Rachel's Blogs
Why Iron? Why Us???
Did I mention my mentees ask the meanest (!) & most meaningful questions? Especially those early career practitioners engaged in our New Grads program! And it's been almost a whole month minute since I've talked about iron, so I wanted to share this gem from...
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...
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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...
Look What’s Just Dropped!
a. Some hip new (truly undanceable) track b. Every herbalist's jaw at my table at the NHAA conference gala dinner, when I got almost all my Latin binomials right during the trivia quiz?...and after some champagne, that's a particular achievement c. My jaw, when I saw...
Let’s Get Down And Dirty
I arrived home from the Farmer's Market this week ready to cook a little number I like to call 'egg dinner' (fancy I know 😉 ) and found my organic bunch of kale, covered in dirt. Ok, admittedly, there was a small reflexive, barely-audible-beyond-immediate-neighbours,...
Q: If a patient says they can only tolerate 7 foods…
Q: If a patient says they can only tolerate 7 foods...how many did they start with? A: Typically about 20 No, this answer doesn't come from some complex mathematical formula...it comes from appreciating the low dietary diversity of those eating a Western diet. When...
A Package Packed With Iron, Iron & Even More Help With Iron
We're not deaf...we heard that stampede of Iron-Inundated Practitioners! Our recordings and clinical resources for improving your skill-set in all things iron including, your accuracy of diagnosing deficiencies, pseudo-deficiencies & excesses, plus...
Finding the Inner Herbalist
My career path has taken me a long way and in a very different direction from the one I started on. During my uni days I wildcrafted herbs, enthusiastically made potions and, yes as the semi-famous story goes, even misidentified one wild-crafted species and...
A Dash of Milk Madness?
So this is not news to most people who know me but I don't like taking things out of people's diet. As a result, in a room full of naturopaths & integrative medicos, I might be voted the least likely to use the phrase, "No Gluten or Dairy for you!" [said with the...
Talking Turkey About My Pet Hate
Let's talk turkey about our pharmaceutical Pet Hates, mine are Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs). They irk me more than any other drug class. It's not entirely rational. Let's face it, they have some stiff competition but for some reason, in my mind, they almost always...