If you often lay awake in the middle of the night wondering why you can’t sleep, you won’t want to miss this episode!


You’ll learn all about the 4 functional lab tests that will find why you aren’t sleeping normally so we know what to correct. 


We’ll discuss:

  • How your hormones affect your sleep, and what lab test will uncover hormonal issues
  • Why gut issues can be the main culprit of your sleep issues, and what lab test will uncover gut issues 
  • The importance of your neurotransmitters with sleep, and what lab test will uncover neurotransmitter issues
  • The role minerals play in your sleep, and what lab tests will uncover mineral issues 
  • Why it’s so important to take all 4 lab tests to get good sleep again 


In the Insomnia Insight program, I use all 4 functional lab tests as well as assessments to look for everything that could be affecting your sleep so that nothing is overlooked.


Sign up for the Insomnia Insight program and I’ll find and fix the root cause of your insomnia so you can sleep well without meds.


Resources



Episode Transcript


Have you tried everything from natural to pharmaceutical just to get a good night's rest? Join me, Martha Lewis, certified sleep expert and functional health coach. As I unpack what's really keeping you up at night and how to change it, this is the Sleep Detective podcast and I'm going to show you how to sleep well so you can enjoy your life.


Hello and welcome. I am so glad to talk to you again. So thank you for being here and listening. Today I want to talk about the four lab tests that will find why you aren't sleeping normally. So if you were like I, I would lie awake in the middle of the night when I would be awake for hours and part of the time I would wonder why the heck I can't sleep. I would rack my brain and go through everything I did during the day.


Was it the chocolate I ate? Did I exercise too much? Was it because I didn't exercise at all and try and figure out what it was? And it was so maddening because I never knew why I wasn't sleeping. Now, once I learned about functional lab testing and I did these tests, I found out that I had all these imbalances in my body that were totally explaining why I was waking up at 3:00 AM every night for two hours. And so that's what I want to share with you today. Now, I've worked with hundreds of clients and I've changed my program over the years. And the lab tests use the four lab tests that give me the most information for the least amount of money about all the different possible things that could be causing your insomnia. And most of my clients who come to me, they've gone to their doctor, they've gotten blood work done, everything's normal, or there are a couple things that aren't ideal, but for the most part, there's nothing there that's explaining why they aren't sleeping.


And the reason is because blood work is meant to diagnose something when it's really out of whack. It's meant to screen for diseases and disorders, but your body can be getting out balance before anything that extreme happens before it even shows up on your blood work. And if you aren't able to sleep normally, then there's no way your body is in balance. Insomnia is just a sign that your body's out of balance, that it's not totally healthy. So these functional lab tests, they're not diagnosing. Instead, they're looking at how the different systems in your body are working. So it's kind of like when your check engine light comes on in your car and you take it to a mechanic and they plug it into that computer and it's going to show why the check engine light is coming on. It's the same thing. Your insomnia is like the check engine light.


And then these tests are going to show, okay, why is insomnia happening? I use these four tests and what's also great about them is none of them involve blood work. So you don't have to go to a lab and get blood drawn. You actually take all the samples in your home and send them back to the labs and prepaid envelopes. So it's really easy to do. So let's talk about the first test I do is called the DUTCH test. So that stands for dried Urine Tests for comprehensive Hormones. So this is going to show, first of all, your sex hormones like estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. This is relevant to both men and women because when these are out of balance, it can cause sleep issues. It's going to look at your cortisol pattern. So if you've done fasting blood work, you've probably, it might test for cortisol and that value is normal.


Well, what matters is what's actually happening with your pattern throughout the day. So your cortisol should be lowest first thing in the morning and in the middle of the night, and then spike to its highest level within two hours of waking up, and then gradually go down throughout the day. So your morning could be normal, but what if it was higher in the middle of the night or it's higher at bedtime? Then that explains why you aren't sleeping. So getting your pattern throughout the day is going to give us a lot more information. Now, this test can also be a lot more accurate than blood work, especially for hormones because you take five samples in 24 hours. So we're getting an average of your hormones throughout the day instead of blood work is just a second in time. And our hormone levels do fluctuate, so it can be harder to get an exact measurement.


And this test really enables us to compare and look at the balance of the hormones together because that also really matters. Estrogen could be in range and progesterone could be in range, but if estrogen is way higher than progesterone, that's what's called estrogen dominance, which can lead to sleep issues. This test also gives me clues in liver function because it shows how those hormones are being broken down, especially by your liver. It measures melatonin, it measures B vitamins. So I get a lot of different valuable information about multiple systems in your body just from this one test alone. Now, the second test I do is called the GI map. So this shows me, first of all, what's living in your gut? So I've talked about if you're waking up at 3:00 AM a common cause is from a pathogen in the gut. So it's looking at about 75 different things that are living in your gut, the good and the bad.


