It’s taken a little while for me to collect my thoughts on this one. Initially there was a little flash of anger, frustration and a good deal of huffing and puffing when I heard about the RACGP guidelines recommending GPs say no to any requests from naturopaths for further investigation of their shared patients… but I’m over that now. In an interview on 702 ABC Sydney radio last week, Stephen Eddy, the vice president of ATMS, responded to these guidelines by suggesting that a blanket directive for GPs to ignore all requests from all naturopaths about all testing didn’t really sound sensible or appropriate. Here here! Surely, in the pursuit of evidence based medicine and discerning practice decisions, each case should be considered on an individual basis. I think Stephen Eddy gives GPs more credit for being able to make these judgements than their own association! (more…)
Well here’s a thought…the ‘Superfood’ nutrition movement has just about eaten the South Americans out of quinoa and the Pacific Islanders out of coconuts..isn’t it time for a local hero? I get a bit despondent when any new food is touted as a ‘Superfood’ anyway for all the obvious reasons but this is heavily compounded when this so-called ‘Superfood’ and the bankable gross exploitation of this foodstuff comes at a huge cost: whether that be in terms of food-miles, another population’s access to their food staple or the radical change in land management in these countries that often follows, e.g. think palm oil plantations.
“I need a (Local) Hero!” – cue Bonnie Tyler soundtrack & wind machine 🙂
We kicked off mentoring this year with some great cases last week. One was a pregnant hyperthyroid client. During the session the wonderful practitioner mentions that the client is using Withania somnifera as required for anxiety.
Insert sound of brakes screeching to a dangerous squealing crash! Here’s a situation where I would give Withania a miss. (more…)
There’s taking a break and then there’s taking a break.
For most of us Christmas does not fit the definition of a break but rather simply an altered version of our escalated pre-Christmas frenzy. The crazy end of year work wrap up replaced by the equally crazy Christmas to do list…the same underpinning mantra pervades both…” I must, I must”. But when all the pressies and eating is done the pace usually eases off a tad. I felt a wave of relief just having Christmas day behind me. Suddenly it seemed I was on holidays…still upright, still going through all the usual paces of looking after kids and elderly parents and occasionally attending to a work issue but the relative slowness was noticeable and welcome.
Then something radical happened. I went away.
I was already away, in the sense I was interstate at my parent’s house but we travelled just 30 mins further down the coast to an unknown little rental house by the Rye back beach just with my kids and one of my oldest nearest and dearest mates for a few days. Out of the familiar and all the ‘musts’, ‘shoulds’ and habituations that come with it, off the grid with no computer, no phone (by chance I had forgotten my charger) and to boot the clock in our little hideaway didn’t work! Aaahhhhhh timelessness found.
We sat, we lay, we read, we wandered the back beach for hours exploring rockpools and caves and I had a wonderful sensation as if my feet were sinking into something that I can only describe as the Awake Delta Wave Experience 🙂
I am reminded that of course taking a break is a bit like sleep, we need to progress through the more superficial stages where we remain semi-vigilant, always ready to jump up into action if necessary, until after staying with this slowed relatively restful state for long enough we can progress into deeper stages of relaxation and finally….ahhhhh… hit the delta wave experience of true restoration.
I am wishing you all a truly restorative Awake Delta Wave Experience this festive season and remember it’s not about how long you stay there, it’s just about having one at all 🙂
It is with great excitement & enthusiasm that today I can announce the launch of our crowdfunding campaign for the first independent Australian Naturopathic Summit to be held in Byron Bay on the 27-28th August 2016 (check out our campaign video below!).
This Summit is the creation of myself, Nirala Jacobi and Kathryn Simpson, who all individually noticed a big gap in the support available to Naturopaths striving to carve out their careers in a variety of areas (practice, education, medicinal herb growing and manufacture, corporate health, public health etc.). We’ve been working hard over the last few months to bring to fruition something that fills this gap & offers a truly unique educational experience and platform for our Naturopathic community. (more…)
Come along and be a part of the final case of the month session this Monday at 3.30pm AEDT.
A 47yo male initially presents with anxiety, panic and depression. He also has had chronic sleep disruption for 4 years due to vivid dreaming and nocturia and works in a high stress job. He has a BMI of 27 and in spite of a being a non-smoker, non-drinker & exercising regularly he has a high blood pressure. While he has marked psychosocial risk factors for mental health problems but what else are we missing or could we do to support?
Come along and see what we make of the case as we dig deep with detective work. What were the key questions we needed to know the answers to? What other investigations are relevant? What other treatment approaches might be effective? To get the answers and more book in via our mentoring calendar here. 🙂
We’re so excited to announce the new mentoring program for 2016, specifically designed to add more value and provide greater skills and knowledge acceleration to Integrative Nutrition Practitioners.
