Midlife Fatigue Explained: The Role of Minerals and Stress Patterns (with Dori Martin)

In this episode, Dori Martin shares her compelling journey from burnout and caregiving to transforming her health by focusing on foundational cellular health. She demystifies the role of minerals, hormones, and personalized lab testing in reclaiming vitality during midlife.

• Key topics:
• The courage it takes to prioritize self-care amidst caregiving and life stress
• How chronic stress and burnout impact cellular energy and overall healt 
• The significance of mineral balance and hair tissue analysis for personalized health insights
• The limitations of traditional blood testing versus cellular-level testing
• Practical strategies for nervous system regulation and stress management
• The shift from symptom suppression to root-cause resolution in functional health
• The emotional and biochemical connection in mood regulation and hormones
• The importance of personalized, intuition-based health planning over cookie-cutter protocols

Connect with Dori Martin:

• Website

Additional Notes: This episode emphasizes that true healing begins at the cellular level, and understanding your body’s unique mineral and hormonal landscape can unlock vitality, even in midlife. Dori’s approach advocates for personalized testing, empowerment through knowledge, and compassionate self-care—key elements for sustainable health transformations.

Transcript

Kim (00:02)
Hello everyone and welcome back to Midlife with Courage. I am Kim Benoy, your host, and I'm so happy to have you all here. I'm also very happy to have my guest with me here today. Her name is Dori Martin. Welcome to the podcast, Dori.

Dori (00:14)
Thank you so much, Kim. I'm so excited to be able to talk to you and I'm excited also to be able to hang out and give information that hopefully will be useful with women who are courageous in midlife.

Kim (00:26)
Yes,

I just in doing a little bit of research like I love to do, I've I'm excited about this because you have a little bit of a different take than what I've talked about before with finding out what what we need to be healthier and feel better. So before we get into that, why don't you share with us, first of all, share us share with us a time where you felt courageous or you showed courage.

Dori (00:49)
Oh, this is such a great question. And I've been listening to you, so I knew this was coming up. And I thought, let's see what happens when you ask. So I started thinking about what is courage? And it's doing something, even though you have the fear, because there's something bigger than that fear that's going to pull you forward. So there are a few of them. But I think that this actually leads into my story. So I was a single mom with two kids. And I met a beautiful man.

And ⁓ we were engaged to get married. And then he told me he had a terminal diagnosis while we were planning for our engagement. And he said he didn't want to make me a widow and that he wanted to bow out. So I thought, you know, my dad died of cancer when I was three. And ⁓ I had this like feeling that, you know, I'm not going to have another good person taken from me. And so, you know, he'd gone through the treatments, everything and the

Dr. said, get your affairs in order. And I think that it was, see, it's hard to call it courageous because I committed to the person already. I think that maybe it was more like, the boys were courageous because they were old enough that they can kind of understand. And they had lost, I'd helped my stepdad through end of life. And so they understood what this meant. It wasn't their first time experiencing it. So I had a conversation with them and they wanted to stay. And so.

I said, we're staying because I also wanted to ⁓ show my kids, ⁓ know, when you love somebody and you're in it, you are in it. And I had a talking to my now husband. He's still here 12 years later. I don't want to leave you hanging. Don't want to leave you hanging, right? Sorry about that. So, ⁓ yeah, it was just really more also about convincing him to stay because he didn't want to take away from my life.

Kim (02:32)
That's right.

Dori (02:43)
So it became a huge journey together and ⁓ I was a functional diagnostic ham, ⁓ nutritionist practitioner. So it means I run five different labs and we look at optimization and if you have a diagnosis and we figure out what to do, well, I figured out a lot of different things and I thought that was going to be my niche and I thought that's heavy and it's my day-to-day life. so ⁓ basically I thought, I'll do something else in terms of like what I want to focus on. I do all of it, but

At some point I realized well his numbers were getting better While we were doing what we were doing and my numbers were bad. I mean it was like that classic caregiver situation Yeah, and so I Had to do something about it, but you know one of the things when you're in the frame You don't realize what to do and this is like fast forward 2020. I had never recovered I was in burnout clearly because this was like

Kim (03:23)
⁓ sure.

Dori (03:42)
like 14, 15. And so 2020 happened. And that's when I was doing something. I was getting certified as midlife hormone mastery practitioner because, you know, midlife and let's see what to do because I'm dealing with it and I want to know and I want to share. ⁓ I looked at my labs and I wasn't paying attention to the important stuff. I was flatlined. mean, my circadian was upside down. This woman's in burnout like SOS. If I were talking to my client, I would have said, sweetie, this is not a time to launch something. This is a time to

relax and reset. And with all the transition already happening with everybody, everybody's labs started showing chronic stress and burnout and just circadian upside down and everything. But for me in particular, I didn't pay attention. I really need to provide for the, I need to do all these things. ⁓ And then I ran a signature lab I run, which is what I mentioned to you, a hair tissue and mineral analysis. Now this is a lab just to oversimplify when you have a serious chronic health condition,

⁓ It's, you know, your immune system is compromised. You've been under stress for way too long. And when I talk about stress, it's not just psychological nervous system, maybe some kind of trauma or thought loop. It's also physiological. yeah, so it also toxic burden is a big part of it because you're not able to detox or the toxins are what's begun this spiral.

