Energy-Draining Toxins are often undetectable. We think our living environment is safe, but energy-draining toxins surround us. To help us identify and find solutions to dealing with energy-draining toxins, I’m thrilled to have Dr. Stephen Cabral back on the show.

Dr. Stephen Cabral was my guest on episode 271, and we talked about his book, The Rain Barrel Effect. This time, we’ll talk about energy-draining toxins negatively affect our health and damages our immune system.

Understanding Our Body

Dr. Stephen Cabral is a board-certified Naturopathic doctor. And he looks at the underlying causes that lead to disease or symptoms.

“I try to put the body into a position to heal. First, I give it what it’s missing. And try to help remove through a gentle system of what it has too much of. Then I allow the body to heal itself,” said Dr. Stephen Cabral.

He says that for example, if you have Hashimoto’s, your immune system is attacking the thyroid. If you have rheumatoid, it attacks the joints. These are examples of immune system imbalances.

“For allergies, asthma, brain fog, fatigue and a lot of other things, we call that the TH2 immune system imbalance. And that’s the chronic inflammation with some pathogen,” Dr. Stephen Cabral said.

He adds, “Since 80% of your entire immune system lies in and around your intestines, you know that’s where to look first. The gut is going to have its immune-based system. When that happens, and it sees something there that shouldn’t be there in the bloodstream, it goes after it and creates an immune-based cascade to remove it from the body.”

Dr. Stephen Cabral also explains that if you look at it over time, building up to the point that there is inflammation in our gut, it imbalances our microbiome. And our immune system has been aggravated for so long; it eventually ends up in some autoimmune-based issue.

Finding A Solution

All people can be helped. Dr. Stephen Cabral assures that a solution can be found if you find out what you are deficient in as well as what your toxicities are. Hence, in his practice, Dr. Stephen Cabral helps to replace those deficiencies and remove toxicities and heavy metals and gut-based issues.

“Genetics don’t honestly make that huge difference except tell you what you are susceptible to,” said Dr. Stephen Cabral. “Because genetics loads the gun, but the environment pulls the trigger. That’s called epigenetics. And that means your genes can be turned on and off.”

Changing the Mindset

Dr. Stephen Cabral spent a decade trying to get well from the age of 17 years old to 27 years old. He went to so many amazing practitioners, but it was not until he was 27 years old that Dr. Stephen Cabral met his mentor who told him he needs to work both on the mind and body.

“The only people that we see are not able to heal are those people that can’t allow themselves to move in that position,” shares Dr. Stephen Cabral. “Their mind has been made up that they are someone that’s meant to be sick or a victim of their disease. You could get well even if you were struggling for years like I was.”

Main Forms of Energy-Draining Toxins

Dr. Stephen Cabral says there’s a lot of chemicals or energy-draining toxins that we can easily avoid, but we don’t know are there. He says the dirty dozen list are the ones that are sprayed with higher levels of glyphosate which is a form of pesticide. Those pesticides are meant not to allow bugs to eat all the crops.

“But the problem is, glyphosate although shown to not be harmful at a small dosage, it hasn’t shown what it could do over time to our microbiome,” reveals Dr. Stephen Cabral. “We have a hundred trillion bacteria, and those are bugs as well. And they are good bugs. They are supposed to be there.”

He adds, “When we take enough glyphosate, that’s the time we see a lot of intestinal based damage. And the glyphosate at the same time, with the dirty dozen, can’t be washed off.”

Organic Acid Test

Dr. Stephen Cabral explains that it’s a semi-five biomarker. The first one looks at yeast and fungal overgrowth because there’s a lot of people right now taking probiotics.

“But the problem is if you have a small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, and you’re taking probiotics, you’re adding more bacteria to a gut that’s already full of bacteria,” Dr. Stephen Cabral said.

So, if anybody comes in with bloating, gas, acid reflux, constipation or loose stool, Dr. Stephen Cabral usually recommends them to have an organic acid test and a stool test.