RAMP is Rachel’s first incubator 11-month program that focuses on providing integrative nutrition practitioners with the most accelerated form of post-graduate education and clinically relevant skill development. This personalised approach supports practitioners to ‘gap fill’ their underpinning knowledge & strengthen their clinical skills ‘Achilles’ while providing comprehensive support for all aspects of case analysis, client management & treatment. As usual, the sessions involve dynamic detective work and discussions lead by Rachel and contributed to by all mentees.
Some things have changed and some things remain the same.
All the good stuff remains (dynamic monthly group Skype sessions which are case based and run by Rachel) but our session times and the commitment we’re asking from practitioners has changed. In order to ensure the best outcomes for all practitioners via a constant and collegiate group we are asking for a year long commitment. All sessions will be recorded in case you are unable to attend some live and for established practitioners there will no longer be a ‘drop in’ or casual attendance option.
To read more about this truly one-of-a-kind new program that is stepping up practical post graduate education, head over to the RAMP page here.
If you’re interested in joining the program, make sure you apply quickly! The program is capped at 11 practitioners to ensure that all mentees present a case at least once in the year and all of our groups are already half full and we expect to fill them in the coming weeks pre Xmas.
Keep in mind, if the time is unsuitable for you we are collecting names and will potentially open a second RAMP group if there is sufficient demand.
New Practitioner Drop in Class
We will also be continuing Graduate Mentoring with the new name, new look, New Practitioner Drop in Class. This very affordable class is a monthly drop in class that focuses on providing newly graduated, or returning from break, integrative nutrition practitioners with the most accelerated form of post-graduate education and clinically relevant skill development.
Most of us know that measuring a fasting blood glucose to assess how well someone is managing their glucose levels is about as crude and insensitive as waiting for the smoke detector alarm to tell you your dinner is cooked! If we wait to see an abnormal result here we’ve missed a prime opportunity for patient education and prevention long ago. Much the same story if you’re looking at HbA1c results.
To explain this I always use the analogy of a duck. A duck will always be able to swim but the question is how much effort does it have to exert to swim the same distance? If your blood glucose is within range after an overnight fast that’s as good as saying, ‘this duck can swim the length of the pond’. What it doesn’t tell you is how fast its little legs are paddling in order to achieve that. Measuring a fasting insulin at the same time, however, tells us some additional important information. It tells you how fast the duck’s legs are paddling just to keep its head above water! The more insulin you’re having to secrete to just maintain normal blood glucose levels, the more alarmed we should be!(more…)
If you’re left wondering why on earth Rachel undertook the “Supersize Me Month” (see previous post here) then you may have missed her SAMe: Mental Health & Beyond tour. It’s funny really because one of the key areas Rachel discussed in this presentation is the significant therapeutic role for SAMe in a wide range of liver conditions including fatty liver, cholestasis, hepatotoxicity and even hepatitis. SAMe may even be considered an antidote to the Supersize Me lives many of our patients are living!
While many people are excited by what they’ve witnessed using SAMe for their mental health patients, Rachel’s insight into it’s numerous other actions and therefore indications came as a welcome surprise. Did you know it’s an anti-viral, anti-inflammatory and the key to improving the integrity of every cell membrane in your body via its production of phosphatidylcholine?(more…)
One thing that you need to know about me is that I consider myself pretty healthy…surprise! :0) As in, I wake with energy, I love exercising and on a typical day I am blissfully ignorant of my digestive system..as in it doesn’t speak to me via oohs aahs gripes and groans. I don’t experience unexplained headaches, body aches or anything else that a lot of people tend to consider ‘their lot’. I put this down to some genetic luck and of course to a diet, lifestyle & minor supplementation regime that on the whole works for me (late nights for 11th hour work deadlines aside!). The last month however has made me realise that this has probably lead me to grossly underestimate the power of those core diet and lifestyle choices that have become so automatic as to risk being forgotten. (more…)
Medical Observer recently highlighted the increasing issue of Erectile Dysfunction amongst males and specifically made some points that I think we can all be in agreement about:
Initiate the discussion – the more comfortable the practitioner is in asking about this issue, the more comfortable male patients will be in sharing their problems & the less likely they will be to buy dangerous meds etc. online (DIY medicine) which is becoming increasingly common
Don’t treat without proper assessment first– erectile dysfunction (ED) is potentially a warning sign of serious co-morbidities e.g. diabetes, HBP, cardiovascular dx, treating without thorough investigation is essentially shooting the messenger
Investigation should encompass:
Medical history including medications esp. antidepressants and specific attention paid to any cardiovascular risks
Drug and alcohol use
Physical trauma to the reproductive area which can include things such as cycling, or working in hot environments
Discussion pertaining to the sexual health of partners & psychosocial impact or context
Physical examination should include blood pressure, heart rate, abdominal aortic aneurysm, carotid bruits, foot pulses, and an assessment of body weight.
