Rachel's Blogs
Everyday Q&As – Iodine and Thyroid Nodules
Just as optimal integration of lab results into our patient work-ups makes 'the invisible visible' we thought we might make visible some of the everyday Q & A that we engage in with wonderful practitioners who are fast becoming Diagnostic Divas & Divos....
An Eczema Case – A Nickel For Your Thoughts…
When it comes to the recognition of Nickel as the number one metal allergen worldwide, affecting up to 30% of adults and with a particular predilection for women, it seems like Australian health professionals really do come from the 'land down under', with many of us...
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One Size Doesn’t Fit All – Not Even for Besties
I have a good friend...who happens to be a naturopath...who happens to also be a patient of mine. Have you got a few of these as well? A month ago, looking over her recent bloods which included fasting lipids that had been steadily climbing for the last couple of...
“On Tour”- I’m Coming to You!
I'm packing the bag and getting my 'roadies' ready......well, not really but it would be great to have one or three! I’m super excited to be going on tour in May with Nutrition Care and introducing new clinical tools I've been developing to help you master the maze...
“Mummy Are You Losing Your Hair?”
The words together with the horror on her face made me feel instantly nauseous. I'd been internally debating for months now if I was simply imagining things and intellectualising about how this just might be the case... observing myself looking in the mirror more...
Gotta Love An Upgrade!
Upgrade's always give you so much more and here at RAN, we wanted to give our UU30 subscribers more....more...
Magic Medicines?
I was just reading the results of a spot Facebook poll of GPs asking what the most wonderful medications ever invented are. Once everyone got the customary "caffeine" gag out of the way, the rest of the nominations and auspicious award winners unfolded like a who's...
That’s Not A Methylation Issue…
This is. I think we're all going to scream when the next patient says, 'I've got an MTHFR', right?! Congratulations, I want to say, because you would be in much more serious trouble if you didn't have a copy... 'Oh, sorry, you mean you have a mutation on at least...
I’ve Had a Gut Full of Glutamine!
"I always give some Glutamine to heal their leaky gut" Cue pained expression on my face. No, I'm not a fan. I take that back, I have no problem with the amino acid itself and I'm still in awe of its incredible multifaceted role in the gut. What I do have a giant...
A Mum, Dad & Their Son Walk Into Your Clinic
They've just come from the immunologist, having presented with extensive vitiligo in dad and early stage vitiligo now in their primary school aged son. The immunologist, without running a single blood test, told them, 'Bad news, you both have autoimmune issues and...
GORD, It’s Hard to Sleep In Pregnancy!
Just finished talking with the fearless fertility naturopathic specialist, Rhiannon Hardingham, who wanted to let me know that after listening to my Update in Under 30: Silent Reflux she's had a lot of success treating both GORD and insomnia in her pregnant patients....
Iodine – Questions & Confusion Need Clearing Up!
That's me...always questioning the 'status quo' and Iodine is the perfect example! The interview I did on this important subject with Andrew Whitfield-Cook from FxMedicine, covers a lot of key areas of confusion & underscores why it's so critical all health...
The Wait is Over!…My Standing Desk Review Is In
I promised I would keep all you fellow desk workers posted. Over 6 months has passed since I started standing for work....and I LOVE IT! Here are the pros I can wax lyrically about so far: Back ache from long days at the computer, gone...seriously I am more energised...
Batmania here I come…
No, I haven't gone crazy for the 'caped crusader'... but I thought that would get your attention.... oh look it did! 😉 I’m off to Melbourne for the ACNEM Conference May 5-6th and Batmania was one of the interim names of this very cool and happenin' town before it...
So You Think You Know the Best Iron Supplements?!
Ok now you're getting mad at me, right? Because how many 'absolute givens' can I debunk?! Last Update in Under 30 certainly got people talking...giving iron less often rather than more often to our most iron deficient patients seems counter-intuitive, right?! Wrong. ...
Iodine Deficiency May Impair Ability to Conceive…Who’d Have Thought!
"Researchers followed more than 500 women trying to conceive over about five years and found that, overall, those with moderate to severe iodine deficiency had 46% lower odds, per cycle, of becoming pregnant." All researchers dream of generating the kind of results...
Breaking Wind News – Tracked Straight to Your Phone!
Is this the way of the future for health practitioners interested in patients' digestion…? "The team developed an ingestible electronic capsule to monitor gas levels in the human gut. When it’s paired with a pocket-sized receiver and a mobile phone app, the pill...
Is Your GP Doing it Tough Right Now?
If you receive the free Medical Observer newsfeeds you'll know what I'm talking about. Here are some recent headlines: I stand accused of rorting Medicare. This is what it's like A GP is sued after doing everything right — except her notes After-hours funding...
No Holiday For The Thyroid
Just because most of us have been on holidays doesn't mean the thyroid knowledge wagon has stopped or even slowed! Always amazed at what we continue to discover about the complex working of this amazing gland and how its health impacts so much of the rest of the body...
My One-Woman-ABBA-Show
I'm getting a sore neck from this, but looking back at 2017 and looking ahead to how I want 2018 to be, is of course perfectly appropriate for this time of year. And if we don't take this opportunity for a little bit of reflection and review then we risk our growth: ...
The Rachel Arthur Mentorship Program Honour Roll for 2017
Recognise your own name or someone else's on this list? Dear 2017 Group Minties aka Mentees. I have always struggled with the term, 'mentees'...seems too American or something and this morning when I was out walking, I had a light-bulb moment - I am proposing a...
So You Think You Know How to Treat Iron Deficiency?
And then you don't, right? Because if my experience is anything to go by, there are some patients that just don't respond to the usual iron repletion strategies. Depending on how low their ferritin is, this can then precipitate 'practitioner panic' (we've all had it...
And not a moment to soon…
Are you hearing me? Yup, it's been a BIG year..and to think I don't even have the ANS technically to blame this year!! How about you? But listening to myself say this to people, in my wrap-up of the year-that-just-was, I am thinking....Has anyone EVER got to the end...