Struggling with chronic fatigue that’s draining your passion and energy as an entrepreneur? In this episode, Dr. Jenny Tufenkian reveals the hidden root causes of fatigue and shares powerful strategies to help you reclaim your vitality, so you can lead your business with purpose and ease.
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Show Notes | Transcript“People who experience chronic fatigue hate the term chronic fatigue syndrome because it doesn’t sound that bad, and it is a very, very serious illness.” – Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
Are you constantly exhausted, struggling with brain fog, or feeling like your body’s energy reserves are perpetually depleted? You might be dealing with more than just everyday fatigue. Naturopathic physician Dr. Jenny Tufenkian shares with me the complex world of chronic fatigue syndrome, or as it’s more accurately known, myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS).
Discover the five root causes of chronic fatigue:
- The hormone triangle and how stress impacts your body’s delicate balance
- Reactivated chronic infections that may be silently draining your energy
- Mitochondrial dysfunction and its role in energy production
- The impact of toxic overload on your body’s systems
- How your limbic emotional brain influences your energy levels
Key insights include:
- Why the term “myalgic encephalomyelitis” is replacing “chronic fatigue syndrome”
- The surprising connection between ME/CFS and long COVID
- How to recognize if you’re unconsciously “energy budgeting” due to post-exertional malaise
- The role of past traumas and stress in triggering chronic fatigue
Dr. Tukenkian also addresses the gender disparity in ME/CFS diagnoses and the frustrating dismissal many women face when seeking help. She offers hope and practical advice for those struggling with chronic fatigue, emphasizing the importance of finding the right healthcare provider who understands the complexity of this condition.
Whether you’re battling chronic fatigue yourself or supporting someone who is, this episode provides valuable insights into the root causes of this debilitating condition and offers a path forward towards healing and renewed energy. Tune in to gain a deeper understanding of ME/CFS and discover how you can take control of your health journey.
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TRANSCRIPT
Gloria Grace Rand
Namaste. If you are an entrepreneur who is tired of being tired, stick around because today’s guest is going to reveal the hidden causes of your exhaustion and the holistic secrets to reclaiming your vibrant self. But first, I want to welcome you to live, love, engage, especially those of you who this may be your first time listening to the podcast. I am Gloria Grace, and I help female entrepreneurs attract clients by going beyond traditional search engine optimization methods that you would use on your website to embrace my definition of SEO, which stands for to spiritually engage others. Joining us today is Dr. Jenny Tu-fen’-kian. She is a licensed Naturopathic physician, specializing in empowering health-conscious professionals to conquer long COVID and ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. And her personal battle with chronic fatigue is what led her to create a transformative system that actually addresses the five core root causes of CFS.
So normally, I would be bringing her on to the show live, but we had to actually pre-record her interview. So, I’m going to go ahead and share that with you right now. And make sure technical things work. And I’m confident it’s going to be there. Welcome, Doctor Jenny to live, love, engage.
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
Thank you so much for having me, Gloria. It’s a pleasure to be here with you today.
Gloria Grace Rand
Well, I am really glad that you’re here, especially to tackle this subject because thankfully I have not experienced it myself, but I do, I have known friends and acquaintances that have kind of dealt with chronic fatigue and things like that. And when I mentioned in the intro, and this was something I had to look up myself because I’d never heard of the term ME/CFS before. So I thought maybe we could start with that so you could educate our audience a little bit about especially that ME part. What does that stand for? And then we’ll kind of go into more.