⁓ And so there are so many different things that this lab can tell you that a lot of labs don't tell you. And when I ran mine, it literally told me that I'd been burning the candle on at both ends for way too long. And one of the things that tells you is how much energy do you have like to do life, right? So if you don't have energy, right, to do life, it's like I'm trying to do all these things and it's not going to happen to heal, to process your hormones, to digest food.

you know, to process life, you know, all the things. So I ended up taking bioidentical hormones through my midlife mass hormone mastering course with an amazing lady who's kind of leading edge in this, this field, Maria claps, who's also an FDN. ⁓ I started on bioidenticals and it made me feel so much better. I know that's something that allowed people experience.

And then, yeah, nobody can see how you told me there was no video, but I'm doing a swan dive with my hand. It came back with a vengeance and I thought was my fault because it worked, right? So it had to be something I'm doing. So I ended up going through a lot of different things and like with a lot of women playing whack-a-mole with my symptoms, you know, went away, came back, went away. And so when I ended up actually following through with this hair sample in the lab, because it's telling you what foundations are missing, everything started shifting.

because minerals are the spark plugs to your body. And basically, ⁓ the interesting thing is that it also impacts mood, dopamine, neurotransmitters, and cellular energy. So it tells you also what's happening on an emotional level, and it gives, it puts up a conversation to the mind-body connection. What's been going on in your life, and I know you talked about nervous system regulation, somatics and everything. This kind of explains some of the biochemical.

reasons and you want that to be working in your favor on autopilot as you're doing all these things to help with calming your nervous system from more the emotional environmental situational aspects. So it's the missing link of the mind body connection. so I feel like I'm yapping. So don't know if any questions are coming up. Let me know. Always interrupt me.

Kim (07:06)
That's okay.

Let's, let's just go back a little bit. ⁓ it was interesting to me that you were, and this is not, this is not unique to you. will tell you that because so many women are, they're in the, the throes of caring for other people and doing all the things and their own health just takes a swan dive and it's like, they don't even realize it.

Dori (07:31)
Right. That's exactly right. Because you're busy paying attention to everybody else. And when there's a diagnosis or something, the other person is what everybody's looking at. So. Right. And you're you're usually I mean, we midlife women, courageous ones. ⁓ We've always been the one that people have counted on. So it doesn't occur to other people to check in. So this whole dynamic is set up. And I've also looked at it. They said that 60 percent of women are going to experience caregiving sometime in their lifetime. I've been through it already.

three different times ⁓ with my dad through his end of life and I was there through hospice and then ⁓ I'm helping my husband. Although now, I mean, he's doing his own thing. He knows what he's supposed to be doing. And then my mom, my mom, she's now needing a lot of help and she's never really learned. I'm second generation Chinese. So I've always been her interpreter, but now even more so because I need to navigate and be a health advocate.

And I'm always like giving her and I do her her samples and labs and things like that so that I can optimize. But this is like you were saying, sandwich generation women live longer than men. We've never been as sick as we've been in except this generation with the food and the toxins and there are so many things that you've already talked about. So, yeah, we we are caregivers, a lot of us and just being parents and just being, you know, the ones that kind of people rely on leaders and all the all the things.

Kim (08:57)
Exactly. Yeah. And I think too, you're in the healthcare world and I was too, I was a nurse for a lot of years. And so that's kind of on that layers in there too. And yes, I can take care of everybody. And yeah. And yeah, the sandwich generation, it's a real thing where I'm kind of heading in that direction right now. um, yeah.

Dori (09:17)
And that's a blind side too, kind of, right? Because they're not like, well, I'm going to do this and I'm going to then care give. I mean, it's just something that just kind of lands. And you have this realization one day that this is going to be, it's not going to get better.

Kim (09:32)
Yeah. Yeah. And we know all, we all know where it's heading and it's, you know, it's, yeah, that's a whole other topic, but, ⁓ so, ⁓ so I, I think it's amazing that your husband was given this terminal diagnosis and now he's okay.

