Latest / Giving Pain Purpose with Lyndsay Soprano / Sex Trafficking: When Helping Breaks You with Elizabeth Gaines

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Sex Trafficking: When Helping Breaks You with Elizabeth Gaines · Giving Pain Purpose with Lyndsay Soprano

• Lyndsay Soprano (00:01.494) You do not have to be a victim or family member of someone who has experienced horrific tragedies and unfathomable crimes to suffer your own trauma from them. When tragic things happen, no matter what that looks like, the trickle down effect is horrendous on our bodies and our soul and everything that we are. As soon as the news stories fade, you know, and there's so much news, as soon as those news stories fade, of those that did not survive and those that did survive and got lost, they end up getting lost and abandoned. And that's part of what this new season is all about. But we must not forget the people that work with the victims and their families that are in desperate need of their own kind of support. They experienced firsthand connection with those victims and their families on the worst days of their lives. So when our news is pummeled all day with horrible stories about what is going on, we're all doom and gloom scrolling all day long. What's going on, not just in this country, as well as around the world, it's hard to not just scroll by him because there's just so many tragic stories and so much horrible things that we're seeing and viewing all day long and taking in, and we don't even know where it's sitting in our bodies. Like how do we choose which tragedy to follow today? It's just horrific. So, and as a bleeding empath, which you all know I am, I experience massive amounts of pain that increase and fatigue and sadness and so many emotions that come when I'm researching for this show, when I'm speaking with guests who have lost their loved ones and those who have been through and witnessed the horrific. And it takes a toll on me as well. And so I've had to learn some tricks and the trade to try to make sure that it doesn't like, ugh, which is what it did to me season one and two for sure. And I had to learn from that big mistake. So, but it does also remind me to keep fighting for those that cannot fight for themselves. And it also reminds me to be grateful for each passing day. And that's why we are here. So today we're gonna talk about the challenges working in the nonprofit sector. We're gonna touch on that. The aftermath of working in a very specific part of a nonprofit sector and sex trafficking victims. The importance of addressing the wellbeing and mental health of those providing trauma support, limitations of conventional medicine, Lyndsay Soprano (02:21.942) defining what functional diagnostic testing and nutrition is and the lack of recognition for it, how clinical discoveries that you're gonna find out more about on this show can change everything about your health and much more. So without further ado, I would like to introduce you today to my guest, little Miss Elizabeth Gaines. Hello, darling. I am good, thank you. Elizabeth is the Director of Education. Elizabeth Gaines (02:40.6) Hello, how are you, Lindsay? Lyndsay Soprano (02:46.848) at functional diagnostic nutrition, AKA FDN, so I might be calling it throughout the episode, where she leads curriculum, live training, and mentor development for one of the top functional health certification programs in the world. But she didn't start there. Before FDN, she spent over a decade in nonprofit trauma recovery, supporting victims of domestic minor, minor sex trafficking, work that took a heavy emotional and physical toll on her. She was burned out. and dismissed by conventional medicine. We talk about it all the time on this show. And she took matters into her own hands, just like I have. it's turned functional medicine, turned to functional medicine to finally uncover what our body had been trying to say. So let's talk about your body and let's talk about what it said to you. I'm rolling out the red carpet for you, babe. And I'd actually like to start with how you started working in nonprofit trauma recovery. And then let's take it from there. Elizabeth Gaines (03:39.085) Yeah, that's a great question. So I am older than I look. So my very first career was in lighting design for theater, which is its own kind of trauma. Because as a lighting designer, you're in the theater 12 hours a day and you are in the dark and you are not getting any natural light. You're eating junk food, you're not exercising and you're not taking any vacation time, none of that. So when I looked at my life and I thought, well, you know what? I'm really only proud of one out of 10 shows that I'm doing. Everything else is garbage. like, why am I working so hard for nothing? And so I went back to school for international affairs and I thought, well, if I'm trying to change the world, let me just try a different route. And was working with trafficking victims in Mexico and in Cambodia and in Hong Kong. and recognize that like I don't speak the language, I don't understand the cultural dynamics, what am I doing except inserting my Western views in here? So I went back home and I was thinking, what do I do? And I lived in New York City at the time. And then I heard this woman lecture about domestic minor sex trafficking. So American girls under the age of 18 under pimp control. And I thought, that is a cultural dynamic I understand. That is a language I speak. I think that I could have something to offer here. So that's how I got into it. Lyndsay Soprano (05:14.028) Wow, I can't even imagine working, I mean, I can imagine working under those circumstances with American girls under 18, because I have such a bleeding heart for so many sexual abuse victims. I'm one of them. I was not trafficked, but we've talked about my sexual abuse on this show and the things that have put me in a wheelchair for part of my life here. So when you started deciding, you're like, okay, this is where I can do this. This is where I can help. What was your purpose? What were you doing there? What was a day like for you? Elizabeth Gaines (05:45.741) Yeah, so I was working for Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, which is the first survivor-led agency around domestic minor sex trafficking. And this was before it had a name. So it was at that time called Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children or things like that. This was sort of right around the time that the... trafficking bill was first signed and we had then language for it at a federal level and then we were trying to create language for it at a state level and like what were the kids and how did all that fit in and a lot of people were calling them child prostitutes or child sex workers like they're just tiny adults who are choosing you know to kind of do this work and so I was really proud to be inside of this organization which Lyndsay Soprano (06:31.863) Miss. Elizabeth Gaines (06:39.626) not only was taking on some of these built-in assumptions with language and saying, no, no, we got to wind this back, but also taking on how survivors are best equipped to help themselves through recovery. And I think a lot of people want to take a child and lock them up in a dormitory and say, you know, just stay here until I can build a case against your trafficker and don't ever want to go back to the trafficker and don't be in love with them and don't like. want to go back to the only source of comfort and love you've ever known, because I rescued you now and now you're safe. But they didn't do that at GEMS. GEMS was very forward thinking. There is a survivor at the helm of GEMS. And she was very clear that it's a process. And so we had a drop in center where they were court mandated to come. So instead of going to jail for prostitution, they were remanded to GEMS for 20 sessions over 20 weeks. Lyndsay Soprano (07:13.847) Yes. Elizabeth Gaines (07:39.337) and they were free after the session to go where they wanted to go, to go to their trafficker, to go back home, because we recognize that contrast is the only teacher there. Like to come to a place where you're supported and heard and loved and then go back to the trafficker and see how you're lied to and used and abused. And that takes time and that takes contrast. And so a lot of programs are not willing to allow that. They're not willing to allow survivors to have agency in where they go or what happens to them. And that's, I think, what sets GEMS apart in pioneering this model of survivors having agency over their own recovery. Lyndsay Soprano (08:21.272) Yeah, and I think that's it, because they can take their own, they can be accountable too and going, hey, I have this support over here, but now I'm gonna go back over, I'm gonna go back here because this guy's saying I've got it good and these guys are saying I've got it, you make your own decision in this. What an interesting way of going about it because it's not like shaming them on your side too, because they're always shamed and abused and victimized and all that over there. You can't do that to try to help them and make them feel like this is where you're gonna be now. So leave everything that now you've known and come over here because it's safe over here. Well, that's what I heard on this side. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And write you thank you cards every single day to tell you how grateful I am for this. man, yeah. So, okay. So how large of an organization was this or is this? Elizabeth Gaines (08:54.558) And feel grateful, yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (09:00.718) Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (09:07.886) It's not a big organization. So I think at the time that I was there we had maybe 15 staff and we were serving somewhere around 500 girls a year. Lyndsay Soprano (09:20.62) Wow. Yuck. Elizabeth Gaines (09:23.288) Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (09:24.728) And that's probably just, I mean, obviously that's just the 500 that you guys helped. So that's incredible. do you have a, it's, so many things happen to these people. And can you give us an example of one of these stories that you've heard from supporting one of the victims that come in and they don't just come in there. It's not just a 800 number that they call and you're like in a call center kind of a situation. So can you talk about that and how you help? Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (09:50.111) No, yeah, so they are court mandated. And so we do have this sort of detente with the pimps where the pimps are like, okay, you can still work. You're not going to jail. So I'll allow you to go to this program. And so then they come to the program, you know, for 20 weeks and are, yeah. So that's how we got most of our referrals was through our court advocacy program. Lyndsay Soprano (10:06.242) Yeah, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (10:15.947) Mm-hmm. Okay. Elizabeth Gaines (10:18.622) Yeah, a typical story here is that you've been, you know, you're living with a single mom, you don't have a lot of money, maybe you're raised in the projects, that mom is at work all the time, and maybe has a family member looking after you who is selling you on the side. Or potentially, that the mom has a series of boyfriends coming through and one of those boyfriends decides to get in bed with you one night and maybe you Tell your mom this and your mom says, nope, I think you're lying, get out. So now you're sexually abused and you're on the street for the first time. Now this is a predictable situation to find young girls in and so pimps are looking for that. And so they're hanging out at bus stations, they're hanging out at group homes, they're hanging out outside of school. They're looking for that girl who is in desperate need of being seen, in desperate need of being loved. Lyndsay Soprano (11:04.098) Mm-hmm. Elizabeth Gaines (11:16.792) and they sell them the fantasy and they say, hey, I'll be your boyfriend. And they listen to them and they give them clothes. And these girls think that they're the only one for maybe six, eight months. And then he introduces them to the stable where all the other girls are. Suddenly now you're in competition for his love with all of these other girls. And the only way that you can get it is to be the girl that makes the most money. So this is when a quota is. Instilled where you have to make a certain amount of money every night in order to make him happy and to not get beaten and things like that. So that's a typical story. Usually starts off with stripping and then moves into turning tricks in the VIP room. And then he's going to turn you out on what we call the track, which is like being outside. And then since I left this profession, actually, the track has sort of moved to a digital format where they're being sold online and there's like Lyndsay Soprano (12:00.696) Mm-hmm. Elizabeth Gaines (12:12.822) Yeah, it's a whole different animal from when I was involved. But that's sort of a typical story of how one gets involved. And I will say that some of the stories that I was dealing with when I was there, there was one girl who went on a date and her client, they were out in the middle of a park in New York City and her client ended up beating her. with a two by four with nails in it that he just sort of picked up from a construction site to the point and then left her on a park bench to die. And so she had to go through a couple of years of reconstructive surgeries to be able to like have her face back, to be able to fully utilize her body again. It was really, really horrific. And there was another girl whose story I heard where she didn't make her quota. one night and it's February so it's like really cold in New York City in February and she's out in her miniskirt and her shorts and whatnot and she comes back in and she says, know, I didn't make enough money and he takes her, he throws her in the shower where she's soaking wet and sends her back out on the street to make that money back and when she comes back with the money he ended up punishing her further. by inserting a hot curling iron into her vagina. Lyndsay Soprano (13:43.512) I could not even imagine hearing that story and having to work with these poor women. I mean, can and I can't at the same time because I just would take that all on within me and like everything in my world would completely turn to these people and I would lose a sense of my own self and my own health and my own wellbeing and I would lose, I know myself well enough that I feel like I would lose everything that I'd build almost to just help these people. Elizabeth Gaines (13:52.684) Yeah. Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (14:12.462) And I think that totally, and I... Lyndsay Soprano (14:12.642) Like how do you go home at night, you know? And yeah, and be like, wow, my dinner's cold. You're like, wow, you're an asshole. You know? Elizabeth Gaines (14:20.76) Totally, yeah, there's so much to unpack right there. So I think a lot of us that are in direct service in nonprofits feel the same way. Like we start hearing these stories and we're like, Jesus, like what do you need? I'll give it to you. And so, you know, when they start asking you to keep money for them or they call you at three o'clock in the morning and say, you know, can you come give me like the 50 bucks that I gave you? Cause I really need it right now. you know, just you do it. Lyndsay Soprano (14:24.789) Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (14:33.887) Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (14:45.74) You're like, of course, and you're gonna answer the phone no matter when it rings because it's always life or death. It's always an emergency. It's never just like calling to say hi. Yeah, it's never gonna be that. So you're always gonna pick up the phone. And I think that that's what leads to a really high rate of burnout and turnover at direct service nonprofits. Not only that, but these types of nonprofits are kept afloat by donors. Lyndsay Soprano (14:45.943) Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (14:55.089) How you doing today? Elizabeth Gaines (15:15.126) And donors never want to give money for salaries. They want to give money to survivors. They're like, no, I want it to be for clothes and beds and like, nobody wants to pay a salary of somebody that's working at a nonprofit. So you're constantly accepting less than a livable wage for yourself, which makes you food insecure, makes you housing insecure, like all of these things. And you're kind of sold this idea that the work is its own reward. Lyndsay Soprano (15:22.88) Right, right. Elizabeth Gaines (15:44.525) Like if that's not okay with you, then you're somehow immoral. So there's that going on. But there's also this inherited trauma, as you say, like the secondhand trauma that you're involved with all the time. And it's not happening to me, right? So I feel really guilty feeling traumatized. Lyndsay Soprano (15:44.534) Right, right. Lyndsay Soprano (16:06.198) Right, absolutely. Elizabeth Gaines (16:08.054) Yeah, and I end up sort of saying to myself like, no, your trauma is like, all you had to do is hear about it, right? Like that doesn't rate. But the thing that I've learned over time is that this doesn't decide what is stress, this does. My body decides what is stress. And I don't get to override that by saying, but it shouldn't really count. No, my body decides what is stress, not me. And that's... and I'm spending money out of my vital reserve bank account on all of this inherited trauma while denying that it's actually trauma. Lyndsay Soprano (16:47.18) Right, because it's the whole, like, it's all in your head kind of thing too, you know? And we get that when we go conventional medicine, when we start getting sick and we start doing this, especially from a woman's perspective. And we've gotten it from women doctors and men doctors. is not just a male thing. It is also women I have been actually listened to more by male doctors than I have female doctors. tend to choose people to work with that are men. And you you get to a point where you're like, I... Elizabeth Gaines (17:10.092) Yep. Yep. Lyndsay Soprano (17:16.601) I can't have all this be in my head. All of these things have happened. I've listened to all of these stories and it's caused these health problems. And that's now your fault. It's like, what? Elizabeth Gaines (17:26.008) Yeah, yeah, it's and and you're trying to talk yourself out of it. And so I think what what starts to happen is we don't just wake up one day feeling terrible. It's gradual. It's little by little where as you are spending your internal reserve on on everything that's going on in your external world, you show up with a little less joy. You show up with a little less focus. You show up with a little more weight around your belly. Lyndsay Soprano (17:31.062) Sure. Elizabeth Gaines (17:55.299) You show up not sleeping as well. And it's really easy when we're in this position to say, I'm depressed, you know? Like I'm just depressed. Rather than, I don't actually have enough internal money to fund my systems at 100 % because of the way that I've been living. So they're not functioning at 100%, they're slowly going downhill and that is why I feel this way. And so I think a lot of us who are burned out, sort of arrive at this intersection where we have to question, am I sick or do I just hate my life? Elizabeth Gaines (18:35.212) Yeah. Yeah. And... Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (18:35.33) Tough. Does everybody take a beat there for a hot minute? Lyndsay Soprano (18:42.618) my Lord. Yeah, that's sucky. To say the least. Right. Yeah. No, you just hate your life. Elizabeth Gaines (18:46.998) And that's when we go to the doctor and we're like, am I sick? And the doctor's like, no, you're fine. You just hate your life like everyone else. So take an antidepressant. And you're like, okay. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (18:58.456) Sounds good. Well, yeah, I they're so fast. In fact, I've blown through Concierge doctors like left and right because I'm so sick of not having like just a general practitioner that like gets it, that can help me with these day to day like things that pop up. I just, I feel like we interview these people, right? So I interviewed this Concierge doctor and I was talking about all this functional diagnostic testing that I've had, which we're going to talk about. And one of the main things that has been found in my body is mold and Lyme disease. Those are the two big guys that I've gotten. He goes, there is no way that you have mold in your body. This is just this one doctor that I talked to and I am fervent on the functional diagnostics, right? And I literally started to cry because I was like, don't you dare tell me you've been talking to me for 15 seconds and you've already nailed it and prescribed me. Elizabeth Gaines (19:42.382) Mm-hmm. Elizabeth Gaines (19:51.02) Right? Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (19:53.922) four different medications within like a five minute span of time. I'm like, you are insane. Elizabeth Gaines (19:58.563) Well, he didn't nail it. He just dismissed what you said. He didn't actually offer any guidance, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (20:03.8) Right, yes. No, nothing at all. I'm like, did, it's like, not even accepting that I have gone through all of these tests and I know a little bit more about my body and myself and what's going on than you do. And just the dismissive aspect, I like the word choice, it makes you even more sick and it makes you more stressed and it makes you feel less hopeful because all of a sudden you're like, I'm talking to an MD and he's telling me I'm wrong. Elizabeth Gaines (20:19.149) Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (20:33.256) And so where do we go from there? Right? Because once you started having all of your health issues, which you can talk about, you had to take matters in your own hands because it's like, forget it. This is insane. So can talk a little bit about that. Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (20:45.102) Yeah, so I spent a lot of time in this gray area of, oh, I guess it is just my, I hate my life. And so, you I got on an antidepressant like everybody else and, you know, sort of like, oh, I feel really numb and I don't actually want to have sex anymore. And like, oh, look, my partner's cheating. You know, like all of these, right? Because, you know, like once you lose your own lib, Lyndsay Soprano (20:55.96) Yeah. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (21:07.224) That went downhill pretty quick. Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (21:14.698) What are you gonna do, right? Yeah, and you know, I didn't have the best ways of partners either. Let's just be clear about that. Yeah, but yeah. Yeah, but you know, it's just, and then you get worse, right? Because you're not actually addressing the root causes or the root imbalances. You're still wildly spending money out of your vital reserve bank account. And so you're going to get worse. And so once it was clear to me, like, I really am sick. Lyndsay Soprano (21:14.722) Beat Yeah, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (21:19.906) That's okay, that's okay, we've all been there. We got your back. Elizabeth Gaines (21:43.299) but the doctors aren't able to find it. Then I went into this, what we call it FDN, cycle of trial and error, where it was like, where can I go for information? I'm gonna like go to Dr. Google, I'm gonna listen to all the podcasts, I'm gonna like try everything under the sun, I'm just gonna like supplement it up and try and figure it out. And this is, I think, a place where a lot of your audience might resonate is with this cycle of trial and error, where we're just trying to find answers anywhere. Lyndsay Soprano (21:50.424) Mm-hmm. Elizabeth Gaines (22:12.782) Of course I wasn't making a lot of money during this time. So when I'm going to functional doctors and they're like, yeah, we can do functional testing, but it's gonna cost like $3,000 for two tests. And you're like, what, what? I can't do that. So I have to continue to sort of throw spaghetti at the wall to see what works. And so I'm gonna try this supplement and I'm gonna buy this red light gadget and wear it in my ears. Or I'm gonna, you know, like. Lyndsay Soprano (22:21.613) Yeah. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (22:36.946) Yeah, exactly. Elizabeth Gaines (22:37.856) chant on a mountain at midnight because it worked for somebody else. I'm just like desperate. You try anything at this point. And then there's this element of shame and isolation that comes with that because inevitably when this diet doesn't work for you and it worked for your friend or this supplement doesn't work for you and everyone is raving about it or this gadget changed someone's life but not yours, you get this despair of like, well, maybe it's me. Maybe it really is me. I'm just broken. I'm beyond help. And then Lyndsay Soprano (22:41.036) Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (23:07.018) I came to sort of my rock bottom with chronic fatigue where I could not get out of bed for longer than a couple of hours at a time. I had zero focus. I could not hold down a regular job. I had digestion problems. Like everything was failing. And I just thought like, I have to figure this out or I'm gonna be in this bed for the rest of my life. And I'm seeing that like, because I kind of look fine and I sound fine and I don't have a real diagnosis, Lyndsay Soprano (23:34.23) Yep. Elizabeth Gaines (23:36.632) that everybody in my life is like, you you just never come out anymore and you're just not fun anymore. all of these. Lyndsay Soprano (23:42.614) I love those. It's the you don't look sick hashtag, right? Cause like I lost an abominable amount of weight when I first got diagnosed. was like 98 pounds. So I've since put on weight, but people were like, you could not tell like right now you have no idea what my, from my hips down feels like. like, really, my thing is always asking, I'm like, honey, will you go to Lowe's? And you know, he knows when I say, will you go to Lowe's? It means get a chainsaw to cut my legs off because the pain is so high. That was me actually yesterday. Elizabeth Gaines (23:45.975) Yes. Elizabeth Gaines (24:08.846) Yeah. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (24:11.646) And it was just like, you don't know how people are actually feeling, how they're coping, what they do to cope. How they, this is part of my coping is doing this show. Yeah, this is my therapy. It's very expensive therapy, by the way. But I know, but that's the thing is, to piggyback on what you were saying about the shame of it, I actually ended up feeling guilty. Elizabeth Gaines (24:22.358) is doing the podcast. Elizabeth Gaines (24:29.568) All therapy is my friend, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (24:39.564) for the amount of money that we've spent doing all of these things, even functional diagnostic to a certain extent, because that's super expensive as well. And I'm hoping to see some changes in that in functional diagnostic testing and doctors not charging us such an arm or leg, if that is what they truly believe in. But I also believe in making sure that people are paid for the work that they do as well. But we spent so much money on my body over the past five years, six years, and 10 years, it's because I was diagnosed almost nine years ago. Elizabeth Gaines (24:45.816) Yeah, it is, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (25:09.176) And I feel guilty about that sometimes. And it's like, my God, I could have spent that on something else because just like you said, it worked for my girlfriend, but it didn't work for me. And so then I feel bad that it didn't. And then that person actually ends up going, I'm so sorry that that didn't work for you. It's like this fricking slippery slope, you know? Yeah, yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (25:19.128) Totally, yeah. Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (25:28.174) It's a very, it's a really slippery slope for sure. Yeah, yeah. And I think that a lot of people are in that and feeling very isolated in it because it seems like either everyone around them is crushing it and they're not, or the people who are in this situation found a solution and they're not. Yeah, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (25:43.2) Mm-hmm. Lyndsay Soprano (25:48.534) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I mean, I have experienced this with a couple different doctors where she's like, this is the person that's going to fix you. I guarantee it. Like, girlfriend of mine. I'm like, for starters, I could not have a conversation with that dude or, you know, whatever it might be. And then again, they feel, you know, they take it on themselves to now help you find somebody different. And it's like, my gosh, it just goes on. It's just a snowball that keeps going on and on. so, I mean, let's talk about now about Elizabeth Gaines (25:57.774) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Elizabeth Gaines (26:09.571) Right. Lyndsay Soprano (26:18.348) when we're in that spot where we've been chasing and we're chasing and we're chasing and why it is so important to get into functional diagnostic testing and nutrition so we can identify where function has been lost. So you can define for us functional actually functional medicine would be great because not everybody that listens to the show knows what this is about. Elizabeth Gaines (26:37.804) Yeah, and I think that functional is a word that's thrown around a lot without a clear definition. And the functional space, particularly outside of medicine, is wildly unregulated. And so it can mean different things to different people. And so there's a really good reason why you're confused about what this means and why you're not really able to put your finger on it. And I do want to be clear that I don't like to say the word medicine because I'm not a doctor. Lyndsay Soprano (26:51.33) Mm-hmm. Elizabeth Gaines (27:07.106) I'm not licensed. so I am in the functional health space, but I am not a practitioner of medicine of any sort. So just to make that clear. But where I think the real distinction is here and why functional testing is really important, the reason that you go to the doctor and the doctor says everything is fine is because he is doing a diagnostic test. And diagnosis has to meet specific criteria on that test. It has to be really bad. It has to be so bad that it qualifies as a disease. And then there's a diagnosis and then there's a standard of care and then there's a sort of like a recognized one, two, three that he has to go by. Yeah, but if it's not a diagnosis, if it hasn't reached the level of a disease, then all he can do is prescribe medication to bust through the symptoms. That's all that they can do. They have to have a diagnosis to move forward. But I think a lot of us, Lyndsay Soprano (27:47.82) Yeah, protocol. Yeah, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (28:03.928) Mm-hmm. Elizabeth Gaines (28:06.36) who are experiencing debilitating symptoms are in this gray space where we don't feel well, but we're not technically sick. But we definitely have symptoms and a bunch of issues. And so a functional test asks a wholly different question. It does not ask the question, what disease do you have? It instead asks the question, where has function been lost? And let me measure by how much. A wholly different way of looking at this question in the gray space is like, okay, I'm not looking for disease. I'm looking for where function has been sacrificed. Lyndsay Soprano (28:46.306) Yeah, and that's super interesting because for me, a lot of what I have is my nerves have started to lose their function. They've lost a lot of function. And I've got a multitude of other things that have lost their function or are losing and I can tell. Like my adrenal system right now, I'm dealing with, like yesterday for example, I do ketamine therapy. typically the next day, I'm pretty tired. My pain level is usually a little higher actually. and then it ends up dropping as it helps bring down my anxiety and it helps bring down some of the symptoms that I have. But within that, I'm like, this fatigue that I've