Women often tell me that they never had energy problems when they were 20; that they could work all day and party all night and bounce right back into the swing of things. I can’t promise that after you read my new book The Fatigue Solution you will be as resilient you were at 20. We can’t totally ignore the fact that we’re aging. As we age, it takes more time, more effort, and more patience to keep energy levels high. But the simple steps laid out in this book will help you get the results you want.

Unfortunately, women frequently come to see me upset by all the doctors they’ve seen who don’t acknowledge that they have legitimate complaints, and who dismiss the fact that they have no energy. I want you to get a second, third, or even tenth opinion (or until you get a satisfactory answer). I believe that you know your body better than anyone else. You owe it to yourself to keep searching when you know there is something wrong with you. What you’re feeling is real. I want you to fight to reclaim your energy—to say that it’s not just that you’re aging or you’ve got children or you’ve been working too hard. Until the 1980s, many doctors discounted women’s complaints about menopause. In fact, nobody talked about it; most women just accepted the way they felt and listened to doctors who told them there was nothing to be done about it. Those doctors were wrong and today, women have many options to help them deal with the symptoms of menopause.

The same thing is happening with the women’s “energy crisis” that is occurring today. Women no longer accept “experts” saying, “Sorry, nothing’s wrong with you—you’re just getting older.”

I get the same comment from my patients over and over again: My God! Where do you get your energy from? Patients e-mail me over the weekend and then are shocked when I e-mail them right back. They say, “I didn’t think you’d answer until Monday. I can’t believe you’re still working!” I figure if I can do it, everyone else can do it, too. I do it with passion and I do it with enthusiasm. But I had to go through my own battle with fatigue and work my way out of it before I truly understood that I didn’t just have to accept what was happening to my emotional and physical being.

That’s what the Fatigue Solution is all about: taking charge of your life so that you can recharge your life. Will it take some effort? Of course it will; everything worthwhile takes some effort. Will it happen overnight? No it won’t. It’s taken a fair amount of time to wear your systems down, and you’ll need to give them time to build up again. If you really want to live a healthy, balanced life, especially as you get older, whether you’re dealing with money or your personal relationships or your work life, seldom are there quick fixes. It can take many months and sometimes years to find a mate, to figure out what your career is going to be, or to write a book. If you want a more energetic life, you’ve got to make a commitment to yourself. You have to be willing to care about yourself. If you’re not prepared to take that responsibility, to say, “This is my life and I have to be good to my body every day,” then you are missing the true enjoyment that life can give you. When you do take that responsibility, you allow your body to work the way it is supposed to work, to function at its highest capacity, and to add vital, energetic years to your life.