Dori (09:48)
Yeah, you know what's really interesting is that there's a functional world and then there's the allopathic medical world. And ⁓ with the medical world, what they do is there's a diagnosis and then it's medication surgery, maybe even depending on situation, chemo radiation. And so that's the tools of the trade. And so when they say that there's nothing that can be done, it means that their toolbox is empty now. But it doesn't mean that there's another toolbox out there. ⁓

Well, I'll just say what it is because I am always trying to protect his privacy, I think at some point it was even in I had another podcast and my own podcast and he was actually in it. So it's stage four gastric cancer. And yeah. And so he did, ⁓ you know, chemo radiation, but the actual, the chemo actually damaged his heart. And so he couldn't complete it. But yeah, the tumor stopped growing and everything, we started practicing.

what I learned and FDN. So even though I've shifted what I do ⁓ and I only start with one lab, ⁓ know, FDN and the things that we did really did save his life. And so I was, I do a lot of the things that we did ⁓ while he was recovering and changed our diets and everything. ⁓ And by the way, anybody who's on a healing journey, I think that's courageous because you are, if you really go for it, you actually really do have to rethink your life and how you think and live and.

you know, your habits and your boundaries and everything. And it's very courageous to go out and make those changes because you have to be somebody else. So, yeah, so basically, yeah, he got better and then I got worse because I just wasn't paying attention to myself. And also before that, I was going through my dad's end of life and I actually started a business or was going to launch.

a business where you help your parents with end of life care with your health and sanity intact. Could never think of a sexy little title. It was this whole thing. But before I launched the diagnosis and I found out, so that never saw the light of day, but I gave the information to a local Alzheimer's Association because it's, you know, the documents and all the things. But yeah, so there was a lot going on and then this happened and then I went on to the next thing and never really recovered.

And I think the sad thing really, Kim, is that a lot of women who go into burnout never truly recover. And they're not aware, like you said, they're just not aware. They just feel less vitality. And so then, you know, this is what leads up to how I do things differently, which is a little bit scary too, because it again meant doing something different from my FDN background. Midlife women don't want to run ⁓ five different labs that cost over a thousand dollars and then have a protocol over six months.

and they all, know, then you've got your supplements, you've got all these things you have to do with those five labs. And so just one lab. And the reason why I one lab is because it's foundational. Do you have cellular energy? You know, we all talk about mitochondrial health, ATP. We all know of times when we had all of this energy in the world and the world seemed amazing and little things didn't bother us because we knew we could handle it, right? Well, remember when you have something that you're doing that you love so much?

And you just could do it all day and all night and just like not. Yeah, that's cellular energy. And then when you have the opposite, everything just seems that much darker. If you've had kids, then you remember those days you were sleep deprived. Man, the sun just never came up. It could have been bright summer and it just seemed like shade of gray because you just didn't have the oomph. Well, that's what minerals do. I mean, they're literally the spark plugs to your life. And so...

Getting back to my story about bioidenticals, and I'm not saying that everything is contextual and you got to do what makes sense to you and you know your body. But for me, ⁓ you know, I noticed that I wasn't able to, when I looked at my lab, I didn't have the cellular energy to handle that because hormones are additional thing to do. And I couldn't, I didn't have a spark to actually take it. It's like you've got this amazing idea of making a cake, ⁓ but you don't have any spices in your ⁓ oven can't.

fire upgrade. ⁓

Kim (13:58)
Just to like explain that a little bit more. I'm trying to I'm gonna try to hook that into my head So it's so what didn't you didn't have the correct mineral balance with the hormones?

Dori (14:03)
Absolutely, yeah.

Right. Okay.

Exactly. They didn't have the correct mineral balance to do much of anything. ⁓ So minerals, because they are the one that gives you energy and any kind of enzymatic hormone activity that your body does, anything your body does, it requires a symphony of hormones to kind of navigate, conduct and spark the energy in order to do so. It's like, ⁓ my mom-in-law had a tractor and it stopped working and they did all the things they couldn't fix it and...

My husband used to work on cars, went and found the spark plug wasn't plugged in. So it couldn't spark the, it couldn't start the car. And so if you're, you know, taking all the supplements, you're living your healthy lifestyle and you're, you know, you're taking your bioidenticals, your peptides and all the things. If you can't actually start the car, it really doesn't matter. The analogy could be the best fuel, right? And the best, and then we're doing like the best, everything else, the foundations aren't there. And so it'll work and then things will start cracking and start.

falling apart. And so that's why it's so important. I've been asked like, why do people not talk about they do? It's just that it's so cursory. Take your minerals, take electrolytes, take supplements, take magnesium, take sodium, potassium, right? But, but also I think a lot of people aren't looking actually at the levels because they all impact each other. And so when you are actually what I found was when I started doing this and it's first of all, not a expensive lab. The gut test is like 481.

