The Dr. Hyman Show
Uncovering the Roots of Exhaustion—and How to Feel Like Yourself Again
01 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Coming up on this episode of The Dr. Hyman Show.
And they're like, well, people tell me to exercise, but I feel worse when I exercise.
Chapter 2: What factors contribute to mitochondrial damage and fatigue?
People tell me to fast, but if I fast, I feel awful. I'll try to sleep for 12 hours and I'm still tired. You know, they're really stuck in that state where their body, just every little stressor can be so overwhelming.
Have you been feeling stressed or tired lately?
Chapter 3: How can dietary changes improve energy levels?
You might be low in one powerful mineral. That mineral is magnesium. Most people are, and most supplements don't fix it because they only include one or two forms. I use Magnesium Breakthrough from Bioptimizers because it has all seven forms of magnesium your body needs for sleep, stress, and recovery. It actually works.
Chapter 4: What role does exercise play in restoring mitochondrial health?
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Chapter 5: How does stress management affect chronic fatigue?
Before we jump into today's episode, I want to share a few ways you can go deeper on your health journey. While I wish I could work with everyone one-on-one, there just isn't enough time in the day, so I've built several tools to help you take control of your health.
If you're looking for guidance, education, and community, check out my private membership, the Hyman Hive, for live Q&As, exclusive content, and direct connection. For real-time lab testing and personalized insights into your biology, visit Function Health. You can also explore my curated doctor-trusted supplements and health products at drhyman.com.
And if you prefer to listen without any breaks, don't forget you can enjoy every episode of this podcast ad-free with Hyman Plus. Just open Apple Podcasts and tap Try Free to start your seven-day free trial. Fatigue can get better.
When we understand how our biology works, when we get rid of the bad stuff, we put in the good stuff, when we hunt down and root out all the causes, which are anything from toxins, to allergens, to microbes, to microbiome, to poor diet, to stress, or lack of things we need to thrive like the right nutrients, the right food, whole food, the right balance of hormones, light, air, water, sleep, movement, exercise, restoration, deep relaxation, community,
love, meaning, purpose, these are all the ingredients for health. When we don't have enough of those, we have too much of the bad stuff, none of the good stuff, then our bodies dysfunction. And the goal of functional medicine is to get your bodies functioning again, hence the name. So one of the things I want to dive into today is one of the key factors that's driving fatigue for most people.
Now, it all starts with your mitochondria. So what exactly are your mitochondria? And what is the meaning of these little things? And it's a big medical word, but it's really important to understand because this is the source of your energy. This is the source of all the power that drives everything in your body, including your brain, and it reflects itself in your energy levels.
Now, these tiny little energy factories inside our cells, and there's hundreds of thousands of them in every single cell, they have a really important job. And they basically convert the food you eat and the oxygen that you breathe into energy that your body can use in the form of ATP. That's your gasoline. And it's so critical.
This process of converting food and oxygen into energy is the fundamental process of life.
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Chapter 6: How can functional medicine differ from conventional approaches to fatigue?
Let's just sort of dive into a little bit of background on mitochondria. Now, each cell has hundreds of thousands of these little energy factories, and they're extremely sensitive to all kinds of insults. So there's a lot of things that can screw them up.
They exist in great numbers, especially in a lot of the active organs like your brain and your heart and also in your muscles, because they need a lot of energy.
Chapter 7: What are the common drivers of chronic fatigue?
Our mitochondria are where our metabolism happens. When we say metabolism, that's what we mean. Basically, the metabolism is the biochemical process of running your life, essentially. And there's millions of chemical reactions in it, but the fundamental core is this process of extracting energy from food
and combusting it with oxygen inside your cells in the mitochondria to make energy in the form of ATP, which is essentially the gasoline that powers all of our cellular functions. So what happens when our mitochondria become damaged? Well, that's what happened to me, and it was a disaster. I just couldn't do anything. I couldn't think. I couldn't move. I was exhausted all the time.
I felt like I was walking through hair gel. It was awful. And I have deep sympathy for those who experience fatigue because I've lived a lot of my life struggling with it. And I've been able to figure it out, but it's through a lot of hard work.
