Rachel's Blogs
Some Cracking! Cases
Practitioners have been bringing their most challenging cases to me for mentoring & supervision for over a decade, that's hundreds, in fact, probably thousands, of cases, tempting me to say, therefore I've seen 'everything'. Except of course I haven't. And each...
![Ever Watch Yourself Back Like…[Generalist V Specialist]](https://rachelarthur.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-15-510x510.jpg)
Ever Watch Yourself Back Like…[Generalist V Specialist]
ALL • THE • TIME Especially given I am now a relic, my original training not quite pre-industrial revolution but pre-specialisation obsession. So that once I started seeing paying patients I just saw, and have seen...everyone. And because our patients always drive...
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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:...
Well…Does He Need Iron?!
If I could be granted 1 wish regarding all health professionals, it would be that we were all competent in reading Iron Studies. Think that's overstating the issue? Or not a bodacious enough way to 'spend' my wish? I don't. Especially when you consider the impact of...
We Need To Talk About Kevin…aka B3
Just like Kevin, 'Niacin' is profoundly misunderstood and consequently runs the risk of doing us harm. Unlike 'Kevin', we can't watch the movie to see how this (our arguably excessive use of the wrong forms of B3 in supplements and fortified foods) is all going to...
Ask Alexa?
'Hey Alexa, What's that formula for correcting urinary iodine for hydration status?' Oh yes, if only she could answer these kind of questions! There's no one here by that name but we get these kind of emails all the time [Oh and also for Freya who hasn't worked here...
Do You See What I See?
When I was 12 tartan was in. Like, really in. And I rode that tartan wave as far as it could go, arguably beyond where it should go...I had a tartan bowtie I wore. 🙄 I knew it was on trend because I saw it flashed across magazine covers (we never bought them...