The Dr. Mary Louder Show

What does holistic care look like after a serious diagnosis, or even at the end stages of life? That's the question Dr. Mary Louder and her guest, Donna Ackerman, RN, HN-BC, CHPN, HTCP/I, answer in this episode of the Dr. Mary Louder Show. They talk patient agency, the difference between fixing and healing, and the fusion between conventional medicine and alternative practices, with a focus on making the most out of every day we're given. Listen in to take advantage of their knowledge and wisdom! 

Donna is a dually Board-Certified nurse in both Holistic and Hospice/Palliative care. She brings a unique depth of compassion and clinical expertise to her active holistic practice in Cottonwood, AZ.  She serves as a bridge between traditional nursing and the profound world of energy medicine. She is a Board-Certified Healing Touch Practitioner and Instructor, playing a pivotal role in shaping the next generation of practitioners. Her commitment to professional standards is reflected in her extensive service on the Healing Touch Program Curriculum Review Board, the Healing Touch Program Education Committee, and the Healing Touch Worldwide Foundation Scholarship Committee. She also serves on the American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) Nominating Committee, as a Board of Director at Large for the American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation (AHNCC), and the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP) Humanitarian and Education Committees.

A prolific writer and advocate, she has had her insights featured in AHNA’s Beginnings magazine, Healing Touch Community Newsletter,  and Sybil Magazine. 

Donna remains at the forefront of the field through her active memberships in the American Holistic Nurses Association, Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association, Association of Comprehensive Energy Psychology, Healing Touch Professional Association, and the International Association of Health Care Practitioners.  She is dedicated to bringing light and healing to the global community through holistic nursing and energy medicine education.

You can find Donna at her website, here: softlandinghealing.com.

Or, contact her by email at [email protected], or by phone at (954) 290-8313.

In this episode, Dr. Mary Louder and Brandon LaGreca discuss patient agency, what true holistic, integrative care really means, and how calling, cancer, and personal transformation reshape the work of healing. 

Brandon LaGreca, LAc, MAcOM, grew up on the East Coast of the U.S. and attended Montclair State University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in science with a minor in religion, summa cum laude. He was accepted to the prestigious Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, where he earned a master’s degree in acupuncture and Oriental medicine. His postgraduate work included studying and working at Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine in China. 

After 10 years of private practice, Brandon experienced firsthand the journey of the wounded healer when a series of small bowel obstructions led to hospitalization and diagnosis of stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. 

He achieved remission eight months later following an integrative oncology protocol that included immunotherapy without surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy. He now lectures and writes on the epigenetics of cancer and has dedicated his career to empowering patients through and beyond chronic illnesses such as cancer. 

His interests include studying indigenous forms of healing and eco-spirituality. 

Listen now for the full conversation, full of gems of wisdom, ethical questions, and inspiration to find your true purpose instead of simply going through the motions. 

Welcome to another episode of the Dr. Mary Louder Podcast! Today's guest is Kelly Tuttle, who joined an unfortunate club in 2015 - the Head Injury Survivor's Club. She didn't know for some time - about three months - that she'd sustained a brain injury, and even after diagnosis, her life looked different for many years. Today, she's sharing her journey with us: what helped, what didn't, and how others can take a more direct route to true healing. If you or a loved one have sustained a brain injury, even something as simple as a mild concussion, you won't want to miss this one.

Today, I’m sitting down with Virginia Wood, Functional Nutritionist  to talk about how we use the DNA Life test (Nordic Labs, Denmark/UK) to translate genetic tendencies into real-life choices—without turning your DNA into a destiny sentence.

We’re diving into:
 hormone pathways + stress physiology
 movement & recovery (how to train smarter, not louder)
 nutrition patterns (food-first, always)
 inflammation genomics
 gut genomics + symptom patterns

Enjoy the conversation!

 All about how a plant-powered diet can help us live longer, fuller lives: from the effects of fiber to the influence of the microbiome on cardiac health and cancer, this deep dive into the health effects of a primarily plant-based diet is enlightening and informative. Listen for all the details! 

