Seriously, hold my beer. A pattern has come to my attention that warrants calling out. A social media manosphere of sorts. You see I have these 'Facebook fellas', let's just say, who appear out of nowhere, as in, they are not people I know, not in truth even my peers,...
Rachel Arthur's Nutrition Blog
Nobody Actually Reads Anymore
Hey wait what? What are you still doing here? The average time we look at anything online is 3-8 seconds. Poof! There's another big portion of followers gone just with stating that stat! But, you see, if we are so quick to think we have all that we need from...
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How Low Can You Go…With Cortisol?
Assessing Adrenals can be hit and miss, especially given that even more so than other labs, timing is everything. That's why endocrinologists typically won't look at anything less than a 24hr urine collection. If the total output is deemed to be high = Cushing's and...
Does Holistic Health Include The Hardest Workers?
Did someone explain the kidneys are like a really important, not to be forgotten, under-estimated, ignored or under-valued kind of organ in your training as a naturopath? No, me neither. I mean I know Buchu and Uva and Zea (on a first name basis only, clearly!) and...
Iron – Another Important Discovery
Yet another super-helpful part of Iron-Land has been mapped!! Ever struggled to correct chronic iron deficiency in athletes or even just weekend warriors? Yep, me too. One of the key barriers being the 2-3 fold rise in hepcidin in response to exercise. Hepcidin...
Are You Going Hot & Cold On Thyroid Cases?
What's the most common thyroid disease you're seeing in practice? Nope, try again. I'm serious. There would be very few of us who'd get this right without cheating. It's nodules. Current figures suggest 1/2 of all us middle-agers have them and by the time we're 80...
Is Integrative Medicine Mentoring On Your To-Do List?
Having just spent the last four days in Sydney delivering education at ACNEM to doctors, dentists, pharmacists and other medical professionals, I am reminded afresh about what we all share: a passion for problem solving and a diagnostic detective determination! ...
You Record Something Then This Happens…
I had to say to a mentee just yesterday, "You're going to see the topic for the Update in Under 30 this month and think it's inspired by your patient but it was actually about the 3 other cases I'd seen this month, before yours!"Â Yep...I'm talking about thyroid...
More Punch in Progestins?
This week's wonder-full paper and light-bulb discovery was prompted by a 34 year old woman with a history of Depo Provera injections over several years to control unruly menstrual bleeding and pain. She was subsequently diagnosed at 28 with osteoporosis. That's not a...
Are We Missing A Different Kind of ‘Hyper’ Child?
Stop press. No, seriously.  This new research warrants the attention of every practitioner working with children & teenagers. In the largest paediatric study of its kind to date, which included 2,480 children aged 10-18yrs diagnosed with hyperthyroidism (Grave's...
Group Mentoring…What’s it all about?
https://youtu.be/sN-sel64IGc For all those Mentoring Virgins 😇 out there wanting a clearer understanding of what it's really like to be part of my group mentoring, this video is a little snippet from a session with one of my groups. This year has flown...
Will Hair Testing Nail Your Patient’s Nickel Problem?
How might your patients' Nickel exposure wreak havoc with their health? What might that look like? It may be lurking behind labels like IBS, non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, contact dermatitis of unknown origin,(with or without alopecia) or even CFS. "Then how does...
NEW Accurate Pathology Results Interpretation…Starts Here
Behind their deceptively-dated inkjet printing and boring black and white font (punctuated occasionally by a comparatively thrilling red H or L)Â mainstream pathology results actually offer a goldmine of information and insight about your patients....if you know...
“It’s’ Not A Prebiotic, Not A Probiotic…It’s Bathwater To The Rescue”
Sometimes timing is everything. I recently FINALLY had my (almost) lifelong dream come true, installing a self-care-haven-outdoor-bath and guess what, a few days later I stumbled across an exciting study talking about the benefits of baths! But it's not in the...
NEW Dear Doctor – Upskilling in Referral Writing & Inter-Professional Communications
Our knowledge is subject to constant change, and it is oh so necessary to stay up to date in our field for a bazillion reasons, give or take a few 😉 So sometimes we can feel like we need eight arms (for the visual amongst us) to manage and keep up with it all....
Tomatoes, Legumes, Nuts…A Nickel For Your Thoughts?
Remember when I said you say tomatoes... equal histamine but I say, well maybe oxalates, maybe Nickel? So in the UU30 released just last week How Noxious is Nickel we get down and dirtily detailed with just why Nickel, which is almost ubiquitous in soils and therefore...
Get Plugged Into The Brain’s Trust…
Forehead USB not required. Phew. All that is required, is a real thirst for new knowledge, rapid development of your diagnostic skills and a willingness to commit an hour every month to tap into your new Brain's Trust: Rachel and a collection of colleagues with a...
Are You Dancing With The ‘Devil’s…Copper’?
Kupfernickel. It's the original German name for Nickel and it literally translates to 'Copper Nickel' which inferred it to be the 'Copper Nickel' aka 'Devil's Copper'...because each metal can masquerade and be mistaken for the other! There's an interesting story...
Zinc’s Dark Side
There I said it. It was always going to happen. I'm ok, thanks for asking. This week we had a case of a woman diagnosed with MS in her late 20s. That was 5 years ago and she's been medicated ever since with an immunosuppressant and she is understandably very nervous...
Is A Diagnosis Always Helpful?
If you know me, you may wonder if I've recently undergone a personality bypass. I am passionate about diagnostics, pride myself on 'making the invisible visible' through better understanding of pathology markers and confirming the true nature of the underpinning...
SAMe Strikes Again!
If my dispensary was on an island and could only stock 3 items, S-adenosyl-methionine would make the cut. That's how important this nutraceutical is to my practice and has proved itself to be to so many of my patients. Regularly, I cross paths with practitioners who...
A Case of Stoned Sperm?
Tonic. Homeostatic modulator. These terms and concepts, which have a long tradition in herbal medicine (and let's be clear, were considered yet another example of the wishy-washiness of the modality) are being appropriated by some areas of mainstream medicine right...
Are You Being Foxed By An Ox…alate Result?
Ok here's some tough Tuesday talk..not all tests are valid. Tougher still...not all of the mainstream nor the functional pathology ones. I am talking across the board here. Each and every pathology parameter requires good knowledge about its strengths. limitations...























