Root Cause Health: The End of Symptom Chasing with Dr. Stephen Cabral, Doug Larson, Travis Mash & Dr. Mike Lane #835
Barbell Shrugged
Doug Larson
4.7 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Dr. Stephen Cabral joins Doug Larson and Dr. Mike Lane to break down how he went from a decade-long "idiopathic illness" in his teens to building one of the biggest health education platforms in the space, including more than 3,600 daily podcast episodes. Cabral shares the turning points in his own recovery: years of heavy antibiotic exposure, chronic stress, gut dysbiosis (candida, H. pylori, SIBO), and even mercury accumulation from frequent tuna intake. That personal case study becomes the foundation for how he now thinks about root-cause medicine versus symptom suppression, and why conventional care often waits until labs fall out of range before acting.
The conversation dives into Cabral's framework for how chronic issues typically develop: nervous system stress leads to endocrine disruption, which then cascades into immune dysfunction, often amplified by gut-driven inflammation. He explains a clear process-of-elimination approach to gut health, why bile flow and motility have become increasingly important as the science has evolved, and how stress management is often the missing link. Cabral also breaks down why resonance breathing can be one of the fastest ways to shift physiology, how he uses wearables like Oura and HRV tools without overwhelming clients, and why the best plan is always the one someone will actually follow.
Finally, the group zooms out to the future of health and longevity. They discuss biological age testing, emerging longevity research, and the realities of training and recovery as you get older. Cabral shares how his practice balances structured lab testing, repeatable protocols, and ongoing accountability so clients don't just get a plan, but learn how to sustain results long term.
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| 0:00.0 | Shrug family. Today on Barbell Strug, we are joined by Dr. Stephen Cabral, a naturopathic doctor, |
| 0:05.6 | functional medicine practitioner, educator, and host of the daily podcast called the Cabral |
| 0:09.8 | Concept Podcast, where he is a very impressive, well over 3,600 episodes. Probably the most |
| 0:15.6 | episodes have ever heard anyone do, so very impressive. In this episode, Stevens share us his own |
| 0:20.6 | journey from a decade-long mystery |
| 0:22.1 | illness to rebuild his own health from the ground up and how that experience has shaped his |
| 0:26.1 | root cause approach to wellness we talk stress gut health hormones labs training and more so |
| 0:31.9 | if you care about optimizing your physiology and long-term vitality this episode is for you enjoy |
| 0:36.3 | the show welcome to Barbell Strug. |
| 0:40.1 | I'm Doug Larson here with Dr. Mike Lane and Dr. Steven Cabral. Steven, welcome to the show. |
| 0:45.0 | It's great to be here. Thanks so much for having me. |
| 0:47.0 | Dude, you really impressed me a second ago. You said you have 3,600 episodes of your podcast. |
| 0:52.0 | You've been doing it for 10 years that that is the largest number of shows |
| 0:55.6 | I think I've ever heard anybody say well I have the unique advantage of being able to do it on a daily basis it's a little bit shorter but it is something that I love doing it I've always loved to teach and so when I had the opportunity when podcast started to just get a little bit bigger in 2016 I |
| 1:11.3 | was an I was an active practice and I thought well in between patient |
| 1:15.6 | appointments I would take 15 minutes to 30 minutes or so maximum and talk about |
| 1:20.4 | what I was literally going through and all my different wellness appointments |
| 1:24.4 | each day so yeah it's been a labor of love and I truly do love do love it. A phenomenal resource to be able to refer people to after having an in-person or resume consultation with a patient and be like, oh, I've obviously answered that question somewhere in 3,600 episodes and you can just link them right to it. Yeah. What a benefit. Exactly. So, I mean, sometimes you forget on the last 3,600 shows, if you've covered it or not. |
| 1:45.9 | So there's just a little search box. I search it. And with AI coming as well, and you'll be able to transcribe all those and have all of those answers. So I wasn't thinking about that at the time. I was just thinking about just like you said, we work with people globally. So to be able to say, if I can just answer your your question quickly and that's all you wanted to know here's a free podcast to |
| 2:04.6 | check out sure 100% right on for anyone that doesn't know you what's your |
| 2:09.3 | background how did you get into health and performance and I also know you have a |
| 2:12.6 | kind of a personal health journey that you went through when you were younger that |
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