Rachel's Blogs
Time for Change
After running a deeply rewarding Group Mentoring program for over a decade it is indeed time for change. I've witnessed first-hand the exceptional growth of thousands of practitioners, and in turn they have guaranteed and forged my own. It's provided me, & my...
Thyroid V Virus – Not New Just Ask Fritz
Ever feel like the universe has been preparing you just for this moment? Me neither really…but in this one weird way – yes! So hear me out. Thyroid disease as a result of a viral infection was first described in 1902 by Dr Fritz De Quervain and of course he and his...
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It’s Time To Go Home When…
THIS IS A NON-SERVING SUGGESTION!!! Supplements should not be chucked in together like this - clearly their stability testing Is based on being on their own in a closed bottle under controlled conditions - this is definitely a case of do as I say not as I do!!!...
Nutritional Neuropathies & Much More
Burning, tingling, crawling, buzzing, humming, zapping, pins & needles, numbness: our patients often tell us about strange sensations they have in various parts of their body. It's typically not their major concern, but they mention it as an aside, a curiosity,...
Last Words for 2021
I'm ready to zip my lips 🤐 and ride off into the sunset of silly season. But first I wanted to tell you about the BIG PLANS we have ON THE BOIL! Noticed a bit of a thyroid theme of late? Last month I presented training in thyroid assessment for the 4th time...
Urinary Iodine Curveball Corrected!
Example 1: Example 2: We love hearing from our fellow fearless friends on the frontline - working with lab results & pathology providers - everyday. We recently received an SOS! from the Francesca Naish over yet another iodine assessment issue that you may need...
Are You And Your Patients Stuck?
There are some things we say so often to patients we could record them and just press <PLAY> Like this daily dogma: 'When you're under stress, your demand for Magnesium rises and then in turn that can make you more susceptible to further stress, so we're going...
Functional Medicine Falsehoods ⛔️
An ideal T4 is 15 An 'anti-aging' DHEAs must be >7 A ferritin of 100 is optimal for women... I've heard it all, probably you have too, and far too often & too recently from practitioners who should have rationalised & researched their way beyond these...
RIP 2021?
It's quite the meme of the moment and while I completely get the sentiment behind its original meaning, my take is a little different: Results in Practice 2021! How were yours? Here were some of ours from the cases presented in group mentoring: 💪 We correctly...
When CKD C(omes) K(nocking) at your D(oor)
And it will. It knocked again on a practitioner's door last week. She in turn knocked on mine. It turned out to be a very familiar story: Firstly: Patient presents distressed - recently a nurse applied the term 'Chronic Kidney Disease' to HER (note no one has ever...
Were We Wrong – Is B6 Da Bomb?
And not in a good way, right. While we've known about the potential for peripheral neuropathy with excess B6 supplementation since the 1980s, currently there's a seismic shift in our sense of safety even with previously regarded 'safe' levels. You may have heard...
Female Pattern Hair Loss ≠ A Female With Hair Loss
I'm intrigued by the silence. Hair loss in women is frighteningly common, following pregnancy, menopause & with extreme stress (wait is that a tautology? 🙄) In fact it can strike at any age and for a multitude of reasons. When it happened to me a few...
Following The Fenton Fall-Out
I confess I was a chemistry nerd 'way back when', but my skill for stoichiometric calculations had sadly slipped by the time my kids needed help with high-school science & now my son, who's about to graduate from chemical engineering, is my 'chem-friend'...
Made it to 100!
Ok, so maybe I don't quite look like this after 100 episodes & almost a decade of our Update in Under 30 series but sometimes, in the depths of researching & developing each episode I can feel like this! The idea for this subscription series came out of a...
The Breakfast Bench Test
You may have noticed I don't often have recipe raves, swap serving suggestions or generally dialogue about diet. That's because about a decade into my career as a naturopath I hit food fatigue - my enthusiasm for explaining basic food swaps and increasing kitchen...
I’ve been Digitalised, Time-stamped & Generally Improved
But sadly, still not cloned! While it may sound like Big-Brother was responsible, it was the efforts of my tremendous team responding to feedback from fans - who said things like: I just LOVED EVERY SINGLE MINUTE of the MasterCourse in Diagnostics but would love to...
It Could
You know when you learn about a 'new' dis-ease driver and then you actually have to stop yourself from diagnosing every patient with it? I've done this dance with Gilbert's Syndrome for over a decade, so too maybe have some of you? And while there have been many,...
No One Panic!⚡
Are we all just a bit prone to panic at the moment? I received a 9pm call from my 21year old son. Trying desperately to disguise my reflexive s'mothering, I ask in a voice feigning carefree, 'Everything ok?' to which he replies, 'Well, [long pause] not really..."...
The Low Fat Fix?
"After our group session I suggested the low fat trial but she was 'no, no, no....I can't take anything more out of my diet'. It was at the beginning of lockdown & she had other stressors as well. So I asked her to be mindful of her fat intake & if one meal...
When Is IBS BAD?
No, this is not a trick question & it's certainly not a silly one. IBS, as many of us know, has a very loose diagnostic criteria: visceral hypersensitivity coupled with altered motility in the absence of organic disease. Hence it tends to 'loosely' fit a vast...
Naturopathic Nanna’s Club
I'm 100% confident that, as a professional group, among our highest values about healthy, preferable, food choices, would be characteristics like: 'as close to nature as possible', 'unrefined', 'unprocessed', 'unadulterated'. Tell me I'm wrong. So, when I keep...
I’m Using My Inside Voice 🙄
Maybe it's tax-time, just my wintery whinge or a tirade triggered by missing my twins' 21st birthday due to border restrictions 😶 but I'm sorry for all the shouting of late...about interpreting iron studies, about the copper misinformed etc etc. and my...
Copper Crimes (via Misinformation) 🤯
I haven't personally seen every medical condition known to occur, nor every micronutrient deficiency & toxicity picture in the flesh but that doesn't mean I doubt their very existence. Sadly, it would seem some practitioners due to a) not knowing 'where' to look...