Harmony Hub Health
Functional Medicine, Hormone Health and Weight Loss with Michele Postol, CRNP
Harmony Hub Health
Coffee, Adderall, And A B12 Shot Walk Into A Clinic.....
Feeling tired isn’t a character flaw; it’s a signal your cells are sending for help. We take you inside a functional lens on energy and show why caffeine, stimulants, and quick shots may mask the problem while the real drain continues. Starting with a clear story—needing Adderall to focus, coffee to function, and B12 to get through the day—we flip the script from chasing highs to restoring steady power.
We unpack the seven most common drivers of fatigue we see in our clinic: blood sugar swings that create the energy roller coaster, adrenal and cortisol imbalances that keep you wired but tired, hidden nutrient gaps that block ATP production, thyroid dysfunction that flies under the radar of a “normal” TSH, sleep quality issues that sabotage overnight repair, immune burdens from inflammation, infections, and environmental exposures, and the central hub of it all—mitochondrial dysfunction. Along the way, we outline the labs that matter most, from fasting insulin and ferritin to full thyroid and cortisol panels, and explain how timing and context turn numbers into insight.
Then we move from insight to action. You’ll hear how to stabilize fuel with smarter meals and routines, retrain the stress response for a healthier cortisol rhythm, and support cellular engines with targeted care. We walk through advanced therapies like ozone to enhance oxygen delivery, NAD to drive ATP production, NMN to encourage mitochondrial biogenesis, and next-generation glutathione delivery to bolster detox and antioxidant defenses. The goal isn’t more stimulation; it’s resilient energy you can rely on, day after day.
Ready to stop borrowing energy and start rebuilding it from the mitochondria up? Subscribe, share this episode with someone who needs a better plan than another coffee, and leave a review to tell us which root cause you’re tackling first.
Find me at www.harmonyhubhealth.com
Email me at michele@harmonyhubhealth.com
Welcome to Harmony Hub Health, where my mission is to provide comprehensive, affordable, integrative care that addresses the root cause of health issues. At the Hub, the focus is on individual patient journeys. I strive to optimize health, vitality, and longevity, fostering a community where each person can thrive in body, mind, and spirit. Let's talk about why you're tired and why it's never that simple. I had a patient walk in this week and she asked, Can I just get a B12 shot? She asked for a B12 shot because she was just tired all of the time. In one hand, she had a large Starbucks. On her medication list, she had Adderall for her ADHD. She wasn't lazy, she wasn't doing anything wrong. She was doing exactly what most people have been taught to do. But this is where functional medicine pauses and asks, what is wrong with this picture? Because when someone needs a stimulant to focus, caffeine to function, and a B12 shot to survive the day, that's not an energy problem. That's a cellular burnout problem. And a single shot, no matter how helpful, isn't going to fix the root cause. Fatigue is one of the most common complaints I see at Harmony Hub Health, and yet it's one of the most misunderstood. Fatigue is not laziness, it's not just the aging process, it's not a lack of motivation, and it's not just stress. Fatigue is feedback. It's your body saying, Hey, something is off, and I'm compensating as best as I can. Functional medicine seeks a different question. Like, why isn't your body making energy efficiently anymore? And in this podcast, I want to break it down. I try to narrow it down to the top five, but I had to include some more. So I have a top seven, or maybe the seven main reasons I see people with fatigue. Number one is blood sugar dysregulation. I call this the energy roller coaster. You don't have to have diabetes to have blood sugar problems. And it causes fatigue because your blood sugar spikes and then crashes. That means your cells don't get steady fuel, um, cortisol rises to compensate, your adrenals get overworked, and energy becomes unpredictable. This often looks like morning sluggishness with an afternoon crash, irritability if meals are delayed, or energy dips after you eat. There's a lot of functional medicine testing I use for this. I like to check fasting insulin because many people have a normal glucose, but when you have that elevation in insulin, that really dries fatigue. I like to check your hemoglobin A1C, um, your comprehensive metabolic panel. Um, and sometimes I even like to do continuous glucose monitoring. That's for blood sugar dysregulation. Number two is gonna be adrenal dysfunction and cortisol imbalance. Your adrenals are designed for short-term stress, not years of it. So this causes fatigue because chronic stress, whether it's physical or emotional, it disrupts your cortisol rhythm. If you're too high when it should be low, or if you're too low when you need it most, this leads to that wired but tired feeling, um, anxiety with exhaustion, poor stress tolerance, and non-restorative sleep. Functional medicine testing, like the