Rachel's Blogs
A Diagnosis of Inclusion for all Women 35-65?
Any steps towards inclusivity in societal & cultural terms are cause for celebration but in medicine, that can come in the form of a 'diagnosis of inclusion', the opposite, of course, of a 'diagnosis of exclusion' and potentially as slippery and loose as it...
Is Our Education At Risk Of A Being An Echo Chamber
Recently I asked practitioners to tell me where the 'therapeutic reference range' many of us were taught for nutrients comes from & no one has been able to answer that.🙄 If you've heard me refer to my original naturopathic education before you'll know I...
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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...
Cracking At The Corners?
Name a B vitamin. Hey, Bingo! It's on the list! What list? The complete one from all the review papers & references to possible links between individual nutrient deficiencies & Angular Cheilitis - inflammation & cracking at the corners of the mouth. So...
Not A Savant? Me Neither
I'm a fluoro gal myself. I take copious notes the old school way, on paper with pen and vast...
SOS! 2 Distress Flares In 2 Days 🤦♀️
While many of us have made it our business to ensure we are competent IN the business of understanding patients' iron studies, it sadly seems, many even in teaching and training positions, still have not 🙁 I was sent 2 messages this week that had me lost for words...
Elders & Young’uns – Best Of Both Worlds
Last week I had my say about acknowledging our elders & mentors, this week I want to speak to the power of the young peeps. Just like a younger sibling, nipping at your heels can act as a great motivator to move faster, or having children can inspire us to do...
I Stand On The Shoulders Of Others
I stand on the shoulders of my elders. [I hope it's not too painful for them, it's been going on a long time now!!] And I regularly lean on my mentors - who are often my peers, practitioners specialising in areas different from mine. I recite their names often like...
Slippery Little Sucker Indeed!
[Ahem] Ok let me explain...Several catch-cries from Australian ads have earnt themselves a lifelong place in my head and heart,...
Good Great Better Brilliant…
I'm experiencing some serious POTTS exhaustion - how about you? No, not POTS, POTTS: Preposterous Over The Top Selling of supplements, which seems to be at an all time high even amongst our practitioner brands. I saw a product name recently that included the word,...
What’s happening with Lucy’s Labs?
What's your knee-jerk response to 52Y Lipids Lucy & Liver, whose ALT & AST suddenly jumped above range when she was put on statins? They're damaging her liver? You'd be wrong. One of the practitioners who undertook the MasterCourse in Comprehensive...
How Much Can You…?
"How much can you misbehave & get away with it?" I listened with fresh ears, as a practitioner asked my son this question recently. I use similar ones with my own patients but hearing it from someone else, I could sit back and appreciate its true purpose and how...
B12…12kms?
Is it just me or do you view everything with a trained eye? My son always laughed when I wrote him a shopping list: I would list items under each shop and I always wrote down our local supermarket the Independent Grocers Association, like this: IgA...you all see...
Every Woman & Her Dog
The average woman & her dog (& likely every other member of her household, be they furred or otherwise), can tell you that sudden changes in sex hormones can undermine, derange, psychopathise, impact her mind and mood. Hey, for me most days reverse parking is...
Present But Not The Problem
Something's just come up today again and I think we need to talk about it. A positive result on a stool PCR microbiome test for H. pylori, understandably, might be heard as a clear call to action to go in guns blazing with an eradication approach. But is it? Trust...
Real-time Diagnostics on the Couch!
Well, this is different, now I'm watching you! 😆 In early 2021 we released our very popular MasterCourse I:...