“Examination of the penis and testes is mandatory.”How many GPs do you know of who do this? Not our job but interesting to know that it is theirs!
Pathology testing should include:
Fasting lipids, glucose & morning fasting testosterone (don’t forget about asking for Calculated Free Testosterone or the Free Androgen Index instead which is regarded as more reliable)
Offer simple solutions first– don’t reach for PDE5 inhibitors but think more holistically all about the factors playing into this presentation & all the ways we might need to support
Following on from my Men’s Health tour earlier this year I have had so much incredible feedback from practitioners about what they’ve discovered about their male patients since starting to a) have the conversation about sexual health & b) knowing how to thoroughly investigate men’s hormonal health…with this new insight comes more targeted treatment options and ultimately better patient outcomes. Sounds like doctors and integrative health professionals are on the same page with this one at least! 🙂
If you missed the Men’s Hormones Seminars – you can now purchase the 3hr DVD with the notes direct from our website
I know…it’s unbelievable right but it’s that time of year again! While we’re all madly finishing off our to-do lists for 2015 you might want to cross the ‘Attend a Group Mentoring Session with Rachel Arthur’ one off the list? We have limited sessions left before the end of the year & next year we will be re-structuring group mentoring so now is a great time to get on board and have a taste! Come along and find out what other practitioners are talking about and how accelerated learning looks and feels.
“I think joining this mentoring group is the best thing I’ve done since graduating! The way Rachel presents made me feel very comfortable to ask questions and I didn’t feel foolish at all. She is obviously a genius but explained concepts in such an accessible and easy to comprehend manner.” – Melissa
Get a taster before the end of the year so you can decide if group mentoring is for you & therefore be first in line to be offered our special packages for 2016 when group mentoring will be taking on an exciting new format!(more…)
In walks a patient with recurrent episodes of swelling (lips, fingers), hayfever and hive like eruptions all over – it’s got to be an allergy right? Not necessarily. Of course we should follow the classic allergy investigation path but what happens when you discover that your patient doesn’t have raised total IgE nor raised basophils/ eosinophils. This means it absolutely is not allergy. I’ve seen quite a few clients like this, some have even gone to the trouble of extensive skin-prick testing only to discover absolutely no allergens and no sign of allergy yet again…what is going on??
So with the classic features of swelling, itching, rash, +/- wheeze the presentation looks like an allergy, sounds like an allergy but you know…it simply can’t be a classic (IgE) allergy without these markers. What now? This is often the point at which practitioners might reach for IgA/IgG food allergy tests…but you know what…even though patients might produce some positive reactions in these, this is not the answer either! Because IgA and IgG allergies do not tend to produce these symptoms.(more…)
A few weeks ago I was camping with my kids in rural northern NSW. We’d gone there for a long weekend to sail on the glorious Clarence river… yes that is literally what floats our boat! Anyway, thanks to a public holiday we all planned to stay on for the Monday, still sailing, lolling about on grass under gorgeous trees etc. Not observing the sacred public holiday thing completely though I started my Monday with a run. I noticed how quiet everything was, the siren for the boatyard had sounded but of course none of the workers were there to respond to the call… this small town had become a bit ghost-like. Further on I ran past several huge farms and I noticed that of course they were ‘business as usual’, full of workers going about their usual work and a very simple realisation hit me… (more…)
We have a case being presented on Monday at 3.30pm EDST on a 32yo Female presenting with hives, swollen lips and eyelids but minus the classic biochemical markers of allergy (IgE and eosinophil elevation)..what’s going on? To boot she has very high stress levels, difficulty settling, being still and has a tendency to anxiety. Is it possible she is an under-methylator and that correction of this might go some of the way to settling her immune system? Or could there be food intolerances rather than allergies at play?With a history of an unusually high number of broken bones – what else is going on that requires our attention? (more…)
We’re super excited to announce Rachel’s upcoming tour Sensational SAMe – Mental Health and Beyond with Nutrition Care & based on the incredible feedback about Rachel’s last tour…you should be too! 🙂
“I love having the opportunity to share what I know about one of my absolute favourite products with everyone. I prescribe this every day and it’s one my clients always come back for. When it works it really works!” Rachel
Whether you’re a practitioner that regularly uses SAMe or you have just started dabbling with it, this seminar is must attend. Overflowing with case studies, the latest cutting edge research and Rachel’s expertise, this half day seminar will tell you everything you need to know about how to best use SAMe in you practice as well as deepening you knowledge of how it works in application to conditions from addiction all the way through to arthritis.
