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Carol tried melatonin, valerian root, Tylenol PM, chamomile, and Nyquil — all at once — and still couldn't sleep. In this episode Martha walks through Carol's full case: what her functional testing revealed, the exact supplements and habit changes she recommended, and how Carol went from barely sleeping to seven solid hours a night.


In this episode:

  • The jumpstart supplements Martha recommended before test results even came back — and why Carol started sleeping better almost immediately
  • What Carol's hormone testing revealed about her nighttime cortisol pattern and estrogen imbalances
  • How mold toxicity showed up across her toxin panel and why Martha suspected it before testing began
  • What her gut zoomer showed about inflammation, immune response, and compromised digestion
  • The full supplement protocol Martha built after testing — cortisol support, neurotransmitter support, gut restoration, and mold and pathogen treatment
  • How Carol's sleep progressed month by month over six months in the program


00:00 Insomnia Breakthrough Story

00:31 Carol Hits Rock Bottom

01:38 Early Clues Mold Detox

03:17 Sleep Hygiene Jumpstart

05:06 Waiting On Lab Results

05:57 Cortisol Pattern Explained

07:42 Hormones And Methylation

08:32 Gut Inflammation Findings

10:24 Neurotransmitters And Stress

12:00 Toxin Test Mold Confirmed

13:42 Personalized Supplement Plan

15:06 Gut Repair And Antifungals

16:45 Month By Month Progress

18:34 Final Results And Next Steps


Episode Transcript


[00:00:00] Carol was barely sleeping. She was combining all these natural supplements and over the counter medication every single night and still lying there awake. And I promised her there was a reason her body couldn't sleep, and then we found it. So tonight I'm gonna show you exactly what we found, what we did, and how a woman who dreaded going to bed every night now wakes up grateful every single morning. And then I am here for your questions if you have any. So let's get started.


All right, so before Carol came to me she was dealing with chronic insomnia that had gotten progressively worse until she finally reached a breaking point. She was getting headaches, which was new for her. She was becoming increasingly cranky and irritable. She was feeling frustrated and discouraged, of course. And she was aware that her sleep issues were affecting the people around her, which added more stress.


She had tried so many things, she couldn't remember [00:01:00] what she'd already tried, so she was combining melatonin, valerian root, chamomille, Tylenol pm, and NyQuil, trying to get a few hours. And the moment she knew she needed help was when she added NyQuil to the combination. So she had waited until things got pretty bad before reaching out.


She knew about me before from a friend of hers who had worked with me, but you know, as we all are, we wanna see if we can figure it out and, and do things on her own before getting help. And of course there's a hesitation of spending money and hoping that things just get better on their own.


So what we did right away is that she, you know, looking at her intake forms and her symptoms that she was experiencing, she had a lot of signs of mold toxicity. So she checked off 10 of the 13 symptom clusters that I look for, and anything over six is likely that that is an [00:02:00] issue. So I started her right away on some supplements to help with that and not to help clear the mold, but to help support her body and provide minerals, provide energy support, provide detox support with the KL support, which stands for Kidney Liver Support. The um, biotoxin binder starts binding to gut toxins and mold, mycotoxins they're called right away.


And then I could also tell that she was having some issues with methylation. So I do a epigenetics questionnaire, so not looking directly at genetics, but looking at how the genes might be acting up based on different symptoms. And so she checked off a lot of symptoms for that, which is common In a lot of people with sleep issues that methylation and liver detox isn't working that well either.


So I also recommended a methyl B complex, so this [00:03:00] has methyl B12 and folate to help, um, provide the nutrients that the body needs for methylation and also some milk thistle, which, which supports liver health as well. So that's what she started on right away after our first session.


And then we made some other changes. So she started wearing a sleep mask at night so that it was dark. She kept her bedroom somewhat cooler. She stopped using screens an hour or more before bed. Now, this isn't required for everyone but she was ready to do everything that it took. She stopped eating a few hours before bed, which is good because when we're digesting food close to bedtime, it makes it hard to sleep.


She increased protein, especially with breakfast, so we worked on balancing blood sugar. And she wrote, the little changes that you gave me started to make a difference. So already I was going in the right direction and that calmed me down and helped [00:04:00] me.


And the exciting part was that she stopped taking the sleep aids, the NyQuil and the Tylenol PM after our first session. So she wanted to do that on her own. She realized that those weren't helping anyway, and she didn't wanna be dependent on them, so she just stopped taking them. And she said, I think in the beginning one of the biggest fears, and this is probably true of a lot of people, is to not take anything, like to go a night without taking something when you've been conditioned to do that and you have this fear, you're not going to sleep. Once I started just following the little suggestions, that was calming. Before going to sleep, I got in a calmer state and then I started to sleep better right away.


So not everyone starts sleeping better right away, but quite of my, quite a few of my clients do. I would say at least half start getting at least an hour or more of sleep a night, just in the beginning while we're still waiting for the test results, just from making some changes. So whether that's to the, you know, sleep [00:05:00] hygiene, to diet, like, I mentioned adding more protein to some of the supplements that I recommend right from the beginning.