Maybe a hormone test is $3.99. It depends on who you get it from. But this lab is a lot less expensive. It's like $150 and then the coaching. And so you're actually getting a really good package because now you understand, oh, I don't have the energy or my body isn't ready yet to do these advanced things. It's not an either or, but let's do this first.

Or if you're already doing the hormones, this will make it work better because we're going to fire your system up. So now you can receive it and do something. And literally, ⁓ I have a case study I'd love to share with people and send to you, but it sort of shows you an example because what the heck does a lab look like? A lot of people don't know. ⁓ But it shows you how a ⁓ case study, the woman named Anna worked with what happened when she took these hormones and explains literally why, wow, that's why it didn't work. And look, it's getting her out of balance.

and causing other things to go off balance. And so, ⁓ you know, a lot of the things also based on this lab is not supplementation or all these other, it is ⁓ food-based mostly, but it's lifestyle. The things actually you've talked about. So it actually gives you more motivation, the why, the beyond, just like I want to, you know, it connects the dots and it is the mind-body because it can show, there's an example, there's a sodium and magnesium ratio and a sodium and potassium ratio.

One is a vitality ratio, actually how much energy you can spark. And so if it's really low, then you have to maybe take a break, rest, get some sunshine, know, all the, so it gives you the why. And also the sodium magnesium ratio is known as the adrenal ratio. And if it's really low, then it means that something has either traumatized you or there's a recurring thing that's really causing a lot of stress or you've never gotten a lot of care. mean, or, and it's usually all of those things.

And ⁓ it shows that really you don't have the oomph to really get things done. mean, that's why we get to talk about symptoms of brain fog or low energy. ⁓ And it also talks about like depression, anxiety and horrible mood swings ⁓ Copper has a synergistic relationship with your... When you have high estrogen, copper goes high and it causes agitation, cause headaches, heart palpitations and

Crazy mood swings, the kind of irritability where you're just looking for something bad to happen so you can land it somewhere. You want a reason to like rage, right? So it's very emotional. mean, we found that minerals are very emotional and help you create your neurotransmitter. So yeah, so it's really fascinating. I think that the reason, like I had been asked before, like, why is this not more well-known? It's known and it's getting bigger and bigger. And a lot of practitioners who've been at functional medicine for a while are getting more into it because we're

Kim (18:24)
Yeah.

Dori (18:25)
we're looking at foundations, not downstream, because we figure hormones are downstream and other things, because it's the biggest thing and the most obvious thing to go away. really hormones were protecting you from, you know, the sins of life, I suppose you can say. And when they go, yeah, I guess it's not always bad. We were caregiving, so it was good thing. But ⁓ yeah, when the hormones go, these protective layers went away. And we think that's the key. But underneath it all, it's been that

chronic stress and burnout really.

Kim (18:56)
I think it's just one more, one more example that we need to, we're so focused on the symptoms and like you said, what we can do to treat those even in this area. know that's kind of like Western medicine. That's really the problem that everybody's focused on the symptoms and we got to go back to the root cause of it. And this is like literally your basic bottom line body, your cells, the smallest thing that you are made of.

Dori (19:14)
Absolutely

Kim (19:26)
You know and I love that and then telling us why that's important too is that's huge because that I mean I've been watching my hemoglobin a1c because you know, it just it's going up and up No, we're just gonna watch it. No, I want to do something about it And I know what I need to do, but I don't know why Yeah, if you tell me why I'm doing why that just helps me I'm more motivated

Dori (19:52)
Absolutely. And you bring up such a good point. And I don't want to sound like I'm, it's just this design, right? But we know with doctors and the rangers, it's a range of people who aren't healthy. And the whole reason, the way that medicine is practiced is to see when you get medicated. And so there's not a lot of mechanism of like,

Why is this happening? And I mean, how do we reverse it? A1C is also an average. I guess I hope it's OK to talk about the difference. Why one versus the other? Because that's another question that comes up a lot. Like, I can get a blood test. Why should I even go out there and pay for a hair test? Well, one is that we're looking at cells, like what's happening on a cellular level, right? Versus what's in blood. Blood is.

Homeostatic is trying to get the nutrients and oxygen into the cell. And so are you receiving it? Are you using it? Are you able to actually do something with it? Right is what we're seeing but also like a 1c for example, there's a Calcium magnesium ratio that talks about what's going on on a cellular level with your blood sugar Are you able to regulate it and a 1c is an average so it could be and this happened to me going up and down up and down But average is good. And so you wouldn't know over three months that it's been playing ⁓

You know, wreaking havoc. And I remember that was happening to me. I don't know if this happens to you, but my energy, it would disappear by the middle of the day. I don't know if you've heard of spoon theory. You only have a certain amount. And when you use it up, even if it's early in the day, you're done. Like you've so I felt really scared because it's like I've got stuff to do, but I just was passing out literally. And my blood sugar was dysregulated. And it's not just food, right? It's a lot of like stress, chronic stress.

