Joette Calabrese Podcast

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Podcast 51 – Aging: Our Grandparents, Our Parents and Us May 30, 2018

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IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER: 06:16 Unnecessary medicines 08:04 ER Episode 09:34 Choosing your doctor 12:38 The strategy of imposing fear 17:00 Taking care of the elderly 24:45 Top aging remedies 30:25 Modern medicine 40:25 New course: Mindful Homeopathy 41:13 Joette’s goal LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST: Ignatia 200 — for anxiety Coffea 200 — for insomnia Arthritis blogs Darvocet banned Hypericum or Arnica (or both) or Bryonia — for pain Weston A. Price Foundation — nutrition and health Practical Homeopathy® course page Gateway to Homeopathy: A Guided Study Group Curriculum Free resources from Joette Calabrese: Podcasts Blogs Most important remedies to own (remember to use the code “Joette” to receive 20% off your Boiron purchase): Arnica montana 200C Aconitum Rhus tox Kali phos Symphytum Hepar sulph Joette: You don’t live a charmed life in this world. Nobody gets away scot-free. There’s no such thing! The fate of your family is in your hands. Kate: You are listening to Podcast Number 51 with Joette Calabrese at practicalhomeopathy.com. On today’s podcast, Joette shares her strategies for staying healthy now and as we age. We will learn about the top homeopathic medicines for anxiety and insomnia. And, stay tuned at the end of this podcast for an exciting announcement! Hi, I’m Kate. I’m here with Joette. Today, we’re going to talk about growing old. As I think of growing old, all these negative images come to mind like wrinkles and gray hair and forgetting things. So, tell me Joette, what do we have to look forward to besides that? Not that you’re old, but you work with a lot … Joette: Yeah, because I have experience now that I’m as old as I am. You know, what’s really funny? I just had a birthday. I thought I was turning 67. I was certain I was turning 67. My son said, “Mom, you’re turning 66.” So, I added a year! Kate: Oh, my gosh! Joette: I’ve been adding a year for a long time. I’ve been thinking I was going to be 67 soon. It turned out that I was 65, and I just turned 66! Kate: Oh! Joette: So, I just lost a whole year. So, I have much less confidence in what I can offer today now. Kate: But, you’re much younger. Because you have your mother living with you, and so, you are very familiar with the aging process. Joette: Yes! Kate: You’ve walked through this with your parents. Joette: I do think that. As they say, “Stuff happens.” I suppose there are ways to slow it down. In fact, I think it’s almost empirically verifiable that you could slow things down. I think that a lot of it has to do with looking around you and looking at those who are not in good health — and then doing the opposite. Kate: Yeah, right? Joette: I actually told my kids that when they were little. Whatever everyone else is doing around you, do the opposite, and then you’ll be pretty safe — in general. I wrote an article quite a while ago called, “My Dad and the Dead Cardiologists.” My father remarked how was it that he was doing so well. I mean he had his problems. There’s no doubt about it. But, why is it that all of his cardiologists were dying? They were like falling like flies on a windowsill? It was amazing! I think in the article, my father and I had accounted for seven, and then after the article was published, we counted two more that had died. None of these doctors was older than my father. They were all his age or younger. He outlived them, sometimes by as much as 25 years and in many cases, 10 years. So, why is it? Did my father have fabulous genes? No. He had a lot of brothers, and they all died quite young. His parents died young. His mother died in her sixties. His father died in his … I’m going to say it was also in his sixties. He had brothers that died in their sixties. He had sisters that died in their sixties. One sister — now, my father was one of 14 — one sister lived to 99. But, she was the only one who had longevity — and my father, who lived to 90 (just over 90). So, you wonder what’s the difference? I think that the difference has to do with how often you go to the doctor. I think the more we go to the doctor — the more drugs and procedures we submit ourselves to — the sicker we become. Then more drugs on top of that to deal with the side effects of the first drug, the second drug, the third, the fourth. I mean, I have folks who come to me who have a page-long of drugs. Kate: Oh, my goodness! Joette: It takes that many drugs. I do the best I can to help them, but it is a sad state of affairs. You know, my grandparents on both sides of my family were very poor — especially my father’s side — very, very poor when they came to this country. They were Sicilians. They were laborers. My mother’s side of the family also came with no money. They were also Sicilian on both sides. Then my husband’s side of the family was very well-to-do. They did very well in the 1930s, which was unusual. They weren’t hurt by the depression. My husband and I have often marveled at how often his grandparents went to the doctor. They went frequently because it was considered the educated thing to do. It was an upscale thing to do. So, they did it! They thought they were being responsible to themselves and to their families by subjecting themselves to test after test after test. And then, hence, drug after drug. People do have to make that connection: Test equals treatment. Just know that! A test is not there to prove to you that you’re great or that you’re healthy. That test is there to prove to you that you’re not well, and you need this drug. It’s that simple. So, they submitted themselves to lots of tests, hence drugs. And they didn’t live much longer than my side of the family — certainly, not his grandfather and his grandmother on the other side. One grandmother did have some good longevity, but she was anti-doctor! That’s what I think saved her. So, when my grandparents got sick, my grandmother went in the backyard and picked dandelions and bark from the local herbalist and made tinctures and made teas and gave the family those kinds of things. When my grandmother gave birth, she gave birth at home — all of them. All 14 of them were born at home. Kate: 14! Joette: 14 kids. So, she knew her stuff! I think the more children we have, the more we learn, of course. We have to! We become less dependent on others. Unnecessary medicines Kate: Here’s an interesting story. I recently went with my grandmother to the emergency room because she was having some severe pain in her back and in her abdomen. They were going to run some tests, but first, they came into her room with some medication for her to take. They came in and I said, “What is this medication for?” And, they said, “For nausea.” And I said, “Wait a minute. She’s not nauseous.” “Well, yeah, but she mentioned once that sometime today, she felt a little nauseous — one time.” Joette: Oh, for goodness’ sakes! Kate: I thought, “Are you kidding me?” Joette: Jump at it! Jump on that! You just move fast on that! Kate: Right! If I hadn’t been there questioning what they were doing, why they were giving that? And then you know one medication … like you said, the nausea medication, and then that might have caused some other symptoms and then that medication … Joette: Well, it would have. It has to! Conventional drugs must cause side effects. They are toxins. Now, it doesn’t mean they can’t do some good because sometimes the side effect of that toxin can be loss of consciousness — which is important if you’re going to go undergo surgery. But remember, it is a toxin! The liver has a hard time processing all that. It’s a very different way of looking at it when you realize that the side effect might be that you can get rid of headaches, but the real effect is that it destroys your liver. Kate: Right. Choices! You have to weigh that out. How badly do you want to get rid of that headache, and what are my alternatives rather than those drugs? Joette: Well, and the promise is specious. Even those who are promoting these drugs don’t even realize that these drugs are as bad as they are. They just listen to the drug reps. ER episode Kate: Thinking back to the emergency room episode with my grandmother, she had some stomach and back pain. It was under her ribs. I thought about this whole experience afterwards. If you’re going to take elderly parents in (or grandparents), be there! Ask lots of questions about what are they doing, why are they doing this. Because looking back, afterwards … she wanted to go. She was in some pain. We didn’t know why. They never figured it out. But, they did a CT scan of her abdomen. They put this radioactive dye through her veins. Right? Joette: Yeah, the contrasting dye. Kate: So now, her body has to process that. First, they had to give her fluids, so that her body could process those toxins and get them out quickly. But, she underwent that test and a couple of others. And, we look back afterwards, and I think the reason she was having the pain is because she was coughing really hard from some cold or something that she had. And I think she pulled some muscles! That’s what was causing the pain. They did give her a couple of different medications for acid reflux and something else (I can’t remember what it was now). So, she went home with two new prescriptions. Joette: Yeah, on top of the ones she’s already taking for her high blood pressure, the baby aspirin, the statin drugs, the leg cramp anti-spasmodic, the insomnia drug. Oh, yeah! Choosing your doctor Dr. William Osler who was one of the founding directors of the Johns Hopkins University once said, “The person who takes medicine must recover twice: once from the disease and once from the medicine.” Kate: It would be interesting to know when he said that — at the end of his career? Joette: It’s hard to say, but let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about beginning and ending of doctors’ careers because that really matters in this discussion today. I love that you brought that up, because I don’t think that doctors come to wisdom early on. Who comes to wisdom when you’re, you know, 25? It’s pretty rare. You want a doctor who’s in his sixties. There are a couple of reasons for that. The first is that there’s lots of clinical experience behind him. He has been in practice a good 40 years — maybe 35 years — and he’s seen it time and again. You also want someone who thinks outside of the box, not just because of his clinical experience, but because he doesn’t care about the American Medical Association anymore or the board breathing down his neck. He’s in his sixties. He’s almost done! He’s going to retire in a few years. So, he’s willing to question the standard of care. So, that “standard of care” means they use this method because everybody else is. Yikes! That’s not a consensus. This is not about everybody agreeing on something. That’s not the way science works. Science is not based on consensus. Also, he’s playing golf now on Thursdays. So, he’s relaxed. When he goes to work, he enjoys it better. He is more present with his patients. I don’t mean to make doctors sound as though they’re greedy because I don’t believe that they are. I do believe that most doctors go into medicine for lofty reasons, but they’re human. When they’re young and they’re not making any money (because they’ve just finished a four-year residency after medical school of three or four years, and before that, it was college), and all they’ve done is borrow and borrow and borrow money to go to the next level of their education. It’s the same as your attorney. It’s the same as anyone who’s in a profession where it costs a lot of money to get to the top, and then they have great expenses. So, you want someone who’s not focused on his woes. He’s now gotten to the point in his life where he can really be who he is, and that is someone who cares about other human beings. Kate: You’re talking about choosing a doctor. Say, you’re working with your elderly parents. They want to have that medical care because that’s what they trust, right? So, how do you work with that? The strategy of imposing fear Joette: If you’re talking about that situation, that’s pretty rough to do. I take care of my mother; I am her sole provider right now. My brother shares it with me from time to time. But, he was taking care of her for a while; now, I’ve got her full-time. So, I have full control, and he’s on the same page as I am with her care. But, when my father was alive, that was a different story — not only for my mother but also for my father. Now, my father trusted me. But, this is one of the techniques that you have to be aware of. He was a veteran. The VA Hospital, as well as the other doctors he was going to, called regularly to make sure that he showed up for his appointments. If they hadn’t set an appointment, they’d set it then. “You’ve got to come in.” “Well, no,” he’d say. My father did not want to go in because he knew what was up. My father figured it out a long time ago that every time he went in, he got more drugs — and also, they scared the bejeebers out of him. But, they convinced him almost every time until the last couple of years. But they convinced him, “Look, you have to come.” “Why?” he would say. Now, they know exactly what to say, exactly what to say to bring you in. They scare folks. “Well, because if you don’t take this drug, if you don’t get this medication reinstated, you could die!” They actually say those things. The insinuation is you have to do this because this is for your health. You don’t want to go to the point where you could be very, very sick from not taking this drug or from doing this or that. So, it scares people. When I was in television sales — I used to sell airtime for a small, independent television station. Then, I sold airtime for an affiliate of NBC in Buffalo — we were trained to deal with the objections. So, when the person said, “I can’t afford it,” you gave them the answer that was predetermined — that was canned of sorts — to explain why they could afford it. And then even break it down for them and show them how they could. If they said, “I don’t like your television station,” you gave them an example of how this television station was superior to the others (if you were dealing with competition). No matter what they said, we had the objection memorized. We knew exactly what they were going to say. There was nothing new. It was all the same kinds of objections, and we had all the answers. That’s how it works in sales. I also used to sell real estate in Washington D.C., and it was the same thing in real estate. It was the same thing when I was on the board of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. That you knew exactly what to say when someone didn’t want to sponsor you because you’ve heard them so many times. Now, the person you’re talking to, though, has never been in this situation before. They’re brand new. They’re walking in like little lambs. So, they say, “What, really? That could happen to me?” Bam! Got the appointment. Kate: When it comes to your health, people are worried in general, anyway. Joette: They’re already in a difficult state. Listen, I’m also culpable. I fell for all of this stuff myself — for years and years and years. I decided by the time I started to have my children that I wanted to have home births. But, it took a long time for me to get to that point. Because leading up to that, had I not gone circuitously all around trying to find the answers through modern medicine for my ill health, trying to find the answers through alternative medicine for my ill health, trying to find the answers doing nothing for my ill health, I finally came to the point where I said, “Guess what, Joette? It’s in your hands.” I’m a walking refutation. I can refute every one of these practically. Now, please, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you should never go to the doctor. I’m just saying, cut back — way too many appointments, way too many … you know, well-baby checkups, well-child checkups, OB…

