E303: Beyond “Normal” Lab Results: Functional Medicine, Personomics, and Root-Cause Healing for Midlife Women

You know that feeling. You wake up tired even after eight hours of sleep. You’re doing "all the right things", eating your greens, exercising, maybe even intermittent fasting, but the scale won't budge, or your brain feels foggy by 3 PM. You go to your doctor, they run a standard blood panel, and the results come back… "normal."

"You're fine," they say. "It's just part of getting older."

But you don’t feel fine. And here is the truth: You aren’t crazy, and you aren’t just getting older. You are likely just missing the right map to your own body. Recent NIH studies on integrative health for midlife women show that more women than ever are seeking personalized care because conventional "averages" simply aren't enough to help us thrive in our 40s, 50s, and beyond.

In this episode, we sat down with the incredible Dr. Stephen Cabral, a Board Certified Doctor of Naturopathy and founder of the Integrative Health Practitioner Institute. We dove deep into his new book, Personomics: The End of All Disease, and explored why generic health advice often fails midlife women. We even opened up our own lab results on air to show you exactly how functional medicine for midlife women can reveal the hidden root causes of those nagging symptoms.

Why Traditional Healthcare Often Misses the Mark

If you’ve ever felt dismissed by a doctor who told you your levels were "in range" while you felt terrible, you’ve experienced the flaw of averages. Traditional medicine is built on a bell curve of the general population, including sick people. Being "average" in a sick society isn’t exactly the goal, is it?

Dr. Cabral shared a perfect example regarding thyroid health. A woman might go to her doctor with a TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) of 2.5. A few years later, it’s 3.5. Then 4.5. Eventually, it hits 5.5, and suddenly she is diagnosed with hypothyroidism and handed a prescription.

But what happened during those years when it was creeping up? Conventional medicine waited for the disease to manifest. Functional medicine for midlife women, on the other hand, asks why it’s creeping up in the first place. Is it a selenium deficiency? Is it high cortisol from stress blocking the conversion of thyroid hormones? Is it gut permeability? You can learn more about Cortisol in our episode on Understanding Cortisol.

"Conventional medicine waits for the fire to burn the house down. Functional medicine smells the smoke and grabs a bucket."

The "Rain Barrel Effect" Explained

Dr. Cabral uses a powerful analogy called the Rain Barrel Effect. Imagine your body is a rain barrel. From the day you are born, stressors begin to fill it up. Maybe it’s antibiotics as a child, processed foods, emotional stress, mold exposure in a home, or environmental toxins.

For years, your barrel holds it all, and you feel fine. But eventually, the barrel overflows. That overflow is your symptom, whether it’s autoimmune disease, migraines, skin rashes, or chronic fatigue.

The mistake we often make is trying to just put a lid on the barrel (suppressing the symptom with medication) or frantically bailing out water with more supplements. But real healing requires opening the tap at the bottom and draining the barrel. This is a subtractive process. Before you add more "stuff" to your routine, you often need to remove the toxicities and stressors that are weighing your system down. This "root cause" philosophy is becoming the gold standard for wellness, as seen in the Cleveland Clinic’s approach to Functional Medicine.

Personomics: The Future of Personalized Wellness

This brings us to the concept of Personomics. It sounds scientific, but it’s actually quite simple and deeply human. Personomics is the study of you.

We live in an era of "medical gaslighting" by algorithms. One influencer tells you to go vegan; another says carnivore is the only way. One says do HIIT workouts; another says they wreck your hormones. Who is right?

They might all be right, for someone else. Personomics moves us away from trial-and-error health trends and toward a bio-individual blueprint based on your unique biochemistry.

Moving From Guesswork to a Blueprint

The most liberating part of this approach is that it stops the endless guessing game. Instead of randomly taking a probiotic because you saw an ad for it, you test to see if you actually need it.

Dr. Cabral shared a surprising insight about his own life: despite running multiple companies and helping thousands of people, his daily routine is incredibly "boring." He eats the same breakfast, does the same workout, and follows a strict wind-down routine. Why? Because he knows exactly what his body needs to function at its peak, and he systematizes it to reduce stress.

For us midlife women, this is the ultimate freedom. Imagine having a health routine that is so dialed in to your specific needs that you no longer have to waste mental energy wondering if you’re doing the right thing. If you're feeling overwhelmed by the "spiral" of midlife symptoms, listen to our episode on How to Stop the Midlife Spiral.

