Brandon LaGreca
Teeming with life and full of bubbly deliciousness, sauerkraut is digestive vigor in a jar.
When made at home, sauerkraut is inexpensive and simple to prepare. One head of cabbage yields about a quart of sauerkraut and trillions of beneficial bacteria to supplement your gut flora.
Antibiotics are lifesaving but have significant negative health consequences, reducing populations of beneficial gut flora along with the pathogenic microbes they are prescribed to target. This side effect can be hedged while on a course of antibiotics, and restorative strategies can be employed to more quickly repopulate native gut flora.
It’s harder to breathe easy these days.
You may think indoor air quality is an issue only in developing countries, where particulate matter from the burning of biomass such as wood or charcoal was estimated to result in 1.5 to 2 million deaths in the year 2000, but chemical off-gassing from modern homes and airborne environmental pollutants have made air purification a necessity for optimal health.
It’s winter in Wisconsin. The nights are long, and the days are cold. With the glow of the holidays past, we hunker down for the deep freeze and think warm thoughts of lush gardens and summer days at the beach.
The cold can give rise to stagnancy. We socialize less, aren’t as active, and have the tendency to eat more out of boredom. Many also experience a letdown after the holiday season as the excitement abruptly ends and we return to our normal routine.
In February 2015 I was diagnosed with a small bowel obstruction (SBO), secondary to lymphoma. An enlarged lymph node was encroaching into the luminal space of the intestinal wall, causing an intussusception whereby the small bowel starts to telescope into itself. This blocks the passage of food and drink, resulting in severe abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting.
One of the new players in the holistic treatment of cancer is a compound called Gc protein-derived macrophage activating factor (GcMAF). As the name implies, this naturally occurring protein activates macrophages, an innate element of immune function. GcMAF can be deactivated by the enzyme alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidase (nagalase), which is produced by cancer cells and viruses.
You may not think the mundane act of breathing could be a powerful influencer of health and disease, but there are many instances where a breathing pattern disorder is a major contributing factor to chronic illness.
The rate, depth, and intensity of respiration all can have a profound effect on the nervous system, which in turn regulates heart rhythm, stress hormone release, and digestive function.
Opioid use and gun violence have reached epidemic levels here in the United States. At the root of each often lie addiction and mental illness. Going deeper, at the very core one will usually find insecurity and a lack of social connectedness that must be acknowledged in order to heal from and curtail the ravages of these addictions.
The practice of consuming clay is prehistoric, with references to its medical use documented by Hippocrates.
Bentonite is the most common form of medicinal clay available and is used as a base for some prescription medicines. Although bentonite can be used externally as a poultice, it is most commonly recommended as a gentle therapy to cleanse the gastrointestinal tract.
The ethics of eating meat extend beyond the ascribed relations of humans to livestock and humans to game.
Life consumes life, and as omnivores, we cannot separate ourselves from this fundamental, underlying ecological truth. As such, our consumption of food, whether mineral, plant, fungal, or animal in origination, must be related to in the larger context of how all species have survived over the millennia.