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Podcast 50 – Moms with Moxie: Homeopathy Gave me Freedom! May 17, 2018

Show notes

IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER: 01:53 Advocate for one’s health 04:02 The true parameters 11:00 Treating rashes through homeopathy 16:35 Learning about Joette 22:33 Pregnancy journey 40:45 Using remedies during and after surgery 42:38 Dealing with pain 44:48 Newborn remedies and some success stories 49:17 Annie and the Aconite; some diagnostic tools LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST: abbyloopers.org – Support group for transabdominal cerclage Sepia — for “Monster Mom” moodiness and fertility Mag phos — for post-surgical heartburn Nux vomica — for post-surgical nausea Argentum nitricum — for post-surgical anxiety Joette’s blogs on Surgery Prep — “Answering Your Questions: Surgery” “Anticipating Surgery? Homeopathy Can Help” Aconite 200 — for newborn entry after C-section and for shock after accidents Chelidonium 6X — for newborn’s jaundice Arnica — for injury (in pets as well as humans) You are listening to a podcast from practicalhomeopathy.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: Each day from my office, I get to see how homeopathy is transforming lives all over the globe, and 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. Kate: You are listening to Podcast Number 50 at practicalhomeopathy.com. Hi, this is Kate. I am here with Kathryn today. Kathryn is a brave, strong woman. You will be amazed at the stories she has to tell. I know that you will learn something today from her. So, Kathryn, welcome to the podcast. Kathryn: Thank you. I’m excited to be here. Kate: I’m excited to learn from you, Kathryn, because I’ve heard some pretty amazing stories about the things that you’ve gone through, and how you’ve used homeopathy in amazing ways. So, why don’t we get started by learning a little bit more about you. Give us some information about where you live and your family. Kathryn: Sure. I’m from Texas. I’ve been married to my husband, Nam, for 14 years. We have twin, five-year-old daughters, Charlotte and Esther, and a newborn daughter, Rosemary Advocate for one’s health Kate: As Kathryn and I have been talking, preparing for this podcast, I think that Kathryn is brave. That’s the word that comes to my mind when I think about Kathryn because she is one tough cookie. Let’s just put it that way. So, Kathryn, you say that you are a proponent of people advocating for themselves and that’s what you do. You are an advocate for yourself, for your children, for your family. So just give us a little bit of a background in how you came to be such a strong advocate for your health. Kathryn: So, my background … I really didn’t have a particular interest in anything medical or advocacy for myself until 2010. Then I was pregnant with twin boys and sadly, I delivered them very early during my second trimester. Isaac and Samuel both passed away very shortly after birth. That was horrible, and all the doctors that I met with — yeah — they all said, “Well that was a fluke. Well, that was a twin thing.” And I had lots of frozen embryos because we had done IVF. I assumed correctly that I would have twins again, and I couldn’t go with just a “fluke” or a “twin thing.” So, I really had to dig in and research and find out what had happened and what I could do to prevent it again. That put me in contact with lots of other women who were courageous and brave and had gone through similar things and had a better outcome. It took me out of state and definitely out of my comfort zone. But, as my husband and I explored and researched that area, we really learned about advocacy. We had learned about understanding the true parameters of a situation. Just because somebody tells you what something is, that doesn’t mean that’s actually true. Sometimes it might be. But, we really learned how to identify correct parameters with our sons’ (Isaac and Samuel) passing. So, that’s where advocacy started. Kate: Kathryn, I can’t even imagine what you went through. I’m so sorry that that happened. The true parameters Kate: So, Kathryn, can you give us a little bit more of an understanding what you mean when you say, “find out what the true parameters are.” Kathryn: Sure. So, when something happens, you go to the doctor that you have a relationship with or who has been with you through something. And, you ask for his expertise, and he gives them to you as if it’s fact. And, that may not always be the case. So, for me with my sons, Isaac and Samuel, I was told, “That’s it. It was a fluke. It’s a twin thing. We don’t know. It probably won’t happen again.” I went to the next doctor, a specialist. I met with him. He said, “It’s just a fluke. We don’t know why. It probably won’t happen again.” But then, I went to an out-of-state doctor who happens to be the world’s foremost expert, in my opinion, on cervical insufficiency. He said, “No, it’s not a fluke. This is a classic incompetent cervix. And here are your options and here is what I think is best and here is why.” So, if I had just stuck with what those other doctors said as fact — fact: it’s a fluke; fact: it probably won’t happen again — then in all likelihood, I would have lost more children. So, because I really wanted to make sure that those boundaries were in fact true — they were correct — I found out that they weren’t! I was able to get other information and other insights. Kate: You didn’t take “no” for an answer, right? You just kept digging in and researching and kept looking for what you thought was the sufficient answer, and you really wanted to know the truth. Kathryn: I did. I remember sitting in the second doctor’s office that I consulted with. I said to him, “I feel like I’m fighting for my future children’s lives.” He kind of smirked and laughed and said, “Well, you’re not really in that camp yet.” But, I think he’s wrong. I was in that camp. I had frozen embryos that I felt it was my obligation to protect and to give a chance at life. I really was fighting for them. Kate: That boggles my mind. How could he even say that? Oh my gosh! So, you actually took a trip out-of-state to see this other doctor. You found him … do you mind me asking who this doctor was that you found because maybe some other listeners want to know who this is. Kathryn: Yes, Dr. Arthur Haney is at the University of Chicago. He is well-known for his work with cervical insufficient patients. He performs a particular surgery called a transabdominal cerclage which is a permanent cerclage placed through surgery. It is very different than a traditional vaginal cerclage that many women are familiar with. So, I was able to do a free phone consult with him and free email with him because he just has a heart to want to help moms who have gone through this. He gave me the information. My husband and I prayed on it. We met with several older couples that we really trusted to kind of run through the information to make sure we were understanding it and thinking through it correctly. You got to have your people around you that you trust so that you can run information by them. And, we ended up traveling out-of-state. He is in Chicago, and I had surgery there — which on the front end of it, going out-of-state for surgery and then staying in a hotel after being cut open, that sounded really scary to me. But it was fantastic! There’s a group of women who advocate for this particular procedure called the TAC. And they really helped to prepare me. It’s just a great sisterhood to be a part of, and Dr. Haney is a saint for helping all of us. Kate: So, when you say TAC, is that an acronym? What does that stand for? Kathryn: Yeah, TAC, T-A-C stands for transabdominal cerclage. Kate: Okay. So, there’s a Facebook group? Kathryn: Probably the best group to get information about that procedure is called Abbyloopers, and their website is abbyloopers.org, A-B-B-Y-L-O-O-P-E-R-S.org. Kate: Great! Thank you for sharing that information. So, then you healed from that, and everything went okay after that? Kathryn: Not quite. I thought that we would be able to jump right back into fertility and do a frozen embryo transfer. Unfortunately, I noticed that my vision changed. So, I went to the doctor because why wasn’t I seeing? After lots of trial and error and looking into different things, it turned out that I had a very small, benign tumor on my optic nerve. And, I didn’t know enough back then to know of alternative methods. I did ask the oncologist, “Are there alternatives to radiation for this?” He said, “No.” There were not. I don’t know what happened to my advocacy-self, but I think I was just scared because my vision had changed, and I couldn’t see. Kate: I’m thinking through this as you’re saying it. And, I think it’s so important if you can’t advocate for yourself, to have someone else who can advocate for you. If you are in the hospital, have someone there the entire time! Kathryn: Yes, absolutely. My mother and my husband were champions for me. But, we were still inside of a conventional paradigm. That’s kind of where … I don’t know that I failed. I mean that’s where I was at that time. But, I advocated for myself within that conventional paradigm. So, I did end up having radiation for that tumor. Then after that, I had a wait period. Then, we were able to pursue fertility, and I did, in fact, then have my twin daughters. Kate: Wow! How exciting to have twins! Kathryn: It was very exciting. Treating rashes through homeopathy Kate: Okay. So, let’s talk a little bit about where in that period of time you learned about homeopathy. Kathryn: Sure. So just like Joette says, new mom really wants to make sure she’s doing the right thing for her children. Certainly, I had fought very hard to have these girls. I wanted to do the best by them. So, when my daughters were about a year old, one of them developed this really horrible diaper rash. It wasn’t minor. It was down her legs and up her backside and really painful for her. I tried lots and lots of naturopathic things. After a month and a half or so, it just was not gone, and it was getting worse. So, I loaded her up, and we drove an hour away to our pediatrician (because I can’t just have a pediatrician close by, of course, in particular). The nurse practitioner looked at it and she said, “Well, have you done this? And I said, “Yes.” “Have you done this?” And I said, “Yes.” She went through this list of naturopathic things. I had done all of them. She said, “Well, you’ve done everything I would recommend. So, at this point, we really need to go ahead and give her a steroid cream.” I know I hear everybody gasping, but I didn’t know and my child was in pain! So, I took the prescription for the steroid cream. We went home, and it was the tiniest little tube. (I look back and that was such a blessing.) But, I applied the cream and sure enough, that rash started improving. It did not go away by any means, but it started improving. Just when I thought we might be over a hump of it going away, the tube of cream ran out! So, in the time that I had to wait for the doctor’s office to call in to refill — and the pharmacy — the rash came back with a vengeance. Kate, I think it was literally a one-day delay. But it came back horribly! I went ahead and applied the second tube, and we went through it, and it never made a dent in the rash. It just remained really terrible. I’m so thankful for that, but I didn’t know that then. So, I thought, “Well, if I take her back to the pediatrician, she already told me the next step would be giving her an oral antifungal.” I thought, “I don’t want to give her this oral antifungal. She’s a baby!” So, I really wasn’t sure what to do, but my child was still in pain. My husband said, “Look, take her to the doctor tomorrow and take her to a real doctor,” which is pretty funny because he knows that I would have gone through a naturopathic doctor or the chiropractor or, if I could have found it, a witch doctor — anybody besides back to the pediatrician because I did not want to give that oral antifungal. Kate: Yeah. Kathryn: So, I had my marching orders. Take her to a real doctor. Then I remembered, “Hey, there’s a real doctor who’s not very far. (Real meaning he’s an MD.) He practiced something called “homeopathy.” I don’t really know a ton about that, but it’s not going to be a prescription for the oral antifungal. And, it meets my husband’s criteria of a real doctor.” So, off we went. Kate: Did your husband know that you were taking her to an MD homeopath? Kathryn: No! No, I didn’t tell him. I did say, “Guess I’ll go to a real doctor.” So, we went. I took her to the real doctor, this homeopath. He asked a few questions. Well, actually pretty in-depth questions, and they were difficult to answer because she was 14 months old — and he’s a classical homeopath. So, it was pretty hard to answer those questions about my 14-month-old’s preferences. Anyhow, he asked questions. Then he did do an overall exam, listening to her and looking at her. Then he went over to his cabinet. And he opened a little bottle of something. (I think they were like Number 10 pillules — they were so small.) He put a few on a piece of paper and made it like a funnel, and he opened her mouth; put them in, and he said, “Okay, there you go.” I thought, “What do you mean, ‘There you go’?” I said, “Okay, so do I give this to her twice a day or a few times a day?” He said, “No. That’s it.” I said, “What do you mean that’s it?” He said, “That’s it. That should take care of it. If you need me, you can email me next week.” Kate: Meanwhile, are you thinking in your head, “My husband is going to say, ‘What in the world?’” Kathryn: Yes! We went and checked out, and I paid. So yeah, I drove home, and I thought, “My husband is going to be so angry with me. What have I done? I just got taken for a ride.” Because I didn’t really have experience with homeopathy, I didn’t really know what it was. I just knew I was trying to avoid that prescription medication. So, got home … I had to admit to my husband what I’d done. He wasn’t very happy with me, but it was bedtime, so we all went to bed. So, we woke up the next morning and I eagerly went in there and took her diaper off. Holy cow! That rash that had persisted horribly for over two months was 50% diminished. Kate: Wow! Kathryn: I could not believe it. I called my husband in there, and we just kind of stared in disbelief. That was on a Tuesday. By Thursday, it was totally gone! Kate: Oh, my goodness! Kathryn: I was floored. I was astounded. I thought I have got to know what that was. I couldn’t believe it. Kate: Right. So, did you call him? Kathryn: No. I dashed off an email to him saying, “You won’t believe this!” But of course, he did. Kate: Yeah. Learning about Joette Kathryn: I had a friend at church who I knew used homeopathy. She and I started talking about it and looking at things. That was really over my head. There was so much minutia involved. I got a couple of books that were for moms and things to help with infants and children. I could kind of navigate through, but I didn’t have a ton of success. I didn’t really know what I was looking for. I certainly didn’t have anything as grand as that rash that disappeared in four days, but then this friend came across Joette. So, she said, “I’ve got to show you this stuff.” So, she introduced me to Joette’s website and to…

