“Nothing slows me down now!”
For Rachelle Berger, 59, every day was a battle against fatigue—until she discovered the surprising culprit and an over-the-counter remedy that quickly restored her vitality
Stay awake, you’re almost home. Just a few more miles,” Rachelle said to herself as she opened the windows and blasted the radio in an attempt to avoid nodding off behind the wheel. “My dad had been sick for a while and I was spending a lot of time driving an hour each way to and from the hospital to visit him. It was a stressful time in my life, and the fact that I was inexplicably tired day in, day out, made it even more difficult to handle. I’d always been able to juggle the many demands on my time, but now I just couldn’t keep up. When I finally got home, I collapsed on the couch. As I started to drift off, all I could think was, What has happened to me?
Sluggish and foggy
“That was more than two years ago, when fatigue became a way of life. As a birth doula, I was no stranger to working long, erratic hours—I’d been working nine-plus–hour days for years. And it wasn’t unusual for me to get a middle-of-the-night call and have to wake up from a deep sleep to drive to the hospital. I’d always had the mental and physical strength the job required, but increasingly, I was battling unrelenting fatigue and I had to work harder and harder to be the support system my clients hired me to be. This left me increasingly depleted—instead of bouncing back after a long shift or a late night like I always had, it was taking me days to recover.
“The fatigue started to really take a toll on my life. My husband and I had always loved to go hiking, play tennis, see a live band or go to the theater, but I just didn’t have it in me. When we went out, I was always dragging. It was hard to be my best as a wife.
“It also became nearly impossible to do things like go to the gym. I would force myself to push through a workout, but eventually I couldn’t muster up the energy at all, so I just threw in the towel.
“It didn’t make sense to me: I had always been an optimistic, upbeat person, but the fatigue changed me. My mood was always low, I was irritable and I felt like I was in a constant state of brain fog.
“To get to the bottom of my symptoms, I made an appointment with my doctor. He found that my blood pressure was high, so he prescribed medication and told me to monitor
my blood pressure. When I asked him about the fatigue, he couldn’t give me a reason why I was so tired—or a solution to restore my energy.
“I wasn’t willing to give up that easily, so I made an appointment with an acupuncturist in hopes of restoring balance to my body, but it didn’t do anything for the fatigue or the other symptoms.
An answer at last
“I started to worry that no one could help me—it so was frustrating! But then few months ago, a friend told me about a market research study for saliva nitric oxide test strips, which measure levels of nitric oxide in the body. I had never heard of nitric oxide, but I did some research and learned that it’s a molecule made in the lining of blood vessels and it’s crucial for heart health. When levels are low, it can affect energy and stamina, raise blood pressure and even alter mood. I signed up for the study, hoping it might help me with my fatigue and other symptoms. When I used the strips for the first time, it showed that my levels were depleted. A healthy level is 435; mine was 20. I was shocked! I couldn’t believe that this one factor could have such an impact on my health.
“I started to take a dietary supplement called Berkeley Life that’s made with beets, which I learned can boost nitric oxide levels and lower blood pressure. I also added beets to my salads at home, and when I would go out to eat, I would order beets. And I continued to use the test strips twice a day and monitor my blood pressure.
“Within a week, the fatigue and brain fog lifted, my mood improved and my blood pressure was finally normal. I was even able to stop taking my blood pressure medication. When I went back to my cardiologist, I showed him my readings and he was so shocked that he popped one of the supplements himself right there in front of me!
“Now that fatigue isn’t holding me back, I’m spending time with my husband and enjoying life again—hiking, horseback riding and even walking on glaciers! And instead of needing a nap or taking days to rebound after attending a birth, I’ve got energy to spare!”