Auckland · Glenfield & Orewa
Brain fog, post-viral fatigue and exhaustion that tests keep calling normal
You have been told your bloods are fine. They may well be, within the ranges a standard panel uses — but a standard panel is not the whole picture, and "normal" is not an explanation for being this tired. Our chronic fatigue Auckland team starts by investigating properly.
A different kind of investigation
Most people arrive here having already been through their GP. Full blood count, thyroid stimulating hormone, iron, maybe B12, all reported as normal, and no explanation for why getting through a working day feels like wading.
That is not your GP doing a bad job. A standard panel is designed to catch serious disease efficiently, and it does. It is simply a narrower net than fatigue needs. What it does not routinely look at is the full thyroid picture, cortisol across a whole day, cellular nutrient status, gut function or the markers of a viral illness you have not fully recovered from.
Our functional medicine practitioner is trained through the Institute for Functional Medicine, and works through fatigue as an investigation rather than a diagnosis of exclusion. It is a slower, more detailed and more expensive process than a GP appointment, and we would rather you knew that before you booked than afterwards.
What we investigate
Fatigue is a symptom, not a diagnosis. These are the patterns we most often find behind it.
Energy that never returned after an infection, often with brain fog and poor exercise tolerance. One of the most common presentations we now see.
Fatigue that gets dramatically worse a day or two after exertion. If this is your pattern, pacing matters more than pushing, and any exercise advice has to respect that.
A single TSH reading is a narrow view. Free T3, free T4, reverse T3 and antibodies give a fuller one, and can explain fatigue that a normal TSH did not.
Ferritin can sit inside the reference range and still be too low for you to feel well. Same for B12, vitamin D and magnesium.
Long-running stress changes the shape of your cortisol curve across the day. Measuring it at four points shows the pattern that a single morning blood test cannot.
Poor absorption and gut inflammation undermine energy from underneath. Often found alongside bloating or irregular bowels. More on gut health.
Being straight with you
Sometimes we find a clear, addressable driver. In others we find contributing factors rather than one answer, and improvement is partial and slow. In a few we find nothing that explains it, and we will tell you that rather than keep testing.
Functional testing is not ACC-funded and is not covered by health insurance. Some of it is not part of standard medical practice in New Zealand, and interpretation of it is not universally accepted. You should know all of that before you spend money on it. We set out the cost of every test before it is ordered, and we will always start with the cheapest tests most likely to be informative.
The testing
Chosen to fit your history rather than ordered as a set. Not everyone needs all of these, and most people need three or four.
TSH, free T3, free T4, reverse T3 and thyroid antibodies, rather than TSH alone. Picks up patterns that a single number does not show.
Cortisol measured across the day instead of once in the morning, showing the shape of your stress response rather than a single point on it.
Iron studies, B12 and folate, vitamin D, magnesium, zinc and CoQ10 — the raw materials your cells need to make energy.
Gut bacteria, pathogens, parasites, inflammatory markers and absorption. Worth doing when there are gut symptoms alongside the fatigue.
A urine test giving a picture of cellular energy metabolism, B vitamin status and detoxification capacity.
High-sensitivity CRP, homocysteine, ferritin and, where the history points that way, markers of a reactivated viral infection.
Who is involved
The investigation leads, and hands-on treatment supports it. Both matter.
A 60 to 90 minute first consultation covering your whole history and timeline, then targeted testing and a written protocol built around what comes back. Telehealth available NZ-wide.
Correcting the deficiencies testing finds, and building meals that hold blood sugar steady through the day rather than sending it up and down.
Offered alongside the investigation, for pain and relaxation. Treatment intensity is kept well inside what you can tolerate.
For the neck, upper back and ribcage tension that long-term fatigue accumulates, and for the breathing pattern that goes with it. Gentle, short sessions.
How it runs
Three stages, over roughly two to three months for the first cycle.
60 to 90 minutes on your full history — when it started, what happened around then, previous illnesses, medications, diet, sleep, stress and family history. The timeline usually points at the tests.
We choose the tests your history justifies, quote the cost of each, and you decide what to run. Results are read in the context of your symptoms, not just against a reference range.
Specific changes, targeted supplementation where testing supports it, and a review date. We retest where retesting will tell us something, not as a matter of course.
Six to twelve weeks in we look at what has moved. If nothing has, we change direction rather than repeat ourselves.
Between appointments
If exertion reliably makes you worse a day or two later, pushing through is the wrong strategy and will set you back. Pacing means working within your envelope on good days as well as bad ones — the temptation to do everything on a good day is exactly what causes the crash.
Steady energy also depends on what you eat. Our guide to building a better smoothie shows how to make one that works as a proper meal.
Anchor the basics: the same wake time every day, daylight early, meals that do not leave you crashing mid-afternoon, and rest that is genuinely rest rather than a phone. None of it is exciting and all of it compounds.
Keep a simple record of what you did and how you felt the next day. Patterns that are impossible to remember become obvious once they are written down, and it makes our appointments far more useful.
Common questions
Anything else? Call 09 444 3231.
Visiting us
| Monday – Thursday | 7:00am – 7:00pm |
|---|---|
| Friday | 7:00am – 6:00pm |
| Saturday | 10:00am – 5:00pm |
| Sunday | Closed |
| Monday – Friday | 8:00am – 7:00pm |
|---|---|
| Saturday | 10:00am – 5:00pm |
| Sunday | Closed |
Related conditions
Book a functional medicine consultation at Glenfield or by telehealth, or call 09 444 3231 to ask what it involves first.