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Podcast 49 – Shedding Light on Provings and Aggravations Apr 25, 2018

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IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER: 01:37What’s new with practicalhomeopathy.com 04:46 Joette’s pet peeves 09:39 Melanie’s story and aggravations 18:04 Proving and antidotes 22:23 For the highly sensitive people 28:58 Know your medicines 38:10 To summarize LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST: Gateway to Homeopathy Guided Study Group Joette Calabrese Facebook page Petroleum 200C for dry skin Cantharis and Medorrhinum for bladder issues Gelsemium 6C for anxiety and nervousness about upcoming event Lycopodium 200 for bloating Camphor 200 one dose, one day to antidote (see blog post: “Stop It! How to Antidote a Bad Drug Reaction” Ignatia or Aconitum for anxiety Gelsemium 6X for chronic anxiety Ignatia for nightmares Facebook Live: Provings and Aggravations Facebook Live: Provings and Aggravations: Take 2 (better video quality than previous) Podcast 33 — New (and Not So New) to Homeopathy Part II (section on proving) Looking for Proof That Homeopathy is Effective? We’ve Got It! (blog post containing brief history of Dr. Hahnemann’s usage of provings) You are listening to a podcast from practicalhomeopathy.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: Everyone is very frightened of provings, and I am here to say, “I’m not worried about provings!” I don’t know where the idea has come from that proving is a very, very dangerous thing. It is not. Kate: You are listening to Podcast Number 49 at practicalhomeopathy.com with Joette Calabrese. In today’s podcast, Joette will address the topic of provings and aggravations. Listen in as Joette answers some of your questions about this subject. Joette and I are here together again today to bring you another podcast from practicalhomeopathy.com. Joette, I’m having a hard time keeping a straight face because I’m looking at you and you have this white, huge thing on your microphone. And it looks … I don’t know … it looks like a big sock on your microphone. Joette: I know. It looks like I have like a dental infection or something, and I’ve got tooth pain, and I’ve got ice in there or something. So, it’s all puffed up around my face. Kate: Oh, my goodness! Joette: We left our filter back in our other home, and it’s hard to remember to bring everything back and forth. So, you got to look at this funny looking sock on my microphone. Kate: Because you’re in Canada right now, right? Joette: Right. Kate: Yes. So, you’re back in the cold, yay! Joette: Yes. Kate: Okay, so let’s talk today, Joette, about … we have a couple of things coming up soon that we’re going to be launching. Why don’t you go ahead and tell us a little bit about what’s coming? What’s new with practicalhomeopathy.com Joette: Well, the first thing that’s coming up that I keep promising folks who ask me that, “It’s going to be coming next week,” — but, I don’t know when it will be finished — is our Gateway II (which is the follow-up to the study groups that had started before). You taught a few of those courses — actually many of those courses — haven’t you, Kate? You’ve gotten to be kind of our expert in running those courses and bringing people in — mostly moms and grandmothers from all over the country, even all over the world — to meet once a week or once a month. So, this is a follow up to Gateway I. So, it’s for those who’ve already taken Gateway I. They can join right into Gateway II. So, just watch for that. What I love about this Gateway curriculum is that they are … it’s an opportunity for folks to get to know each other and spend time together. I’m told that, in fact, one group has gotten so close that — they are from all over the country — they’re actually all meeting in Florida in a couple of months. They asked me if I would join them and meet them for lunch, and they were going to have a slumber party. I said, “Well, I don’t know about the slumber party part!” But, it does sound like fun. I do want to meet all these people in person. I’ve known them now for quite a while because of our affiliation with these classes that I teach and these study groups that have been organized now for probably over a year. So, these groups, they’re kindred spirits. These are moms or grandmothers. Some of them have never had children, but they take care of their pets, et cetera, and neighbors and all. They count on each other. They help each other on Facebook, through the studies and the teachings that I’ve given them. And I just love that. And some of them branch out and learn other information as well, and they incorporate that into their relationships with their friends. So, that’s Gateway II. Then the next thing that we have going after that or sometime around there as well, is we’re now putting together a course called “Mindful Homeopathy.” It’s going to be on the mind and emotions, psychological problems, anxiety, sleep issues, attention deficit disorders, etc., behavior disorders in children, behavior disorders in husbands (just being silly), but behavior disorders and anger problems. “My dog had an anger issue after he was vaccinated for rabies,” etc. Those are the kinds of things that we’re going to be touching upon and teaching protocols that are specific. Because the best part about this course, that I believe is one of the most pertinent aspects, is that it will be so easily integrated into any other course that you’ve taken of mine — because, of course, we’re all psychological. You can’t have one condition without another. So, it integrates seamlessly one into the other. It will round out the understanding of how to use homeopathy with these protocols and this practical method that I teach. Kate: Great! Well, I’m looking forward to taking that course. So, we will look for those things. I’m sure there will be more information coming out on the Facebook page and emails and so forth, so … exciting stuff happening. Joette’s pet peeves So Joette, I was thinking today as we were getting ready for this podcast. I was thinking about you, and who you are. I’ve gotten to know you over the last five years, I think we’ve been working together. Some of the things that come to my mind that describe you, some words that describe you, I would say that you are super smart. You’re super fun. Joette: Oh, smart too, that’s great. Thank you. Kate: You are classy. Joette: I don’t know where you got that idea! Kate: You are, and you are classy. You are caring, and you’re cheerful and warm. Those are just some of the words, but Joette, let’s talk a little bit about what are some of your … Joette: The downside, my bad side. Kate: Yeah! Joette: The dark side! Kate: I was thinking I’ve never really seen you in a bad mood or upset. You’re always very cheerful and upbeat with a positive attitude. That’s one of the things that I admire about you and I respect you for. But, I know you like to have fun. And so just for fun, let’s talk about what are some of the things that irritate you or some of your pet peeves. Joette: You told me you were going to ask me this, Kate. Well, we’ve just moved into a house that I just adore. Really, it’s a great little place. It’s in Canada. It’s not a permanent move. It’s a partial move, but it’s a great little cottage. But, somebody about 6-foot-3 designed this kitchen and I’m just skimming 5-foot-1. So, my husband says, “Well, just get one of those kick stools and kick it across the room and then step on it — you know, that kind of thing with the wheels underneath.” But even with that, believe it or not, these countertops are so high, and the cabinets are even higher. I get the use of one shelf in the cabinets. I can’t get to the second shelf. Forget the third shelf — I’d get a nosebleed if I went up that high. So, that altitude is way out of my reach. So, it leaves me with a kitchen that’s less than as functional as I need it to be, because I love to cook. So that’s one of my pet peeves. Whoever, if you could just tell