The 7 Blood Markers That Predict Heart Disease Better Than Cholesterol | Dr.Cabral x Mind Pump 2952

Key Takeaway

Pick one heart-health marker to test rather than relying on total cholesterol alone—start with an at-home or lab-based omega-6:omega-3 ratio or ask for ApoB, hs-CRP, triglycerides, HDL, and HbA1c at your next blood draw. Then act on the result: walk after dinner, eat more fiber-rich whole foods, and prioritize omega-3-rich fish. The episode’s central lesson is that cardiovascular risk is better understood through inflammation, particle counts, blood sugar, and fatty-acid balance than through total cholesterol in isolation.

Episode Overview

Dr. Stephen Cabral joins Mind Pump to discuss seven blood markers he believes offer a more useful picture of cardiovascular risk than total cholesterol alone. The conversation covers ApoB, inflammation, homocysteine, cholesterol and triglyceride ratios, HbA1c, and omega-6:omega-3 balance—along with practical nutrition, exercise, and testing strategies. Cabral also reviews the hosts’ omega-fatty-acid test results and briefly discusses a natural-first approach to parasites.

Full Transcript

Transcript of The 7 Blood Markers That Predict Heart Disease Better Than Cholesterol | Dr.Cabral x Mind Pump 2952 from Mind Pump Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

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Mind Pump. Mind Pump. With your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded health, fitness, and entertainment podcast in history. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode, we had Dr. Stephen Cabral back on the show. We love him. He's the best functional medicine practitioner we know of, and in today's episode, he talks about an inflammation test. In fact, we all took the test, and he talks about our results. In fact, we took the test a while ago, so did we improve our score?

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You just pay for shipping. They'll send you the test for free. One more time, it's StephenCabral.com slash inflammation. Now, this episode is brought to you by Z-Biotics, so this is a company that made a probiotic that was genetically modified, so they took bacteria, and they changed it in a lab to break down something called acetaldehyde. All right, what's acetaldehyde? Well, when you drink alcohol, acetaldehyde gets released, and this causes all kinds of problems. Now, normally, your liver breaks it down, no problem, but some of this gets released in your gut.

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I'm talking right now, hit pause, head on over to mindpumpstore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. Dr. Brawl, welcome back to the show. Great to be here. Yeah, it's always fun to have you on. So today we're going to talk about some health markers that you say are far more important to look at than cholesterol. These are ones we should pay attention to because they can predict risk of things like heart disease and heart attack. So let's talk about these. What are they and why are they important?

So there's seven markers that we've found to be just far more valuable for predicting the number one cause of death for both men and women, which is sudden cardiac death, heart attack, or heart disease. And these are typically a slow burn, meaning they happen over decades. So men can start having real heart disease in their 50s. If you're predisposed, that's why. Genetics do matter, but all of genetics are able to be overcome with a lot of healthy lifestyle factors that we talked about in the previous podcast.

But when we look at what causes the plaque to build up in the arteries or those arteries to become more stiff, these markers are going to be better for that. The first one, and anyone has access to these now. So five years ago, I wouldn't be able to say the same thing, but now anybody can run these markers for blood work. So you can go get tested for these? You can do them at home. You can do them just blood work at a lab corp, a quest, wherever you want.

So the first one is APOB. So it used to be called or sometimes referred to as APOB 100. And I'll give you scores for all of these. So your score should be ideally below 100. The new metrics are 70 to 90. You want your value at or ideally below that. So the lower the number, the better. Now what APOB is, is looking at your LDL cholesterol. So LDL, we often refer to as oxidized cholesterol or bad cholesterol, putting that in air quotes. But we need LDL cholesterol.

Conventional medicine, they want to get your LDL below a 55, which is really low for your cholesterol. But we do need LDL for cell membrane health. We need it for testosterone production. We need it for vitamin D conversion. So it's not the enemy, but the more of it you have and the more it's in your bloodstream along with inflammation in your arteries, the more damage that it could cause. Now, it's not the LDL cholesterol's fault. It's the actual damage to the arteries that we'll get into a little bit later in the show.

Okay. So APOB is a part of LDL? So it's actually looking at the number of particles. So the potential damage for atherosclerosis. The higher the number, the more particles there are that could cause damage to the arteries. Is this the same thing as looking at particle size of LDL? It's looking at total particle number. Just total. But it also takes into account LDL and then its size, which is VLDL, very low density lipoproteins. So these are all specific proteins. And then apolipoprotein little a, which I didn't put in my top seven, but I'll tell you why.

It's a very important marker that takes into account with this APOB, and that's the genetic predisposition to heart disease. So if you have a high apolipoprotein little a, like above 100, you're definitely more susceptible to heart disease and plaque buildup in your arteries. So it doesn't mean you're going to get it. It just means that you need to be more conscious about your diet and your exercise and making sure that you're doing the preventative measures. I was just going to ask, if my APOB is higher than 100, what are some things I can do to lower it?

So it is the typical recommendations that we went over previously, but it is getting enough fiber, 30 to 35 grams per day, getting in three to four days of aerobic-based cardio every single week, which are typically 30 to 40 minute sessions, two of the Norwegian protocol that we talked about, which would give you the vigorous exercise. And then we're looking at your daily steps every single day, which is important. And then you're getting in enough sleep, enough antioxidants, things we're going to talk about today to combat that.

Olive oil is another great one. And they're finding lycopene from tomatoes, part of the Mediterranean diet, is extremely important for heart disease as well. For people who react poorly to things like saturated fat, because it depends on the individual, but would this be, in this case, lowering saturated fat intake help with APOB? It is going to help for a specific segment of the population with that APOE genotype, 3-4-4-4. They do not process saturated fat well, and it stays in their bloodstream longer. So for them, that fiber will help pull it out a little bit more, intermittent fasting will help, but they also want to bump up their HDL with all the things that we just spoke about as well.

