Brandon LaGreca

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Is Your Drinking Water Safe? How to Test and Purify Water

By Brandon LaGreca / July 18, 2018 / Comments Off on Is Your Drinking Water Safe? How to Test and Purify Water

Once upon a time, most freshwater was pure and drinkable.

Back then, a major risk was contracting a waterborne infection such as giardia. Now, contaminants from factories, industrial farms, and transportation hubs permeate the water table. Industrial waste and agrochemical runoff aren’t the only sources of contamination. Humans join in the polluting by flushing pharmaceutical drugs and common household chemicals down the drain.

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To Heat or Not to Heat: The Failing of Raw Food Diets

By Brandon LaGreca / June 25, 2018 / Comments Off on To Heat or Not to Heat: The Failing of Raw Food Diets

The findings of Francis Pottenger are often cited as proof that humans, as animals, should be consuming a raw diet. Being that humans are the only Earth-dwellers who have harnessed fire, raw food is indeed the only option on the menu for the rest of the animal kingdom.

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“Acupuncture Doesn’t Work”

By Brandon LaGreca / May 17, 2018 / Comments Off on “Acupuncture Doesn’t Work”

I don’t hear this phrase often, as patients who return to our clinic do so because they have benefited from acupuncture. However, acupuncture may not be the treatment of choice for some concerns.

No modality of medicine can treat everyone or everything, so there will always be a contingency of nonresponders. Specifically with acupuncture, this becomes a publicity problem when a lack of expected results gets equated with an inefficacy of the entire modality. Let me explain.

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Ferment Your Way to a Healthier Gut with Homemade Sauerkraut

By Brandon LaGreca / April 16, 2018 / Comments Off on Ferment Your Way to a Healthier Gut with Homemade Sauerkraut

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. 

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Reduce Microbiome Damage from Antibiotics with Probiotics and Prebiotics

By Brandon LaGreca / March 13, 2018 / Comments Off on Reduce Microbiome Damage from Antibiotics with Probiotics and Prebiotics

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.

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Air Purification for Optimal Health

By Brandon LaGreca / February 2, 2018 / Comments Off on Air Purification for Optimal Health

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.

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Burn Away the Winter Blues

By Brandon LaGreca / January 8, 2018 / Comments Off on Burn Away the Winter Blues

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.

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Living with a Small Bowel Obstruction

By Brandon LaGreca / December 16, 2017 / Comments Off on Living with a Small Bowel Obstruction

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.

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The Problem with GcMAF

By Brandon LaGreca / December 7, 2017 / Comments Off on The Problem with GcMAF

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.

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Breathing Yourself to Better Health

By Brandon LaGreca / November 11, 2017 /

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.

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