me — now that this out into the ethers — somebody find out who designed these tall kitchen countertops and cabinets in my house. So, that’s my pet peeve. The world is designed for tall people. The whole world is designed that way. So, that’s one of them. I guess my height is a challenge sometimes. So, I don’t know. Another pet peeve … when I come back here to Canada, my skin gets dry. I love being in Florida. It feels so supple and moist and nice. It’s always so great. Isn’t it amazing? My hands get dry, and coconut oil just doesn’t cut it. And I eat a ton of butter. I mean, my husband just brought me a cup of coffee, and I put butter in that — a good teaspoon, sometimes even as much as a tablespoon. That just doesn’t do it. So just for those who want to know how I treat that, when it gets bad enough then I take Petroleum 200C, every other day. Now, it’s not that bad. My hands aren’t cracked, but it’s just that feeling like, “Oh yeah, we’ve been in the north now for what, 10 days? And already my skin is starting to get dry.” So, there’s nothing like the south and the ocean air and the saltwater to make your skin nice and comfortable. So, that’s I guess my next pet peeve. The next pet peeve is probably my dog, Buster, who … he’s my pet. Kate: Oh Buster! Joette: Yes, he’s peevish. I know. I think he’s got a bladder thing going on because he gets us up at night. The last two nights, he’s been waking us up and saying, “Come on, come on, I got to go. I got to go.” At first, we thought it was just restlessness and anxiety, but now I’ve realized that I think it’s his old poodle-type bladder. I think I’m going to give him some Cantharis and Medorrhinum, and that will probably calm him down. But, my pet peeve is I don’t like to be awakened at night because it’s hard for me to fall back to sleep. So, Buster is just going to have to either hold it … Kate: Poor Buster! Awww! Joette: I know, sitting there with his legs crossed for a while and wait until morning. I’m sure that if it is … that’s what it is then Cantharis and Medorrhinum is going to take care of it. Kate: I feel like Buster always has something going on, doesn’t he? Joette: He does. He’s an old dog. He’s 13. And they tell us that, from my readings, poodles don’t live very much longer than 13 — anywhere between 11 and 15 years. So, Buster’s at his peak of performance. I think he passed that a while ago, actually. But he’s actually doing pretty darn well for an old dog. I mean, he’s had the fleas. He had fleas last year. He’s had tendonitis and those kinds of things. But generally speaking, he’s really not doing too badly. Kate: That’s good. Joette: Because he’s our baby, we got to take care of him all the time. Melanie’s story and aggravations Kate: So today, we’re going to talk a little bit about provings and aggravations. Just to flesh that out a little more, really to help our listeners understand how to tell when we’re experiencing a proving or an aggravation, and what we can do about that. Joette: Yes. I have someone who wrote in. I think it was on the blog. I’m just going to read to you what she wrote: “I need some clarification, wisdom, knowledge. I’m struggling to understand whether new symptoms are a proving, an aggravation, or a symptom of healing. I guess I really don’t understand how to recognize which is which, and my tendency is to assume a proving, and antidote. “For example, this past weekend, I had four performances for church. I took Gelsemium for the anticipatory anxiety and to keep my voice steady for singing.” (You know all about that, Kate. You’re a singer too.) “I’m also leaving for a long road trip with my daughter this morning, and I’m having a little anxiety about it. Last night, I developed a migraine which I would definitely say fits the characteristics of Gelsemium headache and was feeling many of the Gelsemium keynotes: fear over health, the anxiety over upcoming event, etc. Instead of taking more Gelsemium, I assumed that I proved the remedy from using it so much this weekend, about four to five times, so I antidoted it last night. I still have the headache this morning. Any and all wisdom, advice or article recommendations are welcome.” So, that was Melanie who wrote that. I don’t know if Melanie is going to be listening to this, but I thought it would be useful to use her story. I do believe, based on what she’s told me — four to five times over a two-day period — no, it’s not horrible, but it’s probably a little bit too much. Normally, if we use Gelsemium in a 6C, we use it twice a day or for a couple of days in advance. But if you’re using it four to five times in one day, that certainly is way too many times. Now, let’s say she used that Gelsemium only four times over two days. So, that would mean, of course, that she would have used it twice daily. That would mean to me that Gelsemium — if it wasn’t working — it’s wrong. It’s either too much frequency, or it’s the wrong remedy. It could also mean the wrong potency. So, wrong means a number of things: not just the remedy, not just the potency, but also the frequency. So, you have to get it right. That makes a big difference. So, when someone says there is a “healing,” that is a term that’s often used in naturopathic world. But in homeopathy, we call it an aggravation. Things get a little bit worse before they get better. It’s often a positive sign, but I find that it’s a positive sign more often in classical homeopathy. Let me make this distinction first. In classical homeopathy, we generally use one remedy, one potency. Give it once — maybe a split dose, once that morning and then once again that night — and then that’s it. We wait six to eight weeks to see what comes of it. During that period of time without taking anything else, we can see that things worsen. What’s worse? The symptoms that you’ve had most recently or even just in your past. If things are made worse that you’ve experienced in the past … So. if you’ve had eczema, and it was behind your ear, and now it’s behind your knees — that’s still the same thing. Just because it’s in a different location doesn’t mean it’s no longer eczema. It’s still the same condition. So, if it worsens after taking a remedy from a classical point of view, that is generally considered a positive shift. That means that remedy may have overshot the center a little bit too much, pushed it over but things will soften out. And in short order, things will become more comfortable again. Then on the other side of that, if we could use it as a bell curve for example, on the other side of the curve is a healing on its way. Now, that was one of the reasons I didn’t like classical homeopathy. I didn’t like warning people that there could be an aggravation because then sometimes they wouldn’t even take the remedy. Or they would become so frightened that I would have to spend a lot of time trying to convince them to go ahead and do it. Or even including myself, I don’t want to go through an aggravation. I don’t want to see my children get worse before they get better. It depends on what worse means. And could it be dangerous? It’s unlikely to get dangerous when we’re using classical homeopathy, because we’re moving in a direction of correction. I’ve never seen it get dangerous, but I suppose it’s possible. But at any rate, what I didn’t like is … I didn’t like all the phone calls. What if this has happened? Does this mean this? Does this mean that? It’s too hard to really know until you’ve had some time to be able to step back and assess. So, I didn’t like that aspect of it. So, years ago when I was studying with Dr. Ramakrishnan, long before I started using any protocols, he told us that, “Well, if you have an aggravation, one of the best ways to keep from getting one — actually to preclude it — is to head it off at the pass and don’t give the remedy only once or twice over a 1-, 12- to 24-hour period. Instead, give it twice a day for several days. Eve…

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Podcast 48 – Moms with Moxie: Bring it on! I can handle that Apr 18, 2018

