Alex Howard - Decode Your Fatigue: A Clinically Proven 12-Step Plan to Increase Your Energy, Heal Your Body and Transform Your Life

A hopeful, practical book to help people move from debilitating fatigue to a purposeful, joyful life once again.

MIRANDA HART, COMEDIAN, ACTOR, AND WRITER

Are you ready to be empowered instead of blown off? Enlightened, instead of fumbling in the dark? Here is a map to help you get there. From somebody healthy, who has been where you are!

JACOB TEITELBAUM, M.D., AUTHOR OF THE BEST-SELLING FROM FATIGUED TO FANTASTIC!

Alex Howard, and his colleagues, have been doing exceptional work with patients and clients with various types of persistent fatigue for many years. Fatigue is an immensely complex issue to investigate and properly address clinically, and this book does a masterful job of tackling these complexities and discussing them in a format and style that it easily understood and relatable for the layperson and medical professional alike. Bravo!

PROFESSOR DR. DAVID BRADY, AUTHOR OF THE FIBRO-FIX

In writing this book Alex shows how Western medicine is failing patients with CFS/ME. Doctors do not look for disease causation nor try to identify the mechanisms by which that person has become ill. In Decode Your Fatigue, Alex gives the reader a roadmap and explains how symptoms can be used as important direction finders to guide recovery. With the rules of recovery and the tools to fix, all is possible. The tools are within everyones grasp and the book is logical so difficult concepts are easily understood. Yes, this is not an easy journey, it takes determination and courage. But with Decode Your Fatigue you can do it.

DR. SARAH MYHILL, AUTHOR OF DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME AND MYALGIC ENCEPHALITIS: ITS MITOCHONDRIA, NOT HYPOCHONDRIA

Finally, a practical guide to recovery from fatigue that is not only inspiring but also very doable. Each of the different systems that are involved in fatigue are covered. Decode Your Fatigue teaches you how to personalize your healing journey, which is so very important because each of us is quite unique. Thank you, Alex, for this comprehensive roadmap to recovery! Highly recommended!

DONNA GATES, M. ED., ABAAHP, INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE BODY ECOLOGY DIET

I am deeply appreciative of Alex and his teams work at OHC. There are a lot of books about fatigue. So many that you may want to skip this one but I implore you: DONT! Let this be the book you pick up and read. Alexs approach to deep, lasting, multifactorial, complex fatigue is different. Yes, it started with his own experience, but it evolved to him establishing a clinic with a committed research department and a team of brilliant, like-minded individuals all drilling down into different aspects of the fatigue puzzle. Not only have they treated thousands of patients successfully over the decades, but theyve published many research studies on their approach. Regardless of the underlying cause of your fatigue, if you give this book the time and your precious energy it will likely be the last stop youll need to make on the long, often deeply discouraging journey of healing from chronic fatigue.

DR KARA FITZGERALD, CLINIC DIRECTOR AND HOST OF THE NEW FRONTIERS IN FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE PODCAST

Decode Your Fatigue provides an extraordinary opportunity for the reader to finally feel understood, validating what we might be experiencing with our health challenges and symptoms related to the lack of energy. Alex provides an easy 12-step process that cultivates hope for achieving recovery. This is a must read for anyone suffering from chronic fatigue or other similar ailments, and will become a staple in our clinic and in our practitioner education

ANDREA NAKAYAMA, MSN, FNLP, CNE, CNC, FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE NUTRITIONIST, FOUNDER AND CLINICAL DIRECTOR, FUNCTIONAL NUTRITION ALLIANCE

Published in the United Kingdom by:

Hay House UK Ltd, The Sixth Floor, Watson House,
54 Baker Street, London W1U 7BU

Tel: +44 (0)20 3927 7290; Fax: +44 (0)20 3927 7291; www.hayhouse.co.uk

Published in the United States of America by:

Hay House Inc., PO Box 5100, Carlsbad, CA 92018-5100

Tel: (1) 760 431 7695 or (800) 654 5126

Fax: (1) 760 431 6948 or (800) 650 5115; www.hayhouse.com

Published in Australia by:

Hay House Australia Pty Ltd, 18/36 Ralph St, Alexandria NSW 2015

Tel: (61) 2 9669 4299; Fax: (61) 2 9669 4144; www.hayhouse.com.au

Published in India by:

Hay House Publishers India, Muskaan Complex,
Plot No.3, B-2, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi 110 070

Tel: (91) 11 4176 1620; Fax: (91) 11 4176 1630; www.hayhouse.co.in

Text Alex Howard, 2021

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or otherwise be copied for public or private use, other than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews, without prior written permission of the publisher.

The information given in this book should not be treated as a substitute for professional medical advice; always consult a medical practitioner. Any use of information in this book is at the readers discretion and risk. Neither the author nor the publisher can be held responsible for any loss, claim or damage arising out of the use, or misuse, of the suggestions made, the failure to take medical advice or for any material on third-party websites.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Tradepaper ISBN: 978-1-78817-459-6

E-book ISBN: 978-1-78817-461-9

Audiobook ISBN: 978-1-78817-603-3

Interior illustrations: : Antigone Konstantinidou; all other images: Sam Smith

Like most people, I grew up believing that if you fall ill, you take a pill and you feel better. At least that was until just before my 16th birthday, when I found myself in a physical hell that no pill could cure.

I woke up one morning and something felt very wrong. It was as though someone had pulled the plug on the energy in my body, and I had none left. The short walk from my bedroom to the bathroom felt like a marathon, my muscles ached, and I became light-headed while doing even the most basic tasks.

Following several visits to the doctor and various blood tests, it was concluded that I had a virus. I just needed to rest, I was told, and all would be back to normal in a month or two. That felt like a lifetime for a teenage boy who just wanted to play sports and make music with his friends.

For a while ignorance wasnt exactly bliss, but it never crossed my mind that what I was experiencing was anything more sinister than a virus that would pass in its own time. Except, it didnt

Three months later, I was heading to the doctor once more in search of answers. This time, my grandmother was leading the charge if anyone could get answers, it was her. My health hadnt improved since my last appointment; in fact, itd declined significantly. An attempt to restart school a few weeks earlier had gone horribly wrong: after 10 days of pushing through and pretending there was nothing wrong with me, Id crashed, and was now feeling worse than ever.

The doctors surgery (office) was only a five-minute drive from our home but it might as well have been a million miles away. By the time we arrived I was so dizzy I could hardly stand and the exhaustion was so crippling it took everything I had not to just lie on the floor and curl up in a ball.