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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When Your Day Ends On A Happy Note
A conscientious early career practitioner digging deep into GS research and upskilling, recently sent me a message to ask if I knew that the correct pronunciation of the condition was 'Zheelbairs'...as in..imagine you're French and say the word through a pencil...
Ever Wondered How Much D Will Get You There?
I used to all the time. Especially when I noticed the Niagara-falls-sized gap between the doses I was using compared with my mainstream medico mates. I thought, hang on, for a patient with a baseline blood level of 40nmol/L, they're recommending <1000 IU per day,...
Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking?
🍌 'Are you thinking what I'm thinking, B1?' 🍌'I think I am, B2! It's time to separate the B12 from the B*S#!' Ok, if you're reading this and you're not from around here you have reasonable grounds to conclude I'm the one who's gone 🍌 but if you...
The ‘Perfect’ TSH?
Have you been told somewhere by someone that the 'perfect' TSH is 1.5 mIU/L? This is a wonderful, terrible & wonderfully terrible example of 'magical numbers medicine'. As a push-back against the published reference ranges we're given, that are so wide you could...
Putting Our Health On Hold
I wanted to pass on this image (from Twitter by Victor Tseng) that was shared with me by a medical colleague - it's important. Many of us are thinking ahead now in terms of the 'coming waves' of COVID. I have certainly been very mindful of a future wave of mental...
You’ve Got This…Making Your Own Survival Plans
I am feeling concerned about many of you because chances are, given you're reading this, you're running a small business in healthcare right now. Relax, I am not a ‘Doomsdayer’…I don’t think the current situation has to be the death knell for our clinics and...
What We Learned in Lock Down Last Week…
What does lockdown look like for you? More time spent… A) Learning or B) Losing sleep over things outside of our control or C) Losing days just watching Tik Tok I’m choosing ‘A’ and I know I’m keeping good company because last week many of my ‘nearest and dearest’...
LIVE Q&A With Rachel Arthur
We're keen to keep a bit of normal in all the noise. Are you? Here's another way to keep your collegiate connections connecting and your brain blossoming! Our monthly podcasts are 30 minutes of jam-packed information and here is your opportunity to get more bang for...
Waving Not Drowning?
Yes, the news is - the current regulations may last for a while and as the social-distancing and best-to-stay-at-home message is slowly but surely sinking in. If you're like me, more time 'not out in the world', means more time to get my creative thinking going and...
Helping Patients Achieve Their PB
Listen to me, I'm sounding all sporty 😂. I'm not though, just in case you suffer misguided visions of my virtues! But it's not just the self-declared serious athletes that we need to have on our radar in relation to optimising their oxygen carrying capacity...
what we CAN do
It is a challenging and confusing time for everyone. Yet, as healthcare practitioners, we are needed more than ever, by our clients and our community, to do what we do best *educating *advocating * providing access to medicines * supporting Our friends and esteemed...
I’ve Internalised The Process
Can you hear that? No it's not some weird raucous bird-call. That's me. A fabulous colleague of mine who also happens to be a Master MindMapper (yes it's an official club now😂) , told me a couple of weeks back that practising naturopaths who don't use this...
Are You Being Gaslighted?
Ever suspect you're being gaslighted by your patients' results? Especially when their CRP result says, 'nothing to see here'! But every other piece of information and every one of your senses tell you they're inflamed and their immune system is up to something!! Me...
Are You A Sucker For ‘Secret Herbs & Spices’?!
Me neither. I value transparency in all things impacting my health. So when the 'Colonel' tells us the magic is in not knowing...I think....hmmmmmmm, no thanks! Similarly, when the provider of a test tells us, 'We'd like to give you independent scientific support for...
(Wo)Man Down?
Here's a newsflash: It's only mid-February. And if you're like many of the health professionals I regularly talk to, currently you're feeling something akin to jet-lag but rather than just your circadian rhythm being out of sync, it's bigger than that, it's your...
Is Copper the Culprit in ADHD?
Sometimes I think I must be psychic..or is that psychotic? Don't answer that, it's a bad Byron Bay in-joke. I had literally just recorded my Update in Under 30 Copper in Kids and this excellent new study was published that same week, assessing and comparing trace...
Getting More Bang From Your Patients’ BP
While we may not all be pathology proficient, overwhelmingly we do take or record blood pressure, right? It's such an easy but essential inroad to understand something more about patients' cardiovascular system, and indeed their nervous system, when prone to the...
‘Copper Excess’ In A Child?!….Really??
Copper deficiency happens in kids, so does copper toxicity and both are serious concerns, but do we know when to accurately call either? First, we have to know 'normal'. If we know what normal Serum Copper values look like in children, then we can easily spot those...
In Need Of A Better System?
When you start doing this with your patients' pathology results, you know your client records are turning into a big hot mess and more importantly your ability to see the wood for the trees is seriously under threat! Private labs don't play nicely with one another...
Putting Young Heads on Old Shoulders
Do you know this saying but the other way round? My dad said it often enough and always with such an exasperated tone that it's got its own dedicated lobe in my brain. Almost. Lately, however, I've been reflecting on how much I learn from people younger than me, both...
…& Stop Giving Them Manganese!
It's like that split-second you close the door and realise you've locked the car with the keys still inside, or the whole reason you rang someone pops back into your head just after you put the phone down. Yes after the opportunity to draw breath over the...