been having has not just been since I did the ketamine stuff, it's been getting worse and worse and worse to the point that I'm like falling asleep in front of my computer. And I'm not sleeping because my pain is so high, which also makes me tired, but I've been an insomniac since I was nine years old. So like I can function with very little. Elizabeth Gaines (29:36.962) Yep, yep. Lyndsay Soprano (29:39.774) very little sleep and I have been able to do that for a very long time. But over the past like, I don't know, six months or so, my body just feels like it's like shutting down. It is so tired and fatigued and the brain fog and the focus and the impatience and like all of these things that I'm noticing more and more are going on. My body just feels sluggish and but my tests outside of my liver, everything else doesn't look all that bad. My liver and cholesterol are high, cholesterol's familier, but it also is, it's just because my liver's fatty. So there's all kinds of that stuff, but everything else just looks great. And I'm like, well, explain all of these 90,000 things else that are going on without me sounding like a hypochondriac. Elizabeth Gaines (30:23.062) Yeah, well, that's where functional health comes in. It says, all right, great, let's get in there and measure what's going on with the hormones. Let's measure what's going on with immunity. Let's measure what's going on with detox. Let's measure what's going on with digestion. Let's measure what's going on with pathogens and food sensitivities and all of the foods that you're eating that you think are healthy but are actually costing money out of your immune system. And the idea of FDN is that we don't Lyndsay Soprano (30:26.219) Mm-hmm. Elizabeth Gaines (30:52.28) test based on symptoms, because that tells us nothing. If there is a problem in one system, it has not stayed relegated to that system. It has not stayed siloed because all of the systems are interdependent. And so if there's loss of function in one, that has caused over-functioning in another, which is eventually going to lead to loss of function there. And it just goes on and on and on. So instead of just saying, that sounds like thyroid, let's run a thyroid test. look. Lyndsay Soprano (30:55.703) Right. Lyndsay Soprano (31:11.33) Sure. Lyndsay Soprano (31:21.24) Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (31:21.422) You got thyroid problems. I found it. Aren't I amazing? Yeah. Or like, oh, that sounds like parasites. Let me run a parasite test. Oh look, there's a parasite. That's your problem. Like, no, you have been in contact with parasites for 200,000 years and the body is well equipped to not fall victim to that. Lyndsay Soprano (31:24.002) Figured it out, you are good to go. So yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (31:44.238) if the terrain is healthy. But if the terrain is not healthy, then yeah, that parasite's gonna run roughshod over you. It doesn't mean the parasite is a problem. Lyndsay Soprano (31:45.944) sure. Lyndsay Soprano (31:52.536) I'm having a parasitic party in my body all day long. It's affecting everything. Like I literally feel, and I always say this because the only visual way I can, the only way I've been able to explain is it feels like I have hot lava worms running through my body, through my veins. And some days you can look at my, like from my knees down and you can like see like literally like things moving in my skin or in my, it's like science fiction. Some nights when we look at my legs, it's a total party. Elizabeth Gaines (31:55.533) Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (32:22.446) And I recall that when we were talking about this and you were mentioning that these symptoms kind of came on during a period where you had a lot of other stress happening, is that right? Yeah, yeah. And this is very typical is that there is a communal bank account in the body and when the money is gone, it's gone, it's gone. And so if you're spending it on all of this external stress, which we all are, we all are. Lyndsay Soprano (32:34.328) Correct, Yep, yep. Lyndsay Soprano (32:45.099) Right, yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (32:52.386) then it's gonna show up in function in the body, can't be funded. Function's gonna go down, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (32:57.174) Yeah, yeah, yeah. so when you get, let's say you've got a Lindsay that comes in, she wants functional diagnostic testing because she's told you these are the things that are going on. Okay, let's test this, let's figure that out. What are next steps that people that work with you guys go through? And I know it's a difficult question because everybody's different, but if we get to explain a little bit about what that process looks like for some people, because I think that because it's poo-pooed in so many places, and then woo woo comes into play, which I don't like that term anymore, you all that stuff. And we're scrolling on Insta and we're seeing things that are gonna fix my dark circles under my eyes and we're like, my God, I'm gonna spend a million dollars on this right now. When maybe you should stop doing this instead because this is the reason why it's actually causing it's not your eyes and it's not your skin. Elizabeth Gaines (33:44.931) Yeah, yeah, this is a great question. So can go a lot of different directions, absolutely, absolutely, yes. So we are never gonna test based on symptoms or based on whatever. We're gonna test what we have identified as our sort of core systems and look for function. Like just a snapshot of like out of these six core systems. Lyndsay Soprano (33:50.68) You can choose one and we can then go to another. You never know. Elizabeth Gaines (34:13.058) Where has function been lost and by how much? Now, is it every healing opportunity in the body that we look at? No, but what Reed found through his 10 years of clinical experience and clinical observation is that if you can get function right in these six, it's generally enough to get the body back on track. Like it is, if you're putting money back in the vital reserve bank account, then the body can spend it where it knows it needs to be spent. even on things that you didn't measure and you don't know about. It now has enough money to go and solve those problems on its own. Lyndsay Soprano (34:49.484) Yeah, like I would have never guessed that I had mold in my body. Elizabeth Gaines (34:53.112) Totally, totally. so we... Lyndsay Soprano (34:54.572) Like, what do you mean? And everybody that I've talked to is like, you need to address this mold issue first. Then the other person is like, you need to adjust the Lyme disease first. It's like, my God, I don't know which one to start with first. And then I'm spending money on supplements and this, that, and then none of that's working. So I go to another thing and it's time consuming and it's costly, but I'm getting answers, but I'm not really getting how to now address the answers that we're finding. Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (35:14.145) It is. Elizabeth Gaines (35:20.664) Totally. And I think a lot of people point to things like mold and they're like, it's a mold problem. Is it? So yeah, because we've also been living with mold for 200,000 years. And I'm not saying that we're building houses in a great way. We're not. every, know, there's mold around. And our terrains are really challenged by a bunch of the chemicals and a bunch of the, you know, the things that are happening. Lyndsay Soprano (35:27.576) Is it? Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (35:37.496) store. Elizabeth Gaines (35:48.099) that then make our own ability to deal with mold compromised. So the way that we think about this at FDN, at least in the foundational paths with a client, is we're gonna look at hormones, immunity, digestion, detoxification, energy production, and nervous system. So if there is mold, I don't necessarily have to know that because I am boosting immune, I am boosting detox. And that is gonna make inroads into mold Lyndsay Soprano (35:52.184) Hehehe. Elizabeth Gaines (36:18.114) because that's where the failures were that allowed mold to root in, in the first place. Yes. Yeah. So I don't necessarily have to know that mold is an issue to be able to have a positive influence on it. And that's what makes our methodology so powerful is that it doesn't change based on health condition. It doesn't change based on symptoms. We're going to measure these core systems. We're going to find the deficits and then we're going to work to boost function in those systems and then allow the body to say, Lyndsay Soprano (36:21.548) in the first place. Yeah. Okay. Elizabeth Gaines (36:48.01) Okay, now I have some breathing room so I can go clear out the mold. now I have some breathing room so I can go clear out the heavy metals. Now I have some breathing room so I can deal with this lime, which has been plaguing me. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (36:51.82) Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (36:59.34) Yeah, I like that explanation a lot because it does feel like, it's like, well, this is the one that we're gonna tackle first and then we're gonna see how you feel. Let me tell you how good I felt taking these drops to get rid of mold out of my body. Holy shit, I was in so much pain, so much pain that it was like, it was so intense. And then I read about this, Elizabeth Gaines (37:13.732) horrible. Horrible. Elizabeth Gaines (37:20.674) Mm-hmm. Lyndsay Soprano (37:27.126) this drop that I was taking, take like 4,000 drops of this stupid shit, you know? And I'm like, why would this person have done this to me and put me in this, we didn't tell you that it was gonna do da-da-da-da-da-da, our bad. And I'm like, my God. Elizabeth Gaines (37:42.477) Yeah, yeah, it's horrific, it's horrific. And the other thing that I find is that with standard medicine, we are so indoctrinated into this idea that we can take a pill and we can get rid of it. And that is because pharmaceuticals are, I like to say, times a thousand. Lyndsay Soprano (37:45.144) Yeah! Lyndsay Soprano (37:55.81) Yes. Yep. Elizabeth Gaines (38:03.692) And so they come with a bunch of side effects, they come with chemicals, they come with whatever, but they are generally strong enough to bust through a symptom without having to make lifestyle modifications. And so then when we go into the functional space, then we just think, supplements are the corollary, so all I need to worry about is supplements. But a supplement is nature times 10 or nature times 20. It is nowhere near nature times 1,000, the way that pharmaceuticals are. Lyndsay Soprano (38:13.345) Yes. Elizabeth Gaines (38:32.044) And so you must utilize other lifestyle strategies in combination with supplementation to get results. It's