Tiredness cure: “Now I feel like a million bucks!”
Audrey Looker, 62, battled nonstop exhaustion and brain fog—symptoms her doctors blamed on aging. Then she discovered the true culprit and made a few simple changes that turned her life around!
Time to get up,” Audrey Looker told herself, hearing her husband come home from work in the evening. “I’d been sleeping on the couch all day, too tired to move, but I knew I needed to get on my feet and eat some dinner. I hated how drained I’d become on my days off from work, but I kept telling myself, Rest is what I need to prepare for the week ahead…
Tired and foggy
“As the manager of a golf course and RV park, where I juggled 25 employees, life was busy. But lately, my energy was shot. I wasn’t sleeping well at night, so sometimes my staff would catch me around noon resting my head on my desk. And when I joined my daughter at yoga class, all I had the stamina to do was lie there on the mat and rest. My excuse was having too much on my to-do list.
“You hear people talk about being ‘bone tired.’ I felt like I was brain tired. During conversations, I’d struggle to find the right words. Or when I tried to problem-solve an issue at home, I’d hit a mental roadblock, unable to think things through from beginning to end. Standing at the counter at work one day, I actually forgot how to use the computer. I stared at the screen, confused, before asking the golfer, ‘How much do I usually charge you?’
“I started talking to doctors about my energy and concentration concerns. Two of them told me, ‘What do you expect?
You’re 60. This is just how it is.’ But I knew this wasn’t the real me—I was a high-energy person. Deep down, I worried, Is this what getting older has in store for me?
“During this time, my health started changing in other concerning ways too. Among other vague symptoms, my stomach was always upset, gassy and bloated.
“I prayed to feel better and reflected on my medical history. Two years earlier, a car had backed into me while I was walking in a parking lot with my husband on vacation. I went to the hospital, and I didn’t have a single broken bone. They told me I had a concussion, but they couldn’t do anything for me—I just needed to go home and rest. So I took it easy for a week. But life was busy, and since I felt fine, I quickly got back to my routine. At the time, I did some research and learned that depression was a lingering sign of head injury, but since I never felt down, I figured I’d
gotten past the accident. But now I wasn’t so sure. I wondered if that old concussion was causing my lingering health symptoms. All I knew was: If I’m ever going to be my old self again, I need to get to the bottom of this.
Healing at last!
“I finally found a naturopath who took my concerns seriously. She suspected I’d never healed from my concussion and told me about the work of psychiatrist Daniel Amen, M.D., a renowned brain specialist who treats concussions at his clinic, which was only an hour from my house.
“At the clinic, I visited one of Dr. Amen’s colleagues, who did special SPECT scans of my brain and saw that certain areas weren’t lighting up to stimuli like they should be. They were dim, like tiny fireflies—signs of a past injury. The doctor said, left untreated, the damage could lead to Alzheimer’s, which I feared. But he assured: ‘These weak spots in your brain can repair themselves with your help.’
“So at the doctor’s recommendation, I started taking turmeric for inflammation, liquid melatonin for sleep and tyrosine to boost focusenhancing dopamine. I also played computer games, like Words with Friends, to keep my mind sharp.
“Within three months, I felt more energized, and at nine months,
I saw just how much I’d healed when I could finish a pile of office work without needing a break. My powers of concentration and problem-solving were back! Even my digestive symptoms improved.
“The changes I felt were proven when I went back to the clinic and redid my scans. I saw how my brain was all lit up like it should be on the screen [see images below]. Congratulating me, my husband remarked, ‘I can’t believe how much you’ve improved in such a short amount of time.’ I was thrilled. My brain was a fireball of activity again, just like the old me. It was a miracle. My prayers were answered!
“I always hoped I’d get well, and now with the help of my faith and my doctors, I know my brain is working as it should be. I’m still making progress, but I know I’m blessed. My healing makes me feel like a million bucks!”