And so, so blood labs will tell you so much. I mean, why not both? Right? I mean, it's obviously, you know, if you have it paid for and it's good. But then the blood tests, I mean, the hair test tells you what's going on on a cellular level and how your body is responding. So if you're doing something with your lifestyle, you want to see like, how is my body responding? Something really exciting is I don't know if we weight loss comes up a lot with women in mid life.

Yeah, interesting thing is like it tells you what your metabolism is, if fast or slow, we generally know, but it tells you why and what level through one of the ratios. It's a calcium phosphorus ratio. Calcium slows things down. puts the brakes on things. And then phosphorus is enlivening. It's like sparkly chemical that gives you energy and that pep.

So when the calcium goes up and the phosphorus goes down, that means that it's kind of putting the brakes on your metabolism. Here's the kicker though, Kim, that people don't talk about. Your body's doing it on purpose. And it's because you're in danger, like cell danger response. Your body doesn't feel safe. Your nervous system and biochemically, blood sugar is bouncing.

All the stress, maybe caregiving, but even now, even if you don't have caregiving, feel like midlife is a really stressful time because there's so much transition going on. I mean, your body is changing, your face is changing, like what the heck happened here, right? Things are changing, like transition. And not to shame aging, it's more about my identity shifting and that's a little bit scary because what's gonna happen? So your body's saying, I need a pause.

It could be functional freeze or whatever. And so on purpose, it's slowing the metabolism down. So it goes again back to how are you managing your stress? Are you taking care of yourself? It's not about the next supplement. It's not about the hormones and peptides. You can bring them on too, but this is foundational.

Kim (23:20)
Right. my goodness. So I just love all that. I'm just fascinated with all this.

Dori (23:25)
It's

wonderful. mean, thank you so much for letting me talk about this.

Kim (23:28)
Yes, yes. ⁓ So, Dori tell us about the hair test. First of all, why the hair? I'm assuming because it's probably easy to grab a piece of strand hair. How much hair do you take? Do you have to like, is it, I know hair grows and so much longer hair is older. Tell us about that.

Dori (23:46)
Absolutely such a good question. hair, why hair? Because it is accessible. Plus you store a lot of information in your cells. so this is like ⁓ within like, ⁓ I'm touching my head, no one can see what I'm doing. So within an inch, you grow about a quarter of inch of hair a month. So within an inch ish, it's like three months worth of growth. So when you ⁓ cut from the, sorry, but ladies, but cut from the root and in the back.

Then you're able to get what's been happening in three months and another I guess comparison to blood blood is what's been happening in the moment when it comes to minerals So it's like right now. So it doesn't tell you a lot unless you have toxic metals, right? In which case that's another conversation but three months of hair and yourselves So you want to cut your hair ⁓ from as close to scalp as possible and then you snip maybe half an inch from there to get a sample and ⁓ and also if you color your hair you want to make sure it's ⁓

it's your hair without hair coloring. So you want to maybe be a few weeks before getting that done. This is why I learned most people color their hair. anyway, and so it's about a loose tablespoon full of hair. And so it's not that much. ⁓ I guess that's another thing, blood versus hair, because it doesn't hurt. That's another benefit, right? So a lot of times, you just wash your hair. Maybe you want to use distilled water. Contamination, think, is the biggest danger. So you get directions for that.

and take the hair sample at home and ⁓ you drop it in the mail and I take care of the rest and the lab takes care of the rest. We get the results through an email so that you can see the results. So yeah, did I answer all your questions?

Kim (25:27)
Yeah, yes you did. Perfect. So how long does it take to get those results back?

Dori (25:32)
Yeah, it depends on the volume that's getting into the lab, but it could be as soon as one week. Sometimes it takes a few weeks. So it depends on how busy it is. So it's not super long. And you get so much info. So I've learned how to run 12 additional labs that's not medical labs, functional labs. And this one gives you the most information. So it's really great.

Kim (25:59)
Yeah, so does everyone get the same lab test generally? mean, if you send, if I send my hair in, I'm going to get the same lab test as someone else. Or is it customized to you? It's based on symptoms or you know what I'm saying?

Dori (26:13)
Yeah, yeah. ⁓ in terms of like your results and everything. Yes. ⁓ so that's the thing. Everybody is unique. And that's the whole thing. I know you've been at it this for a bit and you know it's customized. There's no one size fits all. And that's the other thing that I'm excited about because you know your body and what works for one person doesn't work for another person. That's one of the dangers of ⁓ social media or looking at influencers because you hear these success stories and you run with it. And then it turns out it's not the right thing for you.

Kim (26:16)
Yes.