never going to fix the problem on its own. And I find so many practitioners and even clients that are like, what should I take? What should I take? It's like, well, let's talk about how you're sleeping and how you're over-exercising and how you're eating garbage. But they don't wanna talk about any of that. They just want, what do I take? And I find that to be a very interesting sort of legacy. Lyndsay Soprano (38:47.149) course. Lyndsay Soprano (38:50.625) Yeah, yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (38:59.798) of standard medicine that is in us to one degree or another, all of us, all of us. It is embedded in us. Lyndsay Soprano (39:06.807) Yeah, absolutely. Like, for example, when we travel to like, we'll travel Italy or whatever. And I've been, I just, get sick every time, every single time we travel abroad, I end up sick. Even on our honeymoon, I was in the emergency room in Palermo in Sicily. I get sick every time we travel. This last trip that we took, I wasn't that sick, but even still, I am now carrying, like, I need pharmaceuticals for like, I have a Z-Pak, I have this, I have that, have that, I have to at least Elizabeth Gaines (39:22.03) Mmm. Lyndsay Soprano (39:36.184) kill whatever the heck is going on while I'm there traveling. But at the same time, I probably wasn't all that healthy to begin with. My immune system is so weak to begin with. And now I'm traveling through LAX and all these international airports and I'm touching things and I'm in a wheelchair. So most of the time I'm like, butts are in my face and people are coughing on me. And I'm like, my God, this is so disgusting. You have no idea how many people fart in front of you by the way, until you're in a wheelchair. Elizabeth Gaines (39:53.782) Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (40:00.358) my god. Lyndsay Soprano (40:06.68) all day long when I'm traveling in my wheelchair. It's disgusting. Elizabeth Gaines (40:10.88) Wow, yeah, that's terrible. That's terrible news. my God. Can't even imagine. Lyndsay Soprano (40:12.674) Terrible. Quick, quick. I know. Think about it. So the next time you're in the airport and you see somebody in a wheelchair, just hold it in for a hot minute. Okay guys. But yeah, it's, you know, we're trying to uncover what ails us, you know, by covering it up with something to fix the immediate issue. And, you know, it's almost like the GLP-1 stuff that we've got going on too, which drives me insane. Elizabeth Gaines (40:25.582) Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yes. Lyndsay Soprano (40:40.664) I'm like, well, maybe you should stop eating garbage. I can talk about this because my sweetie just started doing it. And, you know, he puts garbage in his mouth. He drinks garbage every day. He exercises. He's doing all the right things now in that regard, but doesn't want to change the food part and is going, I don't understand what the problem is. Yeah. So we don't just get the supplements and then not exercise and not eat right. And I wonder why you're not getting any better. Elizabeth Gaines (40:55.5) Yep. Yep. Elizabeth Gaines (41:04.79) Yeah, and so at FDN, we also focus on a comprehensive lifestyle program that we call DRESS, which is diet, rest, which nobody wants to talk about, exercise, stress reduction, and supplementation. So we recognize that it takes a lot more than just supplements. And we live in a world where the messaging that we get is like FOMO and YOLO. And so, you know, like, Lyndsay Soprano (41:14.922) Right? Ooh. Mm-hmm. Elizabeth Gaines (41:33.738) You can sleep when you're dead. It's like, well, you that's going to be sooner than you like. Lyndsay Soprano (41:35.327) Yeah You mean like in two weeks from now? Because you look like hell. Elizabeth Gaines (41:40.806) You know? Yeah, and so I'm hearing you talk about like you've been undercutting your sleep for years and now you're at this point where you're like, I've got this intractable brain fog and like things are getting really, well, yes, because during the day where we're awake and we are encountering stressors and we're breaking ourselves down and it is only when we are resting that we're building ourselves back up. Lyndsay Soprano (41:50.242) My whole life, basically. Lyndsay Soprano (41:57.261) Yep. Elizabeth Gaines (42:09.238) and we can't do both at the same time. You cannot break down and build up at the same time. And so if you're undercutting your period of time where you're building back up, then you're gonna be in catabolic debt. And that's gonna get just worse and worse and worse as time goes on. And now you can't like ever get back into the black. Lyndsay Soprano (42:13.442) Right. Lyndsay Soprano (42:30.71) Yeah, mean, sleep for sure has been the number one health challenge of my life. We always said at some point, being an insomniac, where I I operate on like two, three hours a night. Some nights, I'll go three, four days with absolutely no sleep. And then I crash and burn for like two days and I have to sleep for like 13, 14 hours each day to kind of get me kind of back up. And it's not even great sleep because I'm just so fricking exhausted that there's no, I can't function. Elizabeth Gaines (42:54.112) It's not. Lyndsay Soprano (42:59.56) anymore so my functions like and now she's dead for two days and doesn't pick up the phone and respond to texts and doesn't get back to anybody or anything because I have to refill the best that I can because that's all I've ever known and so we've been trying to break that and it is hard to do. Elizabeth Gaines (43:00.728) Yeah. Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (43:16.682) It is very hard, it is very hard. But we are diurnal creatures, even though we want to really deny that, which means that we're supposed to be up when the sun is out and we're supposed to be asleep when the sun is down. There are other animals in this world that have an opposite rhythm, but that is not humans. And so it is really important that we be... Lyndsay Soprano (43:18.114) Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (43:43.63) cognizant of our biology and that we are living our lives in a way that supports it rather than fights against it. Lyndsay Soprano (43:50.102) Yeah, because I don't feel like we do a lot. We do so much to prove ourselves, have more money, look thin. We're scrolling social media. And of course, all we are looking at is all these beautiful people or not so beautiful people that put on a bunch of beautiful filters on them. And we're comparing ourselves to all these other people. And it's just like, my gosh, what are we supposed to actually look like? Well, what we should look like is a healthy, happy person who doesn't hate their life. Elizabeth Gaines (44:18.292) Exactly, or doesn't know if they're sick or hating their life. Can't tell the difference. Lyndsay Soprano (44:22.915) Yeah, sure. Totally well said because there are days where you're like, oh my God, my life is beautiful and I feel a little bit better. And then the next day, like, I feel like shit and I hate my life. What's going on here? Well, that the pace in which we live our lives, you know, I mean, we're moving really fast. Our news cycle moves really fast. We're trying to keep up with the Joneses. We've got kids, we've got jobs, we've got dogs, we've got our own health concerns. We've got Elizabeth Gaines (44:34.542) Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (44:50.39) family's health concerns, goes on and on of all the things that we're doing. Then we've got politics that's coming in, which is clearly killing all of us legitimately. And that in and of itself is a stressor, which is I've taken on completely from a political standpoint. I don't want us to go down that slippery slope because it will be steep one. Elizabeth Gaines (45:00.022) Yes, yes, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (45:10.706) And, you know, I'm just, we're all taking in so much stuff that's making us stress. And then all we're doing is buying stuff to make us feel better. And we're not actually getting to the root of what the hell is wrong with us in the first place. Elizabeth Gaines (45:21.442) And to add to the fast-paced point that society has sped up is that electricity has allowed us to squeeze in more productive hours than we were pre-electricity. And so, you know, when it was dark, we kind of like couldn't read, we couldn't work, we couldn't do anything. Yeah, and anyway, we have artificial light. And so there was a lot more downtime built into a day back then than there is now. Lyndsay Soprano (45:24.375) Mm-hmm. Lyndsay Soprano (45:31.128) Mm. Sorry. Lyndsay Soprano (45:38.956) We didn't have iPads. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (45:48.856) Yeah, mean, duh, we all know that, hearing that out loud, makes complete sense, you know? Elizabeth Gaines (45:57.719) Yeah, like when we go back and look at medieval records, what we find is that people used to have sort of two phases of sleep in a night because in most of the world, for most of the year, it was gonna be dark more than it was gonna be light. And so, you know, people were not necessarily going to bed at 4.30 p.m. when the sun goes down, but pretty close, right? They were having dinner, they were going to bed. And then they were waking up in the middle of the night. They were having another meal and they were talking to each other and they were having sex. And then they were going back to bed. And there was a lot of medical advice of the day is like, don't have sex during first sleep. Like have sex between first and second sleep because your body's in parasympathetic and you're much more likely to get pregnant when your body's in parasympathetic. So yeah, we've completely changed the structure of our lives in this radical experiment. Lyndsay Soprano (46:44.162) Mm. Elizabeth Gaines (46:52.718) Since electricity, yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's not going well. Lyndsay Soprano (46:54.294) Well said. No, yeah, it's not going as well as we may have planned. So when you're identifying your health issues and you were getting yourself figured out, you went through all of these different, try this, try that, blah, blah, do, do, do, until then you got into the functional diagnostic side of things. How are you feeling? What did you do to get yourself into a healthier place? Elizabeth Gaines (47:02.739) Yeah. Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (47:23.98) Yeah, so I had tried everything I could think of. I had changed my diet. was taking everything, everything. Somebody was like, you take this. I was like, yes, I will take it. Whatever it is, I'll take it. And some of it was helping a little bit, but not a lot. Or some of it would help a lot, but only for a little period of time. Just nothing was sticking. Lyndsay Soprano (47:34.282) Everything. Sure, yes. Sign me up. Elizabeth Gaines (47:50.859) And of course, nobody was talking to me about the fact that I was still exercising way too much and that I had a ton of stress in my leg. Nobody was talking to me about any of that. They were just like, take this or try this or yeah, all of that. So then I was thinking to myself, I have to get out of working in this nonprofit world. I have to move careers. And so I thought to myself, I'll be a health coach. Why not? I'll just go be a health coach. Yeah. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (48:01.696) Yeah, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (48:16.696) Let's give that a try. Maybe I could do that. That'll work. Elizabeth Gaines (48:20.512) Yeah, like, this is like probably I could just go, you know, take a class and be a health coach and, you know, I wouldn't have to go get another degree and yeah. Yeah, totally. Like now I'm qualified to help you with all of your issues. Yeah. So I went to a health conference and at the time I lived in Austin, Texas. I went to a health conference. Lyndsay Soprano (48:27.436) I read a blog post. Lyndsay Soprano (48:33.078) Yep. Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (48:44.142) an alternative health conference. so I mean like trying all the stuff and you know, they're like, you don't have a vibration player to try an amp coil, you know, all the things, right? And you're like, yes, let me do it. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I'm good now. Yeah, it's like, oh, weirdly. Lyndsay Soprano (48:47.585) Right, yeah. I pray to please. That'll heal me. wow, that felt great. I am a million bucks. Forget about the fact that my liver's failing me. Elizabeth Gaines (49:05.27) Yeah, it's like, you know, I got off your harmonics bed and weirdly I still feel brain fogged. Like, I don't know. Like, can you explain that to me? Yeah. So, I'm walking through here and it was a very interesting health conference because a bunch of different health coaching programs were lined up side by side. And I was like, this is convenient, you know? So I was able to sort of look at the curriculums, talk to the graduates. Lyndsay Soprano (49:11.032) Yeah, yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (49:32.047) understand, you know, kind of see what they're doing and sort of what their general level of knowledge was and how they're talking and what they're doing. And a lot of the health coaching programs were geared towards working with someone else who was reading labs and then writing a protocol. And then the health coach was responsible for making sure that the client was compliant. And so the the the curriculum was about motivational interviewing and these types of things. And having just come from the nonprofit world, I was like, no, I cannot do this anymore. I cannot do any more motivational interviewing. That does not sound fun. And then I came to FDN, which says, yeah, you can run functional labs and you can learn which ones to order and you can learn how they all talk to each other and you can learn interpretation and you can write your own protocols and then you can walk your client through it. So I was like, Lyndsay Soprano (50:03.864) you Yeah, yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (50:26.328) That's amazing. Obviously I'm gonna go do that. And I was speaking to the graduates and they're speaking in scientific terms and they're talking about how these sort of different concepts fit together and they're speaking with a lot of clinical intelligence. And I thought, yeah, that's where I need to go. And I have not regretted it a single day since that was absolutely the right call. So I went into the program and it's very, very robust. It's not a sort of fly by night weekend certification the way that some of these health coaching certifications or other certifications might be. And we require a lot of one-on-one testing to become a practitioner. So you do seven one-on-one exams with a mentor so that we know. Lyndsay Soprano (51:00.823) Yes. Lyndsay Soprano (51:06.386) interesting. Elizabeth Gaines (51:13.708) what you know and what you don't know. And we watch your process develop as a clinician over time to see how you're shoring up your weaknesses and how your critical thinking is and all of that. We're very invested in making sure that our practitioners are the smartest ones in the room, in any room that they walk into. And you start by doing it all on yourself. So you take all this... Lyndsay Soprano (51:22.347) Interesting. Lyndsay Soprano (51:36.125) That's what I was just, yeah, Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (51:38.243) So you take all the tests and you're like, look at that. And then you can kind of see where the doctors were all like, everything's cool. I'm suddenly seeing that my sex hormones are really low. My cortisol is crazy. It goes way up in the morning when I'm feeling like wired, but. Lyndsay Soprano (51:55.594) Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (51:56.889) but not necessarily with it. I'm like, it's that sort of wired but tired feeling. And then it dropped down for the rest of the day. And then it went up at night when I'm trying to go to sleep. And I was like, this explains a fricking lot. This is what we at FDN call clinical correlation. And then I'm sort of looking at all of the other healing opportunities that are emerging. And I just felt this enormous sense of relief that Lyndsay Soprano (52:02.2) Mm-hmm. Lyndsay Soprano (52:08.46) A lot. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Lyndsay Soprano (52:15.488) Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (52:24.844) the worst answer that I could have gotten from these tests is nothing. Yeah, and it's such a relief when you've been told for so long that it's all in your head, that there's nothing physically wrong with you, that like, look, there is, it just doesn't cross the line of disease yet. And it's such a relief, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (52:29.858) Right. Lyndsay Soprano (52:48.012) Yeah. Yeah, it is a relief. And because there's a lot of things that when I have gotten quote unquote regular diagnostic testing at my doctor, right, at a normal general practitioner, whatever, gotta run your normal labs, you know, and you're, this is just great. And then I got all this functional diagnostic testing done and I'm like, my God, like one more point over this. And I'm like going into disease, but you're not there because you're not, you're not. Elizabeth Gaines (53:01.731) Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (53:15.054) Totally, So that they're like, oh, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (53:15.734) that exact number so I'm not 266 I'm 265 so you're good to go I'm like shit what are you yeah no nope nope nope yeah you're good carry on Elizabeth Gaines (53:22.318) Totally, and they don't even mention it. They don't even mention it, yeah. Yeah, they're just like, no, you're fine, you're totally fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I was just looking at my dad's blood work the other day. He's 83, bless him. And he is worried about his kidneys. So I was looking at his regular blood work that came in and most things were in range, but I was looking back at the trends and noticing that even though things were still in range, the environment had dramatically shifted within the past six months. And so the doctor called and was like, everything is good. And I was like, you know, no, let's go like, so, you know, he's not talking to me, right? So I like wrote a little bit of a letter and I was like, when you go in, ask about these things, you know, just kind of say like, hey, actually this environment has, you know, it's looking like I'm not filtering. Lyndsay Soprano (53:59.51) No, it's not. Elizabeth Gaines (54:15.502) as much as I used to and as a result waste products are building up in my blood and like this is what's going on and like five or six different markers are telling me this. And even though everything is still in range, it's dramatically different than it was. And so he took it in and his doctor was like, well, this is good that you're pointing this out. He's like, yeah, but anyway, the doctor wasn't gonna do it. The doctor was just gonna look at where the markers were now and be like, they're all in range, you're good. Lyndsay Soprano (54:22.861) Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (54:45.844) Yeah, because, ugh, that's so frustrating. It's just frustrating hearing these stories over and over and over again, where you're like, they go to the doctor and they say that I'm good to go. And I'm like, but you went to the doctor because you're not good to go. Like, I believe that there are a group of people out there that are hypochondriacs. We get the word for a reason. Elizabeth Gaines (55:01.73) For sure, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (55:09.93) I have a girlfriend of mine from high school who has always thought like no matter what, if there was like a dot on her hand, she's like, I've got skin cancer for sure. You know, like there are that group of people, but I find that's probably not as large of a group of people that are actually legitimately coming in and we have healthy issues, health issues, and they're scary because what we do is we go to Mr. Google, like you said in the beginning, and we're like, see, I am dying. Elizabeth Gaines (55:35.695) Totally, and doctors are frustrated by that too, because they're like, you're not a doctor, like stay off the internet. And you're like, good luck with that. But to defend doctors, this is their training. Their training is to identify disease and to intervene at this very catastrophic moment where you have cancer or you have something major going wrong, heart disease or whatever it is. Lyndsay Soprano (55:36.482) Yeah. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (55:50.541) Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (56:04.524) That is their training. They are not designed for, can't lose 15 pounds and I have brain fog and I can't sleep. They are not designed for that. And that is why a functional practitioner is your best friend in this space. Like we work with doctors. We're not in the same backyard. We're not doing the things that the doctor's doing. We're not diagnosing anything. We're not practicing medicine, but we can certainly wave at each other from our backyards. And we should have a relationship because Lyndsay Soprano (56:28.802) Yeah. Yes. Elizabeth Gaines (56:31.914) I can handle the 15 pounds and the tiredness and the brain fog, and I'm gonna leave the doctor open to deal with the more serious stuff so that he's not, like his waiting room is not full of people with these vague sort of lifestyle complaints that could be from a million things. And he has no way of knowing what it's from. And that's why you end up with four prescriptions and no answers. Lyndsay Soprano (56:50.721) Right, right. Lyndsay Soprano (56:56.856) And it's just like ER docs, like one of our buddies is an ER doc here in Southern California and he, he's talked about just going to the emergency room. We are there to make sure you don't die. That is our job. You came in, you were in excruciating pain or you got in this car accident, you had a pole hanging out of your body. Ours is to keep you to not die. And then we send you on your way. They're not there to diagnose you. They're not there to give you a bunch of meds that are going to help you feel better. They're to give you the short amount. Elizabeth Gaines (57:07.938) Die, yeah. Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (57:19.267) Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (57:24.906) no refills of something for your pain or something for this or whatever, but they're not going to be the ones that are going to carry you on in your health journey. And that's one of the things that I think that we're missing is the communication between the functional and the MD and the woo woo and all of it, because we are, we are so multifaceted in our bodies and our spirits and our belief systems and what we will do, what we won't do, vaccinate, not vaccinate, just a little bit of vaccination, not a lot of vaccination, you know, go on and on and on. Elizabeth Gaines (57:51.128) Yeah. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (57:52.024) So we're all a little bit different and we require different things because all of us are different. But I am very tired of hearing that it's all in your head. And I'm tired of going back and forth between doctors after doctor after doctor to the point that I just stopped going to the doctor. I just stopped. I stopped. And so now I'm at a baseline and I know exactly how I feel. I know it because I'm not taking anything. I'm not doing anything except for the only thing I can do for pain, which is CBD and THC and a little bit of Prosecco. Let's not lie. Elizabeth Gaines (57:56.024) We do. Lyndsay Soprano (58:21.322) Other than that, I don't really do a lot for pain and it sucks. I do other things like swimming in infrared sauna and I jacuzzi every single morning to get my circulation going in my legs and I do all of these other things that are good for my body, but I'm still not necessarily feeling all that good. You know, I'm just not. My pain is going up and I'm, yeah, I'm maintaining what I can handle and my pain threshold will go up. Yesterday was a doozy. Elizabeth Gaines (58:31.106) Yep. Yep. Elizabeth Gaines (58:36.792) Totally, you're just maintaining. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (58:45.6) And it was like, know what I have to do today. I have to basically do nothing because I can't focus. I can't concentrate. I'm too tired. I need to sleep. My husband and I went to bed last night at seven o'clock. What? What is happening? He has to go to bed early. I don't. But I was so exhausted. My exhaustion actually wears on him. My pain wears on him too. So we have to also take care of those people that were already part of the reason why I'm so exhausted and stressed, which because we have to take care of men. But that's for a different show. Elizabeth Gaines (59:04.854) Of course, that's gonna, that's. Lyndsay Soprano (59:14.924) That is for a different show. Elizabeth Gaines (59:15.106) Yes, but there's nothing that sucks the vital reserve bank account dry like chronic pain. Like that is something that costs a lot of internal money to keep going through that. And cortisol is our stress hormone. It is a natural pain reliever. So when we're in this chronic pain situation, a lot of times we're living with really high cortisol as well. as a result to try and like bring down that level of pain so we can keep functioning. But cortisol is catabolic, it's breaking us down, it's not good. So yeah, yeah, to have high levels all the time, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (59:55.96) So at FDN, where you work, and I know that you love the place, because we've talked about that, but it's clear that you do. Is it just, oh my gosh, I'll do one too. Is it just training of people like yourself that you want to be trained to be a functional diagnostic practitioner? Is it just that, or do you also work with people like myself who need you in their life? Elizabeth Gaines (01:00:08.6) The end is the best! Elizabeth Gaines (01:00:26.392) So as an employee of FDN, I am representing the course to become a practitioner. But we have 4,000 practitioners out there in the world to help someone like you. Yes. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (01:00:33.25) Right. Lyndsay Soprano (01:00:37.302) Wow. Perfect, that's what I wanted to get from you. Yeah, because it's hard to find the right people. I mean, it really is. And I say this often on this show, and I'm gonna say it right now, and I'm gonna continue to say it through this season four, again, going on, but it's like, you've gotta be able to create your health team, your people, your village of people that are gonna talk to each other, that are going to have communication, because that's been the biggest hurdle for me is I have all of this now. And now I don't know where to go with any of this. And what am I missing here? Because I know I'm missing something over here. What is it? What is it? Because we're missing something. I've been saying that forever to my sweetie. I'm like, honey, we are missing something. What is it? Then we thought it was because we found out that it was Lyme disease. That hasn't been just it. There's been all these other things that we're uncovering and all of that. Do you take in, do these practitioners that you were just mentioning, like 4,000 of them across the United States or whatever it was, that Elizabeth Gaines (01:01:10.252) Yep. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (01:01:36.244) are do you take in other people's diagnostic testing or do you like them to redo them through yours? it a little bit of a combo of both? Elizabeth Gaines (01:01:43.777) It's a little bit of a combo. We are very conscious that when clients come to us, they've already been through a lot of trial and error and they've already spent a lot of money. So some of that's gonna have to be spent again. There is gonna have to be an investment made, but we really try and utilize if we can testing that you already have and be very sparing about whatever we're gonna be folding in. Lyndsay Soprano (01:02:08.21) That's cool. Cause like I've got stuff that was done two years ago. Then I have some testing that was done about six months ago. And then I'm about ready to start doing yet another round to see. And if there really hasn't been that much change in between, or there's been a drastic hike in this one and a drastic drop on that one, be able to see those comparisons. Cause it's like, I don't even know how much money I've spent over the years. just on testing, just alone. It's like. Elizabeth Gaines (01:02:28.962) Totally, yeah. And you're not alone with that. And yeah, and I think that a lot of us have been sold tests kind of based on our symptoms, where it's like, I'm gonna do this parasite test, or I'm gonna do that. But this becomes islands of information, and these islands don't talk to each other. And therefore, Lyndsay Soprano (01:02:32.799) No, no. Lyndsay Soprano (01:02:51.085) Mm-hmm. Elizabeth Gaines (01:02:52.94) when there's no broader context, there's just this piece of information and this piece of information and no way to get between them, then the practitioner treats the paper. And so it looks like here are 10 supplements for this and 10 supplements for that. We don't like to do that at FDN. We like to have functional testing that all talks to itself so that we can go, okay, if I need deeper context, I look here. If I need deeper context, I look here. And that's why you are gonna have to redo some tests, you know, because we need. Lyndsay Soprano (01:03:06.518) No. Lyndsay Soprano (01:03:17.058) Mm-hmm. Lyndsay Soprano (01:03:20.728) Yeah, yeah, and I'm prepared for that right now. Yeah, yeah because and that's the thing we need the test to kind of communicate with each other in their own way and then the people that we've quote-unquote hired which I like to say the word hired because I'm hiring somebody to take help take care of me It's not the other way around you don't get to pick me I get to pick you and it's something that is it I Continue to learn like I'm not even keen the story I told earlier where the doctor said there's absolutely no way you have mold in your body Elizabeth Gaines (01:03:21.698) We need things that talk to each other. Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (01:03:34.488) For sure, you are. You are. Elizabeth Gaines (01:03:41.304) That's right. Lyndsay Soprano (01:03:48.716) He is a concierge doctor and I called them the next day and I said, this is not the right match for me. Cause I was so upset by just immediately just sending me into, I'm just gonna give you a bunch of prescriptions. Just completely dismissed. And so that just like ruffled my feathers so bad cause I thought here, I'm gonna find someone who's gonna be able to help me with X, Y and Z. In the meantime, while I get a new village together. Elizabeth Gaines (01:04:02.626) Being dismissed, yeah. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (01:04:15.276) because we moved from Los Angeles to Orange County, which is just a little bit south of Los Angeles. And so most of my doctors were up there. I'm not going to be going up to Los Angeles for pain doctors because I fired all of them anyway, you know, because all they want to do is cut me open or give me pills. And I'm like, come on, I don't want to do that. So I have to go to somebody else. But guys, you do have to come in ready to ask the right questions to these doctors. have to come in. Don't come in with like 30,000 pages printed out and highlighted from Google. Don't do that either. but at least come and be prepared and be strong and advocate for yourself because that's the thing that we're like, well, I guess the doctor's right. So I'm gonna try this now. And it's gonna cause 17 other things. And we know we hear every single commercial for a pill and there's 17,000 things that this pill might cause. And I don't want any of them. I certainly don't want oily discharge coming out of my butt. Like these pills that cause these things. It's like unbelievable. Elizabeth Gaines (01:04:54.252) Yeah, yeah, like. Lyndsay Soprano (01:05:10.262) And then you have to take another pill to get rid of those symptoms and another one to get rid of those was caused by that. I mean, it's just, my God. Elizabeth Gaines (01:05:16.223) And while they're describing these horrific side effects, there's somebody running down the beach at sunset and living their best life, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (01:05:21.56) flying a kite, going down the slide, going down the slide with their kid, little did they know, they just like completely peed their pants because they don't know what's going on in their body. I mean, it's just like unbelievable. Damn marketers. I can say that because I was in marketing for a million years. So damn marketers. But yeah, so I like. Elizabeth Gaines (01:05:32.718) Yeah, yeah, it is, it is. Elizabeth Gaines (01:05:43.822) We can all say that whether we've been a marketer or not, yes. Lyndsay Soprano (01:05:46.114) That is true, that is true. We get a lot of smoke and mirrors in the business, if you will. Indeed. How long again have you been with FDN? Elizabeth Gaines (01:05:52.394) Indeed, indeed. Elizabeth Gaines (01:05:57.039) I went through the program in 2019 and have been employed in some capacity or another. I started off as a mentor, so I would be one of those people that you did your one-on-one test with in 2020 and then sort of moved up to be education director here in 2025. Indeed, indeed. So to your point, it does matter who you hire. It really does. You want a practitioner that is Lyndsay Soprano (01:06:00.843) Okay. Lyndsay Soprano (01:06:08.855) Right. Lyndsay Soprano (01:06:14.232) Uh, who let her? Look at you, darling. Lyndsay Soprano (01:06:22.637) Yes. Elizabeth Gaines (01:06:26.924) going to be able to formulate their own protocol, not going to be basing it on general recommendations, not going to be basing it on symptoms, and is going to test everything, no matter what you walk in with, and then is going to be able to utilize those tests to talk to each other so that they're not just treating the paper, but that they're able to see you as a whole, they're able to get sort of corroboration and deeper context about what's going on with you functionally, and then they're able to... write a comprehensive protocol using diet, rest, exercise, stress reduction, and supplementation. So I highly recommend hiring an FDM practitioner. And if you are a health coach, and I know that there are a lot of health coaches out there who became a health coach because of their own health issues, and you are not getting results with your clients, consider adding in functional testing into your program and get out of general health recommendations because symptoms. Lyndsay Soprano (01:07:08.994) Right, right. Elizabeth Gaines (01:07:21.144) can look the same, whether something is deficient or whether it's in excess, and you're not gonna know until you test. so, FDN is a really powerful thing to add into your practice. Lyndsay Soprano (01:07:33.592) Absolutely and having somebody that can help hold you accountable is something that I've lacked in Anybody that I have basically hired along the way here where it's like, okay. I'm frustrated I don't have a check-in from anybody. I they haven't asked me how I'm doing like I'm six days in why don't I have a checkup? Why am I the one going? Hey, I need to talk to you about something. I haven't heard from it What is go like I am we're doing all of the work and it then you end up quitting Elizabeth Gaines (01:07:55.0) What's going on? Yeah, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (01:08:02.072) because you're like, forget it. I spent all this money and I was actually doing all the work in the first damn place because you put me into, I'm like, this is insane. Like I might as well just be my own. I might as well be a you and just go get my own certification and know how to read my own stuff and then go to a doctor and say, this is what we're gonna damn well do now because I have had it. I have just had it with being pushed around and paid so much money and so much time, so much frustration, so many tears. Elizabeth Gaines (01:08:07.234) Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (01:08:17.176) Correct. Correct. Yes. Lyndsay Soprano (01:08:31.21) and it trickles down into our families and into our loved ones and our social, our social, getting out and being social with people, because like you said in the beginning, how you're like, I didn't wanna talk to anybody, I didn't wanna hang out with anybody, I was in bed all day long. That's what ends up happening with me too. Elizabeth Gaines (01:08:43.778) And they eventually, yeah, they eventually stop checking in on you because you look fine and you sound fine and they don't really, and you don't have a real diagnosis. And so they're just like, never wants to go out anymore. It's not funny anymore. They stop calling, they stop coming by, you know, and you just sort of watch yourself fade into the background of your own life. Like you become a supporting character in your own life. Lyndsay Soprano (01:08:47.96) That's right. Right. Lyndsay Soprano (01:09:02.294) Yep. Elizabeth Gaines (01:09:10.978) Yeah. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (01:09:11.98) You made me almost like, I know, because it's true. it, gosh. Elizabeth Gaines (01:09:16.642) Yeah, like people are taking vacations and they're meeting their future spouses and you are in bed. Yeah, yeah, it's not a pretty picture when it comes down to that. Lyndsay Soprano (01:09:30.41) No, is, and it's certainly with all of our social media that we see where everybody's posting all of the best moments of their lives. Elizabeth Gaines (01:09:36.202) Hahaha! Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (01:09:39.404) filter it out and everything. like, I can't wait for school to start again so I can see everybody's chalkboards. Can't wait, it's gonna be great. So, okay, well before we go, is there anything that you'd like to leave our listeners with? Because we covered a lot here today. For starters, thank you so much for doing everything that you've done, for the victims of sexual assault and trafficking that you've done over the years. I, as somebody that's gone through a hell of a lot of crap in that department, Elizabeth Gaines (01:09:45.41) Yeah. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (01:10:07.062) I do appreciate you being there and supporting the community of those young girls. They are not women, by the way, if they're 13. Get me started. No, they are not. They're not like sign me up. But thank you again for that. And also for this conversation has been wonderful. But anything you'd like to leave us with before we hit the dust trail? Elizabeth Gaines (01:10:15.918) They're not, yeah, they're not choosing to be prostitutes. Yeah, Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (01:10:28.652) Yeah, I just want to say that if you are a health coach and you are thinking, or a practitioner of anything, if you're an acupuncturist or a personal trainer or massage therapist or whatever, it can be sort of scary to think about coming to a place like FDN because we might dictate how you speak or what you do or these types of things. And I just want to say that we have utmost respect at FDN for the unique signature of healing that each of you are in the world. There is no one like you. There is no voice like you. There is no one who can do it the way that you do it. And FDN can come in and support that and can wind around whoever you already are. You don't have to change to become an FDN. We really have ultimate respect for the individuality of everyone and how they approach healing and how they approach health. Lyndsay Soprano (01:11:32.844) Yes, and for all of us out there that need a you in this world. Elizabeth Gaines (01:11:37.154) Yes. Lyndsay Soprano (01:11:41.336) what do we say to them? Because we've got to tell the people like me, like, you're gonna make it, there's hope out there, there is somebody out there that's gonna be able to help you, don't give up, we can't. We can't give up, we can't. Elizabeth Gaines (01:11:57.615) Absolutely, yeah. The outcome of our lives has to matter to us or else we're never gonna make it out of our sickbed. Yeah, like we have to be invested in the outcome. if we, yeah, like if we give up, like if I, and I think we've all been there, right? At this place where it have been very easy to give up. Lyndsay Soprano (01:12:07.201) Mm-hmm. Lyndsay Soprano (01:12:15.574) Yes, well said. I like that a lot. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (01:12:26.359) this. Elizabeth Gaines (01:12:26.562) where you're exhausted, where no one is checking in on you, where everyone is telling you there's nothing they can do for you. It's really easy to just let go. But if you're not invested in the outcome, no one else will be. Lyndsay Soprano (01:12:46.08) I like that, that's a good way to end my darling. Very good, thank you for that. I appreciate it. Well this has been fun, I knew it was gonna be fun. You know, we talk a lot about like horrible things that have happened to people on this show. We've talked about people that are going through the worst days of their lives, you know, and what's happened to their bodies from a chronic pain, from chronic illness perspective, and it might not have been something that happened to you, it might have been your loved one that something happened to and you're trying to support them. Elizabeth Gaines (01:12:48.088) Yeah. Elizabeth Gaines (01:12:55.146) It was fun, yes. Lyndsay Soprano (01:13:14.424) These are the things that we talk about here on the pain game podcast. So thank you so much for joining us. It was lovely to have you again behind the mic with me. You can find a funk, FDN functional diagnostic nutrition.com. They're all over their website, Facebook, Instagram on LinkedIn. You can check them out. There's a YouTube channel as well. This is all being in show notes and in social media and our email marketing. Also, they do have a podcast called the health detective podcast. They've got almost 500 episodes that are out there that you can take a listen to. So please chime in on that. And if you have any questions, you can reach out to me, you can reach out to FDN and they can get you in touch with somebody to help you, whether you're a health practitioner that wants to add this to your kit and caboodle, or if you're a Lindsay, that is like, I need more help because I can't get anywhere from the answers that I have to questions I didn't even know I needed to ask. So we love you here on the Pain Game Podcast. You are exclusively invited to share this reclaim your health. and purpose VIP pain journey together. Let's get to the heart of how to heal with you by my side, well, and Elizabeth's side as well. Please follow The Pain Game podcast wherever you digest your podcast content. We will be there. Visit us at thepaingamepodcast.com and follow us on all the socials. Thanks for listening, my little VIPs. Catch you on the other side.