“Don’t be frightened off by all the Methylation Madness out there! Come along and find out just how powerful, easy to use and diverse SAMe really is”(more…)
No matter how long I am in practise there is always a group of patients for whom ‘vaginal thrush’ is a major problem. Most of us have some fabulous tricks up our sleeves to help resolve these issues & reduce their susceptibility – intravaginal lactulose is one of mine thanks to Jason Hawrelak. And then you come across those clients who vigilantly do every thing you ask them to and yet you fail to completely resolve the issue. Doh!
One of the most important things to do with all clients presenting with ‘thrush’ sooner rather than later is send them STAT (!) for a vaginal swab.
Not only does this clarify if it is in fact actually thrush (2/3 of self-diagnosed women get it wrong according to research!) but better again it names the actual culprit. It may come as a surprise but not all vulvovaginitis is due to Candida albicans – increasingly they are the result of other Candida species and this is something you absolutely need to know.
During a recent mentoring session, a practitioner wanted to better understand why she had a group of patients whose thrush seemed so resistant to her usually successful treatment. Here’s my initial response in a nutshell… (more…)
A 33yo Female presents with severe long-standing diarrhoea, weight loss, fatigue and generalised musculoskeletal pain. Initially without a medical diagnosis, however she’s been told by an ‘integrative practitioner’ that unusual African parasites were the cause of her sickness and then subsequently independently diagnosed with Giardia which was treated with Flagyl. By the time she returns some 6 months later for her next appointment, she’s now got an official medical diagnosis of Myositis, which is producing crippling pain requiring hospitalisation at times and is not relieved by standard pain meds. While the acute diarrhoea is less of an issue now there are still significant GIT problems in spite of a restricted diet and when we zoom out to take in the whole case there is still a significant dysbiotic, immune story of repeat UTIs, thrush and her white cells counts bounce from high to low. Doctors have now switched her from steroids to methotrexate to try and address her myositis at least.
Now before you all run screaming from the room…let’s just stop for a minute and ask ourselves a couple of ALWAYS IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:
Is there a beneficial role that I can play for this client? i.e. is there anyone else taking a whole systems approach to her health
While I may not KNOW what is going on exactly and precisely WHY – are there enough clues to point to the systems that need support, processes that seem aberrant that I could put back on track etc.
About a decade ago there was a lot of excitement about using fish oils in the management of mental health, so much so even the American Psychiatric Association developed recommendations suggesting that people with mood, impulse control & psychotic disorders should all consume 1g EPA + DHA per day… but then what happened?
Ask most health professionals (GPs, psychiatrists, naturopaths & nutritionists alike) today whether fish oils are their first choice in mental health nutritional interventions and you’ll frequently get a, ‘No’ and I include myself in that.
Let’s retrace our steps to find out how we got here. The epidemiological evidence linking low omega 3 intake to myriad mental health problems in terms of susceptibility, incidence and severity is almost overwhelming. For example, depression rates are 10 times higher in countries with limited seafood intake and post-partum depression 10-50 times higher (Kendall-Tackett, 2010).
Noaghiul & Hibbeln postulated that countries where individuals consumed less than ≈ 450-680g of seafood per person per week demonstrated the highest rates of affective disorders (2003). One study of 33 000 women with low omega-3 intake were found to have an increased risk of psychotic symptoms (Goren & Tewksbury 2011) and it goes on. Then, we have other evidence also pointing in the direction of fish oils, such as the general consensus that excess unchecked inflammation is evident in many mental health conditions (Maes et al 2013). Numerous intervention studies using fish oils as stand-alone or adjunctive treatments have been published. Interventions have included high dose omega 3 (no specific EPA/DHA breakdown), EPA alone, ethyl-EPA, high DHA, blends with high DHA:EPA ratio, flaxseed oil etc. etc. (more…)
It’s just been reported on Medical Observer today that because of a ‘worldwide shortage of food fortification folic acid’ all Australian commercial breads covered by the mandatory fortification laws, will potentially be without this additional synthetic folic acid for up to 12-18 months.
This is unlikely to take effect for another few months, however, is important for people (& their practitioners!) to know that their food will be changing. In light of this women aged 16-44 are being encouraged to increase their consumption of other folate rich foods such as dark green vegetables, citrus fruit, legumes & other whole grains.
This wordwide shortage (fortunately/unfortunately..?!) will not effect the supply of synthetic folic acid supplements or the inclusion of SFA in infant formulas.
“According to the Health Department, the shortage came about as the result of Chinese folic acid supplement manufacturers slowing down production in response to the introduction of new pollution emissions regulations there this year.” (more…)