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IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER: 04:05 Jessica’s homeopathic journey 10:40 When you think it doesn’t work? 15:24 Strep throat 19:14 Skin issues 20:45 “Charlie stories” 28:52 Joette’s materia medica LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST: Skin, the Ugly Truth: Safe, Effective Treatment of Skin Ailments, Chronic or Acute, with Homeopathy Aconitum napellus (Aconite) for croup and for stressed moms ColdCalm® Gateway to Homeopathy Guided Study Group Antimonium crudum for canker sores Hepar sulph for strep throat Protocol for impetigo: “Impetigo Treated with Homeopathy Puts Out The Fire” Arnica for injury, trauma Ledum Phytolacca for mastitis Remedy kits from Joette Joette’s materia medica You are listening to a podcast from practicalhomeopathy.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. Jessica: I no longer fear illness. I no longer get anxiety. I mean, of course, there’s the general feeling of you just don’t want people to be sick. I almost, in a sense, have this feeling of, “Bring it on! I can handle that.” Joette: Each day from my office, I get to see how homeopathy is transforming lives all over the globe and 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. Kate: You are listening to Podcast Number 48 at practicalhomeopathy.com. I’m Kate and I would like to introduce you to a mom who has gone from freaking to fearless with homeopathy. Jessica has a contagious enthusiasm for homeopathy, and I’m so excited to have her share with us today. Jessica has some great stories for us today about how she’s been using homeopathy. And she’s even started leading study groups, and so she’s pretty connected with her community — getting to know people and teach this. And so, Jessica, I want to welcome you here today. Jessica: Hi! Thank you so much for having me. Kate: Yes, we’re excited to get to know you, Jessica. So, why don’t you start by telling us a little bit about yourself, and then we’ll get to hear your homeopathy stories. Jessica: Sure. Well, I’m a mom of three boys who are ages seven, just-turned-six yesterday, and an almost two-year-old, and married to my husband. And, we are out on the North Fork of Long Island, enjoying our lives here on beaches, and the vineyards, and the farms. I also teach yoga. I am very excited because I recently discovered Joette, and it’s totally changed my life. I am more than excited to be here sharing all this with other people because all I want to do is shout it from the rooftops. Kate: I think once you start learning about homeopathy, you want to tell everyone, “This can change your life!” Right? Jessica: Yes, absolutely. It really has changed my life. I mean, I’ve been using natural means of medicine for a long time from herbal medicine, and just trying to not use antibiotics and things like that, eat healthy diets, and stay away from lots of sugar — all that general stuff. But, I was still always so fearful of illness. And I had that conflict of, “Should I bring them to the doctor because then they’re going to tell me I need antibiotics. If I don’t do antibiotics, I don’t really have another option. And what if I don’t do them?” Ever since I’ve encountered these protocols, and Joette, and all her magical wisdom (I feel like it’s magical), that has changed for me. I no longer fear illness. I no longer get anxiety. I mean, of course, there’s the general feeling of you just don’t want people to be sick. But I almost, in a sense, have this feeling of, “Bring it on! I can handle that.” Kate: Yes, it’s empowered you and helped you feel equipped, right? Jessica: Yes, and in so many ways — not just with my kids but with everything. Even just little things, like I had this sun allergy my entire life. The first few times I go in the sun, even it’s on vacation or just the beginning of the spring, I get this horrible, itchy rash on my chest and my hands. And it’s to the point, I scratch it in my sleep until I bleed. I just recently started taking the skin course and found that there’s a remedy for that! There’s a protocol that I can use. And I used it when I went down to Charleston for a quick vacation. I had the allergy probably a day, and I usually have it almost two weeks after being in the sun. Kate: Wow! Jessica: So, empowering in terms of I’m not worried about my kids anymore. It’s the little things that I just sort of dealt with I never thought I’d have an answer to, I can now fix that, which is great. Jessica’s homeopathic journey Kate: Yes. Let’s get into talking about how you first came across homeopathy. You said that you used some other natural methods of healing before. Can you just tell us just briefly a little bit about those, and then how you came to using homeopathy? Jessica: Sure. I’ve always kind of had a foundation in eating a healthy diet and using alternative methods. When I was younger, my father was diagnosed with cancer and given six months to live — and that’s with chemotherapy. And he ended up using 100% natural means. I don’t know exactly what they were. I remember him taking something like shark cartilage when I was really young. But he lived a long time after that, just using these natural means. His tumor completely disappeared. He was perfectly fine. I always had this foundation as a result of that. As I became a parent, I always kind of wanted to do things more naturally. I was sort of jumping on the buying things organic bandwagon, stuff like that. But, it wasn’t until my first son was nine months old, and he got his first case of croup. I took him to the doctor with this barking seal cough. He was a great doctor, but he just was like, “You know what? It’s probably going to be a bad night for you. So, I’m going to give him this shot of steroids.” So, he gave him the shot of steroids, and we went home, and everything was fine. And then a few months later, he got croup again. He woke up from his sleep and couldn’t breathe. And so, we took him to the ER. Kate: Oh my gosh! Jessica: Yes, it was very scary — ended up with a chest x-ray. Looking back, I would have done a lot of things differently. But, you can only go with what you know at the time. And then I think he may have gotten croup one more time, and I was pregnant with my second son at this time. I decided this wasn’t the way to go. The doctor said, “Oh, he’s just going to grow out of it.” It just didn’t seem right to me that you get a cold, and you end up in the emergency room. So, we went and saw this amazing craniosacral therapist. This is from when we were over in Westchester, and she’s also an acupuncturist. She worked her magic on him, but also told us that we should maybe try getting rid of gluten and dairy, just to start. And that kind of was the beginning of everything for me. That opened one door that opened another door that led down a really long hallway with a lot of doors. And I found myself years down the road using homeopathy now, but it all started with using Aconite. That same practitioner told us to use Aconite, in the case of having any sort of sudden onset attack. And it saved us, definitely, a few visits to the emergency room. And, my second son had the same issue. And he had it actually a lot worse than the first. He continues to have them, but they’ve been getting less and less. We also had another pharmacist in the area — this great, compounding pharmacy at the time. He had some homeopathic remedies in his shop. And he had mentioned anything sudden onset, and my son had had this really quick onset fever. And he told us to use Aconite for that. So, we started seeing that you could use things for different conditions. And then at some point, that craniosacral therapist we were seeing, she told us to use ColdCalm®, so that became a regular item we had in our house. Kate: That’s incredible that a pharmacist actually knew about homeopathy and recommended it. Jessica: Yes. He actually had a lot of great information out there. I feel like him combined with that craniosacral therapist we saw, we really got into using homeopathy at that point. It became something I felt a lot more comfortable using, just getting those little pieces of information from one person. And it was only tidbits, nothing like I’m getting now. Kate: Yes. So then that kind of piqued your interest about homeopathy, and how did you first really delve into homeopathy? Jessica: Sometime in the last two years. I can’t really pinpoint when it was. I’m really involved in wellness. So, I’m constantly listening to all of the most current research and other functional medicine doctors, and all sorts of practitioners. This one pediatrician held this summit, and Joette was on it. So, when I heard Joette talking on her little discussion, she mentioned that she wanted any person to be able to go to McDonald’s and eat there if they absolutely had to and not have a big freak-out about it. And I was in this place of freaking out about where I could eat if I couldn’t get the food that I was used to or wanted or of the quality I needed. So, then I started listening. And then she had some amazing information to share. I was totally at this place in my life where I needed to dive into something more deeply — like take my interest in wellness and really focus on one area. I was about to go the route of looking into gut health. As so many people know, that is a very complex topic, and I don’t know that I am in a place to handle it myself. Joette mentioned this, you know, she had these study groups and she mentioned a few remedies and a few protocols. I think she talked about Aconite for croup. So, I was listening. But she also said using Aconite for yourself, and I had never known that. Because certainly when my child wakes up in the middle of the night and can’t breathe, you can be sure I’m having some anxiety myself. Kate: Right. Jessica: Yes, that really resonated with me. And then she mentioned these study groups, and I think she mentioned the cost being low because that’s the other thing. I’ve been wanting to take herbal classes and do this, but they’re thousands and thousands of dollars — and there’s no way I could have afforded that. So, I went on the website and started researching and thought to myself, “No one’s going to do this with me.” I called the office, and there are some wonderful people at Joette’s office that really helped me. They said I could sign on and try to get other people from anywhere else all over the world to join my group. But it turns out, I just mentioned it to a couple of people and before I knew it, I think we had seven people in our group. Kate: Wow! Jessica: Yes. It was all people that I lived in Westchester with, and that was it! From there on, I was hooked. At that point, I feel like the universe threw every single thing at me it could and in such a short amount of time. Luckily, nothing major — but little things. And, I was able to have some amazing “aha” moments with homeopathy that forever have convinced me. I mean, you could tell me, you know, lots of people will say negative things about homeopathy, that it’s “placebo effect.” But at this point, my experiences are so profound that I could never go back from where I am. Kate: Yes. And you could never dispute the fact that that was what helped, right? Jessica: That’s the coolest thing. It’s happened so many times, and Joette talks about it being reproducible, and that it’s not just one instance. I have three children. I have a dog. I have a husband. I have myself. I have a whole lot of willing friends. We’ve done it. We’ve done on all of them, and it’s worked for everybody. And you know, sometimes it doesn’t work. Sometimes, I get the wrong remedy, or they didn’t stick to it, or the timing was off. And it’s more often that it worked than it doesn’t. I will say that. Kate: So, what would you have to say to those people who maybe get discouraged when it doesn’t work? What would you say? When you think it doesn’t work? Jessica: You know, I think about that a lot because I’m trying to persuade the whole world to do this. And the only way to persuade them is for them to have those moments themselves. Otherwise, they are not going to be users of homeopathy. So, I would say it’s just a matter of really learning the remedies. I mean, I wake up every day, and I’m getting my book out for something else. I’ve woken up in the middle of the night thinking, “Oh, I have to read the description of that remedy because I need to know, ‘Does it work for that?’” Or I just have these moments where I’ll start connecting the dots. Beyond that, I’d say you have to have the remedies. Getting the 30 kit is really important, but also the 200 to me is very important because you can’t get a lot of the 200s in the stores. Any kit is really helpful just because it’s in your house. And in the middle of the night, if you need something, it’s there. But in particular, I feel like that 200 kit, with the Banerji Protocols, has really been a lifesaver for us. If I didn’t have that 200 kit, we wouldn’t have had so much success. But to be honest, I think you have to be ready to do what you want to do. Joette once said — I don’t know if it was on a podcast or in our Q&A, because I was telling her how I was really wanting to tell everybody about it — and she said, “You really have to know your audience.” So, that’s important too, you know, giving the remedies to the people who you know are going to use them because she said, “You can give homeopathy a bad name if people are going to sort of do it halfway.” Or you could tell someone to use something, but they have to go buy those remedies themselves. You have to invest in it yourself. And that’s where the study group comes in. I can tell people all I want to tell them, but it’s their decision at that point to start and learn about it themselves and have those experiences for themselves. It’s totally different to have someone else tell you what to do, and then you doing it yourself. Kate: Right. I like what you said that if it doesn’t work, stick with it. And, if it doesn’t work, it’s likely that you’ve chosen the wrong remedy, or like you said the timing is off. Maybe but you just tried it once and you needed to use it more often, or something like that. But just have the remedies, have your materials, your resources, take some classes, get the knowledge, and then it will be just like you were, like, “I want to shout it from the rooftops.” Jessica: And it’s a practice in patience too. I’ve had moments where I’ve taken something, and it’s gone. My son got croup recently — my middle child. Actually, this is kind of a funny story. Half asleep and in a panicked mode, I go into my kit. And I go to get the Aconite out, and I took out Arsenicum unknowingly, and I gave him Arsenicum. So, he takes Arsenicum and nothing happens. He’s not getting better. I’m being very calm, and I’m saying, “It’s going to work. Just give it some time.” I knew what to do with croup, so I wasn’t too nervous. He says, “It’s not working, Mommy. It’s not working. I can’t breathe,” in between his gasping for breath. So, I’m like, “Alright, I’m going to do a second dose because I think he needs it. It’s pretty severe.” So, I go back to my kit, and I hadn’t had the remedy out. I grabbed it and looked at it. It was Arsenicum. I’m like, “Well, that explains it!” So now, I gave him…

