listen To Episode 395 As Ari Whitten Uncovers:

[1:30] Healing Energy Fatigue

Ari Whitten
The Energy Blueprint
The Ultimate Guide To Red Light Therapy by Ari Whitten
The Energy Blueprint Podcast
Exploring the concept of energy fatigue and how to heal it.
What led Ari to become an energy and fatigue specialist and his 'aha' wellness moment.
Dr. Joseph Mercola
Why he became interested in pursuing a career in natural healthcare rather than western medicine.
What he disliked about medical school and why his health began to deteriorate after two years in the program.
Why he feels that western medicine is flawed in many different ways with his background in natural health.
The fact that many medical students receive basically zero education on nutrition, lifestyle, and root causes of chronic disease.
Negative feedback he would receive when he would hint at or suggest educating and giving patients healthy food at the hospital.
The high rate of ignorance we see in the western medicine world about the benefits of healthy exercise, nutrition, and lifestyle to heal and prevent illness.

[15:30] The Chronic Sick Care In America

How we can avoid being put on chronic sick care or leave the system as quickly as possible.
Examples of absurd science from humans who think we can meddle with nature including experiments and technology funded by Bill Gates.
The real issue of perception that exists in the world of science including agriculture and healthcare when humans think they are smarter than nature with our technology and chemicals.
Why your goal should be to optimize your body's innate capacity for healing and self regeneration if you want to combat fatigue, be healthy, and live a long life.
The hard decision he made to finally leave medical school and how that impacted his wellbeing for several years.
Fears he had after leaving medical school such as disappointing his family, what if people thought he failed, and what if no one listens to him if he doesn't have the title.
His experience becoming a trainer after leaving medical school and later on pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology but then decided he didn't want to be a therapist.

[29:30] Lessons Ari Received From Plant Medicine

How, in his unique experience, plant medicine drastically helped his mind with depression and a toxic relationship compared to the talk therapy he was also receiving.
Why talk therapy can be extremely beneficial and not all psychological illness is conducive to being treated by psychedelics or plant medicine.
His decision to leave studying clinical psychology because he didn't want to be placed in one box for his profession and not be able to practice nutrition if he wished.
What lessons Ari received from psychedelics and plant medicine and how those experiences helped heal his depression and expand his consciousness.
Dr. Joseph Mercola
Joseph Campbell
How Ari set aside society's pressure on his career and start following his bliss in teaching people about natural health.
Experiences of resistance that he faced as he began to grow the Energy Blueprint community online.
Why it takes incredible courage to share your truth and novel ideas out there with the rest of the world.
332 John Wineland
Jordan Peterson

[47:30] Creating More Energy At The Cellular Level

Breaking down how we can build more energy and cultivate a body that is capable of producing more energy.
Ari's own person fatigue experiences in his mid 20s with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and how that led him to explore what natural health has to offer for combating fatigue.
Hans Selye (1907–1982): Founder of the stress theory
Paul Chek
His specific research on adrenal fatigue and what doctors know and don't know about adrenal fatigue.
Why conventional medicine is really clueless on adrenal fatigue and how to properly treat it with their four methods: antidepressants, cognitive behavioral therapy, 30 minutes walking a day, and to use stimulants as needed.
Exploring what Addison's Disease is and why we shouldn't compare it to adrenal fatigue.
His research on fatigue, cortisol levels, and what he has discovered.
Adrenal Fatigue: Is It Real?
The Hidden Truth About "Adrenal Fatigue"
Common thoughts about adrenal fatigue, hormonal changes, and stress that are wrong and outdated.
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers by Robert M. Sapolsky
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst Reprint Edition by Robert M. Sapolsky
Common Viruses That Can Trigger Chronic Fatigue (CFS)/ Myalgic Encephalomyelitis │The Best Viral Infection Treatment Approach
Why fatigue affects us differently depending on outside factors such as work and relationships.
Why Stress Causes Fatigue and How To Overcome Stress
The fact that people who have disease from lifestyle choices actually have slightly higher cortisol levels than healthy people and thus our adrenal glands don't wear out.
Exceptions with autoimmune diseases such as Addison's Disease and its connection to chronic fatigue.

[1:11:00] What Actually Causes Fatigue?

