You produce energy for your body to function within tiny organelles that reside inside every cell of your body. Here you turn glucose (derived from carbohydrate, fat and protein) into a molecule called ATP.

The ATP molecule provides the energy to make everything run. Without ATP, you die. With too little, you feel like you’d rather die. You’ll never be well, no matter what you do, until you balance the ability of your cells to produce ATP from glucose.

Carbon dioxide is made during the citric-acid cycle. This is important because carbon dioxide is essential as a buffer that keeps your body pH stabilized so that enzymes function properly. Without enough carbon dioxide, the enzymes in your body work less efficiently. And, since this happens at the cellular level, every cell of your body is affected.

If the citric-acid cycle is limited, your body will switch to a different kind of energy production called anaerobic glycolysis. When your body uses this method of making ATP from glucose, you produce lactic acid as a waste product.

Lactic acid causes muscle and joint pain and tightening and soreness in the muscles, and it irritates the nervous system. Anxiety, nervousness, agitation and inability to sleep are the results.

Normally your body produces 38 ATP molecules from every molecule of glucose it burns. But when your body uses anaerobic glycolysis for energy, only eight ATP molecules are produced. Fatigue is the result.

The increased need for sugar to produce enough energy to meet your needs results in hypoglycemia, food cravings (especially for sweet or starchy foods), binging, and stress to the liver, pancreas and adrenal glands. This is the initial process, in most cases, behind insulin resistance and adult-onset diabetes.

So, when you add all of this up, the outcome is a combination of fatigue, irritability, joint and muscle aches and pain, headaches, lack of endurance, inability to concentrate, anxiety, muscle tightness and soreness, inability to sleep, craving starches and sweets, binging, nervousness and agitation.

Stress to the liver usually will show up as menstrual problems in women and impotence in men. The stress to the pancreas can result in digestive problems. Adrenal stress can result in immune dysfunction, allergies, asthma and electrolyte imbalances that affect muscles (including the heart) and nerves. Adrenal stress, when developed sufficiently, even affects your body’s ability to repair and regenerate itself (abnormal anabolic-catabolic balance).

You can find out if you have problems with making cell energy by looking at your own lab work. Glucose levels above 95 (ideal levels for glucose are 80 to 95) are associated with B-vitamin-complex deficiency, insulin resistance and diabetes. When you look at your blood work, make sure to check the carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. If the level is less than 26 (ideal levels for CO2 are between 26 to 31), you can be sure that your body is not able to make energy from blood sugar because the only significant source of carbon dioxide in your body comes from turning glucose into ATP.

B-vitamin-complex deficiency is the most common reason for a low carbon dioxide. You must use a natural source of B vitamins. The high-potency B complex formulas won’t work. Read the label on a supplement. It will identify phosphorylation because it is a more expensive process. When you take the natural form, you’ll only be taking five to 20 mg of each B vitamin. Don’t worry, this is actually more potent than 50 to 100 mg of the crystalline pure forms.

I recommend Kal Brewer’s Yeast (two tablespoons once or twice a day in some diluted juice; shake or use a blender to mix it) or Bio-3BG. When using the Bio-3BG, take six tablets three times a day until the first bottle is empty; six tablets twice a day for the second; three tablets twice a day for the next bottle; and then three tablets a day, thereafter. Make sure to chew the tablets for complete absorption and utilization.

If you don’t see a dramatic increase in your energy and well-being after using the natural sources of B vitamins, other nutrients may be needed to restore the production of cell energy. These are manganese, lipoic acid, phosphorus and coenzyme Q10. There are very specific criteria as to how you use these nutrients to get the job done. That discussion is outside the scope of this forum.