Okay. Yeah. So APOB is the big one to look at. It is the one now all cardiologists look at as the most, it's the most prevalent factor in what will cause heart disease if that number is high. Wow. So of all the measurements, this is the one? This is probably the one. Wow. All right. What's next? The next one that we're looking at is high sensitivity CRP. So HSCRP, when we look at that, we're looking at nonspecific inflammation in the arteries, and so when we look at, so high sensitivity CRP, we used to look at only CRP before.

Now the number and the value hasn't changed. We still want it below a 0.5, but it's saying anywhere in your body you have some type of inflammation. The inflammation could be from autoimmune issues, gut issues, viral issues, food sensitivities. We don't know, but we see an elevation. Why this matters is that if inflammation is elevated in the body, it's elevated in the arteries. If it's elevated in the arteries, now that cholesterol moving by the LDL is going to be able to insert itself, embed itself in that endothelial tissue, which then starts over time.

So essentially what happens is then your immune system begins to go over that after those fatty acids, and so it literally converts to these things called foam cells. The foam cells expand. They start to create collagen, fibrin, and calcium, calcification around them. That's what creates the plaque. Okay. So we need to keep inflammation down in the body. And this is, and they're H, they're highly specific? What would you, highly sensitive? High sensitive. That's the name of the test. Got it. So CRP is just another type of protein.

CRP is the C-reactive protein. High sensitivity is the new test that came about, about a decade ago, it became more prevalent. Got it. It used to just be CRP before that. Now, really specific. For example, let's say you got a common virus. Your CRP might go up to a 30 or 40. Not ideal. But after two weeks, it'll go back down. But when you run it, you just have to take into account, okay, do I have a virus when I'm running my lab? It should be below a one.

In our practice, for our clients, we want it below a 0.5. Low inflammation, less chance of plaque building up in the arteries. Got it. Got it. Okay. Next. What's another one? Next one's homocysteine. So homocysteine is part, it's amino acid. So it's part of methionine metabolism. Some people more susceptible to it. You've talked about MTHFR gene mutations before in the show, right? Is this showing methylation issues? Methylation issues, kidney issues, thyroid issues. But people that have the MTHFR gene, heterozygous one copy or homozygous two copies, gonna be more susceptible.

We'll talk about how to fix it really easily in a moment. Let's say that they have MTR, which is kind of like an MTHFR issue or a COMT issue with detoxification. All of these people have to be a little bit more, again, cautious when they see their homocysteine above a nine or an eight and a half or nine. Now in your blood work though, it'll say you're fine until a 15. It's way too high. Got it. So in our practice, we want people between a six and a half and a nine at the highest.

And the way that you're able to bring that down is not just through methylfolate. So methylfolate used to be kind of like the catch-all. It's really B6, B9, B12, and B2. So just essentially a B complex. All methylated. All, well, methylated would be for like the B9 and the B12, methylfolate and methylcobalamin. The B6 should be what's called P5P, pyridoxal 5-phosphate, and B2 is riboflavin. Does, I've heard that supplementing with creatine helps with methylation issues because it reduces the amount of methylation that needs to happen.

Are you familiar with that? I'm not familiar with that. That might be true. Okay. Trimethylglycine, we use that in our creatine, so it's called an advanced cell force. It has trimethylglycine at two grams. That has been shown to drive down homocysteine. We use taurine, which helps with detoxification as an antioxidant. We use citrulline malate, which increases nitric oxide because part of getting older, you produce less nitric oxide. But nitric oxide also gives those vessels more elasticity. So it can help improve blood pressure and improve vasodilation.

And then we add creatine. So it's possible that there is causal factor there. I haven't seen that. Okay. And not to go too sidetracked here, but what about the use of low-dose PDE5 inhibitors like Cialis for nitric oxide and blood vessel? There are some studies showing that that might be beneficial even just prophylactically once a week, maybe twice a week. So it's interesting. I haven't started using that with individuals in my practice. Some people are using that for erectile dysfunction and other factors as well. But some people now are using it prophylactically for cardiovascular reasons.

And it might be appropriate, maybe microdosing in the future or just using it once a week or so. But right now, 100%. Okay. Yeah. What's the next one? Next one is... Sorry, let me look at my list. Yeah, yeah. Go ahead. Pull it up. I had these in order because I wanted to do them in order. Don't worry about it. They'll edit all that out. I have the list up there if you want to take a look at it. All right. So the next one is going to be total cholesterol to your HDL levels.

So that's a ratio. The ratio, exactly. So this one right here is a better look than just what your HDL is. Because when you go into your doctors, they're going to say, we want your HDL above a 59, which that is great to have. Challenging for a lot of men to get their HDL levels above a 59. But when you think about what is HDL, the high-density lipoproteins versus the low, is that it's essentially taking your LDL cholesterol and bringing it back to your liver for recycling.

So it's helping to pull it out of your blood. So if you have a lot of LDL but low HDL, then there's more LDL building up in your bloodstream and circulating. Again, LDL is not bad until the tissue is damaged, and then it becomes a real problem. So what conventional medicine says is like, we're not going to worry about the damaged tissue. We're just going to make your LDL so low that there's not enough to be able to go in and patch up, we'll say, the arterial tissue in the first place.

That's why even people with low cholesterol still have heart attacks. Because they didn't fix the underlying root cause, which is the damaged arteries, the damaged endothelial tissue. But if we look at your total cholesterol, and let's say it was a 240, which is like the upper limit of normal. So usually doctors want to blow 200, or cardiologists, they typically want to blow 180, and they try to drive it down below 120, believe it or not, which I think is just too low for But that's what they're looking for, because they're essentially saying, the lower the cholesterol, the lower incidence of heart disease.