Now let's get into what her test results showed. It does take about a month to get the test results. So by the time someone signs up for my program and I order the test, they, it takes a few days to get there. Then they do the test, send them back to the lab, and it can take up to two weeks for the lab to give the results.


But like I showed with Carol, we're working together right away while we're waiting for those results. So usually we have two sessions, um, to work on some other things before the results even come. So once we get the results, then we have a longer session to go over everything where I explain everything and language that's, you know, easy to understand. I give a summary of that as well, that you take home and then give recommendations moving forward based on those results.


So. The hormone zoomer is looking at [00:06:00] cortisol and sex hormones primarily. So we can see someone's, first of all, their total cortisol and cortisone. So cortisone is the inactive form of cortisol and sometimes cortisol is high, sometimes cortisone high, sometimes both are high. If they're high, it's definitely indicating that the body is under stress and dealing with inflammation.


So you can see for Carol here, her total cortisol levels were off the charts and her cortisone levels were also high. And then what's great about this test, um, because it's urine, so it's testing multiple times throughout the day. So a blood test is just going to test cortisol at that time that you're doing the blood work. So usually that's in the morning 'cause you're usually taking that fasting. And so it's just, you know, a lot of people says, oh my cortisol comes back normal. And it's like, okay, well it was normal in range in the morning, but what's it doing the rest of the day. That's what really [00:07:00] matters.


If it's normal in the morning and it's even higher at night. No wonder someone isn't sleeping. So seeing how, how the pattern is throughout the day is really helpful.


So you can see here it was her cortisone that was just getting higher as the day went on. It's low in the morning, and then in the evening it was mid-range here, and in the nighttime it's high.


Now it's still in the green, right? It looks normal. But, it kept getting higher throughout the day when it's supposed to actually be going down throughout the day so that we can sleep. So that was another clue. Okay. Her body is releasing cortisol, it's releasing more at night and then converting it to cortisone.


Now, this also looks at different sex hormones, so it's going to look at estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. So she had definitely estrogen imbalances here where E one is high. E two and E three are pretty low there. And then progesterone, it measures the [00:08:00] metabolites here, which are also low.


And then it shows how all these hormones are being broken down by the body. So then I can see how different parts of liver detox are working. So her methylation, this marker here is measuring that methylation, that I already suspected in the beginning was compromised and then it confirmed it here. So lots of information that we're finding, um, you know, some hormone imbalance, liver detox issues, and this high cortisol and cortisone. And even at night that's happening.


Then the gut zoomer is looking at gut health and there are different markers looking at inflammation. So she had four of these elevated, two of them are, are off the charts here. So definitely dealing with inflammation in her gut.


And also there are markers looking at immune response. So secretory IGA is kind of the first line of defense against pathogens. So when that is high, it means the body's [00:09:00] responding to something, usually some sort of um, gut infection or pathogen, it can be to foods. So hers is elevated here. And then a couple other antibodies are slightly elevated as well, which means her gut is having this immune response to different things. So definitely gut health for her was a big piece of the puzzle.


And then also digestion wasn't working well. So when meat fibers detected and vegetable fibers detected, it can mean that the body isn't breaking down those foods well. So they're still seeing those fibers in the stool that shouldn't be there. And so that can be from not chewing food properly, just as simple as that. It can also be from not. Having enough enzymes to digest the food and then, um, she had one marker here of not digesting and absorbing fat very well. So definitely compromised digestion here.


And [00:10:00] then some short chain amino acids were also depleted. So butyrate, ballor rate, the percentages were kind of off here, and then the total was also off. And our short chain fatty acids are really important for feeding the lining of the gut cells and helping have a healthy bacterial balance. So again, a lot of things happening in the gut here for her.


Now her neurotransmitter results showed, had some interesting findings as well, and this is now part of the gut zoomer, and so glutamate is a stimulating neurotransmitter. This can definitely affect sleep and so can acetylcholine, another stimulating neurotransmitter. So these are usually responding to toxins, to inflammation, and so my goal is to, okay, how can we help lower these things immediately with possibly a [00:11:00] supplement, but also in the long term by addressing what is actually causing stress and inflammation in the body.


And then this test also looks at norepinephrine and epinephrine. I grew up learning these as noradrenaline and adrenaline. And so even though everything is in the green here, you can see how in the morning it's the high end of ideal and then it's going up a little and then it's going up to the high end again in the evening and then going down at night.


So her body's releasing a lot of noradrenaline into the evening. And then, um, at the same with epinephrine, where it's lower earlier and then getting to a higher level of normal. So this is how a lot of times these tests can be misleading and you know, it looks like everything's in the green, everything's fine. But we can, I can see that. Okay. Things, you know, cortisol, adrenaline, and noradrenaline are going up at night instead of going down like they're supposed [00:12:00] to.


So then for the toxins, so this is a new test I've started doing in the past year or so that is looking at toxic burden and everyone's gonna have some toxins showing up here. In fact, if someone doesn't, it means that they likely aren't detoxing at all.


