The Hidden Reason You Feel Exhausted & How to Feel Better Now

KEYPOINTS

• 01

  Many everyday complaints may be forms of 'gravity intolerance'

  Dr. Brennan Spiegel, a gastroenterologist and director of health services research at Cedars-Sinai, argues that gravity was here long before life and that every body is constantly managing its compressing force. When that management breaks down, he links it to fatigue, IBS, back pain, swollen ankles, anxiety and faster ageing. This is his framework from his book Pull, not settled medical consensus, and he repeatedly says to see a doctor for symptoms.

• 02

  The idea began with his mother-in-law lying in bed all day

  In assisted living with cognitive decline, she was lying flat most of the day. Around the same time she developed slow digestion, stomach pain and depression, with no change in diet or medication. Spiegel's read was that she was 'giving in to gravity' and needed to get up and walk. He then wrote a paper called 'Gravity in the Gut', which he expected to be career suicide; colleagues told him it made sense.

• 03

  Your gut hangs like a sack of potatoes on suspension 'strings'

  When you stand upright the gut hangs and opens up; slumping in a chair or over a phone pushes the shoulders and chest forward, drops the diaphragm and compresses the abdomen. Sitting all day, he says, is not a natural position. Mel admits catching herself slouching several times during the conversation.

• 04

  Stretchy joints may mean stretchy internal supports, and more gut trouble

  His self-check: pull your pinky back, or bend your thumb to touch your forearm, or touch the floor easily without bending your knees. If you're 'stretchy on the outside, you're probably stretchy on the inside', so the gut's suspension sags and you may get bacterial overgrowth, gas and IBS-type symptoms. He frames it like a marionette whose strings are too elastic, and says it's a reason to talk to a doctor, not a diagnosis.

• 05

  About 95% of the body's serotonin is made in the gut

  Spiegel calls serotonin a 'gravity management substance', not just a mood chemical. Gut microbes turn tryptophan from food into serotonin, which he says helps muscles, blood vessels and the lymphatic system pump fluid back up from the ankles. Babies, he notes, have little serotonin because their gut isn't colonised yet. The evolutionary story (the microbiome helping life leave the ocean) is his hypothesis.

• 06

  Gut feelings and some anxiety may be a built-in fear of falling

  He describes the gut as having a kind of accelerometer. A roller-coaster drop feels thrilling because you're 'practising your death', while many people with IBS hate roller coasters and grip the bar because they already feel like they're falling. He suggests anxiety may partly be a 'neurovisceral fear of falling', a brain signal that is sometimes misfiring.

• 07

  Balance and grip are simple windows into whole-body health

  Standing on one leg tests your inner ear, strength, tendons and sense of where you are in space. Grip strength, he says, has been validated in research as a marker of overall strength and even cardiovascular fitness. If you struggle, don't panic: work on yoga, strength and balance, or see a physical therapist.

• 08

  Exercise means constantly changing your relationship with gravity

  He says randomised trials show exercise (strength training, swimming, running) is the most effective therapy we have for these problems, while stressing it isn't a cure-all. As we age gravity doesn't change but we get weaker, more bent and carry more weight, including emotional weight, so strength, balance, diet and hydration matter more every decade.

• 09

  Sleep is when gravity stops working against your brain

  Lying down lets about five litres of blood shift toward the brain, which he says helps flush out amyloid. He lists dehydration, high sodium, short sleep and lack of exercise as all associated with cognitive decline, and floats the idea that Alzheimer's may partly be a consequence of them, a speculation rather than proven cause.

• 10

  It's not your fault, and you were built for this planet

  For people who've blamed themselves for feeling off, his message is empowerment rather than blame. Babies learning to walk fall about 17 times an hour and keep getting up. You only compare yourself to yourself, so start where you are and build.