Exhaustion that outlasts a hard week
You may sleep and still wake unrefreshed, cancel plans by noon, or feel flu-like after a walk that used to be easy. Brain fog often rides along. That experience is real. It is also not, by itself, a diagnosis this office will rename on the first visit.
Drs. Sani Kohen, D.C. and Tara Kohen, D.C. ask how long it has lasted, what makes it worse, and what physicians have already ruled out. Functional Medicine here does not claim to treat myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome as a specialty protocol.
Thyroid, iron, and metabolic markers come first
A slow thyroid, low iron, and unstable glucose can each produce a tiredness that feels total. Those are common, testable questions, and they belong early. Advanced bloodwork can include iron studies and metabolic markers your physician may already be watching.
The thyroid dysfunction page explains why TSH alone can miss the question. A fuller panel is considered when temperature, bowels, and hair changed along with energy. Medication, if you take it, stays with the prescriber. FRI does not raise a dose from fatigue alone.
Sleep and gut are next, not a grab bag
Sleep and insomnia covers pain, caffeine, and a cortisol curve when nights are the obvious hole in the story. If you snore, gasp, or wake with headaches, a physician should evaluate sleep apnea. This office is not a sleep laboratory.
Gut symptoms earn a stool or breath test only when you have them. An organic acids test is sometimes used as a urine look at metabolic clues. It is not ordered because you are tired. It is ordered when the history makes that specific question worth the sample.
Mold or metals only if the history fits
A water-damaged building, a job with solvent or metal exposure, or a diet very high in certain fish can justify those workups. They are not the default explanation for fatigue. FRI will not tell you that all exhaustion is mold, and it will not open with a chelation plan.
Functional medicine at FRI does not replace a primary physician, endocrinologist, gastroenterologist, or mental health clinician. If mood, grief, or a medication is part of the exhaustion, keep those clinicians involved. Nutrition and supplementation follows the labs, without a brand protocol.
What to expect when you are seen for Chronic Fatigue
A complimentary 20-minute consultation is the place to see whether this workup fits. FRI is out of network. Superbills are available, and HSA or FSA funds are accepted. Hours are Monday–Thursday, 9–6.
Bring prior bloodwork, a medication list, and a short note on what a typical crashed day looks like. Testing starts with the most plausible drivers. You will not be enrolled in an ME/CFS protocol. Describe whether a short walk, a flight of stairs, or a full workday is what flattens you, because that scale changes which test is worth doing first.
A drive you should only make on purpose
From downtown and the campus, the 57 south to I-5 south is a typical path. From the east side, the 91 west to the 55 south can be cleaner. About 30 miles and 40 to 60 minutes to 26400 La Alameda, Suite 100, Mission Viejo, CA 92691. Hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 to 6. If you leave Fullerton at 4, you will sit. Book the earliest slot you can use.
Call (949) 312-1754 before you assume we are the right office. If your problem is urgent primary care, a closer physician is the better hour. If your problem is a stuck spine, a nerve, or a functional medicine question you have not gotten answered, the drive is something patients from Fullerton do make. The free 20-minute consultation can happen before a full workup.
Making fewer trips count
The home plan is the product. McKenzie self-treatment, DNS drills, and a written limit on what to do this week should travel back up the 57 with you. Hands-on care is for the parts you cannot do alone. Disc herniation and sciatica pages explain how we think about those specifically.
Thyroid and fatigue visits are scheduled so the history is not rushed, which matters more when you will not be back tomorrow. The Fullerton chiropractor page gathers the links.
Fees for a north-county patient
Out of network, superbill, HSA/FSA. The drive is unpaid. We try to earn it by not requiring you to repeat it on a blind weekly schedule. If you are improving, visits thin out. If you are not, we change the plan.
Drs. Sani and Tara Kohen are the clinicians. Use the about page and the office page before the first long drive if seeing the room helps.
