Joette Calabrese Podcast

In this podcast, we cover:

01:08    Introducing Michèle and Christophe

08:34    Homeopathy in France and the US

14:54    Boiron’s role in the growth of homeopathy   

20:50    Boiron in India

You are listening to a podcast from joettecalabrese.com where nationally certified American homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese, shares her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition.

Joette:  Hi Folks! Today’s podcast is going to be a complete turnaround for me. Normally, I’m interviewed, but this time, I’ll be the one interviewing my two special guests. The reason I’ve decided to do this is multifold. Once you understand who these folks are, it will become clear to you why I wanted to do this so much. So, whether you’re new to homeopathy or an old pro, you’ll appreciate what you’ll learn today because we’re going to be interviewing two key people in the world of global homeopathy.

So, let me start with this: You know those little blue bottles of homeopathic medicines that you see at your local supermarket, or health food store, or at your local conventional pharmacy and online? Well, they’re made by Boiron. There is a fascinating and, perhaps to you, an untold story that needs to be revealed here in the US. That is my goal today. I want to start with two super important people, as I said, at Boiron.

First, we have Michèle Boiron. In case you haven’t made the connection yet, she carries the family name of Boiron which makes her super important in the story that she and we are about to tell. So, Michèle Boiron is a pharmacist since 1969. She practiced her profession with passion behind the counter until 2005 — in both homeopathic and allopathic pharmacies. That makes her a little special, folks, especially in the US. Since then, Michèle has traveled the world sharing her experiences with fellow pharmacists in countries such as Brazil, Russia, Tunisia, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Polynesia. Now, of course, she’s in North America. She’s probably done this many times. But, this is a really fascinating thing is that she was made knight of the Legion of Honour by the French Minister of Health in 2008.

Now, before we start talking to her, let me also introduce to you, Christophe Merville. Christophe, who is a Doctor of Pharmacology, is the Director of Education and Pharmacy Development at Boiron. In his position, he creates training programs both online and in print for pharmacists and retailers on homeopathic medicines used to treat common health conditions. Before his 20-year career with Boiron, Christophe was a university hospital pharmacist in France, Loire Valley where he obtained three years of clinical experience. He was, of course, born in France. He completed his pharmacy doctorate in Nantes in 1985. He also co-authored several published works and has presented homeopathic topics at scientific meetings.

So, I welcome you both. This is really exciting for me and I hope for our listeners as well.

If you don’t mind, let’s start with you Michèle. I just have to ask you this question if you don’t mind. I’ve heard you have a reputation for being a troublemaker. I love troublemakers.

Michèle:  That’s right.

Joette:  I tell people, they need to have guts, spunk, and moxie. I want to know what the reason is for this reputation. I heard you speak on it recently. So, I’d love to have you share that with us. Why are you such a troublemaker?

Michèle:  Yes, I am really. I was a troublemaker because I was never satisfied with what I had. I began my story in the family pharmacy in Lyon. In that pharmacy, there were only homeopathic medicines. So, I was not so well with that because as a young pharmacist, I felt there were many other medicines very effective and important. So, I stayed there 10 years and I said, “No, I have to go on my own.” I went and I bought a small pharmacy in this suburb of Lyon, only allopathic drugs and not a single pellet tube. I was happy to say, “I’m going to do what I want.”

Joette:  I love it. That’s the goal for all of us. Can you tell me a little bit of the legacy of your parents as pharmacists and how that all fit into your life and what Boiron is today?

Michèle:  You know? I wanted to be an English teacher. You can’t imagine that today, huh? But we had family values. My father was pharmacist. My mother was pharmacist. So, I became a pharmacist. Then I began with my mother in her pharmacy. Afterwards, I had my own pharmacy. I introduced homeopathy in the allopathic pharmacy. Then I came back to the family pharmacy, and there I put conventional medicine in the homeopathic pharmacy. That’s why I am a troublemaker, you know, because I need to get all the medicines and not only a part of that. They always teach me to do what I really wanted to do. So, that’s very important. My father was so much passionate by homeopathy. So, I lived with that. He transmitted that to us, I think. Us three, my two brothers and I are still working in the field of homeopathy.

Joette:  Yes. So, you’re the bridge to the two paradigms of medicine: allopathy and homeopathy.

Michèle:  Yes, that’s true because we have wonderful medicines. The only thing is to use them in the right way. And, first of all, not to take your hammer to kill a mosquito. So, at the first beginning of a story of a disease, you have to try first — for me — homeopathic medicine because they are effective and without side effects. If ever it’s not working for one reason or another, okay, we have time to take another medicine. So first of all, it can be used alone. And also, now, more and more, it’s used as a complementary medicine. Of course, also in case that people cannot take conventional medicine. So, you have so many ways to use homeopathy. For me, it’s important to know it. That’s why I’m going around the world to share my experience with homeopathy with pharmacists.

Joette:  Yes, yes. But there’s a uniqueness in that message. Is that … maybe it’s because of the French pharmacies and the patient pharmacist exchange? Perhaps that has something to do with it. I believe that’s very unusual. We don’t see a tight exchange here in North America between the pharmacist and the patient. The pharmacist in the US is kind of the go-between. I love that it’s done this way in France. I would love you to expound on that if you don’t mind.

Michèle:  Yes. It is true that it is very different exercise in France than in the US. But I can tell you, it is changing all around the world. The role of the pharmacist is increasing and becoming a more advisory role everywhere, in Russia, in Tunisia, in Italy, and everywhere in the world. I think it’s coming here, too, because people need to have somebody to ask questions as soon as it comes. Of course, otherwise, they have to be aware of many things themselves. It’s very difficult.

Joette:  It’s a lot of work. You’re absolutely right. I’ve actually advised people that if their pharmacist is too busy during the day, that they should call in the middle of the night those pharmacies that are open 24 hours — and get the lonely pharmacist when he or she is all alone and in need of company and wouldn’t mind some questions coming in at the dark hours of 3 AM. But maybe that will change in the US. That would be great. I’d love to see that happen.

Michèle:  I think it’s going to change.

Joette:  So there’s a wide appeal of homeopathic medicines in France, much different than what we see in North America. Yes?

Michèle:  Yes, of course. In France, more than 50% of the people over 18 years old have used already homeopathic medicines. That means without counting children. So, that’s very important. Here, it’s not exactly the same, a little bit less. But we are on a wave at that moment where people are willing more natural and less aggressive therapeutics. It is the same for the food. It is the same for everything. They want more natural things. Homeopathy fits quite well with this new way of life. So, I think it will be more and more.

Joette:  It is a tidy fit. I agree with you. I think it has a lot to do with perhaps the politics of the world today, perhaps the internet having the ability to look things up on their own. There’s a movement, I think, throughout the world as you said for cleaner environments and better food and accountability and what these medications can or cannot do. I agree with you.

So, Christophe, if you don’t mind, I’d love to bring you into this. Tell us about how your medicines are made. I don’t want to get too deep into this. I don’t want to get into potencies, et cetera, et cetera. But a little bit about the rules and regulations with those folks who tend to believe that homeopathy is running by the seat of its pants — when in fact, it is nothing like that? Could you dispel that for us?

Christophe:  The first thing to know important is that in the US, homeopathic medicines have been defined as drugs since 1938. For everybody, that means that the level of control in the manufacturing and distribution of these medicines is very high, much higher than with herbs and supplements. So, for example, during the manufacturing process, you have dozens of controls that are happening to control exactly that each medicine is the same. One thing that role has been very, very instrumental in the world of homeopathic manufacturing is establishing guidelines that have been accepted, integrated to the French Pharmacopoeia and some of them to the US Pharmacopoeia (homeopathy pharmacopoeia, of course, in the US) to provide medicine that’s very reliable. You can count on it. With Boiron, we start always with fresh plants, for example. Every time we can, it’s a fresh plant. The level of control here also is very high. For example, on each homeopathic, from each Boiron homeopathic medicine, you have a little lot number. If you give me that lot number, I can call France, and they can tell me what was the weather like.

Joette:  Oh, come on!

Christophe:  Yes, because we need to.

Joette:  Oh, how impressive!

Christophe:  When the plant was harvested because we need to gather the plants when it’s not rainy, otherwise, there is too much water in the plant, and so on and so forth. So, those are just a few examples of the level of control we care. Not talking about dilutions in detail, but when we manufacture homeopathic dilution, it is done in an environment where the air is extremely pure. It’s even purer than the air on top of Mt. Everest. And, all that is validated and controlled and so on. So, homeopathic medicines are not made in the corner of a kitchen table. It’s a highly controlled process. Therefore, each physician, each pharmacy, each patient to receive, or to distribute, or to dispense the medicine of the highest quality and reliability.

Joette:  So Christophe, are you saying that this is unique to Boiron?

Christophe:  I would say yes. No question. I worked with other pharmacist. We — the company, Boiron company — has a fast pharmacist control, and especially in domain of homeopathy where tradition and modernism work together. This is really unique. To not to criticize, but for example, the dynamization process — you can do it by hand, of course. That’s how Hahnemann described it. But we keep the same spirit, but we use a dynamizer which is the same in every Boiron plant and is calibrated to vibrate at the same speed and doing the same length. So, each dynamization is always made the same way.

Joette:  Consistency.

Christophe:  Consistency in order to eliminate from the patient and the physician or the pharmacist the doubt that, “Oh, I don’t see the same effect with the medicine because of the medicine.” No, if you don’t see the same effect, it comes from the patient. So, that’s very important.

Joette:  Yes, that eliminates one factor that could be very important.

Christophe:  We don’t know to what extent the dynamization must be: 10 seconds, 12 seconds, 5 seconds. All that needs to be ascertained. I’m sure it will be in the near future. However, consistency at this point is important. You know it works well when you do it that way. You keep doing it that way. It’s as simple as that.

Joette:  Beautiful. It’s beautiful. So obviously, what happens when you run a company for many decades and it grows exponentially — not just in the home country from which it began but then to the next country and the next and the next and then goes across the pond to the other side of the world — there’s a reason for that. That has a lot to do with the consistency and the quality and etcetera. So, I believe — even before I knew anyone at Boiron — that Boiron has something unique. And, not only because of the blue tubes. (I must say parenthetically, Michèle has a blue jacket on and blue eyeglasses on. They’re very beautiful. I wish you could see her. I’m totally enjoying the view I have right now.) But also, because there’s a new role occurring for Boiron. I mean it’s not that new …  you’ve been in the US for what, 40 years?

Christophe:  Since 1983.

Joette:  ’83, okay. What is the role of Boiron in the role of growth of homeopathy throughout the world?

Michèle:  It is our aim to make homeopathy well-known everywhere in the world. Our aim is not to make a special medicine so that we can gain much money. Of course, it’s good, but that’s not the point. The point is we really want homeopathy to be known everywhere, so that people are able to choose the way of curing them. To choose, you have to know it before. It’s the same for people than for all the healthcare professional. So, it’s important that we go everywhere in the world to promote homeopathy.

Christophe:  May I just add something?

Joette:  Please.

Christophe:  It’s very simple. If you go on the Boiron website, you will see that goal clearly written. It’s about, for us I think, establishing a trustful relationship with the pharmacists, physicians, or customers. I think that is strong. People recognize it. They talk about it. That’s how it grows very organically. It’s not so much an exponential growth. It’s an organic growth. Mothers talk to their daughters, to their neighbors.

Joette:  Yes!

Christophe:  When they want information, we give them coherent and consistent information. We try to give as clear and transparent as possible. That is really helping people to choose something they’re trusting, as opposed that something they’re fearing. That I think plays a role.

Joette:  Yes, I couldn’t agree with you more. A big aspect of my message is that this needs to be in the hands of families. That usually means mothers and grandmothers. Although, I see fathers more and more interested in this. But the mothers are the ones who are generally up with the children in the middle of the night. The grandmothers are the ones who are advising their daughters and daughter-in-laws, et cetera. So, I believe what this is, is a movement towards family. Family doesn’t have to be with children. Family can be with cats. A family can be with livestock. A family can be with having two poodles and a German shepherd. That’s still family, because we can’t help but want to take care of those we love and that is a big part of this. So, I say “family” and “mother” and “grandmother” with a little bit broader understanding of it. But, I also understand that there are pharmacy schools in the US. Tell me about these schools, and are you teaching there, Christophe? Tell me about that a little bit.

Christophe:  Yes, I was very pleased and honored to be invited to speak at several schools of pharmacy and two of them on a very regular basis for seven years now. Our goal is to go there with a visual of information. We are not there to promote Boiron or even promote homeopathy. It’s as much as saying those are drugs. You cannot ignore it. We think we are the best people to explain in detail and answer all your questions. We expose the facts. We expose the research.

At the beginning, I was very surprised to see how — from a level of knowledge that was almost zero — at the end of the two hours, they say, “Well, we are very comfortable now answering questions.” For pharmacists or future pharmacists, this is so important. Because if they appear not to know something, the customer will go elsewhere — and God knows where sometimes — and not receive the same good advice. So, at least in the US, that’s my experience. I’m sure in France, situation is not the same, but homeopathy is more integrated. We have other types of questions. But in general, pharmacists, when they start to know homeopathy, have a keen interest into it.

Joette:  Well, interestingly, I find that when I teach homeopathy and I get pharmacists in my classes … they get it. Once they flip that switch, and they move just a tiny degree over, it all fits. Because that’s what homeopathy is — is pharmacology.

Christophe:  May I share with you just a quick number? We were involved in a process of sponsoring continued education program. One of the questions that was asked, before the program was launched, is to pharmacist, “Are you interested in being educated in homeopathy?” Guess what the percentage was? 400 pharmacists answered.

Joette:  I have no idea. I like to think it’s high.

Christophe:  96%.

Joette:  Oh, come on! That’s excellent!

Christophe:  Can we say they are open-minded?

Joette:  They’re looking for the alternatives. I think that’s how we have all come to homeopathy — perhaps not Michèle so much, because she grew up in a family with it. But for those of us who were on the allopathic trail for so many years and then we’re cured (or diseases were resolved for myself, et cetera, my family), it becomes a passion like no other passion. Now, I love food and I love preparing food. I love travel. There are many things that I love. I love Italian opera. But nothing has turned me on like this. Talking about a switch being flipped … once mine was flipped, there was no turning back. I see that, and I keep waiting for it to happen in others. I am observing this in so many people because of our goal in teaching families time and time again. So, it is a very exciting movement. I do believe that it is a movement. Would you say, Michèle, that this is a movement?

Michèle:  Yes, of course, this is a movement. I’m very happy of that. I’m proud to help it. So, as long as I can do that and it will be really a big chance for me.

Joette:  Yes. So now, I also understand that you’re looking to India, and you’ve broken into the Indian market … is that right?

Michèle:  It is our last subsidiary. We went to India before, and then we moved. But today, we have the will to be back to India. We are in India, since one year. In this country, homeopathy is an official medicine. You have plenty of people using already homeopathic medicines.

Joette:  Yes.

Michèle:  So, we hope to do a good job there.

Joette:  Yes, yes. I think it’s an excellent idea. I don’t know that they have the steps that other countries in Europe and the US have in terms of regulations. I don’t know how deep their regulations go. So, it would be good to have something that was universally regulated. I love that idea. Generally, I’m not for universality but when it comes to this — I’m all in.

Christophe:  Joette, I know that in India, they are looking to the homeopathic pharmacopeia of the US as a provider of clean and reliable guidelines. That’s a very good sign.

Joette:  Guidelines, yes, guidelines.

Christophe:  Normalization.

Joette:  Yes, it’s needed because I work with people from all over the world. It’s hard to get them some medicine sometimes because I don’t know the pharmacies in those parts of the world. To be able to send them to Boiron in remote places would certainly make it a lot easier for many of my students, et cetera. Yes, it would be great.

So Michèle, you said — and please correct me if I’m wrong — something to the effect that it’s not one product that you have in mind; it’s something other than that. Could you just expound on that just for one more minute? I just want to make sure I understand.

Michèle:  The aim is to give some people a chance to be cured when they can’t be cured by conventional medicine. That is to say a woman who has hot flushes who has a risk of breast cancer — she will not be able to take hormonals. So, what can she do?

Joette:  Excellent example.

Michèle:  Except homeopathy, you don’t have any solution. And then you have also all the palliative care we can accompany — not, of course, replace — chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Joette:  Surgery and diagnostics, et cetera, yes.

Michèle:  Only to mitigate the side effects of the chemotherapy. So, it helps a lot and it helps so many people. So, that’s our way of thinking.

Joette:  Yes, yes. Well, on the other hand, there is one product that Boiron is so well-known for. And it’s Oscillococcinum. What’s really fascinating about this story is that I have a picture of your dog in front of me.

Michèle:  Yes.

Joette:  Tell these listeners about how those two bridged together?

Michèle:  Her name was Oscillo, that’s why.

Joette:  Oscillo, very sweet. So, it only goes to show how important one medicine can be in one family.

Michèle:  She lived five years more than all her siblings because she was cured with homeopathy, so good for pets.

Joette:  Is there anything else that I should be asking you folks that I have not asked, or anything you would like to comment on for our listeners that you believe would be valuable?

Michèle:  Not to discuss perhaps, but to say that homeopathic medicines are good from the first day of the life until the last day of the life. They are for everybody. Everybody can take those medicines without any risk. That would be my message — dare to try —because you don’t have any risk. It is so important to dare to try.

Joette:  I love it, guts, spunk, and moxie —  So, thank you very much both Christophe and Michèle. It’s been wonderful. I totally enjoyed it.

Michèle:  Thank you.

Christophe:  Thank you.

Joette:  Bye now.

Michèle:  Bye.

Christophe:  Bye-bye.

Joette: There you have it, folks, straight from the experts. Many thanks to Michèle Boiron and Christophe Merville and Boiron for this inspirational interview.

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. If you liked it, please share it with your friends. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit joettecalabrese.com.

In this podcast, we cover:

02:09    Study group and its importance

08:37    Joette talks about poison, toxicity, and curative aspect

14:14    When would we see results

26:10    When it’s not acting as quickly

34:05    Homeopathic resources available

You are listening to a podcast from joettecalabrese.com where nationally certified American homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese, shares her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition. 

Kate:  It’s Podcast Number 38 at joettecalabrese.com. Here’s what we have coming up:

I’m Kate. Today, I’m excited to share with you a discussion I recently had with Joette and Lara. On this podcast, we discussed the benefits of joining a study group and how a study group can bring about a change in thinking for those people in your life who may be skeptical of homeopathy. We also answered a question that is often asked by many of you. If I’m allergic to a substance, can I take a homeopathic medicine that is made from that substance? Finally, we talked about what to expect when using homeopathy for colds and flus and how to be prepared for when an illness occurs. Now, let’s get started.

Hey Joette! It’s great to be with you here today. I’m in Wisconsin and you are in Canada, right?

Joette:  Ontario! Yes, I’m in Ontario, and …

Kate:  And Lara, she’s joining us today as a special guest. Welcome, Lara. Lara is Joette’s course manager. So, Lara, where are you at?

Lara:  I’m in New York. Thank you, Kate.

Kate:  We’re glad that you could be with us today. We’re excited to be able to talk homeopathy together. There is so much good stuff that we have for you guys today. We’re excited to share it with you. So, welcome you guys. Thanks for being here.

Joette:  Oh, this is fun.

Lara:  Thank you.

Kate:  Today, we’re going to be talking about study groups and some of the common questions that you guys ask when you’re taking the study group. Some of the questions that come up over and over again in the courses and just in general, right Joette? People write to you with questions?

Joette:  On the blog, they come in to the office, absolutely, yes.

Kate:  So, let’s get started and let’s talk a little bit about study groups in general. I know that we covered this in Podcast Number 18. So, if you guys want some more information on that, you can go ahead and refer to that podcast and review Joette’s history about how she started her study group and then how the Gateway to Homeopathy course developed.

Joette:  Yes, let’s talk about it, because I’ll just tell briefly that the way that I started in homeopathy was to start my own study group back in the 80’s. I gathered a group of friends and we met every Thursday night for four years. It was our ladies’ night out essentially, although we didn’t really go anywhere. We went into each other’s living rooms. At one point, we brought a teacher in and she helped us learn. But other times, the teacher wasn’t available, so we went on — on our own.

What it did was a number of things. It built a community. That’s really important. If you’ve got someone you can count on to ask questions who may be a little ahead of you or even if that person’s a little behind you in understanding, the value of having other people around you who are of like mind is paramount. Because when you’re stuck at 8 o’clock at night and somebody in your family is really sick with the flu or a cold and you can’t think straight because you’re coming down with it as well — isn’t it nice to have someone you can contact and say, “Oh my gosh, So-and-So, can you tell me what did you use that time that helped your family so much?” So, there is that.

There is also your increasing your understanding of cases. Homeopathy is not just understanding the basics of homeopathy, the fundamentals, and then the materia medica, (understanding some of the medicines that are used and also the potencies and frequencies). But, it’s also understanding case-taking, and how soon you give the next dose. How frequently you give it. When you stop, et cetera. And when you hear case after case after case — which is exactly what would be happening by listening to other people’s rendition of their own condition and their family’s conditions — that’s when you learn.

So, I remember when I was in homeopathy school, one of our teachers said, “You will never become a homeopath — truly become a homeopath — until you go into practice. The reason that was so clearly stated — and I couldn’t agree more — was that it’s because you got to see different cases than what you’re accustomed to in your own family. You want to see what people who have one child suffer. We want to see what people who have three dogs and what their dogs suffer. Therefore, what we want to do is get all of those incongruent aspects of homeopathy and pull them altogether. That’s what makes homeopathy much more unified, so that it starts making sense. So, you have those aha moments: “Oh, my gosh. She used Pulsatilla for her child’s stomachache, and I use Pulsatilla for my child’s ear infection. And look at these similarities.” That’s when we learn. That’s when we learn exponentially. It ups our knowledge, and the pace is really picked up in your understanding of how to use this for your family and self.

Kate:  Right, exactly. I know that you see a lot of people that take the Antibiotic course or the Allergic course or the Good Gut, Bad Gut course and then on top of that, they still join a study group because they have that core of group of people that they can continue that relationship with. Oftentimes, those groups go on and they take courses together and continue learning together. So, the study group, although it’s a great first place to plug in and learn, it’s not necessarily the only way that you can do this. You can do study groups after you’ve taken courses and I see that many times.

Joette:  One other thing I just have to add to this is that if you have a mother-in-law or a sister or a husband who is a skeptic of homeopathy, instead of you trying to convince that person who is important in your life, if they join a study group (even if they just come to one meeting) and they hear everyone else talking about it — they’re in! More often than not, they hop in because now it’s a different voice. It’s not your voice repetitively to your sister, to your husband, over and over and over again, “Homeopathy is great. Look how great it is.” No. Now, they hear different voices, and then it starts to come together instead of it just being you. So, it’s a great opportunity to bring in people who are significant in your life into your world … so that you can study and learn together or —  at least if nothing else — they’re not an impediment. Because sometimes a husband who doesn’t agree can be an impediment. You want him onboard. You want to be at the same place together. That’s really critical.

Lara:  I think people joined the study groups for a lot of different reasons. There isn’t just necessarily one way that you have to do it:  where you take the study group first and then you graduate on to a course. We’ve seen people who take the courses first, like Kate mentioned, and then join a study group. I think a part of human nature is once you have some learning, you get excited about wanting to share that learning. Sometimes people take a course — and the course is a more individual thing, you know, people do it at their own pace …

Joette:  They’re alone.

Lara:  Yes, exactly. They are learning maybe alone in their living room in front of the computer. Then there’s a desire to get with a group of people and talk about all the things you learned. And study group is great for that.

Joette:  Yes.

Kate:  Exactly. Last night, we were doing a study group together. One of the people in the study group actually had some friends over to her house and she said, “Hey, can they listen in for just a little bit?” And they did. Then afterwards she said, “Hey, they want to take the study group. They want to take Joette’s Gateway to Homeopathy.” So, just that little bit of excitement in listening to those people share their stories, their success stories with homeopathy and learn just that little bit really excited them about homeopathy. So, it’s a great way. Even if you think you are past that point of learning, it’s a great way to step back, take that course, and just bring some friends into it and take it with them.

Joette:  Then we have lots of questions that come from these study groups. I mean you’re like a study group guru, right Kate?

Kate:  I have taught the study group many times, yes. Every time, my students are the same way. They take the courses over and over again. They take the study groups over and over again. And because we’re always learning something new from each other and just really reviewing that information — you can never review too much.

Joette, I hear these questions so often and I know you do, too. One of the foundational questions that people ask is “Hey, I’m allergic to poison ivy. Can I still take the homeopathic remedy Rhus tox which is actually made from poison ivy?” What do you have to say to those people?

Joette:  Well, there are very few people who aren’t allergic to poison ivy. So, let’s start with that. Poison ivy is indeed a poison. What’s lovely about homeopathy is that it is often made from poisons. The beauty of it is that the poison does not remain. What remains is the curative aspect. So, by diluting poison ivy 200 times for example to the 100th power, which would mean Rhus tox 200C, what we’re doing is eliminating the toxic aspect of the poison ivy by all of those dilutions. (This is all pharmacologically done and all regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, parenthetically.) It’s a method of diluting so far that it gets to the point where it comes back round again and becomes curative. How that happens is by reducing the toxicity and bringing it down by all of this dilution process. It simultaneously reduces the toxicity and brings forth the curative aspect of that plant.

Now, all plants — every substance on earth — has a curative aspect to it, but sometimes we can’t use it in gross form because, of course, you would break out in pustules and itching and restlessness, et cetera. Just that’s what would happen with poison ivy. But we have found — not I, this is what Dr. Samuel Hahnemann discovered back in the 1700s and all his followers after that — that if you dilute a very poisonous substance, that by doing so, you are now bringing forth its curative aspect at a certain point.

So, what point is that? Well, in homeopathy, we know it’s usually a 3X or a 3C, 6X, 6C. I don’t want to get too deeply into all this because it’s really basically a whole course in learning how to do this — or learning, understanding how this all comes together. But, we’re diluting it three times to the 10th power, that’s 3X. Three times to the 100th power, that’s 3C. And we keep going up. So, it matters not that you are allergic or you respond to Rhus tox, or for example Sulphur. Because I know that was the second part of this question was: “What if I’m allergic to Sulphur, sulfa drugs, et cetera, antibiotics?” That would mean, generally speaking, that Sulphur 30C, 200C might indeed be the perfect medicine for you because it’s been diluted to the point where now it becomes the medicine for those who suffer from such.

Kate:  Exactly. That really helps to clear it up in my mind because I know many people ask that. Even if we don’t necessarily have the right answer for it, we know in our minds that it’s not going to hurt us but we don’t know how to articulate that. So, thank you for helping us to articulate that to our friends and our family members who might have those concerns.

Joette:  Yes. Let me also mention this. That in botanicals — herbalism — the herbalists have a beautiful array of materia medica, lots of medicines from which to choose: Chamomilla, and St John’s wort, and all of those beautiful medicines that they can use. They can pick them. Make them into tinctures. Pick them, make them into poultices, et cetera, and teas, and oils, et cetera. Beautiful stuff, but they’re limited. In homeopathy, we use those same herbs and botanicals, but we get to use the poisons. The poisons are actually — in my estimation — the most valuable of all the medicines because the poison causes a condition in its gross form, but, in the highly diluted potentised level of homeopathy diluted 200 times to the 100th power, now we’ve got a medicine that can uproot what that poison would have caused. It’s gorgeous.

So, we use lead: Plumbum. We use arsenic: Arsenicum album. We use Hyoscyamus. We use Belladonna, Nux vomica. Basically, in their original form … They have Strychninum, et cetera. So, what we’re doing with these homeopathic pharmacies — again, regulated by the Food and Drug Administration as medicines, mind you — we are now diluting or they are diluting it down to the point where the toxicity is removed and the curative aspect is brought to the fore. What a brilliant way of using botanicals or toxic substances found on earth and pharmacology and math. It gets the essence of many sciences and pulls them into one, and makes them into the medicine of choice.

Kate:  And it’s gentle, right?

Joette:  Yes, because it’s so highly diluted. There’s so little left that sometimes it’s even questioned whether or not there’s anything left. The point is there’s just enough to be able to gently, efficaciously stimulate the body’s ability to do this. This is what homeopathy does: bring the person back to wholeness. How does it do that? It stimulates that natural ability that we know the body has the ability, for the most part, to be able to do.

Kate:  Well, thank you for clearing that up for us. What are the other questions, Joette that come up? I know that right now, we are in the throes of cold and flu season. So, can you give us some ideas of some realistic expectations when we are using the remedies? For instance, we learn in our study groups or in the courses to treat the cold and flu viruses. What are some expectations that we can have as far as how quickly these remedies are going to act, and how quickly we’re going to see results?

Joette:  I’ve seen the whole gamut. But as I fine-tune my knowledge in homeopathy — and I’ve been using homeopathy for over 30 years — I’m still always learning another homeopathic medicine that could be even tighter than the last one. I find that if you get the right medicine, it can be jaw dropping. It’s so fast. Often people tell me, “Oh my gosh, I felt really sick. I felt like I was coming down with bronchitis. I know that feeling because I’ve had it in the past. But I took that Aconitum and Bryonia. My gosh! I’m going to say two hours, I could feel my energy come back again.” So, sometimes we see that.

Other times, we see that it lingers for a while. The reason it’s lingering in my estimation is you just haven’t gotten the right medicine. Because when you get the right medicine especially for an acute — remember, this is an acute we’re talking — this is not a chronic illness. For an acute, generally speaking, we see it turn around within a few hours or a day or two. Now, if it’s been established and the illness is gone for a while and we see relentless vomiting. For example, my son just had a terrible stomach flu. It started out in the morning. He was pretty uncomfortable, a lot of nausea and vomiting for about an hour. He never contacted me. He figured he could do it himself. He actually did do it himself. The vomiting stopped after taking the fourth dose of the medicine which was great. He actually used Ipecac. Then the nausea persisted a little bit longer. Now, it was about two in the afternoon. This all started early in the morning. He still had nausea. He couldn’t eat. He didn’t feel well. He couldn’t talk for very long because the nausea persisted. He kept taking it every, I think he was taking it about every three hours or so. By about 5 o clock that night, he was able to eat.

Now, is that the right amount of time? I think it’s perfect to be honest. If you can miss one day of school or one day of work for a stomach flu when you see your friends and neighbors, et cetera, going on for three and four days, and then when they’re finished, they still are not 100% — I would say that’s pretty darn good use of medicine. The following day, I followed up and I texted him. “How are you doing today?” He says, “I’m fine. I’m back at school.” That’s what we’re talking about! That’s the way we wanted to go.

Now, had he chosen the wrong medicine — even the “wrong” medicine — you can still do a lot of good. A lot of good … because even if you choose the wrong one, by choosing the wrong medicine, the symptoms that you need to really pay attention to will come to the fore. So, if you’ve taken the wrong medicine, and now we started to get diarrhea or pain in the stomach — now we have to look at a medicine that’s specific for diarrhea and pain in a flu, stomach flu for example. That will give us more hints.

Lara:  Isn’t it also possible that different medicines can work to a different extent?

Joette:  Yes. But I have to caution folks — unless you have something in mind, Lara, I don’t have anything in mind like that — but we have to caution folks into thinking that the medicine can only do so much, when really if we have the right medicine it will do plenty.

Lara:  My understanding is that for example, like with the Banerji Protocols, sometimes there will be several medicines given. Sometimes with a disease, there might be the perfect remedy which will do everything but another remedy might do a lot even if it’s not the perfect choice. I’m trying to think of a specific example.

Joette:  I think I know what you’re saying, and here’s my baseline answer. We have 6,000 homeopathic medicines from which to choose. Which one is it? So, the Banerjis have graciously given me their information — which all makes sense anyway, because their medicines make so much sense even if you’re using classical homeopathy. But, it doesn’t mean it’s going to work for absolutely everyone. I use the Banerji Protocols perhaps, or I use an old protocol that I’ve used in the past, or I might use cell salts. There are so many ways to skin a cat that you’re looking at many options. I don’t want people to get too confused and think that there’s only one way to do it. There is one good way to do it. When I’m teaching Banerji Protocols, then by all means, I’m going to urge you especially as a new student to start out with that if at all possible. If you can start with that and then test it out and see if it doesn’t act, then we go onward.

Lara:  I guess I have an example. Let’s say it’s UTI and somebody’s using Cantharis or Sarsaparilla. Is that how you pronounce it, Sarsaparilla?

Joette:  Yes.

Lara:  It takes care of the UTI pretty well but it comes back again. The next time they start with Cantharis and it’s working, but it’s not working great. They introduce Medorrhinum and all of a sudden, that’s it!

Joette:  Beautiful, yes. So, what that means is that you could have probably started out with Medorrhinum in the first place as well as Cantharis, or Sarsaparilla and Medorrhinum, or et cetera, et cetera. We got lots of possibilities here. But I try to give those possibilities that are the most commonly used as our first line of defense. But yes, you’re right. You’re right.

Kate:  Can you give us some ideas as far as dosage because I know your son, you said, took Ipecac for instance. Do you think he took Ipecac 30C?

Joette:  Yes, he used Ipecac 30C because I have taught him that I think that Ipecac 30C is a very good medicine for nausea. Then he also was taking Nux vomica. I didn’t tell him to do that because he was vomiting. I believe that probably the Nux vomica, now that I think back on it, was probably what stopped the vomiting and Ipecac helped with the chronic relentless nausea. So, he was using both. He used Nux vomica in a 200 and Ipecac in the 30. He was alternating them approximately every couple of hours. I actually think in the beginning, when it was really a difficult couple of hours, he could have taken them each one every 15 minutes if it was very severe.

Kate:  Right. Joette, do you want to know an interesting fact?

Joette:  Sure.

Kate:  Our kids, they haven’t had the stomach flu in, I think, over six years. I give homeopathy — and God, of course — the credit for that, because before homeopathy, about once a year, they would come down with a stomach flu because as it goes around, you know, the season usually brings on those viruses. Isn’t that an amazing thing?

Joette:  Yes, it is amazing because it does go around like wildfire. It’s almost impossible not to get these kinds of things unless you’re doing something rather active.

Kate:  Exactly.

Lara:  Joette, that’s a testament to what you talk about: how homeopathy has the ability to so deeply uproot something that it doesn’t come back.

Joette:  Yes. So that if my son for example, let’s go back to that. He got the stomach flu and he had this nausea and vomiting. If it goes around again this year, or in the spring, or next year, now he’s girded. He’s held up by the fact that the remedy, back now in October 2017, has corrected the condition, to a certain degree. Now, does it mean it’s going to protect him forever and ever? Sometimes yes, and sometimes no. But if it doesn’t, then the next time he gets it, it’s very likely it’ll be a milder version. Meaning it won’t be as intense. It might even finish off a little bit sooner while using Ipecac 30 and Nux vomica 200.

Kate:  Right. So, we have your son’s example, a recent example of when he had the stomach flu. And then six months ago, one of my kids woke me up in the middle of the night saying that they were not feeling well. They felt nauseous, maybe a little bit of a tummy ache. I gave them Arsenicum album 200C. Just one dose of that and within an hour I would say, an hour and a half, they were feeling better and they went back to sleep. But before homeopathy, the “BH” days, I can see that that stomachache — your kid waking you up in the middle of the night with a stomach ache — usually it’s going to end up in some diarrhea or throwing up or something.

Joette:  You’re up the rest of the night until the morning with that child… now, the child misses school the next day and then the other commitments you or the child may have.

Kate:  Exactly. You’re exhausted. The family is exhausted. Then it goes on to the other family members. So really, you’re not just talking a day even, you’re talking about a week or more.

Joette:  That’s right. I remember when I was sick. I’m sorry Lara. I do want you to get in here because I want your opinion on this, too. But when I was sick when I was a little girl, I remember never being sick for anything less than two weeks, anytime I got a cold, anytime I got a fever, sore throat, ear infection. That was back in the 50s. Two weeks. That was just the way it was. We just expected it.

Lara:  I feel like mothers are like farmers in this sense. You know how they say, Joette and Kate, that farmers are … kind of like … they’re the ground zero or the frontline when it comes to things like nutrition and vitamins and stuff because they’re always thinking about the bottom line? They’re thinking about, “What do I need to keep my cows healthy enough that they will reproduce successfully, and that they will give enough milk so I make a profit?” and all that kind of stuff. So, doctors — I think, human doctors — get away with a lot that farmers don’t get away with because they always have to find practically what is working.