Not the lower incidence of mortality, but the lower incidence of heart disease, which the research does actually back that up. Doesn't mean they live longer, but they get less heart disease, so there's that. And it does lower your coenzyme Q10, which makes your heart weaker, but again, that's a story for another day. So what we say is, okay, let's say that your cholesterol is 240. Well, if your HDL is 80, it's a three-to-one ratio. And so that's great. So we look for a cholesterol to HDL ratio of a three-to-one.

Got it, got it. All right, and the next one? The next one is now gonna be another ratio. It's triglycerides to HDL levels. Triglycerides are fascinating because they are essentially packaged fatty acids. They're packaged energy. And so they raise from excess caloric intake, regardless of basically calories, specifically from alcohol, high sugar or processed carb intake, and not a lot of movement, not a lot of exercise. So that's a recipe for disaster because it's leading to metabolic disease. Metabolic disease would be your high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high blood sugar.

And that's the worst of all conditions, but that's likely where 2 3rds of the United States, at least population, moves to by the time they get to their late 50s, early 60s. And that's what decreases life expectancy the greatest. Again, if we look at all the reasons for dying at 75, which is average life expectancy for a male, 78 for women, it really comes down to, did you get high cholesterol? Did you get type 2 diabetes? Did you get high blood pressure? The other factors are cancer and Alzheimer's, but it's harder to get cancer and Alzheimer's if you don't have those first three because obesity typically comes along with them.

High blood sugar comes along with it. Hard to get Alzheimer's if you've got good hemoglobin A1C, which we'll talk about in a moment. What was the ratio for triglycerides to HDL? Ideally a one-to-one. That's what we look for in our practice. So in an ideal world, triglycerides are a 70, HDL's a 70. That would be absolutely perfect. Now because triglycerides are little packets of energy, is one of the go-to ways to lower triglycerides to be in a calorie deficit? Absolutely. Intermittent fasting, great way to do it.

Getting enough sleep so your fasting glucose levels are a little bit lower. Exercise, getting in your 10,000 steps a day, especially walking after dinner, helps to soak back up and doesn't allow your postprandial blood sugar spike to be as high. It's actually found that not only does your blood sugar not get as high in terms of the peak, the overall time it stays elevated is less. So if you only do one walk a day, post-dinner is probably the best time to do it. Would a diet that is devoid of carbohydrates, because I know triglycerides pack the energy, right, stores glucose possibly, would a ketogenic diet help lower that even if the calories are high or is it more about the calories or the total energy?

Calories do matter. If you drive up your calories high enough, your fatty acids still could go up. However, a lower carbohydrate diet can fix this in the short term for sure. Okay, cool. So we are typically using a lower, people don't think that I use low-carb diet. People are like, yeah, but you believe in a high-carb diet. Well, it's kind of like when you do the math and you look at all your macronutrients for the day, like the best protein is typically somewhere between like 20 and 30% of your macros is your protein.

And if you're eating 3,000 calories a day for an individual and you take 30% of that, it's 900 calories from protein. Like that's gonna be probably plenty for most people, right? It's like, okay, like how much protein do you really need? It's like, even if you're doing one gram per pound of body weight, like you're still gonna meet that. And then it's your fat. Well, again, it goes back to basically how your body processes fat, but most people do really well between 15% and 30%, 35%.

So all that's left is carbohydrates. And so it's like, you're not necessarily a high-carb individual, but like that's what's left. And so then it can come from mainly vegetables, from fruit, like however you want it, but we try to get in that fiber per day because we show that lowers cancer incidence, cholesterol, et cetera. But there's a time and place, and many of our clients do a low-carb diet for anywhere between three weeks and 16 weeks where we're trying to improve all of these markers as we then reverse diet and get carbs back into their body once their cell membranes are better.

Okay, so you use a reverse diet as well. So you're taking people's calories down in the short term initially to solve an issue, and then you start to raise their calories or you just increase carbohydrates or is it both? We do both, yes. So we absolutely believe in phases for weight loss. So a lot of people just chronically put you in a deficit until you're eating 800 calories a day. That's a miserable existence, you're not gonna maintain that, and you're gonna lose a lot of muscle and bone.

So we're always thinking about, okay, you're 40 years old, you wanna lose 50, 60 pounds, we'll get you there, but we don't wanna do it at the detriment of keeping that weight off or your health for the next 30, 40, 50 years. So we'll have an initial weight loss, then we need to then actually add calories back a little bit and carbs, put on more muscle to boost the metabolism, improve overall thyroid hormones, then we'll start to dip again, but ideally more through exercise output than dipping of calories at that point, and then we'll just keep phasing it until we get them exactly where they want, and the body transformation's amazing.

They literally look better. Yeah, that's awesome. You sound like somebody who's worth a lot of people. And that didn't happen overnight, right? Because we did that in the beginning too. When I was 18 years old and working as a personal trainer, it's like, this is what you do. You just cut people and make them move more. That's right, exactly, and they do lose weight, but then you start to get all of the ill of it. Exactly, you plateau hard. And then what do you do? You've got nothing left.

Yeah, you run out of days. You get to do 90 minutes of cardio a day or two hours a day, and some people do. Then the new thing is like walking for like three hours a day, sure. Is that really the new thing? Yes, you walk in forever and not doing cardio. And they're just doing walking sessions of an hour twice a day and also being a little bit of caloric deficit. Look at my six-pack abs. I get it, but is that maintainable? Can you maintain that?

That's a lot. I love to walk, and it's good for your health, but three hours a day is a bit much. All right, what's next on the list? So the next one is hemoglobin A1c. So this one right here is all about your blood sugar. It's essentially your ratio of average glucose over the past two to three months, basically 90 days. So this is better to look at than just blood sugar. Sometimes this can be high, blood sugar can be good, but this is high, right?

You know, I find in my practice, and I don't know if you've seen this, I have a lot of people where it continues glucose monitor, but I'm doing less of that now and really just looking at the hemoglobin A1c. And the reason is I work with a lot of athletes. I've worked with Olympians. I've worked with all sorts of individuals, and their blood sugar's all over the map. And they get their hemoglobin A1c back, and it's like a 4.4. I'm like, how is this possible? Are you averaging 65 for your glucose all day?

