Rachel's Blogs
Meet My Alter Ego
Did I say, ‘Our Brain’? 🙄 Maybe it really should be, ‘Their Brain...on Drugs: what recreational substances reveal'. While infinite self-analysis is an occupational hazard for health professionals, when we use our detective powers for good not evil, our patient...
I’m Against Absolutes
And health, no matter which side you sit on, seems to be particularly plagued by them. I (incorrectly) recall my 4 year degree as being a series of deep personal losses, some favourite food, then caffeine, then alcohol etc etc.😂 Likewise, I'm aware that...
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Hanging Out For The Histamine Handshake?!
Recently a mentee reported that when attending an in-person training event (remember those, everyone?!) she approached a sponsor’s stand, promoting practitioner training in the nutritional management of mental health, based on the pioneering work of American...
Have You Met Your Hype-Guy?
About 15 years ago I was introduced to histamine, the neurotransmitter. Before that, I only knew him (come on...it has to be, right? Histamine) as an immune molecule, an allergy mediator, a chemotactic agent of chaos! Given my interest & previous work in mental...
It’s True
I've a confession to make, I took the batteries out of our smoke detector in our kitchen. Why? You know why. Because it went off all the time, with what I like to call, friendly fires...you know, heating oil for poppadoms, a rush of steam upwards from a hot pot on...
Where Could Should Would All the Iron Go?
I love a good iron question. It makes me emit a sound like Jack Sparrow might, when faced with something pleasingly piratey 🏴☠️ Lucky because I am asked SO MANY GOOD ONES, SO OFTEN!! Being one of the earliest minerals discovered to be...
SSRIs – A Weight On Some Patient’s Minds
Given 1 in 8 Australians right now are taking an antidepressant, chances are you're seeing a lot of clients on these, especially the SSRIs. Erica McIntyre (fellow naturopath) and colleagues, found that in fact, mental health diagnoses affect about 43% of individuals...
Walk Towards The Light!
Now find a comfy spot everyone & I'll tell you a story...'Once upon a time, a long long time ago, we lived our days out in the dark, regarding potential calcium dysregulation!' But ever since serum Calcium has become a standard lab included in most routine...
Trends not Truths
Trends in mineral supplements are like music genres, you can pick which 'decade' they were formulated very quickly. But instead of going by clothes, hairstyles or even the style of accompanying music video, it's all about the form - the 'thing' the mineral is bound...
Is This You?
Gotta love all the clever inquisitive minds among our integrative health practitioner community. I think each of us, as children may have been that one kid who just never stopped asking questions. What a great quality to have because it prompts us to think outside...
Balancing Protein With Personalised Requirements
You guys know I can't help myself. For the last year or so I've been immersed in developing and redeveloping and redeveloping 🤓 [ahem apologies to my team!!] teaching tools for all practitioners to better understand what the routine renal markers can offer us...
A Nifty Tool (for non-Neanderthals)
The walls of books you can see behind me in my office, during webinars etc are not stage-props. Not a single day would go by without me pulling multiple core texts down off these shelves to caress their paper pages. I recite the most often used ones: Shils Shike,...
Calling Out The Conspiracy
I don't know about you but I don't count myself among the conspiracy theorists. While I may have been partial to the occasional one over my lifetime, you have my word, I never inhaled. Or at least not since I learned the practise of scientific enquiry and the...
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...
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...