“Because if you are starting to become imbalanced in the gut microbiome and the bacteria, you’re not able to process and make the same level of B vitamins,” said Dr. Stephen Cabral. “If you don’t make the same level of B vitamins, you don’t deal well with stress; you don’t deal with inflammation well. And that’s when the genetics matter.”

Heavy Metals

Heavy metals and plastic flame retardants are top of the list of energy-draining toxins. It is even more harmful to pregnant women. Because the toxins could pass right through the placenta, to the umbilical cord, and to the unborn child.

Dr. Stephen Cabral shares that there was a study that showed ten unborn children had an average of 200 toxins in their body. The highest one had 300 toxins before they were ever born.

Cookware

If you think cooking food kills the harmful bacteria, you’re wrong. Having the wrong cookware is just as dangerous. So many people still cook on aluminum foil. And Dr. Stephen Cabral says when you do that, it gets worse if there is an acid-based food. Thus, he advises avoiding using aluminum pans. Aluminum spatulas are not safe as well, so replace it with bamboo spatulas for cooking.

Dr. Stephen Cabral says using ceramic, porcelain, glassware and cast iron much better choices for cookware. He also advises steering clear of non-stick cookware, processed and smoked meats because it harms the kidneys.

“If it’s man-made, your body is probably not set up to be able to deal with it properly. And that’s because your body was meant to deal with everything in nature but not these 77,000 man-made chemicals. Your liver is never meant to see that level of toxins,” said Dr. Stephen Cabral.

Toxic Plastics

BPA was a big thing around ten years ago. And if one is not careful around avoiding toxic plastics, it causes more estrogen in the body. And Dr. Stephen Cabral explains that our body would not be able to properly eliminate it in its more toxic form which is an estrogen ester.

“What happens is they can build up in the liver and circulate in the bloodstream. It’s worse if you are stressed. You get lower levels of progesterone.” said Dr. Stephen Cabral.

Adverse effects of toxic plastics can also cause depression, bloating, acne on the chin and jawline, lower mood, excessive facial hair growth, increase in cellulite and water retention. Dr. Stephen Cabral affirms that these have nothing to do with eating too many calories, wrong foods or not exercising enough.

Dealing With Stress

Dr. Stephen Cabral explains that when we are stressed, the body down regulates metabolism and produces stress hormones. It increases heart rate and overall pulse.

Furthermore, it can make you experience shortness of breath, headaches, migraines, and excessive sweating. Dr. Stephen Cabral also says fasting and skipping breakfast if you are stressed is not a good idea because it drags you further into that fight or flight.

“If you’re in a state of high stress, your body produces cortisol. Your body will break down its liver glycogen to make your blood sugar rise. And it does that because burning fat is a very slow oxidizing fuel,” Dr. Stephen Cabral said.

He adds, “For pregnant women, in particular, my theory is that when women are in a more a survival based state, or higher stress environment, the body automatically down regulates progesterone and may result in an irregular menstrual cycle or makes it harder to get pregnant.”

Cosmetics

This is not good news for makeup junkies. Because Dr. Stephen Cabral says what you put on your skin is much more dangerous. So it’s best to know the ingredients contained in the cosmetics that you use.

Other Negative Effects

Because of energy-draining toxins, a lot of people are putting on toxic water weight and toxic fat because their bodies are swelling. But if you start to lose weight too quickly, Dr. Stephen Cabral reveals that you can have flu-like symptoms, skin rashes and headaches.

Most people also have the wrong idea about metabolism. They think that metabolism can just be altered by what you eat. But Dr. Stephen Cabral says metabolism isn’t just calories. It’s about the actual energy and movement in the body.

Stool test

A stool test is best to look for parasites, H-pylori, and bacterial overgrowth. These are living things. And Dr. Stephen Cabral says living things produce waste. That waste then goes into your bloodstream, and your liver has to filter all of that.

“In functional medicine, detoxification is focused on the liver, not the lungs or kidneys. This is because the liver filters all the blood in your body every six minutes,” shares Dr. Stephen Cabral.

