HouseCall: Heal ThySelf, Acidity, Phantosmia, Thalassemia, Lichen Sclerosus, Neuropathy, Burping & Gurgling

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:

Kylie: Hi Stephen! My name is Kylie and I’m from Australia. First of all I want to say thank you for everything you’re doing to help others all over the world. I came across your podcast only recently and have been binge listening ever since. The fact that you want to share your hard-earned knowledge and reach out to help as many people as you can is truly inspiring! I am a mother of 3 beautiful children (9,7,5) and over the last few years have slowly felt my health start to suffer, where now I’m at a point where I feel completely overwhelmed, lost, unable to sleep, brain fog, moody, very VERY low libido, yeast infections, Dry skin, low mood and bloating. 6 years ago I learnt how nutrition played an important role in overall health. I eat clean whole foods- lots of veg, fruit, small amounts of red meat, fish, chicken, some nuts and seeds, healthy fats. No gluten, refined sugars, processed foods, alcohol or dairy. Bit of background- relatively healthy childhood. I was extremely sick throughout all my pregnancies and was put on steroids for my 3rd pregnancy so I could just function. After I weened my 3rd child I noticed a huge hormonal shift that has never really normalised (negative mood, skin complexion, low libido, feeling down) Have been to doctors about my issues and without testing have just told me maybe I have IBS, pomphlox eczema (gave me steroid creams) and try to put me on anti-anxiety drugs. I have had a huge passion for health and wellness for many years and know that there is a root cause for all that’s going on health-wise for me. I have lost faith in my GP and want to start putting my health and my life together. On one of your episodes, you mentioned, that in order to heal, you knew you had to switch off your “fight or flight” response. That healing cannot commence until we are calm and in a parasympathetic mode. I want to know more about how you made this switch and where I need to begin to start getting myself better. I also start studying nutrition next month and want to have the energy and focus to do so. Thank you, and I hope you can help me. With love, Kylie

Chris: Hey Doctor Cabral! I’m a 26-year-old, Pitta, exercise 5 times a week (bodybuilding style) and only have a once-a-week cheat meal like yourself. Stick to a 40/30/30 Carbs to protein to fat ratio. About six months ago I finished your cbo protocol for Sibo, h pylori, and e coli. Although the healing has been a long process, now I feel great, I have no more bloating or brain fog even when I eat high fodmap foods. Still healing my adrenals which are much better with recently adding bitter melon to stabilize blood sugar seemed to help a lot especially with sleep. My only problem right now is I am still Constipated if I don’t consume at least 800mg of magnesium daily. Right after the CBO protocol I tried to re-build stomach acid and used ginger tea with meals only to have a severe burning in my stomach which significantly felt like it eroded my lining irritating it. It made sleeping a nightmare as my stomach would be pulsing all night. I began to take colloid silver and healthy belly for 2 months in case there were any h pylori still there. Then I started taking Pepto Bismol morning and night as a coating for my stomach as natural herbs gave me brain fog. 3 months later and my stomach was healed enough to switch to slippery elm and marshmallow root which have done wonders in soothing my stomach but now since I stopped the Pepto Bismol it feels like my motility is even slower. Right now I take glutamine, your daily activated multi, vitamin d, fish oil, melatonin, slippery elm, marshmallow root, your daily probiotic and a digestive enzyme. Zinc in any form even with food makes me nauseous and cannot tolerate gse at all, very irritating. Never have been able to tolerate citrus well for that matter. Have one cup of coffee with theanine in the morning. I also notice occasional bubbly urine. And I don’t think it’s h pylori only because I always have HUGE appetite lol. But in case I was thinking I may need to do some more colloidal silver and mastic gum again or maybe work on cooling herbs like amla to calm down and soothe my pitta? Or maybe it’s the adrenals? Sorry, this is long, just wanted to be thorough. Lab testing is a little out of budget right now so any advice is much appreciated. Thanks and loved your book by the way!

Elyssa: Hi! Big fan of your podcast and have learned so much from you. I’m 29 and suffer from a smell disorder, Phantosmia, for the past 10 years of my life along with anxiety. I was originally misdiagnosed with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and took several anti-Epileptic drugs for 6 years without much relief. When I got off all medication, I tried other methods of relief such as acupuncture with no success. I am now seeing a functional doctor who thinks based on my blood work, I have a low functioning immune system, deficiency in B12, and infection in my gut. I am drinking celery juice every morning to restore hydrochloric acid in my stomach and help get my digestive system functioning better. I’m very active and eat a very healthy, whole food diet. I just want to be better and get rid of this awful smell and anxiety, how do you think I can get cured of this?