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
Yeah. I’m so glad you were asking this because a lot of people, even in the medical profession, have no idea what ME is. It’s really, it means myalgic encephalitis. And it really is talking about there is inflammation in the brain and in the muscles. And that’s what we’re seeing with people who have chronic fatigue. Now, this term has actually been used by most of the world for decades to explain this phenomenon that we’ve been calling in the United States, chronic fatigue syndrome for decades. People who experience chronic fatigue hate the term chronic fatigue syndrome because it doesn’t sound that bad, and it is a very, very serious illness. I often joke and say, if you tell somebody you have chronic fatigue syndrome, they say, oh, yeah, I’m tired too. Like, whatever, you know, can you get over it now? Whereas if you say, I have myalgic encephalitis, they’re like, oh, now that actually sounds like something that is serious, and maybe we should consider bringing you some lasagna or helping you drive your kids to school. There is a movement now among the physicians and researchers in the States who work with people who are struggling with these complex chronic conditions to begin to move that naming over from chronic fatigue syndrome to the more accurate myalgic encephalitis. I also consider lung COVID to be part of the same thing. So often I talk about long COVID, I talk about myalgic encephalitis, and I talk about chronic fatigue syndrome. It’s a lot of words, but we throw them all in there. Somebody gets what we’re talking about.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, well, I’m, I’m really glad that they’re starting to do that, because you’re right. I mean, when I hear that, I mean, first thing I think of is like, ah, yeah, I mean, encephalitis, that’s I mean, something that people die from, right? I mean, protect your brain. So, yeah, so I’m glad that they’re making this more serious, really.
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
Right. One of the things that’s made it easier in the United States for us to start using this term is really recent research where we’ve been doing PET scans, where we put patients, people who have myalgic encephalitis, people who are controls, who are normal and are matched for the same age and gender. We put them into a PET scan with dyes, and it’s more detailed than an MRI. And we’re starting to see their brains and their muscles flare up, light up, literally from the inflammation. So we now have a diagnostic tool where we can see what is going on physiologically with these people. It’s not used yet for people to help them diagnose if they have it. It’s just used for research right now. But it does give the evidence that we’ve been craving and looking for to say, yes, this is what’s happening in my body. Here’s a picture of it. And now we can start looking for treatments that actually work.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, that is so important because that was one question I was going to ask you is it seems like it has been really hard to diagnose. So what can people do I guess now to be an advocate for themselves? Especially until this research starts getting to be more commonplace, where doctors are going to be able to know about it.
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
We still do not have a specific test to diagnose. Whether somebody actually has long COVID or actually has myalgic encephalitis. They are both diagnosis by exclusion, meaning that you have to rule out all the other causes of your fatigue, of your brain fog, of your balance issues, all the different things of your muscle pain, all the different symptoms you may have, we have to rule out and make sure you don’t have something else. And then we’re left with a diagnosis of myalgic encephalitis chronic fatigue, long COVID. Now that said, there are very specific things that we’re starting to look for that can key you into, to realize that you may need more support. So if you’re listening to this and you’re thinking, I don’t know, I have not been feeling great, maybe I have this. Here are some things to pay attention to. If you are dealing with ongoing fatigue that’s been going on for months or years and isn’t due to something super explainable, like you just had a baby and you’re up all night with your kid or you’re taking care of an elderly parent, and you’re up all night if there’s no real explanation for it. You just feel like you’re pushing yourself through the day, like you’d rather lie down after lunch, take a nap. If you could just work a half day, that’s great. You find yourself fantasizing about just being in the hammock instead of being excited about your work. These are all signs that maybe you are dealing with fatigue that is beyond just normal exhaustion from your work schedule. Another hallmark of these conditions is something called post exertional malaise, also called PEM, in abbreviated nomenclature. And that’s when you do more than you usually do and you pay for it. So, for example, if you’re used to being able to, you know, clean your house normally. For the people who are really sick, you know, like doing the dishes may be something they normally do, but if they do the dishes and the laundry, they are more exhausted. They have to spend the rest of the day or even week on the couch or in bed due to exhaustion or pain. If you have a more mild case, you’re not so severe yet at this time, it may mean that you are unconsciously energy budgeting yourself, as in you do your work, you get invited to go out on Friday night and you’re like, no, if I go out tonight, I’m going to be paying for it all weekend. I won’t be able to get that little gardening job done. I’m going to have to be on the couch if I stay up late tonight. I just know that in my bones that I don’t have the juice to do this extra thing. You might find yourself saying no to even the fun stuff. Because if you’re an entrepreneur, of course you’re always prioritizing your business, right? And so if you’re saying no to the birthday parties, to the extra stuff with the kids because of energy, that may, because you’re unconsciously energy budgeting, because you do have some level of this post-exertional malaise where you end up paying for it if you overdo it.
