 THE CURIOUS MINDS CLUB 
Well this topic has certainly got us all talking. My inbox overfloweth! Good. Because in the current online climate of 'Sacred Super Foods' for kids, this conversation has to happen. I'm not batting for 'beige baby foods', however, with trends like this, my concern...
Paediatricians repeat this adage often. It acts as an important reminder about adjusting dose for children's reduced weights. But that's only the start of, what is, an almost entirely different solar system we need to immerse ourselves in. Diagnosis is different too. ...
Do you still eat & recommend fish as part of a healthy diet? I do. Of course these recommendations have now become species-specific and include other key criteria such as ‘wild not farmed’ and ‘local not imported’ in response to increasing concerns about...
As Rachel says in this month's From My Desk to Yours, "I had to do it sooner or later, we have to talk about Zinc." Rachel has been talking about Zinc for years. Here are some of the items you might like to catch up on to brush up your background on this important...
Ok – I’m excited!! A recent meta-analysis of seventeen epidemiological studies (n=1,643 depressed individuals and 804 controls) investigating zinc levels and depression found that depressed individuals had lower plasma/serum zinc levels than non –depressed people...
The last two decades have seen the introduction and rapid rise in popularity of the proton pump inhibitors (PPI) for GORD & gastric ulcers. While clinical trials prior to their approval and release didn’t reveal much in terms of adverse reactions, being not...
Many of you have been asking if we could make my presentations available for download instead of on CD. You can now do both! The Rachel Arthur Nutrition (RAN) store on the website now has downloadable audio and CD-audio sections where you can buy my presentations. You...
We have finally taken the step into the brave new world of social media with the Rachel Arthur Nutrition facebook page. The first step is to reflect the posts that we add to this site and our newsletter. We will let you guide us as to what you would like to see us do...
Scenario: Patient presents with low baseline 25(OH)D levels, let’s say 40 nmol/L and you prescribe a high  dose (e.g. 5000IU/day) bioavailable vitamin D supplement and retest in 3 months but the 25(OH)D levels haven’t improved…what do you do now? Sound familiar? It...
Over the last year, I’ve seen paediatric patients with various presentations (alopecia, behavioural issues etc.) whose thyroid results have seemed out of whack e.g. TSH values in the 3s and 4s. I noticed as well that each pathology company provided a slightly altered...
This week, care of Health Masters, I am delivering the first part of a 3 part webinar called ‘Clinical Case Analyses in Women with Anxiety’. I originally wanted to call this brand new seminar series Dis-ease. The idea was in response to the large number of female...
Professor Andrew Sinclair, a leading Australian nutrition scientist from Deakin University, has warned that some snack foods on Australian supermarket shelves contain high levels of trans fats acids (TFAs) and is calling for mandatory labelling of TFAs in processed...
Societies promotion of happiness and happiness campaigns puts expectations on people of how they should feel.  Expectations of happiness may be making sad people feel worse. Psychologist, Brock Bastian from the University of Queensland and colleagues, have...
Upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) are a normal part of childhood that often disturb sleep, parents and children alike, but a simple dose of honey may just be the remedy needed.  A recent study published in Pediatrics (Aug 6 2012) has confirmed that honey is...
Parents should be aware persistent snoring is not normal in children and should be investigated. Researchers, whose results appeared in the journal Pediatrics May 2012 found that two- and three-year olds who snored loudly at least a couple of times per week tended to...
The limitations of serum B12 testing have been reported for some time. When testing for deficiency, Serum B12 does not give an accurate picture unless there is an overt deficiency and even then not consistently.  This is because the majority (approx.70%) of B12 in the...