You’re sleeping, but you’re still exhausted. By mid-afternoon, your energy has dissipated. You struggle to concentrate, your workouts feel harder than they used to, and the weight that crept on over the past few years refuses to shift.
You’ve tried cutting carbs, intermittent fasting, supplements and perhaps even the latest wellness trend doing the rounds on TikTok. Still, you don’t feel like yourself.
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According to Dr Siddharth Govender, medical director at NADClinic South Africa, the mistake many people make is trying to fix the symptom before understanding what could be causing it.
“We’ve become very good at looking for solutions, but not always at asking the right questions first. Brain fog, fatigue, poor recovery and stubborn weight gain aren’t diagnoses; they’re signals. So, instead of asking, ‘What supplement should I take?’ we should first be asking, ‘What is my body trying to tell me?’”
Caution against persistent symptoms
Feeling tired has become so common that many people simply accept it as part of adulthood. Busy schedules, demanding jobs, poor sleep, stress and increasingly sedentary lifestyles can all leave people feeling depleted.
But Govender says persistent symptoms shouldn’t automatically be dismissed as the price of modern living.
“It’s easy to dismiss low energy, poor sleep or difficulty concentrating as simply part of getting older or having a demanding lifestyle,” he says.
The problem is that fatigue, for example, can have numerous possible causes.
“The same symptom can have many different underlying causes. For example, two people may both complain of fatigue, but one could be experiencing metabolic dysfunction, another nutritional deficiencies, while someone else may simply not be recovering effectively from chronic stress,” he explains.
“The symptom may be the same, but the solution could be completely different.”
More choices don’t mean better choices
That is why, he argues, personalised healthcare is becoming an increasingly important part of the conversation. The wellness industry has never been bigger. There are supplements for almost everything, wearable devices promising to track your health, specialised diets, cold plunges, fasting protocols and a growing market of treatments promising to optimise everything from energy to ageing.
But more choices don’t necessarily mean better choices.
“There’s no single supplement, diet or exercise programme that’s right for everyone because there isn’t a single version of human health,” says Govender.
“Personalised medicine replaces assumptions with evidence. So, before deciding what your body needs, you first need to understand how it’s functioning.”
Also Read: Doctor busts biggest longevity myths taking over social media
It is a message worth remembering in an era where social media can turn almost any health intervention into a viral trend. A supplement that appears to have transformed one person’s energy levels, weight or sleep may not address the underlying issue for someone else.
One of the more complicated questions is what happens when someone feels unwell but their routine medical tests don’t immediately reveal a problem. Govender says this is where the distinction between conventional healthcare and longevity medicine comes into the conversation.
“Traditional healthcare focuses on identifying illness, while longevity medicine focuses on understanding health,” he explains. “We want to know how well your body is functioning today and where there may be opportunities to improve long-term health before problems become more serious.”
However, this does not mean abandoning conventional medicine. Longevity medicine, he says, should complement rather than replace standard medical care. And importantly, having additional tests does not automatically mean having better healthcare.
If you’re exhausted, gaining unexplained weight or noticing a decline in your physical performance, it can be tempting to order every available test in search of an answer. But Govender says that isn’t necessarily the right approach.
“The goal isn’t to order as many tests as possible. The most valuable diagnostic is the one that answers the clinical question you’re trying to solve.”
NADClinic offers a range of assessments, including biological-age and body-composition analysis, genetic and metabolic testing, cardiovascular screening, microbiome assessments and NAD+ testing.
But consumers should be careful about assuming that an advanced test automatically provides an explanation for their symptoms or that a particular treatment will necessarily fix the problem.
Even within the rapidly growing longevity industry, there is still debate around what some interventions can actually achieve. Govender himself has previously cautioned against confusing promising research with proven clinical outcomes, particularly when it comes to NAD+ therapies and anti-ageing claims.
Also Read: Women over 35 battling weight gain and fatigue may be facing more than ageing, says doctor
Your body doesn’t always need another supplement or diet
The bigger message is perhaps much simpler. Your body doesn’t always need another supplement, restrictive diet or expensive wellness treatment. Sometimes it needs you to stop and pay attention.
Persistent fatigue, significant changes in weight, problems with concentration, poor sleep or a noticeable decline in your physical performance are worth discussing with a qualified healthcare professional rather than simply accepting them as normal.
And before jumping onto the next viral health trend, ask yourself a different question.
“The future of healthcare isn’t about chasing every new wellness trend. It’s about understanding your own biology well enough to make informed decisions because when you understand what your body is trying to tell you, you’re in a far better position to respond.”
- You’re sleeping, but you’re still exhausted.
- By mid-afternoon, your energy has dissipated.
- You struggle to concentrate, your workouts feel harder than they used to, and the weight that crept on over the past few years refuses to shift.
- You’ve tried cutting carbs, intermittent fasting, supplements and perhaps even the latest wellness trend doing the rounds on TikTok.
- Still, you don’t feel like yourself.