I was thinking about when you and Kate were talking about kids because I think mothers are like that, too. Like practically you can tell what makes a difference in terms of how many times the kids are getting sick, how long they’re getting sick for, how severe the illnesses are for. You see the repercussions when things don’t work because they’re missing more school; you’re getting less sleep as a family, all that kind of stuff.

Joette:  Yes, so that you know “your herd.” Basically, you know exactly how your child normally reacts and now how your child reacts when you give the homeopathic medicines.

Lara:  And it ties in to what you’re saying about how mothers and grandmothers: They’re the ones who really know. I mean like we can depend on our scientists and our doctors for a lot, but the bottom line is who’s observing that child and that family day to day.

Joette:  Mothers know there’s nothing like the watchful eye of a mother. I don’t mean necessarily it even has to be a mother with a human child. It can be a woman or even a man. But more often it’s a woman who is raising puppies or who has animals that they’re raising on the fields and lambs and cows, et cetera. When you are in charge, when you have a charge over another living being, you pay attention and you pay attention closely. It becomes your focus. A mother to have this focus — it’s just natural.

Kate:  I don’t want to give people a wrong impression either about how easy it is.

Joette:  Yes, yes, I’m glad you brought that up.

Kate:  Sometimes it is hard. I gave that great example of my child with the stomachache and how quickly it went away. But there have been times, Joette, when — and I know mothers can relate — when my kid has a cough and a cold and it is days, and we are struggling and they are coughing. Granted, I think it’s not as severe as it would have been without homeopathy for sure, and there’s relief. Whereas without homeopathy, I didn’t see the relief. Where now, you can give some homeopathic remedies to help the cough. And even though they still have the cold for three or four days, the cold isn’t as severe and the cough isn’t … you know, you can go for hours without that bothersome cough. And then they need the remedy again. So, talk a little bit about when it doesn’t act that quickly.

Joette:  Well, when it doesn’t act that quickly, you need to reassess what you’ve given. I always say four doses — up to about four doses and about four hours apart. Now, that is a very basic structure — a skeletal structure. If someone is, again, vomiting relentlessly, you’re not going to wait four hours to give the medicine. You’re going to wait … maybe 15 minutes. But, you know you’re not going to wait a week! So that I’m trying to give a basic structure of how often to use it. Four hours is kind of — you can go every 15 minutes if it’s very severe, or if it’s not so severe then maybe every two hours — if it’s really rather mild, you might use it every four hours. So, when you see that after about four doses (and it’s very severe and you’ve given that medicine every 15 minutes or every hour, et cetera), and you’ve given four doses and you see no change whatsoever — now that’s the key. We should talk about what change means. But if you’ve seen no change at all after about four doses, maybe five, again that’s just a benchmark, then it’s time to reassess and stop what you’re using. Now, look at what’s presenting now.

So, if the child is or the person is vomiting relentlessly and they stopped vomiting but now they’re coughing, are you going to give that vomiting medicine? Are you going to give that? It’s for the gastrointestinal condition? If the primary concern now is a cough, no. Now you have to go to a medicine that is specific for the cough. Have you lost it? Have you lost the case by doing this? No, the case is evolving. It’s very likely that had you not given the homeopathic medicine, this would start out with vomiting and nausea and turn into coughing but you’re shortening that duration. So, you’re always looking to see what is happening now. What am I observing now?

When we look at, for example, is this person improving? If the person stops vomiting or let’s say they continue vomiting and they’re very nauseous, yet, now they’re smiling. Now, they’re not freezing anymore. Now, they’re not frightened anymore. That’s some improvement because if the person even if it’s your husband who’s freezing cold; he’s vomiting horribly; you can see that he’s panicking; he’s feeling really uncomfortable, really sick and he continues to vomit but his demeanor changes and it becomes more positive — you better stay with that medicine because you’re doing some good. That’s how you know. The vomiting may still continue but you’re looking for the overall wellness of the person or here’s another great indicator: the person falls asleep.

Here you are on the bathroom floor with your loved one, and they’re vomiting and suddenly they fall asleep. Beautiful, cover him up. Keep him warm. Have a hot water bottle close by. Make sure they’re really comfortable. Clean up the bathroom as best as you can and let them sleep. Now, if they wake up and it comes back again, most parents don’t realize that what has happened was positive and it meant that the medicine was acting. They’re thinking, “Oh no, it’s back again. They just got a little rest, but they lucked out.” No, no, no, no. This means the medicine is working. Sleep for a situation like this indicates that the medicine is correct. Now, what do you do? There’s that remedy again? You reintroduce it. You give it again. It needs another stimulus, and you’d start again.

Lara:  It’s so important to look at the big picture like you’re saying Joette, because if somebody brags, “I never get a cold,” but they’re constantly tired; they’re weak; they don’t have the energy to do stuff. Well maybe, you’re not getting a cold because your immune system doesn’t have the strength to ward off infection. It’s like when people talk about fevers. It’s very important to have the vitality to actually mount a fever. It’s a weak person who never gets a fever because they’re body isn’t capable. Symptoms can be good. They can be a sign that the body is functioning well.

Joette:  You bet. And also, sometimes the more virulent the response — like you said with the fever — if they can mount a fever, that’s very positive when it’s a child. Now, adult is a little different, but children are supposed to get fevers when they get sick. If they can do that, then you’re going in the right direction.

Lara:  If they still have say a runny nose and they sneeze, but they feel more energy, they feel happier, what’s that a sign of?

Joette:  It’s a sign of improvement because there’s nothing wrong with having runny nose because you’re clearing out the mucosa, or the cough remains but it’s not a gagging or a croupy cough. Now, it’s a clearing cough. It’s liquidy. Good, that’s very good. But that child now can go back to school. The child is sleeping properly. He can start drinking his bone stock. He can start having his kefir or whatever else he’s eating or drinking. Yet, he still has a cough that’s clearing out his chest. Keep him low. You always want to keep people low, children low, when they’ve had respiratory infections especially in the chest. But that cough that’s still clearing out even days, even a week later — as long as the vitality is good and the cough is liquidy and not keeping the child from living his life such as sleeping and eating, et cetera — then we’re moving in the right direction.

Kate:  That’s what I look for. My daughter tends to get coughs frequently. So, it’s beautiful when I know I’m in the right direction — just like you said — when she actually perks up and now, she wants to interact with us. So, she’s smiling and she gets up out of bed. She’s walking around and wanting to do things. So, that to me is a sign that yes, the remedy is working. She is still coughing like you said and it may be a while, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. As long as her vitality is going in the right direction and it’s positive then that’s okay, right?

Joette:  Yes. You have to assess. You have to know when to fold. You have to know when to say okay, this is bigger than me. I need to get to a doctor. There is that aspect of this as well. Because we don’t want somebody to get pneumonia because you thought you could handle it. Until you feel really, really confident with homeopathy, I’m going to encourage you to always be on the fence. Just in case, let’s see how far I can go with this. Let’s see what I can do. If you can cure your family member, your husband, your child of something that’s an impending long infection before it gets that bad, you really got a handle on your life. You really got some reins to hold. It’s a beautiful thing. There’s nothing more heady than being able to cure someone you love. I mean I can’t think of anything better. Curing someone you love! Holy cow, that’s amazing!

Kate:  It is. It’s such a great feeling. Joette, you often say, too — you recommend to people — drive to the hospitals. Sit in the parking lot. Get some blankets and some games or whatever, some snacks. Sit there if you’re not confident and just wait. Give the homeopathic medicines and just see what unfolds. That way, you’re close. You’re there if you need to be there.

Joette:  You’re even closer than sometimes being in the hospital and getting into the emergency room. Being on like the 7th floor of the Gastroenterology Department or something and then you need emergency care, by the time they get a gurney and bring you back down all the way to the emergency room, who knows how long that will be! But you’re right there. You have your legs and your child, and you can carry your child or walk in with your husband if you need be. So, I think that all emergency room parking lots should have like big screen TVs … like an outdoor show or something … and popcorn … some bone stocks sold on the side.

Kate:  Wouldn’t that be amazing?

Joette:  Yes.

Kate:  So, we’ve talked about quite a number of things. If I’m still stuck and I’m needing to figure out better method of helping my kids, and learn more remedies, and how to help them get through those colds and flus, what do you recommend Joette? What would be a next step for people?

Joette:  Well, here’s the thing. Put together what makes the most sense for you and your family. If your finances are limited then you might want to go with the study group which is Gateway to Homeopathy. I think it’s under $60, and it’s several classes together with these other folks. If you want to jump into a bigger course then by all means, How to Raise a Drug-free Family is a great way to go. But, I don’t believe that it has to be that way.

If you’re new to homeopathy or even if you’re not, use my blog. It’s totally, completely free. I’ve been authoring this blog with my homeopathy tips and methods for 10 years. Every single week, we put out information. And often, we’d put out information twice a week. The whole idea of this blog is for you to be able to utilize this for your family at no cost whatsoever.

But I do urge you to get a kit, a homeopathy kit, or at least if you have a Whole Foods nearby or a health foods store, and even Wal-Mart carries homeopathy, even Walgreens carries homeopathy. Make sure you know where these remedies are so that you don’t get stuck at say 10 o’clock at night and say, “Oh, I know exactly what to give,” and then you don’t own it. So, own as many homeopathic medicines as you can and get started that way.

Kate:  That is key, I think is to have the tools because you can have the knowledge, and you don’t have the tools and then you’re stuck. I say to my students all the time. There is so much information that Joette has available on her blogs and her podcasts. Dig into that. Dive into it. Learn as much as you can. Be prepared for when those things occur. Don’t wait until your kid has a cold or a stomach flu to learn these things.

Joette:  Well, I just want to add, I’m not the only one out there. There are a lot of homeopaths with lots of great information. So, don’t think that it’s just me. I give protocols to make it super easy. But there are lots of great homeopaths out there. So, don’t just read me. Read lots and lots and lots of other ways to approach this as well.

Lara:  But even if they just do read your blog, Joette, I think that’s like a course in and of itself. All those different articles spanning such a long time have so much information.

Joette:  Yes, that’s what I hope to present to the world.

Kate:  Your mission is what, Joette?

Joette:  100,000 homes by 2020. Reaching 100,000 homes, so that each of these homes has got homeopathy as the mainstay of their medicine or at least simultaneous.

Kate:  All of your listeners were a part of that, right? We’re a team.

Joette:  You bet, you bet. It’s great. Let’s get this out everyone.

Kate:  Well, thank you so much for having this conversation today. Lara, thanks for joining us.

Lara:  Thank you.

Kate:  It was really great to be able to talk to you guys today and to discuss some of these things that weigh heavily on our listeners’ minds.

You just listened to a podcast by joettecalabrese.com where nationally certified homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese shared her passion for helping families stay strong through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition. Joette’s podcasts are available on iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Stitcher, and TuneIn radio.

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. If you liked it, please share it with your friends. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit joettecalabrese.com.

In this podcast, we cover:

02:18    How often to use homeopathy

04:32    Planning ahead

12:23    Appreciating classical homeopathy

16:33    To follow or not to follow a diet

You are listening to a podcast from joettecalabrese.com where nationally certified American homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese, shares her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition.

Paola:  It’s podcast number 37 at joettecalabrese.com. Here’s what we have coming up. So, today’s podcast is what we’re calling Part 3 of our Newbies Series. I’m your host today, Paola Brown. Part 1 of this series can be found on Joette’s website under Podcast Number 17. Part 2 was Podcast Number 33. So, today’s podcast is a follow up to those first two. If you have someone who’s interested in starting homeopathy and they’re not sure where to go, maybe you could send them these three podcasts. Also, another great place is to send them to Joette’s quick start guide, which you can find on her homepage under the heading “New to Homeopathy.”

So, today we’re going to talk about what makes you prepared with homeopathy, as far as remedies go. Joette talks about how you can be minimally prepared. If you are already minimally prepared, she talks about how you can advance to being super prepared. We also look at how homeopathy should be used. Do you use it for every little fear and sniffle that comes by or not? So, let’s take it from the top with Joette.

I’m so happy to be here with you, Joette. Hi. How are you?

Joette:  Hi. I’m well. This is always great.

Paola:  This is Part 3 of the little podcast series that we’re doing. We’re focusing on newbies to homeopathy, newcomers. The very first podcast for newbies is Podcast Number 17. That’s one that you recorded back with Jendi. It talks about what is homeopathy, the very foundational questions. Then we had a second podcast, Part 2, and this is Part 3. So, we have a few more questions that we received from some of your listeners and your newcomers to homeopathy. I was hoping you would answer them with me today.

Joette:  Yes, let’s go.

Paola:  Some new moms to homeopathy are wondering do we treat every little runny nose or cold symptoms or do we sometimes let it run its course. So, they’re trying to know how often to use homeopathy and when to let the illness do its thing. Like sometimes mucous is okay. It’s getting rid of foreign bodies and germs that are in the bodies. So, can you use homeopathy too much or too little?

Joette:  I love that question. I’m glad someone asked that because I believe that when someone is enthusiastic about homeopathy, they see results and more results and more results. They can’t wait to get at the next illness in the family. They sometimes get too excited and over-treat. I agree. I think it can be used too often.

I think it’s important to let a lot of illnesses just fall to the wayside. Let the colds just be unless they’re really debilitating. Let the child get a fever unless it’s really debilitating. In fact, I have an article. If you Google it: Get Your Kids High. It’s all about allowing a child to get a fever. It is part of their education. I am concerned with the education of the immune system.

It’s important that children get illnesses. If it becomes trying, or they’re in a lot of pain, let’s say it’s otitis media; or their eyes are quite swollen, they have conjunctivitis; or the throat that’s a little painful is clearly becoming more like strep because you can smell it and see it, etc.; okay now, it’s time to treat.

I don’t treat every little thing. It’s hard to keep yourself from doing that when you’re fresh at this because it’s so much fun because suddenly you have all these power in your hands. But I think it’s best to keep it to a purr instead of a roar.

Paola:  Both of our friend, Tricia (she’s one of the gals that helps us edit these podcasts), I remember when she got her first homeopathy kit, she said, “I just kind of sit around waiting for one of my kids to get sick.”

Joette:  Right, for the shoe to fall, yes, that’s right.

Paola:  Like, “Oh good, let me go get my kit.” Sage advice.

Joette:  Yes. I also think that you learn faster and better when you’re treating many, so the larger your family, the better. The more livestock you have, the more house pets you have, the more wildlife you treat, you’ll learn a lot faster. You’ll be able to discern what is worthy of treatment, what is worthy of not treatment, and also, what is worthy of getting to the hospital or doctor for.

Paola:  Right. We have a great podcast on discernment that you can look up and listen to. I think that falls under this too, very good.

So, here’s another question. A lot of newbies that are sold and they want to come … and they want to plan ahead. They want to know what is your advice on what it means to plan ahead as far as homeopathy goes. Right away own a kit, the Top 100 Remedy Kit.

Joette:  At least one kit, at least that one. As soon as you can afford another one that’s a 200-potency kit, we sell them here in the office. We give discounts for people who buy two at a time. The larger kit that’s 30th potency and the smaller kit that’s just 200th potency. Yes, you have to start with that.

If you don’t have any homeopathy remedies and you’re learning how to use homeopathy and you’ve come up with a medicine, and it’s now Saturday night at 11 o’clock and your child is screaming with an ear infection; you know absolutely you should be giving Chamomilla and you don’t own it — what good is that? You might as well just give the child pain reliever. These pharmacies that manufacture them [the remedy kits] know exactly what you need for most everyday conditions. That’s what you’ll find in those kits.

Now having said that parenthetically, there are 6000, at last counting that I’ve heard, homeopathic medicines available. So, this is only 100 of them in this kit. So, it’s not going to have everything, but it will be a very good start.

Paola:  Would you say that someone who owns just one kit, the Top 100 Remedy Kit, it’s the red kit from Washington Homeopathic that you sell, they’re minimally prepared?

Joette:  Yes, it’s a minimal, absolutely.

Paola:  Then if they own the second kit, the 200 kit, that would be more helpful?

Joette:  That helps too. She who has the most remedies, in the end, wins.

Paola:  I love that. So then, what’s the next step? So, let’s say you own the Top 100 in mostly 30C, then you own the Top 50 in 200C, those are the two kits you were talking about that you give a discount if they buy them together … then what?

Joette:  Well, it depends on where you are in your life. If you absolutely can’t afford anything, or if you can afford and you just don’t want to make a huge commitment yet to taking a course or buying books, etc., just go to my blog. Everything is free. All my information is free. I’ve been authoring this blog for nine years. In the last five to six years, I give you precisely the condition, what the homeopathic medicines are. If you happen not to own it, you can click on it. It will take you to Amazon or to Boiron. I don’t get any kickbacks on this. This is just strictly for the convenience of my viewers. You’ll get the medicine sent to you in short order or hopefully, you’ve got it in your kit.

What you do is you put in the search bar what the condition is. Be aware that at this point, we’re in the process of revamping the website for I think the third time. Now, we’re going to make it a little bit more user friendly so that you don’t need to come up with synonyms. So, if you put in “otitis media,” if it doesn’t show up, then you personally must know to put in “ear infections,” currently. But at some point, it should be able to do that for you. So, at this point, you might have to come up with a synonym.

Paola:  Here’s a great, little exercise that you actually taught me, Joette, that I’m going to bring up. Sit down and make a list of all the stuff that you, your family members, your children have suffered from. Then make a list of all the stuff that could happen to them that you fear for, you know, the stepping on a rusty nail. I don’t know, all those things. Then go to Joette’s blog and research those subjects and start seeing if you own the remedies that it takes to treat those.

Joette:  Yes, treat those conditions.

Paola:  Then you fill in the gaps and order the single remedies that might be missing.

Joette:  That’s what you’ve done, isn’t it, Paola?

Paola:  Oh yes! When I got our cow and our chickens — I mean I did that for my kids — but when I got our cow and our chickens, I went through the cow book. (I have this cow book about how to take care of them and chickens.) I started seeing all these things.

Joette:  It’s what we spend our money on.

Paola:  It is.

Joette:  You know what I mean? It’s not about manicures. It’s not about dinners out. It’s not about a hot, new outfit. That’s what I love about this. It’s about something that is intellectually delicious, as I say and allows us to give back to our family in a very intellectual but heartfelt way as well. It puts the power back into mothering. That’s what I loved about it, probably most of all. I became the decision maker.

Now, there were certainly times when my children were young that I wasn’t so sure. I might call a friend, which by the way I might mention folks ought to strongly consider joining a study group that we promote through the blog. Because now, you’ve got a little community of likeminded mothers/grandmothers who are interested in learning right along with you. They will come to the table with conditions that their families suffer. Then you’ll come to the table with the conditions your family suffers from. So, with that, now you’re fleshing out and covering many, many conditions and helping and teaching each other.

Paola:  Well, I think that’s absolutely right. So, planning ahead isn’t just owning remedies but it’s having a band of mothers who are like-minded who can support you. My son had an ear infection earlier this month. Boy, it was terrible. I have this friend, Joette, that stayed up with me until 1:30 in the morning. She lives in Dallas. She’s not even close to me, texting me on my phone, helping me figure things out because I was on zero sleep for two nights now. I could not think straight. I mean, that’s what I’m talking about, having friends.

Joette:  And you’re going to be willing to do that for her when the tables are turned.

Paola:  Oh yes, absolutely, yes. That’s right.

Joette:  Yes. So, then the next place you go to after that is just take courses. I have a lot of courses. I have CDs and downloads. I mean that is what I’m all about. My mission is to educate. So, we have plenty of information besides the podcast. You don’t even need to stay on the website. If you just Google “Joette Calabrese” and the name of the condition, I’ve written for many other blogs. I’m published in Weston A. Price Foundation’s quarterly journal for the last nine years. You will find lots of information all over the internet on this particular subject that I’ve written and others have written as well.

Paola:  Joette, your blog, and your presence online is such a huge help. I mean can you imagine if you had that when you were starting out?

Joette:  Oh my gosh. I would have died for having someone like me. Really, I had a wonderful teacher and she retired. That was the end of that. Actually, she moved out of the area when my children were young. I had counted on her. She was a great homeopath. She helped me tremendously. She helped bring my health back around again in very short order. In those days, we were taught that you only meet physically with your homeopath.

Paola:  Right, not on the phone.

Joette:  Not on the phone, not on Skype. Now, I meet with all of my clients on Skype or phone. I never meet anyone in my office any longer. But in those days, we were taught that that’s what you had to do because you had to shake their hand, you had to see if they had an odor. You were experiencing the person so that you can get a better choice of remedy. Now, with this method that I use, that’s really very much unnecessary.

But at any rate, when she moved out of the area, “Oh my gosh! Now what am I going to do? I’m doomed.” It took a few days of processing it and complaining about it. “What am I going to do? How am I going to handle this? Who will I find? I need to find someone else.” I knew that there wasn’t anyone else in my area. This was back in the 80s. So, it dawned on me one day, “Oh my gosh. I think I have to know how to do this, I mean really know how to do this. This is up to me. It’s my family. It’s my job! So, I should learn how to do this.”

Paola:  I hate to break it to you, however, even though you have this wonderful web presence, I think everyone who follows you, Joette, is a little bit sick to their stomach that you will ever retire.

Joette:  My husband and I talked about that the other day. He was saying, “I don’t know. I think you’ll be able to work for a long, long time,” because I do love it. I love teaching. I love taking cases. I’ll just maybe slow it down quite a bit as I age, but I’m not slowing down now. I’m still revving up.

Paola:  Good. Okay, right, good girl. Keep taking your homeopathic then.

Joette:  Yes, it’s because of these medicines that I’m able to stay as well as I am at 65.

Paola:  That’s right. Okay, Joette. Here’s another great question. What is the value of classical homeopathy if the protocols are easier and more reliable shortcuts?

Joette:  Well, for those who are neophytes to this, they may not know the difference between classical and the protocols that I use.

Paola:  That’s true.

Joette:  These practical methods that I use, but just bear with us then. You might be able to pick up a little bit from this. But for those who know what classical homeopathy is, I was a dyed-in-the-wool classical homeopath for decades. I even taught the first classical homeopathy course that was ever credit-bearing in a college setting in New York State. So, I believed down to my toes the value of classical homeopathy.

But I don’t use it much at all anymore, overtly. I believe, however, that because I had so much training in it and I studied it so thoroughly for so many years, that I think in the back of my head I do have a little classical left in there that is my basic foundation. For anyone who really wants to take homeopathy seriously — even enough to say become a practitioner at some point — I would never urge them to do it without going to classical homeopathy school. You really need that background to fully understand because many cases will come across your desk that you will not be able to necessarily understand thoroughly without that background.

Having said that, however, the Banerji Protocols as well as a few of my own methods here and there — mostly Banerji Protocols — are really based on classical. But it’s trimmed down the fat and made it so tight that it’s much, much easier to use. So, you may find as someone who’s treating your family consistently, you will not need to study or use classical homeopathy. In fact, it may even confuse or confound you from time to time.

Paola:  Right. And in study groups: the study group curriculum, “Gateway to Homeopathy,” (the first half of that), we do talk about classical homeopathy because classical homeopathy helps us understand the foundation of homeopathy, what it means, how it works, the basic theory of homeopathy.

Now, we do have a podcast, Joette, that I want to remind your listeners here, Podcast Number 24, Topics That Bear Repeating, where you and I discussed the protocol form of homeopathy versus classical homeopathy a little bit more in depth. So, if this subject kind of sparks your interest, I think that’s a good podcast to listen to. But I do want to say with my son, that ear infection that I was just talking about, I did start with the homeopathic protocol for ear infections that you taught from the Banerjis. And it did not act on him.

Joette:  Yes, so you need to go further. You need to go to the second protocol. If that doesn’t act, you need to go to a third protocol. If there are no more protocols after that —an the sometimes there are and sometimes there aren’t — that’s when classical, yes, indeed can be useful.

Paola:  That’s exactly where I was. He had a very unique ear infection. Actually, the exterior ear was swollen and sticking out like little elephant ear off to the side. The protocols did not work, at least in the way that I use them. I thought I was using them correctly. So, that’s where my friend, Sherry, we were talking until one in the morning. We found out that he needed Aconitum napellus at that time. We did Chamomilla 200 and Belladonna 200, which is still slightly part of the protocol, but that Aconitum napellus was really a big difference for him. So, I feel a little bit naked if I don’t know a little bit of classical homeopathy. Because, what if the Banerji Protocol does not work, or what if I don’t own the remedies in the Banerji Protocol? Well, I have a little bit of backup.

Joette:  Yes, yes. Listen, you can never get too much education. Oh, wait a minute, I take that back.

Paola:  What do you mean?

Joette:  I take it back because I’m making fun of the universities these days. There’s a lot of gobbledygook education in American universities these days. So, there’s a lot of stuff that becomes superfluous and without focus. But, self-education is what I mean. That’s where I put the emphasis. Everyone should be constantly educating themselves, whether it’s homeopathy or otherwise.

Paola:  I love my homeopathy library. I love all the books. I have tons of your books, Joette. I have more books. I love it. I think that’s what you’re talking about.

Joette:  Yes.

Paola:  So, my last question for the newbies that we’re getting is: What role does diet have in homeopathy?

Joette:  People ask me this all the time. And, I hope I don’t sound inconsistent but in terms of a condition, a disease, not as much as you would think.

Paola:  Interesting.

Joette:  I’m on the board, the honorary board of Weston A. Price Foundation. I am a true believer in the whole nutrient-dense, homemade foods that are sourced from good sources. I believe in Dr. Weston Price’s works and all those who are peripherally around him. But, I have found through the years that depending on foods alone has been a disappointment, not only in my own health but in other folks’ health, in my clients and students, etc.

Sometimes we get lucky and people report to me that by getting off of gluten, they don’t have any more joint pain. But if they wait long enough, my experience so far has shown me that stay away from gluten for a while and then a couple of years later, they find out, oh. it’s kind of coming back again. Now, they have to get off of dairy. Then wait a little longer and then now, they have to get off of eggs. Then eggs are related to chicken. It doesn’t correct the problem. Abstinence of food does not correct the problem in my experience. It’s management.

Now, I’m not going to tell you it never works because I think that for some people, it can. If it is a food condition in the first place, then yes, I suppose that’s very possible. But I don’t get those folks. The people I get are those who have been through GAPS diets and Weston Price and FODMAPs. I can go through many more names than that of diets.

If you’ll listen to this a couple of years from the time we’re recording this today, there are going to be more diets. They are going to declare that this is the diet that cures. Well, I started back in the 1980s with Dr. William Crook’s book on “The Yeast Connection.” I thought I had found the answer and followed that. It helped for a while, but it wasn’t until I got to homeopathy that it really got to the true correction.

Paola:  I see.

Joette:  So having said that, it’s not necessary to change the diet when you’re using homeopathy. If you already found that you can’t eat dairy and that you’ll get diarrhea and brain fog, so of course, you don’t eat it. Don’t go ahead and do it. You already know that that would be imprudent. So, you stay with the diet that you’ve been following. And you add the homeopathic, and then slowly you start adding in some of the foods that were a problem before.

That is what we’re looking for is the freedom of being able to eat anything. I always tell folks. I want everyone to be able to eat at McDonald’s. Not that I expect you to eat at McDonald’s, but I want you to have the freedom to be able to do so. If I were bold enough to come into your home and open up your refrigerator, I would certainly hope that I would find high quality foods in there. But, if you’re on a long trip with your family, and you ran out of food, and it’s now one in the morning, you’re in the middle of a snowstorm, and the kids are waking up, and they’re hungry, and the only thing that’s around is a McDonald’s — I’d like you to be able to go to McDonald’s. Or even less severe a situation than that.

So, true health is freedom. And the freedom to be able to eat whatever you have available to you is what we’re looking for. Now, also the other side of that coin is we have to be intelligent about our food choices.

So, it’s unnecessary — that’s really what I’m distilling this down to — for someone to get better by using homeopathy and having to go on a strict diet in addition to that.

Paola:  I see. So, what you’re saying is — and I think you taught this in the Good Gut, Bad Gut course — that the Banerjis in India, they don’t prescribe a homeopathic protocol to their clients and then also prescribe a specific diet.

Joette:  No. They tell all the patients, eat your traditional foods. Now, it’s different there because they do have traditional foods. A lot of us, at least in the US and North America don’t have traditional foods anymore. Our grandparents or great-great grandparents, or great-great-great came here so long ago that many of the foods have been lost, or they’ve been bastardized. You have to be careful with that. That’s why I like Weston A. Price, because it is traditional and it’s mostly based on European foods. That’s where most of us hail in this country. So, that makes perfect sense to me. But, when you look at the traditional foods in Calcutta, it depends on the religion. There are many different religions. They’re very traditional people in their traditional garb, and their lifestyles, etc., etc. So, you can’t possibly broach that subject and get away with it.

Paola:  A lot of vegetarianism and things like that.

Joette:  Well, there’s vegetarianism. Many of them don’t have access to the kinds of foods that we have access to, if they live in villages or if they live in the big city. They have what they have.

Paola:  Right. That is right. Very good. I know that part of your logo used to say where nutrient meets homeopathy. So, it wasn’t necessarily that you needed to have the diet for homeopathy to do its thing. Really, I think your goal is to say it’s where diet has left off in the healing process, homeopathy can complete.

Joette:  Yes, picks up. Picks up and carries on. You don’t have to do the diet first and then homeopathy second. You can certainly start on a decent, clean diet and not worry too much about it, and use the homeopathy simultaneously.

Paola:  Right, very good.

Joette:  Well, it’s like anything in life. That anything that is wholesome and lofty and authentic, of course, you want that. I always tell people, if they’re stressed or — many conditions can be attributed to stress — I tell people, listen to good quality music. Don’t watch the news so much. Only read quality books. Don’t expose yourself to the lower end of society. Find the lofty and concentrate on it. That automatically lifts us out of aspects of life that can drag us down too deeply.

Paola:  Right. Weed out the toxic friendships or relationships. For me, I think it’s something big this year. It’s focusing on gratitude. That’s a very good thing too.

Joette:  Yes, absolutely. So, St. Catherine of Sienna said, “If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire.” That is a big part of my motto. This is what I should be doing. I want to hand this over to you. If it is what you should be doing, then I hope that you’ll set your world on fire as well.

Paola:  Well, I know you’ve set my world on fire. I mean, truly Joette. I mean, this is one of my last podcast with you for a little while.

Joette:  I know.

Paola:  It’s so sad. It’s been such a hard thing. We live on a homestead. I’m so busy with young kids and homeschooling.

Joette:  You have a very rich life, Paola. It’s a good thing. It’s very good.

Paola:  I am so thankful. But I have to say, Joette, you really have changed my life. I’ll still be around. I’ll still help out, I’m sure, here and there with the podcast or in the course or however you need me to. But, I just feel so privileged to have been part of this and to be a little piece in your group.

Joette:  It’s been my pleasure as well having you. It’s been great working with you.

Paola:  Thank you.

Joette:  It’s natural. We bounce off of each other well.

Paola:  The gal who’s going to be helping out with the podcast, Kate, many of you already know her. She is a Mom with Moxie. She has the story where the horse landed on her arm and shattered her arm into a million pieces. My favorite part of that story is where she was at the hospital, and she wasn’t taking any painkillers. They wouldn’t release her. So, she finally said, “Okay, give me a Tylenol. Okay, that helps sooooo much. I feel so much better,” because she’s been using lots of homeopathy. So, she’ll be a great addition here.

Joette:  Oh yes, I think so too.

Paola:  So you guys can look forward to her. Well, thank you so much, Joette.

Joette:  It’s my pleasure, Paola. As always, it’s been great.

Paola:  You just listened to a podcast by joettecalabrese.com where nationally certified homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese shared her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition. Joette’s podcasts are available on iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Stitcher, and TuneIn radio.

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. If you liked it, please share it with your friends. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit joettecalabrese.com.

In this podcast, we cover:

05:22    The Secret Spoonfuls: Confessions of a Sneaky Mom Story

10:02    Herbalism and Natural Medicine

19:40    Note-taking

21:14    Homeopathic treatment of strep throat, food poisoning, coughs, and canker sores

32:03    Disney World miracle story

You are listening to a podcast from joettecalabrese.com where nationally certified American homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese, shares her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition.

Paola:  It’s podcast number 36 at joettecalabrese.com. Today, we’ve got a new episode for the Moms with Moxie miniseries.

Joette:  All the way from my desk in New York, I get to see how homeopathy is transforming lives all over the globe. Some of my students have really caught my eye. Some of you have done all you can to learn how to cure those around you using homeopathic medicines. Your successes inspire me and they’re glorious and powerful. I can’t keep your successes a secret any longer. So, with help from my roving reporter, Paola, we bring you this mini podcast series that I call “Moms with Moxie.” It’s actually grandmoms, too but it’s Moms with Moxie. See how regular mothers and others, average people who want to cure those around them have gone from freaking to fabulous with homeopathy.

Paola:  I am so excited to be doing another Moms with Moxie interview. This time, I actually have a friend of mine. Now, I have to say that all of the other Moms with Moxie I’ve interviewed have not been personal people that I’ve known before, but Mindy is a gal that I met. She was actually in one of the earlier pilot study groups that we were doing before we released study groups. So, that was fun to get to know her.

Mindy is a mom of four. She got her undergraduate in Elementary Ed. She taught a little bit before she got married and started having kids and stayed at home with them. What I really like about Mindy though is that she came from a background where she actually studied a lot of herbalism and wildcrafting — kind of reminds me of Joette who did a lot of that before she found homeopathy. So, let’s just talk about your journey Mindy and how you started and how you ended up with homeopathy. So, welcome.

Mindy:  Great. Thanks so much. I’m so excited to be here and talking with you.

Paola:  Okay Mindy. So, you told me earlier that you were not born or raised with alternative medicine.

Mindy:  Yes, not at all. I went to the doctor just like anybody else for well-checkups, for vaccinations, for all the good stuff. There was never any, “Hey, maybe we could deal with these ourselves.” So, it was trust the system, trust what the mainstream is doing. I didn’t really think much more of it than that. Then I had a certain specific event that happened to my life that changed. When I left home and I went to college, I had the greatest privilege and honor to meet a lady who I called Mumsie. She kind of became my adopted grandma. She just blew me away with her knowledge of natural medicine. I think maybe I had always wondered before, but I never really have done anything about it. She was a student herself at the age of 70 learning about herbal remedies. She would just be throwing stuff at my husband and me, “Oh, you’re sick. Here, take this. I made this special concoction just for you.”

Paola:  Cute.

Mindy:  I remember the first time I smelled this remedy that she gave, this herbal salt that she gave to us (that now I use it all the time) but I remember thinking, “This stuff stinks. What is this witch doctor stuff?”

Paola:  That is so funny, especially being like an older lady. She kind of has that little quirky profile.

Mindy:  She truly was like a witch doctor in my mind. But I really admired her, the way she walked to the beat of a round drum kind of a thing. She was so passionate about it and just instilled in me a lot of new ideas such as anti-vaccination. She didn’t eat certain foods and especially… there’s just a funny story about my brother who was over there with me. We were eating some of these healthy cookies because every meal was beautifully healthy. He goes to say, “Hey, do you have any …?” And he was going to say milk but he turns and looks at her bookcase. There is this book front and center that says “Milk, The Deadly Poison.” Then we were just like, it’s like, “I guess you don’t have any of that.”

Paola:  Until recently with the advent of Weston A. Price, the healthy diet was kind of that more vegan, vegetarian.

Mindy:  Yes. She did eat meat but the idea that milk was not created for us. A lot of times, it would just make people so stuffy and full of crud in their sinuses. That was the answer to that, to just stay away from that cloggy, mucous stuff. So, that made sense to me. I’m like, “Okay, well.” I stopped drinking milk. I started eating a lot better, looking at health better, looking at alternative stuff.

