Dr. Stephen Cabral developed his passion for health & wellness after going through severe health complications at the age of 17. He saw over 50 different doctors, tried over 100 different treatment protocols, but still saw no hope of recovery.
It wasn’t until he met an “alternative” health doctor, who explained where his health complications came from and how he could become well again, that he began his recovery process. It was at this young age that Dr. Cabral knew his life would be dedicated to helping others rebalance their bodies and renew their health.
In this interview Dr. Stephen Cabral speaks on how to eliminate environmental toxins from your life, improve thyroid health and overcome gut related challenges.
When Dr. Stephen Cabral’s Health Began to Decline
I think like many of us, we believe we’re healthy when we’re not. That’s one of the biggest issues with conventional medicine. You’re essentially told that if your blood work looks okay then you’re healthy but as we know now, health is not just the absence of disease, it’s actually feeling like you have energy, feeling like you’re alive and you have vision and drive.
Back as a child I wasn’t healthy. I had allergies, asthma, hives, borderline, food sensitivities, etc. During my senior year of high school, my immune system started shutting down and I ended up being diagnosed with addison’s disease, autoimmune issues, type 2 diabetes, insomnia, and many other issues.
Part of it was stress, but during my childhood I was also always taking antibiotics and at 14 years old I was put on antibiotics twice a day for 3 years. I had consumed a couple 1,000 capsules by 17 years old which led to this massive inflammation and immune shut down in my body.
How long did it take you to start feeling healthy again?
Believe it or not, it actually took 2 years to get those diagnoses. I went to dozens of specialists and they were either saying that it was all in my head or they were saying they could see my swollen glands but didn’t know how to help me.
That all led me to be introduced to an alternative health practitioner which involved hormone testing, sensitivity food testing, and gut testing. I was on that path for about 5 more years of getting better, relapsing, getting better, relapsing.
Finally, I said no more medication and I went completely natural at 23 years old. I met my mentor a couple years later who introduced me to functional medicine and I was better in 4 months after 10 years of suffering.
It’s all about finding the right program for you based on your own bio individuality.
The Rain Barrel Effect by Dr. Stephen Cabral
All the anxiety, depression, etc can be explained with the same analogy of a rain barrel: a barrel that collects rain and overflows once full of rain water.
Over time we began to collect all these things in our environment and combine that with stress, deficiencies, and toxicities. Eventually what happens is, you get to be like how I was at 17 years old because the rain barrel eventually overflows.
What is the best way to keep these environmental toxins from getting in our system?
The best place to start is with what you’re exposed to most: your food, your water and your cooking and cleaning supplies. A lot of people don’t even know the existence of all these toxins in the environment. There are over 144,000 man made chemicals in the United States alone and half of which have been shown to cause cancers.
By the year 2030, the World Health Organization believes that 1 out of 2 people will have cancer in their lifetime
You need to watch out for the dirty dozen produce and the chlorine and fluoride that can be found in city water. The pesticides in the dirty dozen cannot be removed from the non-organic produce which means it goes right into your body. While, the chlorine in water is a toxin to the bacteria in your gut and fluoride has been shown to lower thyroid function.
** Prefer To Watch? Check Out Our Livestream, Get Well, Lose Weight, & Feel Alive Again with Dr. Stephen Cabral Here!**
What do you think is causing the mass issue with thyroid problems and what do you recommend to people?
The main reason people have thyroid issues is not just because of genetics but also likely because they’re deficient in the main minerals. The main minerals are selenium, zinc, iodine, and just a couple others.
The other issues with the thyroid could be related to the gut and/or stress. There can be multiple reasons for a thyroid issue but 99% of all auto-immune issues are related to the gut.
If you’re having any symptoms that make you think you might be having thyroid issues, you need to run a hormone based lab to see what’s off and begin to correct those.
What about the people who find all of this stressful and overwhelming?
You start out not knowing about these things, and then you find out about them and you overreact, then after that you’re so overwhelmed that there’s an under reaction and you go back to how you were living before.
I teach in my practice that there can be a happy medium and that you can’t be worried about everything. What you can do is just chip away over the next year where you start making little changes over a gradual time span that works well for you.
You only need knowledge because the cost is not that much greater and can in fact be less.
You can either use medication or supplements but you can’t use neither. We live in a world right now where even eating good and healthy organic food, if you look at the nutritional profile between the 1960’s and before, it’s radically different.
I don’t believe in mega-dosing but I do believe in a little bit of support for your body.
Need some support but don’t know what supplement to start with? Try Mimi’s Miracle Glutathione!
Dr. Stephen Cabral’s Favorite Supplements
What we start with is a daily foundational protocol. That’s really what we recommend for most people.
What I recommend is a good daily nutritional support like a shake or a multivitamin that gives you the methylated B vitamins because those B vitamins are needed for phase 1 and partially in phase 2 detoxification of the liver. We really need the full B complex, not just B-12 alone.
Most people don’t eat 7-9 servings of fruit and vegetables every day and if they do, there’s not a wide variety and there’s not a rainbow of colors. Some type of daily fruit and vegetable blend is a nice one to have if you can get it organic.
I’m also a huge proponent of 2-3 grams of what’s called a triglyceride bound mercury free omega-3 oil. The research on it is really unbelievable so much so that conventional medicine has their own omega-3 now.
I’d also say a great non-dairy daily probiotic is great for the gut. Now, if you have bacterial overgrowth, probably don’t take a prebiotic but if you’re healthy and balanced, a good daily prebiotic could be good.
Looking for a trusted plant-based omega-3 supplement? Click here to check out PureForm Omega Natural!
I’ll end with this, we talk about all sorts of things and sometimes it can seem overwhelming. The truth is that it doesn’t have to be. You want to start with one thing whether it’s this podcast, reading a book, taking your first at home lab test on hormones, and just allow someone who has a blueprint or formula to walk you through that.
That doesn’t have to be with us. You can find a great local naturopathic doctor in your area, you can work with an integrated health practitioner. Whatever feels like the next right fit for you is really what I want to see people do.
This whole belief that, “It’s genetic.” has to go away. If you didn’t have this when you were 8 years old, trust me you can empty that rain barrel and re-balance your body.