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Podcast 47 – Reflections: Advice to My Younger Self Mar 26, 2018

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IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER: 01:23Everything we do has meaning 04:22 Stop spending your good health 15:24 Classical background, stocking up on remedies, and organizing notes 20:08 Homeopathy for all conditions 22:08Make your bed 23:37 Combination remedies LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST: Coffea cruda Nux vomica Washington Homeopathics Hahnemann Pharmacy Boiron Hyland’s OHM Helios You are listening to a podcast from practicalhomeopathy.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: We always think when we’re young, “Oh, that will never happen to me,” the proverbial, “I’ll just flit through life almost like a magpie, ‘Oh, something shiny. I think I’ll chase after that for a while.’” That’s why I felt, when I looked back, it feels as though my life was like a magpie. Kate: You are listening to Podcast Number 47 at practicalhomeopathy.com with Joette Calabrese. In today’s podcast, Joette takes a look back at her life as a mother and homeopath. She will share with us the wisdom that she has gained from her many years of experience. If you’re like me, you love to learn and would love to sit with Joette for just 30 minutes and pick her brain. Well, we will do just that. So, grab a pen and some paper and let’s hear from Joette. Hi. I’m Kate and I’m here with Joette today. I was thinking to myself, what would I ask Joette if I had the opportunity to sit down and just chat with her for say, half an hour or an hour. What pressing question … or how would I narrow it down to one burning question? Joette, this is what I came up with: Looking back now with all of your experience with homeopathy in your family, your life’s experience, what would you tell your younger self? Everything we do has meaning Joette: I think I would say, “Stop it! Just stop that! Stop acting like that way, like that, stop thinking that way.” Really, if I could — oh — if I could just undo my mistakes. I made so many stupid mistakes. So, if I could get myself, I would shake her. I would tell her to … I would slap her across the face and say, “Get a grip, girl. It’s not about this or that. It’s about this.” So, what is “this?” “This” is that everything we do is meaningful. I don’t want to put a guilt trip on everyone but, you know, we’ve all made mistakes. But, everything we do has meaning. And not only does it have meaning for us, but it has meaning and rippling effects into the world around us. Our parents are affected by our behavior. Our children are affected by our decisions, our grandchildren, even our great-grandchildren. I mean, my grandparents came to this country from Sicily. That decision — both sides — that decision that they both made has rippled through hundreds of people’s lives, hundreds (because they had large families on both sides, and now their children — who are my parents — and their grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren). So, think about that one decision to leave a horrible place, such as Sicily. It was horrible for them: grinding poverty, heavy government hand on them in addition to the grinding — well, that’s the reason there was grinding poverty, as far as I’m concerned. And, they decided to come as young adults and make a whole new life. My goodness! What a difference it made in so many people’s lives. So, we think that every day when we think of doing this or that, we think it has no consequence. Everything we do has a consequence. Everything goes out there, good or bad, whether it’s called a consequence or an advantage. So, I wish I had been more mindful of that. I wish I had had more wisdom. Of course, wisdom doesn’t come with youth, it comes with age. We always think when we’re young, “Oh, that will never happen to me,” the proverbial, “I’ll just flit through life almost like a magpie, ‘Oh, something shiny. I think I’ll chase after that for a while.’” That’s why I felt, when I looked back, it feels as though my life was like a magpie. I was too influenced by shiny objects. I don’t mean literally, although, I like jewelry, too. But I mean, I was too influenced by the first thing that came to my mind or the first thing that came before me. So, that’s what youth is. It’s a misguided understanding of what’s important. The hierarchies of importance are not there. Parents tell the children, but we don’t listen. I didn’t. I didn’t listen. I made a lot of really stupid mistakes. So, that’s one thing. Stop spending your good health I guess I would say stop spending. Stop spending money. Stop spending your good health because it may not always be there. We want to save for that rainy day because it’s inevitable. Life has its twists and turns. Kate: So, what does that mean exactly to you, Joette, when you say, “Stop spending your good health?” What does that mean? Joette: Well, when I was a young woman, everyone smoked cigarettes. So, that was really foolish of me. We drank alcohol. I would never say that I went into an alcoholic binging. I wasn’t like that. But, that’s part of it. And not worrying about eating properly. Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t believe that the youth should be worried about eating the proper foods. But, there should be a baseline that preparing your own meals is a very important part of being an adult and eating foods that are made from scratch as much as possible. Also, when you have a cold or flu, you don’t run to the doctor and get a drug. I mean I used to get urinary tract infections here and there and I would just take an antibiotic. I never gave it a thought. Why would I put anything in my body without knowing what the consequences might be? That’s spending your health without realizing. To this day, I still am amazed at how many people I meet with … and again, I am not slapping people on the back of the hand because many folks have just not thought about this. So, here’s an opportunity for us to discuss it. But, I’m surprised at how many people take drugs and have several conditions. We look up the drug and look up the side effects, and there’s the condition that they have. Kate: Wow! Joette: It’s a secondary condition or the tertiary condition. I said, “Did you know that the drug that you’ve been taking for 10 years has been known to cause the condition that you are now suffering from for the last five years?” Kate: I think you mentioned that with inhalers for asthma, right? Joette: Yes. Kate: What’s the medication that’s commonly used? Joette: Steroids, certainly … steroid inhalers. Kate: I remember you saying that about steroid inhalers, that they can actually cause asthma. And that’s what doctors prescribe for asthma! Joette: Yes. It’s uncanny how drugs cause such trouble, but people don’t think twice about it. They just believe what they’re told and accept it. There should come a time in all of our lives when we say, “Enough! That’s enough. I now have to do my homework.” And in today’s world, with the access to information that we have, there really is almost no excuse for not looking up what the side effects of drugs are. I would never expect someone to read all the side effects because that’s longer than a Russian novel. And you know how you can’t pronounce those Russian names in War and Peace, that’s sort of the same idea. You can’t pronounce those words! You’ll never get through all. So instead, you’ll look up online. Does this condition that I have … is it caused by that drug, or does this drug cause this condition (any condition you might have)? You might have asthma, but my hair is falling out for goodness’ sakes. Is alopecia the result of taking this inhaler? Find out. But. I also caution you that now, the industry is smart enough to have picked up on this. The first page, they will give you a lead to saying that, indeed, it can cause asthma. You open it up, and then there’s nothing. I mean there’s information, but it has nothing to do with the title of the lead of the article. And they expect people just to give up after page one, two, or three. So, you have to dig further. You’ve got to keep looking. Or, I got an idea, how about asking the pharmacist? He’s the guy who knows! The doctors don’t know. Doctors do not — excuse me, I know this is a blanket sweeping statement — doctors do not know their medicines like they should. The medicines change too quickly. Kate: Right, how can they know everything about every medicine? Joette: Well, not only that but the last medicine that they’ve been using, you know, Tylenol, whatever it might be was just yanked from the market. Now, they’ve got a new one to replace it. Their drug rep comes in — in tall, 3-inched stiletto heels, and a short skirt, bearing donuts and chicken wings — and showing him the new drug that replaces that old drug. So, as long as people understand, it’s not that the doctors are bad guys. It’s that they couldn’t possibly keep up! It’s up to you to keep up! So, if I could speak to my younger self, I would say, “Hello, it’s your life. Not the doctor’s life, not your parents’ life, it’s your life.” So, what we put into it is what we get out of it. You don’t get to this point in learning about health as I have learned. You don’t get here at once; you get here at last! So, when someone you love (an aunt, or a cousin, or something), comes to you and says, “You know, I’m really sick. I’ve got this, this, and this.” And you’re trying to direct them — especially in severe illnesses like cancer or something — and you want them to learn about homeopathy, find a doctor who treats cancer with homeopathy, et cetera. The path that you have been following is your path. Their path is brand new. Suddenly, bam! Now, they’ve got this terrible diagnosis. You can’t expect them to shorten it and tighten it up to suit your time schedule. Because as I said: You don’t get here at once, you get here at last. It takes a long time to get to the point where you say, “Okay, I don’t like that drug. I don’t like what that did to me. Or you know what? It’s not really working! Or it might be working on this, but it’s causing that.” And you do it again and again and again. After a while, we get slapped upside the head by the drug, and we realize this was a mistake. That’s how we come to this. No one comes to homeopathy at first glance. They’re not born and then suddenly say, “Okay mom, here’s the deal. I want homeopathy.” You have to suffer. You have to suffer at the hand of drugs and ill-treatment through certain conventional medical methods. Kate: So, you would say to your younger self maybe make informed choices? Don’t just trust someone else with the decisions that affect your life? Really do your research, your homework, right? Joette: Yes, it’s like getting a mortgage. I mean do you just go to the bank and they say, “Okay, the rate is 12%.” You say, “Okay, I’ll pay 12%. Over 30 years? Sure.” “And there are 5 points?” “Okay.” Then five years later, you find out, 12%! What are you doing? This is 2018! It should have been 3% with no points. Whoops! You didn’t do your homework. Now, that’s not going to happen in a free market, generally speaking. They know they’re not going to get away with 12% if it’s 3%. But I’m being a little fictitious in the exaggeration, but what if they charge 3.5% when you could have gotten 3%? That would make a huge difference in your lifestyle. So, think of this as buying a house. How about buying a car? At least if nothing else when it comes to your health, kick the tires. Hold still, Doc! Kate: Let me see what shakes out. Joette: I mean, at least go to the blue book. Check out the value for goodness’ sakes. Kate: Yes. Joette: If you don’t do that then, unfortunately, we end up on this long trail of drug-after-drug-after-drug-after-procedure-after-drug. It’s a freight train. It’s a freight train. Once you step on, it will zoom you away. You will be so caught up in the world of drug-after-drug. I had an aunt who was not that sickly, but she had a urination problem. It was really becoming bothersome. She was in her early 80s when this was happening. She went to the doctor, and she got a drug. Then that caused trouble with her throat and her eyes. They got very dry. Then she would cough. She’d go into coughing fits. Her eyes would burn and hurt. It felt like sand in her eyes. Then she went back and got another drug for that and then drug after that. I finally said, “Why are you going to the doctor for this? Why don’t you be more hands-on here? Let’s figure out why you’re urinating so frequently.” Well, I knew why she was urinating so frequently. She was drinking — and I know you’re not going to believe this. I’ve talked about this before. She made a big coffee pot of coffee every day, and the coffee pot held 20 cups. She drank all but two, every day! Kate: Oh wow! Joette: She drank EIGHTEEN cups of coffee daily. I said, “Aunt Mary, that might have something to do with your kidneys, your bladder, your ureter, your urethra. I think you need to back off of that coffee. That’s what’s causing the trouble.” Now, why did that urologist not tell her that? Why didn’t he say, “How many cups of coffee do you drink a day?” I knew that. I’m not a doctor. And this was long ago. How come I knew that? Because it’s common sense! It’s just common sense. It draws out the fluids from the body. That’s why when people drink coffee, they often have a bowel movement shortly after — besides the stimulation of it — it’s a diuretic. So, this diuretic was playing on her body for all these years causing urination trouble. Instead of saying, “Let’s just be logical.” No, he said, “Here, take this drug. And then take this one for that, and that one for this.” And her answer was, “Yeah, but Joette … it’s free! I don’t have to pay for this.” I said, “Aunt Mary, that’s why you shouldn’t go — because it’s free.” Kate: Right. Joette: Because if you have no skin in the game, so to speak, if you’re not paying for this information, you’re not going to really value it as much as you ought to. You need to do your homework. That’s not a good reason to go to a doctor – because it’s free. In fact, it’s the worst. Kate: So, did she stop drinking the coffee? Joette: Yes, she did. She did, and then she started to get terrible headaches. Of course, her first thought was to go to the doctor and get pain reliever. But instead, I gave her Coffea and Nux vomica, and it helped with the headaches a great deal. So finally, she didn’t stop coffee completely, but she stopped it enough. I believe she went down to about five cups a day. Now, let me also explain this: She was 4’11 and probably weighed 100 pounds soaking wet. So, it amazes me that she was even able to get that much down. But, 18 cups of coffee in a 4-foot-11 person is pretty intense. Classical background, stocking up on remedies, and organizing notes Kate: Okay, so let’s talk now about looking back at your younger self when you started getting into homeopathy, and you were on the right track … away from the medications. What advice would you give yourself about how to go about healing your family using homeopathy now with the information that you have? Joette: Well, I wish I had had the Banerji Protocols back then. I was craving them. I wanted protocols. On the other hand, having studied classical homeopathy to the degree that I did — and I spent years studying it — it was very beneficial. So, from the time that I learned homeopathy, I would say I did it right. I’ll be honest with you, I think I did it right. If I had had the Banerji Protocols, I would have still studied classical homeopathy because it’s so valuable as an underpinning for someone who eventually goes into practice or starts writing or teaching. But for a mom who has no intention of doing that, these practical applications of homeopathy are so golden that someone could easily skip right over classical and get right to the meat of the problem. Kate: If your intention is not…