What biomarkers are the determining factor of fatigue if cortisol is not the source.
The fact that the 50+ studies on the adrenal fatigue theory have all failed to prove that it is true.
Why the primary sources that regulate our energy levels are the mitochondria, the brain, and sickness behavior.
Dr. Robert Naviaux
Unpacking what the cell danger response is and how mitochondria are critical hubs for sensing what is going on in our environments.
The two modes of mitochondria based on their environment to either pump out energy or shut down if they detect threats.
Dr. Martin Picard on How Stress Affects Your Body (and Your Mitochondria)
What sickness behavior is and why one of the fundamental symptoms of it is fatigue.
How the human body has evolved to conserve energy to threats by resting and diverting that energy to defending off threats.
Metabolic features of chronic fatigue syndrome
What the metabolomic panels cover in its biomarker testing for adrenal fatigue and how Dr. Naviaux and his team found that cortisol levels were normal.
Why we really overestimate just how much information biomarkers are going to give us about a person's health.
The fact that 95% of the time, blood panel tests do not actually identify anything that is abnormal in a person with chronic fatigue.
Why lifestyle variables and symptoms are enormous clues as to what is going on with a person's health.
What simple steps you can take if you are experiencing chronic fatigue including food and supplements.
The Energy Blueprint Supplements
60-Day Energy Blueprint Program
359 Shawn Wells
Surfwise trailer
breathwork.io
M21 Wellness Guide
Wellness Force Community

Creating, Not Gaining, More Energy

"Look inward both literally and metaphorically because the source of energy is your own body's cells. It's not stimulant pills that you take externally or this and that prescription drug. It's how do you build more energy at the cellular level. How you create and cultivate a body that is capable of producing more energy. That's what it's all about." - Ari Whitten

The Unique Impact Between Sleep & Cortisol Levels

"Even if you are healthy and don't have fatigue, just the one factor of being an night owl chronotype and going to bed late at night will dramatically alter your cortisol levels. If you take a group of healthy people who are either morning people or night owls and you look at their cortisol levels and you chart it, those people on average will have cortisol levels that would get them diagnosed by someone who believes in adrenal fatigue as having adrenal fatigue. However, that's not at all what's going on; it's just a function of being a night owl chronotype. That's one factor but circadian rhythm and sleep dysregulation across the board is the single most common reason for HPA axis dysfunction." - Ari Whitten

Exposing America's Sick Care System

"How do we mimic, support, and optimize the natural systems of the human body? It's literally the difference between looking at a disease like diabetes or neurological disease and saying, 'How can we study what biochemical pathway is causing this disease and how can we develop a drug that interrupts that biochemical pathway that will therefore cure this disease?' which is a paradigm which almost never works to actually cure diseases; 97% of drugs can only address symptoms at best versus the paradigm that says, 'How can we understand the big picture of what are the root causes that led to the development of that condition in the first place, address those causes while understanding that the human body has an innate capacity for self-regeneration and self-healing, and how can we give the right inputs to allow the body to express that?'...

...These are fundamentally different ways of thinking and if somebody's goal is to actually be healthy and energetic and live a long life to avoid developing chronic disease, be on over 15 prescription drugs, and be in and out of the hospital with a terrible quality of life - If you actually want health, energy, and longevity, the goal is to optimize your body's innate capacity for healing and self-regeneration." - Ari Whitten

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About Ari Whitten

Ari Whitten is an energy and fatigue specialist who focuses on taking an evidence-based approach to energy enhancement, a nutrition, exercise and natural health expert, and #1 best-selling author.

He has been studying nutrition and holistic health for over 2 decades. He has a Bachelor’s of Science from San Diego State University in Kinesiology (with specialization in fitness, nutrition and health). He also has a background in exercise physiology and fitness, and holds two advanced certifications from the National Academy of Sports Medicine as a Corrective Exercise Specialist and Performance Enhancement Specialist. Ari's Optimal Health Approach In addition, he recently completed the 3 years of coursework for his PhD in Clinical Psychology, an education which rounds out all aspects – nutrition, fitness, and psychology – of his approach to optimal health. Ari is a tireless researcher who has obsessively devoted the last 20 years of his life to the pursuit of being on the cutting‑edge of the science on health and energy enhancement. For the last six years, he’s been working with many of the top scientists and physicians on the planet to develop the most comprehensive program in the world on the science of overcoming fatigue and increasing energy — The Energy Blueprint.

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