Gloria Grace Rand
Well, and that. One thing I wanted to be able to talk about, and so I’m glad that you pointed that out because I can, I can see how we do. We’ll do that, as you say, unconsciously and start, you know, sort of figuring out because you do, even with, you know, normal things, it’s like you, I mean, I find, I learn, what are my limits? You know, what, what can I do, right? I think that goes with the territory of anyone, even, even a parent or what have you, you kind of figure it out, but this is where it’s being taken to another level. So you. What I found interesting about you when we first met was that you really deal with looking at some of the underlying causes and maybe some different ways to be able to manage this. So I understand you found that there’s like, five root causes to this. So can you share those a little?
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
Yeah, sure.
Gloria Grace Rand
So share those.
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
My journey of working with people who are struggling with myelic encephalitis was a journey that chose me. So it was really something that hit me really hard my second year of medical school and ended up needing to take a year out of medical school to deal with it. And I got what I call 150% better by throwing everything I knew at it as a young doctor. I knew that people could heal from this condition. And I was so sick. I was in bed with IV’s in my arm, and I couldn’t make it to the bathroom by myself. I mean, I was very, very sick. I got back to being able to have another kid, run multiple clinics. I was teaching at the naturopathic college and was really full time and had energy all day long, where I woke up full of energy, had energy, energy throughout lunchtime, end of day, I would switch from being a doctor to being a mom. And that was my break. You know, moving from going into working and cooking good food for my kid and hanging out, helping with homework. That was my break. That was normal. And I didn’t think I’d ever get chronic fatigue again. And then I did 17 years later, and I had this incredible crash where I learned this other really important piece for all of you out there who may be struggling with low energy, which is to know that if you have had it once, it’s very easy to relapse. Your body will have a set pattern, and it’s easy to go down that slide way faster than you think is possible. That is exactly what happened to me when I had an injury. Severe pain, sleep deprivation with perimenopause sprinkled on top. Those hormones are anti inflammatory, and we know it dysregulates so many different systems in the body when it’s reconfiguring to what your hormones are going to be for the rest of your life. And it threw me into a very, very severe chronic fatigue pattern. It was during this time that I really had no choice. I could not go back to bed. To do so would have brought my family into bankruptcy because they were financially dependent on me. I had to figure out how to get well so I could get back to stay at work. I couldn’t sleep, so I just stayed up, literally, researching. It was me and PubMed at 3:00 in the morning in the kitchen with the dog at my feet. And this is. And I started to really look into what is causing this. This was a while ago. This is when everybody thought it was just one thing. And I began to realize that it was never just one thing, it was multiple things. And I had this amazing experience of my practice just getting packed out with people with chronic fatigue. While I was struggling myself with not feeling well, I was able to begin to apply the knowledge that I was learning, that I was researching, some of the treatments I was, I was exploring with my own self. And I began to see that there are certain patterns that some people have. There are five core root causes. And then I’m also going to add in something else that we’re really beginning to see now, which is this level of neuroinflammation. The neuroinflammation piece is key, and it still connects with all five root causes. But I feel like those of you listening are going to want the most cutting edge assessment of what’s happening with myalgic encephalitis and long COVID. And we’re seeing, as I said, with myalgic encephalitis, we’re seeing that people who have a predisposition to having inflammation in their brain, past traumatic brain injury or infections, are more likely to get this inflammatory piece. And if you’re experiencing brain fog or brain fatigue, those are signs that you may be experiencing brain inflammation. And it’s very important to address it, because this is the exact same thing that leads to dementia. The five root causes that can lead to the fatigue and the brain inflammation are: looking at, number one, as I call the gateway root cause that I’m sure many of you are going to relate to when I explain it, which is called the hormone triangle. And this is looking at how your thyroid gland, your ovary for female, teste for male, and your thyroid all interact with each other. They are like a symphony, and they want to be in tune, in balance with each other. If one of them is off, the others