Paola:  I remember when we were in study groups. We were talking about homeopathy so much. We didn’t talk a lot about diet. But little things I said, and little things you said as we both realized we eat very different diets. So, I remember telling you. Go get Joette’s CD, “A Secret Spoonful,” I think it’s something … “A Sneaky Mom … Secret Spoonful of a Sneaky Mom.” So, you listened to this audio CD with your family in the car.

Mindy:  Yes.

Paola:  So, tell us what happened. I mean this is hilarious.

Mindy:  So, we’re listening to this. She starts talking about milk and how milk is actually really good for the body and it needs to be raw. My kids are looking at me with this horrified look on their face. They’re like, “What!” She is speaking like blasphemy. They put their fingers in their ears and go like, “La, la, la, la.” They just did not want to hear that because heretofore, I mean my oldest at this point was like 10. For the last 10 years, I had been telling them that milk was a bad thing. We never had milk in our house ever. We would have soy and maybe some almond, but we just stayed away from it.

Paola:  I remember you told me that like the lard, spoonfuls of lard for her kids or like the bacon and the breakfast.

Mindy:  I was kind of hyperventilating myself because I went to Paola and I said, “Okay, okay, look. We’ve got a problem here. I love this homeopathy stuff, but bacon and lard and milk, I don’t know what’s going on.”

Paola:  That seems too much. But I remember the thing that really piqued your interest was you were saying about cavities, that you guys have dealt with cavities. For me, a lot of my dental problem stopped cold turkey almost when I really incorporated bone broth into my diet and those fats and everything.

Mindy:  Yes. That’s really fascinating because we had horrific dental problems. Because I didn’t give my kids milk so I decided to give them 100% juice. Anyway, that’s another whole story that’s bad. But lately, we drink a lot of raw milk. I have to say that dentist’s appointments are looking pretty good, just saying.

Paola:  Oh good. Good to know, very good. That’s kind of the side note, I think with Joette and her mission. She used to focus a lot about nutrition and homeopathy together but now, she’s kind of lasered into homeopathy. But that’s great. I love the la, la, la, mommy, turn it off.

What I like about you Mindy, is that you figured out for yourself that you didn’t want to go to well-checkups anymore. Because I needed Joette’s permission. I mean it was finding Joette and hearing her talk about the well checkups, that that wasn’t really serving me. That’s when I stopped doing those. But for you, you kind of snapped to it before you even heard about Joette.

Mindy:  I did. What happened in my life, along with my Grandma Mumsie, was we moved here to Texas and started a family. My husband went into business for himself. Insurance for self-employed people is really horrible. One visit to the doctor is at least $100. We didn’t have $5. I realized really quickly that I needed to incorporate all those things I had heard Mumsie talking about and quickly. Then I was like, “Well, why do I need to take them to a doctor if they are well?” They look healthy and happy and beautiful. I don’t need someone to tell me that. I just know. I’m like I’m not paying 100 bucks for someone to tell me my baby is well. No, thank you, next.

Paola:  Yes. That’s just such great independent thinking that you gave yourself the permission to do that. I really, now, today, try and think outside of the box. But it’s like until you try to, you don’t and you’re stuck.

Mindy:  I realized I was a little fringy with that. People would look at me weird. I just stopped talking about it with people because I think it made them uncomfortable that I didn’t take my baby to well-checkups. It was like, not validating their actions. So, there are a lot of things I just kept to myself like I didn’t vaccinate my children. I just don’t talk about that with mainstream people because it makes them upset, and so same with not taking my kids to the doctor. There are some people I know I can talk with that about and others — not.

Paola:  Now that I think about it, that’s exactly why I never intentionally stopped taking my youngest especially, so I call her my golden child because I did everything right. But with my youngest, I didn’t intentionally say okay, “Well, I’m not doing well-checkups anymore because they’re worthless or whatever.” I didn’t think that. Every time I went to think about making an appointment, I’m like, “Well, I’m just going to be yelled at so I’m not going to go this week. I’ll think about it next week.” Then just one thing led to another and then it was a year later … a year and a half later.

Mindy:  Exactly, exactly.

Paola:  Let’s talk about your experience with natural healing. So, you studied and went to school for understanding herbs and that stuff.

Mindy:  I did. I decided because I was going to not vaccinate my children that I needed to be responsible about that decision. If I was going to be responsible then I needed to know how to help my children be healthy.

Paola:  Interesting.

Mindy:  So, that’s where I studied a lot about diet. Then I studied the herbal medicines. So, I went to Dr. Christopher’s School of Natural Healing. I took online courses. Then he had a student who started his own school. I took a lot of his classes. I attended his school.

Paola:  Dr. Christopher, he’s mostly like herbs, tinctures.

Mindy:  Yes. He’s 100% herbs, yes, making tinctures and salves and teas and lots of enemas.

Paola:  Yes, interesting.

Mindy:  Up until my story starts with homeopathy, I have been able to really treat my children with herbs. Now, I wasn’t always 100% as far as like not doing antibiotics. I think my second son got pneumonia. You take him to the doctor and they’re like, “Oh my goodness. We need to take him to the hospital immediately.” The scare tactic worked on me. So, we gave him an antibiotic for that and some steroids. But I can probably count on maybe less than two hands the amount of times I’ve ever given my kids antibiotics. Probably one hand — out of all four of my children, because I was just able to treat my kids with my herbs and my natural ways that way.

Paola:  Which is great, that is great.

Mindy:  So, that was really exciting. But then life threw me a curve ball, which it always does to all of us. I came up upon something I could not treat naturally. I got strep throat four times in six months. It just knocked me on my bum. I threw everything I knew at it. I threw herbs at it. I never really did the oils — the On Guard or whatever, the Breathe. I’m just trying. Whatever I had, I’m trying. I tried enemas.

Paola:  Did you try cayenne pepper?

Mindy:  Yes.

Paola:  And the apple cider vinegar. I love it when people, “Well, did you try …?” I’m like, “Hey! I tried it all.”

Mindy:  Exactly. That’s exactly what was going on. I was trying everything. I just couldn’t kick it. It kept coming back. I was scared. For the first time in a long time, I was really scared. Because I’ll go to doctors … the last lady I went to, she’s like, “Are you kidding me that you don’t have your tonsils out already?” She’s like, “This often? They need to be out. I can make the appointment for you now.” I’m like, “Oh my goodness!” I pushed my chair up. I’m like, “Thank you for your time,” after she’d already given me tons of antibiotics. I was like I have to find something else. Because you know what? After those four rounds of antibiotics, I know this sounds weird — but I could feel my health declining. I was getting sick all the time even in between those strep throats. I was getting sick with other stuff. I felt horrible.

I met a friend. It was like one of those tender mercies. Your friend comes up to the door. I’d been praying and just hoping that I would be able to find the right thing. I knew that there had to be something. I knew it. So, she says, “I want to share something with you.” She says, “I’m going to a class from my friend. And I treated my daughter with strep throat.” Then what was really interesting is I had a friend named Jen, who come to find out is your friend, and had strep throat four times in six months too concurrently with me. Except her last time, she went to you and had you treat it homeopathically. She’s like, “Mindy, it worked.” I’m like okay. Okay, folks. We got to check that out.

Paola:  But technically, I didn’t treat it. I educated her, and she took care of it herself. But yes, that’s right. I had a very, very, very scary experience with strep throat where if you take my study group class, I tell the whole story in detail. But it was not good. So now, I feel like I know so much about strep throat and treating it. It can be tricky. I remember even Jen, our friend Jen who had it, it was a little tricky too to address hers. But we did it. There’s something to say for herbs and Joette says this. There’s nothing wrong with having other modalities like herbals and tinctures and whatnot in your kit. But what we’re going to get to here is that homeopathy really does. If you’re going to hierarchy this stuff, homeopathy is at the top for sure.

Mindy:  Oh it is. It absolutely is. I’m coming from my background of herbs and loving herbs. Homeopathy takes the cake.

Paola:  Right.

Mindy:  I went to Paola’s study group, which thankfully was just about to start. It was the perfect timing. What was also interesting is that — I think it was the first class, right, Paola — where I talked to you about my daughter?

Paola:  Yes. Your daughter had been dealing with the flu.

Mindy:  It wasn’t actually quite the flu. It was more like she just had a fever that wouldn’t go away for 10 days. I was freaking out. So, she had had a fever for a couple of days when I first took your class.

Paola:  Yes, it was at the beginning. We both felt like, “Well, it will probably just resolve itself because fevers usually do.” Then the next week, seven days later, we were like, “She is not doing good.” Then we were like, “Oh.”

Mindy:  We were texting back and forth. You were so great. You were like, “Mindy, trust this remedy,” because I gave her a certain remedy. I’m trying to even remember what it was. I was like okay, well, she’s sleeping now. You’re like, “That’s good. That’s good.” I mean you helped me so much through that time. It’s so great to have somebody in your court that can help you.

Paola:  Which is really the purpose of study groups. People who are probably listening to this will go like, “I need a friend that knows a lot of stuff.” First of all, I haven’t been doing homeopathy for very long, Mindy. I feel like you haven’t been doing it for a very long. The amount, the net gain you can gain in the short amount of time of just listening to Joette’s podcasts and reading her blog alone is incredible. But I really believe in study groups because it allows you to create a community, even if you meet online with people. There is this cute group in Canada that I’m going to interview. They did study groups. They were all just people in the same Weston A. Price chapter. They like messaged through the group, “Hey, let’s start this study group. Who wants?” And then randomly, six of them got together. They all met online. Now, they’re all in the same regional area of Canada. But they didn’t know each other and they just started it. The support that they get from each other is phenomenal.

Mindy:  It’s huge.

Paola:  So, I think we ended up giving your daughter Belladonna in the end which we probably should have used that right away, but — oops. Sorry about that.

Mindy:  You’re right. It was Belladonna. That’s right.

Paola:  I remember she had glassy eyes, very glassy eyes and that high fever.

Mindy:  Yes. That was great. So, success number 1 to start a plethora of successes.

Paola:  Then, I remember one time in study group — and this is an important lesson. We have a podcast that talks about not running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I think we all have to experience learning not to do that. So, talk about that in study group.

Mindy:  Yes. So, this was a funny experience. Well, it wasn’t funny at that time, not at all actually. My son who’s four got an acute ear infection. Actually, I’m driving home from the study group. My husband is like you need to get here quick because Rocky has a really bad ear infection. I get there and he’s screaming bloody murder. Now, what’s good to know about Rocky — which would have been helpful to help me pick my remedy — is he’s just 100% in whatever he’s doing. He’s just very emotional. So, I come at it with Pulsatilla because that’s the first thing I’m thinking. I gave it to him and like he’s still screaming bloody murder. So, I’m like, “Oh my goodness. It’s not working.” Okay, it had been five minutes. So, then I’m like, “Oh, I got to try something else.” So, I gave him something else. Then like five minutes later then, “Okay it’s not working.”

Paola:  So then you picked the third new remedy.

Mindy:  Third remedy, actually, if I’m honest, I think that’s just four remedies and not three.

Paola:  I find out about this later. I was like, “Oh Mindy, no. That’s not how it works.” You were so cute. You were so nice. I gave you a hard time. But that’s how you learn. You’ve got to make mistakes to learn and get to the other side. So now, looking back what should you have done?

Mindy:  I should have absolutely kept with Pulsatilla because — just for his mentals, too, — like he was screaming Pulsatilla. I just have to say it’s really hard when you’ve got littles that are screaming. He was really screaming. So, that was a hard situation.

Paola:  Well really, the point is if you pick Pulsatilla at the beginning …

Mindy:  And I stick with it.

Paola:  And this is before you had a protocol because the Banerji Protocol for ear infection, there are a couple but the one that I can think of right now is Pulsatilla twice a day and then Chamomilla every 30 minutes as needed, SOS for pain. So, either you could have done a protocol or if you didn’t have a protocol and you were going to just approach it by symptoms, kind of a little bit more classically, you would pick the remedy and commit to it for three to five doses-ish.

Mindy:  Yes. Because it was SOS, I could have given it to him more often and it probably would have worked by the third dose, if I would have just stuck … but I didn’t give it a chance. I really didn’t.

Paola:  But it’s such a good lesson.

Mindy:  Yes, it was. It really was.

Paola:  Let’s go through a few more experiences. Tell us how you keep track of all your homeopathy notes.

Mindy:  Yes, I’m so glad you asked that because I think I have found the end-all-be-all for me. But I have all my file folders with all my kids’ names. I have my 20 notebooks around my house. I would write on each notebook, and then I would lose it. Because I love how Joette teaches that we need to keep track and write, so, I really took that to heart and I did that every time. But then I can’t find my papers to tell my success stories or to remember like, “What was it that I gave?”

So anyway, I found this app. It’s called OneNote. You can download it for free. It will give you folders. Within the folders, it has tabs. So, I have my homeopathy folder. In my folder, I have each of my children’s name plus my husband’s name and my name. I go through and I just write the date. I write the exact time. I write the symptoms. I write what I gave them. And then I follow up. Then at the end, I’ll just put like little asterisks and I’ll be like okay, this is how it went down. This is how it wrapped up. It’s just this running list on my tab. So, I can just go back to each individual and it’s wonderful. I keep track. It’s just great.

Paola:  I am going to download that, really I am because I almost keep track of things through my email. Like I’ll email myself like blah, blah, blah. That’s terrible. They’re all over the place then. So, OneNote, it’s just an app on your phone, O-N-E-N-O-T-E.

Mindy:  Yes. Yes. Download it and do it.

Paola:  Okay, cool.

Mindy:  It’s great.

Paola:  So, as you scroll through your app, what kind of experiences do you find there?

Mindy:  I’ve got a couple of great ones that I love. Just so you all know, it’s been a year and three months since I’ve had strep throat last. Within that year and three months, I have felt my strep throat come on about three to four times.

Paola:  Yes, because it kind of turned into a chronic problem after you take an antibiotic so many times.

Mindy:  Yes. We went on a vacation up to Utah. Both my son and I — because my oldest son came down with strep with me one of those times and got it twice with me. We were doing this together. We went from Texas to Utah. By the time we got up there and you know how it is with vacations, you’re working hard before. You’re kind of stressed. Then you get there and there’s a lot going on, right? I could feel it coming on. I could feel it deep in my throat. I knew but I had all my remedies with me. I took that Hepar sulph 200 is what I took. I, no joke, by the third dose, it was going away. Then my son comes up to me about a day later, after I’m like, “Mine’s successfully going away.” Because it’s quiet because we’re with lots of family, and he’s like, “I don’t want to tell anyone but I think I’m getting strep.”

Paola:  Oh no.

Mindy:  It’s like, “Okay. This is what we’re going to take. We’re not going to tell anyone. We’re just going to take our stuff.” So, we take it and bam. I mean it’s done. It doesn’t even advance past that like that sharp, sticky … like a stick in your throat, deep in there. It’s gone.

Paola:  That’s actually how they describe it in the materia medica for Hepar sulph. There feels like a splinter in your throat.

Mindy:  Yes. That is like a huge success. I want to scream it from the rooftops. I want to write Joette 100 thank you notes and Paola for teaching me this because it truly changed my life. I’m so, so, so grateful.

Paola:  It’s all Joette, girl. Yes, just because the way she teaches it to you and how passionate she is, it makes you feel dumb if you don’t do it which is a good thing. You need to be pushed.

Mindy:  Joette, I have to tell her that I feel like I’m in this grassroots effort with her. Because she is so awesome the way she gives out all these … the podcasts, all the blogs. It’s just all this free information right there at our fingertips. That’s how I’m learning. I have one of her “Good Gut, Bad Gut” classes, but that’s it. That’s all I have so far. I’ve had all these successes, because she has shared out of the kindness of her heart and out of her mission. She’s getting this word out there. I am so, so grateful. So, let me tell you just a few more little stories about awesome success stories.

I woke up once in the middle of the night and it was just all of a sudden and I’m shaking violently. It’s coming out one end, about to come out the other. It feels like food poisoning.

Paola:  So, vomiting and diarrhea. Oh no.

Mindy:  Yes. So, I ordered the red kit and then got all of her cool …

Paola:  Oh yes, that’s true. If you ordered Joette’s top 100 remedy kit in 30C, at this time at least, she gives a bunch of free materials with that.

Mindy:  It was that. I love everything that came with that. So, I was reading through that and I knew Arsenicum album, that’s what I need right now. So, I wake up my husband and he’s like, “Okay. You’re freaking me out with how weird sick you look.” I’m like, “Just get me the Arsenicum album.” I take it. I’m not lying. Like less than 10 minutes later, I am back in my bed. I have fallen fast asleep. My husband is left like scratching his head like, “What just happened here? How was that possible?”

Paola:  That’s amazing.

Mindy:  It was so crazy. Not everything happens like that. It’s not like an in-day thing. So, then we have other stories with chronic coughs. My husband gets these coughs twice a year that last for like three or four months. They start with just the regular coughy, coldy stuff. Then they’ll just last forever. He had one earlier this year in January. I was treating it with actually a different remedy that I don’t have in front of me right now. So, kind of the main cold left, but he was left with this cough. The cough was the forefront remedy.

Paola:  That’s pretty typical for him. He tends to at the end of a cold have this lingering cough.

Mindy:  Yes. So, I had done my research. He was going out of town. I sent him with these remedies. He calls me in the middle of the night like two in the morning, “What do I take?” He’s coughing. I said take the Phosphorus. I really think that the Phosphorus is going to work. So, he takes it. He tells me later, I mean, it stops the cough right away. He had like more of a wet cough. So, it stops that cough right then within five minutes. It’s done. He can go back to sleep. It happened to him in the morning. He took Phosphorus again. It stopped it in its tracks. He got a little bit better. I think he maybe took it maybe once or twice in the next few days. That was awesome.

Then I get a cough a couple of months later. But mine looks completely different than his. It’s more of this dry gagging. There’s no productivity to this cough. It’s just completely dry. I had to do some digging. I tried one. It helped me feel better but the cough, the gaggy cough was still there. So, after looking through my materia medicas and I always go on Google. I type in “gagging cough, homeopathy, Joette Calabrese.” That’s my go-to, right? So then, I decided on Ipecac and Ipecac 30 did the same thing for my dry, gaggy cough that Phosphorus did for my husband’s wet cough.

Paola:  That’s amazing. So, I like that you said that this isn’t typical. It doesn’t always work that quick. I think if you get into this, and you start using your remedy kit, you will see that sometimes it does work that quick — not always —and that’s just awesome.

Mindy:  Yes.

Paola:  I wish it always worked that way, but …

Mindy:  I know. I do too. But there are a lot of times that it really does work pretty quick if you pick the right remedy. It’s not hard. If you’ll just take the time to say, “You know what? I want to learn this.” I’ve shared this with a lot of my friends. There are some people that are like, “Well, I just want you to tell me what to take.” I’m kind of like, “No.” I want you to learn this because it’s so empowering. I’ve listened to a lot of your podcasts. I feel the same exact way as all these other moms, that it’s just, it’s empowering and freeing.

Paola:  I think that is why Joette says if you don’t have moxie — that’s why this is called “Moms with Moxie” — if you don’t have moxie, if you don’t want to do it yourself then this may not be the right thing for you. Maybe you do need to just stick with the doctor or whatever. So, another one that kind of acted quickly was for hiccups, right?

Mindy:  Yes, okay everybody, if you don’t like hiccups as much as I do not like hiccups, Mag phos 6X. I’ve tried this twice now. I’ve actually tried to give myself hiccups so I can try it again. But I’ve tried it with two of my kids too and it works. By the time I put it under my tongue, by the time it has dissolved, the hiccups are gone.

Paola:  That’s just awesome.

Mindy:  It makes me giggle. It’s so amazing.

Paola:  It is. It’s so amazing. They don’t bother me that much but you must get them kind of awful.

Mindy:  For some reason, they really bug me. I hate them.

Paola:  Well good. Keep that Mag phos with you. And then you did canker sores.

Mindy:  I don’t get them very often but I got one a couple of months ago. Joette has a great blog on that actually.

Paola:  She does.

Mindy:  Where she talks about her son being like Mr. Smarty Pants, being like he can just eat whatever he wants and cures canker sores.

Paola:  Right. Canker sores are often like a food intolerance a little bit.

Mindy:  I loved in that podcast where she talked about her son knowing. It really inspired me to make sure my kids know — these are the remedies for this. I used Merc sol 200 for the canker sore, and it was just gone. I think it was gone within less than a day.

 Paola:  Yes.

Mindy:  It was really, really awesome.

Paola:  Do you have time, Mindy? I mean I’m loving these stories. Can you tell us a couple more or one more?

Mindy:  I could go on and on forever. So, yes, I’ll tell you I’ve got two more great stories that I love. My youngest, he is my accident-prone guy. Homeopathy is probably going to save his life by the time it’s all said and done. But he got sand in his eye. He was just playing out and he’s like, “Oh mom I got some sand.” Like little kids do, he’s rubbing it, rubbing it, rubbing it. The first thing I thought of was Aconite. He seemed to be good the rest of the day. But the next morning, he woke up and he was just in a lot of pain. He’s like I can’t keep my eye open. He’s crying, crying, crying. So, I opened my trusty materia medica. I’m looking up remedies. Actually, I think that this one was also in one of those extra books from Joette where she talked about eye remedies. It’s Euphrasia 30.

Paola:  I think Euphrasia, is it called Eyebright?

Mindy:  Yes, Eyebright. What’s interesting is I have an herbal tincture called Eyebright. So, I was having him kind of swish his eye with this eyecup I have with that tincture. But he’s like, “Ah.” He doesn’t want to do it. It’s kind of messy. So, I’m giving him that remedy. I give it to him a couple of times that day because he’s in some pretty good pain. He just has to keep his eye closed. We got this eye patch on him. For a six-year old, that’s kind of hard for him. So, it was really amazing. By about 24 hours from when I started that remedy, it was drastically better. It wasn’t all the way better. It probably was a good 48 hours before he could keep his eye open and it wasn’t red anymore. Then I kind of gave it to him maybe just like once on the third day or something. But I was also doing Echinacea and Goldenseal on the outside. I made a tea of the Echinacea and Goldenseal and like rubbed it on with a cotton ball. So, it was kind of doing it internally with the homeopathy and externally with some herbs. That was cool to have both. But I know that that Euphrasia really helped him on that.

Paola:  That’s amazing. I like to tell people because this is just a fun, little nerdy homeopathy fact that Aconite is also the Arnica of the eye. I think you did use Aconite right up front.

Mindy:  Yes. It seemed that helped. I thought the issue was done. I thought like we were good to go. We didn’t complain about it the rest of the night. Then he woke up and it was like, “Oh, okay.”

Paola:  So tell us your last story because this one just makes me — I mean it’s not funny but it’s so funny …

Mindy:  I know. I call this my Disney World miracle story because I was so excited. Obviously, Disney World is a big deal. We drove out there from Texas to Florida. I am sick on the drive. I’ve got all my books out. I’m kind of like cold sick. It kind of felt at first like this is what happens on my vacations. I feel like I’m getting strep throat because of the stress of getting everything ready. So, I took the Hepar sulph. It moved from my throat more into my head. So, by the time I get to Disney World, we’re at this pool and I am miserable. I’m not in the pool. I’m sitting on the sidelines. I am sick with this good deep cold. My nose is totally stopped up. My head is heavy. I am on my phone texting Paola.

Paola:  Yes, you were.

Mindy:  Paola, help me. I am at Disney World. I am sick, and I need you. She texted me back and she says … because you asked me a question, right?

Paola:  Yes, because you sounded like you have this terrible mucousy situation. I wanted to know is it more like a head cold or is it more like a chest bronchial cough cold?

Mindy:  Yes.

Paola:  I didn’t know which direction to go. Like what was bothering you the most.

Mindy:  Right. So, she said, “Okay, if it is more the head cold/sinuses, you want the Sanguinaria 200 combined with the Hepar sulph 200 mixed together, and then the Bryonia 200 with the Aconite 200 mixed together.” When I saw that text and I said, “Well it’s the head cold.” And you said, “Okay, well it’s the Sanguinaria mix.” And I was like, “Score!” Because those were the two I had. I didn’t have the other one. So, I went back to my camper. I took that remedy. I went to sleep. When I woke up, I wasn’t 100%, but I could breathe. My head didn’t hurt. I could function. I could totally do Disney World that day.

Paola:  That’s so awesome.

Mindy:  From that time, I definitely needed that next dose, because I took it twice a day. So, then I was so grateful that I could just take that dose. The next morning, I felt a little bit better. So, it wasn’t the night and day. It wasn’t like better from zero-to-a-hundred-better. But it was enough. For me, it was my Disney World miracle. So again, homeopathy, I love you!

Paola:  Yes. That’s wonderful. So, I just want to review this protocol. Joette has this blog. It’s called “My Solution for Colds and Cough: Homeopathically, of Course.” In the blog, she talks about Bryonia 200 mixed with the Aconitum when there’s a cold that’s generalized, but also affecting the coughy chest area. But then also if you look in the comments, someone says, “Now I thought Hepar sulph 200 mixed with Sanguinaria was for colds.” And Joette responds, “Yes. But that’s good for a cold that attacks the sinuses and the postnasal drip and the nose areas.”

Well, Mindy, you are so awesome. Thank you for having moxie. Thank you for taking time to meet with us. You are just a delight to talk to.

Mindy:  Thanks so much.

Joette:  Are you or someone you know a Mom with Moxie? Well, we’re on the hunt for you. And of course, we don’t want to hear just from moms but from anyone who uses and loves homeopathy. Reach out to my podcast team and let us know why you’re a Mom with Moxie. For more information, contact [email protected].

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. If you liked it, please share it with your friends. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit joettecalabrese.com.

These Moms with Moxie podcasts are designed to be inspirational, not specifically educational. No Remedy Card is provided.

In this podcast, we cover:

04:45    Life before Joette and homeopathy

14:03    The Survivalist Guide: carbon monoxide poisoning

23:42    Apis for wound puncture

28:03    Hip issues and Rhus tox

You are listening to a podcast from joettecalabrese.com where nationally certified American homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese, shares her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition.

Paola:  It’s another podcast at JoetteCalabrese.com. Today, we’ve got a new episode for the Moms with Moxie miniseries.

Joette:  All the way from my desk in New York, I get to see how homeopathy is transforming lives all over the globe. Some of my students have really caught my eye. Some of you have done all you can to learn how to cure those around you using homeopathic medicines. Your successes inspire me. They’re glorious and powerful. I can’t keep your successes a secret any longer. So, with help from my roving reporter, Paola, we bring you this mini podcast series that I call Moms with Moxie. It’s actually grandmoms, too. But it’s Moms with Moxie. See how regular mothers and others, average people who want to cure those around them have gone from freaking to fabulous with homeopathy.

Paola:  I am here with Shannon Gunther. I am so excited to be with you today, Shannon. We’ve gotten to know each other a little bit on the phone and through email. We have a really great podcast for Joette’s listeners.

Shannon:  I am so excited to be here. Thank you.

Paola:  Shannon, tell me where you’re from, where you’re living, what state or whatever.

Shannon:  I am in Northern California. We’re up in the mountains. I am a homeschooling mama with seven kids and of course, a husband. Just getting ready to graduate my third child, so pretty exciting.

Paola:  Awesome, graduate your third child. So, you’re a little bit ahead of me. I have to say you look just as young as you sound. That is so fun that you can just be so young to enjoy your family.

Shannon:  Yes, thank you.

Paola:  Do you have grandkids or anything yet? Are any of your kids …?

Shannon:  No grandkids, yes. My oldest is going to be 20 and he’s like, “Mom, not yet, stop.”

Paola:  So, your oldest is 20.

Shannon:  Well, it’s pretty cute.

Paola:  Shannon, the first question I like to ask Moms with Moxie like you is why do you love homeopathy.

Shannon:  Well honestly, when I found it, it completely gave me my life back. I was suffering from some chronic illness and I was at the end of my rope. I’ve tried everything and homeopathy was it. It completely gave me my life back.

Paola:  Do you feel like you have perfect health now?

Shannon:  I don’t have perfect health but improvement in my life, just I can function again. It’s going to be a longer journey. I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue. But I’d tell you, within that first month of starting remedies, I felt like a new person.

Paola:  So you mean, you’ve been diagnosed with adrenal fatigue by a traditional doctor?

Shannon:  A naturopath.

Paola:  A naturopath, okay.

Shannon:  Of course, there were lots of tests involved and can we for sure be sure.

Paola:  Right, right.

Shannon:  But it all was pointing to that with extreme exhaustion and what not.

Paola:  I’m trying to remember where I read this. It was a homeopathic practitioner (who might have been Joette, I don’t know). They say that your hormones are a three-legged stool.

Shannon:  Yes.

Paola:  Your adrenals, your thyroid, and then the other stuff — the progesterone and all that pituitary stuff — and when one of them goes out, the other two were close behind.

Shannon:  Exactly. It’s just so linked and one will try to help the other and then of course get weakened. So, it’s just like this complex stuff. But I found homeopathy, so it simplified it completely.

Paola:  You feel like you’re living a robust life and that’s the thing. That’s the key. Joette says it. You’re not going to have perfect health. That doesn’t exist.

Shannon:  Exactly. Yes, I have my bad days. I have days where I’m definitely more tired. But I can get out of bed. I can feel not as overtaxed. I emotionally am stable. That was just a huge blessing.

Paola:  That is huge. You’re right. I know. I feel like I also don’t have perfect health, but when I look at what I can accomplish in a week, it’s okay. I’m working on it. We got it. It’s okay.

Shannon:  Exactly.

Paola:  Well, let’s talk about … what was your life like before Joette? Let’s go into some more details.

Shannon:  I had my first child in my 20s and really got into herbs, really loved herbs. They helped with colds that little toddlers get. So, I was just a huge fan. I was into eating really healthy. Then we discovered Weston A. Price, loved that. So, I fell into herbs and the clean eating. That definitely assisted with health. That was great.

But fast forward to right after I had my 7th baby. I was right around 30. That’s when all the chronic stuff popped up. So, I found, I went to a naturopathic doctor, got on Nature Throid. That’s all good. I was taking a lot of stuff. I mean it’s great supplement. I believed in it. But it never quite got me over the hills. So, it was a constant few steps. Climb up a bit this mountain and slip down. Climb up and we’re never reaching the top and getting over that.

I remember — I know I told you earlier — that here I was at my dining room table and I had 12 to 15 supplements in front of me. I had to make a schedule of when to take them; this before eating, this during eating. It was so overwhelming, I just started bawling. I’m like, “I can’t do this anymore.” This had been probably eight years into my illness. It was this roller coaster. My body would respond a little bit to the supplements and then slip back down to the bottom. So, it was actually my naturopath at that point who said, “We should maybe bring in a homeopath just to assist.”

Paola:  Wow! Good for him.

Shannon:  I know. So, that was really incredible, that just willing to do that.

Paola:  It is so discouraging when you have improvements and then it stops working. I mean it’s one thing to have a step forward, a step back, and a step forward but to have it stop working, oh my gosh. It’s like you feel like you’re losing everything.

Shannon:  To just go on this rollercoaster up and down for eight years, it was just so discouraging. It was like I actually can’t mentally do this anymore. So that brought me to the end of the rope. It was like okay, homeopathy is left. It’s not like I didn’t believe in it but I just didn’t know. I didn’t know about it fully.

Paola:  So, your naturopath brought in the homeopath, just like a classical or what?

Shannon:  No, it was actually, she gave that up to me. So, I had known about Joette, had been kind of following her blog. My Weston A. Price group had brought her to our little town for a two-day intensive. Here I was in the front just eating it up. So, I had had the experience of hearing her and seeing her and just loved everything she said. But there was just little time. Then I was like, I want to go to Joette. That’s the one. So here, my husband was like, “Yes. Whatever it takes.” I gave her office a little call. Pulling back tears in the whole conversation because she actually gave me hope again. She’s like, “Oh, hypothyroidism, we can address that. Adrenal fatigue, no problem; emotions, I got that.”

Paola:  Wow.

Shannon:  So nobody had said that to me in my eight years to that point of we can help you out.

Paola:  With that confidence.

Shannon:  That was wonderful.

Paola:  Yes. Yes.

Shannon:  Like I said before, really my body just, of course, just responded so well right away.

Paola:  Then tell me about before Joette then, as far as being a mom, what was that like?

Shannon:  I was again just into herbs. That was before the chronic. So, that’s what I would just assist our bodies with, the herbs and the eating healthy, kind of Weston A. Price, because at that point when I had little kids, I didn’t have the chronic.

Paola:  I see, which is interesting because it sounds like you’re doing everything right and then the chronic stuff came which is a little bit scary. That’s not supposed to happen.

Shannon:  I know. I know. Genetics!

Paola:  Yes, that’s true. Then you did have a lot of kids which is sometimes more stressful on some women. Some women, every time they give birth, it’s like they get thinner and their hair gets thicker.

Shannon:  Exactly. You know, I can look back. When you do your timeline, Joette suggests this timeline, I had antibiotics as a kid. I had some vaccinations. Then of course, there’s a strong family history of hypothyroidism. I just think of those like Joette talks about that sleeping giant. It just made sense just as far as the chronics.

Paola:  Yes, that’s true. Yes. You could have been much worse off. I’m sure, obviously, right? So, that’s good that you were wise and just from the beginning avoiding what she calls — what is it she calls it — avoiding medicines of commerce, so very good. I remember, you also told me something about how Joette transformed your perspective on illness in general.

Shannon:  She did. Just having a bunch of little kids, and they’d get sick and bring home a cold, the flu. It just seemed really stressful because there is a lot of them. I’d be like, “Oh man. We’re going to be sick again.” Of course, the herbs, they assisted definitely, probably shortened the illness that I saw. But what I loved just learning from Joette, she said that sickness and the suffering with it, especially like chicken pox or the measles is actually a good thing for kids. It’s okay to have some suffering. That’s how your body can respond afterwards if they were having trouble reading or riding their bike. That just really was neat for me, just to go, “Oh! Okay. I just need to really relax about this.”

Paola:  Yes.

Shannon:  So, I just love that.

Paola:  Something that you even mentioned the chicken pox. I don’t know where she got it from, but my daughter got the chicken pox. She has it literally right now. I posted on Facebook like, “Stay away or whatever, if you want to stay away,” just kind of public warning, public health warning that she’s got chicken pox. The responses I got from my friends that do homeopathy and my friends that don’t do homeopathy were night and day. So, my friends who know homeopathy and do homeopathy were like, “Oh, you got this.” Just like oh, rite of passage, very even-keeled, calm about it. My other friends that don’t do any sort of natural homeopathy or even natural medicine, “We will pray for you. I am so sorry.” I appreciate that. That’s so nice of them. Thanks. We always need prayers, I guess. But there is a fear and a lack of empowerment and understanding there that I’m so glad I don’t have.

Shannon:  That is so true. Even when I was doing herbs primarily, I had this book. It actually had different things in there addressing to help with measles and the mumps and the chicken pox. That’s just, as a mom, empowering like, “Oh! We can do this.” Now, homeopathy just was all the more … as far as feeling confident and especially just with Joette teaching those Banerji Protocols.

Paola:  I know it.

Shannon:  Oh man, that is just huge amount of confidence. Yes, got that. Oh yes, we got this. So that’s just wonderful.

Paola:  Yes, you’re right. That’s the difference between fear is having information and preparation and that gives you the confidence.

Shannon:  Yes.

Paola:  So tell us. Speaking of getting that information, have you taken any of Joette’s courses? If so, which ones?

Shannon:  Yes. I’ve taken all of them, as many as I can. I think the Skin course was my first. Then I did the Survivalist, Good Gut, Bad Gut, Allergies, just finished Feminopathy. I just got it. I need to carve out that time to sit down and listen to that. So, I’m super excited. With four girls … I’m just super excited about it.

Paola:  Awesome. So, this is a practical question. But how did you save up for all those courses? What did you do? Like no Christmas anymore, just homeopathy.

Shannon:  Exactly. It was birthdays, Christmas. Just can I set aside a little money for this? It was just really neat. My husband, he is all about just the natural and healthy way of living. It was just neat for everybody that’s in this family what homeopathy did for my chronic. So, he’s just like, “Yes. Let’s just try to figure that out.”

Paola:  Yes. Let’s keep learning and doing it.

Shannon:  Exactly.

Paola:  Which of the courses so far in what you’ve experienced has had the most impact for you?

