Episode #62: Overcoming Chronic Fatigue: Rachelle Davis’ Journey and Insights

Ever felt like you’re running on empty? Rachelle Davis has been there and back. Tune in to hear her personal story of overcoming chronic fatigue and the holistic strategies that can help you feel alive again.

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Show Notes

• Introduction of Rachelle Davis, her journey with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)

• Symptoms and challenges of living with CFS

• Rachelle’s experience as a government contractor leading to her CFS

• The importance of stress management and sleep in managing CFS

• Rachelle's diagnosis and the role of holistic health practices

• Essential markers and symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome

• Differences and similarities between CFS and fibromyalgia

• Rachelle’s healing journey, including diet, exercise, and essential oils

• The importance of a whole food diet and avoiding processed foods

• Benefits of yoga, qigong, and outdoor activities for CFS

• The significance of vitamins, minerals, and consistent healthy habits

• Rachelle’s program, journal, and planner to help others with CFS

• Availability of a free book, "Balance and Boost," on Ayurvedic drinks

Key Takeaways

1. Chronic fatigue syndrome often results from prolonged stress and can manifest in various physical symptoms such as insomnia, brain fog, and muscle pain.

2. Proper diagnosis and holistic health practices, including diet, exercise, and stress management, are crucial for managing and overcoming CFS.

3. Rachelle Davis developed a comprehensive program and tools to help others navigate and recover from chronic fatigue syndrome, emphasizing consistency and self-care.

Transcript:

 Welcome back to the Better Than A Pill podcast. Today, I'm so excited to have Rachelle Davis on as a guest and Rachelle is passionate about helping people. We're struggling with chronic fatigue. She has struggled with this herself and she's on a mission to help others.  Her journey began when she was a chronic fatigue sufferer and she's navigated a lot of challenges about this debilitating condition.

So today she's on, she's going to be sharing a little bit about her journey with chronic fatigue and also sharing about what she's learned from personal experience and helping others. So welcome, Rachelle!

Hi, how are you? I'm doing well. 

Good. Glad to have you here. 

Thank you. Happy to be here. 

So why don't we get started with you sharing a little bit about your story with chronic fatigue. 

Great.  So I actually came down with chronic fatigue syndrome due to working overseas as a contractor for the government. And my contract was basically seven days a week, 12 to 14 hour days. And so I was in the last six months of my contract and I decided that I was just going to work the whole six months all the way through.

Unlike before, usually we would take a three to four month R and R. So every three to four months we'd take a break one or two weeks off.  So, in doing that, it caused a lot of stress. I had a horrible supervisor that was causing stress, and I hadn't realized it at the time either. In addition to that, I was working nights, so I wasn't up during the day and getting good rest at night.

It was the opposite, and I wasn't getting good rest at all. Yeah, so that went on for six months, and by the time  I got home,  it was about  a month or so into me being home, and I started experiencing certain symptoms, basically not being able to sleep at night, I felt like exercising really wasn't having the same effect, that type of thing. 

A month and a half later, I would say, is when I moved to Texas.  So then I was experiencing waking up three o'clock in the morning and had hot flashes. I was having issues with my  And also, one thing in particular, sugar.  So if I ate like a cookie or a brownie, for example, it would completely drain me. And I would have to take a nap for a few hours or so.

So that was unusual as well. But then I went to the VA hospital for a, for a physical.  And when my physician gave me a physical, one of the things they did. They took my blood pressure and my blood pressure was high  and never ever in my life Have I ever had that issue of high blood pressure at the time?

I was 42 So when I initially went to get the physical I also went and got acupuncture and so when I was talking to the acupuncturist about my symptoms of waking up hot flashes She thought maybe it was early menopause And yeah, and I was like, no, that's not it. That's not it. So I also just recently, that was in 2013, had gotten my certificate as a holistic health coach. 

And so I was trying to learn as much as I could. And so one of the things I did is I went to a seminar. The seminar was on stress.  And along with the seminar came a physical. And even throughout the seminar, I was thinking, wow, this kind of sounds like what I've been going through as far as stress. I hadn't realized it at the time, but it was because I think we feel like, okay, we can take this, we can take on all this stuff until Something happens and then it's too late, right?

But  with this  seminar came a physical. The person putting on the seminar was an acupuncturist and he had gone to school in the west for four years and then here in the east for four years.  So, he combined his education and he was able to diagnose me through his physical and when I explained to him what my symptoms were, he was able to diagnose me with chronic fatigue syndrome. 

So, I bet that felt good at least to have a diagnosis, like what, you know. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. If I had taken it to my regular doctor They would've, she would've just brushed it off as something else, especially with my high blood pressure. Oh, yeah. I do know, I hear that and, and, uh,  . No, I, I, I was gonna ask you like, what are like the markers for determining if somebody has chronic fatigue or not?