will go and try to match it to keep the body safe and balanced. The number one thing that happens in this culture where we are 24/7 pushing ourselves all the time, especially those of us who are professionals, entrepreneurs with kids, is we go, go, go, go. And so the gateway root cause is this stress expressed, burning out that adrenal gland. Stress, you know, hypothalamic pituitary access is the formal name for it. And this can tip over, tip us over into a state of being exhausted, either tired and wired, fatigued, unable to get the kind of sleep we need to do. And I call this the gateway root cause because this happens really easily in our twenties and our thirties and our forties and can be a setup and make us very vulnerable to some of the other root causes. The second root cause that I see so commonly is, are reactivated chronic infections. The most common that we see is Epstein Barr virus. A lot of people who have long COVID actually have an Epstein Barr virus that has been reactivated. Many of us hold these viruses. We all hold viruses in our body. If you’ve heard of a microbiome, we also have a virome. We have viruses in us that we don’t even have names for, let alone tests for. And those can get reactivated when the body’s under stress. We saw a huge amount of stress during the pandemic, and we saw a lot of people dealing with complex chronic illness afterwards. And some of this is just from reactivation of those chronic viruses in your body. It can also be a bacterial infection or a fungal infection that can get reactivated and just suck your energy dry. The third root cause is looking at mitochondrial function. The mitochondria have numerous jobs and they are the power plants inside of your cells. And they have. They are really, really, really essential for life. If you lose your mitochondria, you die in 3 seconds. They are just essential for us to be here. And the more, the more energy assist an organ needs, the more mitochondria there are. So we have a ton of them in our brain, we have a ton in our heart. And these keep us active and activated. But like any energy plant, they can burn clean or they can burn dirty. And if they’re burning dirty, you don’t have the energy you need. When I talk about chronic infections, often those infections will hijack your mitochondria and suck your energy over to them to help so that they can survive and you don’t get the energy. Mitochondria are also really vulnerable to things like, to the other root cause, which is toxic overload. We talk about heavy metals. Those of us who have silver fillings in our mouths. Those of us who were born before 1979, and there was lead gasoline everywhere. Those of us who live by coal power plants, glyphosate, that they’re spraying on everything. Pesticides, herbicides, the plastics. You know, you and I, you know, I drink out of glass. Glass it’s really hard. It gets into that mitochondria and makes it so that it cannot produce the energy that you need to run you better. And sometimes getting those toxins out is the number one best thing you can do for your brain function and your energy. And those really impact that mitochondria. The fifth root cause is looking at your limbic emotional brain, which is part of your unconscious subconscious mind, and it’s always surveying for safety and danger. Safety. Am I safe? Is it dangerous? Is it safe? Is it dangerous? It’s doing this our whole childhood, and it’s so important for our survival. And yet many of us live in this very stressed out space. And it’s very easy. If you’ve had any kind of trauma during your childhood, which most of us have had some kind of trauma in our childhood, it’s easier to start perceiving things as being dangerous if you’re under stress, if you’re under financial stress, work stress, your body’s under stress from any of these other root causes. It sends a signal up to that limbic brain saying things are not so well down here. And there can become this vicious cycle where the limbic brain, via the autonomic nervous system, the vagus nerve, starts to send down a signal to the body to literally to hide, to slow down. It can cause depression, fatigue, increased sense of pain to make you hide, to keep you safe. And these are all the different root causes. And people usually have one, two, three, or all five of them. And you can see just from my explanation of how they can begin to interrelate.
Gloria Grace Rand
Oh, yeah, for sure. And it’s, oh my goodness, there’s so much information. And one of the things you did sort of, I was having a question which you sort of addressed early on. I think when you were talking, maybe one of the first, 1st root causes was, I was curious to know about age. You know, does, does this affect people at a certain age or make you more susceptible to it? But, but it seems like, it sounds like it could almost just happen at any time. I mean, especially because you said you had had it when you were in medical school and then it came back later. So, and I, and I’m also curious, does it? But it seems like it’s probably, you know, an equal opportunity, you know, between men and women as well. So is that what you found?
