Have you gone to your doctor and gotten blood work done and everything comes back “normal?” So many of my clients tell me this! But there IS something going on in their bodies that is causing their sleep problems but blood work doesn’t usually find it.


In this episode, I'm going to explain why your blood work is normal but you still can't sleep and what lab tests will show what's really keeping you awake at night. 


Schedule a consultation to get started with the Complete Sleep Solution program so you can consistently sleep 7+ hours uninterrupted, naturally and permanently. https://p.bttr.to/3VJwvDs


00:00 Introduction: Why Normal Blood Work Doesn't Mean Good Sleep

00:49 Client Case Study: BJ's Sleep Struggles

01:59 Understanding Blood Work Limitations

05:23 The Role of Functional Lab Testing

07:03 Detailed Breakdown of Functional Lab Tests

10:29 Conclusion: Finding the Root Cause of Sleep Issues


Episode Transcript


[00:00:00] Have you gone to your doctor and gotten blood work done and everything comes back normal? So many of my clients tell me this, but there is something going on in your body that is causing your sleep problems, but blood work doesn't usually find it. In this episode, I'm going to explain why your blood work is normal, but you still can't sleep, and what lab tests will show what's really keeping you awake at night.


This is the Sleep Detective Podcast where you will learn why you can't sleep and how to fix it naturally. I am Martha Lewis. I've been a functional health and life coach for the past six years, helping over 300 clients find and fix the imbalances in their bodies so they can consistently sleep seven to nine hours without drugs, even if their blood work is normal.


So first I wanna tell you about one of my clients whose initials are bj. He was 44 years old when we were working together a few years ago, and he had had sleeping issues for about 10 [00:01:00] years. So he was alternating between Trazodone, Xanax, Advil, pm and tart cherry juice every night to sleep. He needed at least something to sleep.


So. He was a pretty young and healthy person. His blood work was always normal. His doctor told him he was fine, but the functional lab test I ran showed that he had extremely high cortisol at night. So no wonder he wasn't sleeping. He had two parasites, not enough of the good bacteria, and his gut was damaged.


He had depleted hormones like testosterone and DHEA, and he had some mineral imbalances in well. As well. And so all of these underlying imbalances were contributing to his poor sleep. And within just a few months, BJ was able to fall asleep easily and go back to sleep in the middle of the night without needing any kind of drugs or supplements to help.[00:02:00] 


So I first want to explain why blood work isn't showing what is causing your sleep issues. And the first reason has to do with the fact that the reference ranges on blood work are based on an average of the people taking the test. And unfortunately, we have a very sick population this day and age. So the reference ranges are saying, Hey, if you are 25%.


Above or below the average, then it's normal in its spine. Well, that is showing what is common in the population. What I look for are what are called functional or optimal ranges. So these are the ranges people are in when they are in good health without any symptoms. So the optimal ranges are usually a lot narrower than what the lab is saying is normal.


So we don't want what's common, right? We want what is [00:03:00] actually optimal. And so when I interpret blood work that way, I can see some imbalances that explain someone not being able to sleep normally. Now, the other issue is blood work, is that it's really meant to diagnose disease once things have progressed to an extreme level, right?


So when we. Analyze blood work using functional ranges or optimal ranges, then we can find imbalances that are starting to happen before you get to where you're being diagnosed with something serious. And then usually the problem are usually the solution to imbalances in blood work is to prescribe a drug.


So you have high cholesterol, take a statin, you have high TSH, the thyroid stimulating hormone. Take Levo, levothyroxine you. Your hormones are outta balance. Take birth control. The problem is these drugs [00:04:00] are all just a bandaid to cover up the imbalances. They aren't actually addressing why those markers are outta balance in the first place, and any drug is going to have side effects.


So. Blood work is valuable if you use the optimal ranges instead of the lab's reference ranges. So, you know, sometimes I can see, oh yes, someone does have some inflammation. They might have a chronic infection. Their liver not, might not be working optimally. But if your liver enzymes are out of range, for example, blood work isn't telling you why.


What's causing that burden on your liver? That's why I use functional lab testing to find out exactly what is actually causing those imbalances. If this is something you are interested in doing to finally get to the bottom of your sleep issues, my Complete Sleep Solution program will will help. It includes an educational analysis of [00:05:00] four functional lab tests and assessments, plus you get a customized plan.


To fix those imbalances and support for six months so that you're successful and you are able to consistently sleep well in six months or less. So to get started, you first want to schedule a free consultation with me so we can meet each other, talk about what's going on with your sleep and health, what you've tried so far.