So, you know, we're exposed to toxins in this day and age. There's no way to get around that unless we're living in a bubble. But my goal is to minimize the toxic load. So first of all, helping the body clear these toxins that are already there. And making sure that someone isn't being continuously exposed to more toxins, so whether that's from food or personal care and cleaning products or water or whatever it is.


Now, if you remember at the beginning I said I suspected mold toxicity based on her symptoms, and she had a lot of mycotoxin showing up. So this little symbol here next to aflatoxin here and ochratoxin, that's the mycotoxin.


So we see [00:13:00] three here that are high in the red, and then quite a few in the yellow here, so 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 more in the yellow. This is why I started just running the toxin test right off because so many of my clients, and not everyone, probably a third of people are dealing with mold toxicity that I suspect, and then we need to do another test to confirm it.


So now I'm just doing these tests right off, and it's giving me a lot of valuable information about other toxins too. It's looking for heavy metals, for environmental chemicals and for pfas, which are kind of those forever chemicals that are stored in our body.


So let's talk about what we actually did.


I still had her continue the supplements that I recommended at the beginning in her jumpstart plan. So those cell core supplements and the methyl B complex. And then for neurotransmitter support, I added some lipo calm. This has, um, [00:14:00] gaba, our anti-anxiety neurotransmitter and skull cap and passion flour and chamomile, so some relaxing herbs as well .


And then for supporting cortisol and stress, there's something called nighttime, HPA. So HPA stands for hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis. So we always think of our adrenals are what produces cortisol and our other stress hormones, but it's really the hypothalamus tells the pituitary, which tells the adrenals to make those hormones. So there can be mixed messages getting sent throughout that axis, so it just supports the whole thing.


And so it has adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha and some adaptogenic mushrooms. And then also some relaxing herbs. So. Um, some magnolia bark and lemon balm things too, just help the body get in a more relaxed state. It's not going to sedate you. It's not like a sleeping pill, but it can help with [00:15:00] relaxation. And then over time, those adaptogenic herbs help the body handle stress better. The.


And then for the gut restoration and self-treatment, so I recommended butyrate to help support butyrate and those short chain fatty acids that we saw were missing. Something called mega mucosa um, has amino acids and immunoglobulins to help feed the cells of the gut lining, so help regenerate those.


And then I recommended Biocidin, which I call it like a four in one. First of all, breaks down the biofilm, so any kind of pathogen, so whether it's bacteria or a parasite or mycotoxins, they have what's called a biofilm or protective shield around themselves. And this is what keeps things including antibiotics from getting in and um, and killing them. And so this [00:16:00] Biocidin has a mix of a dozen or so different herbs. And so part of what they do is they help break down and dissolve that biofilm.


And then those herbs also have antiparasitic, antibacterial, antifungal properties. So for her, I was mainly, um, mainly focusing on the mycotoxins, which are a type of fungus. So I also recommended the supplement called candid X. So it's meant for candida. Candida is a type of fungus. And again, so are the mycotoxins. So, um, those two together, the Biocidin candidates are really for addressing the, um, yeah, the pathogens directly. And then these others are more supportive in, um, restoring health to the gut wall.


So how her progress went and everyone is different. You already saw months one to two. She started with those jumpstart changes that I talked about, the supplements and the kind of habit changes she made. And then she [00:17:00] immediately slept better just from those changes. And she said that the binder really helped immediately with digestion, she noticed that.


In month three, she actually started hormone replacement therapy through her doctor and sleep was continuing to improve.


By month four, she was sleeping better. Some night, some nights she was even too tired to read. She was sleeping solid, waking at 5:00 AM getting seven hours. So she went from barely sleeping at all to getting seven hours. HRT was causing some moodiness and emotional symptoms. So, you know, we were working together and she was working with her doctor on adjusting that. But she noticed her digestion kept improving and kids, her kids noticed that she stopped coughing all the time.


And then by month five she was sleeping deeper and harder, waking up once to pee, but going back to sleep. Some nights, not getting up at all, had a lot more energy, and rated her sleep improvement at eight out of [00:18:00] 10.


And then month six, sleep and gut health were both continuing to improve. The new routines were just becoming easy, they were just her habit, her habits. Her fatigue in the afternoon was getting better, and she did start using a CGM to monitor blood sugar. At that time it was, you know, something she didn't wanna do at the beginning, but she wanted to keep refining toward the end and getting better. And that also balancing blood sugar was helping with the fatigue in the afternoon to not have that crash after eating. So she was grateful and happy with her progress.


She said in our interview, which you can link to here, I go to bed, I maybe read for 10 minutes and I'm sound asleep and I sleep solid. I'm grateful every day when I wake up after a good night's sleep. And she says, do not wait to get help. Your sleep is so important, and you will see that once you start sleeping again, you will realize how much of your life the lack of sleep was affecting. So she was wonderful to work with and I was so pleased with her progress [00:19:00] throughout the time.


And if this is something you're interested in as well, then you can schedule a consultation here.

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