Shannon:  In my experience, and especially with seven kiddos here, Survivalist. Mainly because it’s so practical, and you get a syllabus with it. So, that chapter on first aid is well worn. I run in to it! The kids know the book. They’re like, “Get Mama’s syllabus here.” In fact, I will say it paid for itself because it saved us two emergency room visits. So right there, paid.

Paola:  For some people on the low end, that copay is just 100 bucks. So, it goes up from there. So yes, I want to hear the stories. Tell us about an experience where you felt like the Survivalist Guide was awesome.

Shannon:  This is kind of my biggest story to date. It’s about my daughter who is 12 years old. It was this last summer. We had been splitting wood with gas motor log splitter and stacking wood.

Paola:  I see.

Shannon:  I had come in, I think to make lunch for everybody. I had to walk to the back of the house where the laundry room was, and found her just sitting there kind of in a state of collapse. I said, “Oh no, what’s going on?” I very soon realized that she was in a state of confusion as well. She was crying just kind of gently, “It’s my head.” Her head hurts but very rapidly, the symptoms were increasing very fast. She cannot talk clearly. So, it was kind of babbling.

Paola:  She could just babble and not form coherent words?

Shannon:  Yes, correct. Of course, that freaked me out.

Paola:  Oh my gosh, yes.

Shannon:  I’m like, “Oh my goodness.” So, I called. I had one of the kids get my husband. I called the older kids just to help us. I was having people get the homeopathy kit, the syllabus, the Survivalist syllabus.

Paola:  I can just see it. Was it like, “Go get the kit. Go get the book. Go get your dad. Everybody go!”

Shannon:  Exact, mobilize.

Paola:  I love it.

Shannon:  It was great. So, I’m thinking anaphylactic shock. I’m thinking she got stung by a bee. She’s reacting.

Paola:  Oh yes.

Shannon:  We’re having a lot of trouble with these bees in the late summer. They were just crazy and angry.

Paola:  Oh no.

Shannon:  So, we wait. Husband came in. We’re looking over for a bee sting. He got on his phone and Googled her symptoms. He saw it’s coming up carbon monoxide poisoning. I’m, “Oh no!” He’s all, “No, really, look.” I’m like, “What?” We’re out in the fresh air with log splitting and all. Sure enough, it totally matched. So, I quickly looked up carbon monoxide poisoning in the Survivalist syllabus.

Paola:  Real quick, your husband is sensitive to carbon monoxide too?

Shannon:  He is, so, yes. Yes, I’m glad you reminded me. We knew he was sensitive to that. She is just very much like him, so kind of prone to that as well.

Paola:  That helped that he was kind of aware what that feels like or something.

Shannon:  Absolutely, yes. So then, it was like … it just seemed so doubtful. It could be carbon monoxide, but with that history and then the description in the Survivalist syllabus matched exactly. I’m like, “Wow.”

Paola:  And I can’t … like it was really in there. Carbon Monoxide poisoning …

Shannon:  Yes, it really is in there. I love it.

Paola:  That’s awesome.

Shannon:  I’m like okay. So of course, her daddy is holding her. We opened a door, fresh air. She’s real sensitive and she gets very distressed when she’s ill. So, she’s very distressed. She actually knew that she couldn’t form her words. She was trying to communicate. So that freaked her out all the more. It was just bad. So, looked up, there are several different remedies for carbon monoxide, but she fit Gelsemium alternating with Belladonna. I would dose her and I’d watch. Literally. Before our eyes, her body calmed.

Paola:  Wow.

Shannon:  That’s actually, I knew how to dose. And then the intensity of her … and her words would come back. She could form her words because we’d ask her questions and all that. Even her eyelids were kind of half open, and she had a little bluish on her eyelids. It’s so faint that probably just a mom could tell. I could watch that go away and then I’d watch it come back.

Paola:  What does that mean blue on the eyelid? Is it lack of air?

Shannon:  I’m not sure. That was just something I noticed because it would go away. In the description that fit these remedies for her, it did talk about the eyelids kind of being half open. So that was just something I was aware of and just caught. I’m just not really completely … I knew … up to that point, I had no idea about carbon monoxide poisoning.

Paola:  Right, yes. It doesn’t matter. It was something blue. It wasn’t supposed to be. It was coming and going. You wanted it gone. Right.

Shannon:  Yes, exactly.

Paola:  I have an important question. What about that situation, why weren’t you guys jumping in the car driving to the emergency room? What’s that discernment like? Sometimes in the moment, you’re just doing what feels right, but can you walk us through that real quick?

Shannon:  I did during this episode here. I would look at my husband and I’d say, “Do you think we should go to the emergency room?” I’m so glad he was there. He just totally confirmed my confidence as far as no, let’s just keep going because what would happen is when I would dose, there would be improvement. So, we saw the improvement by watching her body. Literally, you could just watch this calm come over her body. But I had to dose every three minutes for about an hour actually. I know that’s usually not typical, but I would just watch the symptoms come back. So, we did that for the first hour and then she wanted to go to sleep. She was calm. She could speak. And so, I love, love that when a remedy is working then they want to sleep. That’s a neat sign. That’s a sign that I look for.

Paola:  Okay. So deep down, that kind of scares me though because I’m like what if she falls asleep and doesn’t get up again. You know what I mean?

Shannon:  I know, exactly.

Paola:  So what did you do?

Shannon:  Because she wanted to sleep, I had her laid down on the couch and I sat with her. Then I dosed every 30 minutes for the next hour or two. Then from thereon out, I dosed every hour to the end of the day. Then I just had her sleep in my room because I just wanted to watch her and observe and just make sure nothing was coming back.

Paola:  Right. Yes, that’s very, very wise. I like that. You said earlier that your husband — while you were dosing her during that very first hour — he was online trying to find the emergency rooms, just kind of lining your ducks up in a row. And yet, because she just consistently was improving and improving, you felt like, “We’ve got this.”

Shannon:  Yes, exactly. Of course, we would jump in that car. I love what Joette says. You jump in the car and you start driving, but you’re dosing on the way. We would totally do that. But because we just saw that instant improvement after we would dose, that just really gave us the confidence that so far, so good. But of course, we always have that in the back of our mind that we would do that … head to the emergency room.

Paola:  One little side note that I thought was really interesting about this experience is — you kind of said it earlier, but I want to make sure the listeners catch this — is your daughter is a little bit prone to being Gelsemium-ish with anxiety a little bit here and there. That was interesting that when she had the carbon monoxide poisoning that it was the remedy that she needed. You know what I mean? That doesn’t always happen but it’s kind of interesting that we pick up on these little patterns with our kids as we use homeopathy more and familiarize yourselves with your kid and remedies that help them.

For my son, every time he would get sick with something, I’d look up remedies, look up remedies. Oh, Pulsatilla and then I’d write it down my book. Then six months later, look up remedies for this new illness, oh Pulsatilla. It seems to always be Pulsatilla for him.

Shannon:  Exactly. I think, don’t you think that is just why having a materia medica and just familiarizing yourself with these remedies then your brain has that connection, like, “Oh!” So that’s for me, definitely when her symptoms did fit that Gelsemium for carbon monoxide, I was like, “Oh yes, that remedy works well on her.”

Paola:  Yes, exactly. That’s exactly the time to say, “Yes, this remedy historically has been great for her.” That helps confirm things, if you work through the case.

Shannon:  Definitely.

Paola:  Not that I wouldn’t use any other remedies other than Pulsatilla on my son obviously or a protocol or whatever. But it’s just an interesting familiarity and intimacy used for gaining with your kids and the remedies.

Shannon:  Definitely.

Paola:  Tell us another survivalist one that you wanted to share.

Shannon:  So, this actually happened before the carbon monoxide episode. We were fixing up a little house. My youngest daughter, 10, was helping us out. She came inside and again, here I was in the kitchen, busy, busy making lunch. She goes, “Mom, a nail poked my hand.” I go, “Oh! Okay well, go wash it and stick some tea tree on it.” Because I was just busy, I was not thinking. So later, I kicked myself here. Shoot. Live and learn. That night she’s like, “My hand hurts, mom.” Here, the site on her hand is it’s hot. It’s red. It’s hard. There’s a very faint line but very faint. I’m like, “Oh no. Really?” I should have known better. I kind of see — I don’t know — is it dirt, rust? Who knows? I go grab my book, the Survivalist syllabus here and looked up puncture wounds. In the back of my mind, I was thinking Ledum. But what matched up to her symptoms is Apis just like a bee sting. It was hot, hard, and red. So, I went, “Well, it matches.” I dosed her with that. Again, it was really neat to watch. I actually could feel the heat go down.

Paola:  Did you use a 200 or a 30 just because I’m curious.

Shannon:  I used a 200. I thought it was enough of an emergency. I was like hey, let’s just go for it. We actually watched the swelling go down, the heat go down, the little redness go down. That’s when I knew how to dose her. So, probably about four doses about 15 minutes apart and then I could lessen them. Again, Dad’s on the couch. We’re watching it. We’re looking at each other, emergency room or not?

Paola:  Looking it up again.

Shannon:  Exactly. This time it was late at night, of course. But just to watch those symptoms go down was so neat. It’s such a blessing to confirm we were on the right path. We had chosen the right remedy and went down. She went to sleep. I checked her in the morning. Probably gave her one more dose and we’re good. I was just like unbelievable. I mean it is believable but it’s just so neat to watch it work.

Paola:  Yes. It is unbelievable because no matter, it’s not an issue of whether or not I believe in homeopathy, because I do. It’s just it never ceases to amaze you.

Shannon:  Yes.

Paola:  It’s always just so wonderful. I think of like, Mother Theresa. Every time I read a quote from her or something from her life experience, it just never ceases to amaze me how special she was. It is similar with homeopathy.

Shannon:  That’s so true.

Paola:  It keeps impressing me. I love those stories. I’m glad everybody turned out okay. I’m glad that you got your money’s worth of the Survivalist Guide.

Shannon:  Isn’t that great?

Paola:  Yes, absolutely.

Shannon:  But having these experiences as a mom — no, we don’t want our kids to get hurt — but talk about the information, and just being able to share with people if they have this. I just feel like those experiences were great. I gained more confidence, more information for that. I always write things down, make notes.

Paola:  Yes, it’s true. If I was at home listening to you tell the story, I would feel like, “Oh my gosh. I could never do that.” But here’s the thing. One day you’ll wake up and the situation smacks you in the face. You’re going to have to deal with it.

Shannon:  Yes.

Paola:  If you’re prepared, you do.

Shannon:  Yes. On a side note, with the carbon monoxide poisoning, it was pretty stressful as a mom. So, I grabbed my bottle of Ignatia. Take that for stress for mom.

Paola:  Good for you. I know. Think clearly please.

Shannon:  Exactly.

Paola:  Very good. New topic, you were telling me that you’ve also had some hip trouble for yourself, right?

Shannon:  Yes.

Paola:  I think it somehow affected the knee or you tell me about it.

Shannon:  Well, it probably started a year and a half ago with chiropractor adjustment. So, new thing for me, never really had trouble with that. Probably seven pregnancies, probably getting older. Who knows? But what it would do when it would come out, it would twist my leg to where my knee would be twisted out of alignment as well. The knee just swelled up like crazy. There was just a lot of pain. It just prevented me from even sleeping.

Paola:  That’s interesting. It’s like the hip being out had a domino effect and impacted the knee?

Shannon:  It did. Yes, that’s what my chiropractor said. So, with the swelling … actually the first time it happened, I was on vacation. I actually brought my Arnica 1M, took that. The pain was really intense and my knee was huge

Paola:  Oh wow.

Shannon:  It was awful. That took away a lot of the pain and the swelling. So, at least I could make it the next few days and get home and then get to the chiropractor.

Paola:  Right.

Shannon:  But this kept happening. I thought, “Gosh, I don’t want to live for having to go to the chiropractor all the time. I love the chiropractor but I don’t want to go every week. I travel. I don’t want to rely on that. I checked in with the chiropractor. Can you give me some strengthening exercises and what not? Well, I happened to be on an end of a consult with Joette. I just mentioned. I said, “Joette, there’s got to be something to help this.” So, she suggested Rhus tox 1M. I’m like, “Oh, okay.” I could tell when it would start to come out of alignment. There’d be a lot of pain, kind of burning pain in the hip.

Paola:  Interesting. So, tell me, what was the frequency you were having to go in for adjustments? Was it like once a week or what?

Shannon:  So when it would come out, I’d probably have to go two to three times just get it to calm down because everything was just all kind of mad and twisted up and angry. It just needed to kind of relax. Then of course, I’d probably overwork it or do something. Then I have to go back in in another couple of weeks and then have two or three appointments.

Paola:  Oh wow. So, it was two or three appointments.

Shannon:  I’m like, “Gosh.”

Paola:  Then there’s a three-week break then two or three more appointments. That’s kind of a lot.

Shannon:  Yes, exactly. So, I thought “Well, I can’t do this.” There’s got to be something, right? So Rhus tox was and is amazing. I’ll start to, usually at the end of the day, feel the pain. I take that at night right before bed, one dose, one little pill, and gone. It has lengthened the chiropractor appointments to six months in between. So, it has kept it in alignment. That was just huge for me. So, it was just amazing.

Paola:  So, it’s not that the chiropractor didn’t need to do the adjustments. It’s like it helped glue it in place to last longer. That’s amazing.

Shannon:  Exactly. So, I don’t know how it does it but it works.

Paola:  Yes. I have to tell the listeners, Rhus tox 1M is not something that you should just willy-nilly use. This is a pretty significant situation with the swelling and the frequency of it.

Shannon:  Yes. I don’t think I would have even thought that had not Joette told me how to do it.

Paola:  Maybe you would have done like a 30 or 200 or something.

Shannon:  Exactly, exactly.

Paola:  And you checked the materia medica, it was better from heat, better from movement, worse from overuse which is very Rhus tox.

Shannon:  Yes. That just again, using the materia medica just confirmed that we’re on the right track. With any remedy, I always like to look that up and just confirm, if you have time. Obviously, for emergency or first aid, you may not have time but I love that for that reason.

Paola:  Exactly, very good. Those are some pretty awesome experiences. You definitely have moxie, I’ve decided.

Shannon:  Thank you.

Paola:  You’re welcome. You’ve earned it, girl. That is just so wonderful. Then just do you have any closing thoughts for people who might be new to homeopathy or what you wish you would have known at the beginning of your journey?

Shannon:  Yes. I really wished I had known about homeopathy from the beginning. I feel like a lot of us take this — maybe not for everybody, but a lot of us — take this journey of … we try everything else and our last resort is homeopathy. I would just encourage everybody if you’re new, try it first. As moms, there is just so much confidence just being able to raise your kids without drugs and running to the pediatrician. There’s a good place for that, for sure. But it really has just empowered me as a mom. I mean, Joette says that all the time. I just love that. It’s a hobby for me, learning about it. I just want to know as much as possible. I want to be able to pass it down to my girls and even my boys. I got a boy going to Mexico on a mission’s trip. He’s like “Mom, tell me what I gotta take.” I love that.

Paola:  Absolutely. I think that’s really good advice. Try this first. You’re right. It does. It literally makes you a better mother because the skills you need in homeopathy, listening, observing, caring — those are things that we can always hone as moms.

Shannon:  Absolutely.

Paola:  Very good. Well, thank you for joining us Shannon. It has been delightful. I love your peppy personality and your passion for homeopathy. I really think that this podcast is going to help a lot of people. So, thanks for taking the time out to be with me.

Shannon:  Oh yes, thank you, Paola.

Joette:  Are you or someone you know a Mom with Moxie? Well, we’re on the hunt for you. And of course, we don’t want to hear just from moms but from anyone who uses and loves homeopathy. Reach out to my podcast team and let us know why you’re a Mom with Moxie. For more information, contact [email protected].

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. If you liked it, please share it with your friends. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit joettecalabrese.com.

If you’d like to learn more about Shannon’s favorite course, The Survivalist Guide to Homeopathy, please click here. As she mentioned in the podcast, it paid for itself by allowing her to avoid two emergency room visits. It is, indeed, a valuable and practical course for moms to have at the center of their first aid arsenal.

These Moms with Moxie podcasts are designed to be inspirational, not specifically educational. No Remedy Card is provided.

In this podcast, we cover:

03:35  Casey’s journey with homeopathy   

16:10  Broken shoulder, colds, poison ivy, headaches, and food issues

27:06  Mark’s belief in homeopathy and self-healing

32:48  What is bursitis

43:06  Life without homeopathy for Levi and his family

52:36  Iris ver and Mag phos for acid reflux

57:20  Who is Levi

Click here to skip ahead and get your Remedy Card.

You are listening to a podcast from joettecalabrese.com where nationally certified American homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese, shares her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition.

Paola:  It’s podcast number 34 at JoetteCalabrese.com. We’ve got another “Dads with Audacity” interview for you.

Joette:  Each day from my office, I get to see how homeopathy is transforming lives all over the globe. I want to share them with you. Some of my students have really caught my eye. Some of you have done all you can to learn how to cure those around you using homeopathic medicines. Your successes inspire me. They’re glorious and powerful. I can’t keep these successes a secret any longer. So, with help from my roving reporters, we bring you a mini podcast series that I call Moms with Moxie. Sometimes we even interview dads with audacity. See how regular mothers and others, average people who want to cure those around them have gone from freaking to fabulous with homeopathy.

Paola:  For today’s podcast, we are actually shifting gears a little bit. I’m your host today, Paola Brown. This is going to be our longest podcast. So, you for sure need to save it in a queue the next time you’re going to be on a long drive or you’re folding laundry or definitely if you’re near your husband and you guys have some downtime together. But in today’s podcast, I am interviewing three dads with audacity. The first guy is Casey. I quite enjoyed Casey. An interesting thing about him is he snuck into the background of one of the study group classes I taught. I usually teach it online. So, he was sitting off camera enjoying my class. When I found out about that, I was really excited. I begged him to please be on the podcast. So, you’ll really enjoy Casey’s interview. Next, we have Mark from New York. Mark is an avid sports guy. He talks a lot about how homeopathy fits into his life with his sports and with his family. The final interview we have today is a top-secret interview. His name is Levi. I don’t reveal who Levi is until the very end of the podcast. So, until then, I’ll let you try and guess why I think this dad with audacity is so awesome. Here we go from the top with Casey.

I’m excited to have a “Dads with Audacity” podcast today. I’m here with Casey. He’s from Texas. He is a father of how many kids, Casey?

Casey:  We have three kids.

Paola:  Three kids. I know your wife actually took the homeopathy study group class that Joette offers. She purchased the curriculum and participated in that. So that’s great. So, tell us about that class. Your wife was taking it and where were you during that time?

Casey:  I was looking over her shoulder for a lot of it. I was listening in when I could, to see what I could learn. We were making notes. Yes, it was very informative and we learned quite a bit. To be honest, it was kind of like hitting a fast-forward button and kind of soaked a lot in quickly. So, it was incredibly helpful.

Paola:  Good. That’s awesome. I was actually teaching the class for your wife. I remember we ran into you guys and she introduced herself to me, “Oh, I’m Carly. I’m in your class.” Then I realized, and she says, “My husband’s been sitting off camera listening to your class, too.” I think, Casey, you were my first official male that has ever taken my study group class with me. So, I think that was pretty cool.

Casey:  I don’t know if that’s good or bad.

Paola:  It is a good thing.

Casey:  I guess I’m honored.

Paola:  Tell us. Why do you think that is the case that so many dads aren’t as interested in homeopathy?

Casey:  Yes. I’d have to go back a little further to even explain how we arrived at homeopathy and how we even learned about it. It probably started for me well over seven or eight years ago. It was more about a journey to be healthy. My wife and I, for an anniversary trip, flew to San Francisco and drove our way down the coast to LA. When I say drove, what I really should say is we ate our way down the coast. So, it was that typical vacation, anniversary trip where a lot of it was about food.

Paola:  Yes, absolutely.

Casey:  When we got home, I took a look in the mirror and realized I was into my 30s now and I couldn’t exactly eat and do what I wanted to do. There are going to be consequences for some of my decisions.

Paola:  So metabolism is a little different in your 30s.

Casey:  It changed, yes. It slowed down a little bit. Couple that with working at a desk, and I was drinking a lot of sodas. Dr. Pepper was my soda of choice. I was still fairly active. I still liked to hang out with the guys and play golf, play softball, things like that. But I didn’t really have a fitness mindset. So, I just on a whim decided, “You know what? I’m going to see what I can do to get healthy here.” So, I cut out the sodas. I signed up for a triathlon. I’d never done one. My friends had done them. I thought, alright, I knew I had to pay for the triathlon. I had to get some skin in the game if I was going to actually go for a run or a swim or ride my bike. So, I did that and eight weeks later did the triathlon. It was just a short sprint triathlon for fun. I enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun. So, then I realized they kind of time you. You have like a time where you fall in your age group. I thought, “Hmm, what can I do to improve? Could I train harder? Could I train at some other things?” One of the first things I looked at was diet. What am I eating? I didn’t really change what I was eating all that much for the training. So then, I started experimenting and reading about vegan diet, Paleo diet, all these different kinds of healthy eating. So, I started watching a lot of documentaries and things like that just to trying to educate myself. So that was the first time I really started questioning and at least looking at what I was putting in my body in terms of food. So, that started a cool journey of getting fit, and trying to be healthy, and watching what I eat, and looking at food as fuel from a nutrition standpoint.

Paola:  Right. I think that’s a similar journey to anyone who has come to homeopathy specifically. The gateway is starting with diet. I read this quote once. It says, “You cannot outrun an unhealthy diet.” That really kind of hit me.

Casey:  Correct.

Paola:  I used to think well, I’ll have a soda. I’ll run a couple of miles and that will neutralize the soda. But that’s not how it works. It’s doing damage in your body that you can’t outrun. That’s good. How did you do in the triathlon? Were you happy with the results?

Casey:  I did pretty well in the triathlon. My first goal was to finish and I did that. Then from there, I’ve probably done, I don’t know, another dozen triathlons, 5Ks. I do a couple a year now. It keeps me training, keeps me active and things like that.

Paola:  Good for you.

Casey:  The nutrition part was the first time I questioned what I put in my body from a food standpoint. Then it kind of grew from there. Then it was looking at other things that I was putting in my body, just things that I took for granted. I say in my body. I couldn’t even say on my body. So, I was like I would put deodorant on and I’m thinking, “What is in this?” I don’t even know what’s in this deodorant. Or getting a cold and taking an over-the-counter medication. I have no idea what is in this. I started looking at my food, but I’m not looking at anything else, whether I’m washing my hair or washing my clothes or anything else. So, it was more of just questioning. I’m not saying any of those things are bad. It was just me personally wondering, “What is this doing to my body, the things that I’m putting on and in?” So, I think our journey just started there. It was food and then it moved over into other areas. That’s when we’ve kind of arrived at the medicines.

My wife’s kind of entered into oils, which was great. There were some things that we applied there. That was a bit of a gateway into homeopathy, I think.

Paola:  Yes, that’s the crossover. I will say that the oily people, the people who do their oils, they’re the best crossover group to get into homeopathy because they’re looking for independence. They’re looking for alternatives.

I have to say. One of my little pet peeves and I don’t usually get too annoyed. I’m pretty easygoing. But one of my little pet peeves when I thought someone has a headache and I go, “Maybe you should try some Bryonia or if it’s tension headache, try some Arnica montana.” You wake up in the morning and you slept wrong. You’re like, “Oh my neck hurts. So, I have this really bad headache. I slept wrong.” That’s a Rhus tox headache. So, sometimes when people mention their headaches to me, I’m like, “Oh, would you like to try one of these, guys?” Then now, they’re all of a sudden very skeptical. They’re like, “Whoa, what’s in this? What is this homeopathic?” I’m like, “Do you even do that to Tylenol or to all the other stuff that you’re taking?” It’s more of like this cultural acceptance over actual facts that help you make an informed decision.

Casey:  It’s true.

Paola:  Good for you. I’m very impressed that you’ve crossed over from food to even the medicine because I feel like that’s a leap for some people. But it’s very logical for you to do that, so good job! So, your wife came home saying that she wanted to take the homeopathy study group class or what happened? Were you guys seeking something or were you pretty satisfied where you were with your diet and your oils?

Casey:  The oils left a little to be desired in terms of … I felt like they worked well for things that were topical and things like that. I know there are people who say they’ve had success from taking them in other ways but I think we were looking for something a little different to replace medication, I’ll say. If you go stand in a drug store, you’ve got shelves and shelves of whatever ailment you’re needing help with. I felt like we needed something to replace that. Then also, I’m wondering if we even should be taking something for a particular ailment, that sort of thing. We did a lot of reading. We read a few books and stood in front of some health stores that carry different remedies. All those little vials were very confusing. It was a lot to look at there. It was a bit overwhelming. That’s when my wife discovered the course. I think that kind of came on at just the right time where we were able to start making notes and start learning and writing things down. There’s a lot of information out on the internet. You can do a lot of good reading but the course was something for us that to hear it from someone else and to hear someone else’s experiences really helped us out. We still reference the notes from that class all the time.

Paola:  Yes, awesome. I think that’s what’s so cool about the study group class, two things. You really don’t need to take a class with someone. You can just start your own group and the book walks you right through it. But if you take it with someone who has had a little bit of experience with homeopathy, that’s also a good option because they have all the experiences and the story that kind of illustrate how wonderful these little remedies work. You’re right. They are overwhelming. I have a friend who has said, “When I went to Whole Foods and I saw all those little blue Boiron homeopathic single remedy bottles, I thought that they were for practitioners. I thought that was something that I wasn’t even going to allowed to buy. I thought I was going to show some sort of license to buy it because it is so overwhelming and so foreign.” So, your wife started taking the class. You’re kind of off camera listening. She has told me that your support in the family’s homeopathy journey has been integral for her. Can you talk about that and maybe what challenges you guys faced together and why being a team player in this situation was good for you guys?

Casey:  I think we both had to be committed to it for a couple of reasons. Number one, to keep each other strong because when you’ve got a child who’s not feeling well at three in the morning and standing next to your bed, you need to go get something different out of the medicine cabinet. So, we’re both on the same page. It really helps when you can keep the notes open. Let’s figure out what remedy we need to go with here. Do we even need a remedy right now? Is this real or is this “I woke up and I got a little bit of discomfort but I could probably go back to bed.” So, it just helps when you can stay on the same page. When you both have the education, I may recall something that we could do here or she might recall something. So yes, I think being able to support each other because there’s a little bit of a learning curve. I think that discourages a lot of people but if you can push through that, then you can start developing some confidence. Oh, I’ve seen this before. My wife takes really good notes anytime we have an issue. So, if my son gets in a poison ivy, we had this last summer, I remember. We can go back and look and see what ended up working and helping him. So, I think supporting each other there, making good notes is what gives you that confidence moving forward.

Paola:  Yes, I think you’re absolutely right. I think what you said to me and I’ve said this before to people. If you can just push through the overwhelming information for just a couple of weeks, really not even that much, just get over that hump, it all starts connecting and making sense. Like you said, it becomes muscle memory because you remember things. It all just kind of comes to you when you need it. So, that’s great. So why don’t you tell us some stories about your family. It sounds like homeopathy came just in the nick of time for some issues that you guys were facing.

Casey:  Absolutely. I’ve got a few stories I could tell you. One that we jumped into pretty quickly, we realized that homeopathy could help with eczema. That’s something that my daughter had struggled with since she was 1 ½ to 2 years old. So, we did all the steroid creams and all the medications. Anyone who has any experience with that knows that allergies and asthma and eczema are all kind of twisted together in this big knot. So, that’s something we’re in a process of unraveling right now. But, the first thing we were able to do is deal with the eczema. Like I said, it’s been something she struggled with for a long time. When we first started, I’ll admit that when you start to get that understanding of homeopathy and you work backwards especially in something like that — that’s been chronic, something she’s dealt with her whole life. So, at first, her eczema flared up quite a bit. It makes you a little nervous when you see something like that. Being on the other side of that now knowing that it’s getting a little worse before it gets better because you are flushing it out of your body, you’re doing the right things. But that can be a little scary that first time through. So, seeing her hands and her feet the way that her skin looked was not the most pleasant thing to watch a child go through. But I can tell you. Being on the other side of that now, her skin is clear. If she ever has a little spot pop back up, we know exactly what we have to do. In the winter and all the times when she typically is kind of suffering through some of that, we don’t have to go through all of that with the creams and the lotions and all the things that we used to do. Knowing that we can fall back to homeopathy is a pretty cool thing.

Paola:  Yes. That is awesome. I find that with eczema and Joette, she used to be blanketed with eczema and she really has a lot of experience with this. So, she has a soft spot in her heart for people who suffered through it. But she has talked a lot about one of the reasons people’s eczema get so much worse at first before it gets better is because you’re coming off of the steroid cream. It sounds like your daughter didn’t go through a withdrawal but some people go through withdrawal. If you want to learn more about this withdrawal, you can go to this website called IT (like Tom), S (like Sam), A, N (like Nancy) — ITSAN. It basically talks about topical steroids. When you stop using them, you can go through these withdrawals.

I have a friend whose daughter went through it. I mean it was like she almost looked like a burn victim from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet, not because it was eczema anymore but because her body was going through this terrible, terrible steroid withdrawal. So that’s really good. It sounds like your daughter didn’t go through that. My friend, she used only like a little dime-sized, once every other week on her daughter. Her daughter still went through this horrible, horrible withdrawal from the steroids. You just never know what your body’s going through. So, it’s just so wise that you guys knew you wanted to get off of this and that you wanted to find a better way. That’s a blessing really for your daughter.

I do want to ask you this. Did you guys ever waiver? Was it an uphill climb, just pretty smooth and predictable?

Casey:  We questioned a lot on that one just because the way her skin flared up. The eczema didn’t look good. It was pretty rough. So that one, yes, we definitely were wondering if we were doing the right thing there. But like I said, being on the other side of it now and seeing how her skin looks now and that she’s in great shape as far as the eczema goes, it was definitely worth it, kind of pushing through that.

Paola:  That’s exactly why I think it’s so important for couples, husbands and wives to have a conversation about homeopathy because there are times where things get a little stressful. You really need to talk it through and figure it out. It’s really hard to have that conversation when husband is staunchly against and wife is staunchly for it. It’s important, I think, to have these conversations. In the study group class, we talked about when you suppress an illness, it drives it deeper. A homeopath who treats someone with asthma who has had eczema as a child, they don’t see asthma as asthma. They see asthma as suppressed eczema. Now, not everyone who has asthma has eczema as a child. But that’s just an example of when you suppress the eczema, it drives the illness deeper into the lungs and they can develop asthma. Okay, well tell us another story.

Casey:  Sure. That was more of a chronic issue that we dealt with. But I can give you one that’s quite a bit different. My mother-in-law took a little spill and broke her shoulder. She immediately went for Aconite. We had to go to the emergency room, of course, and get X-rays. It was a pretty bad broken shoulder. They of course wanted to offer her pain medication. She had taken Aconite at home right when the spill happened. She knew to grab that. Then in the emergency room, she actually used Arnica montana.

Paola:  Good for her.

Casey:  Yes, and was able to make it through that ordeal with very minimal pain medication. It’s a longer story than that. The doctor opted not to do surgery, wanted to see what would happen if it healed on its own. She took a couple of different remedies. I believe it was Hypericum.

Paola:  Symphytum probably.

Casey:  Yes, to help heal bone and for bone growth. So, she was able to go without surgery and use those. So, they were doing X-rays along the way. So, we could see the X-rays. We could see the bones growing and moving back together. So yes, to go with a really broken shoulder, to go through that without surgery, without a lot of medications that they wanted to put her on was a pretty cool story there to see all that happen.

Paola:  Right.

Casey:  Because the default there, you go to the emergency room and they want to give you pain medication. While you’re in pain, that seems like they’re really trying to help you. It seems like the right thing to do to take that pain medication and then surgery. The doctor does X-rays and tells you that you need surgery. This one opted not to do that. But I guess it’s back to that questioning and just making sure we’re asking the right questions. What I like about homeopathy is it puts us a little bit more in the driver’s seat in terms of those decisions.

Paola:  It does, absolutely, yes. I think you said something that’s really important. I want to reiterate it. Sometimes asking the wrong question gets you the wrong answer. So, it is important to know how to ask the right questions to your doctors so that you can have control over the situation. I’m so glad she’s feeling better. Does she have full range of motion and back to normal now?

Casey:  Getting there, getting there because they let it heal on its own. The doctor was upfront and said, “I don’t know that I would necessarily recommend surgery. You may not get full range of motion. You’re going to get most of it back without surgery.” That was his belief. So, she didn’t quite have full range of motion. But I’ll be honest. If she had surgery and just the rehab from that, I don’t know how much better off she would have been with all the risks that go with surgery as well.

Paola:  Absolutely. That’s exactly right. That’s kind of how you have to think of it. I just want to give an example of the wrong question kind of gets you the wrong answer. I’m talking about talking to your doctor. I always caution people about whether or not they share with their doctor about homeopathy or even asking them questions about homeopathy. You know, I took this to my doctor. He said that there’s nothing out there that would help my bones heal. Like well, you’re asking the wrong question to the wrong person. So, you’re going to get the wrong answer. That’s really what it is. If you don’t rationally think through these situations, who you’re talking to, what you’re asking, you’re going to get the wrong answer. That only hurts you.

So, tell us another story, Casey.

Casey:  Those are kind of big deals for us. Those were big ones. But then like just everyday things, I can give a couple of examples. If we feel something coming on, we always keep Coldcalm handy. That has licked a couple of things that were coming on very quickly, kind of prevent it from coming on. So, we always keep that on hand. It works well for us.

Paola:  Good. I actually don’t have that one. I need to get it. Is it a Hyland’s brand, Coldcalm?

Casey:  I think that’s Boiron.

Paola:  Okay, Boiron.

Casey:  It doesn’t come in a typical tube. It comes in a box. The instructions on there are great. It tells you how many to take at first and then every few hours. It still dissolves in to the tongue, but it’s more of pill-looking. It’s a little larger than the little pills we’re all accustomed to. But yes, it definitely works well. Then a couple of other things, my son was doing either yard work or playing in the woods, something. He got into some poison ivy and got into it pretty good on his stomach and arms. We were able to use homeopathy for that to not have put all kinds of creams and lotions or go to the doctor for a steroid. It was nice to be able to treat that at home. We also used it for little aches and pains. I’ve got some issues in my back and shoulder. So, I’ve got a couple of go-tos for myself. I’ve got Rhus tox and Ruta grave that I used for those little things. That’s kind of on a practical thing where I would have probably gone to Advil, something like that. Now, I go to ice and homeopathy.

Paola:  Awesome. That’s great. Actually, one of the other dads that I interviewed, Mark, he’s like you, a pretty avid sports guy. The funny thing with him is he doesn’t even really know exactly. He says that me and the kids will all line up like baby birds and open our mouth. My wife will just drop stuff in our mouth or whatever we need and they just kind of trust her. Going back to the poison ivy, did you guys use Anacardium for your son?

Casey:  I want to say we used Aconitum and Rhus tox for that if I recall correctly.

Paola:  Interesting, yes, very good. That’s interesting because Rhus tox is the homeopathic remedy made from poison ivy. If you take the study group class that Joette offers, you’ll learn how it’s diluted. In its homeopathic preparation, it’s not toxic at all. But for some people, the Rhus tox works quite well even though it’s a remedy made exactly from what you’re suffering from. In homeopathy, usually, you look for the laws of similar, not the laws of exact. So Anacardium which is not made from poison ivy is usually what helps people in a poison ivy situation. So, I just like to throw these little factoids out there when people are listening so they can learn a little bit about homeopathy too.

Casey:  That’s good stuff.  

Paola:  Yes, it is. It’s great. What about for headaches?

Casey:  My wife takes Kali bichromium particularly, she’s susceptible to like when weather’s coming in, high-pressure, low-pressure. I don’t know which one triggers a headache. But I just know that when a high-pressure or low-pressure season comes in and it changes the barometric pressure, for her Kali bichromium. I remember back even Christmas Eve, she got a pretty good one. So, that was able to help her out. Then we use some other things too for food allergies. That’s a new one we’re kind of working through and trying to figure that out. But Bovista is one that we go to for that to try to deal with that. My daughter, when she eats an apple or something like that, it’s not a major issue. Her lips get kind of itchy. Just little things like that. Having go-tos, you just start to develop your tool box of things that you can go to.