Kelly: Hello Dr. Cabral! Love your podcast and listen every day! I was told when I was a teen that I have a genetic disorder in which my red blood cells are irregularly shaped. Specifically, my doc told me that my hemoglobin only holds 3 molecules of oxygen instead of 4. I researched this online as an adult and believe it is called Thalassemia. I was never told that I need blood transfusions, but the doc told me I would need to take iron supplements for the rest of my life. I have gone through periods of not taking the supplements out of fear of iron toxicity and the negative long term effects of a metal overdose. However, my energy decreases, I feel faint, and I experience negative psychological issues (especially in the days following menstruation), and eventually, I return to supplementation. I am a clean eating vegan but I have never been athletic and easily become exhausted with overexertion and burnout easily in intensely mentally stressful situations. Can you please advise whether you think it’s safe to be on a 150% RDA iron supplement for a condition like this or am I right to be concerned with the negative consequences of lifelong iron intake? Can you please tell me what your recommendations for someone with Thalassemia (and Gilbert’s Syndrome) because research seems limited on the topic? THANK YOU!

Sue: Hi Dr. Cabral, I’m a big fan and love listening to your podcasts whenever I have a down moment. Thank you for doing them and helping so many. I am a 38 yr old female and have dealt with Lichen Sclerosus of the vulva, perineum, and anus for about 11 years now. It’s so uncomfortable it’s become crazy-making. It’s impacted my ability to get a continuous scratch-free night’s sleep for years. Do you have any non-hormonal and non-steroid recommendations to help with the root cause or even the itchiness? My health background: Age 3 kidney failure from e. Coli and believe to have contracted Hep C while in the hospital, age 17 (1996) diagnosed with Hep C, age 20 got Lyme disease from a tick but cleared with heavy antibiotics, age 27 diagnosed with Lichen Sclerosus, age 33-34 forty-week Triple Therapy treatment for Hep C (Interferon, Ribavirin & Telaprivir), age 34 cleared Hep C, Thyroid tests all come back showing normal functioning. Sue (Bavaria, Germany)

Anita: Hi there, I’m wondering if there are any podcasts on the topic of neuropathy. My dad has neuropathy and I’d like to know if there is anything he might be able to do to help his health. I did a search on the website and nothing came up so I thought I’d check with you anyway. Thank you! Anita

Martin: Hello from the UK Dr. Cabral, I really enjoy your podcasts and find your approach to health and wellness very refreshing. Please can I ask your views on my 10 year old daughter. As a baby sometimes she would vomit immediately after drinking her formula milk (not just a little, almost the whole bottle would come back up). She was also quite windy. Randomly at the age of 3 or 4 she started to suffer from really bad constipation at one time she went almost 2 weeks without a bowel movement. The Doctors and Nurses who dealt with this treated us like we fed her a diet with no fiber which was not true. The Doctors didn’t seem interested in finding out why this happened and she was placed on a Medicine called Movicol infant which seemed to help (Here’s a link to the product details which terrify me as I read them now – She was on a child version of this daily for approx. 12 months). However, we found the single biggest factor in curing this was removing drinks with artificial sweeteners. From the ages of 2-5 she’d get ill with a cold in early October and be constantly ill until the following February. Today and over the past year or so her stomach looks bloated and feels hard. Sometimes after eating she’ll burp or gurgle a little which she finds embarrassing. Her bowel movements seem to be very slow too (not always daily). To give as much information as possible, her diet includes most everyday foods including gluten and dairy but also a good mix of vegetables and fruit. We had a food sensitivity test carried out last year (on a strand of her hair), it came back negative on Gluten and Dairy but suggested she had sensitivity to Carrots, plums, and a couple of other vegetables. I know this is quite a lot to consider, but I feel there is an accumulation of signs which point to an underlying food/ digestion problem. If you have time, I’d really appreciate your advice on where to start with testing and healing. Also, if applicable how to approach an elimination diet on a child as I don’t want to give her a complex about certain foods. You might wonder why it’s taken so long to get to this. Well truth be told, I’m only just starting to join up what I see and wondering if there might be a link, rather than an unconnected sequence of conditions. This is coupled with the fact that Doctors don’t seem interested in finding out the cause of health conditions, they either can’t find anything wrong or give drugs to treat the symptoms rather than dealing with the cause. Many thanks for your time, Martin

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!