Downtown Fullerton, Sunny Hills, and the university
Downtown Fullerton is walkable and social. Sunny Hills and the north streets climb. Cal State Fullerton adds a campus of walking, sitting, and backpacks. The 57 and the 91 decide how the day feels before anyone is injured. Neck pain after that freeway pattern is a common reason to look south. Knee pain in Sunny Hills is often the grade. Headaches get a neck exam and a screen for symptoms that should skip the clinic and go to emergency care.
Students and faculty sometimes want care that understands training, not only pain. Shoulder pain and a movement screen fit that request. We are not the campus health center, and we do not replace it for primary care.
Extra context on Chronic Fatigue
Write a week of energy in plain numbers you understand: the hour you got up, the hour you had to stop, and what you did just before a crash. Note fevers, sore throats, and how long recovery takes after a short walk. Bring ferritin and thyroid labs if you have them so the first visit does not repeat a draw from last month. List every medication, including blood pressure pills and antihistamines, because several common drugs feel like fatigue. If a building smells musty, mention it, and also mention if it does not. Absence of an exposure is useful information.
The aim is a short list of tests that could change a decision, not a binder. You should know which question each tube or kit is asking. If results are ordinary, that is still a result, and the next step is not an automatic toxin story. Keep your primary physician in the loop. Functional Medicine can sit beside that care. It does not replace it, and it will not tell you the exhaustion has one hidden cause waiting in a single narrow panel. Ordinary explanations stay on the list until they are ruled out.
Questions patients ask
Do you treat ME/CFS with a set protocol?
No. FRI does not claim a specialty protocol for myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome. Persistent exhaustion is taken seriously, and the visit looks for contributors such as thyroid pace, iron, glucose, sleep, and, when the history fits, gut or exposure questions. Your physicians remain in charge of any formal diagnosis and of medications.
Which labs come before a toxin test?
Thyroid testing and advanced bloodwork for iron and metabolic markers usually come before mold or metal testing. Those common drivers can look exactly like a mysterious fatigue. Exposure testing is added when a building, a job, or a diet makes it plausible. Ordering a scare panel first is not the approach.
What if I crash after exercise?
Say so. Post-exertional worsening changes how training is discussed, and it is a reason not to push a generic fitness plan. Neuromuscular Rehabilitation and Chiropractic Sports Medicine can still help pain, with load kept inside what you can repay. FRI will not promise that a supplement prevents a crash.
Can sleep apnea be sorted here?
No. If apnea is suspected, a physician should evaluate it. FRI is not a sleep-medicine lab. The office can look at pain that wakes you, caffeine, thyroid pace, and a cortisol curve on a DUTCH test when those questions fit. Those findings do not replace a sleep study your physician orders.
Related care for Fullerton
Chronic Fatigue is handled at the Mission Viejo clinic, not in a satellite office in Fullerton. The related pages below stay on that same visit and add the methods or neighboring problems that usually come up in the history.
- Fullerton chiropractor
How people from Fullerton reach 26400 La Alameda and what the three pillars cover.
- Chronic Fatigue clinical overview
The non-geographic condition page, if you want the clinic-wide explanation without the drive.
- Functional Medicine
The pillar this problem sits in at Functional Restoration Institute.
- Thyroid Dysfunction in this city
Thyroid trouble is not one feeling. A slow pace can leave you cold, heavy, and constipated. A fast pace can leave you.
- Sleep & Insomnia in this city
Sleep problems have a clock, a chemistry, and often a body part that hurts. Caffeine, a late bedtime, a cortisol curve, thyroid.
- Mold Toxicity in this city
Some people feel worse after months in a water-damaged building: fatigue, fog, sinus congestion, or a taste of must in the air..
- Brain Fog in this city
Losing a word, rereading the same sentence, or feeling mentally padded is an experience, not a disease name. Sleep, thyroid pace, glucose.
- Advanced Bloodwork
Advanced bloodwork goes past a bare metabolic panel when the question needs more context. Lipids in more detail, glucose with insulin, iron.