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
So in terms of age, unfortunately, I’d say any age, I have many patients who are teenagers and in their twenties. Yeah. Yeah, it is. Yikes. I think there are some things that can be a more likely setup for some people over others. And I’m happy to dive into that if you’re interested in what those are. I think that there are certain periods or things that can activate. So, for example, if a chronic viral reactivation is one of your root causes, then there may be some things that may happen that can trigger that. Never, well, somebody who has been more exhausted since they had a traumatic birth or since a motor vehicle accident or since a divorce. Those are stressful life events that can happen that can trigger one of those chronic viruses to become reactivated. Those obviously can happen at any stage in life. Many of the kids that I see, the teenagers that I see, and the 20-year-olds who I see, many of them have some other things. Many of them frequently have ADHD or some other kind of learning difference, or they’re not neurotypical. And my impression of that from having a kid who also has some of these issues is that they’ve decided by the age, they’re by age three, that they’re not like everybody else and are exerting a lot of energy to just try to fit in to normal, quote unquote, society. Kindergarten is challenging for these kids, and they’ve already created an incredible stress response. When I run cortisol tests on these kids, their cortisol levels are already altered from this on and off stress that they’re experiencing, just trying to function normally within a culture that doesn’t really recognize yet who they really are and what they need to thrive. In terms of male versus female, well, I would also say that for, well, male versus female, it is actually skewed more towards female. I will not be surprised if we find that there’s some genetic tendency in terms of maybe some sort of autoimmune type thing that’s going on in the mitochondria for some people who are struggling with these conditions. It probably won’t be all. It will be some of them. And the mitochondrial dysfunction runs through the female line genetically. And also, there is def. There are definitely more women than men that get ME, and they think that it has to do with the estrogen, estrogen versus testosterone and some things, and how that impacts the immune system.
Gloria Grace Rand
Interesting. Yeah. I was wondering, because it seemed like I’ve heard more women complain about it then, you know, so, again, just anecdotal. So. So that’s why I was curious about it.
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
Right. And I. And I just have to say that is honestly one of the problems and why we have not gotten more research dollars and attention to this, because yet once again, women are just being hysterical. Right? You know, for decades, this has been a real issue, but women have just been hysterical. “Oh, honey.” And I literally still have patients to this day who come in and get told by their doctors, oh, honey, you’re fine. You’re. You’re older. You know, you are 37 now. You know, now, now, dear. Or you just had a child. Of course you’re tired. And, you know, it’s BS. Right. And I think the other group, I just have to point out, is there, a lot of us are told that it’s normal to become tired as we age. And I wholeheartedly disagree with that as well. I felt like I was 102 when I was 33 and I had chronic fatigue. I felt aged. And when I was, you know, 55 and was fully out of this and had, you know, was working out and was fit as ever. I felt like on top of the world. And I felt 30.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, I get it. Yeah. Because you, you know, there’s all sorts of people that we, that are into their nineties and are still, you know, actively working and things like this. So.
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
I met a 93 year old who runs up a mountain every day in central Oregon. You know, it is possible.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. All right. So we’ve kind of dealt with, you know, a lot of these causes, and people out there are probably going like, yeah, okay, I can maybe see myself in that, but what do I do? So what. What can people do if they. If they are starting to recognize that this might be me? What would you recommend?
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
You really need to find somebody who you can talk to who understands this condition. So. And I, unfortunately, you have to do your research. I wish I could say you can just go to your primary care doctor and let them know that you’re concerned about this. It is getting more attention. That has been the blessing of the second pandemic we had of long COVID. 30% of people who have COVID have had some sort of post COVID fatigue and brain symptoms following it, which is a huge part of the world. 30% of the world has had some kind of impact from this. Some of those people have been physicians, and it has really opened their eyes to the complexity and difficulty and challenges of this condition. And it has also put more research dollars in, and it is getting more attention. You’ve all seen it in headlines, so that has trickled down to many primary care offices. So many of them have much more of an understanding of it, which is really great. That said, not all still understand what you need to do in terms of working it up. So make sure that you are doing your research and you find somebody who has an understanding of what these conditions, what are the root causes of these conditions, and are willing to do the workup and kind of hang in there with you to do the, to do the job of uncovering what your root causes are. The challenge for the physician, and I will be honest, the challenge for you is going to be that it’s not the same for everyone. And so it, it is unique. There are known patterns. It’s not, you know, it’s not a total mystery, but you need to under, uncover what is your pattern? Why did you a fall into this pattern? Because that’s going to help you clue as to how to get out and what are your root causes and which treatments are going to work best for you. So find somebody who’s willing to have that conversation with you. There are a lot of us out there and so just do your due diligence.
