HouseCall: Dry Patches, Ear Wax, Emotional Issues, Baby Weight, Anxious Acne, Thumb Pain, Skinny Fat, Vegan Omega-3
Welcome back to our weekend Cabral HouseCall shows!
This is where we answer our community’s wellness, weight loss, and anti-aging questions to help people get back on track!
Check out today’s questions:
Tyler: Hi Stephen, I am an avid listener of your podcast and I’m pretty sure I have listened to almost every single one of your episodes over the last 14 months. I have learned more from you than I have in all four years of my undergrad. I am currently a first-year naturopathic medical students and hope to follow in your footsteps as a naturopathic and functional medicine practitioner. My question for you is dealing with a chronic eczema-like skin condition that has been going on for about two months. I developed this towards the end of a one-month-long vacation in Europe during the month of August. I am a very health-conscious individual and follow a predominately vegan lifestyle that includes some cold water oily fish and pastured eggs and avoid dairy, wheat, and refined sugar. I have been following your Dr Cabral daily morning protocol since February and do a combo of hot yoga, weight lifting, and swimming 4-5x per week. I have done your organic acids test and hair tissue mineral analysis test in the last six months as well as an IGA and IgG food sensitivity test. I have known sensitivities to tuna, wheat (but not gluten), cane sugar, and cows milk and my other two tests came back normal. While in Europe, I decided to “live a little” and completely throw my diet out the door. I ate all the wheat, dairy, sugar, and meat I wanted and ate relatively little plant-based foods. I did not exercise during this time as well. The one thing I did bring with me was your nutritional support powder which I consumed everyday. During the last week of my trip, I came down with what I would consider a really bad cold. Very sore throat, swollen tonsils, and lymph nodes, chronic red eyes that looked like conjunctivitis that would switch from eye to eye, a stuffy nose, body aches, and clogged ears. During the course of this I try to drink as much fluids as possible, get sleep, and I decided to go back to a more anti-inflammatory diet. After returning to California, I quickly started on your immune support protocol and within a couple days started feeling much better. I also started getting back into my normal eating habits which seemed to help as well. Towards the end of the cold, I found myself itching my quads, buttocks, the back my elbows, forearms, and wrist more frequently because they itched but there was no noticeable inflamed/irritated skin. Within two days of returning from Europe I moved up to Washington to start medical school. I didn’t have a place to live yet which was stressful and found a place right before school started. When school started we hit the ground running and I was under a lot of stress trying to get everything together, school, being sick, etc. Since then, I have developed small red, sometimes inflamed, dry patches of skin in between my fingers, in the webbing of my fingers, palms, on my wrists, on parts of my abdomen, upper chest, the inner quad and groin area, as well as in the upper buttocks region. When not inflamed, it almost looks like calluses you get from gripping weights. It itches. The worst thing is it is getting worse at night and so it is affecting my quality of sleep where I’m constantly waking up or can’t fall asleep. I’ve seen a naturopathic doctor here twice and they have given me a topical steroid to control the itching so I can sleep. Not super effective and I don’t really like using it so I have discontinued. They ruled out the possibility of scabies from physical examination. I have been cooking my own food since moving up here and my stools have been regular and solid/normal looking. The working diagnosis they are working with is dyshidrotic eczema although the patches/bumps have never been fluid-filled. I just started your natural sleep protocol and it seems to be helping some. I also just did a condensed 5 day version of your detox without the supplements and just the powder. Before the natural sleep protocol, I was using CBD oil which was also helping a little bit. I’ve also been trying to take baths consisting of baking soda, coconut oil, and Teatree oil. During this time period, I have also had two canker sore’s in my lower lip that have lasted 11+ days and have been very large and painful. I’ve been using your immune support protocol on and off for the last month. I take at least 3+ grams of vitamin C and 15 to 30 µg of zinc picolinate every day and try to use a sauna every day since my gym offers it. I feel like I’m doing all the right things but it is still persistent. Sorry for the long message. I just wanted to be as thorough as possible. I appreciate your guidance!