Dori (26:43)
Or maybe that's not the right thing for you right now. And so, you know, where are you at? What's going on with you physiologically? And that will, and lifestyle and, you know, stressors and what's your load in terms of like all of those things. So when you get a lab test back, ⁓ we'd look at, first of all, you get an intake form. So I guess that maybe will help you like figure out how that works, because then I find out what your main issues are, your main complaints are, because there's so much information.

we can go on, right? And it would be like a five hour results and recommendations, but what is your main complaint, right? And also what's actually the like maybe biggest emergency. I point that out like emergency or the beautiful things about labs too is that they're minerals so you can balance them out. So it's not like just, well, wow, you have no magnesium. Good luck with that. You know, nothing you can do. So the beautiful thing is these things are all, you can do something about it, but it's totally customized.

I like to say that this is your thumbprint to and actually Paul, I didn't say it, I almost lied. Paul Eck, one of the founders of some of the big labs that does this, there are only two that I recommend, your mineral patterns are the thumbprint to how you manage stress and do life. I mean, a lot of personal patterns, are you type A? Are you actually so stressed out for so long you tend to check out? you dissociate? I mean, it tells you all these things.

⁓ And it sounds odd until you see the lab and it can be explained. ⁓ based on all of that, I usually write ⁓ physiological things that we found based on labs and the psychological. And it's the mind body connection. You can't separate both. When we talk about nervous system regulation, which is really key foundational, we talk about somatics and ⁓ doing things to calm down your emotions and your mood and helping your body feel safe.

That also autonomic nervous system, sympathetic, the things that your body controls, ⁓ temperature, blood sugar, metabolism, all those other things are involved as well. And so we wanna address both because behind the scenes, both of them are actually overly activated.

Kim (28:50)
Sure. And so you take that information and share that with the person and then you come up with a plan. Is that what happens, Dori

Dori (28:57)
Yes, and I guess that's the other thing. I think part of like being and not feeling well, you feel out of control and a lower sense of agency and confusion. And ⁓ I think that, you know, functional labs are helpful. But I think giving a person a protocol and saying, I'm your guru, and I know everything is very disempowering and not true. And a lot of it is kind of cookie cutter, right? Yeah, you get you get a pathogen cleanse. And you know, there's different steps as soon as we finally have a

you know, some kind of bacteria in your body through a stool passage and screen. Whereas the way I do it is why is a terrain not able to handle things it's supposed to be able to handle? And I co-create and we collaborate and like, showcase this is what's happening. And so like, what are your thoughts about like the chronic structures in your life?

what is one small step you can take to start shifting that, that doesn't feel overwhelming because your health and healing plan shouldn't overwhelm you. Cause that happened to me. And so, and, to my clients initially, I would see if they weren't burn out their eyes would glaze over with, of all, explaining the lab findings, five of them. And then this entire protocol that had like many sections and many steps and different times and you know, on and on and on. And so I, I, you know, we talk about

We have a discussion about the findings and then we have a discussion about what feels like, and I think it's part of guidance to trust your intuition and trust your body again. And also an awareness of what your body has been telling you this whole time. Because what I'll find, yeah, as I'm sharing this, it's almost like there's a lot of relief because it, oh, that's why that's happening. You know, I understand.

And then they begin to pay more attention. Like, oh yeah. And they understand what's happening on a cellular level. And I think that's where lot of awareness, right? And understanding. And then there's self-compassion because when we have brain fog and this other person's doing great, I mean, I don't have an excuse because you have so much more compassion because this is why it's happening. And when you see your, this happened to me firsthand, so I can say, when you see things flatlined like that, like all the minerals were low, I'm like,

Why am I pushing myself so hard? I don't have the ability to do this right now. And so it really helps you become aware and treat yourself differently because you're seeing yourself from a data point angle. It's like you got outside and you're able to see.

Kim (31:28)
You have to, in some situations like this, you have to kind of take yourself out of it to look at it, like from the outside. Yeah. And I love that. I also love that you said you have a discussion with the person and through that discussion, may, you may think of something that they quote unquote should do, but that's not something they know they're going to do, you know, so you can work together. And what a concept if, if all medical systems are like that, we'd actually talk to the patient and

You know? Gosh, what a world that would be.

Dori (32:01)
I know. I mean, there are people who are literally out there as patient advocates because when you're not feeling well, you're overwhelmed. You don't even know what questions to ask. so and to no fault of the doctors, they're on this money making system and they have a certain amount of time and they get in trouble for trying. They can't even suggest some of the things I'm doing, right? Because it's outside of their system, their standard of care. Minerals, what's wrong with you? No, I mean, they measure mineral.

in blood, but then only 1 % for example of potassium magnesium, some of the main minerals that give you your energy is in blood. so they don't even have the ability to do so. I feel like that talk about caregiver burnout because I know they're aware of some of the limitations, but they've got so much investment in it. ⁓ That's courage. And I do see doctors shifting into more of a functional approach.