Gloria Grace Rand
Is, and I know I mentioned in the introduction, and of course, people who may be watching this on YouTube will see that, you know, the two initials after your name are not MD but N, as in naturopathic. So is there any advantage or disadvantage to seek out someone like yourself if they are, you know, having these symptoms? Do you, are they more inclined to do some more research or what?
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
Obviously, I see everything through my professional bias. Right. I mean, we all do. So how am I going to answer that? Of course! What I would honestly say, because I work with a lot of MDs and DOs and integrative physicians, and I network with a lot of different practitioners who have come up through different, through conventional training. And, and I also used to teach at the naturopathic college. And you really can’t just go by the degree behind the name. It really is. Who is this person? I mean, same thing. I put my kids through Montessori school. Not every Montessori school is the same. I can read Maria Montessori’s books and say that philosophy aligns with me, but how is it expressed in the institution, in the individual teacher, and how does that come down the classroom? Same for you when you’re choosing your doctor. I would say what is valuable about what our training is that we are looking at the physical, the mental, emotional, and the energetic body. So it’s more multidimensional. We tend to spend a lot more time with our patients. We’re not in the seven-to-twelve-minute patient visit model. Most of us spend a good 45 minutes to an hour with our, with our patients or our clients to get a good history. And we also always understand the interconnectedness of things. The conventional medical model is trying to break out of this understanding that, oh, if you have a headache, it’s just your head, you know, I mean, it can also be your gut, it could be your nervous system. It could be so many different things. And if there’s ever a place where you need somebody who understands the interconnectedness of things and how, and is willing to take the time to actually see you and work with you, it’s when you’re working with this kind of a complex condition, like long COVID or myalgic encephalitis.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, well, I appreciate that. And I want everyone to, who’s listening to this and is, or watching it to, I think, to come away with it that there is some hope. I know it kind of sounds sometimes a little overwhelming and just know that one of the great things about the times that we live in is that there are people who are researching it. There are breakthroughs that happen every day. Sometimes it might not be fast enough for you, and, you know, and I get that, but just, just keep at it. I’m going to just shift gears slightly, but, but it may not, depending on your answer, but I’d like to ask, if at all possible, and we have time, I love to ask my guests this question. What are you curious about?
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
Such a good question. I could answer that in so many ways. It depends on which level we’re going for here and in terms of which day. So, I’m going to answer it on a couple different levels, if you’re okay with that, because that’s just who I am. That’s kind of how I function as on multilevels. So I’m really curious on a big planetary level of how we can, how we can be even better. I feel like we’re in a time of immense change. There’s a lot happening. There are a lot of things that are potentially scary. When we look at the environmental crisis, when we look at some of the division that’s happened culturally and socially, we can look at some of the violence that’s happening in the planet, and it’s a. It can feel scary. And I know the impact of that fear that that has on our nervous systems and on our health. And I see it in my own body, I see it in my family. I see it in my patients and my clients. And I also am ultimately extremely hopeful person. And I believe that we have the ability to evolve and change and probably way more than we think we do. I think we limit ourselves in terms of what’s actually possible for us individually and also as a people, as a species. And so one of the things that I’m super curious about is you know, how, and how are we going to make this quantum leap into being in a way that, where we can be really different as a people and really be that a fuller, a fuller, more consistent expression of what I would call our highest selves. You know, that time when we feel integrated, when we feel that we are just in a place of peace and love within ourselves and ease, and how can we be more of that with ourselves day in and day out and when we interact with others? And how can we as a community be more in that space? And then what I’m super curious about is, like, then what happens? You know, what happens if we’re all doing that on a base, like what, you know, like what things are going to start popping that are different? And do I get to see that change in my lifetime? I mean, that’s, you know, that’s kind of my ultimate vision on that, you know, on that level.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah.