Dutch test, that can check your cortisol rhythm and hormones, or even just my four-point salivary cortisol curve and looking at your DHEA. Um, it's all about timing, not just what your levels are. Number three, I'm gonna lump into nutrient deficiencies. These are what the standard labs miss. You don't have to be anemic to be exhausted. And nutrients really matter, like your iron, your B12, folate, magnesium, your zinc, your copper, and amino acids. They're all very essential for oxygen delivery, for mitochondrial energy production, neurotransmitter balance, and thyroid function. Stress, stimulants, and medications increase nutrient demand. So I love to check ferritin, um, and it needs to be in the optimal range, not just the quote unquote normal range. A full iron panel, um B12, an MMA, um an RBC magnesium, which is different than just a serum magnesium. Look at your zinc to copper ratio, and of course, my favorite for nutrients is the hair tissue mineral analysis test. Number four is thyroid dysfunction, and this is even if you have a normal thyroid stimulating hormone. Your thyroid is your metabolic engine, and you can have fatigue even with a normal thyroid stimulating hormone because your T4 may not convert to active T3. Inflammation can block your receptors, nutrient deficiencies can impair signaling, um, and autoimmune activity may be quietly brewing. So, for this, I'd love to check a full thyroid panel, not just a thyroid stimulating hormone or a T4. I do like the free T3, the free T4, and the reverse T3, um, and those thyroid antibodies, like your TPOs and your um TGABs. Uh, and then I like to look at selenium iodine and your iron status. I like to treat thyroid function, not just lab flags. Number five is I would say poor sleep quality and not just sleep quantity. So sleep is where energy is made, not in caffeine. You can sleep eight hours and still wake up exhausted if your blood sugar drops overnight, if your cortisol spikes between 2 and 4 a.m., if inflammation is disrupting your deep sleep, um, if your hormones don't repair properly. So this is when I love again to use the Dutch cortisol rhythm, um, looking at melatonin markers or those inflammation labs like your CRP and your ESR. Number six, I'm gonna say inflammation, infections, and immune burden. So your immune system is one of the highest energy demand systems in the body. Chronic immune activation from autoimmune conditions, um EBV or Epstein Bar virus or viral reactivation, um, Lyme terrain, having gut dysbiosis or even a mold exposure diverts energy away from everything else. Fatigue isn't the problem, it's the consequence. And then we come to number seven, which is the real root cause for most of my patients, and it's mitochondrial dysfunction. This is where everything ties together. If you're wondering what is mitochondria, um, mitochondria are the power plants inside your cells. They convert food and oxygen into ATP, which is energy, it regulates inflammation, it influences your hormones, it controls cellular repair, and it determines how resilient you feel. If mitochondria are struggling, every single system you have suffers. Let's talk about how your body actually makes energy. So, first you eat the food, okay? Second, the food is broken down into usable fuel. This is why nutrition is very important, not eating processed and synthetic foods. It's not going to give you the best energy, okay? But then the fuel enters your mitochondria. You have oxygen and nutrients, they all make that ATP. ATP powers your brain, your muscles, your hormones, and your detox pathways. If any of these steps are impaired, fatigue follows. There are also things that can damage your mitochondria. So it can be chronic stress and cortisol overload, stimulants like coffee, Adderall, different medications, energy drinks is a big one, um, your blood sugar instability, your nutrient depletion, inflammation, toxins and heavy metals, and chronic infections. All of these can damage your mitochondria. Alongside Harmony Hub Health, I do treat patients for years I have for their ADHD. And all of them do ask me why stimulants make them feel more tired. Um, and they're always drinking a lot of caffeine with their stimulants. But caffeine and stimulants increase adrenaline and cortisol. Okay, it blocks fatigue signals and it forces an energy release. They do not create energy, they actually borrow it. So over time, your mitochondria become less efficient, your adrenals become completely depleted, your blood sugar worsens, and those crashes get deeper. Um, that Starbucks plus Adderall and B12 combo, that's borrowed energy and you're gonna pay interest. Now, I'm not knocking the B12 shot. I love a B12 shot, but it is just very supportive. If you need a stimulant to focus, coffee to function, and B12 to stay upright, this is not a B12 deficiency. It is a cellular burnout. So at Harmony Hub Health, I don't ask, you know, how do we stimulate you more? I like to ask, why isn't your body making energy efficiently? Once we address that top seven list, then we can get on to some more functional medicine treatments. One of my favorites, of course, is ozone therapy. I love autohemotherapy with ozone. It