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Podcast 46 – Moms with Moxie: Punctures & Toenails & Bladders, Oh My! Mar 22, 2018

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IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER: 05:29 Advice to beginners 07:30 Puncture wound, Ledum and Arnica 10:01 Toenail injury 11:24 Bladder exstrophy and Cantharis 17:49 Saving through homeopathy 21:30 Gateway curriculum LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST: Gateway to Homeopathy: A Guided Study Group Curriculum Good Gut, Bad Gut Ledum – for puncture wounds Arnica – for puncture wounds Aconite – for puncture wounds Cantharis – for bladder infections Pulsatilla – for soothing child’s clinginess Chamomilla – for relaxing a child before bed Joette’s Facebook Page Arsenicum – for food sensitivities and allergies A Materia medica: Practical Homeopathy® for Busy Families Remedy Kits Joette: Each day from my office, I get to see how homeopathy is transforming lives all over the globe and 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. Kate: You’re listening to Podcast Number 46 here at practicalhomeopathy.com. I’m Kate. On today’s podcast, we have a sweet, young mom who joins us to share her experiences with homeopathy. Suzanne will tell us how she’s helped her whole family with some pretty scary and serious incidents. I think you’ll want to listen to her story and share this podcast with others you know that might be interested in homeopathy and how to get started. I’m also going to share with you information about the new Gateway to Homeopathy study guide. But first, I want to welcome Suzanne to the podcast. Suzanne, it’s great to be with you here today. I’m excited to get to know you. Welcome! Suzanne: Oh, thank you, Kate. I’m very excited to be here. Kate: So, you are from Indiana, right? Suzanne: Yes. We’re from Indiana. I’m married to Danny. We’ve been married 10 years now. We have three kids. Ian is seven, Jace is five, and Elise is one. We have our dog, Max, too. Kate: Another family member. Suzanne: Yes. He’s three. He is our teenager in our house, that’s pretty much … Kate: That’s funny. Tell me a little bit about your background. Suzanne: We have always kind of been conscientious about our health and things like that. Sometimes we slip up, but we wouldn’t consider ourselves “crunchy” in any sense. But yet, we like to have more of a healthy approach to things. So, my sister has been looking into homeopathy for — it’s been about a year now. She approached me with it. I thought here’s another “one thing” that maybe we could contribute to our family and try to help support us in our health. She started a study group, Joette’s Gateway to Homeopathy. She invited me and a few of my friends. It was a group of six of us. We sat around and went through the book, and we all decided that this is something that we were very interested in. I’m really new to this. So, just been kind of experiencing things through what my family ends up doing. Kate: What ends up happening to you guys, right? Suzanne: Yes. So, well, with two boys, it’s been kind of crazy. Kate: I can imagine. Okay, so you went through the Gateway to Homeopathy curriculum. Suzanne: Correct. Kate: What did you think of that? Suzanne: It was very informative. At first, all we wanted to know was … we wanted to know what to do. It was very refreshing to be at the end of the lessons to get some of that from Joette and understand that we’re in a process. It’s not something that we just figure out the protocol, and we do this. There’s so much work to it. We have to understand the whole aspect of what homeopathy is. So, there’s a little bit of frustration at first. We finally, at the end, we’re like, “Okay, we get this.” Now, we want to do the next study group and we want to move on. My sister has actually moved on to Good Gut, Bad Gut. She’s been really excited about that. Kate: I think that’s super common. When people first start out with homeopathy and they take the Gateway or however they’re learning about it, they want to get to, “hat are the protocols? What do I take for xyz?” I think many people don’t understand that there is more to know than just what’s the protocol for a cough. It’s good to have that depth of understanding to know a little bit about the history, and some information about how the remedies are made. So, I think that Gateway curriculum is really great to give a good foundation so that someone then can branch off and study more in-depth. Suzanne: Yes, that’s been really helpful to understand that, to just kind of delve into just the thought process behind homeopathy. It’s a total mind-switch. Kate: Yes, it is. It’s so different from anything else. Suzanne: After we had gotten done with the whole Gateway to Homeopathy, our minds … they were so full of information that we are all starting to go back through that study and relearning a lot more. Because now, we have that foundation to understand the way homeopathy works. It’s been great. Going back through the study on my own is very enriching, even more so. Advice to beginners Kate: So, what recommendations would you have for someone who is just beginning their adventure in homeopathy — just starting out — maybe taking a Gateway group for the first time? What would you have to say to them? Suzanne: I will say at first, have patience in it. Have a little bit of faith in it, too. I think a lot of times in our society, we just want that one medicine to just get it, and just be done. Put the Band-Aid over it. I don’t want to deal with it anymore until it comes up again. It’s just a different mindset. Instead of reaching for an aspirin or the ibuprofen or something like that, what are you going to reach for? Do you have everything in your grasp that you need with homeopathy? That’s the one thing that I’ve learned this last weekend is to have the first aid — homeopathy, ready, set, and go — especially if you have kids. That’s a little bit of advice. Joette knows exactly what she’s talking about. That’s what gave me the faith at first, having her as the professional knowing what to do, and then utilizing some of the homeopathy remedies and protocols just as a simple step. We all learn when we need to and with situations. And just to be patient in that. Kate: Yes, that’s really great advice. Thank you for sharing. I think it’s helpful for those who are just starting out, and like you said, just want to get going and want all the information. So yes, being patient. And oh, it’s so important to have those remedies, isn’t it? Suzanne: It is. It is. I wanted to share what happened this weekend. My husband was home. He decided he wanted to fix the cheese slicer — just one of those little cheese slicers that has a little wire that fell off. So, he has a screwdriver like this. He had the cheeser on the side. He puts a Phillips screwdriver through his hand, on the inside of his hand. Puncture wound, Ledum, and Arnica So, it’s a very deep puncture wound. I came running downstairs, found him just kind of holding it. It was bleeding enough that I knew that it was getting cleaned out a little bit. And, he proceeded to faint on me. Kate: Oh my gosh! Suzanne: So, it was just one of those things, that … I’ve never seen him faint. I had no idea that he even would do that on me. So, I got him down on the ground. He had hit his head. So, I immediately grabbed for the Ledum. I only had a 30c. And then I had the Arnica 200c that I started giving him right away for the pain. He was in shock. There are probably more things I could have given him, but I didn’t have them on hand. So, instead of just not giving them to him, I decided to give what I had. I went ahead and treated the wound just by cleaning it out. He came to. We continued to give him Ledum. It was about every 10 minutes, I would give him a Ledum. It took a good one hour to two hours, I would say, before the pain really subsided. Then after that, it was about every hour that I was giving him a Ledum and an Arnica, actually. After a day, he didn’t need anything. He didn’t take any ibuprofen. There was no swelling. There was no bruising — which I could not believe. This was my first attempt at the first aid. Any other time, we probably would have gone over to the urgent care or something like that just to make sure. But we were pretty sure and had the faith in what we had learned with