Detoxification

In treating patients, Dr. Stephen Cabral helps wean them off supplements and make them do a seasonal detox for seven days. Generally, he tries to follow the Eastern-based practices with state-of-the-art based protocols.

“We support liver detoxification pathways. All the blood filters through the liver. That’s our safety net,” explains Dr. Stephen Cabral. “It’s going to pull everything it can into the thousands of bile duct and creates something that’s called phase 1 and phase 2 detoxification.”

He adds, “Make sure you are drinking enough water so that you can eliminate it through your urine through the kidneys. Then make sure that you can sweat and open up those sweat pathways. Exercise, sauna, and cardio are also good for the lungs.”

Proper Nourishment

When our body is exposed to plastic and toxic things, our body has to take these toxins from the environment and break it down. Hence, Dr. Stephen Cabral firmly recommends that it is essential to eat cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, and similar green leafy vegetables. It is naturally high in amino acids that are going to allow our body to take these toxins.

“You give the body more of the vitamins and more of this specific amino acids to allow phase 1 and phase 2 detox. So that your body can eliminate the waste through your gallbladder,” Dr. Stephen Cabral said.

He adds, “Phase 1 is a lot of the antioxidants, vitamin C and E, and natural vitamins. They would be all the B vitamins and folic acid.”

On the other hand, glutathione is referred to as the mother anti-oxidants. Dr. Stephen Cabral says that when the liver needs to remove toxins, it looks towards glutathione. Aside from glutathione, selenium is one of the most underrated minerals including zinc. Both are necessary for the immune system, hormones, blood sugar, and thyroids.

Sauna

One of Dr. Stephen Cabral’s favorite recommendations to people is to have saunas. He shares that there was a recent European study showing that people who used saunas five times a week, and 19 minutes a day, decreased mortality by 42%. Cardiovascular death was reduced by 63%.

Dr. Stephen Cabral recommends doing 20 minutes in the sauna at 150 plus degrees. If you have an infrared sauna, whether near or far, doing 40 to 45 minutes at a lower temperature of 110 to 140 degrees help in removing heavy metals. He also reminds everyone to keep hydrated. Mixing sea salt, lime or lemon in your water is a natural Gatorade to get your body to absorb the water better.

“The journey doesn’t stop. I’m continuing my research. And for those who haven’t found their answers yet, they are coming. I believe that,” said Dr. Stephen Cabral. “And I can’t recommend enough looking into functional medicine lab tests. It will give you concrete proof or begin protocol. Always keep moving forward. Don’t give up. The result is worth it.”

Bio

After almost 20 years and over 600,000 pages of research study completed, dozens of certifications in the natural health field, over 16,000 health & fitness client sessions, and a doctoral degree in Naturopathy, Dr. Stephen Cabral’s knowledge, experience, and compassion are at the top of his field.

Dr. Stephen Cabral also spent over 5,000 hours of formal doctoral degree work, which included 2,200 hours of internships. These internships were mainly spent overseas studying the very best of natural medicine (much of which is unknown here in the US).

His internships included studying, working, and living in clinics all around the world. This intimate setting allowed Dr. Stephen Cabral to talk in depth with the patients at these clinics and listen to their struggles and path to wellness. He also got to see first hand the remarkable recoveries these people were making. Some of these internship locations included India, Sri Lanka, China, Europe, and various practices in the US.

Dr. Stephen Cabral has appeared in every type of media outlet as a national health & wellness consultant, as well as a contributor to MTV, Men’s Health, Women’s Day, Maxim, SELF, Diet.com, Nutrition Data, Conde Nast, and many others. He has also authored and co-authored four books and published over 1,100 articles.

Dr. Stephen Cabral has been hired by over 300 health clubs, wellness clinics, Holistic centers, training studios, and by other health professionals to improve their training programs and services. This allows Dr. Stephen Cabral to reach more people and hopefully improve more lives by teaching the health & fitness professionals that work directly with those in need.