Lance: Hello, I am a new listener and now follower of your podcast. I am so interested that I am ordering some of the books you have suggested in Ayurvedic Medicine. My question is regarding my children. I have looked into previous podcasts and have not been able to find definitive information on this subject. My children are 6 and 3. Their past Pediatrician mentioned both the children were major ear wax producers. So much so that the medical staff is not able to view the eardrums during a basic physical exam. What is this? Can it be a problem? Is this a Nutritional issue? It was suggested that I use a hydrogen peroxide and water solution or Debrox ear drops to clear the wax. Do you have any advice or suggestions? Thanks for your perspective! Lance
Donna: Dr. Cabral, I have concerns over my 11 year old grandson. He is and has been a very bright child, testing show high intelligence. However, in the last four years he has gone through much emotional turmoil with family issues, loss of a cousin, and two additional siblings, he is now the oldest of five. The current issue is he is now in middle school at 11, he does not turn in assignments yet does well on tests. He goes to bed late and does not get enough sleep and is always tired. What is your sleep protocol that would be appropriate for him? Loss of sleep and emotional issues is setting him up for failure in my opinion. Thank you for your time. Donna
Caitlin: Hi, I’m not sure where to direct the questions you answer in your podcasts, but I was wondering if you had any information/advice about balancing post pardum hormones and safe weight loss methods for breastfeeding moms. I feel like I need a detox, but know I can’t really do that while nursing. Any advice? Thank you!
Mari (Mary): My questions were some that were missed through the unfortunate reset to the website!!! Glad you got everything resolved. I have been on birth control for 10 years and would like to come off of it a little more graceful than I have tried in the past that left me discouraged and going back on it. I have had terrible cystic acne for the past few years and with the help of your podcast have made some life changes. I no longer eat dairy at all, it causes too many sinus issues for me and skin issues as well. I recently cut out added sugar and I can’t believe what that has done for my skin. I currently take the DIM product per the hormone test I had done with you guys previously. I also take the daily multivitamin. My anxiety comes and goes but when it comes, it is so terrible. I tried the CBD and LOVED it.. sometimes it’s just not in the cards for me to spend the money that it costs, but I do plan on reordering because I loved what it did for me. The last time I got off birth control, my skin became extremely oily, my anxiety got a little better, my back broke out which it never has prior and it was huge cystic pimples. My results were as followed for your testing: Estradiol 1.1 progesterone 39 ratio pg/e2 35 L Testosterone 35 DHEAS 9.8 Cortisol morning 8.6 cortisol noon 2.6 cortisol 1.4 cortisol 1.5 H Night. I would like to come off birth control without as many issues as I had. I slept through the night when I came off of it and felt like my bladder wasn’t as overactive. The physical side effects the acne, the back acne really had me torn and I jumped right back on it. I was wondering naturally with supplementation what I could do to make this maybe an easier transition. Currently, I go through moods where for sometimes what seems like weeks, I am sad and down for a reason I don’t know.
Mari (Mary): Thank you for all that you do. You have no idea how much my life has changed because of this podcast in the past year. Recently, I have noticed my right thumb killing me. It is hard to open almost anything. I crack my knuckles and fingers and I can’t even get it to crack anymore. Pushing down on it even hurts. I did not do anything to cause this, but it is so hard because I have an office job and am constantly using my hands. I recently cut out added sugar of my diet and am dairy and gluten-free. Anything would really help. Thank you!
Robert: Hi Dr. Cabral. Thank you for all of the great work that you do! I’ve started to focus more on weight-training this coming winter, but I’m at a bit of a loss where to get started. My body type is what some in the industry call “skinny fat” – I have a relatively thin frame (probably ectomorph or combination), very thin legs and arms, a moderate metabolism, and so on. Overall, I have a low body fat percentage, but unfortunately I don’t have that natural abdominal tone that many ectomorphs benefit from. I generally eat pretty cleanly, so I’m at a loss what I might be doing wrong. I want a mostly “lean” and toned result, so I’m worried that excessive bulking might be counterintuitive. I’ve researched online a bit, but encountered very mixed suggestions. Should I minimize cardio? Dramatically increase calories? Any words of advice are appreciated!
Lauren: Hi, I was wondering if you could help recommend a way I can get omega 3’s and get my blood work better. I am allergic to fish so i have to be careful to make sure nothing has fish oil in it etc. I currently got some blood work done and I am low in a lot.. (iron serum-53; folate serum -13.2, b12 -381ng/ml, ferritin – 11ng; d3-34; my cholesterol was go, my TSH was 1.030 which i think is low? hemoglobin – 11.8). My doctor said nothing to worry about but, I know based off ideal #s these are low. Currently I started taking vitamin d3 5000, your activated B-complex, your multivitamin, and your daily protein shake. Is there anything else I can be doing? If I want to have a baby in the next 2 years, I know it is impt to get folic acid at a good level too. Any recommendations will be appreciated! Thank you!!
Thank you for tuning into today’s Cabral HouseCall and be sure to check back tomorrow where we answer more of our community’s questions!