Paola:  I know. People always ask me. Which one of Joette’s courses do you think is the best one? Which one should I take? I firmly believe that if you were passionate about this, you work through and take every single one of those courses. I mean the Survivalist Guide is probably one of my favorites because it addresses some pretty extreme acute things but the Good Gut, Bad Gut talks a lot about food intolerance like you’re saying. Very good.

Well, Casey, you’re an awesome dad. You’ve got the audacity to take over your family’s health, your wife, and to work through these things. I think your family is going to be blessed for generations. Joette says this that homeopathy is generational because you’re not just blessing your here and now, you’re blessing your kids. Your daughters are healthy. Your grandkids are going to be healthier. Hopefully that passes down. So, good for you. I really appreciate you taking time to talk with me here on the podcast.

Casey:  Oh, it was my pleasure.

Paola:  Okay. So that was our interview with Casey. Thank you so much. Before the interview, Casey told me about how he really believes in the power of story. I think you’re right Casey. I really think that these stories that will provide the future for homeopathy and for health in a lot of families. So, thank you so much.

Now onto our second guy who is Mark. I’m happy to be here with Mark B. from New York. How are you, Mark?

Mark:  Hi. Good, thanks.

Paola:  Good. Tell us what line of work you’re in.

Mark:  I repair furniture.

Paola:  Awesome. You are a pretty avid sports guy, am I right?

Mark:  Yes. I like to run and take part in races. I like soccer in the winter.

Paola:  In the winter?

Mark:  Well, indoor soccer. I bike and run in the other months.

Paola:  Are you training for any specific event right now?

Mark:  Yes. I’ve got a half marathon coming up Memorial Day weekend.

Paola:  Okay, cool, very good. It will be nice and warm. Then you have a few children, right?

Mark:  Three kids, two boys, 9 and 2. Then my girl is in the middle, she’s 5.

Paola:  Awesome. You have been around the natural-medicine-block for a while now.

Mark:  Yes.

Paola:  I think you told me that it’s thanks to natural medicine that you met your wife.

Mark:  Yes. We both were working at the same little health food store.

Paola:  Oh, you guys were working there together. How cute. I think a lot of women now who do homeopathy on Joette’s paradigm wished they met their husbands in a natural health store.

Mark:  Yes. No, we didn’t meet in a bar.

Paola:  Right.

Mark:  It’s a little bit almost the opposite.

Paola:  That’s cute. When you guys told me that, I thought that that just couldn’t be more perfect. So, let me just back up and remind us why we’re doing this podcast. The gears in a man’s brain obviously turn differently than a woman does. I found that this podcast really needs the voice of some men and their perspective on homeopathy. So, thank you for coming and participating with this. But something interesting that you’ve told me is that you’re not really interested in changing people’s mind. That’s not your personality as far as homeopathy goes.

Mark:  Yes. I wouldn’t want to convince somebody, preach. I’m not a preacher.

Paola:  Okay. Why is that?

Mark:  I think that what everyone believes is right for them in that moment. So, for me to come in and say, “Actually, you should believe this,” I don’t think that’s how minds change.

Paola:  I think that’s very fair. I guess for you in your experience, what does it take to change your mind about something?

Mark:  Ultimately, choice but choosing to be open to a new perspective, a new possibility that doesn’t prove your old way of thinking wrong — but just expands on it. Yes, it may prove it wrong in the long run. You just got to be open to new perspectives is how I see it.

Paola:  Yes, I like that. It’s almost like being open to allowing yourself to evolve, permitting the evolution of the self and new ideas. That’s really what I think homeopathy is for a lot of people. They’ve evolved in their thinking. Let’s try something new like you said and being open to that choice. So, let’s get into this. You do feel like you have some experiences that you could share with homeopathy that our listeners might find interesting. So, why to you does homeopathy have value?

Mark:  I believe the way I see homeopathy is, it doesn’t do the healing. It directs your body to do the healing on its own.

Paola:  So, you have faith in your body then.

Mark:  Yes. If I were tasked to talk to a skeptical husband about homeopathy, I would just ask him…is his faith or his belief in healing, is it in the traditional medical industry, in his doctor let’s say. Is that where your faith in healing is? It’s fine. What if your body could do it better than your doctor? I think homeopathy is a great path to understanding self-healing.

Paola:  Well, I find, at least for me, I’ve had a lot of chronic health problems. I don’t know if you share that. So, what happened for me was I had a lot of mistrust with my body, miscarriages, itching all over, just terrible chronic things that happened to me. I developed a very real mistrust with my body because it proved to me that I couldn’t trust it. But you’re right, homeopathy opened that door that I could find a path back to that place of innocence that I had before my chronic stuff started coming up, where I can trust it.

Mark:  Precisely. You know actually, this is a thought that occurred because knowing that this was coming up, I thought on the skeptical husband front, if I were to just remind him that we accept, oh well, babies and kids, their bodies just heal faster. They can heal anything. They’re resilient, right? We just attribute it to youth. Maybe it is the physical body itself but maybe it’s the fact that they don’t dwell in fear and doubt like we do. So, I think homeopathy can be a way to send a clear message to your body like, “Hey, do this,” rather than the clouding our thoughts with fear and doubt, I think can confuse the body on what it needs to do. Maybe that’s why we don’t heal as fast, just a thought that crossed my mind today.

Paola:  No. I think that’s right. Kids almost, they don’t care about, you know…

Mark:  Exactly.

Paola:  I mean you guys were telling me about your son today. He has an ear infection right now. But he just wanted to play with his buddies. They just kind of let their body do their thing. So, they get sick and they go to mom. Then mom helps them out. To some degree, it’s okay, whereas I think an adult even feels a little pinch in their ear. They’re freaking out, and they’re going right to the doctor for the antibiotics or whatever. I think we react a lot quicker than we need to.

Mark:  Yes. It shows you where their faith is.

Paola:  Yes.

Mark:  Their faith is in their doctor.

Paola:  Yes, you’re right. It goes right back to that mistrust we were talking about, very good. I want to jump ahead and talk about what situations have you found homeopathy to be beneficial for you in your lifestyle, your family.

Mark:  Sure. My wife, she’ll use homeopathy for a lot of things with herself and with the kids, whether it’s rashes for herself or an earache, whatever the kids are going through just to address it somehow. So, for me, I really will only pursue homeopathy for like sports injuries. I broke a toe five weeks ago. So, I would take homeopathy to speed the bone healing. Then once the bone heals after a couple of weeks, I found that it’s still hurting. Well, it’s a sprain because it’s dislocated. So, the sprain, I’ve heard takes longer. Then I’ve been on a protocol for the ligaments to heal and the swelling to go down. So, my personal experience is physical healing, bone and muscle and ligaments.

Paola:  Because you have those strenuous, I mean it sounds like a strenuous workout schedule for your competitions and everything.

Mark:  That’s another story. I’m training too hard actually. I think like anything and everything in moderation. You should start where you’re at and just go from there. But for me, I’ve been pushing it too hard is all.

Paola:  I would love to share that protocol. I’m guessing you use Symphytum for the bone when it broke. I’m so sorry you broke it.

Mark:  Yes, Symphytum, Rhus tox. I don’t know the details. I just know that those two together do something a little different.

Paola:  Right. So maybe it’s your wife saying, “Alright, take this.” You’re like, “Okay, I trust you.”

Mark:  Yes. I’ll be the one who stays with it, whereas yes, she’ll just pop some remedies in my mouth if I mentioned something without asking for it.

Paola:  That’s so nice of that for you.

Mark:  Oh it’s so nice, yes.

Paola:  Mark, a lot of men like data and facts. So, let’s just use your family as a microcosm of other families who use homeopathy. How long have you guys been using homeopathy for now?

Mark:  About nine years.   

Paola:  So, in those last nine years, have you needed to go to a doctor for these illnesses, these injuries, these kinds of things that I think a lot of other people have to see the doctors for.

Mark:  No. However, before we’ve been doing homeopathy for these nine years, I did have a bursitis flare up in the knee.

Paola:  I’m not familiar with bursitis. What is it exactly? It sounds like a terrible thing.

Mark:  I think there are bursa sacs in every joint. I might be wrong on that. But there’s a bursa sac in the knee. I guess, I wish I knew, I should know, but there was a bacterial infection that took off in that bursa sac. For whatever reason, it can affect the whole knee. The whole knee got red and warm and swollen. But I stayed home for almost two days, a day and a half doing garlic, doing things that I thought would just help my body address it. The thing just got more and more swollen, more painful to move. That’s a case where we did end up going to the emergency room for an antibacterial shot in the knee. I think if we had homeopathy, I think that would have taken care of it. My son had almost the same, the beginnings of the bursitis flare up in his knee. It was warm and red. So, my son started getting that. But now, we have homeopathy. My wife gave him a remedy remembering that I had the same thing, though…she gave him a remedy, and no ER visit. It died down.

Paola:  Yes, it worked. So, that’s wonderful.

Mark:  Yes. I should state, too, that for trauma that I’m not comfortable addressing on my own. That’s what I love about modern medicine is they’re really good with trauma care. That’s definitely where I see the place of traditional, conventional medicine in my life is.

Paola:  We have a great podcast that I always refer back to. It was on discernment. You really do need to have good common sense and discernment to know when this is an emergency, or when this isn’t and you can treat yourself. A lot of it comes down to having the knowledge, sometimes the diagnosis, knowing what it is, owning the remedies and having the knowledge for the proper protocol to use. So, that is really important. We’re very lucky that if you don’t have all those ducks lined up in a row, you can go seek out medical care. So, it’s an important point you make.

I guess my last question to you is it sounds like, Mark, you have a lot more control on your life than other people do. I mean you injure yourself when exercising and you have an option. Your kid starts getting bursitis, you have an option. Your kid gets an ear infection, you have an option. In what way does homeopathy give you the freedom to continue your life as you wish?

Mark:  I believe that I’m healing faster than I otherwise would have if I didn’t take these remedies for ligament and swelling reduction. Yes, it’s given me the ability to learn from my overtraining mistakes.

Paola:  Right. It has allowed you to kind of in excess of your exercising routine, enjoy it in excess.

Mark:  Yes. Sure, probably I would also add that for not taking the kids to the doctor as much, we’re not paying into our insurance deductible as much. So, we’re saving some money. There’s little freedom there too.

Paola:  How would you like…I mean, it’s Friday night. Your kid has an ear infection. How do you feel about spending the rest of the night in the ER?

Mark:  Yes, that doesn’t sound really freeing to me.

Paola:  That’s awful. Well Mark, thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your perspective on things. It’s just really great to hear a different view.

Mark:  You’re welcome.

Paola:  It puts some testosterone into the podcast.

Mark:  Yes, you’re welcome.  

Paola:  Alright, thank you so much, Mark. Now, we’re onto our top secret, final interviewee, Levi. Let’s jump in and listen to that one.

Hi. I’m here with Levi. I’m very happy to have you on the podcast here. Thank you for taking the time to join us.

Levi:  It’s a pleasure to be here.

Paola:  So why don’t you introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about yourself. You are all grown up.

Levi:  Yes, a little bit. Yes, I’m 59 years old this year. I’m originally from Brazil, born and raised in Brazil. I graduated as an MBA in Engineering. That’s at Brigham Young University. I worked through companies among others, Intel Corporation over in Arizona. I have three kids and seven grandkids now. Right now, I enjoy life working as a purchasing manager in a company in Wisconsin. I also enjoy the fact that I am a Boy Scout master.

Paola:  Oh good, at your local church?

Levi:  Yes, yes. We meet regularly and then have all those scout activities and I enjoy the boys.

Paola:  Very good. So, I’m really interested because a lot of the people we’ve interviewed in our podcast have been kind of in the middle age. I’m in my early 30s. A lot of the people we’ve interviewed have been about that age. But I’m interested in your insight and your perspective on homeopathy and your health because you are a generation ahead of me. So, tell us about your health.

Levi:  Well, right now, I enjoy good health. I do go to the gym at three or four times a week. I’m very active. I do a lot of yard working, a lot of trimming, a lot of pruning, and all those outside activities, bike sometimes. I really enjoy good health. No major issues health wise.

Paola:  So, as you look to the future, what kind of goals do you have for your health? What do you want to do with your body as you get older?

Levi:  The only thing I cannot do is stop aging, but I could maybe do the best that I can to age properly, I would say. Then when I look around, I see a lot of people my age, they don’t even work anymore. They’re force to retirement because they have issues like diabetes, cholesterol, or high blood pressure, and things like this that comes with age. Then happily, I don’t have none of those yet. I see a lot of people also dependent on drugs. They cannot move around. They can’t even travel sometimes because of their dependence on drugs or whatever. I would like to be happy by being free of drugs or free of any disease as it stretches as long as I can.

Paola:  Absolutely. So really your goal is to be drug-free, healthy, independent, and what was the word you said you want to age?

Levi:  With a quality of life. When I retire, I like to be a volunteer worker and then do something out there to maintain, I can go up and down and then move around without major health issues. That’s the goal.

Paola:  That’s a really good point. People your age, when they do retire, they can still be a huge contribution to society, I think, in those volunteer type positions, helping the community. If they don’t have the health to do that which a lot of them don’t, they actually end up, I think, becoming the opposite…kind of a burden to their family because of their health issues. Of course, I think families should and ought to care for their older family members. But you’re right. To have that health and ability to serve is way better than the opposite, so very good. Let’s talk about homeopathy. Is homeopathy something that is new to you or have you known about it before.

Levi:  Oh yes. As I said, I was born and raised in Brazil. Down in Brazil, it’s a very common thing. People have access to homeopathy. Poor people, rich people, everybody has access to that. The good thing is that it’s very affordable. I grew up in a very poor family. Health insurance was not available in my family. So anytime we have some symptoms like a sore throat or whatever issue that we had, mom would go to this pharmacy and they start using this homeopathy to be able to at least see if it can fix the problem before we go to doctor or even hospital. I don’t remember seeing a hospital in my whole childhood. Then every time me or any of my brothers would have any health issues, my mom would go to the pharmacy and buy some homeopathy medication. Then we would use that. Then we lived a happy life, a happy childhood, poor but with everything that we need and no major issues there.

Paola:  Now, you told me, I think, that your mom was also a nurse. Is that right?

Levi:  Yes. Being a nurse, she always would know the symptoms of somebody’s getting sick. So, at that point, she would rush to these pharmacies, which is very affordable and then could get those and start immediately helping. That’s how I grew up. As far as I remember, I never took much of other medications because I was healthy.

Paola:  What happened when you started having kids?

Levi:  At that point, every time one of my kids would have some issues like a sore throat or little fever or this or that, and then we also remember what my mom used to give to us. So, I just went to one of these pharmacies and get the proper homeopathic medicines. Then it’s very common thing to have also doctors already available. We visit the doctor and he gives us some advice on what kind of homeopathy medication or remedies to fix whatever problem was going on.

Paola:  This is really interesting. So, you’re telling me that you would see a homeopathic doctor or a regular doctor who knew how to prescribe some homeopathic medicines?

Levi:  No, mostly they were specifically homeopathic doctors.

Paola:  Oh interesting.

Levi:  On the case of pharmacies, they usually have both, in Brazil. Any pharmacy you go in Brazil, you’ll find both medications.

Paola:  Oh wow, just side-by-side get what you need, interesting.

Levi:  Yes.

Paola:  There came a point, I think, in your life where you saw homeopathy kind of step out of the family life. You grew up with it. It sounds like early childhood when you were raising your kids, homeopathy was still present. But there came a point where homeopathy stepped away. Tell us about that.

Life without homeopathy for Levi and his family

Levi:  Yes. That was when I was about 26 years old. I decided to immigrate to US. At that time when I moved to US, first of all, those homeopathic remedies are not readily available in the pharmacies. Also, I was a poor student. So, I’m going to college and then raising kids. Then when those needs would come around, in the beginning we brought a kit from Brazil. That kit had the most common stuff that we might need. But we ran out of those homeopathic remedies, and then we decided to move into the regular doctors because there was nothing available. Whenever an issue would come, any sore throat, any fever, or any common flu or cold would come, we’d have to go to a quick shortcut and use the regular doctors.

Paola:  Wow! That sounds so tragic that you guys brought a kit and then it ran out. Then you guys did what everybody else did, it sounds like.

Levi:  Yes. It was not fun, but when you are in an emergency and running up and down, having two jobs and 16 hours of classes in college, it’s kind of a busy life. So, we need to go to the shortcut.

Paola:  Right. That’s exactly right. At that time, did you believe that doctors were a better route for your family because doctors, especially in the US, they’re highly respected. They’re very educated. I know that they would spend many hours studying their practice. As your homeopathy kit run out, did you feel like okay, well, we should be seeing the doctors because they’re better anyways. They’re highly educated individuals. It’s better for my kids.

Levi:  No, not at all. Actually, I just went to those regular doctors because that was the only availability I have around. I always saw those homeopathic doctors as good doctors as any other doctor. I’m an educated person so I kind of understand what those things are. Every time, even when a regular doctor would give me some sorts of medications, I made my own judgment on what to take or not to take because sometimes reading all those ingredients and say no, this is no good for me. Then try to cope with the symptoms as much as you can. When I was living under these homeopathic doctors down in Brazil, I noticed that they would go for the root cause of the problem. When I came to US using these regular doctors, they’re always going for the symptoms, trying to fix the symptoms and not the actual root cause. Like, if I am having a headache, they would go for the headache and not what’s causing that headache.

Paola:  Right.

Levi:  And also, I noticed how expensive it is, the regular doctors, especially in the United States. It’s atrociously expensive. Down in Brazil, going to a regular doctor was not as expensive as it is here. Just to give an idea. When we moved to Wisconsin two months ago, we decided to establish our family doctor. We went to see this doctor and the doctor asked me if I was married to my wife. Yes. So, he invited us both in to her office. Then we stayed there. They  questioned us about health history and this and that. My wife is not sick. I am not sick. Then we stayed there talking about those historical events in our lives about health. Then we stayed there about 20 minutes. Then I was surprised that two weeks later that I received over $500 bill for 20 minutes. 20 minutes times 3 is one hour. 500 times 3 is $1500 per hour. Whoa! It’s a highly immoral system that we have in US is how much money goes around. I don’t know exactly details on what that money went for. I just know that we sit down for 20 minutes and just talked to the doc. She checked my wife’s pulse and blood pressure, and that was it.

Paola:  Right. It didn’t feel like a $500 visit, for sure. She didn’t hand you any gold bars or anything, right?

Levi:  I just told my wife, as soon as I got the bill, I said, “Honey, I just got the wrong profession because she’s going $1500 an hour.” Something is wrong with this picture. Unfortunately, in US today, there’s a lack of options. The best thing to do is to keep ourselves as healthy as possible, making sure that we are eating well and then exercising and maintaining our healthy life and not to use that system.

Paola:  Yes. I think most families would prefer to go seek out natural ways to uproot the root cause like you were saying. But those things can fall by the wayside if there’s no available option. Here in the US, you really have to go looking for it. I think that’s what happened with you guys and your kids. It sounds like you came prepared. You did what you could do. But life is busy. It sounds like homeopathy kind of fell by the wayside as you guys got older.

Levi:  Yes. For me to find any homeopathic remedies, I need to go on Google and find on the internet and then order online, because I cannot cross town or go downtown and find somebody that can sell me those stuff.

Paola:  It’s not like you have your local friendly homeopathic pharmacy anymore like you did in Brazil. Joette talks about this. Joette says look at what everyone else is doing and do the opposite. In some ways, I think she’s absolutely right because if you look at what everybody else is doing — and I think you saw this, too — everybody else is probably going to the doctors when you came here to the US. It’s just what everybody does. It’s important to question what everybody does and maybe you do need to turn around and walk the other way.

Levi:  Yes. That’s what I did. About two, three years ago, I started having some acid reflux. And it started coming and was pretty bad. Then of course went to the doctor and omeprazole was prescribed to me.

Paola:  So, omeprazole is to help with acid reflux, like GERD?

Levi:  It stops heart burn. Then I started taking omeprazole. Then one day in conversation with my daughter on the phone, I mentioned to her that I was taking omeprazole. Then she starts telling me, “No. You should not be taking those. Go there and look into the internet and see all those side effects of those medications.” I did go. My wife and I started reading and we were, “Whoa!” It’s horrible things.

Paola:  What did your wife call it? She said basically it causes…?

Levi:  Dementia.

Paola:  That’s not good.

Levi:  My daughter listens to Joette’s podcast and then taken her classes. She was nagging me about not to take omeprazole anymore. The omeprazole is so good. I mean I take one and the rest of the day, nothing. But, every time I would go to sleep at night thinking about all those side effects, whoa, I think that I’d do something about it.

Paola:  So, she planted a seed of concern in you, basically.

Levi:  Yes, I could not sleep well at night. Every time I’ll take one of those, I’ll regret. Last time I was in Brazil, I was talking to my brother and then he was taking a medication right in front of me there. So, and then I said, “What are you taking there?” He says, “Oh, omeprazole.” What do you need that? They’re for acid reflux. We started talking about it. I asked him, “How long have you been taking this stuff?” Oh, as far as I remember. I don’t know. Ten years now, I guess. Also, I have another friend that takes omeprazole regularly. He’s saying that he takes several other medications and then omeprazole kind of neutralizes the effects of those medications he’s taking.

Paola:  So it’s like the medications he’s taking causes GERD. Then he needs the omeprazole to deal with the GERD.

Levi:  Exactly, exactly.

Paola:  It’s the side effect with the side effect. So, now you’re on a bunch of medications to handle each other’s side effects. That’s great.

Levi:  I told him it felt like a negative downwards spiral with all these stuff that you’re taking. Then one thing pulls the other one and then eventually you’re drowning on those medications.

Paola:  So, when you thought about these friends of yours, these two in particular that you’re talking about that take omeprazole, did you notice anything with their mental state? We’re not saying that omeprazole causes dementia, but you’re saying when you added up all the potential side effects, it sounds like it could cause dementia-like symptoms.

Levi:  Then actually talking to my sister in law, for instance, she’s saying that my brother is sometimes not cohesive anymore. He forgets things. I mean it comes with age but reading those side effects of this drug, I can see some signs of those things in his life. And also, other people that I have around, similar symptoms are being experienced. I don’t know much about those things. I just see that people, they have a hard time to remember things, kind of going to a stage that life is not very happy or healthy.

Paola:  I just did some research on the internet here for omeprazole for some of the side effects. I see that the label says it can cause confusion, depression, feeling agitated, aggressive, hallucinations. I mean so these are definitely mental issues. So, when you got back from your trip to Brazil after seeing your friends…

Levi:  When I saw these side effects on people and then I got scared. I said I better pay attention with what my daughter is telling me because I don’t want to go to that path. My daughter decided to get me hooked up with some protocols that would help me on that.

Paola:  So, did you think it was going to work?

Levi:  No. First of all, I would have to stop completely omeprazole. If I would forget one day to take omeprazole, I would go in pain. Sometimes I have to drive 20, 30 minutes back home at lunchtime just to get one of those or buy another pill in the pharmacy because I could not live without it. Just the idea of changing my omeprazole to something else, I guess would be bad news. So, I was really concerned about that. I have to work and life needs to go on. It’s kind of hard. How can I live with heartburns and severe heartburns actually?

Paola:  So, you just felt like you were scared enough to try it.

Levi:  Then one of those nights when I was brave enough to say, “You know what? I’m going to follow my daughter, whatever she’s saying.” Then I have swallowed my pride and go for it. And I did. My daughter hooked me up with Banerji Protocol.

Paola:  So, can I share the protocol with our listeners?

Levi:  Yes, please.

Iris ver and Mag phos for acid reflux

Paola:  So, the protocol that you used was Iris versicolor 200C in liquid. You took that four times a day before each meal. So, that would include the three major meals and maybe like a snack, like an afternoon snack.

Levi:  Yes.

Paola:  Then if you had heartburn and tell me if this is right, you would alternate Iris ver 200 with Mag phos 6X, every 15 minutes. If you were having a heartburn flare-up, you would do the Iris ver then 15 minutes later, you would do the Mag phos. Then 15 minutes later, you switch back to the Iris ver until there is relief.

Levi:  Actually. in the beginning, I could not get any relief from those protocols. What I did was one day I would take omeprazole and the other day I would take those. Life was not fun. It was maybe two months straight having all those ups and downs of flares and coming up and down.

Paola:  When you took the omeprazole, did you also take the homeopathy on top of it?

Levi:  No. One day, I would take omeprazole like in the morning and in the afternoon when I have some flares then I would take those protocols.

Paola:  I see. For reference, homeopathy can be used in conjunction with medications. At least that’s what homeopathic practitioners have said over the years. They don’t cause any interaction with medications since they’re so ultra diluted. But that’s what you did. You just did one and then the other.

Levi:  Exactly. Then a week later, I decided to be brave enough to completely avoid omeprazole, never touch that again. Then I kept on those protocols. There was not relief immediately. Especially Mag phos, I would take them quite a bit, every 10 minutes sometimes. Sometimes I just took one and then 15 minutes later, there it was again. There with the same flares. I was persistent to that. In the past, I saw homeopathic medication working well. I have faith this thing might work, too. But, I was not seeing much result on those. Then about a month later, I start seeing good results or improving. Then two months later was a half of what was before. Then within 3 ½ months, I was completely done with that. To the point that I was taking maybe once every two days and then became once a week. Then today, last time I took one of those was maybe five weeks ago.

Paola:  Wow.

Levi:  Completely fixed the problem. When I looked into my medicine cabinet, I see there a whole bunch of those omeprazole. I laughed at them. Most of them are already being expired because I don’t touch them anymore and then I don’t need anymore.

Paola:  That’s great. That’s great.

Levi:  Once in a while if I eat something too spicy, like if I go Mexican food or Indian food or whatever and then sometimes it gives me those little flares. I don’t even take Iris ver. I only go for Mag phos maybe one or two little pills, and that’s enough. Wherever I go, I just take with me in traveling and then just make sure I have those just in case. But lately, I’ve been completely free of both, all those protocols and also, happily, out of those omeprazole…out of my life.

Paola:  So, you see it as being uprooted. I think that’s a really great story. I think at the beginning when you were using the omeprazole and the homeopathy, you were trying to decide what you really wanted to do. But I liked how you finally just did, “You know what? I need to commit to this. I’m going to give this up. I’m going to really give it a try.” A month seems like a long time. It seems like a long time when you’re in the middle of it during that hard time. But it sounds like one month of struggling through something is worth it when you look at the next 15 years of being free from this.

Levi:  Yes, yes. That’s exactly what it is. I don’t want to take medication at all. I don’t take even Tylenol or anything. I don’t take anything anymore. I don’t have a need for those things. If I eat a little funny one of these days then I have to go to one of these protocols to help me up but it’s rare. As I said, last time I touched it was about five weeks ago.

Paola:  That’s great. At the beginning of our interview, you have said that you had a homeopathy kit that was brought from Brazil for your family that you use and then it ran out. So, do you have plans on getting your own homeopathy kit now?

Levi:  Oh yes, oh yes. I’m working on that. I don’t know. Maybe Brazil is going to be less expensive the next time I go down there. I’m going to talk to my daughter first to give me a list of stuff that I should be having in my kit.

Paola:  Yes. Well, usually if it’s a kit, the pharmacy has done the research. They have the top, most commonly used medicines already preselected in the kit. Usually, you don’t have to build your own kit. They come preassembled which is nice.

Levi:  I guess I’m going to go for one of those and start changing my habits and moving to a healthier life.

Paola:  Very good. Should we confess to our listeners? I really wanted to do this interview with you, because we’re trying to get Dads with Audacity, right? And you are my dad.

Levi:  I am your father.

Paola:  So, I really wanted to interview you because I just love the story of how we did grow up with homeopathy in our early childhood but it fell by the wayside. It’s kind of made full circle back into both our lives. My siblings and my mom uses homeopathy. I just love that it’s kind of reentered our family. Joette has said that homeopathy is a generational experience. It blesses all the generations. You can leave a legacy for your children and your grandchildren. I just thought this is a really great little story to illustrate this idea that you can bless your family all around you. You can’t keep homeopathy to yourself when you see people suffering and taking medications that could ruin their long-term health, too.

Levi:  Yes. I love you for helping me become healthier. Actually, if I could give you a parallel story on that. As I mentioned in the beginning, I came from a very poor family. We are six children. Education was not a common thing. Actually, I don’t know anybody in my family or extended family that ever went to school, for instance. Then when I was growing up, I decided that schooling would be a very important thing for my life. I could see poverty everywhere because of lack of schooling. In Brazil, it’s very hard to go to school. It’s very expensive. Only rich people can go to colleges, things like this. Then I decided to be brave and break that chain of poverty. Because I did, my youngest one is going to college now. My oldest son has a PhD. Paola has her master’s degree. I believe that it takes courage to break a system that’s created around you. But it’s a paradigm way to do it. The same thing with this health way of life, whatever is imposed to your life, it doesn’t mean that I should swallow that and go for it. I should question. Like questioning this, that’s what made me healthier. I do exercise. I tried to eat as healthy as possible. So, I believe it’s a paradigm shift. Those paradigm shifts is everywhere in life. In my case, education was a big one. Another one is back to homeopathic medication.

Paola:  I really like that analogy about the paradigm shifts. So, that’s a very wise advice. Well, thank you so much, dad, Levi, for being on the episode for Joette. If you are listening and you know a ad that has audacity like Levi or the other dads that we’ve interviewed, we would love to hear from you. Just contact us at [email protected]. That is podcast (in the singular form, not plural) @joettecalabrese.com. Thanks again, Levi.

Levi:  Thank you. Love you. Bye-bye.

Paola:  I love you too, dad. For Joette’s listeners, I really hope you enjoyed this podcast. I hope you found it as enriching and beneficial as I did. For sure, I want to encourage you moms out there listening to get your hubbies to listen to this podcast. Maybe it will get their gears turning in a new way if they hear the perspective from some dads with audacity. Thanks.

Joette:  Are you or someone you know a mom with moxie? Well, we’re on the hunt for you. And of course, we don’t want to hear just from moms but from anyone who uses and loves homeopathy. Reach out to my podcast team and let us know why you’re a mom with moxie. For more information, contact [email protected]. 

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. If you liked it, please share it with your friends. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit joettecalabrese.com.

In this podcast, we cover:

04:15    Differentiating between homeopathy and natural medicine

18:30    All About Dosing

26:20    Aggravation

30:45    Proving

36:50    The Banerji Protocols

Editor’s Note: References made within the podcast’s audio to the previous podcast “New to Homeopathy Part I” should refer to Podcast 17 instead of Podcast 7. 

You are listening to a podcast from joettecalabrese.com where nationally certified American homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese, shares her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition.

Paola:   It’s Podcast Number 33 at joettecalabrese.com and here’s what we have coming up.

I’m really looking forward to sharing this podcast with you today. Joette and I got to geek out over why we love homeopathy. So, today’s podcast focuses on subjects that newcomers to homeopathy might appreciate. At the beginning of this podcast, we look at how we can distinguish natural medicine from homeopathy. We also spend some time talking about how some people have a hard time accepting the fact that these homeopathic remedies are so diluted and yet still work. We talk a little bit about how the term nano for nanoparticles are more accepted today. But why wait for society to catch up and accept the terminologies of homeopathy? Instead, just use it right away and just uproot your illness. Then the meat of the podcast comes from you, Joette’s listeners. We get into several questions that are coming from newbies to homeopathy.

Alright, so here we go. Hi. I’m happy to be here with Joette recording another podcast.

Joette:  Hi Paola. Yes, it’s fun. I love doing this, too. We say that every time but they really are fun. It’s just like a natural conversation.

Paola:  It is fun. I enjoy your mind, Joette but also very much enjoy your friendship. So, this is fun.

Joette:  It goes both ways.

Paola:  We’re taking a step back with this podcast, not a step back as in a step down but just like pausing and we’re looking at the big picture in this podcast. I think it’s important to do because every day, Joette, you are getting new listeners, new people that are jumping in the middle of things. So, this podcast takes an opportunity to look at the new person who’s new to homeopathy. For those of you who aren’t new, you need to revisit the old stuff.

Joette:  Not only that, Paola, but I find that it is useful even if you’re a person who’s been doing this for 25 years. It’s amazing how you will learn something new even if you get one little pearl that can be useful. Interestingly, I found some tapes. I mean tapes, little cassette tapes that I had studied on homeopathy from back in the early 80s. I found them in my closet. I pulled them down. I’ve got an old car that still actually has a tape player in it. So, I thought, “Gee, why don’t I see what’s on here. Let’s see how I think differently now.” So, I’ve been listening to these tapes for the last several days in my car and loving it because even if there’s one little bit on Aconitum that I hadn’t considered before or one little aspect of Bryonia. These are medicines I had to memorize in order to get my degrees. So, it’s not like this is something that I don’t know anything about. But there’s always something more to learn from a slightly different set of words, slightly different language. So yes, there’s always something more to learn.

Paola:  Absolutely. You said Aconite. One of my favorite things to tell people about Aconite that they don’t always know about, and this is something that I stumbled across, Aconite is the Arnica of the eye.

Joette:  Yes, ma’am.

Paola:  That’s really cool information. If you don’t go back to the basics sometimes, you’re going to be stuck with what you know — and then you don’t know what you don’t know.

Joette:  Right, exactly.

Paola:  Very good. So, with our newbies in mind especially the structure of this podcast, so I have several questions that a lot of people who are interacting with newbies to homeopathy, these are the kinds of questions they’re getting. The first one is how is homeopathy different from herbs, specifically herbs and then also natural medicine.

Joette:  Well, homeopathy is based on a lot of the botanicals, the botanical world. So, there is a lot of crossover in certain ways. But herbs or botanicals in and of themselves mean that you’re using herbs in their gross form. In homeopathy, we’re getting that herb or mineral or animal venom or something from the periodic table, et cetera and it’s being diluted. Now, we’re not going to go into how it’s diluted and all of that because that is the essence of what homeopathy is about. But it takes it to a different level.

You know how when a child is teething? And if you know anything about botanicals, the first herb you might think of would be chamomile or Chamomilla. So, you get it and you make it into a tincture or you make it into a tea, especially a tea because it’s a small child. You don’t want to give a child alcohol, not too much of it anyway. You make the tea. You give it to the child. It might calm the child down a bit. In fact, it often does. It not only calms the child down but also keeps the pain down a bit. That’s why it’s calming it down. So, the pain is not so grand.

So, you get that Chamomilla and you get that flower and you put it in alcohol. You let it sit for a fortnight, two weeks. Now, you’ve made it into a tincture. I’m describing the homeopathic process. Now, it’s sitting for two weeks. Then from there, it’s decanted. Then a drop of that made tincture that has the essence of the plant and the medicinal properties of the plant, now diluted into and absorbed into the alcohol, a drop of that is taken and put into 99 drops of alcohol. Now, we’re starting the process of making a homeopathic medicine. I’m not going to go through all of that again because as I said, we can refer to our podcast that describes that but it’s diluted.

Paola:  That would be Podcast Number 17 where Joette really kind of breaks down the homeopathic process of taking something like an herb, chamomile herb tincture turning into a diluted homeopathic remedy.

Joette:  Right. We’re going to dilute it, let’s say 200 times because I love Chamomilla 200 for teething fractious children. So, it’s diluted 200 times if it’s 200C to the 100th power. That gives us then the medicine Chamomilla. It’s always in Latin. We don’t use common names. We use Latin words. Chamomilla 200C diluted 200 times, C to the 100th power. Now, we give this to the child who is teething and something even grander happens.