Because you know, we all are under stress and we all can be run down and I'm just, I'm curious. Okay, so you have all of these symptoms, fatigue, restless nights if you get to sleep, waking up in the middle of the night, hot flashes, brain fog, muscle aches, you might injure yourself or whatever. And then, I guess the measure would be, if you're experiencing any of these symptoms,  Especially the fatigue, of course, for six months or longer.

So that would be where you would measure it. So if you're having a problem sleeping, you wake up and you're feeling exhausted, like you didn't get any rest at all, it's hormonal. You're going to have that issue with cortisol and all that. And the only way to know is if you get tested for it, but that's not, that's not really a common blood test that they give you.

So that's something you would have to ask for.  But, yeah. So they can test, uh, do a blood test to see if you have chronic fatigue syndrome? They can test to see if your cortisol is elevated. That's what they would do.  And so the elevated cortisol would be the marker for chronic fatigue syndrome? Would be one marker, yes.

Mm hmm. Definitely. What are some others? So yeah, the brain fog, just feeling exhausted throughout the day, feeling the effects, like I had explained with the sugar, how the sugar just,  just takes you down completely.  Yeah. And if you've got issues as well, yeah, no, that's interesting. So is that common with chronic fatigue, the sugar response?

Like with people? Yeah, that's one of those, one of those things because some people just,  I guess you can say they might have low blood sugar,  but then the way that the sugar affects them. Yeah. That's, that is definitely, I was shocked when it happened to me. Yeah. And until I researched it. I didn't know. Um, Some people might have swollen lymph nodes because it affects your immune system as well.

Yeah.  So is it an autoimmune disorder?  Hmm.  I guess not directly. They might equate Addison's disease to that. They link some other diseases to it,  but I don't know. I would call it an autoimmune disease, but I don't think that I've heard of it referred to as such. Yeah. So I, it's interesting and I definitely, at a personal level, I can only remember one other person,  like there may be more, but one that comes to mind was a friend of mine in graduate school, an ex athlete.

That said that she had chronic fatigue syndrome, but she was able to function, excel, and occasionally exercise. And so I'm just thinking of her as you're talking.  And I just, I'm interested because when it comes to fatigue, a lot of autoimmune disorders, I know, for instance, I'm just going to speak of the one that I have, which is Hashimoto's, that can be  a side effect, fatigue.

And so what makes this fatigue?  This chronic fatigue syndrome is different from and other than your hormones, of course, but I guess it's just got a whole range of symptoms that,  yeah, if independently your doctor sees you, they might be able to treat it, but  we're talking about treating the whole person.

It's a lot. You've got the swollen nodes. You could have. Brain fog the muscle and body aches you easily to injure yourself. I did n't do regular cardio or anything like that. Yeah, I had to slow it down and I had to do yoga So you're not going to be able to exercise and feel energized or anything like that. 

That's not going to work Yeah, so I'm just curious how long you went on with these symptoms when you had it? How long were you struggling with these, with the fatigue and all of that, what you just had? Yeah. So I think I always say it took me about a year and a half. Okay. Yeah. And that's because within that, a person, you have to deal with  a few different things.

First of all, you have to make sure that you are not dealing with that stress.  So it could be the situation. It could be people that you have in your life. Then  I was on a specific type of diet. It wasn't a low fat diet,  but I had to eliminate anything sugary in my diet and no processed foods. Yeah.  All the things that we need to do anyway. 

That's not interesting, but it sounds like you can pinpoint  your chronic fatigue directly to the stress that you were experiencing from being in this job. And that's interesting. So, is that typically the case? Does chronic fatigue typically come on from a stressful event like that? Or just speak to me a little bit about that.

Yeah, everybody has stress in their lives. It just depends how much and, and how long you're actually in that stressful situation.  So for me, it was my job and I knew that right away. For someone else, it could be a relationship. It could be a situation at work, could be a boss. You know what I mean? It could be life, family. 

It just depends. It just depends on a person's situation. Yeah. Yeah. It's fascinating. We're all so uniquely made. And then this response that your body went into and sounds a little bit like  fibromyalgia or some of the alga. So what's the difference between the two? So, there's no difference as far as the symptoms except for maybe there's more pain, uh, with the fibromyalgia,  but either way, you're talking about inflammation, right? 

So that would be chronic inflammation in the body. Which would bring on disease and whatnot. But yeah, you'd have a lot more pain with the fibromyalgia, right? You'd have all the other symptoms with chronic fatigue and a lot of times people have one or both, right? And they often sometimes get diagnosed with both chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia at the same time.

Okay.  Oftentimes with fibromyalgia, there are trigger points where people, if you touch them, they're sensitive and it can be painful, but it sounds like not so much with chronic fatigue syndrome. No, I don't think so much with trigger points. I think they may have injured themselves. It's easy, you can be easily injured.

So if you're doing something strenuous on the body  with exercise, then  you can easily hurt yourself, I would say. Yeah. So what drove you to find out what was going on? Like you knew something was wrong. You get to this point where you feel like this, the fatigue is overwhelming. You're not able to function like you were not exercising.

