Rachel's Blogs
No One Does Nutrition Like We Do Nutrition
A 26 year old woman suffering years of fatigue from 'persistent iron and B12 deficiency' repetitively treated with both oral and IV, walks into a compounding chemist and finally meets her match 🐱🏍 A naturopath with years of experience working...
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...
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Lots to be Said for Boring Basics
Horses not Zebras. You've no doubt heard me repeat that quote which is famous in medical schools, something to the effect of, "When you hear a heard of animals outside your door, think horses not zebras"...unless of course you are practising in Africa might I suggest...
Nutritional Medicine: A Place For Science Not Wishful Thinking
Show me a nutrient that doesn't demonstrate a U shaped curve with our health (too little produces negative effects - too much produces negative effects) and I'll go 'HE!' Go on...try it now... But the way many have been taught nutrition has lead to some erroneous...
A Low Oxalate Diet Is Not A Healthy Prescription
Until it is. Following on from my frolicking in frocks made of my favourite oxalate-rich foods around the Alps, let's be clear these are great, healthy and health-promoting inclusions in ours and our patients' diets. Until they're not. Just like FODMAP avoidance is...
These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things…
Beetroot & Spinach & Lovely Bright Berries Rhubarb & Buckwheat & Baked Sweet Potato Black Tea & Green Tea & All My Dark Chocolate Sins These are a few of my favourite things!! Sounds like a kitchen roll-call at my house...how about yours? And...
It’s Not Rocket (Dental) Science!
With the increasing weight of evidence pointing to a potent pathogenic portal between our mouths and every other part of the body, whether that be in terms of cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, appendicitis, even a growing case for Alzheimer's disease, we...
You Say Tomatoes I Say…
Histamine, Oxalates & Nickel...any of which may be at fault when your patient reports they experience adverse reactions from eating them. The same can be said for legumes, with a few extra contenders thrown in like oligosaccharides for those farty on FODMAPs. ...
Thank You (ACNEM), Next!
Integrative Psychiatry is an inspiring area to work in & its evidence base, acceptance and recognition of potency is rapidly growing & offering more patients, more. Going beyond the 'neurotransmitter imbalance model' for each presenting diagnosis helps us to...
You Might Want to Write This Number Down
No you're right, it's not long enough to be a Hemsworth's mobile number but actually it's more sought after 😉 If you're up to date with reading & recognising all the different patterns of Iron Studies & the stories they tell, which is a daily business for...
ACNEM Goes West
In July I go west again (seriously any excuse...love the place!) and fly over to Perth for the ACNEM Foundations (formerly known as Primary Modules) training course that ACNEM have been rolling out this year around the country. If you haven't seen it already...
Getting to the Guts of it!
I'm calling this one early. The presentation with the most dramatic rise in incidence this year is women aged 20-50 with 'atypical' joint pain. Probably good I don't have a betting account, hey, but in all seriousness I am struck by the increasing familiarity...
Sharing the (Medicinal) Cannabis
I've been asked to speak at the Mental Health, Medicinal Cannabis & Other Nutritional Medicine Conference, on the 20th July in Melbourne, organised by the Global Health Initiative for all health professionals primarily wanting to learn more about this...
Where Do All The Nutrients Go?
Those 'still-believers' look away now. One of the great myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings in nutritional medicine is that supplementation with specific nutrients will produce change specifically in one system, or pathway, which just happens to be the one...
Time for Some Tipi Talks?
I've had a bit of 'a bee in my bonnet' this year. I heard that! Ok, arguably it extends a little further back...like my whole career! But if you've seen the topics I've been speaking on at conferences in recent months, you'll know exactly the soapbox I've climbed up...
Secret Weapons for Integrative Practitioners
What makes integrative health professionals stand out is that we take the time and have the attention to detail to capture the ‘whole health story’ of each patient. As a result, however, we tend to end up with vast amounts of information for every...
Wondering Who Shouldn’t Fast?
Remember biochemical individuality folks? That great core underpinning principle of naturopathic & integrative nutrition. We should always keep this in front of mind, when something utterly fabulous for absolutely everyone pops its head up. Like...
Mind Your P’s and P’s
Do you know that saying, 'mind your Ps and Qs?' It basically means mind your manners and I heard that a lot as a kid 😉 But what we really need to hear now, as practitioners and promoters of healthy eating and wellness is really, Mind your P's and P's because...
ACNEM Super Discount for you!
ACNEM’s annual conference is almost upon us and this will be a jammed packed weekend of fascinating talks and lots of great networking. Evolving Landscapes of Nutrition in Medicine – ACNEM Conference 2019 in Melbourne 24-26 May This year there is a range of...
Chaos to Clarity – Transforming Your Case Taking
As health professionals who take the time & have the incredible attention to detail to capture the 'whole health story' of each patient, we can end up with vast amounts of information for every client: detailed medical histories, broad systems-reviews,...
Go West!
Ok I need to straight up apologise for the 80s pop culture (and I use that last term loosely) reference. That was uncalled for...especially because this message might need to be heard most by those next gen naturopaths who weren't even born when mullets had...
Naturopaths Need to Reclaim Wellness
When I was studying my under-graduate I imagined my clinic was going to be full of them: well patients wanting to maintain or even improve upon their wellness. Turns out...not so much...all the really really sick people have taken their spots and the former has been...
Have you heard? It All Comes Back to the Gut
How often were we told this in our training? And how often have we found this to be true in practice? And now suddenly, it seems, the medical researchers (at last!) are rapidly coming around to this core concept?? Our microbiome is suddenly the hottest property on...