improves oxygen delivery, it enhances that mitochondrial efficiency, it reduces inflammation, and it modulates an immune response. So think of a cellular reset plus oxygen optimization. Another tool in the toolbox is NAD. This is essential for ATP production. It supports mitochondrial repair, it improves brain clarity, and it also helps you recover from burnout that put you here in the first place. This is cellular fuel, not stimulant energy. And you can also get that as a wellness shot or in its own infusion at Harmony Hub Health. Another tool that I love to use is the Neutrify NMN spray. This is a precursor to NAD plus and it supports mitochondrial biogenesis. It provides steady, non-crashing energy, and it bypasses the gut absorption issues. So this is a great alternative to someone that doesn't like needles or doesn't want to go for straight-on NAD. I would say my most favorite tool in my toolbox is the Aura Wellness Glutathione. It is in the form of a patented glutaryl antioxidant spray. It is a next generation way to support cellular detoxification, antioxidant defense, and whole body wellness. Glutathione itself is known as the master antioxidant. It's a natural occurring tripeptide that's critical for neutralizing free radicals, supporting immune function, and helps with liver detoxification. What sets Oro's glutathione apart is its innovative delivery technology. Unlike traditional oral supplements, which can be broken down during digestion or IV forms, Oral Wellness uses a first of its kind sub-nano-transdermal delivery system that helps glutathione bypass digestive breakdown and enhances absorption into the body through the skin. This optimized bioavailability means more of the active antioxidant reaches tissues where it's needed the most. So it does support lasting detox, cellular defense, and vitality. Using this type of administration, my patients always have faster, more noticeable improvements and oxidative stress reduction, immune resilience, energy, and overall wellness compared with many traditional supplements. I also love to use this to kind of clean off those hormone receptors for anybody that's starting hormones, but detox is key. And if we're adding things into this toolbox, the things I like to remove, of course, are going to be the stimulants, which is really hard for someone to grasp when we talk about it. But there is a difference between stimulation and healing. Stimulants force output, it increases crashes, it accelerates burnouts. Functional medicine likes to repair energy production, restore your reserves, and build some resilience. One keeps you upright, the other helps you feel like yourself again. So if you're tired, you're not lazy. Well, you might be. We'll have to talk about that. You're not broken and you don't need more willpower. You need root cause support. Energy is not something you chase, it's something you rebuild from the mitochondria up. If you are ready to stop borrowing energy, at Harmony Hub Health, I would like to help you identify what's draining your cells. If you are exhausted, wired but tired, living off of coffee, or constantly asking for just a shot to get through the week, it's time to stop chasing symptoms and start addressing why your body isn't making energy. At Harmony Hub Health, I don't like to guess, I do like to test. A functional medicine consultation allows us to look deeper at your mitochondrial function and how your cells make energy, your nutrient status inside the cell, not just in your blood work, oxidative stress and your toxin burden, your adrenal and neurotransmitter patterns, your blood sugar stability and metabolic strain, and the impact of stimulants, medications, and chronic stress on your nervous system. From there, I will build a personalized plan, which may include targeted lab testing, lifestyle adjustments, mitochondrial support, and some of those advanced therapies like NAD plus, glutathione, ozone, and metabolic optimization instead of another temporary boost. If you are ready to stop being tired and start restoring energy at the cellular level, you need to schedule your functional medicine consultation at Harmony Hub Health. Your fatigue is trying to tell you something and we want to listen. You can go on our website at www.harmonyhubhealth.com. You can also send a text message at area code 410-575-4274 to get the conversation started. We do offer in-person and virtual consultations. I would love to wake up all of your cells. So the information shared in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The content discussed reflects a functional medicine perspective and should not be considered medical advice or a substitute for care from your personal healthcare provider. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before starting or changing any medical treatment, supplement, or therapy, especially if you're pregnant, nursing, have a medical condition, or you're taking prescription medications. Individual results may vary. What works for one person may not be appropriate for another, which is why personalized care and proper evaluation are essential. I would love to be your new functional medicine provider. I hope to talk to you soon.