Planet Naturopath

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Gladstone, QLD
Planet Naturopath

My name is Michael Smith and I am a Naturopath and Nutritionist specializing in Functional Medicine, Consultations are available via phone or Skype world wide.

Naturopath and Nutritionist specializing in functional medicine testing for digestion and hormonal health.

28/10/2026

Low iron that won’t improve, no matter how much you supplement?
Switching brands usually isn’t the answer.

In almost every case, it comes down to one of three root causes:

1. Not enough coming in (intake doesn’t match needs)
2. Not enough being absorbed (gut issues, low stomach acid, timing with coffee/calcium, etc.)
3. Too much being lost (heavy periods, blood donation, GI blood loss)

Action step: Don’t guess: get a proper iron workup and then address the cause, not just the number.

Read the complete guide here:
https://www.planetnaturopath.com/natural-treatments-iron-deficiency/

26/10/2026

If you’ve been dragging yourself through the day (tired, foggy, or suddenly struggling with workouts that used to feel easy), it’s tempting to reach for iron and hope for the best.

But here’s the problem: iron isn’t a “just in case” supplement.

Unlike many nutrients, your body has a limited ability to get rid of excess iron once it’s absorbed. Too much can be harmful.

What I see most often in practice is this:

- someone is exhausted
- their hemoglobin comes back “normal”
- they’re told “you’re not anemic, so your iron is fine”
…and they’re still not okay.

Normal hemoglobin doesn’t rule out iron deficiency. Iron stores can fall well before anemia shows up.

If you suspect low iron, the safest and most effective first step is:

1. Test properly (not just ferritin)
2. Confirm whether iron is actually low
3. Then treat with a plan, and "retest" so you know it’s working (and when to stop)

If you want the full breakdown (including how to test and how to take iron so it absorbs), here’s the guide:
https://www.planetnaturopath.com/natural-treatments-iron-deficiency/

21/10/2026

If your vitamin D is “normal” but you’re still not convinced it’s optimal, you’re not overthinking it.

Insight: Vitamin D is one of those markers where the reference range doesn’t always reflect best function. And the number alone doesn’t tell the whole story.

A more helpful way to approach it:

- Test 25(OH)D (the standard vitamin D blood test)
- Add PTH (parathyroid hormone)

Why PTH matters: if vitamin D is low enough to reduce calcium absorption, PTH can rise to compensate, sometimes even when your vitamin D looks borderline acceptable.

Action plan (simple):

- Baseline 25(OH)D + PTH
- Add magnesium + K2 (MK-7) if supplementing
- Vitamin D3 with food (fat matters)
- Retest in 8–12 weeks

Want help choosing what to test, how to interpret it, and what to do next? Book a consultation.

For more information about our services, please visit:
https://www.planetnaturopath.com/

19/10/2026

Most people think vitamin D is “the sunshine vitamin for bones.”

True… but incomplete.

Vitamin D behaves more like a 'hormone' than a simple nutrient. Once it’s activated, it binds to vitamin D receptors in tissues throughout the body and influences gene expression across the immune system, gut lining, brain, cardiovascular system, and metabolism.

And yet deficiency is still incredibly common.

Here’s what I see in practice: people rely on sun exposure, assume they’re fine, then their bloodwork says otherwise. It’s not your fault. Vitamin D production depends on a long list of variables:

- latitude + season (UVB is limited in winter at higher latitudes)
- time of day (midday matters most)
- skin tone, age, clothing coverage
- sunscreen (very effective at blocking UVB)
- genetics (some people process or respond to vitamin D differently)

That’s why the simplest, most reliable approach is a practical one:

1. Test properly (25-hydroxy vitamin D / 25(OH)D)
2. Add PTH to interpret whether your body is compensating
3. If you supplement, don’t forget the cofactors, especially magnesium + vitamin K2
4. Retest in 8–12 weeks and adjust based on results

If you’d like support interpreting your results and building a plan, you can book a consultation with Planet Naturopath.

For more information about our services, please visit:
https://www.planetnaturopath.com/

23/05/2026

Glucose and insulin are not the same test, but they are treated as interchangeable far too often in routine care.

For women with PCOS or PMOS, this distinction is particularly important because the metabolic picture can look completely normal on a standard panel while the underlying driver of symptoms continues unchecked.

Androgen excess, irregular cycles, persistent acne, and difficulty losing weight can all have a metabolic root that never gets identified when the right markers are not being ordered.

Knowing which tests to ask for specifically is often the first step toward getting answers that actually make sense of the symptoms.

Full video linked in bio.

22/05/2026

A name shapes how a condition is understood, investigated, and treated. When the name is wrong, everything that follows can miss the mark.

Many women have spent years confused by a diagnosis that did not seem to match their experience — no cysts on their scan, yet still given the label. Or cysts present, but told they do not qualify.

The proposed shift to PMOS better reflects what is actually driving the condition for most women, which opens the door to more targeted testing and more meaningful treatment conversations with practitioners.

If you have a PCOS diagnosis and feel like you have never had a full explanation of what is actually going on metabolically, that full conversation is overdue.

Complete breakdown linked in bio.

16/05/2026

There is a difference between having enough nutrients in your blood and your cells actually using them efficiently.

This gap is where a lot of unexplained fatigue lives, and it is rarely investigated in a standard medical workup. Cellular energy production depends on factors that do not show up on a routine panel, which means people can spend years being told everything looks fine while still feeling far from it.

If you are over 40 and fatigue is your primary complaint with no clear cause, looking beyond standard testing is often where the answers start to appear.

Full CoQ10 video linked in bio.

15/05/2026

Fatigue after 40 is common but it is not something you just have to accept.

Mitochondrial function is one of the least discussed drivers of age-related energy decline, yet it is one of the most addressable. The body's ability to produce key compounds involved in cellular energy naturally decreases over time, and most standard blood panels do not screen for this at all.

If your thyroid, iron, and sleep have all been investigated and your energy is still not where it used to be, mitochondrial support is worth exploring with a practitioner.

Full CoQ10 breakdown linked in bio.

08/05/2026

The gut microbiome influences hormone balance in ways most standard hormone panels will never reveal.

An imbalanced gut environment does not just affect digestion. It can actively interfere with how the body processes and eliminates hormones, creating a cycle that no amount of liver support alone will fully resolve.

This is why two people can follow the same hormone protocol and get completely different results. The missing variable is often what is happening further down the detox pathway.

Addressing gut health is not just about bloating and digestion. For many women it is central to resolving hormonal symptoms that have not responded to anything else.

Full video on the three phases of estrogen detoxification linked in bio.

06/05/2026

Hormone testing is only as useful as the timing behind it. A result taken on the wrong day of the cycle can miss everything that matters.

This is one of the most common reasons women spend months chasing answers that never quite add up. The number looks fine on paper, but the context is missing entirely.

If you have been told your hormones are normal but still experience cyclical symptoms, it is worth asking exactly when that sample was taken and whether the timing was appropriate for what you were trying to measure.

The right test, done at the right time, tells a completely different story.
Three phases of estrogen detoxification explained in full — linked in bio.

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Gladstone, QLD

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http://www.planetnaturopath.com/contact-us

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