No, because I see their continuous glucose monitor. So what happens is, for lack of a better term, the cells themselves are less sticky. Your arteries are less inflamed. There's less oxidative stress. They're exercising a lot. They're eating pretty well, but their blood sugar is up and down. So what we wanna look at is when your blood sugar is elevated for a chronic level of time, it creates these advanced glycation end products, that creates oxidative stress, which then damages your arteries, your vessels, your tissues. Then over time, then that allows for that cholesterol and that plaque to build up.

So it always comes back to inflammation, but inflammation always has a root cause. In this case, it's blood sugar. Now, they don't worry about pre-diabetes until you get to a 5.7, 5.8. In our practice, we're looking at a 4.8 to a 5.2. That's what we want. A lot of people come into our practice with a 5.4 to 5.6, so they're trending in the wrong direction. We just need to make sure every six months they're down another 0.1, and we just get them down into that 4.8 to 5.2, where the likelihood that they're gonna start to then build up more inflammation or, and by the way, the inflammation in your arteries and your heart is going to your brain.

Exactly. Yeah, because this has gotta be correlated to Alzheimer's, dementia, because I've heard researchers refer to those as type three diabetes. Exactly correct. I don't want to take you off track here, but you said something I'm so curious about now with the glucose monitors. So, with what you've seen, is there a correlation between people that work out and have a lot of muscle mass, and they have these crazy spikes, but then they don't have this negative, what are you seeing? Yeah, tell me what you see.

So, again, I work with many professional athletes, and they're not even eating always the best. Right. But a lot of these, I'm not talking about 20, you can get away with a lot at 22 years old. I'm talking about, I'm working with athletes in their mid-30s to early-40s, like people that have been doing this for a while, and all of these things should have caught up. The exercise is very protective for glucose levels, blood sugar levels. And so, although their blood sugar levels are spiking, their average overnight is great, no doubt about it, but they're getting to like 180 after a meal.

And their, but their hemoglobin A1C is a 4.4 to a 4.8. It's fantastic. So it does not affect, those spikes are not affecting them, and they don't need to try to drive their blood sugar levels down, which is then detrimental to their athletic performance. So that's what we're finding. Because they're, people are worried about eating carbohydrates, but if they're the right carbs with the right fiber, also getting enough protein per meal to balance those glucose levels, I'm not seeing that, that, a direct correlation. Now, continuous glucose monitor, for someone trying to figure out the best foods for them, and they're 50, 60 pounds overweight, no problem with that.

That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, when you're looking, there's a bit of a, like there's an athletic bias, I would say, with athletes. More muscle mass, stronger, sensitive, insulin-sensitive muscle, because of the exercise and performance. But the biohackers that are wearing CGMs all day long, probably not necessary. Yeah, that's why I'm asking, is you have a lot of fitness people that are utilizing a tool like this, and it's just like, you know, trying to manage their level at this perfect all day long. It's like, I mean, you got, you know, 50 pounds of muscle, more than the average person.

Is it really that important for someone like you? If you run your blood work, and it's dialed in for that 4.8 to 5.2, you most likely don't need to worry about it, especially if you're doing a 12 to 16 hour fast overnight, eating the right foods. It's likely leading to more stress and more dysfunction around food than it's worth. Sure, very good. That's what we found. I mean, we've run, every year we run between 60,000 to 100,000 lab tests. And so the amount of, we have six million biomarkers of data and I can assure you, all of these things are far more necessary if you're overweight.

And that's why, again, the number one thing that we try to do is just get people to a healthy weight. Not from a vanity standpoint, but it's the number one thing you can do for your health and longevity, is get to a healthy weight. Okay, and then I think we have one more left, right? One more is the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, which this is looking at inflammation from another standpoint versus blood sugar. It's looking at it from fatty acid profile. So our job is to make sure that the cell membranes, which essentially control what comes in and what goes out, are healthy.

And the right balance is less than a five to one, but ideally a three to one ratio. There's one other metric as well. So basically omega-6 to omega-3s. We've done a previous show a couple years back on this. We're gonna do a little check on your labs, which will be fun to look at where you're at. But what matters is that these cell membranes control a lot of the inflammation. And when those cells become damaged, they're not as sensitive to insulin. And this is when you're not able to get the glucose into the cells, and you have more inflammation in the arteries.

The other part to this is what people are talking about is omega-3 index. Because if you're above a 9%, which I just like to refer to as saturation of omega-3s in your blood, if you're above a 9%, you have a 90% risk reduction rate for cardiovascular death, sudden cardiovascular death. 90? 90%, yes. Wow. Because here's why they're looking at it. Think about the stenosis, or tightening of the arteries, or you're thinking about the plaque that's building up. A lot of this is happening based on inflammation and stiffness over time.

Omega-3s are the antidote to that. They allow for, as an anti-inflammatory, and they allow for elasticity. So this is in the, no one marker's the end all be all. That's why we look for all of these seven markers. But if you're getting your ratio to a three to one, you can get away with a lot more. Oh, cool. I think I asked you this a long time ago, and I can't remember how you answered it, so I'm just gonna ask it again to you, because I think I remember seeing an article on this before that the omega-6s out-compete the omega-3s.

Like, in other words, if you were eating so much of the omega-6s that you can't take a supplement like an omega-3 and still get all the benefits from it, is there truth to that? You're saying if you're eating too many omega-6s, you can't take a supplement? And get the benefit, well, you can take the supplement, but you're not gonna get the same benefits. It's not gonna make a difference. Yeah, it's not gonna make that much of a difference on all the benefits that we talk about from omega-3s, because your cell is basically being out-competed.

