Post-Exertional Malaise, ME/CFS, and Long Hauler Fatigue: What's Happening in Your Body and How to Heal

Post-Exertional Malaise, ME/CFS, and Long Hauler Fatigue: What's Happening in Your Body and How to Heal

From Functional Wellness with Dr. Alison by Dr. Alison DiBarto Goggin

February 23, 2026 · 30 min

About this episode

Dr. Alison DiBarto Goggin discusses post-exertional malaise, ME/CFS, and long hauler fatigue, exploring their impact on the body and potential healing strategies.

If you've ever come home from what should have been a normal day and spent the next week in bed, this episode is for you. Today we're talking about post-exertional malaise, ME/CFS, long hauler fatigue, and chronic muscle pain from the perspective of someone who both treats these conditions and lives with them. Dr. Alison DiBarto Goggin walks through the full spectrum of fatigue, from normal soreness after overdoing it at the gym to the kind of debilitating exhaustion where chewing food is an effort and getting to the bathroom leaves you breathless. In this episode you'll learn what myalgic encephalomyelitis actually means and why it matters, how post-exertional malaise differs from ordinary tiredness, why this is not a deconditioning problem and why pushing harder makes it worse, what NIH-funded research is telling us about the gut microbiome and ME/CFS, what testing can and cannot tell us right now, and what a real functional medicine approach to these conditions looks like, including diet, gut health, mitochondrial support, viral protocols, and pacing strategies. This episode is for women who are tired of being told they just need more exercise, more sleep, or more willpower…

People in this episode

Hosts: Alison, Alison DiBarto Goggin

Topics covered

  • post-exertional malaise
  • ME/CFS
  • long hauler fatigue
  • chronic muscle pain
  • fatigue
  • gut microbiome
  • functional medicine

Keywords

  • myalgic encephalomyelitis
  • debilitating exhaustion
  • diet
  • gut health
  • mitochondrial support
  • viral protocols
  • pacing strategies

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Fullscript, Little Black Bag Medicine

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