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
And honestly, when I’m working with people, I’ve always talked about my real mission for working with this condition. I feel like I am always trying to solve for x to figure out why do people struggle with these chronic conditions? What’s happening this? My chronic fatigue got reactivated with COVID too, and it’s been really interesting to see that, how that feels and what’s happening. And I feel like I’m intellectually always solving for x. I have 15 research papers down there, you know, that I am reading. I read about another 50 last month. I mean, I’m always solving for x, but part of my reason for wanting to solve for x, it’s, you know, it’s an intellectual thing, but really what I see is that people who struggle with exhaustion, it’s unnecessary suffering. I know that you can’t be the most present to yourself. You can’t be the best parent. You can’t be the best gardener. You can’t be the best entrepreneur. You can’t discover that new thing. You, you. We all need to be our best so that we can see if we can activate this potential for us all to shift as a, you know, as a people. And that’s really my, when I talk about my big mission, like, that is what I see as my big mission. This is the little part I can do. I can help you learn how to run you better so you can start feeling better, because who knows, you know, what it is that you need to be doing in the world and what impact that is going to have in all of our lives.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, it is interesting to ponder all of that and I’m with you. I’m curious about it because I really do feel again that we are, we’re sort of on this precipice of really making some positive changes because I do, I, you know, I’m in a couple different groups and there’s just a lot of, yeah, you know, positive energy and it’s not all doom and gloom, folks. It’s really not.
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
It’s not, it’s not. And even when you talk about, like you said, you know, with this chronic myalgic encephalitis long COVID stuff, it can feel hard. There are, there’s, there are answers there that is also not all doom and gloom. It’s just a process. You just have to invest the time to go in and do the process to figure out what your root causes are and address them. And I mean, you know, you and I have been around the block a few times, right? I mean, that’s the beauty of being older, which I love. And we can both look back through time and go, you know, things have truly shifted for the positive in many aspects of our lives, you know?
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, I mean, absolutely. Just, just to be able to do this podcast because I’m able to connect with people who are either across the country from me, sometimes across the world for me. And it’s a beautiful thing. So.
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
It’s amazing. Yeah, it’s amazing. And I see the younger generation, I am always blown away with their incredible wisdom and emotional intelligence and insights that they have. You know, I talked to these 19-year-olds and I’m just like, wow, you are impressive.
Gloria Grace Rand
It’s true. Yeah. And we could go down a whole other avenue of things about what all that means. But yeah, I do have hope for the future. Absolutely with our younger generation. You kind of hinted a little bit. And I’ve also been exploring your website that I know you have some, some resources and things like that. So if people do want to learn more about this, maybe they want to. I think there’s some quiz or something I saw on there. So can you share a little bit about how people can contact you and what they’ll, what other information you offer?
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
Absolutely. Yeah. Best is to go to my website, drjennytufenkian.com on there, there are, there’s information, more of information about me and courses I offer. If you’re interested in seeing if we’re a good fit to work one on one or in one of my group sessions. You’re certainly welcome to apply and we can have a call and a chat. And there is a quiz if you’re curious. Gosh, do I have a root cause of fatigue? What’s going on? You can take my quiz in there. And I follow the same thinking pattern I go through when I’m sitting with somebody to give you an idea of what you might want to start looking at.
Gloria Grace Rand
All right. Well, I will be sure and have that in the show notes for everyone so you don’t have to, have to worry about it. But if for some reason you do want to know, it is not only it’s d R Jenny. J-e-n-n-y. And then Tufenkian. Tufenkian.com, right?
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
Correct.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yes. All right. Good. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. This has been really interesting and enlightening, and I, I do feel I’ve, I’ve learned a lot today, and I hope our audience has as well. So I thank you for taking the time to be with us.
Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
Thank you so much, Gloria, for having me.
Gloria Grace Rand
Thank you so much for listening and for watching. I am so grateful to all of you. I really do hope that you have learned something today. And I just, if you aren’t subscribed yet, I encourage you to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform or you can connect with us on YouTube at GloriaGraceRand. And until next time, I encourage you to go out and live fully, love deeply and engage authentically.