The ratio's too far off. Yeah, the ratio's too far off. You would have to take more and more. That's why the test is so important, yes. But you don't wanna take more and more. Right. So, it always is whole food first, and then the supplementation. So, we previously spoke about the Do Health study on the top nutritional supplements that improved overall, basically, aging and mortality. And omega-3s was at the top of that list. Vitamin D3 was the second place, essentially. And it showed people taking only one gram a day, but it improved, essentially, rate of aging by about 3.3 to four months every three years.

That essentially, if you do the correlation, you're getting about one more year of life every decade. And so, omega-3s are, it shouldn't be the panacea, but it should be one of the number one supplements in your arsenal. Now, you can overdo omega-3s just like you can overdo anything. In the last show, we talked about natokinase and proteolytic enzymes. Okay, 10,000, so back in the day, 15 years ago, we were still using this, 2,000 to 4,000 FUs, fibrinolytic units, per day. Empty stomach. That was great. New studies, should be 10,000 for six to 12 months to reduce arterial plaque by 36.6%.

Great. But if you do 30,000, it doesn't mean that it's better than 10, and it may lead to too much thinning of the blood. Too many omega-3s might lead to too much thinning of the blood. So we look for that three-to-one ratio that's really what we're looking for. That's why testing's so important. That's right. And so, let's say you were taking 10 grams a day of omega-3s. Not only do I not think it's more beneficial, I actually think it starts to go the other way. It's essentially a U-curve.

Not taking omega-3s, not good for you. Taking too many, not good for you either. It's this sweet spot of about one to three grams per day. That's so important. And for you guys, we'll look at your tests, but it might be three grams instead of two because you have more muscle, you eat more meat, and that has to balance. And so, maybe. That's where the article is coming from is that if you have it because it basically saying if you have a crappy poor diet Right and you then you're throwing these omegas on there So then you the amount you would have to take to get the positive bit of Omega would be higher than what you would probably Recommend absolutely, but maybe that's all the detrimental effects of those omega-6 foods Sure, so when you look at omega-6 is they eventually we spoke about this before it come down to arachidonic acid Since we chatted though.

I did a whole About 90 minute teaching on pain So arachidonic acid can people come to chiropractors all the time and they say why do I have this pain? That just kind of moves around my body. Why do I have neuralgia pain? Why do I have? Migraines, what have all these issues and that's because arachidonic acid from omega-6 is can actually turn into Leukotriene they can turn into thromboxanes. It can turn into eocosanoids Prostaglandins and these things cause inflammation in the body and it's nonspecific It goes to wherever your genetic weak spot is Could be allergies could be migraines could be back in the day for me.

It converted a leukotriene I had the worst seasonal allergies like Debilitating seasonal allergies every April in Boston when I started things started to bloom Got that into control got my omega-3 to omega-6 ratio under control gone and fixing my gut as well And then it was gone Wow, so I had to do both I think I told you this last time but you know Arachidonic acid was sold as a supplement for a while for people to try to build muscle And because there is truth to that, right?

So that's why there's always truth to all of these things. They didn't tell you about all the inflammation You know when I was a kid if something built muscle I would take it and I did yes And I took it and I got so stiff as it might in my team. Oh, that's interesting Yeah, I got stiff and super sore for miles sucks. I don't care much muscle Yeah, all right. So let's go over our test. Yes, and what do we what's this test looking at again?

This is looking at omega-3 Yeah, this is a very simple blood spot test that looks at your omega-6 is to omega-3. Okay, and it's not judging your diet It's not judging anything is simply saying what is your ratio of the omega-6 as you get in your diet to omega-3s? Okay, that's it. That's all this look now. Am I in my because of my autoimmune At a higher higher risk here than these these two knuckleheads. Is that does that this is just looking at? I'm trying to build up your excuse case.

No, this is not measuring Yes But the higher the ratio will make you more susceptible to autoimmune issues With those omega-6s because it's creating more information. So this is giving you basically a root cause of inflammation Okay, so omega-6 is are going to come from Like roasted nuts oxidized nuts those types of things which are a little higher than raw nuts It's gonna come from non grass-fed meat non pastured chicken non wild fish That's where a lot of these omega-6 is coming from vegetable oils Etc.

The I'll tell you again. You might have find something different. I have difficulty even find Anyone that will show me the ratios of omega-6s to omega-3s in grass-fed meat So I know there's more supposedly more omega-3s in grass-fed as then then they're in in conventional Without a doubt so usually conventionals anywhere from an 18 to like a 25 to 1 of omega-6 to omega-3s That's how detrimental it is. They're fed corn. They're Fred's soy. They're fed all sorts of different things Most people it's for grass-fed.

It's about a 6 to 8 to 1 most likely I've tried to see people that have said that it's a 3 to 1 like it is for more like fatty fish But I haven't been able to see that still better than the way better Half oh, no, it's it's so much better. So and like that'll get you close to the ratio So anyway, just saying that that's that's what it's from. Okay All right so let's start let's go from highest omega-6 to omega-3 ratio to lowest and Then also this test looks at a record on ag acid to EPA.

So record on ag acid would be the We need a record on ag acid So I don't want to say that we don't but it's the most inflammatory the most egregious to create prostaglandins Okay, and then EPA we look at that as the most anti-inflammatory Even though DHA is part of that is about it. All right, okay All right So Justin came in and again, we're shooting for five to one or less ideally three to one Just don't want to be last is it all the cotton candy?

So cotton candy will definitely raise it So 7.5 Which I'll go back to your two years ago we did this so it's been two years you're an 8.1 down to 7.1 He switched to grass-fed winning you I know Jesus only with myself Yes, and then the arachidonic acid EPA we still want this below a 5 to 1 ideally 3 to 1 It was a 15.5 So when we look at this, you'll see most people's ratios are higher on the second one Yeah, and the reason is is that their EPA is lower?