And I'm going to share what I've learned, both on myself and with my patients, so you can help understand maybe what's going on with you and why you're dragging around a little bit. How do you get more energy? How do you protect your mitochondria? How do you either prevent yourself or actually fix the whole problem of being tired and burnt out?
Well, first you gotta get to the root cause and it's different for everybody, right? So ask what could be damaging your mitochondria. Now, you need to sometimes do some digging, but if you know you're eating processed food, you're not exercising, you're smoking and drinking too much, I would start there, right?
You can pretty much figure out the cause, or if you're nutrient deficient or you're not taking a multivitamin, there's a whole bunch of things you can do that are low-hanging fruit that will help your mitochondria. But sometimes you need lab testing to figure out what's driving your symptoms.
And the problem is most conventional doctors don't do comprehensive testing, which includes inflammatory markers, nutrient levels, heavy metals. thyroid testing, autoimmune markers, and more, all of which can help you get to the root of your fatigue.
And essentially, that's why I co-founded this company, Function Health, which tests over 110 biomarkers and twice a year testing and provides a comprehensive roadmap help you find the root cause of what's happening beneath the surface. And you can go to functionhealth.com forward slash mark. There's about 50,000 people on the membership roles now.
We have about 200,000 people on the wait list, but you can jump the wait list using that code, functionhealth.com forward slash mark. Now, some biomarkers we test are important and they can help really Pinpoint the cause of your fatigue. The first is HSCRP or C-reactive protein. This measures inflammation. So it can be from any source, but it tells you there's inflammation.
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Chapter 8: What are the hidden stressors that might affect energy levels?
So basically everything that exercise does is great for your mitochondria, right? So it makes new mitochondria, it cleans up old mitochondria, makes your mitochondria work better, it improves NAD status in your body, it boosts your antioxidant system. So it's just all around a good thing.
Do you ever wonder why you still feel stressed, wired, or wake up tired even when you're doing everything right? There's one nutrient deficiency I see over and over again in my community and in my patients, magnesium. Magnesium is responsible for over 600 reactions in your body, including energy production, muscle recovery, nervous system regulation, and sleep quality. But here's the problem.
Most magnesium supplements use the wrong form, so your body can't absorb them. That's why I take Magnesium Breakthrough by Bioptimizers. It's the only supplement I've found with all seven essential forms of magnesium your body needs in one capsule. Since I started using it, I've noticed deeper sleep, better recovery, and a sense of calm that I can feel at the end of a long day.
And I hear the same thing from my audience. You can actually feel the difference. If you're struggling with sleep, stress, or low energy, this is one of the simplest upgrades you can make. It's Black Friday saving season. From November 23rd through December 3rd, you get 25% off. This is the once-a-year sale you do not want to miss.
Plus, this part is exclusive to my audience and only at bioptimizers.com slash hymen. You'll not only get an amazing discount, but also free gifts with select purchases. Go right now to bioptimizers.com slash hymen. Use code hymen and grab your favorites before this deal disappears. After December 3rd, it's gone. Don't miss it. So what else can you do to help your mitochondria?
Well, optimizing your nutrient levels and addressing deficiencies is really important. One of the biggest deficiencies is omega-3 fats. Probably 90% of us are deficient or insufficient. And so you want to be taking a high quality fish oil supplement. My favorite is omega-3 rejuvenate from Big Mouth Health.
True to full transparency, I'm an advisor and an investor, but I did that because I think it's one of the most effective products out there in terms of omega-3s and how they process it. Antioxidants are helpful to take, including vitamin C, zinc, vitamin E, selenium. These can be all taken in a multivitamin.
Also, you want the full spectrum of B vitamins, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, B5, B6, biotin, folate, B12. These are all cofactors for making energy and supporting all the processes occurring in our mitochondria. And again, you can just take a multivitamin. Now B vitamins are really high in animal protein, especially organ meats like liver, eggs, fish, leafy green vegetables.
Now, if you're a vegetarian or vegan, you wanna be careful. You have to supplement with a B complex. You're not gonna get B12 from your food and you're often nutrient deficient. Now there's other nutrients that are important. Magnesium, I call that the relaxation mineral. It's really important for those who are under chronic stress because stress depletes magnesium.
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