Stop Guessing, Start Testing: Insights from Our Labs

To show you the power of testing over guessing, Dr. Cabral walked us through our own results from the Candida, Metabolic, and Vitamins Test (one of the "Big 5" foundational functional medicine labs). The insights were eye-opening and busted several "healthy living" myths we held.

Gut Health & The Microbiome

We often think of gut issues as obvious, bloating, pain, or indigestion. But Dr. Cabral pointed out that you can have gut imbalances without any digestive symptoms at all.

In Stephanie’s case, the labs revealed elevated markers for beneficial bacteria. Yes, you can have too much of a good thing! It turns out, an overgrowth of even healthy bacteria (often from over-consuming fermented foods or probiotics when not needed) can create issues.

"We tend to think more is better. More kale, more probiotics, more vitamins. But the body craves balance, not excess."

Her labs also showed a potential marker for mold (Aspergillus), which validated a long struggle she’s had with environmental mold in her home. It was a powerful reminder that sometimes your runny nose or fatigue isn’t an allergy, it’s your environment filling up your rain barrel.

The Hidden Stress Connection

One of the most fascinating findings for us "Type A" women was the neurotransmitter panel. Dr. Cabral noted a specific pattern he sees in 8 out of 10 high-achieving women: High Dopamine, Low Norepinephrine.

What does this mean? It means you have the drive, the ambition, and the "want-to," but your physical "get-up-and-go" reserves are depleted. It’s the physiological profile of burnout waiting to happen. You’re running on mental will rather than physical fuel. To support this, many women find success with evidence-backed cortisol supports like ashwagandha or magnesium to help lower that "water level" in the rain barrel. Seeing this on paper is a permission slip to rest and support your nervous system with B vitamins and calming evening routines, rather than just pushing harder.

Oxalates and "Healthy" Foods

Here is a shocker: Spinach isn't always good for you.

Marnie’s labs showed elevated oxalates, which are compounds found in foods like spinach, almonds, and beets. For most people, they are fine. But for some, these crystals can accumulate in the body, causing joint pain, kidney stones, or inflammation.

Marnie had been putting handfuls of spinach in her smoothies daily, thinking she was doing her body a favor. In reality, she was inadvertently adding to her body’s load. This is the essence of functional medicine: a "superfood" for one person can be kryptonite for another. By simply swapping spinach for other greens and supporting her drainage pathways, she can resolve this issue without medication.

Your Genetics Are Not Your Destiny

A common fear we hear from women is, "My mom had thyroid issues," or "Rheumatoid arthritis runs in my family, so I’m doomed to get it."

Dr. Cabral’s personal story is a testament to the power of epigenetics. He has the genes for rheumatoid arthritis and type 2 diabetes, diseases that plagued his parents and grandparents. In fact, he suffered severely from them as a teenager. But today? He is symptom-free.

His genes haven’t changed. If he stopped sleeping and started eating processed junk, those diseases would likely come back. But his lifestyle has turned those gene switches off.

This is incredibly empowering for us. You might have a genetic predisposition for something, but your daily choices, how you sleep, eat, stress, and move, are the signals that tell those genes whether to express themselves or stay quiet. You are in the driver’s seat.

Practical Steps to Reclaim Your Vitality

So, where do you start? It can feel overwhelming, but Dr. Cabral advises a simple, phased approach.

Subtract Before You Add: Before buying a new supplement, look at what you can remove. Are there inflammatory foods, environmental toxins, or unnecessary stressors filling your rain barrel?

Test, Don’t Guess: If you can, run the "Big 5" labs. Knowing your vitamin D levels, your gut status, and your hormone balance gives you a sniper rifle approach rather than a shotgun approach.

Master the Fundamentals: Dr. Cabral reminded us that you have to earn "High-Performance Health." You can't bio-hack your way out of a bad diet or poor sleep. Nail the basics: 7-9 hours of sleep, walking 7-10k steps, and eating whole foods, before worrying about fancy anti-aging protocols.

Conclusion

Midlife is not a time to settle for feeling "just okay." It is a time to get curious about your body. The fatigue, the weight gain, the brain fog, they are not inevitable symptoms of aging; they are messages from your body asking for a change.

By embracing the principles of Personomics and functional medicine for midlife women, you can stop chasing symptoms and start healing from the root up. You have the power to empty your rain barrel and add vitality to your years, not just years to your life.

Ready to stop guessing? Reach out to Marnie and Stephanie to schedule your lab tests.