Okay, so remember omega-3s could be from flax or chia and those are your alpha linoleic acid your ALA But not necessarily converting the most anti-inflammatory So the a a to EPA is really the one that we're looking for So that's the one we want to do a little bit more work on Justin was wondering if fish sticks count I think the outside offsets the inside It's cod Counts right now cod does have omega-3s There's no doubt about it So I should say the best way to get your omega-3s are the small fish the sardines the mackerel the anchovies The wild salmon the wild trout salmon are a little larger, but they're lower in mercury Um, so we usually recommend those no higher omega-3s.

All right, so they're great to get cool now I'm assuming you weren't supplementing with omega-3s when you took this test. No, okay so for you based on Your numbers probably only need two grams a day. Well, that's all dude. Okay, so that's it or a can of sardines I'll do that. Yeah, so you could do a can of sardines a day. That is true Yeah, and as long as you have no purine issues or histamine issues, that'll work great in our practice We see people that eat a can of sardines four to five times a week can achieve the three to one levels awesome Okay.

All right. Next up is Adam Adam two years ago. You were 7.3. Now you're a six Almost at the 5.1 ratio, which we like you're in there right now, huh? I feel like I'm would you would you have you been supplementing with the fish oil? I just did right now. No, no No, I have not. No, I'm not. So we have no idea how you drop this. Yeah, okay better better diet. Oh, yeah For sure. I'm better. So I will say the majority fatter before The majority of people that are not supplementing but eating a healthy diet come in around six and a half Yeah, I'm super curious if I just consistently did omegas like I mean You'll you'll be that.

Well, you're a record on egg acid EPA is a 19.7 though Okay, so this is usually more eggs more red meat more pork higher arachid on egg acid foods Okay, so high EPA fish oil will be good. Okay, so Those things To again two grams a day, maybe three for you, but probably just two. Yeah, we'll knock that right down. Okay That's all that I will take cool and These are important to just because you've shared before in the show Obviously, I wouldn't share this but you've said you have psoriasis and other factors with that that'll help tremendously with that But you'll start slow and you'll just ease it up.

Okay, nice. Yeah. All right. So let's sell it See where you were in 2024 seven point eight two years ago Today four point nine. Oh, that's pretty great. Yeah And the Arachidonic acid to EPA was I remember it being high before 13.8. That's not bad, but it's higher went down to 11.6 Good, so we're at the 5 to 1 which we like we still want to drive down the arachidonic acid EPA Same thing 2 to 3 grams maximum per day I know that you eat a good amount of eggs or at least used to eat a fair amount I still I still eat will probably eat a couple eggs a day But are you still eating sardines?

Oh, you know you see it depends So I'm in it so sardines for me or just say enjoy them So I go through like bouts of enjoying them and then where I don't eat much Maybe before this test you're eating a little bit more if you weren't supplement. I think I was taking so I might have been taking Omegas at the some omegas. Yeah, okay now and that's the thing with omegas. It's just like You should eat in an ideal world to eat fish two three times a week The only reason I wouldn't say is more is just because of all the microplastics out there It's just and if you are if the small fish then they're not gonna have as many microplastics But can be great for your health good source of protein But you do just again take a good quality High EPA to DHA ideally a two-to-one ratio of EPA to DHA to get you there And that'll be the best way to do it All right, Doug in 2024 was a 3.9 winner and he's a 3.7 now So ideal ratio arachidonic acid to EPA to 3.4.

So fantastic There I'm assuming you're taking omega-3s. How many are you taking today? Yeah So I'm gonna sell your product because I use your brand and I take one in the morning and one in the afternoon There you go every day. Okay, you think it's oh, yeah for several years now since we started this The best way to do is just be regimented same with your vitamin d3 Even if you get Sun you can just take your with with low and flat with with something like this like really good You know arachidonic acid EPA ratio really good omega-3 omega-6 when it's really good.

Are you more resilient to stress? Physical stress. Yes emotion mental emotional You're still gonna have those cortisol levels because what's happening is your hypothalamus inside your brains telling you But it will offer what it's doing your arteries for sure. Yeah, can I do the same with my Omegas as I do with my body I didn't know that I could like if I missed two or three days in a row I forget to take my vitamin D. I can take the 3x the dose. Can you do that with the omegas?

I wouldn't necessarily do that. No, I mean you could take those probably ideal The reason is so think about like vitamin d3 if you take a high dose of vitamin d3 Like a lot of people say 50,000 I use yeah at one time It's gonna pull more calcium in your bloodstream, which could then not ideally stick in the arteries Okay, if the environment is right, so I like what we would get from nature. So if you're eating a good Six ounces eight ounces of fish. You're gonna get your couple grams of omega-3s.

That would be totally natural Yeah, vitamin d3 from the Sun maybe 10,000 I use for us in our practice. Typically. It's 5,000 I use a vitamin d3 on a daily basis That's what's going to get you which we spoke about in the last show the 38 percent reduction in many types of cancer Prostate colon being one of those and the 85 percent reduction in breast cancer if you get your vitamin d3 levels up to that 60 Milligrams per deciliter. So that's really it's all based on lab testing We do the vitamin d3 test independently or with the stress immunometabolism test This one is a simple at-home omega-3 inflammation So when we when we back in the days we did vitamin D with you a long time ago And I was taking 5,000 I use and still tested low and so I take 10,000 I used it, but I'm also can be inconsistent I can miss like three days and then I'll take 30 Is that okay?

Or do you think that I should should just chalk it up as though I missed it and then get back to taking my 10 Or I really like to work on the consistency. Oh, yeah It's okay That's good to know because I I've had I had heard that I could I could take it Like that you can but there are then the side effects sure So let's just say you took 10 grams of fish oil. Yeah to make up for what five days Yeah, right Then what happens is you get one big dose, but you miss the anti-inflammatory effects for those previous four days Yeah, and now you get a massive blood thinning effect Okay That you may not it might be detrimental to your recovery also work out and you haven't tested your vitamin D in a while I'd be curious to see how especially with all the Sun I get to see how it is Yeah, it'd be interesting because we when we tested way back in the days.

