Rachel's Blogs

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Why Haven’t I Heard About This Before?!

Last week I spoke to a group of psychiatrists, doctors and nurses working at a psychiatric hospital about N-acetyl cysteine for a whole hour! Anyone who has worked in pharmaceuticals, (which of course I did in a previous life) or has seen medical CPD up close even,...

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Bad Patient Days (BPDs)

I was chatting with a colleague today about a complicated & interesting case of hers, severe hypothyroidism coupled with overt hypercortisolemia (salivary cortisol up to 230!).  This is a distance patient & she’s sharing care with a couple of other health...

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Who gives an RDW about RDW?

Ever noticed that thing called RDW (red cell distribution width) reported in your patients’ haematology results? Given that this parameter is currently regarded as one of the most important & earliest markers of a wide range of serious diseases, you might start...

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Nutritional Science & Debate in Action

  Last weekend I attended the Science of Nutrition in Medicine Conference in Melbourne https://nutritionmedicine.org.au/enews/2015-02-06-Program.html and for those of you that didn’t make it I can tell you, it wasn’t your regular CPE event.  I’m not sure if the...

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Top 10 Investigations in Mental Health Patients

One of the most common questions I’m asked is whether I have a ‘set list’ of tests that I request for every patient.  Of course there is no ‘one size fits all’ in health & each patient presents with their own novel combination of issues & investigative...

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Learning the Language of Men’s Endocrine Health

  We should all be as skilled in investigating & treating male hormone imbalances as we are female ones, yet this is often not the case.  A lack of confidence in this area, which seems to be an issue for many, in particular will compromise our ability to...

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Managing Your Random-Regulars

So often in mentoring I hear about patients practitioners have struggled to treat primarily because of irregular points of contact....you know the type, the client who is an Irregular Regular or Random Regular, booking in to see you just once or twice a year or just...

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What’s New in K2?

It seems like K2 is the supplement on everybody’s lips right now and for good reason.  This is particularly true in Australia where we’re seeing a flurry of new K2 products on the market thanks to a relatively recent TGA approval for this particular form of the...

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A Great Time To Be A New Practitioner

"Health issues are rarely one individual textbook condition like they were during my studies.  The interaction of the body is complex, and Rachel has given me valuable insight into how to link various pathology markers & physical aspects together.  Test...

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Do you mind if I record our appointment?

I read an interesting news item in Medical Observer this week about the increasing number of patients either overtly or covertly recording medical appointments on their smart phones.  Have some of your patients already asked if they could do this?  Mine have and I’m...

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Winning the Acid War

You might have heard me talk about using an ‘upstream’ rather than ‘downstream’ approach in nutrition – the concept is very naturopathic… look at the water source and address things there rather than just tweak things downriver! One of the most important upstream...

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The Sleep Prescription

How often do you find yourself writing sleep prescriptions for your patients?  I do – frequently. I’ll include in my recommendations something like – ‘nap for 20 minutes every alternate day’ or, ‘commit to getting into bed 1 hour earlier 3 nights this week’ or...

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New Mentoring on a Monday

Howdy everyone, thanks to popular demand (and perhaps something some people have against Tuesdays!! 🙂 ) we've opened up a new group on the 2nd Monday on every month at 1.30pm NSW time for mentoring.  It's brand-out-of the bag-kinda-new with a small group of...

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Optimal Thyroid Function In Pregnancy?

Optimal Thyroid Function In Pregnancy?

Thyroid function is critical to successful conception, healthy pregnancies, babies and mum's post-partum wellbeing, so we need to take the time to ensure we’re monitoring it properly. First of all you need the right tool for the right job & that means we need...

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Is This Your Month to Start Mentoring?

We’re ready to begin another year of group mentoring from this Tuesday and we’ve got just 6 spots in total still available across all our time slots! Maybe you’ve heard the buzz about the sessions from some of our mentees over the past few years & are tempted but...

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What to make of long-term low CRP

Ever had those patients… young, slim, fit…I won’t go so far as to say ‘well’ or otherwise they probably wouldn’t be seeing us right?  But not overtly inflamed and yet when you measure their CRP, it registers.  The average CRP of ‘healthy’ adult populations is reported...

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