Why those things haven't worked and how the program can help you finally find the root cause of what's going on so that you can sleep normally again. Now let's talk about functional lab testing and how this is different than blood work. So functional lab tests get their name because they show us how different systems in the body are.


Functioning or working. So they aren't pinpointing anything specifically. They're not diagnosing a disease specifically. Instead, they're showing the big picture of how different [00:06:00] systems in your body are working together as a whole. So they can show me what's causing sleep issues like. Different hormone imbalances can cause sleep issues.


Your gut can cause sleep issues, liver detox, um, neurotransmitter deficiencies, toxins, like heavy metals. All of those are what functional lab tests showed the blood work is not showing. So I love to compare it to a car. So when your check engine light comes on, that's telling you that something is wrong, right?


So if you take it to a shop or. Even before you take it to, to a shop, if you just open up the hood and look in there, that's like very surface level, right? Like, okay, there's all the hoses are attached, there's no cap off, anything like that, right? So that is like what blood work is. It's very surface level.


Functional lab tests are like when you take it to the shop and they plug it into the diagnostic [00:07:00] system so that they can see exactly what's going on and what is causing that trigger of the check engine light to come on. So that's how functional lab tests work is. It's like plugging it into the system so we can see what's causing sleep issues.


So I use four different functional lab tests that give me the most information for the least amount of money to find what's keeping you awake. So the first one is called the hormone zoomer. This is a urine test that shows, first of all what's going on with your cortisol. So you might have tested cortisol and blood work, and maybe it's normal or maybe it's high.


But that is just looking at that second in time. What we want to look at is your pattern throughout the day. So your blood work could say cortisol's normal at that morning when you took the test, but it could have been way higher in the middle of the night, which totally explains why you weren't sleeping.


So seeing your pattern is what's most important. It's going to look at your sex hormones, [00:08:00] how they're with each other, which is really important, and it shows how they're being broken down by the body. Which gives me different clues into how different parts of liver detox are working for you. Now the second test is a gut zoomer.


This is a stool test that is looking at overall gut health. It, first of all, tells us what's living in the gut, so it's looking for dozens of good bacteria. It's looking for dozens of pathogens, and so things like bacterial overgrowth, parasites, candida. All of those affect sleep because they are most active in the middle of the night releasing a lot of toxins.


Which causes a lot of inflammation, which makes your body release cortisol, which is going to wake you up. So. Sure. For people waking up at three or 4:00 AM it's usually because there's some sort of pathogen in the gut, so we really want to be looking a comprehensive look at anything that could be causing that.


The gut [00:09:00] zoomer also shows how well you're digesting food. How strong your immune system is in your gut, how much inflammation there is and more. And I will say none of my clients have a healthy gut. So even if they don't have digestive issues, there's, if you have any kind of symptoms including sleep issues, there's no way your gut is totally healthy.


Now the third test I do is a neurotransmitter test. It's looking at 30 key neurotransmitters, and so it's looking for things like five HTP, and serotonin, and dopamine and gaba. When those are low, it's really hard to feel calm and relaxed and able to sleep so we can start supporting those right away. Why we deal with, okay, why are those low in the first place?


And then it also looks for stimulating neurotransmitters like glutamate and histamine. When those are too high, that can affect sleep. So we can start helping your body lower [00:10:00] those while we also address, okay, why are those high for the long term? So that you don't have to take something to lower those forever.


And then the fourth test I do is called the total tox burden. It's looking for three types of toxins. It's looking for environmental toxins like pesticides and BPA. It's looking for 20 different heavy metals like mercury, aluminum, uranium, and more. And it's looking for 29 different mycotoxins, which are from mold.


So toxins cause a lot of inflammation in the body. Which then the body has to constantly make, so they definitely affect sleep. So I want you to know if you can't sleep, there are imbalances in your body. That are keeping you awake even if your blood test results come back normal. And so if you haven't done this kind of functional lab testing, then this is what [00:11:00] has been missing.


And I just want you to know that your body is meant to sleep normally, and so you don't have to live with this forever. There is another answer besides just blood work, sleeping pills and cognitive behavioral therapy. Those things don't work because they aren't getting to the root of why you're actually awake.


So if you want more information about how I can help you find the root causes of your sleep issues with these tests, and then give you a customized plan to get your body back in balance so you can sleep better naturally. You want to watch this next video where I give the three steps to fix your sleep, especially for adults over 40.

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