I lived in a different place and Hello, so I got a lot of Sun now and it's funny because a lot of people they think that their vitamin D levels are Adequate because they get a lot of Sun and oftentimes they are but some people are not great at converting that vitamin D 3 in the liver, which is the majority of that transformation is taking place. And so they don't get the conversion now again I'm always whole food and Sun first if you can do it.

Yeah, but it's usually not enough for everybody Yeah, and it's not enough year-round So most people get Sun on the weekends like when they're out and about not during the week That's not gonna be enough. They're not getting a full body tan They're getting kind of their arms and legs, but the the way that we know is you just test that's it Yeah, and then the cofactors for vitamin d3 or your k2 your magnesium your zinc There's other factors that allow you to better absorb that that d3.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it'd be interesting now Yeah, you should test it because you've been taking vitamin D for a while consistently and you get sunlight Interested to see if you're at that number now six. Yeah, and test all the blood markers that we spoke about today You know, these are becoming just much more Prevalent that you're able to just look at these and there is no one end-all be-all marker But when you look at them in their totality That's what ultimately leads to a longer healthier life And when things start to then go off track you can correct them right away because you know those underlying which one of your tests Test vitamin D because it's that's one.

I think everybody should do we have a standalone So all of these are just that you could just do a vitamin D test. That's right. That's your stick That's what we did That's one of the first tests we did with you And then we do it with the stress immunometabolism test which looks at all your thyroid markers like your t3 Looks at all your cortisol throughout the whole day testosterone estrogen dHEA. So that's like the big anti-aging and hemoglobin a1c Yeah, so that's the big test that we always recommend in the show notes.

We'll give you a link for that, too I know we always offer like 50% off that for your listeners We weren't gonna do that this time, but we'll make that happen And I mean because that is the test to look at blood sugar vitamin d3 cortisol hormones all the things Stress mood and metabolism now with the now some of these things You really have to change your lifestyle to move But what we're talking about right now this omega-6 omega-3 ratio supplements make a big difference like a big difference It's one of those very few things you could change just by supplementing, right?

Yes So when I talk about like, what do we do for our clients? Okay, it's called the de-stress protocol diet exercise stress reduction toxin removal rest emotional balance scientifically back supplements success mindset Like all the things right? Hmm, but supplements is 10 seconds of your day Just putting them in your mouth You don't need to take 50 but there are a few that really do matter that move the needle Omega threes is one of those. Yeah, it just is like it's there are 30,000 studies on how much omega-3 is improved or overall I mean sure it does a testament to the fact that he's been able to maintain his diet that he's just been consistent Yeah, what do you what are this?

What do people report they get their omega-6 omega-3 ratio better. They get their academic a CPA ratio better What do they report? In terms of how they feel because they're cool. The test says I'm better, right? What are they noticing? That's a good question sleep inflammation recovery mood those are the big ones just like off the top of that what I can think and They work fairly quickly, about six weeks to 12 weeks. And the reason is that you need enough time for them to start to integrate themselves into the cell membrane, which right now, if there's more omega-6s, it becomes more what's called dysaerobic.

So less oxygen is able to enter those cells. The cell membranes get a little bit more gummed up with sterols. Again, we need sterols. We actually need more of them than we need these polyunsaturated fats, which I know that people say are detrimental. Again, there's no black and white. There's nuance to this. You want less polys than you want of the sterols, but you still need them for waste coming out of the cells and nutrients coming in. And so the anti-inflammatory effect helps with the pain.

The mood is the more omega-3s helps with overall mood. Like that is just, again, clinically proven. It's been shown to help with ADHD. It's been shown to help with autism. So these are just, our bodies are meant to have these omega-3s in them in a ratio of about three to one, at least less than five to one. Let's talk about your supplement because you guys have a high EPA fish oil. Yes. Is it true that one of the challenges with fish oils supplements is you're taking one and they're rancid, they went bad, because it's like a food product, right?

So how do people know what they're taking is good and not gone bad? Like, how do we know this? So one of the biggest issues, just like you said, is the oxidized cholesterol. So the oxidized fish oil that's in it themselves. So one is you wanna use more of a cold process. So the less that you heat up the oil itself, the less rancid it gets. If you think about all the oils we cook with, people always rate the oils, right? So it's like, is olive oil better than tallow, better than whatever it might be?

For high temperature or whatever. And that's at a high temperature, right? So the lower temperature, always the better, regardless of the oil. An avocado oil or an olive oil are unique, especially olive oil has the oleic acid. A coconut oil, a little higher smoke point. Same with like butter or ghee or whatever it might be. With this, more of a cold process, more triglyceride bound so that you can actually absorb it. And then you wanna look for low mercury, or ideally no mercury. So we third-party test all of our products so there's no mercury.

And the reason is is that if you're getting your fish oil from fish, which you should be, then there's a higher likelihood the more compressed fish oil there is, the more mercury there's going on. So really important that you're not putting mercury in your body, which creates inflammation and potentially could lead to inflammation in the brain causing dementia, Alzheimer's. Does it help to refrigerate or freeze your fish oil capsules? Does that make a difference? Not anymore. All of these, even probiotics are shelf-stable for the most part now.

So you can leave them out. Even the oil I use. So you can use a soft gel or an oil. Small bottle, dark bottle, so the light's not, it's all about oxidizing that oil. The gelatin now that's used on them helps prevent that oxidation. Should be in a dark bottle. Would it make sense to, when you're taking your vitamin D, you take it with your fish oil since the vitamin D is fat-soluble. Does that make a difference? It's a great question. We actually recommend taking your vitamin D earlier in the day.

