Rachel's Blogs
In Need Of Some Fuel Reduction?
We've been talking all about the dangers of excess fuel in our blood recently. You know, just like nature...too much fuel underfoot creates a fire hazard. So too in the bloods of our patients. The key fuels I am referring to, of course, are lipids (triglycerides...
A Simple…
My how the time just flies when you're chasing answers from private pathology companies! As Brisbane based naturopath, Sandi Cooper, can attest to having recently been down the seemingly eternal email trail with a pathology company trying to ascertain if their...
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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...
We’ve Got Spots!
Following a huge co-ordination and curation effort we have finally confirmed all of our group mentoring positions for 2018 EXCEPT: Tuesday 10.30am (AEST) Group has 3 positions left!** Tuesday 1pm (AEST) Group has 1 position left! Wednesday 10.30am Group has 3...
Two Women Over 70 Walk Into A Room…
No this is not a joke. The room they enter happens to be the clinic space of a practitioner I mentor. The older women are friends, both originally from the UK and they sit in on one another's consultations sharing many of the same experiences: grief over loved ones...
It’s Landed At Last! Aka ‘Kids’ Guts Can Be Mental’ [ft. Threadworm] Recording
Standing at the podium, I looked down at my notes & slowly read out the title of my presentation to the hundreds of people attending, 'Paediatric Digestive Issues & Neurocognitive Abnormalities' and briefly froze thinking, Holy Heck (!) this is someone else's...
Sunshine Doesn’t Come In A Capsule..Last Time I Checked
Have you been a bit vitamin D trigger happy? Does a patient's low blood 25(OH)D test result have you reaching for a vitamin D supplement like the rest of us? Yes...you might need to listen up then. Sunshine doesn't come in a bottle. That's right, if your patient's...
Is there an integrative doctor in the house?
We’ve got a Brand New Specialist Mentoring Group starting up in 2018! This new 1hr our monthly online meet up with like minded doctors across the globe to go over cases, offers us an opportunity to meet your mentoring needs in the best way possible and truly accelerate your knowledge and skills in integrative medicine.
This Is Not Going Away
PPIs are one of the prescribed medications in Australia but the concerns are escalating. Not just from a naturopathic or nutritional perspective regarding the extraordinary concept of lowering gastric HCl by approx. 80% but much much more worrying concerns. I talked...