What happens is it’s not just dealing with that child that night and allowing that child to calm down from the teething pain and the irritability but also it softens the whole aspect of teething. It makes it so that the teething is no longer the condition. If you give Chamomilla 200C to a teething child who is fractious and irritable, and not able to sleep, and very touchy, and every little thing bothers them, and every little thing hurts, and nothing makes them happy. You give them Chamomilla 200C, twice a day for several days, not only will you have a child who now will be able to sleep (some people, it’s two days; some children, it’s eight days), but within that framework, you will see that child will not only fall asleep easily and the fractiousness will melt away. They will no longer be irritable and kicking you and pushing off of you and being sensitive to every little noise and touch or anything but you’ve also stopped the action or at least reduced the action often greatly of the pain that the child is experiencing with teething. So now, you’ve got a child who’s been teething and chronically has these problems for the last six months. My gosh, when is this tooth going to come out. Finally, you give Chamomilla 200C and you see the entire picture change. So, it gets that essence, the medicine, the healing aspect of chamomile flowers. By diluting it, it seems like it would go the opposite way. But there is an aspect of homeopathy that stimulates the mixture so that now, it becomes a very potent healing medicine because it’s diluted.

Paola:  I like to think of it as because it’s so diluted, it enters the body at a cellular level.

Joette:  Deeper.

Paola:  Nano, nano-level.

Joette:  Nano-molecular, yes, I love it. I love it. That’s exactly what it is. Now, in the world in which we live, nano is not an unusual word. It is understood. So, it goes deeper. By diluting it, it minimizes any toxic aspect of the plant of which there’s not much in chamomile but brings to the fore the curative aspect. So now, instead of dealing with this age-old teething, this baby, my gosh, three years old still teething; every single time a tooth comes in, the whole family is up. Now, you give the Chamomilla 200C twice a day, sometimes even three times in a day. You will see that not only will the pain go down and the irascibility but also the return ability of the condition.

Paola:  Very good. I guess one question that I think people have is okay, so you started this example by saying you can give like chamomile tea. So, what you’re saying is herbs can cure or help uproot the condition.

Joette:  Yes, yes, ma’am, absolutely.

Paola:  Homeopathy might do it more efficaciously, at a deeper, quicker possible level.

Joette:  Exactly, exactly, it goes deeper. I started out studying herbs. I live in the country. I would gather my plants from the wayside and in the fields and in the woods. I’d make my own tinctures because I didn’t know enough about homeopathy. But once I recognized the curability of homeopathy and the depth and breadth to which it can carry a person, I asked myself, “Why am I using it in the gross form as a plant when I can use it in the homeopathic form and go way past what a plant can do?”

Plus, here’s another part of this picture. Now, it opens up our world because an herbalist can only use plants that are safe. But in homeopathy, we can use plants that are not safe in their gross form because we’re going to dilute them so many times that we have minimized or eliminated to a certain degree the toxic properties of the plant and brought to the fore the curative. So, it opens up the world. So now, Rhus tox which is poison ivy is a fabulous medicine for arthritis. Now, without that poisonous plant being diluted in this pharmacological, mathematical, scientific method called homeopathy, we would not have a cure or at least a help for arthritis, osteo — as well as often rheumatoid arthritis.

Paola:  If this piques your interest, how is it possible that we use these toxic substances and they become curative in the homeopathic preparation, again, I’m going to refer to that Podcast Number 17.

Joette:  Yes.

Paola:  Listen to that …

Joette:  I know it flies in the face of what we think is common sense but think about dilutions and how important they are. Dilutions matter.

Paola:  Yes.

Joette:  They’re big part of our lives. Only the difference is this is so scientific, it has been proven again and again and again for well over 230 years now.

Paola:  Well, and that’s the interesting thing is whether or not society has caught up with, like we were just discussing the word nano. That’s kind of widely accepted now. That’s something we all know about. So now, we can use the word nano and you don’t sound like a crazy person. But I think 20 years ago, if you use the concept of nano being a real thing, people would think you’re crazy.

Joette:  Here’s the thing. You know what? It doesn’t really matter how …

Paola:  It doesn’t matter.

Joette:  It really doesn’t. The fact is these medicines act. They work.

Paola:  Exactly. So, my point is you can wait for society to catch up with something that works or you can just go with it right now.

Joette:  Yes.

Paola:  That works.

Joette:  Yes, absolutely.

Paola:  So, there’s one thing I want to discuss, too, though, is we have herbs and then we have natural medicine. I want to distinguish that not all natural medicine necessarily cures in the same way that homeopathy cures.

Joette:  Well, natural medicine is really just a catch-all phrase. I don’t know what it really means except that does it mean chiropractic? Does it mean acupuncture, qigong? All of those are considered natural medicine and they all have their places. But I’ve never found anything that is as profound-acting as homeopathy. I’ve been searching a long time.

I was born in 1952, ladies. I got to tell you, I’ve been around a long time. My mother used to do reflexology on my feet when I was little because she was into this for a long time. She took us to chiropractors. She didn’t take it all the way but she did explore a great deal of this and not homeopathy, unfortunately. I’ve been exposed to this kind of information for my entire life. It took a long time for me to find homeopathy. I also had very poor health for a good many decades of my life. So, I was always searching. It’s not like I lived a charmed life where nothing went wrong. I was always searching and digging, and this is the most profound.

I’ve never seen anything like this. I’m sure you can probably tell in not only my voice because of the speed at which I speak and the excitement in my voice, but also your voice too, Paola. You just said today in one of our meetings here in the office that you love this. Anyone who learns enough of this to just be able to cure themselves or their family will fall in love with this.

Paola:  Right.

Joette:  I always say that you think it’s lovely getting pregnant and then holding your baby in your belly for nine months. I mean it’s also romantic. It’s so gorgeous and then giving birth. A friend of mine once said it’s the most profound human experience to give birth to your child. You think that’s incredible, try curing your child for a condition. Talk about heavy. There is nothing on this earth like being able to cure your own child and know down to your toes that you’ve done no harm. You can’t say that with antibiotics. You can’t say with steroids. You can’t say with inhalers. You can’t say with any conventional medicines. But with homeopathy, you can cure your child of something that could have been plaguing that child for months if not years and maybe even goes all the way back to your own family. That, my friends, is what excites us about this and that we want to share this with other families.

Paola:  Absolutely. It’s not to say that you don’t like chiropractors. We do.

Joette:  Oh, I love chiropractors. No, no, no, I think they’re great. Yes, absolutely.

Paola:  You’ve even told me before, having other natural medicine things in your kit as a backup.

Joette:  Yes, you need all the tools you can get. But once you start learning homeopathy, many of those tools will fall to the wayside. I studied essential oils, I don’t know, 35 years ago. I love them. I still have them in my house. I still use them here and there. But if I want medicine, I go to homeopathy.

Paola:  Absolutely. I do want to point out one more distinction between natural medicine and homeopathy, and you’ve taught this to me, Joette, this is where I learned it from, is that homeopathy re-educates your immune system, your body to learn to overcome. So that on the other side of an illness, be it chronic or acute, it is wiser for the illness. Whereas, opposed with natural medicine can be colloidal silver. It’s kind of grouped into that. It could be high doses of oregano oil that you take because you have strep throat or whatever. On the other side of those types of situations, your body does not learn anything.

Joette:  You’ve used something that doesn’t cause harm most likely, which is a great thing. But you want to up the ante. You want to go even deeper. You want it not to come back again. You want that teething episode to not be something that your child and family have to experience every couple of months just because the child is growing.

Paola:  Popping another tooth. Yes, that’s exactly right. I remember I taught one of the study group classes. My friend said, “Well, I always just use colloidal silver every time I get strep.” I said, “Well, did you hear yourself? Every time you get strep, how about not getting that again?”

Joette:  Right. We’re not saying it will never happen again. But usually, it’s a lesser version so the teething might be not as extreme. It won’t be as intense. It won’t last as long. There’ll be a larger space between each time that it occurs. Same thing with strep, you might still get a sore throat. You might still get a little strep infection. But you hit it again with the same homeopathic medicine that worked last time. It’s likely that is the goal of homeopathy, here’s the keyword, to uproot the condition.

Paola:  Right.

Joette:  Not that episode of it, the entire condition. Absolutely gorgeous.

Paola:  I think it even gets more exciting like, “And there’s more. You might have inherited your dad’s tendency to, I don’t know, have bad joints.” Going back to Rhus tox, that can help you get away from that inherited.

Joette:  Well, hey, let’s put it this way. Everything is inherited. Everything is inherited. I know people don’t think that way but the moment the sperm meets the egg …

Paola:  I know, unless you’re Adam and Eve.

Joette:  Right, really, the moment the sperm meets the egg, it’s done. I don’t care what your politics are, that is the start of human life. Once that begins, and I know that might turn some people off and it might turn some people on, I’m of that ilk that I believe that’s when the moment of life begins. At that very moment, the mixtures of the two DNAs are now set in stone. So, what happens to that child, to that person, to that teenager, to that young adult, to that middle-aged adult, to that elderly person is all based on their DNA. So, all we can do is correct it. So, if homeopathy can correct it, it means it must be affecting it.

Paola:  We’ve got homeopathy. It takes toxic substances and turns them curative. It has a specific process that separates itself from just generalized natural medicine. In addition to curing, it allows your body to become empowered on the other side of illness. It really sets itself apart from other forms of medicine.

Usually, the next question is how do I dose? Meaning, how often do I take it and how many pellets do I take.

Joette:  Well, the number of pellets is determined by looking on the back of the bottles. So, that’s super easy. How often to take it? Well, that’s too broad a question. Are you talking about for rheumatoid arthritis or are you talking about a child’s ear infection or for teething? You take it until it works. I go into this. I’m being very broad and explaining it like that. But that’s why you need to learn a little bit more about homeopathy. So these kinds of questions are answered. For example, when our study groups meet, we talk about that, how frequently a homeopathic medicine should be repeated. Basically, you take it until it’s done. Now, how do you know that you’ve chosen the right one? Well, you see improvement. If you don’t see improvement after X number of uses of it then you have to go on.

Paola:  But all that is very specific. You’re right that it takes more learning. That’s why you’ve done the study group curriculum, Gateway to Homeopathy, because how frequently you take it changes between an acute and a chronic. Acute, you can take it a little more frequently. Chronic, you have to space it out more. Then to measure improvement, again, it’s different between an acute and a chronic. That takes just a little bit of learning. So, I guess that again separates itself from natural medicine. I think natural medicine is a little bit easier to understand like lavender oil for when you have a stuffy nose; whereas with homeopathy, it takes a little bit more learning.

Joette:  Yes.

Paola:  Another question people get in relationship to dosing is, “Is it safe to give my baby a remedy? What is the dosing difference?”

Joette:  Well, let’s put it this way. I gave my baby, and I’ve been at births where the newborn is given their homeopathic medicine. So, as long as you have a pretty good idea of what you’re doing then yes, it’s safe. Everything comes with a risk. So, I’m not going to tell you it’s perfectly safe. Nothing is. So, I want you to remember that. That if you choose a medicine and you say, “Wow, I know what I should be using.” And you give it. You say, “Well, I don’t see results yet.” You give it again and no results yet. You give it again. You give it again. You give it again. You may cause trouble.

So, you have to know what it is you’re treating. You want to know a little bit more than just let’s just throw this out and see if it sticks. You want to have a little bit more knowledge than, “Gee, I wonder if I can give this or not?” That’s where it really matters that you take this on. If this is of interest to you, I urge you to consider our study groups and our courses. If nothing else, go to my blog. It’s free. I’ve been writing articles on this blog for close to nine years. I give away exactly how to treat one specific condition at a time and exactly what medicines they are and how frequently to use them, et cetera.

Paola:  Yes. That is your signature style is you get that busy moms don’t have time to learn this the long way. So, you’re going to teach it the shortest way possible.

Joette:  I try very hard to distill it down as much as I can.

Paola:  I think a lot of women get overwhelmed. Like, “Oh boy, I have to learn this thing called homeopathy and it just seems so overwhelming.” I really feel like it’s just a few hours. If you get okay, okay, I’m going to commit to four hours of learning homeopathy this week. You’re going to learn a lot to get going, even just with four hours.

Joette:  Yes.

Paola:  Just to be clear then, dosing for a baby, if I have a baby who is nine months old …

Joette:  Let’s go to the teething situation.

Paola:  Okay. I don’t need to reduce the amount of pellets I physically give, the physical number of pellets. I don’t give five to an adult and two to a baby because I’m reducing the dose.

Joette:  Yes, that’s right. Although some places will, some bottles will tell you to give the baby fewer pills but that’s because it’s not necessary to give a full four pills. For example, you can just use two. But if the baby got into the bottle and ate the whole bottle, it still would not cause trouble.

Paola:  Right.

Joette:  The numbers of pills, it’s a lot different than what we’re accustomed to.

Paola:  Yes, you have to kind of break that paradigm. Tell them your analogy of lighting a fire with matches.

Joette:  Yes. It’s like if you were to start a fire, you could start a fire with one match or you could start a fire with six matches. It’s still lighting the fire. That’s what we’re doing is stimulating the body’s ability to correct itself.

Paola:  But of course with Tylenol, it’s completely different. You really need the proper dose.

Joette:  Yes. That could be dangerous if you don’t do that properly.

Paola:  But think about it. Earlier, we mentioned dilution. These are highly diluted remedies. It’s kind of impossible to get an overdose from two nanos versus one nano, you know what I mean, or five nanos versus 100 nanos. It’s kind of all the same. Those of you who are learning homeopathy, you realize that there’s one remedy that does many things. For example, we’re talking about Rhus tox.

Joette:  Rhus tox is great for joint pain, for arthritis, for tendon pain, for muscle strain, for overuse. It’s also great for chicken pox. When you think about what poison ivy can cause, it causes pustules and itching and restlessness. So, we can then say that it can also be used then because that’s the signature of the plant and how it acts on us as humans. It can then eliminate that by using Rhus tox 30C or 30X, or 200C or 200X, or even a 6x, 6C. We can uproot the itching and restlessness and maddening sensations of having chicken pox.

Plants have many purposes. So, when people say how was it that it could have so many purposes? Well, plants have many purposes. If you have a stomachache, if you’re thinking of botanicals, you could use oregano. You could use mint. Many other substances can be considered for one condition. Healing is not linear. We don’t want to put health into little boxes so that we can say, “Okay, this is for this. That’s for that.” It’s a little bit overprescribed and oversimplified. Life is a little more complex than that. There are nuances. We want to know those nuances. They’re really fascinating.

Paola:  Tell me if this is wrong to get it in people’s minds. People are just so used to taking Benadryl for allergies, Advil for headaches. It feels like it’s one drug for one thing. Homeopathy uses the whole plants or the whole mineral, or the whole organism. So, it has many sides to it. But when you’re trying something into a pharmaceutical, it’s very narrowed down and it’s very isolated. It’s a specific drug. Therefore, it tends to only work for a handful of things.

Joette:  Well, it’s patented and it’s synthetic. In other words, they couldn’t sell it for what they sell it for. You can’t own chamomile. You can’t own that. That’s part of the earth. But if you get chamomile as they would in a conventional pharmacy, not a corner pharmacy but in the pharmaceutical industry, they get the constituents of the chamomile and synthetically mimic it. Now, they can own it. By owning it, they can patent it. By patenting it, that’s how they make their income. Then they could charge anything they want which is why you see some drugs are $3000 for one injection.

Paola:  So, it’s like they basically narrowed the ability of that plant that used to be so versatile. They’ve narrowed it down to be something specific so they can make money off of it.

Joette:  Well, they’ve done more than narrow. They’re mimicking it. They’re synthetically mimicking it. It’s not the same thing. It would be like sugar is sugar. It’s from the cane plant. If you want to mimic those properties, you can end up with NutraSweet. Now, is that sugar? No. It’s a mimic of it. It always amazes me that folks who are very, very studious and particular about what foods they put in their mouths and what foods they put on the table for their families but when the child gets an ear infection, they toss an antibiotic in there or they toss a steroid in there. Now, I realize. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not giving anyone a hard time because a lot of times, mothers don’t realize that there’s an alternative. This is the alternative.

Paola:  Okay. So, here’s a big question. This might be a new word for some people. What is an aggravation? How often does it happen?

Joette:  Well, an aggravation is a word that’s used in homeopathy to describe when you use a homeopathic medicine for a chronic condition, not acute, not an ear infection, not teething, not something that has a natural beginning and a natural end. It’s going to be gone in two weeks even if you do nothing but for a chronic condition like arthritis or eczema or something that the person often gets worse before they get better. So, it’s frightening to many people and I don’t blame them. It is something that is found in classical homeopathy which is why I don’t use classical homeopathy any longer. I use protocols. It is one of the many reasons that I’ve abandoned the use of classical homeopathy for chronic conditions because I don’t want to see anyone suffer any further. It often will frighten someone enough away that they will never want to do it at all because they know how sick they can become. They’re afraid that that could cause it. So, I don’t worry about it in the very least anymore.

Paola:  So, to use the term, “aggravation” is this new term. So, to use a term, I think that people might relate to more easily, in natural medicine, we know that there’s a detox reaction, detox symptoms. So, it’s like they say in natural medicine that a detox symptom is a good thing. It means that you’re releasing the toxins. Then once you get past that, you’ll be improved. So, in classical homeopathy, an aggravation is like a detox symptom?

Joette:  I would say that it’s kind of overshooting the mark and the body is having to compensate. I think that’s the way I would describe it.

Paola:  You’re right. I feel like I’ve rarely, if ever, had an aggravation using the Banerji Protocols, the practical homeopathy that you teach.

Joette:  Yes, right.

Paola:  Next question is can homeopathy be harmful if taken wrong? You’ve kind of touched on this. Well, let’s talk about it a little bit more because we walk a fine line though. We don’t want to scare people from using homeopathy but we still want them to respect it.

Joette:  That’s right. That’s a good word. We want to respect it. It’s like water. Here’s the ocean. Now, this is really beautiful. It’s really great that you want to play in it. It’s important that you learn how to swim. But you have to also understand that there can be a danger associated with this if you’re not prudent, if y don’t know how to swim, if you go to the edge of the pier and you don’t know what you’re doing. There is good and bad in most things of great value. We could do the same thing with food. Salt is a very important aspect of cooking. We need to have that mineral in our foods. But we can overdo it. It can become dangerous if we use too much. On the other hand, if we use too little, that can be a problem. So, there is always the chance of causing trouble if you don’t follow the rules. That’s why I try to make the rules very, very precise as best as I can.

Paola:  Which goes back to what I keep saying is your signature style to try and give us the facts so that we can take this and use it in the safest way possible.

Joette:  That’s true. You see, in classical homeopathy for those who know what classical homeopathy is, it’s very vague. You could take one person as a patient and have five classical homeopaths interview that person in separate rooms within an hour of each other. I can practically guarantee that you’ll come up with five different medicines for that person because it’s also based on the perception of the homeopath. Now, it doesn’t mean that they’re all wrong or that any of them are wrong. It doesn’t mean any of that because there are many ways to skin a cat. However, having said that, what I love about the Banerji Protocols, which are the protocols that I use now and some of them I call just plain old practical homeopathy, is that there are specific medicines we use for specific conditions. So, they are and here’s the keyword: reproducible results.

Paola:  Which is very different from classical homeopathy.

Joette:  Yes, it is quite different.

Paola:  In the sense that the same remedy will treat the same condition on everyone. Homeopathy can treat the same condition but in classical, you’d use very different remedies to get to the same results.

Joette:  Yes.

Paola:  So my headache remedy will be different from your headache remedy because we’re different people. Classical homeopathy likes different remedies.

Joette:  Yes.

Paola:  So Joette, in light of respecting homeopathy and knowing that we have to respect it and knowing that it is powerful medicine, like the ocean, we love it but we have to respect it, what does proving a remedy mean? How do we know if we are proving?

Joette:  Let’s stay within the realm of acute illness such as a child’s fever or otitis media, strep throat or something like that, okay? Because if we’re talking about chronic, that’s too complex to explain but let’s go at least the setting.

Paola:  And you do explain chronic stuff in your courses.

Joette:  Oh, I do. I teach it on my blog as well. But we could spend a good 45 minutes just on that. So, it’s best that we try to keep it simple.

Let’s say a child has got an ear infection. You decide the remedy that should be given is Pulsatilla. So, you give Pulsatilla, and there’s no change. That’s acceptable. Give it again by three hours later, still no change. Do it again three hours later and still no change. Now, you’re going up to the fourth dose. That’s generally my rule is after the fourth dose, now, you start questioning whether or not you’ve got the right medicine. Let’s say you’ve gone past four doses and you still don’t see a change. You keep saying it’s got to be Pulsatilla. I just know it is. You give 20 of these or even 10 of these doses. What you could end up getting is a child who starts acting as though they really need Pulsatilla.

What that means is that the picture of Pulsatilla, the need for it as a child is very needy and weepy. They have eyes that get goopy. They get conjunctivitis. They get stomach aches. They’re crying constantly. They’re very irritable. You might cause that to become the problem when all you really had was otitis media before that. So, it makes things much worse but it’s not permanent. You stop using the medicine. It goes away. Then you find the correct medicine that should have been used in the first place and you move on.

People are very, very worried about provings. But I don’t worry about them as much as long as you follow the rules. That’s what I teach. I’m very specific about rules on my blog that we put out every week. I’m very specific about rules in my classes, in my online classes and our study groups, et cetera. I’m pretty careful about that.

Paola:  Right. That’s why I always cringe if I talk to someone who has taken your class and they’re breaking the rules. You shouldn’t do that. Homeopathy is complex and your rules are there for a reason. So, you should really stick to them.

I have a little pinkeye story. It’s funny that you mentioned it where I had a great experience where I learned about a proving. My friend’s daughter had pinkeye. We actually went to your blog. One of the remedies that you suggested was Hepar sulph. That’s the abbreviation, I think. What’s the full name?

Joette:  Hepar sulphuricum calcarea.

Paola:  Right. So, we say Hepar sulph.

Joette:  Right, for obvious reasons.

Paola:  Right. She started dosing it. I think she got through maybe just four or five doses throughout the first day. Then she noticed that all of a sudden, that pinkeye was not only just how it was before but there was a new symptom. It was weeping. The eye was draining some fluid. Also, her daughter mentioned that the light hurt and that she wanted her mom to turn off the lights in the living room.

Joette:  Which was something that hadn’t been happening previously.

Paola:  Two brand new symptoms on top of the pink eye. So then, I went to my materia medica which is something you do learn about in your courses. Actually, you are coming out with a materia medica pretty soon here.

Joette:  That’s right. I can’t wait to get that out.

Paola:  I know. It will be really great. I cannot wait to get it too because you’ve put together a bunch of other materia medicas you’ve put together in courses, and it’s one little enchilada. Anyways, I went to my materia medica, soon to be yours. I looked up Hepar sulph. They break it down by body parts. So, I looked under Hepar sulph for the eye. I saw that with Hepar sulph, there could be a lot of drainage and sensitivity to light with something. So, because we were taking Hepar sulph and because the pink eye developed new symptoms that related to Hepar sulph, boom! I knew we were proving the remedy. That’s one of the ways you can deduce. So, then we stopped the remedy. What do you do now, Joette?

Joette:  You stop using that medicine. Sometimes people will use Camphor 200 or they’ll just move on. You don’t want to wait too long because you got to get at that conjunctivitis. Now, you go to, okay, what is presenting now? Now, we start thinking about what is the next medicine that could be most valuable. That’s the way this is laid out. So, you might go to Pulsatilla because Pulsatilla has a lot of weepiness. The discharge is yellow or white and that’s what it looks like. Now, they’re super sensitive. So, Pulsatilla would be my guess, would be the next good choice.

Paola:  Well, that is what we did and it worked.

Joette:  There you go.

Paola:  There you go.

Joette:  Then you use Pulsatilla 30. You use that every four hours. If it’s really severe, you might use it every two hours. I mean severe. You don’t say, “Oh gee, I just don’t like this. And she’s got a dance recital tonight.” No, no, no. Use it according to the method, about every four hours as your benchmark. Usually by the third dose, sometimes the first dose, you see an improvement.

One of the ways we know that we’re witnessing improvement is that the person is better. She stops weeping. She stops being so sensitive. She gets more energy back. She feels happier. She eats a better meal. Another way to know is that she falls asleep because that’s where we heal. When we’re really sick, we need to sleep. We’re just too sick to sleep. So, that’s not what’s happening. But when you use the right homeopathic medicine, that’s often what ensues. Then when the child wakes up or whoever it might be, they wake up again. If the symptoms have returned, guess what you do? You go right back to the medicine that acted. So, you give that Pulsatilla again because it just was needed again. So, use it until it’s done.

Paola:  Finish it off.

Joette:  Yes.

Paola:  So, let me review here really quick then. A proving is when you have selected the wrong remedy. Typically, new symptoms arise related to that remedy. You can use the materia medica to double check. Then how do you fix the problem that you’ve gotten into? You can either antidote like you said with Camphor, or what is the preferred method is to select the proper remedy because the proper remedy like in this story of Pulsatilla will correct the ill-chosen one.

Joette:  That’s right.

Paola:  Last question Joette, what is the Banerji Protocols? How are they different from classical homeopathy?

Joette:  The Banerji Protocols are named after Drs. Prasanta and Pratip Banerji who have become my not only colleagues but very dear friends. They use protocols that they have come up with from having seen thousands and thousands of cases because they run a clinic and research center in Kolkata. But what’s fascinating about them is they don’t just see many patients per day but this was Prasanta Banerji’s, who is in his 80s, clinic. Before that, his grandfather was using these methods. Before that was his great, great uncle. So, what we see is 150 years’ worth of homeopathic physicians — and they are MDs by the way — who use only homeopathy and see an average of 100 patients per day per doctor. So, after a while, it becomes pretty darn clear that in 80% or 70% or whatever the number turns out to be, usually it’s about 80% to 85% of all cases with this specific condition, whatever condition it is we’re discussing, will be aided greatly by this particular medicine, whatever medicine has been found to be used for many thousands of people prior.

So, classical homeopathy is a little different as we touched upon earlier. Classical means you’re going to choose based on the person, not on the condition. Whereas the Banerji Protocols and practical homeopathy that I teach is based on the name of the condition. And then of course, we look at the symptoms. That’s also quite important. But we don’t go as deep into the personality per se. We go more into what is presenting. Oh, the eye is red. There’s a discharge. It’s sensitive to light. The person is weepy. It’s been going on for two or three days. She’s got a stomach ache. There’s the case. There’s the conjunctivitis case.

So, if we don’t use the first medicine that is most often considered the first level, then we can go to the second level. If we use the first one and it doesn’t act like what happened with your friend and her daughter, that is pretty much the first level for conjunctivitis. Had there been any creamy or weepy substance exuding from the eye at the onset that perhaps wasn’t truly noticeable by the mother or by you, or it was there but you didn’t give it an awful lot of credence, had you seen that, you might have skipped right over Hepar sulph and gone right to Pulsatilla. So, what it is, is it really exemplifies getting a very complex medicine and distilling it down to those medicines for those conditions that will work for most of the cases on earth.

Paola:  So basically, the Banerji Protocols take a diagnosis, conjunctivitis for example. It does take note of some of the nuances that might be applicable to that diagnosis perhaps. Like you were saying, if we hadn’t given any credence to the weepiness or if there hadn’t been any at all, it would have helped us maybe kind of narrow down between Hepar sulph and Pulsatilla right away. Then you apply the protocol.

Joette:  That’s right, super easy. Let me put it this way, relatively easy. What I mean is that I’m coming from a classical background. I studied classical homeopathy 31 years ago. I was classically trained and taught the first classical homeopathy course in New York State that was ever credit-bearing at a college. So, I was a dyed-in-the-wool classical homeopath. I used to do my practice for many years. But I was frustrated by it because it was not, number one, reproducible. It took too long to take the case. And number three, and this is the key for me, I couldn’t teach it to families. I can’t teach classical homeopathy to families unless they’re willing to spend many, many, many, many years learning theory 1, theory 2, the history. That’s a big chunk to bite off.

Paola:  Do you mean that mostly for chronic conditions, not acute?

Joette:  Yes, for chronic conditions, yes, yes. I’m able to teach acute pretty easily and always have been but now, I can teach chronics pretty easily.

Paola:  Right.

Joette:  How beautiful is that?

Paola:  Well, I think it’s important to know this, Joette. You have two groups of students in your client base. You have one group that has been with you since the beginning or at least have done homeopathy since the beginning. We have Kate Bechard that we interviewed. She’s a Mom with Moxie that we interviewed if you look through our podcast. She’s one of them. She used to do classical homeopathy before and then she’s like, “Oh boy! But then Joette and the Banerji Protocols came on board. It has rocked my world. It simplified it so much.” So, she appreciates how much simplified the Banerji Protocols have become.

But you have a group of students that have come on the scene. They haven’t done any classical homeopathy. They’ve come right into the Banerji Protocols. They feel like it’s complicated. So, I just want to point out. Remember, if you’ve come on the scene late in the game, straight to the candy, it really is a lot easier now in relationship to classical homeopathy. I think that’s really important to remember and be grateful.

Joette:  Well, it’s human health. Medicine is a very, very vast subject. You could study it for five lifetimes and still not get all of it. So, what we’ve done is gotten the complex and made it into a simple as we possibly can.

Paola:  So, know if you feel like well, this is really hard, well, it could be worse.

Joette:  That’s right.

Paola:  Joette, I think you wanted to share with us some closing thoughts.

Joette:  I did. I want to mention and I know that those followers of this kind of a group who would be listening to this kind of podcast are probably already in this court. But it doesn’t hurt to remind families and moms and grandmothers what we’re really doing here. So, I feel very strongly that every decision, no matter how uncomfortable socially, personally, culturally, professionally, even financially must be based on what is genuinely best for the family. Family is the core of our society. We must keep it together as tightly as we can. At the bottom of the family pecking order is the child. The child is the most innocent of all in our society. It is up to us to protect and to make sure that what is put into that child’s body is worthy of a human being, especially a human being in our own family.

So, with that, I bid you all the best of studying and learning homeopathy. Get as much free from me as you possibly can. I really don’t mind. That’s exactly what I love doing. But should you decide at any point in your life that you’d like to go a little further then consider study groups. Should you decide to go even further than that then we have classes online. We’ve got a lot going on here. It is my passion to teach this and get this out there. I want to see homeopathy get back on the map in North America once again.

Paola:  Very good. That is your mission. How many families do you want to get this into?

Joette:  We want to get to 100,000 households by 2020. We’re getting there.

Paola:  We are getting there. It’s because moms like sharing good stuff with other moms.

Joette:  Yes. Well, that’s what we women do best. I don’t want to discount men but this really is more often in the woman’s realm because she’s the mother or the grandmother. She’s the one who’s responsible for the wellbeing of the children, their health, and their nutrition, et cetera.

Paola:  Thank you, Joette. You’re an awesome mom. Thank you for mothering us through this world of homeopathy. I hope that the newbies to homeopathy and the oldies appreciated this. I think it’s especially good for those of you who do have experience with homeopathy to listen to this podcast and share it with your friends when you’re trying to do that. I know that I have a lot of people coming to me, “So what is homeopathy?” I just feel like, “Oh dear.”

Joette:  Oh, you just have to explain.

Paola:  I send them to this podcast. Podcast Number 17 is a great first one. Then let’s say this is number two.

Joette:  It’s great. Well, thank you, Paola.

Paola:  Thank you, Joette.

You just listened to a podcast by joettecalabrese.com where nationally certified homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese shared her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition. Joette’s podcasts are available on iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Stitcher, and TuneIn radio.

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. If you liked it, please share it with your friends. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit joettecalabrese.com.

In this podcast, we cover:

03:20    Starting Homeopathy

09:06    Success stories with Arnica, Ruta, Symphytum, and Nux vomica

15:36    Implementing Joette’s teachings & protocols into the practice of proper nutrition

24:49    Using moderate diet with the remedies

You are listening to a podcast from joettecalabrese.com where nationally certified American homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese, shares her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition.

Paola:  It’s podcast number 32 at JoetteCalabrese.com. Today, we’ve got a new episode for the Moms with Moxie miniseries.

Joette:  All the way from my desk in New York, I get to see how homeopathy is transforming lives all over the globe. Some of my students have really caught my eye. Some of you have done all you can to learn how to cure those around you using homeopathic medicines. Your successes inspire me. They’re glorious and powerful. I can’t keep your successes a secret any longer. So, with help from my roving reporter, Paola, we bring you this mini podcast series that I call Moms with Moxie. It’s actually grandmoms, too. But it’s Moms with Moxie. See how regular mothers and others, average people who want to cure those around them have gone from freaking to fabulous with homeopathy.

Paola:  I’m very much looking forward to who I’m interviewing today. I have Sheryl Shenefelt with me and she’s an interesting gal. She has been in the holistic alternative health world for quite a while now. I think you were saying, Sheryl, since before you had your own kids, which is every girl’s dream I feel like. Well, every seasoned mom’s dream. I mean, I wish I was down that road before I had kids, too. So, you’re awesome.

Sheryl:  Oh, thank you.

Paola:  You’re welcome. So, tell us a little bit about yourself. I know you’re a mom of two.

Sheryl:  Yes. I have two kids. My daughter is 15 and my son is 11. I’m also an author and a nutritionist. I’ve been working in the nutrition world really since when I was pregnant with my daughter. I’ve also written five nutrition books with a holistic medical doctor, Dr. David Brownstein, mostly on nutrition. We teamed up because I was really into eating real food, more of a holistic lifestyle. I had been studying a lot with the Weston A. Price Foundation. So, we just thought eye to eye as far as how real food could really help people heal along with his holistic treatment.

Paola:  Now, I know Joette is on the board. She’s an honorary board member of the Weston A. Price Foundation. But you were telling me that you were involved in one of the first chapters of the Weston A. Price Foundation?

Sheryl:  Yes. Actually, the first chapter was here in Detroit, Michigan. They had only been around for a couple of years and I found them. I actually ended up being on the board of the local chapter and getting really involved, and helping people to find local farmers, and get connected with food. It really just fit right into my practice as a nutritionist. Now, I also use homeopathy. That was the basis of what I do even now. I did a lot more then.

Paola:  That’s awesome. Yes. We’re going to get into that in how you combined nutrition with homeopathy. But let’s start at the beginning of your journey with homeopathy. I know that you’ve told me you would much rather have homeopathy in your life than not. Tell me about your early experiences with homeopathy and what situations you used at work.

Sheryl:  I connected with a homeopath while I was pregnant actually. She taught me a little bit about homeopathy. I was already on the page that I wanted to have a natural childbirth but she said that I could do it without any pain meds if I just used homeopathy. So, I ended up using Arnica throughout my whole birth process and it worked. It was amazing. I mean, I can’t say I was pain-free. But I guess I didn’t use any pain meds or do epidural or anything like that. So, I was very happy to have my daughter naturally, the way I had planned.

Paola:  Oh, that’s awesome. Good old Arnica to the rescue.

Sheryl:  I know and I still…Arnica is my favorite remedy ever. I use it a lot with my kids, for myself and just for pain or injuries. So, I love it. It’s my go-to.

Paola:  I know. I always tell people like, “What do you do if you know someone who’s skeptical with homeopathy? I just wait for them to have an accident and use Arnica. Then it’s going to be fine. Then no.”

Sheryl:  No, no, no.

Paola:  Yes, then no, no. Arnica – yes, exactly. I mean, if homeopathy were a high school and all the remedies were people, Arnica would be class president, very popular, very successful, easy to use. So that’s awesome. You started working with a homeopath. Did you just pretty much go to your homeopathy appointment every time you got sick or did you ever start trying to transition into using it yourself without the assistance?

Sheryl:  I did. I really was drawn to homeopathy. Its power gave me a lot of incentive to find out more about it. Then having my children, really, I wanted to raise them drug-free, so I wanted to know what options were out there. So, I really started studying homeopathy more. I did see a classical homeopath who directed us in that route. But like acute situations and things like that, I started to learn on my own. So that I could, if my daughter or son has a cough or sniffles or something, that I could just go to my resources and my homeopathy kit and pick something to use rather than medication.

Paola:  Right. I think that’s pretty standard. Joette has said that among classical homeopaths, they do encourage moms to learn homeopathy for acute prescription of their own families and themselves. That’s good. So, you started dabbling into that. Have you ever happened to give say, antibiotics to your kids?

Sheryl:  Actually, one time. I’m still kicking myself for doing that because I know now, obviously, I didn’t know then. So, I have to give myself a break that I didn’t know then about the choices at that time. So definitely I’ve been working on using probiotics and rebuilding, and now just learning more about homeopathy. I can use that as my medicines.

Paola:  What was it for, that antibiotic?