It sounds like it was just you, were you sleeping a lot more during the day or not at night? Of course it was difficult to sleep because I was waking up,  but I can't really say I was sleeping more. During the day, unless I guess if I was tired or whatever, but I think it's more of a feeling of just being lethargic, a feeling that kind of heavy, I guess you can say, but because I had just gotten my certification as a holistic health coach.

It was only in me to find out what I needed to do. And then when I went to the acupuncturist and he diagnosed me, I did have a couple of treatments there,  but then I decided, okay, I don't want to just get acupuncture. And the more I researched and studied, I figured out, it's not just how you treat your body, but you have to eat right.

You have to get to bed at a certain time. You have to eat at a certain time. And that was just the program that I came up with from my research.  Sure. Yeah. It was just in me. I used essential oils as well to help. It was just in me to research and find out what exactly I needed to do.  That's great. Yep. And obviously that's what happens to a lot of people.

We get somebody with a condition and then you, you've got your, want to educate yourself. Right. And that's awesome. So what essential oils did you use? Tell us what helps with chronic fatigue.  I used nutmeg, nutmeg to put on my back, just like over the kidneys where the adrenals are. And then I used some different, um,  I use Young Living essential oils.

So they have one blend, it's called NRG, and that just gives you a boost to energy. So yeah, there were quite a few. That's great. So did you end up quitting this job and eliminating the stress? Yeah, because my contract ended, so it was time for me to go home.  And then once things settled in that month's time frame is when things started happening.

So yeah, I was done with that job for sure. Great. And that cured you.  It helped. Yeah. Yeah. I decided that I was never going to work nights again. I said that was enough because that had completely disrupted my circadian rhythm. Yeah.  So eliminating the stress was one thing that you did, getting rid of the job. 

So what did you eat? What would you recommend for those that might be listening that may have chronic fatigue? What do you recommend they eat? What did you eat? So definitely plenty of vegetables. You want to be on a whole food diet and you want to eat fruit, but you just want to eliminate anything that's too sugary. 

So like blueberries or berries or because they are sweet. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. As opposed to a grape or something. Exactly. Yeah. No watermelon. Yeah. Nothing like that.  Summer's coming up. Oh no.  I love watermelon. But I hear you have a couple of it with some protein or fat or something. But so what about, so that totally makes sense.

Staying away from processed foods, no sugar, eating a whole food diet, fruits, vegetables,  and what kind of exercise would you recommend? Yeah, so you want to do some yoga. or maybe some qigong. That's what I did. Sure. And yeah, it definitely helps. But then you also want to get outside and you want to walk in the fresh air and the sunshine for at least 45 minutes a day.

Yeah. Yeah. So not stressing the body, doing things that are gentle, getting fresh air. That'll make sense too. Yeah. Yeah. You have to get your vitamins and your minerals as well  because your body's depleted. Yeah. Yeah. Now how long does it take to heal? It depends on the person, right? Everybody may or may not  be able to follow a plan, but the only way to heal is to figure out a regimen and then follow that. 

And you have to keep following it and you have to remain consistent, which is why I actually created my  planner and journal for people because it gives you instructions  on what to do. And then also it allows you to keep track of what you're doing. So you can actually see the change. A lot of times you may be doing something and people may get discouraged and whatnot because they're not seeing any change, but if you keep track of it, then you will be able to see it and you just have to remain consistent. 

Yeah, that's awesome. So  for people that are listening today that are struggling with chronic fatigue syndrome and need help, you have created a program to help those people. I have. Yes. And this journal and planner is a part of that. Yes. So I have a journal planner, journal and planner separate, but then I also have a group coaching session.

and also courses for people as well.  Wonderful. And  yeah, so that is great. So this is how your struggle has become a source of helping others, which I love. Yeah. 

And this is wonderful. So you, you also have, I think a book, is that right? A book that. Yeah. Yeah. I have a free book for anyone interested. It's called balance and boost and they're just Ayurvedic drinks or tonics, as it says in the book, instead of coffee. A lot of people are addicted to coffee. What do you recommend they drink instead of coffee?

Cause I've tried chicory and it did not go well. It was awful. Yeah. I tried a brand. I think it's Tachino  and it is so good. And I think it was chicory and it's in a teabag, but you can do matcha green tea, but there's a whole. Hosted drinks in there for anyone that's dealing with chronic fatigue syndrome and hopefully you can find something to replace You know what you're drinking.

Hopefully you're not drinking any soda or anything like that But that's you know, sugary you want to avoid the sugar. But yeah, this book is free. It's on my site askahealth. coach You can find the journal, the planner, the program and the free book for anyone interested. Excellent. And we're going to be including that link in the episode.

So everybody can locate that and find out more about your work. That's excellent. But today you are symptom free. I see you're living proof, right? Yes. Yes. It's possible. It is possible. Yeah. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story and all your wisdom. And You guys be on the lookout for the link in the episode so you can find out more and get the free book as well.

Remember we do new episodes every other week on Wednesday and I look forward to having you join me then.