Kim (32:52)
gonna say I do too. I actually, my business coach is kind of practitioners who want to kind of get off of that wheel, I guess, the hamster wheel of having to do it opening their own practices and private pay and all this. So there's changes happening for sure. I love that.

Dori (33:11)
Talk about courage. That takes a lot of courage. Because some people, because they invest so much, they can't even get their brain to admit. It's because they're invested emotionally and they want to save people and this isn't necessarily the right thing. to be able to look beyond that and do the thing to feel like you're in alignment with your belief in what you do is courageous.

Kim (33:34)
Yeah, I love that.

⁓ yeah, so I feel like functional medicine, love it. ⁓ And functional diagnostic nutrition, even better. ⁓ It's amazing. Did you always want to go to this area? Was it something you kind of felt you were called to? Or how did you get into this aspect of it?

Dori (33:55)
know

it's so interesting. So in terms of taking care of people, I've always been a caregiver kind of personality. And so it comes natural to me. And that's why I do a lot of things that might seem a little bit random or just like, this is something that's different. it's, think another step away. It's not just functional medicine, because in some aspects, functional medicine has become allopathic, but with prettier lighting.

because it's like, here's the lab, here's the supplement, here's the lab. And ⁓ the people who actually have been studying it more, like yourself, there's more, right? There's that emotional, human aspect and life aspect. And so there's more context. ⁓ But yeah, but it's sort of like breadcrumbs. As the next thing happened, I followed. ⁓ So I ended up getting into health and wellness because I went through a divorce when my babies were five months old and two years old and turned out better. We get along, all of us.

⁓ But I didn't want to be that mom. You remember I lost my dad when I was three. I didn't want my kids to like not have the benefit of my time. Now I have them half the time, which was a grieving process. But I ended up changing into, ⁓ of all things, I went into massage therapy and health education because I could manage my time and help people. I didn't think it through because you have to build a business. Anyway, I came through it. That's okay. You learn from it. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

And so ⁓ that started and I was noticing that the people who were ⁓ getting better because a lot of people come when they're stressed out or they're healing. I was working with a lot of ⁓ recovery and people had injuries. ⁓ so the people who getting better were doing something different from just going to see the doctor. And then ⁓ when I was dating my fiance and husband now, he had a lot of health issues.

And so I said, look, as long as you're working on your health issues, because I had to help my dad through my stepdad through end of life. didn't as long as you're working on your health issues and I'm with you. And then I just got my FDN and the diagnosis happened. And so, yeah. And so I did a deep dive and keto wasn't a thing. The word keto and cancer wasn't together. And I was looking and looking, listen to Dom Dei, I see no went deep, learned about detox, you know, all the things we did, all the things. And he got better.

But then I thought everybody should know this. So I actually launched a podcast and I'm a victim of pod fade. You know what that is. It just disappears. So it was called off the medical grid, but I was so excited. I wanted to share it with everybody. But then I was hired onto an influencer, JJ Virgin. She's a New York Times bestseller and influencer. I think I've heard that. Yeah. And so I became her health.

Kim (36:22)
Yeah.

Dori (36:39)
coaching director. so I was so then I started helping midlife women because that's her demographic weight loss resistance, food sensitivities. She was one of the OGs talking about that in relation to ⁓ health and wellness. She wanted to talk about other things, but diet and weight loss was sexier. So her publisher said, go with that. ⁓ And so that's when I ended up with, I was coaching 5,000 women in group programs. And that's how I ended up working with midlife women. And ⁓ then ended up with my own

fun little crisis. you know, like, that's the thing, like, what do do when something happens? You find out what to do and want to share. And so it's a conversation that's not happening, but it should be happening more. Because it's empowering.

Kim (37:22)
Yeah, and I think what you're doing will help create more conversations. And even just by going on this podcast, it's going to create ripple effects.

Dori (37:30)
So

meaning what you're doing. Thank you. Thank you. You're doing it. I heard your December and you were saying, is anybody listening? ⁓ absolutely. mean, listening and making a difference. Thank you so much. I appreciate that.

Kim (37:32)
Thank you

I know they're out there. I knew they're out there. yeah. So thank you so much for that. I appreciate that. ⁓ So tell us if someone out there listening is saying, need to try this, where would they go to find you?

Dori (37:56)
Yeah, so there are a couple things. ⁓ I will share a link to a case study so that you can see what it looks like and it'll give you a better understanding of what I'm talking about. ⁓ I also want people to make decisions based on a regulated nervous system. So if you'd like, if you go to my website, dorimartin.com, on the top right is a link on how to five step nervous system tune up. It's based on somatic, Irene Lyons, somatic, yes, so that when they're

So they can do this five minutes because I know we're all busy, but just to do that so that they can begin to regulate their nervous system because that's the starting point of healing that your body's able to get into that rest and digest state. So that would be amazing.

