Ugh. I hate being tired.

I have struggled with fatigue for most of my life. I’m struggling right now, just typing this sentence.

Hold on – let me get some more coffee.

OK, that’s better. Where was I?

Oh, yes! Fatigue. I am tired all the time. My father sleeps 20 hours a day. And now, my 10-year old son is showing early signs of unusually low energy. It seems like everyone I know is struggling with fatigue in some form or fashion.

90% of adults in the United States regularly use caffeine to combat fatigue. Caffeine is the second most traded commodity on the planet, after oil.

But as much as I love my coffee (and tea, and soda), I know I’m just patching the problem (and possibly worsening it). I know I’m not actually reducing my fatigue or increasing my body’s ability to create energy.

But what can I do about it? Aren’t I just stuck with the amount of energy I was born with?

This site is dedicated to finding the answers to those questions by:

• Understanding science behind how the body creates energy
• Documenting the six seven eight(!) subsystems that affect our energy
• Reading and reviewing the top books on those subsystems
• Compiling the best tips and tricks from those books
• Experimenting on myself with those tips and reporting the results here
• Boiling everything down into one, easy-to-understand book about our energy

As you might be able to tell, I am neither a doctor nor an artist – I’m a writer with a fatigue problem. So I will doggedly pursue these answers, all the while relaying information back to you and my 10-year old son in a format that could reasonably fit into a fifth grade format.

For instance, here is the unsung hero of our story: the mighty mitochondrion!

Mitochondria turn our food into energy. They are so small, they live inside our cells.

We have 4 quadrillion mitochondria in our bodies.

There are so many mitochondria inside of us, they make up 10% of our weight. And yet, they are so small, one million of them could fit on a pinhead.

There are a lot of different factors that go into our energy creation and usage, but, at its most basic level, these little guys keep us alive by turning food into energy. Our lives depend upon mitochondria.

And they aren’t even human!

Mitochondria are bacteria!

That’s right – mitochondria have completely different DNA than we do. And yet we treat them like garbage. They work day and night for us, eating whatever scraps we give them, and they power our hearts, our lungs, our digestion – everything.

You can think of them as underpaid, under-appreciated works in our internal energy factory. These poor little guys work 16 hour shifts, trying to turn the slop we give them into quality energy, but a number of factors affect their ability to do so:

1. sleep – if you don’t give these guys a rest, our factories will shut down
2. breath – mitochondria create energy through cellular respiration which requires oxygen
3. hydration – our bodies are 95% water, but 75% of us are chronically dehydrated
4. food– certain food creates better, more sustainable energy than others
5. mood – perhaps the most complex and powerful of all, the mind-body connection
6. movement – after only twenty minutes of inactivity, the body begins to shut down processes
7. biochemicals – caffeine, vitamins, supplements, and hormones each have different effects
8. environment – light, stress, weather, and the seasons impact on our energy levels as well

Although aspects of these energy subsystems may seem simple, they interact and overlap in a dizzying array of reverberating ramifications. I shall endeavor to keep it simple, like this:

If any of this sounds interesting to you, or you know someone who suffers from fatigue, or you would just like to know when I publish this book, please sign up below. I promise not to spam you.