Sheryl:  For strep throat. We got too far along on the strep throat that I just didn’t know enough about the homeopathy that it was going to take care of it.

Paola:  Right. Yes. You are not allowed to mom-guilt yourself for doing that because I did not have any natural childbirth and too old as to have had antibiotics and what not. So, you’re doing pretty good giving your son the one.

Sheryl:  He ended up actually getting strep throat again. That time, I was able to use Hepar sulph and that took care of it. Now, he hasn’t had it since.

Paola:  Yehey! That’s the way we like it. It sounds like the first time he has strep was pre-Joette because, with classical homeopathy, you have to repertorize and find exactly, is it the right side, the left side? What kind of strep throat are we dealing with? Then when he got strep throat the second time, was that with Joette’s information available to you?

Sheryl:  Yes. I had just met her. So, I didn’t know everything about it yet and I hadn’t been through her classes and whatnot yet. So that’s why I didn’t feel comfortable, b ut yes. Then the second time, I had been through her class. I had talked to her more. I felt really comfortable sticking with it. And so, that’s what pushed me along.

Paola:  So really before, you were hesitant with homeopathy and Joette kind of gave you permission? Is that right?

Sheryl:  Yes, yes. Definitely her classes, I love her classes. I’ve done all of them. One of them, just the Survivalist, I’m still working to get through.

Paola:  Oh, yes. That’s a good one.

Sheryl:  But the Good Gut, Bad Gut, the Skin, the Allergies, so it just really opened my eyes up to, even more, uses for homeopathy that just made it so exciting and also gave me more confidence to say, “Hey! This remedy is for this. Here’s what’s happening.” I feel good about giving it.”

Paola:  I find that that’s typical among people who did homeopathy before they met Joette. Then after Joette, it’s like their view of homeopathy broadens because you realize with her practical approach that there’s so much more you just could work for.

Sheryl:  Absolutely.

Paola:  Well, I can relate to that because my mom did raise me using a lot of homeopathic remedies. We were immigrants and didn’t have health insurance right away when we moved here on my dad’s student visa. She used homeopathy. But then it’s like as soon as we got health insurance, she stopped using it because she thought, “Oh well, now this is better.” But knowing what I know now, knowing what my mom knows now, she’s like, “Oh, boy! I wish I had realized how deep this stuff was and I would have just stuck with it.”

Sheryl:  Wow! Right.

Paola:  It’s kind of a shame. Okay. Why don’t you tell us some of your acute successes with homeopathy?

Sheryl:  Some of the other ways that I’ve used homeopathy is when my daughter sprained her ankle. I gave her Arnica right away for the pain. Then I started her on the Ruta for the sprain. She really felt like, after no time at all, I was almost like, “Doesn’t your ankle hurt?” She was like, “No. I feel fine.” She was like in two days walking on it. She was like, “It doesn’t hurt.” But it was purple and black and blue, but it didn’t hurt.

Paola:  Oh, wow! It looked bad but it felt great.

Sheryl:  That was amazing. Yes, it looked terrible. But it helped so fast for her. It was amazing because you could see where she was hurt. I would press on it and she was like, “Oh, don’t touch it.” But she was able to walk and do everything she needs. She went to school after only a couple of days on the remedy.

Paola:  That’s incredible. Tell our listeners what Ruta is good for. I know it’s for deep tissue sprains.

Sheryl:  I mainly had always thought in my head like Ruta, I knew it was for sprains and strain.

Paola:  Yes.

Sheryl:  So I guess, as soon as she sprained it, it popped in my head. I’m like, “Oh, that’s right.” I learned that Ruta is for sprains and strain. That’s what made me reach for that. But then I also knew Arnica is the thing that you go first when you first have an injury. You want to give the Arnica for the shock, the trauma, and then also the pain. I actually alternated Arnica with Ruta because Arnica helped with the pain and then the Ruta was to heal.

Paola:  I think that’s fine. I think it’s really good to have these little keynotes memorized so they’re part of your muscle memory. When something happens, you’re like, “Oh, yes, Ruta, Arnica, done. You don’t really need to overthink it especially in acutes being like this.

Sheryl:  Right. That’s where I’ve gone. That’s why I love Joette’s stuff because if you have this issue, here’s what you use. If you have this issue, here’s what you use. It just sticks in my head. So, it has made it easier to select remedies when I need them. Actually, a couple of weeks ago, I had bronchitis. I did not want to go on any medication. I actually searched. I Googled it. I was reading some stuff about Kali carb and I started it and it helped immediately. I was having trouble breathing and I took it. I was like, “Oh, I can breathe again,” like it was night and day. That helped so fast. That was mind-blowing because I hadn’t really used it in a severe — to me, bronchitis was getting a little more severe because I didn’t want to get pneumonia or have it get worse.

Paola:  Good for you. I am always amazed by homeopathy. But then when you get sick again or something bad happens, you have an accident or something and you’re really depressed about it, right, because you don’t feel good. And then when the homeopathy works, it’s like, “Oh, why do I keep getting impressed and surprised with this when I know it works.” But when it works, you’re like, “Yes, it worked.”

Sheryl:  I know.

Paola:  This is so great. And you broke your foot as well, right?

Sheryl:  Yes, I did. I broke my foot and actually sprained my ankle a couple of years back. Again, I used Arnica like I did with my daughter. Then I did use some Ruta because I knew for the sprain and again I was just starting to learn about Joette. Then I was reading that for the broken bone part, I was supposed to use Symphytum. So, I waited a little bit because she mentioned that you’re not supposed to use it until you know the bone is in place because it works so quickly. So, I did wait about a week until the doctor said everything was healing properly. Then I went ahead and used the Symphytum as well.

Paola:  Yes, because I think she says, this is rough to even think about, but if your bone is not set properly in the right position and you started the Symphytum, it will fuse together in the wrong position. I mean, ultimately the doctor has to re-break the bone to fix it.

Sheryl:  Right. That would not be fun. Yes.

Paola:  That would be terrible.

Sheryl:  Insult to injury for sure.

Paola:  We do know homeopathy is wonderful and that we would never want to live without it. But I do want to gain a real picture. Has everything been easy and you just sailed through it with homeopathy or have there been some struggles?

Sheryl:  I can’t say that homeopathy isn’t like a magic bullet in our household and we’re not all 100% health and the perfect human beings. I mean, we’re still real-life humans. We live in society. We don’t eat everything perfectly. My daughter actually has some food allergies. She’s had peanut allergy since she was really little and a couple of other food allergies and just some environmental allergies. And so, that’s something that we’re still working on. It’s like a process as we go. But I love homeopathy for a lot of the acute things like we’re talking about like injuries and my bronchitis and things like that that are coming up. Then I’m finding that I can reach for homeopathy and definitely not have any drugs in the house is really amazing.

Paola:  Well, I feel like when it comes to chronic issues, we know that those things are going to be slower to uproot. Sometimes it’s slower even because you’re finding the right protocol and not just the situation. What’s really important about homeopathy, because the more distance you put from that last antibiotic, I guess this doesn’t account for you guys except for when your son had the antibiotic, but for me who’s had lots of antibiotics, the more distance I put between me and that last round which is years ago, the healthier I’m going to get.

Sheryl:  Absolutely.

Paola:  It buys you time as you figure things out.

Sheryl:  Yes. That’s why I love it so much. So now, we have things that we’re working on and we are going to still order out sometimes.

Paola:  Yes.

Sheryl:  Yes. Sometimes we’ll either go to a party or go out to eat. I’ve learned from Joette the Nux vomica is great in those situations for say, overindulgence or maybe eating poor food choices. So, I do keep that one in my back pocket as well.

Paola:  Oh, that’s good. So, you find success using Nux vomica when you party, so to speak.

Sheryl:  Yes, exactly.

Paola:  Let’s go back to what you do for work. You said you’re a nutritionist, which I think is so interesting and that you have started recently implementing homeopathic protocols that Joette teaches into your practice and you like that. Tell us about that.

Sheryl:  Yes, you know what? I really have enjoyed using some of the protocols. Before I met Joette, I was just really working more with the Weston A. Price principle and helping people to change their diet so they’re eating more real food. I connect people with local farmers. I teach them how to make broths and things to help them health-wise. But now that I have the protocols with the homeopathy, I feel like I’m starting to give those to clients and they’re noticing shifts. Sometimes the diet changes take a little longer to see the shift. But with the homeopathy, and there’s a few of them that I actually use quite a bit, one being Lycopodium, Arsenicum.                                                                                     

Paola:  Lycopodium 200 mixed with Arsenicum 200.

Sheryl:  Right. Yes.

Paola:  Okay.

Sheryl:  That’s one of the Banerji Protocols that Joette teaches in her Good Gut, Bad Gut class.

Paola:  Okay.

Sheryl:  I’ve used that one probably the most out of all of them because so many people come in with bloating, and gas, and indigestion, and stomach aches, and whatnot. So, that’s been my go-to because I see so many people with digestive complaints that I really have been using that a lot. People seem to get relief very quickly. Then they’re more up to make more of the diet changes.

Paola:  Right, because it’s like, “If I’m going to spend all this time boiling bones or making fermented stuff and still feel bloated, I might as well just eat my pizza that I like and feel bloated.”

Sheryl:  Right, exactly. Yes, so it just helps because they work hand in hand so that they feel some relief. But then they’re also making their lifestyle changes that are necessary for ongoing health.

Paola:  Right. I think Joette, her slogan used to be homeopathy where nutrition meets homeopathy. But now, she just feels like she wants to really laser-focus on the homeopathy. It is such a broad subject that she’s spending less time educating on the diet especially because I feel like there are so many people like you out there and different bloggers who are educating people on diet and so, she felt like that wasn’t as needed. But you’re right. I do think that it can help speed what the diet does for people.

Sheryl:  Right, right. Yes. I mean, I think that’s like a missing piece that really helps accelerate the healing.

Paola:  I was speaking with a Weston A. Price chapter leader. Joette is working on a project for Weston A. Price chapter leaders, a presentation. One of the things that we got out of the meeting is that when Joette taught her Good Gut, Bad Gut course several years ago (I mean what was it, like four years ago), she said that a healthy diet — like you were saying the Weston A. Price principles of bone broth, raw milk, and all that stuff — takes care of 70% of the symptoms. What you’re left with is a 30% illness. But what Joette has witnessed in her practice and what other chapter leaders are seeing is that people are becoming sicker and sicker. Joette is seeing the reversal where diet is getting them 30% better and they’re left with 70% which is really concerning. Have you seen some of that? Is that a growing trend that you’ve witnessed anecdotally with your clients?

Sheryl:  I do feel similar in that respect. I feel like there’s a lot more digestive issues coming out and autoimmune conditions and things that I just don’t always feel like diet is enough. Although I do think it’s huge and definitely has to be addressed but not always enough to give people relief really from what they’re feeling or to see healing. That’s where I think the homeopathy helps so much because I think people feel a shift.

Paola:  Yes. Yes, because it is like you said, deflating when you’ve done all the work for the diet and you’re not feeling better yet.

Sheryl:  Right.

Paola:  Would you be willing to share with us a few of your other favorite protocols that you’ve been using with your nutrition clients?

Sheryl:  Yes. One of the other ones is actually the Lycopodium 200 with the Plumbum 200, mixed. That one actually is amazing for constipation.

Paola:  Yes.

Sheryl:  I seriously doubted it. I was like, “Okay, is this even going to work?” I actually had to use it on myself because I was struggling with that, just being open and honest here.

Paola:  Sure.

Sheryl:  So, I took it. Literally, I swear, it worked overnight.

Paola:  Yes.

Sheryl:  I mean, I don’t want to be graphic or anything but it was just like, “Okay. I am sold. This is the remedy I’m going to start using.” So, I started using it with some clients too. I have to say that they agree with me. Maybe not everybody overnight but if they stick with it, they notice the change.

Paola:  Right. I can relate, too because the day after Thanksgiving, leading up to Thanksgiving, I was preparing food for the week of Thanksgiving. I’m snacking on stuff. I feel like we have pretty healthy Thanksgiving. But I’m probably overindulging and I, myself got constipated. The day after Thanksgiving, we were going to this fair where we were going to be walking around all day outside. I took the Lyco Plumbum before we left. I was like, “Oh, shoot! I shouldn’t have done that,” because I just had, and again I don’t want to be graphic, but just nice, healthy bowel movements all day. I was like, “I got to go to the bathroom again. You guys, I’m so sorry.” I was like, “Okay. Next time, I’m going to wait until after the fair to do the protocol.”

Sheryl:  Right, right.

Paola:  Good. Any other protocols that you think our listeners might enjoy knowing about? I mean, these are all protocols that Joette has talked about on the blog and in her courses but it’s nice to have them all in one place here on this podcast.

Sheryl:  Right, right. Yes. You know what? Actually, I had a client who probably she was on vacation. They have gone out to dinner. She felt horrible after dinner. We pretty much narrowed it down. It sounded like a food poisoning type thing. So, I actually gave her the Arsenicum.

Paola:  Okay. Do you remember what potency?

Sheryl:  You know what? She could only get the 30.

Paola:  Okay.

Sheryl:  She had to get it locally at the store. So, I told her to take the Arsenicum 30. I told her to take it actually every 15 minutes.

Paola:  Okay, yes. So, it was pretty severe.

Sheryl:  Yes. She couldn’t move. She was in horrible pain. She said she felt better within an hour.

Paola:  Wow! That’s an improvement. Wow!

Sheryl:  Yes. So that was one. Now, I actually sometimes use that even for people if they say they’ve gone out to dinner and then they have a stomachache. I’ve used it with a couple of other people and they’ve had relief, even if they don’t know for sure if it’s food poisoning.

Paola:  Right, it’s just that stomach pain.

Sheryl:  But if they’re having issues after eating out, then I found out that one just works really well. Again, I use the Nux vomica if people go a party or overindulge or maybe drink too much. Then I recommended to that to people with success.

Paola:  Interesting. Then the Arsenicum for that stomach pain when they’ve gone out, is that Arsenicum 6?

Sheryl:  You know what? I’ve used both.

Paola:  Okay.

Sheryl:  I’ve used actually Arsenicum 6 for some congestion and Arsenicum 30 more for the stomach pain. But I know she suggests some different ways at different times.

Paola: [0:23:18 crosstalk]

Sheryl:  Yes.

Paola:  I know for us, before Joette, we did the full GAPS. We started Intro to GAPS and did all the steps. My four kids, they still refer to like, “Mom, remember that one time we went to the park?” I’m like, “I don’t remember.” It was before we ate soup. I’m like, “Oh, boy.”

Sheryl:  Oh.

Paola:  I know. It traumatized them. I know. That’s how they remember. It’s like this key time in our life when we ate a lot of soup. Anyway, as we transitioned out of the GAPS diet, my middle little boy, he was having lots of stomach pain. He was like, “Mom, my tummy hurts. Mom, my tummy hurts.” We’re drinking raw milk. We have a Jersey in the backyard. So, we’re eating well. We’re having lots of the good foods like you’re talking about. But he would still have this nagging tummy pain. So, we did do the Bovista protocol that you learn in the Good Gut, Bad Gut course with food intolerances. But also in addition to that, not mixed, but we did Colocynthis 30 twice a day. That helped tremendously. That was tremendously helpful for stomach pains for him. I think if you take the course, you can learn about the Arsenicum for stomach pain and the Colocynthis and differentiate between the two and what situations they’d be best served.

Sheryl:  Yes, for sure. Yes, they’re both great remedies.

Paola:  In closing, since we’ve been talking about diet and homeopathy, you used to be extreme with your Weston A. Price principles of diet. You’ve shifted from that. I think homeopathy has helped you do that. So, why don’t you tell us a little bit about that angle?

Using moderate diet with the remedies

Sheryl:  Yes. I would say definitely with help from Joette in teaching me about how much the homeopathy can help as well as still eating some of the foods that we want to eat or that are available to us, it helped me lighten up a little bit as far as how strict I am on diet. Maybe everything doesn’t have to be home-made or sprouted or cooked in broth or raw every second. So, I guess I’ve just lightened up a little bit and yet, I’m using the remedies regularly. Like I said, my daughter has some food allergies so I am using the Bovista and some of the other food intolerance remedies that she suggests in the course. And so, hopefully, my goal is to be able to feel that without having to be so extreme on the diet.

Paola:  Right, exactly. I think that’s the way to do it. I mean Joette says, and this is like blasphemy for a nutritionist, but she says, “You should be able to have McDonald’s.” Not that you ought to, but you should be able to do that.

Sheryl:  Yes, not that I would ever want that.

Paola:  I know. That’s gross. But yes. Remember what she said in the Good Gut, Bad Gut course? Do you remember this where she said, “I had an Egg McMuffin this week.”? And I was just like, “Oh, my goodness! This is like blasphemy.”

Sheryl:  Right.

Paola:  But I remember she was leaving town for an emergency with a family member. It’s nice to not have to pack the whole cooler full of specialized food and just be where your family needs you.

Sheryl:  Yes, and even my client who travels a lot, now she just carries the Arsenicum with her. She now uses that when she has the stomach pain after eating out. She just can’t even believe it.

Paola:  That’s awesome.

Sheryl:  So, she’s still able to eat out and yet has some relief either with that or Nux vomica. She found what works for her now. It’s pretty amazing.

Paola:  You remind me of the moms with moxie who have a lot of children, like Gaylyn, I think she has seven or eight children because you have all these clients. So, you get to see the homeopathy working for so many people on a regular basis.

Sheryl:  Right, right. That’s interesting. I always have such gratitude to those mothers out there who have so many. I’m always in awe of them.

Paola:  Yes, for sure. I know it. Well, Sheryl, thank you so much for letting me pick your brain on all things homeopathy and for being willing to chat with us. I think that your message is valuable. I love the combination that you brought in, that angle of diet with homeopathy. I think that’s wonderful. Thank you so much.

Sheryl:  Well, thank you. I really appreciate you having me.

Joette:  Are you or someone you know a mom with moxie? Well, we’re on the hunt for you. Of course, we don’t want to hear just from moms but from anyone who uses and loves homeopathy. Reach out to my podcast team and let us know why you’re a mom with moxie. For more information, contact [email protected].

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. If you liked it, please share it with your friends. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit joettecalabrese.com.

These Moms with Moxie podcasts are designed to be inspirational, not specifically educational. No Remedy Card is provided.

I’m especially excited about this month’s Sunday Podcast. First of all, I’m excited because we’re introducing a new series: Dads with Audacity. We hope that this series can encourage more husbands into the fold, by giving voices to the many men out there who are already supportive of their wives’ use of homeopathy in the family. And, I’m especially excited about this particular Dad with Audacity — because he is my husband, Perry! Maybe your husband will also enjoy meeting him, and getting a glimpse into how important homeopathy has been in our life together. Click here to listen to the podcast or read the transcript of Dads with Audacity: Empowering Wives — and Husbands — with Homeopathy!In this podcast, we cover:

01:14    Presenting Dads with Audacity podcast series

05:25    Let’s all meet Perry Smith

10:52    Perry talks about his background and how he supports Joette and homeopathy

24:23    The bad turkey, the skiing accident, and the bee sting

You are listening to a podcast from joettecalabrese.com where nationally certified American homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese, shares her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition.

Paola:  It’s podcast number 31 at JoetteCalabrese.com. We’ve got an exciting new interview series for you called Dads with Audacity.

Joette:  Each day from my office, I get to see how homeopathy is transforming lives all over the globe. I want to share them with you. Some of my students have really caught my eye. Some of you have done all you can to learn how to cure those around you using homeopathic medicines. Your successes inspire me. They’re glorious and powerful. I can’t keep these successes a secret any longer. So, with help from my roving reporters, we bring you a mini podcast series that I call Moms with Moxie. Sometimes we even interview dads with audacity. See how regular mothers and others, average people who want to cure those around them have gone from freaking to fabulous with homeopathy.

Paola:  Alright Joette, we’ve got a pretty special treat for our listeners today. We are launching a new podcast concept. We’re hoping this will inspire listeners to reach out to your podcast team and give us some more content. So, go ahead. Tell us what this new podcast series is going to be about.

Joette:  Well, the new series is you know, we have Moms with Moxie and so we thought we ought to have Dads with Audacity. 

Paola:  That’s right.

Joette:  So with that, we’re looking for and we found several dads who do have audacity and have used homeopathy and/or are using it regularly, and how they support their wives with it, or how they’ve used it independently of them, or how they used it as children, or they’ve used it on the job, et cetera, in their sports events, in the gym, and they share the information. All of that is what we’re looking for from these dads with audacity. Now, just as we use the word, “moms,” we don’t mean necessarily women who have given birth to children, because women have a tendency to be mothers to animals and their neighbors and to livestock, et cetera. So, dads don’t have to be actually a father but they can be men — but we like alliteration. 

Paola:  Actually the D and the D.

Joette:  Yes, right, right, right. So, it can be men in general. It doesn’t have to be only fathers but most of them turn out to be fathers. So, this is our move forward into embracing a larger extent of the community. 

Paola:  Well, and I also think that when we were developing this concept, Joette, we realized that this is what I see happening, at least in my study groups when I teach it with my students is you’ll get these moms. They will do their homework. They’ll buy the kit and they have the books. They’re all like, “We are ready to go on there,” just crossing their fingers waiting for something to happen. The kid comes out with an ear infection. Then the dad steps in and he ends up sometimes being more of a hindrance than a support. So, we thought maybe it would help these women to help bring their husbands into the fold by giving them voices from other guys, how they navigate the homeopathy waters.

Joette:  Right, right. Yes, because it is in most families, it turns out to be the woman’s job. So, we’re hoping that the dads if they’re not interested in homeopathy, at least they bow to the understanding that their wives have some expertise in mothering and caring for their children. They’ve taken this task of learning and using and supplying the family with homeopathy to the degree that it would be something that they could respect.

 Paola:  Right, yes. I love that.

Joette:  A lot of men also tell me … the fathers tell me what they love about is that it cuts their medical bills to a fraction. Veterinary bills can be cut down to a fraction. I think that can make a big difference especially in a world where health insurance may end up being just catastrophic insurance which in my estimation is really the best way to buy health insurance and not to have insurance for a child’s ear infection and every little event that comes down the pike. So then, you’re paying out of pocket for those events. But if you’re paying out of pocket and buying medicines and learning homeopathy and putting your education first instead of the insurance company’s premium first then you might find that in the end, many men will embrace this.

Paola:  That’s right. I think the numbers speak to the guys for sure.

Joette:  Yes.

Paola:  That’s great. I have to say I’ve interviewed now five guys starting with today’s debut interview which we’re going to talk about in a moment. But what I found interesting is that all of the guys actually don’t know much about homeopathy. They rely on the women in their lives. They kind of line up like baby birds, I like to joke. You know how the baby birds open their mouth and the mom comes and just drops remedies inside their mouths. So, that’s kind of how they do it but they love it because it works. They get the results that they want. They see their family thriving. So, would you like to introduce the next, our first debut dad with audacity?

Let’s all meet Perry Smith

Joette:  Yes. Our first dad to speak is my husband, Perry. We’ve been married for 31 plus years. We have three children. They’re all adults now. I discovered homeopathy when I was pregnant with our first son. So, that was I don’t know … it was 30, 29, 30 years ago. I found it because I was looking at the time, I had planned on not wanting, I planned on not using antibiotics for my children. I had been harmed by antibiotics myself so I needed to find an alternative. I knew about herbs. I had been taking care, raising plants and wildcrafting, et cetera, and making my own botanicals myself, my tinctures, et cetera. Certainly, I do the essential oils. I mean it was part of my tool kit. But once I found homeopathy, it really made great sense. So, when I found it, I declared it to him — to Perry of course — and it was just one more declaration as far as he was concerned because I had declared the essential oils. I declared organic foods. I declared that I wanted to have home births, et cetera. He just kind of “Yes. Okay. Well, you do the research.”

The reason that I married my husband, the reason I was attracted to him in the first place was because he was the quintessential gentleman. On our first date, he always opened doors. From that time forward even to this day when I went to the ladies’ room and we’re at a restaurant, to this day he stands up when I leave the table, stands up as I return to the table. He is the perfect gentleman. I think part of being a gentleman is knowing what you’re capable of and having the confidence in what you’re doing in life. Then in relationship to that, what your spouse is capable of doing and having respect for her. That’s really what matters. Gentlemanliness is really all about, when you think about it, it’s just respecting others. So, I’ve always felt that respect from him. Sometimes I didn’t deserve it. But plenty of times, I suppose I did. But that was a big part of the relationship.

He never said, “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” or “How could you possibly know these things?” He assumes that, when he saw how I dove into these kinds of subjects, that I went in all the way up to my eyeballs. So, he felt confident, I believe, and comfortable knowing that. Plus, to be honest, I think he had his plate full, and he didn’t want to take it on himself. So, respect for my desire not to be taking our kids to the pediatrician, and to have whole foods in the house, and even put up with my preliminary diets. I don’t know if he’d even talked about this in this conversation that he had with you. But he put up with my macrobiotic and my diets, and all of the diets that I put us through where we ate lots of kale. He still complains about kale — I just don’t buy it anymore because he hated it so much —  so juicing kale, et cetera. My husband because he’s respectful, I think that’s why it was an automatic for him. I didn’t have to convince him of the efficacy of homeopathy. But nonetheless, he saw it and he saw it regularly. I didn’t win every time. I didn’t cure every single condition that came down the pike with aplomb, but it happened enough times that his confidence grew in me over time as well.

Paola:  That’s an important thing and just allowing that observation to occur, giving room for observation and for her to do her thing, I think is the best way to go.

Alright, so let’s listen to that podcast. Let’s listen to the interview.

Joette:  Okay.

Paola:  Today, I’m going to interview someone that is pretty cool and pretty special to Joette. It’s someone that you’ve probably heard of but you’ve never met before here on Joette’s podcast. He’s the guy who makes sure the lights are on, the office stays connected to the internet, the computers are all running, the emails go out on time, and the bills get paid. He’s kind of like many of your husbands. What I like about Perry is he reminds of the Wizard of Oz where you have the wizard hiding behind the curtain doing all the work to make everything run. Well, that’s Perry. So, let me welcome Perry who is Joette’s husband. Hi Perry, how are you?

Perry:  Hi Paola. Wow! I never thought of myself that way. It’s kind of cool. I like that.

Paola:  Well, good. You should. You do a lot of work for Joette but you are always behind the scenes and giving Joette the spotlight. I think you like that. Is that right?

Perry:  I do. I like being in the support function.

Paola:  Well, I really appreciate you taking the time to be on this podcast with us because I know that you like being in the background but you have an interesting story. I think it’s great to hear a perspective from some of you guys. So, I appreciate you being willing to be with us.

Perry:  Sure.

Paola:  Pardon my voice. I am under the weather. I’m getting over a little cold here. I don’t get them very often. So, don’t worry, Perry. I’m taking Sanguinaria. I’m sure you’ve used it before in the past, right, for sinus.

Perry:  Oh yes.

Paola:  So Perry, tell me a little bit about your background.

Perry:  Going back two generations, my grandfather and my great grandfather were engineers. My father and his only brother were engineers. My brother is an engineer. I am the only non-engineer, I guess what’s that, in two generations of Smiths. There are probably more Smiths in there as well. I chose a different path. I went to college to become a doctor. I was in a pre-med program. But probably in the latter part of my junior year, at the beginning of my senior year, I decided that I probably did not want to continue on for another four or five years of med school. I actually toyed with the idea of chiropractic. My roommate went on in chiropractic. This would have been in the late 60s or the very early 70s. I probably would have been retired by now, though I likely would not have met Joette.

Paola:  Right, right. Well, I think it’s a good thing that you didn’t become a doctor because that probably wouldn’t have worked out too good.

Perry:  No, that’s right.

Paola:  Well, very good. Being in the engineering background and your family having that history, how do you think that has influenced your initial thoughts about homeopathy and perhaps your family’s opinion of it as well, initially?

Perry:  Well, that’s an interesting question because obviously everyone knows engineers like to deal with empirical thoughts — show me the facts. Early on in our homeopathic journey, there were no facts for me to go with. It was all clinical-based results. I watched Joette uproot her problems, her chemical sensitivities. Then I watched what she did with our children, first Perry and then Peter and then Giuseppe. That was all I needed. I was able to give up on the need for empirical, fact-based check. I went with what I saw. I went with my gut. It was pretty clear Joette was making it happen.

Paola:  Especially for men, initially when they look into homeopathy, they don’t run into the facts, the empirical data like you were saying right away. That usually comes secondary. Am I right?

Perry:  I guess, yes. I haven’t thought about it, but go ahead.

Paola:  Well, I think so. But I want to let you moms out there who are listening to this who would like to convince their husbands, that Perry, you have taken the time to provide Joette’s followers with a really great document that has a lot of that information. Why don’t you tell them about that?

Perry:  Well, we’ve been accumulating ourselves, just searching the web — we actually had a researcher doing it for us one summer — then I came across a document that was 200 pages of single-spaced, just research. Then I gave it to one of our staff just to check the links, to make sure the links were all active, but that 200 pages single-spaced just research on homeopathy. There are some great fellows. There are some great people out there. There’s Dr. Iris Bell. She is a senior PhD medical doctor who is doing extensive research. Then of course, there’s the Banerjis in India which we’ve now spent six years, six fellowships that I go along with Joette there. Then there’s John Benneth who has a blog that talks about the activity and the background of homeopathy. So, there’s a lot out there to find if you look for it. If you know where to look, you’ve got to be able to filter out the negative.

Paola:  Right. With your background, with your family, the engineering, the pre-med, you know there’s a need for those kinds of evidentiary, empirical data and you’ve provided that for Joette’s listeners. The way you find that data is you go to Joette’s homepage and you look under community. If you don’t have a log-in, just create a quick log-in. It’s free. You will find that information right there in the community section. I think that’s really valuable. So, thank you.

Perry:  As well as some photographs of Joette in India and some interesting stuff. Also, some infographics we create for many of our courses will be there to download for free, too. So, there’s a lot of stuff there. But it’s interesting, Paola. You mentioned the need to know why this works. For me, I was too busy running my business, creating a place for Joette, just support Joette so that she could raise our children. It was clear early on we wanted to have that separation. She ran the house. She raised the kids. I got involved in the homeschooling but I had a business to run during the day. I didn’t have time nor did I want to spend the time. It was clear to me she knew what she was doing. I was seeing the results. That’s all I needed.

Paola:  Right. You know Perry, I think that’s a really very fascinating and interesting point. You knew Joette loved your kids and you trusted her in her role to do what she had to do.

Perry:  Exactly.

Paola:  Perry, why do you think nowadays it’s such a hang up with some couples and their marriage where the husband is really pushing back against their wife who is doing the research? She’s taking study groups. She’s studying Joette’s classes. She’s buying her remedies. She bought her books. Then the second that ear infection blows through, she’s having to deal with an ear infection and a husband who is saying don’t do this.

Perry:  I don’t know if I have any answer, Paola. I suspect it’s deep. I mean it is trust. It’s willingness to give up responsibility, defer responsibility to your partner. It’s maturity of the marriage. There are a lot of things there.

Paola:  You and Joette, you guys were married a little bit older. I met Jason at 19. I got married at 20. So, we were young. I think maybe that has something to do with it. You guys have that wisdom.

Perry:  You’re right. We were in our late 30s. When Giuseppe came along, Joette was 43.

Paola:  43, yes, 43.

Perry:  It could be, Paola. It could be a lot of things. But you know what I found? I saw how successful Joette was in dealing with the acute things that came down the path with our kids. As I said, it worked for us. I didn’t need to get involved. I had too many other things to do. I didn’t need for me to go there. You got to understand something about Joette. When we say she’s got guts, spunk and moxie, she does. There was no reason that I was going to go up against that and have a big, blown up bargaining. It wasn’t going to happen.

Paola:  You kind of have to assert yourself as the mom when in your gut you really want to do this. You know it’s going to be good for your kid. I think it’s just the art of marriage and working it out and talking about. But it is something that you need to work through and get to the other side of if you want to do homeopathy.

Perry:  Yes. I don’t know why any guy would want to take on more responsibility in a marriage. It doesn’t make sense to me. Every mom that I’ve had an opportunity to meet in this organization, in this movement, clearly is committed to what they’re doing. Like you Paola, clearly committed to taking care of the kids. If the husband doesn’t see that, well, it’s kind of like … slap him across the face.

Paola:  On the back of the head. You have to have that conversation in your marriage because this is really for the betterment of not only your children but your future generations.

Perry:  That’s why we’re here. The purpose of marriage is to have children, to bring these people into the world. What better way to bring them into the world than to give them a medicine that’s going to grow them, which is going to treat them in the best way possible. We want them to grow. We have an expression in our house. That is when we fall, we always fall forward. We don’t fall backwards. If we have a problem and we get a slight bump on the road, we always consider that. We’re falling forward. We get up and we keep going.

Paola:  Right. I think that’s exactly what is at the core of your message with Joette because it really is you two together. This message is something that Joette’s kind of the spokesperson but you’re right there with her. I think at the core of the message of Joette’s version of homeopathy is empowering families, strengthening families. That is through health. That comes down to then your marriage needs to be strengthened. You need to figure this out and to know how to take care of your families. Because what’s that thing Joette says? Only professionals in white lab coats and other dictocrats, so to speak, hold the corner in raising children. That’s how society thinks of it. But really, Joette’s trying to give that power back to families and to moms.

Perry:  I think it’s coming around. I have read articles that say that even the millennials now are more willing for the mom to stay home. It’s coming around. It’s the right word. It really is the right word. If for some reason that can’t happen, the mom and the dad is in that financial point in their careers have to both work, I understand that too but then they share. There was a time when I was helping Joette raise the kids. I would get up very early in the morning. I’d get up at five in the morning and read for an hour and half to the kids. Then I’d go off to work and then she would take over. So, it’s a give and take.

Paola:  It’s just at face value you think when you learn homeopathy, you’re learning about just how to take care of your kids. But really, it kind of encompasses all facets of life, the marriage, the family, the health, the way you think about health. It’s political. It’s religious. It has all these layers to it that all of a sudden, you’re like shoot…I just wanted to treat this ear infection.

Perry:  Yes. But you know what? It’s taking on responsibility. With responsibility, and if you’re successful at it, you’re going to gain a special confidence. That confidence is going to carry you forward.

Paola:  Yes, correct.

Perry:  It is real. You’re right, Paola. It’s a lifestyle change, but it’s a real positive lifestyle change.

Paola:  Right.

Perry:  It’s natural for women to take on this healing role. It’s a good thing. It’s a positive. It’s probably instinctual. As a guy, it’s very empowering for a guy to be able to support that.

Paola:  Yes.

Perry:  That lifestyle that his wife wants to take on.

Paola:  Why is it empowering? Help me understand that. Why, to you, does that feel empowering to support your wife in that kind of a lifestyle?

Perry:  Well, think of yourself as a warrior. We go out every morning and — we don’t have to go out and kill the wildebeests — but no, we go out, we earn enough money to be able to allow your spouse to choose to stay at home or maybe work less, maybe only have to work two days or three days a week. But to be able to dedicate more of her time to her children because I think that’s instinctual.

Paola:  Yes, I think that’s beautiful. I love what you just said. I’m going to … press pause if you’re listening to this. Rewind and hear that again, because it’s true. I love it that you see that giving this to Joette empowers you. That’s how you should see this in a marriage when your kids are healthy and strong. Your son is a pilot now. Your other two sons are successful in college, and one runs his own business. That’s all thanks to health.

Perry:  Right.

Paola:  Let’s shift gears a little bit here and talk about … how about dealing with your parents, Joette’s in-laws, because I’m thinking back about how they have the engineering background and maybe homeopathy wouldn’t have been so natural to them. When’s the last time they’ve been to the doctor for a checkup or are they updated on their vaccines? How did you navigate that from a husband’s role?

Perry:  It was probably early on, there may have been a little bit of tension. We wouldn’t broach the subject with them. So, we didn’t put it out in front of them. We didn’t brag that we didn’t go to the doctor for every little cut, bruise, cold. We didn’t brag that they haven’t taken the antibiotics. If they asked, we would say everything was normal. We didn’t mislead them. We just said everything was fine. They saw the kids were healthy. But after a while, my mother learned not to ask. Until the end, she was very supportive of Joette. It was like she learned what we’re doing just by watching.

