Jessica: When I don’t understand something I turn to Dr. Cabral! Thank you for being a trusting person to learn and seek information. My question is.. Is there a correlation to a rise in cholesterol and pregnancy? I haven’t seen this asked before on the ask Cabral episodes… I recently got a lipid panel done and was completely shocked to see that my cholesterol went from 172 in April to 283 in October. I am 26 weeks pregnant with my third baby.

Brianna: Hi! I’ve been listening to your podcast for months now and I’ve learned so many helpful things not only for myself but for my family as well. I’m so incredibly grateful for the work you and your team do. A little background, I’m 25 and have had large kidney stones made up of calcium that have required surgery twice in the past 6 years and I just found out I have stones again. (Yay me) This time around, I was told I have medullary sponge kidneys which I’ve done some research about and the most I can find to help prevent the stones is to lower sodium intake. I already don’t eat meat or dairy, drink 80-100oz of water a day and tend to stay away from processed foods as much as possible. Is there anything else that would be helpful? Maybe a calcium supplement? Thank you so much!

Heather: Hi Dr. Cabral! Can you please tell me what you know about CADASIL? I’ve looked in your podcast archives and couldn’t find anything about it. It runs in my best friend’s family (her mom, aunt, and uncle all had it and passed away from it), and now my friend started experiencing stroke-like symptoms and was admitted to the hospital where they said she had a stroke in her sleep. She’s only 26 years old. Appreciate any insight/advise you can give me on this. Thanks so much for all you do. -Heather

Stephanie: Hi doctor Cabral, I absolutely love your podcast and had a quick question: they say that fasting can be stressful for your body- especially if you’re a pre-menopausal woman. However, I’ve noticed that during a longer fast (20-24 hrs), my night-time HRV and deep sleep both double, which I thing means that I’m recovering and not stressing my body. Do you agree, or am I looking at this the wrong way? Thanks so much for your answer!

Whitney: Hello! I am a 35 y/o female and having a hard time making the decision to have a child/children or not. Fertility is likely not an issue for me but I have yet to get lab work to confirm. As my age is getting closer to the cutoff for child bearing my anxiety over this continues to increase, so I wanted to freeze my eggs to stop the clock on the decision. So my question to you is: 1) Is it better to freeze my eggs asap because of my age, or do you think I can hold off still and improve the quality of my eggs by diet/lifestyle inventions to freeze better quality eggs in the future ? And 2) What are your thoughts on egg freezing and IVF in general / might I be undervaluing the importance of getting pregnant naturally? I understand this is a nuanced convo & appreciate your thoughts!