Kim (38:36)
their first step. Awesome. I will put the link to that in the show notes so people can click on that. Thank you. And I just also before we I forget because I wanted to ask this to once you get started on changing things, it's not a quick

Dori (38:50)
my goodness. Thank you for saying that. Okay, so I had a mentor show us a picture of the healing journey and it wasn't a line. It was an up and down, back and forth and round and round. it's because it's a journey and life happens. It's not like with anything, anything you've done that's been huge. There's been setbacks. Sometimes you feel like you're falling backwards. Sometimes you want to quit. think that's why it's helpful to be either in community because I think that's a pillar of health or have accountability.

And so I think that your environment and the people you spend time with really impact your experience. And so no, it's a back and forth upside down. And sometimes healing feels bad, you know? And so you say the course, there's this thing called retracing. ⁓ And so sometimes something like maybe hives or something that happened in past, your body's healing and it kind of backs out of it and it shows up. And so I think that's important to know and as importantly what to do when that happens. so

⁓ such a good point. don't want anybody showing up and saying this is a quick fix. Sometimes the energy levels come up ⁓ faster. Like you can see glimmers of it and as it starts like a spark plug, right? Starting to work. I don't know anything about cars. That could be like a big misrepresentation. You get kind of like, wow. Right. I've had certain people, depending on how much, ⁓ like just doing one part.

Kim (40:03)
I think you're right.

Dori (40:12)
One, there's something called an adrenal cocktail because if your adrenals are needing support, it's literally what your adrenals need to function. Vitamin C, sodium, potassium, And hydration. And it shifts a little, they can tell like if they don't have it. So it's not like it doesn't, nothing happens for like nine months and suddenly something shifts, you know? It could be shifts, you know? ⁓ It could be that way if way if your lifestyle is still, you still have the things causing that stress and shut down. Yeah.

And so it really depends. And sometimes it is about maintenance because going forward isn't available and to have compassion for that. So yeah, that's another thing. think that there's something to be said for understanding the why and having a pace for it. It's like the courage to wait it out because you know what's happening.

Kim (40:59)
Yeah. And again, listening to your body and watching for those, those signs that, ⁓ I do feel better. Or, know, yeah, I love it. Awesome. Wonderful. Thank you for that. So Dori, this has been amazing. There's so much here, but we do have to say goodbye. But before we do that, is there any one last little ⁓ nugget of information you want to share with the listeners?

Dori (41:02)
Yes.

Yeah, absolutely. I wanted to say that your body isn't broken. you feel like, I mean, there are certain things obviously that, you know, we're born with or genetics or whatever, but the solutions are out there and be gentle with yourself. And a lot of times it's not the sound bite or the sexy thing. A lot of times it starts with just nervous system regulation. This is a time in our life. We get to decide if we're going to do life the way we've been doing it and get the same results or

do something different. That's why I love the title of your podcast. It's Courage. The courage to actually be intentional, not go on autopilot, not save everybody else. It takes courage as a caregiver and empath to suddenly feel like I have a seat at the table and I'm going to take it. And this part of my life will be amazing because I am intentionally going to make it so.

Kim (42:11)
clapping my hands. I love that.

Dori (42:13)
Thank

you. Well, that's what I think about when I think about, you know, what you're trying to do. So thank you again.

Kim (42:19)
Yes. Thank you so much, Dori. hope that we will get to talk again another time because we so much to do. Yes, for sure. right. All right. You take care.

Dori (42:25)
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

You too.

Kim (42:34)
3, 2, 1. You are listening to Midlife with Courage. This is where women in midlife come for inspiration, motivation, and sometimes a little education to help them flourish after 40. Don't forget to hit that follow or subscribe button. Now let's get started.

3, 2, 1. Thank you for listening to Midlife with Courage. If you want to go a little deeper into our conversations, make sure you subscribe to the Midlife with Courage Unfiltered. And if you like this episode, make sure you leave a review. Or even better, send a link of this episode to a friend. Until next time, take care of your beautiful self.

3, 2, 1. Dori Martin knows firsthand what true burnout and midlife mayhem feels like. At the busiest time of her life, she was a single mom, caregiving a parent through end of life, and then navigating a terminal diagnosis with her fiance, now husband. And that's when her body began to shut down. She discovered that what many women are told to just

She discovered that what many women are told is it's just stress, aging, or hormones is often something deeper. Midlife women navigating perimenopause and menopause while carrying the emotional and physical load of everyone else.