Over the years in medicine, many of those of us who are physicians have cared for patients whose symptoms are very real and very debilitating, yet don’t always fit neatly into our traditional diagnostic frameworks. Our guest today, Dr. Julius Torelli, speaks about what Western medicine calls ‘medically unexplained symptoms,’ and in today's podcast, we'll be taking a deep dive into how his thinking evolved around that concept. We'll explore how he defines that category, what he thinks might be missing in conventional care, and how he’s come to understand the role of the nervous system and emotional health in those cases. Listen for all the details--you won't want to miss this one!

A conversation about prevention, surgery, and what comes before.

There’s a moment in medicine that stays with you, when you realize a patient has reached a point where surgery is needed, and you quietly wonder:
Could this have been caught earlier?

Surgery saves lives.
This is true.

But it’s often not the beginning of the story.

It’s the moment we enter the story.

What happens before that moment?

Subtle symptoms, shifts in the body, changes that don’t quite make sense--often dismissed, normalized, or missed.

In this podcast conversation, Dr. Lorna Brudie and I explore when surgery is truly necessary, what patterns we see before patients reach that point, where prevention fits into modern care, and how we might begin to see patients sooner.

This isn’t about choosing prevention over surgery. It’s about expanding the window, so we can understand the body earlier, before it has to speak louder.

What if we listened sooner?

What if we looked deeper?

What if we connected the dots--before the diagnosis?

I’m honoured to introduce you to Laura Bratton in this episode. At the age of nine, Laura was diagnosed with an eye disease and faced the difficult reality that she would become blind. Over the next ten years she experienced the traumatic transition of adjusting to life without sight. She is the author of the book, Harnessing Courage, and she founded Ubi Global, which is an organization that provides speaking and coaching to empower all people to overcome challenges and obstacles with grit and gratitude.

Our conversation today is about the differences between grit and grind, how gratitude can be a tool for moving forward through the grief of profound change, and finding new sources of strength through community and courage. Most of all, we focus on the role of choice in navigating change and grief--listen to learn more about this key element in facing change with courage.

I hope you'll both enjoy this episode and find it inspiring, as I did. And remember--the safest place to be, especially during a time of change, is connected to yourself. From there, you can go anywhere. 

Find out more about Laura here:  https://www.laurabratton.com

Today, I’m honoured to introduce you to a guest whose story holds both courage and tenderness—Lynne Goldberg. Her journey doesn’t just inspire—it invites us into our own transformation.

In this episode you’ll hear us journey through:

• The intimate story of Lynne’s heartbreak and the “doorway moment” when meditation became her anchor
• How meditation functions not just as stress‑reduction but as a gateway to transformation—shifting how we live, think, feel and relate
• The simple yet powerful practices you can begin today, whether you’ve meditated before or are just curious
• Why resilience isn’t just bouncing back—it’s becoming someone more whole and alive than you were before

This conversation leans into both the real and the sacred. It invites reflection, yes—but also action. If you’ve ever felt stuck, unseen, overwhelmed or longing for a deeper sense of peace and purpose—this is for you.

What happens when the roles we’ve spent a lifetime perfecting—mother, partner, caregiver, professional—begin to fall away? What’s left behind when the world stops telling us who to be?

In this soulful and honest conversation, Dr. Mary Louder, DO sits down with writer and transformation guide Keri Mangis to explore the powerful initiatory journey of menopause and midlife. More than hormones or hot flashes, these years invite a deeper kind of alchemy—one that asks us to shed, surrender, and remake ourselves from the inside out.

Together, they unpack:

• Why menopause is not an ending, but an emergence
• The grief of losing identities we once clung to
• How crisis can be an unexpected teacher
• What it means to live from soul rather than role

This is not just a health talk—it’s a call to awaken.
 Tune in and remember: your becoming is not behind you, it’s still unfolding.

Learn more about Keri’s upcoming book at https://kerimangis.com, or purchase it at https://theessentialingredientbook.com.