Paola:  Yes. I can imagine all these grandmothers today sitting in their circles talking about their grandkids. And how would you like to be the grandma with the kids that are healthy or whose mom is actively trying to uproot these chronic things, whereas everybody else is on the choo-choo train that takes them to more prescriptions and more prescriptions?

Perry:  Oh yes. My mother became, oh my gosh, we had to slow her down. She was so proud of her daughter-in-law and the success that she was having raising her children that she wanted to shout it from the rooftops. That’s what happens. It may take a little bit of while but that’s what happens.

Paola:  Right, if you allow it. I really think if you’re prayerful, to kind of get that guidance and to really thoughtfully work through these conflicts, you’ll be shown the right way to get through it and get to the other side of it with the least amount of conflict.

Perry, let’s hear just a couple of stories. I think we all know about your food poisoning story. If you don’t, just go to Joette’s blog. Perry likes turkey whether it’s fresh or gone bad.

Perry:  Right.

Paola:  She has a blog. You were pretty sick. I think Joette kind of watered it down for the article a little bit. But how bad was that food poisoning from that turkey?  The bad turkey, the skiing accident, and the bee sting

Perry:  I was in and out of consciousness. I was in quite a bit of pain. I was in and out of consciousness. I remembered Joette leaning over me, putting remedies in my mouth when I was so out of it. I didn’t have a clue. I guess I assumed that I had been poisoned by the turkey. Believe me when I tell you I was not in that room. I was clearly somewhere else …  but she brought me back, and I’m ever thankful for that. But that was not the first time. That was the first time I had experienced it, but I had another situation.

I remember I went over skiing. We live across the street from a ski area. I went over by myself one evening. I wanted to get three or four runs in. I was skiing down a particularly difficulty passage on the hill. That night, it was not lit as well as it should have been. I skied over the top of a ridge, came down a steep section and into a field of slalom gates. Those who have had skied know what slalom gates are. They’re basically plastic poles that are stuck in the ground. You’re supposed to ski around them. I came in to the field of them, and I didn’t see the pattern. All I saw was a mass of blue poles. I hit one. I started tumbling. We call it a garage sale when you end up at the bottom of the hill with nothing. Your gloves are even gone. Your hat is gone. Your skis are somewhere. Your poles are gone. I laid there. I looked at my fingers. I knew I had fallen in such a way that I had bent my head forward onto my chest.

Paola:  Oh no.

Perry:  I just sort of have done a forward roll. I’m sitting there. I’m not really conscious of where I am except that I know my fingers wiggle and I can move my legs. So, I’m assuming nothing is broken. I slowly got up. I found my skis. I had to ski to the bottom, ride the chair to the top. I walked home. I got home. Joette looked to me. She said, “What’s wrong with you?” I told her what happened. I’m really out of it. I don’t have a clue. I can’t remember, but I think it was pretty bad. She gave me a remedy. The following morning after sleeping a full night’s rest, though I was stiff, I was clear headed again. I can only imagine had I gone to the hospital, the myriad of tests, CT scans, X-rays, and everything else I would have gone through. I would have spent the night there under observation.

Paola:  But what you needed was to rest and to heal. And boy, those hospitals, that is not the place to get rest. You get poked and prodded throughout the night.

Perry:  Right. And again, I mean I came home. I knew something was wrong. I just instinctively went to Joette. She knew what to do: Aconitum 200 and then Arnica 200, Arnica of course for the -.

Paola:  The head injury, yes, very good.

Perry:  Then the next day, Nat sulph 1M.

Paola:  So, Joette gave you Nat sulph because the next day it was clear that you were still suffering from the concussion.

Perry:  You know, I recovered as quickly as I did. It is not a lasting memory. I remember distinctly before I met Joette, I remember falling off a ladder and breaking my wrist, going to the hospital and getting the pins, the casts. I can walk you through that whole thing. But this, probably just as severe if not more severe because it involved a head injury, I don’t have a lasting memory of it because it was resolved quickly and easily.

Paola:  Yes. It’s like you didn’t have post-traumatic stress because it was such a terrible … you know like it was awful … you bounced back. So, usually, when we bounce back from something, it’s okay. We kind of accept it. Do you have maybe one more story? Joette has talked about one of your sons have been allergic to bees.

Perry:  Yes. One of our sons was really allergic to bees. Joette has told the story many times. We decided that we were going to raise bees. Now, honey bees are generally friendly. I think you have bees, Paola. So, you know this.

Paola:  Yes.

Perry:  When you smoke them, they become relatively docile. Of course, we were generally covered, but we were back at the house on the back deck and he got stung. It was incredibly fast and scary how quickly his face puffed up. I have since looked for the photographs. I can’t find them. We did take them at the time. He was unrecognizable. We didn’t know who he was. Of course, the concern is that his throat is going to close up too. He was scared. Joette just gave him Ledum 200 every few minutes. And … it started to dissipate.

Paola:  Yeah, that Ledum is a little tricky because all the materia medica say it’s like cool and not swollen, puncture wound. But I have found that, too. I had an ant bite on my foot, and it kind of started swelling up. I kept using Apis and it wouldn’t work, but Ledum did. Joette has said that if you listened to her carefully in her classes, she says Ledum is often really great for bee stings. It can break the rules sometimes. So, keep that in mind.

Perry:  Oh, it was, yes. I can’t even describe it. It totally distorted his face. His lips all swelled up. We were obviously very worried. But he has since been stung — as you said early on — he has his own way of escaping this. He has since been stung multiple times. It is no longer an issue. Our kids have their own kits. They know what to do, although as Joette will tell you happily, she is as close as a text away. It is a great way to stay in touch with your kids because they text her. Joette remains relevant in their lives.

Paola:  That’s true. Yes.

Perry:  A very big part of their lives. And it’s not only the boys, but it’s the girls in their lives too. They get involved. It’s a beautiful thing. It really is a beautiful thing, to share with your kids.

Paola:  That is great.

Perry:  And educate them so they move forward.

Paola:  You fit the bill, Perry. You are a “Dad with Audacity.” I just really appreciate you taking the time and showing us your perspective on your homeopathic journey. We just so appreciate your support with Joette.

Perry:  A little bit in closing here to my fellow fathers out there, this really is a great feeling when you see your wife take on a task like learning homeopathy, becoming successful at it, and gaining a new inner strength. You could take credit for that because you’ve allowed that to happen by creating that environment. It’s good for both of you. It’s a great fit.

Paola:  It’s good for everyone. It empowers the whole family.

Perry:  Right.

Paola:  Thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate your time.

Perry:  I love you, Paola. Thank you.

Paola:  What a great interview, Joette. What a guy.

Joette:  Yes, he’s adorable, isn’t he?

Paola:  Yes. I love that you told us at the beginning how he still to this day stands up. I’m going to make my husband start standing up every time I leave the table.

Joette:  Well, he also taught our children to stand up when an adult comes in the room, shake their hand, look them in the eye. That was all a part of my husband’s training. My husband’s an old, New England prep. He is. He’s just an old preppy. Now, he’s an old preppy.

Paola:  A Renaissance man.

Joette:  Yes. I have a lot of respect for him as well as you can see folks when you listen to this. He’s a good guy.

Paola:  Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Thank you, Perry for letting us grab you and interview you. I know that was a little bit out of your comfort zone. So, that was pretty awesome of you to let us do that. So, thank you so much.

Joette:  Okay. Bye, Paola. Thanks.

Are you or someone you know a mom with moxie? Well, we’re on the hunt for you. And of course, we don’t want to hear just from moms but from anyone who uses and loves homeopathy. Reach out to my podcast team and let us know why you’re a mom with moxie. For more information, contact [email protected].

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. If you liked it, please share it with your friends. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit joettecalabrese.com.

In this podcast, we cover:

04:39    Finding Joette’s homeopathy

10:00    Organizing Joette’s blogs

12:25    Success stories and others

18:33    Failures encountered

25:29    Avoiding the ER

You are listening to a podcast from joettecalabrese.com where nationally certified American homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese, shares her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition.

Paola:  It’s podcast number 30 at joettecalabrese.com. We’ve got another Moms with Moxie miniseries for you.  

Joette:  All the way from my desk in New York, I get to see how homeopathy is transforming lives all over the globe. Some of my students have really caught my eye. Some of you have done all you can to learn how to cure those around you using homeopathic medicines. Your successes inspire me and they’re glorious and powerful. I can’t keep your successes a secret any longer. So, with help from my roving reporter, Paola, we bring you this mini podcast series that I call “Moms with Moxie.” It’s actually grandmoms, too but it’s Moms with Moxie. See how regular mothers and others, average people who want to cure those around them have gone from freaking to fabulous with homeopathy. 

Paola:   I am so excited to do another Moms with Moxie podcast. Today, we have Heather Stein. Heather is a rock star. She is a homeschooling mom of six. Her oldest is 10 and her youngest is a newborn. I actually tried scheduling this with you, Heather a while ago but you emailed back and said, “Well, I just gave birth like last week or something. So, can we push it out?” So, that was so funny. And you hail from St. Louis, Missouri.

Heather:  That’s right.

Paola:  Okay. I have just really enjoyed hearing your story. You seem like a very organized mom that’s on top of it. I think our listeners are going to enjoy hearing about that. So, let’s start. How did you come to find homeopathy?

Heather:  I came to find homeopathy when I was kind of embarking on natural health in general. My first child was one year old. We found out she had asthma. She had food allergies. She had an ear infection. A mom that I knew recommended just looking into this whole world of natural health which was totally new to me. As I was finding ways to heal my new family more naturally, I kept running into homeopathy. I didn’t understand what it was. It took kind of a learning curve. It wasn’t until a couple of years later, my midwife when I was having my second child was recommending some homeopathic. I said, “I really have to look into this.” So, I started learning more about it mainly just through books that I bought, also through online research. I started using mainly just low potency combination remedies to kind of try to get at some of the acute things that my family was dealing with.

Paola:  Awesome. That’s a great way to start. So, you knew right from the get-go that homeopathy was different from home remedies, natural remedies, how people lump those together.

Heather:  Yes, the Latin names really helped to set it apart for me that these things are all grouped together and there’s something different.

Paola:  Good for you. Yes. I have always had a sense that it was different. Thanks to my mom. But it’s important for anyone who’s listening to know that when you talk about homeopathy, we all get so familiar with it that we forget that other people might think it’s home remedies or whatever. So, you told me that you have a background in psychology and that homeopathy really made sense to you and influenced you to kind of continue pursuing it. So, tell us about that.

Heather:  Yes. So, I naturally kind of went to psychology as a major in college. I got a Bachelor’s in that. I just kind of had a little bit of a natural gift there and enjoyed figuring out how people check, and looking at the emotions, and how those fit together for people. So, when I was looking at homeopathy, I got really excited to find out that there was something more that I could do besides acute. So, I kind of started delving into classical a little bit because I saw how homeopathy looked at not just what was happening with the body but what was happening with the mind as well. So, that kind of got me involved a little bit further into homeopathy. I started looking at classical remedies. I had some success with it. I think because of my psychology background, it kind of made sense to me. But it was still a little bit hit or miss. I never really had too much confidence that the remedy was going to work. But I had enough confidence and enough successes that I felt like I was going to stick with it and keep trying and keep learning.

Paola:  Good for you. That’s exactly right. I think that’s wonderful that you kept pursuing it. Joette does talk about how often when you have someone that’s sick, their mental state, their emotional state will shift before the general state shifts. My daughter once was angry. I remember she made eye contact with me and like screamed into my face. I was like, “Okay, you’re mad about this here.” And then I gave her Belladonna which is red, hot, and angry. The first thing to improve was her attitude about it. She fell asleep and calmed down. So, there is that mind-body connection. But then you found Joette. So, tell us about that.

Heather:  Yes. This was actually before Joette was talking about Banerji Protocols because I’ve been following her for probably four or five years and on her to the Wise Traditions journal. I read her articles. I liked what she had to say and her method of presenting it and how she wanted to empower people to use homeopathy. Because I kept encountering with classical saying, “This is in the information but don’t use it. You’re probably not qualified to do this.” I kind of thought, “Well, I do have a psychology background. So, it’s probably not too bad for me to [0:05:07] into this. But Joette seems to be kind of putting it out there and saying, “You can do this.” So, I really liked that.

So, I started just following her blog and really keeping up with her. When she started presenting the Banerji Protocols, I was really excited because even though I was having some success with the classical method, I knew other people that weren’t and had abandoned homeopathy because they said this isn’t working for me. But I knew that there was something there. So, I was really excited about it. It seemed streamlined, easier to understand, not so much pouring over books. And for busy moms, that’s great. So, I started kind of going along that path with what she was presenting to all of us. It really started checking out for me. That’s where homeopathy started being sort of the go-to method in our home and crowding out some of the other things that were not working as well because homeopathy was working better.

Paola:  Like natural stuff that wasn’t working as well.

Heather:  Right.

Paola:  You bring up a really interesting point. I feel like you and Joette started classical. Obviously, Joette was a professional classical homeopath but the real alumni of Joette who’ve been around before she met the Banerjis. You all liked homeopathy but when Joette found the Banerjis, she was like, “Oh my gosh. This is a game changer.” I find that people who come into this not having experienced classical homeopathy all by itself first, I don’t think they sometimes appreciate how wonderful these protocols are because it’s what they’ve always had, kind of like true with modern technology and Google. Like well, life is often easy, right, because we can just Google it and there’s the answer. Where I remember when I was a kid, you can’t Google stuff.

Heather:  That’s right, yes. Very good. This is kind of like that.

Paola:  It is. They’re so wonderful. Joette, I just thank God for her because she empowers us. You’re right, other classical homeopath don’t want us doing this. Joette is trying to equip us with what we need to know to do this. So, that’s great.

Heather:  That’s right. That’s right. I thank God for her, too. She’s great.

Paola:  So, how long have you been doing homeopathy?

Heather:  In general since the very beginning, about nine years. Then like I said, I kind of was following along with Joette. I found her somewhere in there. That’s really the way that I learned about homeopathy now because the Banerji Protocols make it so simplified. Even when it’s not a Banerji Protocol, I feel like she presents it in a manner that really puts the tools in your hand and allows you to go ahead and use it.

Paola:  Yes, very true. So I guess now, this is the main way you care for your family’s health needs.

Heather:  Yes, it is. We travel often. I would have this bin, this plastic bin that’s the same as in our house. We call it the medicine bin. That’s what I keep with us on trips. It was always loaded with herbs and just various nutraceuticals and vitamins and minerals and all different kind of things that I gathered along the way in my research and experience that might heal a problem if we were gone, if somebody had a flu, or somebody had an accident. It was always brimming over with stuff. I had to kind of lug it around. But as I’ve used homeopathy and especially as I bought the kit, that medicine bin has been completely streamlined because mostly what I use now is homeopathy. So, it makes it very easy to put the right thing and go rather than having to kind of split all this stuff around just to be prepared. I feel like it’s so easy to be prepared with homeopathy.

Paola:  So, it’s like you went from having a natural medicine suitcase to a little basket or something. So that’s good, very good. I’m always curious and I like to ask the moms with moxie like you, how does your husband fit in? Is he supportive? Did it take a lot of convincing for him or what?

Heather:  The natural health and natural food stuff in general was a big leap for him. But once we kind of got on to that road, homeopathy for him has really lumped into all that.

Paola:  I see.

Heather:  I point that one, it saves us money because I feel like that really fixed him in, my husband.

Paola:  Yes, yes.

Heather:  So, when we avoid an ER visit because I was able to use homeopathy, I’d be sure to point that out to him because that way he knows that the money that we’re spending on remedies is working. It’s saving us money. So, that kind of really speaks to him. Whenever I had a success, I’d be sure to mention it to him so he knows that this thing that I’m trying out that he doesn’t really understand, it is working.

Paola:  Right. I like the way you’re describing it. You kind of just, as a matter of fact is that you just tell him. Joette says that for men, especially the skeptical ones, don’t get too excited. Don’t do backflips even though you want to. Just kind of let them witness and see that overall improvement progression benefit like you were saying. So, that’s great. Good for him. So now, he kind of lets you do your thing. That’s great.

Heather:  Yes.

Paola:  Great. Okay Heather, at the beginning of the podcast, I mentioned that you are super organized and you’ve got your act together. So, one of the things about Joette’s blog is that there is so much amazing information on it that it gets overwhelming. I hear that you have a pretty good system to keep track of it all.

Heather:  Yes. I am kind of an organized person. But I will say that I don’t stress about it. I don’t get really uptight about it. What I do is when I see a blog post by Joette that I think will be helpful to me, I either just write down the protocol on a little file very simply. I will note about what the remedy is and what it’s for, or if the whole blog post is really things like wow, I’m really going to need to look at this whole thing later on and reference it. Then I might print out the whole thing. Then I just stick it in a binder in a file that I have that have just a bunch of different protocols. I just print that out every once in a while. Every couple of months, I print out fresh copies so that I have everything that I need. Then that way if I don’t have access to the internet for whatever reason, I still got it all right there.

Paola:  That’s very smart. Do you have like little tabs in the binder? Do you organize it by subject or how do you do that?

Heather:  Yes. So, I have a tab for classes. Then I have a tab for just little jotted notes of remedies. And I have a tab for blog posts. It’s not organized in such a way that I can just flip to the perfect page right where it is. I do kind of have to flip through it a little bit. But I’m a busy mom. I don’t have time to really organize it to that extent. So, I just say to myself, “I’m just going to print this out.” And then it’s there.

Paola:  Yes, absolutely. One thing I’ve started doing is I’ve started squeezing little teeny, tiny notes in the margins of my materia medica, my favorite materia medica. I like that too because then it’s kind of there. Like if I learned something about this specific remedy, not really a condition, I just throw it in there. Then I have, I mentioned it before in another podcast, my little black book. I just alphabetized it. I just throw conditions and things about remedies in there too. I have to confess though. I don’t have my blogs organized. So, I will do that.

But actually that reminds me, at the time of this recording right now, we are very close to launching something. Maybe by the time it’s released, this will have already been launched. But we are going to start providing something at the end of the blog that is going to make keeping track of these protocols a little bit more easy. So, look forward to that. I think you’re going to love it.

Heather:  Oh great. That sounds great.

Paola:  Okay. So, let’s get to my favorite part of this podcast where I ask you, moms with moxie, for some stories. I’m sure you have plenty of them. Tell me what stories you have for us about successes and even, let’s be real, frustrations with homeopathy. So, let’s talk about all of them.

Heather:  Some of the things that I love most about learning about homeopathy is being able to share it with other people. A lot of times, I have friends just texting and saying, “Hey, what do you think about this or what do you think about that?” One time, I had a friend who texted me and said, “I’m vomiting constantly. I can’t stop throwing up. Can you help me?” I thought, “Oh boy!” My first thought was Arsenicum. But I thought, you know, better look this up just to make sure that I’m thinking the right thing. So, I did. I thought yes, Arsenicum sounds like a really good place to start. So I said, “Well, I have this but I can’t get it to you.” She said, “Well, I can’t get it either because I’m throwing up.” So, she sent her mom over to my house.

Paola:  Oh bless those mothers.

Heather:  Mom is going to pick it up. Yes, I know. God bless her, right? And so, her mom took it over to her. She texted me a little while later and said, “This totally works. Thank you so much. I can’t thank you enough.” Because when you’re that sick, you just need somebody to help you.

Paola:  I know.

Heather:  So, it was great because it was one of those things where it just worked and it worked in a dramatic way. So, that was really fun. In fact, after that experience, she wanted to learn more about homeopathy. So, she ended up taking the Good Gut, Bad Gut course because she felt how that one remedy works for her.

Paola:  Very good. So, have you taken the Good Gut, Bad Gut course?

Heather:  I have, yes. It’s been very helpful. One of the things that I use from that course was Aethusa for milk intolerance. I’ve had milk intolerance my whole life. I just never thought it could get better. I thought I just have to avoid milk forever even when I love it. So when I saw that, I thought, “I’m going to try this.”

Paola:  How did your intolerance present?

Heather:  I would have a huge eczema flare. I kind of have this low level eczema. I would drink milk and then boom! My hands would just be red and on fire and super itchy.

Paola:  Oh my gosh, okay.

Heather:  So I thought, I’m going to give this a try and I’m going to be patient with it. So, I took it for about three months. I thought, “Okay. I’m going to try it and see if anything happens so far.” And it was the same. I really couldn’t see a difference but I didn’t want to let that stop me. I thought, “Okay, she said many months.” So, I’m going to stick with it. It hasn’t been many months. It’s only been like three. So, I went for it another maybe three to six months. I thought, “Okay, I’m going to try it again.” I did. I didn’t have a big eczema flare up but I did have just a lot of sneezing, runny, mucousy nose. I thought, “Oh no, I have messed this up.” I just created a problem. But I decided to have faith and just stick with it a little bit more because I thought maybe it’s just working its way through my body. Maybe it’s getting better. Maybe it’s just a different way that it’s manifesting it.

Paola:  That is a tricky thing to kind of figure out, okay, am I getting worse? Am I getting better? I don’t know. She does coach us in her courses how to do that. But I think the interesting thing is for sure, your eczema was better. I agree. Like if I were you, I probably would have continued as well.

Heather:  Yes. It was very different from many things I have experienced in the past. Before I thought, this has to be due to the remedy. The remedy has to be doing something. I didn’t think that the remedy would make it worse. So I stuck with it. About another six months later, I kind of thought [0:15:25]. I thought, “Oh, I’m still taking this remedy. I need to see if it’s working.” So, I tried drinking a glass of milk and nothing happened. I kept searching for some symptom that was going to come up and just nothing did. It was just really impressive to me that after about a year or so of just sticking with it really worked for me.

Paola:  That’s amazing. I know you mentioned that you were reading the Wise Tradition magazine. That’s the Weston A. Price magazine. A lot of us try and eat, drink food with the Weston A. Price principles. So, that’s great that you can have raw milk now.

Heather:  Yes. It’s so frustrating to see that healthy food and say, “I just can’t eat that.” So, I’m excited.

Paola:  Exactly, very good. We have a little Jersey cow in the backyard. I used to be very intolerant to milk as well. So, I’m so thankful I can have six inches of cream any time I want to.

Heather:  That’s right. We had goats and we milk them.

Paola:  Oh awesome.

Heather:  I couldn’t drink the milk and it was so sad.

Paola:  That is so sad. How frustrating. Oh, my gosh! I would not have a cow if I’m not going to be able to drink the milk.

Heather:  Yes.

Paola:  Okay. So, tell me another story about your friend’s son who had a cough.

Heather:  Yes. A lot of my friends are very into natural health, even homeopathy. It feels like homeopathy is really taking off. Her son had a homeopathic doctor. He was a classical homeopath. She had taken her son to him and nothing had changed with the cold. And so, she was sharing with me that she was frustrated about it. She was at my house. Her son was just a little toddler. He was one year old and he was just hacking constantly. It was so sad. As she was talking to me, something was nagging in the back of my mind. I just kept thinking. I know Joette had a blog post about it but I don’t remember what the remedy was. So, I just got on the computer and I looked it up. I couldn’t exactly place what the remedy was. I plainly knew that Joette had blogged about it. I looked it up and sure enough, there it was. It was Ipecac. And so, since I had my handy kit, I went upstairs and I grabbed it. I said, “Why don’t you just try this?” She was kind of dubious because the classical homeopath hadn’t helped.

Paola:  Right.

Heather:  But I said, “I can’t make any promises but this sounds right to me.” So, she gave it to him. Within five minutes, he just bonked out and went right to sleep. I said, “Oh, that’s really good.” So, he took a nice, long nap. She loaded him in the car to come home. Later that night, she talked to me and said, “The cough is definitely getting better.” I said, “Okay. Well, keep it up until it’s very much better.” So, she kept up with it for a few days. She just thinks our story is hilarious because the classical homeopath couldn’t kick the cough and yet, we look it up on the computer, go on Joette’s blog and there it is.

Paola:  That’s wonderful. I like that secretly you outwitted the professional homeopath.

Heather:  I don’t think I could do it every time.

Paola:  Well, that’s the point here though is that Joette’s blog is so informative. I’m sure that homeopath is really great. He’s allowed to not get it right the first time all the time. But Joette has this really great ability to distill the information in the blog and make it usable and ready for us.

Heather:  Yes.

Paola:  I think it’s important to be real though. Have you had any trouble with homeopathy or frustrations?

Heather:  Oh, I have. I want to talk about failures because I think it’s important that we as moms still listen to these podcasts and think, “This mom is getting it right every time. She’s always nailing it. And I keep failing. What’s wrong?” As I learn, I get it right more often. But I’ve definitely had failures. One of the failures that we had was I had a daughter with a UTI. I tried Cantharis and it wasn’t working. I had on my shopping list to buy Medorrhinum but I didn’t have it. I couldn’t give it because I didn’t have it. She ended up being brought to urgent care. We have a great natural practitioner but I couldn’t get her in and she had to have something. That was the first time that we had used drugs in a long time. It really hurt but I went, “You know what? It being on my shopping list isn’t going to cure my family.”

Paola:  That’s right.

Heather:  I needed to have it in my kit. And so, that was a really good lesson for me to make sure I have what I need.

Paola:  I agree with you. That is why we try our best to be prepared. But I think it’s good too that you haven’t beaten yourself up over it too much.

Heather:  That’s right. We just do what we can with what we’ve got at the moment.

Paola:  Right. Also, you mentioned that your daughter has some asthma as well.

Heather:  Yes, she does. She struggled with that her whole life. She’s 10. I’ve tried a lot of different natural things but it’s one of those chronic things that’s just really hard to uproot. I found a remedy through Joette’s blog that she gave for asthma. We were seeing some success and then it just kind of plateaued. I went, “I just don’t think this is working for her anymore. We’re not getting any further with it.” So, I had to put that on pause. I’m looking forward to taking Joette’s Allergic course because my understanding is she goes into that chronic asthma more there. I think that that could help get us to the next level with it. Right now, we’re just on pause there until I can take that course and learn more.

Paola:  Good for you. Yes, I think that’s a really good plan. Another frustration I think you had one time was with an ear infection with one of your kids. I think generally, ear infections can be pretty easy for kids but this is one of those times that you couldn’t figure it out with homeopathy.

Heather:  Yes. I was just trying and trying. It was clear that the remedies that I was using were not helping. Like I said, we took her to that really good natural practitioner we have and she got over it. But I wanted to learn how to overcome that with homeopathy. So, I had that on my radar as something to learn more about. Lo and behold, on one of these podcasts you mentioned the Banerji Protocol of Pulsatilla and Chamomilla.

Paola:  I’m going to repeat it. There is more than one. But the one I knew at the time is Pulsatilla 30, twice a day and then Chamomilla 30, as needed for pain, and maybe once every hour, once every 15 minutes if it’s extreme and the person is freaking out, or once every three hours if it’s under control.

Heather:  Yes. That’s what I wrote down. Sure enough, this is just last weekend. I have toddler twins. They’re two years old. My little boy came in in the morning and he had a very high fever. He was pulling on his ear and just cupping his ear. He was very fussy. We don’t have a lot of ear infections here at home but they do come up. This is his first. Right away I knew. He was saying, “My ear hurt.” I thought, “Okay. Here we go, ear infection.” This is my big chance to use this protocol and see if we can have some success. I started the protocol just as you mentioned. I was giving him the Chamomilla every 30 minutes because he was very fussy. I would give him the remedy and then he would take his nap for about 30 minutes. He’d wake up and he’d still be very cranky about it. Then I’d give it to him again. After I did three or four times, he took a big two-hour nap. Then I thought, “Oh, great. I think we’re getting something here.” He woke up again and he was a little less fussy. The fever was still very high. His ear still hurt. But I could tell that it was working. So, I gave him the remedy again.

Paola:  It goes back to that psychology at the beginning. Your mentals tend to shift before the generals…

Heather:  Yes.

Paola:  before that fever is gone or the infection is totally gone. Then what?

Heather:  Well, then he took another big two-hour nap. Then after that, I could tell that it was really, really changing. I was super confident that we had the right thing. I slowed down even more on the Chamomilla because he was just really wasn’t that irritable. By the end of the day, he was about 90%. He was back to himself. And I thought, “All right, we had a success.”

Paola:  Yes.

Heather:  I was really excited about it. I thought I have what I need now, kind of a go-to thing to try for the next ear infection. Well, little did I know, I woke up the very next morning and his twin sister comes in and she says, “My ear hurts.” “Oh, no! What is this?”

Paola:  I know.

Heather:  Why this would happen. But it did. But I was glad though because I felt like, “Okay. We had a really great success just yesterday. I’m going to try this again.” But the interesting thing was she didn’t have a fever. Whereas my son just laid there and napped all day, that’s just how he is when he is sick, my daughter is restless. She’s roaming around. She annoys everybody with her irritability. It’s just so frustrating. I thought, “Well, this is a Banerji protocol. I don’t have to look at all of that. I can just say she has an ear infection.” So I thought, “I’m going to try the same thing.”

Paola:  Yes, because in classical homeopathy, this is for the listeners who are really new to this, in classical homeopathy, you would really have to pay attention to that different presentation, right? But as Joette teaches the protocols, she’s saying as long as you have the appropriate diagnosis and you apply the protocol, then you’re good to go. So go on.

Heather:  So, I went ahead and I did the same thing that I did with her brother the day before. For her, she was irritable for longer. I didn’t see results for a longer period of time. But I wanted to stick with it. I could see about halfway into the day that yes, she was improving even though it was slowly. By the end of the day, she was very much better as well. And so, I love that story because it was just two totally different ways for the ear infection to present. The only thing that was the same was that it was an ear infection. But at the same time, that Banerji Protocol, those remedies worked for both children.

Paola:  That is a very good point. There are a few things I like about this. This is a great lesson in your experience. First is understanding the protocols and trusting them as long as you have the appropriate diagnosis. But the other thing too in that very first ear infection that you had that you couldn’t figure out, you didn’t have the protocol yet, it’s nice to have the natural practitioner. You have a back-up plan. I think that’s really quite wise because you were not going to get it right every single time. It’s okay to have back-up plan; very good story.

If I can squeeze in one more story out of you, I hear your baby in the background. It sounds like he’s still pretty happy but I don’t want to keep you forever. You said that you have avoided the ER in a couple of emergency situations. This is a big perk for your husband. Husbands of moms out there, you can save money with homeopathy. So, tell us some of your ER stories.

Heather:  Yes. I have a couple of stories about avoiding the ER. My two-year-old son, the one that had the ear infection, we were actually traveling. This is a great lesson for having a kit with you. We had just gotten to our destination. We were just beginning to relax. He fell down this flight of stairs that had the metal thing on the edge of each one. He popped his forehead open and when he fell on that metal thing, it just burst open. By the time I got downstairs, my husband was already down there, he was holding him, there was blood everywhere. I could see as his heart was pumping, the blood was just pulsing out. It was really bad. Right away, we started pressure on it. Once we got the pressure on, I got my kit. I pulled out the Arnica and I gave him a dose. I was just giving him doses about every five minutes. While we were trying to comfort him and keep that compress on there, after a couple of minutes, we looked and the bleeding had stopped. We were implementing our plan to go to the ER so we’re rushing around. We’re getting him ready. We’re getting him back in the car. My husband and I, “Get in the car.” We looked back at him. He was kind of looking at us like, “What’s going on, guys?” He was totally normal. He was totally fine. He was like, “Why are we back in the car?” He had no clue why we were all running around. He felt fine. So, we looked at each other and we went, “Wait a second. Well, I guess we don’t have to go to the ER.” Well, he still had this gush and so we wanted to take care of that. So, instead of going to the ER, we just went to Walgreens and got a butterfly bandage.

Paola:  I love it.

Heather:  And he was great. He was fine.

Paola:  That’s awesome. I love that. Everybody’s running around. It sounds like you forget like, “No, wait. I have this thing on my team, Arnica.” I have yet interviewed a mom with moxie, maybe I have, that hasn’t mentioned Arnica. It’s great, great remedy for us moms who have kiddos that fall down flights of stairs with sharp corners.

Heather:  It’s great.

Paola:  Then tell us about your four-year-old’s bike accident.

Heather:  She was riding her bike. Actually, this is interesting because my mother-in-law live with us. We were walking and talking and my daughter just totally went careening down the hill and fell off her bike. When I got through and saw her, I thought, “Oh, my goodness!” The whole side of her face was just completely scraped up and swollen. I mean, she was almost unrecognizable. It was really bad. Thanks be to God, she had her helmet on, of course. But I could see right away that it was her skin and we weren’t dealing with a concussion here.

Paola:  Right.

Heather:  So, we got her cleaned up and everything. I, of course, was giving her Arnica right away. The neat thing about that was that I knew that Arnica was going to get this under control much faster than if we didn’t have it. So, I took a before and after picture.

Paola:  Oh, wow!

Heather:  I took a picture when she was really bad, when she was really, really swollen. The first three days I took pictures of her. Then it just really dropped off. The swelling completely went down and she healed up superfast. A week later, I took another picture and I said, “Look, she’s doing so much better,” to my family. They just couldn’t believe how quickly her face was healing up. She just had this beautiful, little face. It was just so sad to see it just so fully ripped up. She looks great. She has no scars. You can’t tell that she had that bike accident. It’s a year and a half later and it didn’t even scar up at all. Months later, you couldn’t tell that it happened.

Paola:  That’s amazing. I think taking these pictures are really important because if you take the picture, it helps with two things, I had found. A, it helps you keep track of what it was and what it is now.

Heather:  Yes.

Paola:  The second thing is because as it improves, the improvement, even though it’s better from yesterday, it still sometimes looks terrible. It becomes the new-terrible and you forget about the old-terrible. That’s very wise to take photos because it helps you measure that improvement. But then when it’s all over, your brain can still minimize it. “Oh, it wasn’t that bad.” So, you have these photos to help you remember no, it was horrible. Don’t forget that.

Heather:  Yes.

Paola:  Kind of that human condition Joette talks about that we forget, so good for you. I’m so glad. Was your mother-in-law freaking out how you handled it?

Heather:  Well, everybody is like, “Why don’t you just go to the doctor?” There’s a lot of good there because they want the child to be okay. But once we had her take a warm bath and got her calmed down, and we got her face cleaned up, and it was obvious that she didn’t have a concussion, she just needed to heal. She lives out of town. So a week later, she could see wow! She’s doing so much better. That, I’m sure, was comforting for her.

Paola:  Of course, very good. Well, great. To finish up our podcast today especially while your sweet little baby is still happy, I wanted you to share with us. This is a really cute idea, your gift of homeopathy that you did for some family members.

Heather:  Yes. So, I wanted to give a Christmas gift that they could really use. I thought, “Well, what do I know about?” Well, I know about homeopathy. So, I asked each of my family members, my mom, my dad, my two sisters. I said, “What’s the health problem that’s bothering you the most?” They told me. So, I looked up the remedy for each one of their issues. Thankfully, they didn’t give me anything that was too difficult. So, I looked up the remedy for each one. I bought them a bottle of the remedy. I put it in a cute little bag. I wrote up some instructions for them, and how to tell whether or not the remedy is working, and how often to take in and everything like that. I just tuck that little sheet of paper in there with the bottle. I gave it to them for Christmas.

Paola:  That is just too cute. It’s the gift of health. You’re so awesome. I love that story. You even have done something similar for baby showers and things like that. I just think that is so awesome. You’re a good sister-in-law and sister.

Heather:  It’s fun to help others.

Paola:  It is. We encourage you to email us at [email protected]. That’s what Heather did. Thank you so much, Heather for reaching out because it’s been really inspiring and fun talking to you and hearing your successes and your journey with homeopathy. Thanks so much for taking the time from your busy schedule.

Heather:  Thanks for having me. It’s been fun for me, too.

Joette:  Are you or someone you know a mom with moxie? Well, we’re on the hunt for you. And of course, we don’t want to hear just from moms but from anyone who uses and loves homeopathy. Reach out to my podcast team and let us know why you’re a mom with moxie. For more information, contact [email protected].

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. If you liked it, please share it with your friends. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit joettecalabrese.com.

These Moms with Moxie podcasts are designed to be inspirational, not specifically educational. No Remedy Card is provided.