Rachel's Blogs
Our *NEW* Prescribers Program in 2023
How much? How often? When is the best time & timing? do you know about friends, foes and frenemies? Which form, when? e.g. building blocks or bioactives? And for how long? aka are we there yet...? These are the kind of questions that one would imagine nutritional...
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...
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Nutritional Science & Debate in Action
Last weekend I attended the Science of Nutrition in Medicine Conference in Melbourne https://nutritionmedicine.org.au/enews/2015-02-06-Program.html and for those of you that didn’t make it I can tell you, it wasn’t your regular CPE event. I’m not sure if the...
Top 10 Investigations in Mental Health Patients
One of the most common questions I’m asked is whether I have a ‘set list’ of tests that I request for every patient. Of course there is no ‘one size fits all’ in health & each patient presents with their own novel combination of issues & investigative...
Learning the Language of Men’s Endocrine Health
We should all be as skilled in investigating & treating male hormone imbalances as we are female ones, yet this is often not the case. A lack of confidence in this area, which seems to be an issue for many, in particular will compromise our ability to...
Managing Your Random-Regulars
So often in mentoring I hear about patients practitioners have struggled to treat primarily because of irregular points of contact....you know the type, the client who is an Irregular Regular or Random Regular, booking in to see you just once or twice a year or just...
Increasing Off-label use of Anti-psychotics – Should we be worried?
I regard myself as integrative which means working collaboratively with other health professionals to get the best outcomes for our shared patients, sometimes that means my patients are taking psychiatric medications & there have been instances where I have seen...
What’s New in K2?
It seems like K2 is the supplement on everybody’s lips right now and for good reason. This is particularly true in Australia where we’re seeing a flurry of new K2 products on the market thanks to a relatively recent TGA approval for this particular form of the...
A Great Time To Be A New Practitioner
"Health issues are rarely one individual textbook condition like they were during my studies. The interaction of the body is complex, and Rachel has given me valuable insight into how to link various pathology markers & physical aspects together. Test...
Do you mind if I record our appointment?
I read an interesting news item in Medical Observer this week about the increasing number of patients either overtly or covertly recording medical appointments on their smart phones. Have some of your patients already asked if they could do this? Mine have and I’m...
Winning the Acid War
You might have heard me talk about using an ‘upstream’ rather than ‘downstream’ approach in nutrition – the concept is very naturopathic… look at the water source and address things there rather than just tweak things downriver! One of the most important upstream...
Australia’s Food Intolerance & Allergy Guru Will See You Now!
I’ve booked my flights and packed my bags (at least in my mind!) already. The annual Science of Nutrition in Medicine Conference is on 2-3rd May in Melbourne & there’s one name on the bill that alone I would be attending for – Dr Robert Loblay. He’s the head of...
The Sleep Prescription
How often do you find yourself writing sleep prescriptions for your patients? I do – frequently. I’ll include in my recommendations something like – ‘nap for 20 minutes every alternate day’ or, ‘commit to getting into bed 1 hour earlier 3 nights this week’ or...
Another Piece of Naturopathic Nutritional Wisdom Goes Mainstream
Over 20 years ago (ouch!) while studying at Southern School of Natural Therapies, I heard for the first time that calcium perhaps had a ‘dark side’! At the time, and still to a large extent now, calcium is publicly portrayed as something you simply can’t get enough...
New Mentoring on a Monday
Howdy everyone, thanks to popular demand (and perhaps something some people have against Tuesdays!! 🙂 ) we've opened up a new group on the 2nd Monday on every month at 1.30pm NSW time for mentoring. It's brand-out-of the bag-kinda-new with a small group of...
Optimal Thyroid Function In Pregnancy?
Thyroid function is critical to successful conception, healthy pregnancies, babies and mum's post-partum wellbeing, so we need to take the time to ensure we’re monitoring it properly. First of all you need the right tool for the right job & that means we need...
Is This Your Month to Start Mentoring?
We’re ready to begin another year of group mentoring from this Tuesday and we’ve got just 6 spots in total still available across all our time slots! Maybe you’ve heard the buzz about the sessions from some of our mentees over the past few years & are tempted but...
What to make of long-term low CRP
Ever had those patients… young, slim, fit…I won’t go so far as to say ‘well’ or otherwise they probably wouldn’t be seeing us right? But not overtly inflamed and yet when you measure their CRP, it registers. The average CRP of ‘healthy’ adult populations is reported...
PCOS families – are your male patients affected?
We now suspect that many of the drivers behind PCOS are heritable components – a genetic vulnerability passed from parents, possibly one but often both. This growing understanding has identified a phenomenon referred to as ‘PCOS families’ i.e. a family in which at...
Extra info on 2014 CD Deal
We've had a lot of inquiries regarding our end of year CD special. So just to clarify - here's the deal and below that how to make it happen! 🙂 Purchase any 2 CDs before Jan 31st and receive one complimentary Premium Audio Recording of your choice OR purchase 4 CDs...
End of Year CD Clearance
As we head rapidly towards the change over of our calendars we would like to offer you a special on the very best educational recordings from 2014 - buy 2 CDs before Jan 31st and receive one complimentary Premium Audio Recording of your choice OR purchase 4 CDs and...
Recognising A Tendency to Iron Overload Earlier
We've just had another mentoring case in which a 40 something female with deficiencies of almost all other minerals but 'pretty normal ferritin levels' presented with a range of endocrine problems and arthralgia. Sounds as if iron's not the problem right? Except...
Mental Health – The Real Story
“Two great speakers – inspirational in the first half and bang on in the second – I now know how much I don’t know” Just out now in time for Christmas…no seriously though… this year I had the good fortune to team up with Biomedica and in particular Rachel McDonald and...