Just like you would get it from the sun. Take it at breakfast or take it at lunch. So to time it like you're, hey I'm up and the sun is out. That's right. And they've shown that if you take your vitamin D at least at a higher dose at night, it might detrimentally affect melatonin. Because you're saying like. Because your brain's getting the effect, like oh, we're in the sun. More studies need to be done on that, but that was interesting. Interesting. And it makes sense to me.

Vitamin D peak time is 10 to two, right? So take it in the morning, let it absorb. It's in your body from that 10 to two. That makes sense. So we tell all of our clients, simple, take it at breakfast with food. Vitamin D3 is absorbed better with a fatty meal. Or just, it doesn't have to be like 50 grams of fat, right? Just fat at that meal. Vitamin D3, we put ours with a little bit of medium chain triglycerides. So it's already got the fat.

Yeah, because you don't need a lot. And then omega-3, take it at any time of the day. Totally fine you're taking it at, you said breakfast and lunch? They have breakfast and around five o'clock in the afternoon, yeah. Okay, so that's great. So you're kind of spacing it out. Myself, a lot of clients, I just take two at dinner. You can take one at lunch, one at dinner. I just take it mid-meal. For anybody who has trouble digesting it, always take your supplements mid-meal. Little food under it, little food on top.

You won't get as much if people are prone to reflux or whatever it might be. Okay, okay. Helps eliminate it. You mind if I ask you a question a little off-topic, but I think you might be the person to ask. So right now, you're hearing all this news about this parasite that's on the lettuce, the cyclosporia, something like that. Okay, can parasites be treated naturally or does it always have to be pharmaceutical to get rid of them? Well, here's the interesting thing about this particular parasite.

So you're right, it's called cyclospora. So it's always been around, it's just now we've got a concentrated number of cases. Seems to be around the Ohio-based area, but spreading throughout the country. Last time I checked, there was about 4,000 cases, which is much more than normal. The problem is that it's not, at least they say, responding to normal antiparasitics, like ivermectin or mebendazole or whatever it might be. And they're saying it's responding to Bactrim. Yeah, that's an antibiotic, right? Exactly, it's an antibiotic. So that's fascinating that it's responding to that.

And also, Bactrim is a sulfa-based drug, which a lot of people have massive reactions to. It's extremely strong, it's detrimental to the rest of your body, so I can't recommend taking it. So in our practice, we use a natural protocol first and only go for the pharmaceuticals as needed. So we use what's called a parasupport protocol. First thing is the actual, people have had parasites since the beginning of time, right? So what have they used? They've used Artemisia or Sweet Wormwood. They've used Mimosa Putica. There's, I mean, people can just look it up.

We don't have to go through every single one. Black walnut hulls. These are all things that have always worked. Pumpkin seed or something like that. Actually, raw pumpkin seeds works great. Garlic, crushed garlic works great for parasites. And then we use a biofilm disruptor to help remove, if it's embedded itself in your intestines, and then a binder, universal binder that's low histamine. So that's basically our parasupport. Anybody can take a look at what that looks like. How effective is the natural approach to getting rid of parasites?

Or should I say, how often do you have to then go pharmaceutical? Because parasites can be hard sometimes, right? That's right. I would say effective, if I'm being honest, 70 to 80% of the time. That's not bad. No. We do stool testing. So that's how we know for sure. So if someone has an autoimmune issue or real, like they've been sick for a decade, it's not part of our big five labs, but we'll add it on, which is a bacteria and parasite stool test. If they have H.

pylori, it's gonna make them more prone to cancer. It's gonna make them more prone to autoimmune issues. If they have a parasite, again, more prone to inflammation, autoimmune issues. So we test for that. We always do our protocol. We'll do it one to two times as needed. If they're still showing up, okay, we'll use a 21-day course of an antiparasitic. Teeth clenching is one of the symptoms of parasites, right? Yes. Anal gene, teeth clenching, night sweats, adult acne on the neck and back, yeah. Wow, interesting.

All right, I just wanna bring that up because it's top of mind right now because everybody's talking about it. Now I will say. The diarrhea lettuce. Exactly. They have been able to locate what it was from now, and so it's gonna be eliminated hopefully very quickly. Oh, so it's not from workers pooping on the lettuce? Well, we don't know. It's from one particular company, I won't out them right now, that supplies lettuce to Taco Bell. So it is from Taco Bell, yes. But now they're producers for other things as well.

So you mean you get diarrhea from Taco Bell from the parasite? That's crazy. I thought it was not the Mexican pizza. I thought it was the Mexican chalupa. Now they have said that it's potential on raspberries and basil and all sorts of different things, but hopefully that did it. They did a mandatory recall of all of their lettuce and produce from this company. So hopefully now that that's gonna put an end to it. And it's not person-to-person transmissible, which is good. Meaning like from- Wife to husband.

Exactly. It is permissible from fecal matter on these food that transmit the parasite, yes. Which is gross. But literally, workers don't always wash their hands, it gets onto this, it then begins to multiply, and then we have parasites now. All right, all right. Dr. Cabral, this was awesome. Appreciate you coming back on. Absolutely. And so I love this. So you're gonna offer one of these tests at a discount. I'd love to be able to get your audience, so this is just for your audience, at stephencabral.com slash heart, 50% off the same omega-6 to omega-3 inflammation test.

Run your labs. And again, if you think you have the best diet in the world, great, you can literally prove that to be true. And if you do that, then you don't need any supplementation, but it'll tell your exact ratio the same way you did today. And this is the easiest thing to do, everybody, just listening. It's at home, there's some drops of blood, you put in a card, you mail it in. It's a piece of cake. You don't have to go into a lab. And then you can use one or two grams, three at the very most of a good quality.

We use the daily omega-3 support by Equal Life. You can do that. But again, wide guess, just do a simple lab test done right from home. The whole family can do it. My daughters have done it. And you'll be able to see your levels, and then you're good to go. You don't need to worry about it. Very cool. Thanks again. Yeah, thank you for having me. Appreciate it. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com.

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