And that way we can see, okay, are there pathogens that are waking you up in the middle of the night? Do you have enough good bacteria to make the neurotransmitters that are needed to feel calm and relaxed and able to sleep? Up to 90% of our serotonin, GABA dopamine melatonin is actually made in the gut by the good bacteria. So if those are depleted, then that can explain why neurotransmitters are low and why you're feeling anxious and depressed and having a hard time sleeping. Now, this test also shows how well you're digesting food, how strong your immune system is. It gives a marker for gluten sensitivity for how much inflammation is in the gut. So it really gives this overall snapshot of your gut health because there's more to it than just killing a parasite if that's there, it's creating an environment in the gut that is healthy.


So when you come in contact with a pathogen again, which is going to happen, then your body's able to fight it off and that pathogen can't take hold and cause a lot of damage. And I'll tell you, none of my clients have a healthy gut. So even if they don't have digestive issues, for me, I had a parasite. I didn't have any digestive issues, but it was damaging my gut over time and causing a lot of stress in my body and causing my body to release cortisol at 3:00 AM which is why I was awake. So gut health is a crucial piece of the puzzle for everyone with sleep issues. So you'll finally be able to sleep through the night by addressing your gut, and it's way easier than you think. You don't have to go on the strict sugar-free diet or take damaging antibiotics or anything like that.


And because of the technology of the test, I use the GI map. It finds pathogens such as h pylori that can actually be missed by a biopsy or breath test, and it tests for parasites that your general practitioner stool test doesn't even look for. And again, I use the test to help you restore gut health and create a gut environment where pathogens can't thrive. So we don't want to try and blast it with a strong damaging antibiotic that's going to leave your gut less healthy than you started with. We really want to restore overall gut health. Now the third test to use is called a neuro focus panel. So this is a urine test. It's looking at seven key neurotransmitters, and I've started testing directly for these because it has been a game changer. It was a game changer for my sleep. So the original test that I did on myself showed I had a parasite, I had hormone imbalance, I had heavy metals.


And so when I started correcting those things, I started sleeping so much better, but my sleep wasn't always consistent. And so it wasn't until a mentor suggested looking at neurotransmitters that I did that test. And I found out, sure enough, I'm deficient in serotonin and gaba. I started supplementing for those and now I sleep great all the time. So that was the final missing piece to my sleep. And what I found is that people can start sleeping better a lot faster when we support these neurotransmitters right away, which we can do. And of course, we want to deal like say, the reason why you don't have enough neurotransmitters is because of gut health and the beneficial bacteria. We're going to address that for the long term. But in the short term, a lot of our clients start sleeping better and feeling a lot better as far as mood goes right away from supporting neurotransmitters.


Now, the fourth test I do is the hair tissue mineral analysis. So this shows mineral balance, which is really crucial for good sleep. And this is often overlooked, and it's actually one of my clients in the Insomnia Insight Program. I'll use her initials kc. I just got her test results back. Her main issue was found on the hair tissue mineral analysis. Her gut was actually pretty healthy. Her neurotransmitters were actually pretty good. She does have some hormone imbalance and deficiencies, but the minerals were super depleted and some were really high. And so that imbalance can directly lead to sleep issues. She also has what is called copper toxicity. So copper is a necessary mineral, but when there's too much of it, it becomes toxic. And this was also something that I had as well, that was one of the pieces of my puzzle. And so if we hadn't looked at this, she wouldn't have gotten any better If we had just looked at gut health or hormones or neurotransmitters, she wouldn't have gotten any better because we would've missed this crucial piece.


So looking at minerals and also heavy metals, so things like mercury and arsenic and lead and aluminum. We see these in at least half of our clients. So that can also be one of the pieces of the puzzle as well. And again, these are often overlooked. So this is a critical piece that we're looking at. So these four tests look for all the possible causes of your poor sleep. Now, I also do assessments. So I'm of course asking about your health history, your symptoms, your habits, your mindset. But there are other imbalances that affect sleep that I screen for, such as like blood sugar issues, mold toxicity, brain inflammation. I look at how your genes might be acting up, and more so that I'm looking at everything that's affecting your sleep so that nothing is missed. So if you've worked with other doctors and practitioners and having gotten better, it doesn't mean you're broken or that you're destined to live with insomnia.


It just means that something has been missed. So if you haven't done all four of these tests together in a program that focuses on sleep, that's why you haven't gotten better. But the good news is I can help you with that. So my Insomnia Insight program is a six month group program that will find and fix the root causes of your sleep issues without drugs. So I use these tests, I use the assessments. You get a customized plan looking at diet lifestyle supplements. It's a very holistic plan, again, because I'm looking for everything that's affecting your sleep and giving you that simple step-by-step plan to follow. And then you also get support for six months as you implement that plan. So there's daily chat support where you can ask your questions. There's weekly coaching calls where we can talk through things if necessary, no matter what.


You're guaranteed to get the support that you need to be successful to follow your plan. Sometimes things are tricky to follow. Sometimes people have a hard time changing their diet or changing their habits or their routines. And so I will walk you through that and we'll figure out how to gradually make it happen if that's what needs to happen, so that you can get your body back in balance and get the sleep you need. So I'll put the link to the program in the show notes. And yes, I just want you to know that if you can't sleep and you've tried all the things and you've gone to your doctor and everything is always normal, there's more going on and you can get better and you don't have to live with insomnia anymore. All right, everyone. Thanks for listening.

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