homeopathy that that was going to work. It did. He’s back to work. It’s not sore. I was just amazed. Kate: Nice! That’s great! I love it! So, did you guys have any Aconite on hand? Suzanne: We did not have Aconite on hand. The next day, I went right out and bought some. I knew I needed to have that. As I was flipping through the Gateway to Homeopathy, and I believe on her website, I’m not sure, she has the free first aid paper that I ran to right away, to grab, and went through all the protocols that she had suggested. So, the next day, I was like, “Okay, that’s it. I’m doing this.” I think for some people, it does take them to see it in action and to work for the first time to have faith in it. But, it was amazing. Toenail injury About four days later, my son goes out, seven years old. He was putting something in the dumpster. There was a piece of wood that held on his second toe. It broke his toenail open. Kate: Oh my! Suzanne: Yes, so we had the Ledum. We had the Aconite. And we had the Arnica. We went ahead and started with that. He had no pain by the end of the night. It is totally gone, no bruising. Everything is healed up. It’s been wonderful! Kate: So, how does your husband feel about homeopathy? Did that incident that he experienced this weekend, did that help bring his confidence level of using homeopathy up or was he already supportive? Suzanne: He was very supportive anyway. But after something like that happens to yourself, you think, “I think I might need to go to the doctor,” especially after he fainted. We just talked about it. We asked a couple of nurses. I just explained to them what I was doing. They actually had a little bit of knowledge of the Ledum. That was enough for him as a confirmation to keep going and see what happens. It was really great. He is now very supportive, and he wants us to get some kits. He wants us to get some cell salts. We’ve seen a lot of really great things come out of the homeopathy. Bladder exstrophy and Cantharis This is Jace. He is my middle son. He is five. He was born with bladder exstrophy or they also call it OEIS. It’s a 1 in 400,000. We didn’t know he was going to have this until a C-section. The doctor held him up and said, “Oh, I’ve never seen this before.” It’s been a blessing though. We’ve met so many people through this. We have just started him on the Cantharis for bladder. Kate: Cantharis? Suzanne: Yes, 30c. He has done phenomenal. He’s very susceptible to bladder infections. His bladder was on the outside of his body when he was born. He had to have a lot of surgeries to have that fixed. It has been amazing. We’re really excited about that ever since he was born, he’s been on Septra. It’s an antibiotic. So, we really wanted to get him off that. This has been our chance to do that. Kate: Wow! That’s amazing! So, do you give it to him regularly or is it just when he presents with an infection? Suzanne: It’s everyday that I’ve been giving it to him. This has been about three weeks that I’ve been giving this to him everyday. I would love to get some input from Joette at some point to see what she would recommend. The doctors have said if he gets a really bad bladder infection that goes into his kidneys, it could be life-threatening. So, that’s kind of where I’m at with doing it on a daily basis. There’s probably a better suggestion. That’s kind of what I’ve known so far though. Kate: So far, he’s been doing well, no infections? Suzanne: No infections. He’s been doing very well. My kids don’t mind taking the little pills. Kate: I know! Suzanne: My daughter actually, every morning, she’ll ask for medicine. She’s asking for the homeopathy. I’m like, “Honey, you don’t need that for today.” Kate: Yes, isn’t that wonderful when we don’t have to figure out how to try to get the medicine down. Suzanne: Yes, it’s wonderful. Kate: Okay Suzanne, so you have a one-year-old daughter named Elise. You have an interesting story about some homeopathy with her and what seems to be effective with Elise. Why don’t you tell us about that? Suzanne: She is my little Pulsatilla girl. She is clingy. She wants mommy. She wants up. She just wants to be with me, and a little bit weepy. I just know that Pulsatilla helps with that from the study that I did. That’s what I’ve been giving her every once in a while. When she gets in a mood like that — the clinginess, and the crying — I just give her a 30c, and she calms right down. The Chamomilla 30c also really helps at night. Like before she gets ready to go to bed, if she is really anxious or wants to stay up and play and it’s bedtime, I just give her one of those. It just relaxes her. I love knowing that it’s natural. I love that part of it, that it can’t hurt her. Kate: So, I bet you’re pretty excited about the successes you’ve had with homeopathy and probably have been sharing with your family members or friends. Tell us a little bit about how receptive they’ve been to homeopathy. Suzanne: They have been receptive. They’re also health conscious, too. But, they also have their own things that they like to do and things that they like to use. But, they have been really receptive to listening to what has happened. My dad has started to use homeopathy when he starts with a cold or something like that. He’s older. So, he likes to stay on top of things. We’ve been able to … my sister and I both work on him and just let him know what there is out there in homeopathy to be able to help him. My sister, she’s like, “Here, take these, Dad.” So, he’s learning right along with us — which is great. One of my friends who is actually my niece-in-law went to the study group with me. It’s nice to have some people that have taken the study group with you to understand and be able to talk with. She wasn’t sure the homeopathy was really for her. But, through my circumstances that have happened and me sharing with her, she started to use them more. I have another friend, Katie that did the study group. She and I talk all the time just about what we’re utilizing, what’s working. I love being able to talk with others about what they’re doing. Right now, the one thing that I love seeing on a daily basis, I have Joette’s podcasts that come up on my Facebook feed. Facebook has that new … that you can save all the articles that pop up. So, I’ve been saving all the articles that pop up so that I can read them when I have time. Those podcasts are amazing that she does. It’s all written out. Then she has the little cards at the end that I can save for some of the protocols that I’ve been really wanting to know. Kate: Okay, so tell us a little bit about saving those articles with Facebook because I’m not that familiar with it. I think it would be useful for a lot of the people who are listening to this podcast. Suzanne: Yes, it is wonderful. Even when you’re just in your newsfeed, up on the top right-hand corner, there are three little dots you can click on. I believe it’s the first little thing — it says, “Save post.” You can save that post. Just go back to it whenever you have a chance. I try to have a little bit of a routine that I do. I’ll save the post. I’ll go into the post right away. Save the protocols that are at the end. And then I will go through later and read the whole article. Otherw…

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Podcast 45 – Why Practical Protocols? Feb 22, 2018

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IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER: 01:25 The name change 03:11 Getting to know Joette better 10:44 From classical to protocols 16:51 Why are classical homeopaths hesitant to share this 23:05 Efficacy and simplicity of the protocols 31:07 How to teach families how to treat themselves 34:15 The Prasanta Banerji Homeopathic Research Foundation 43:31 Homeopathic protocols work LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST: Fatty liver: Chelidonium or Lycopodium Tired new moms: Sepia Prostatitis: Thuja “Why I Go to India Every Year: Drs. Banerji” Injury: Arnica Allergic reaction: Apis Head injury: Cuprum metallicum You are listening to a podcast from practicalhomeopathy.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: Medicine, modern medicine to consider homeopathy viable, you have to be reproducible. That’s got to be scientific here. Kate: You are listening to Podcast Number 45 with Joette Calabrese at PracticalHomeopathy.com. On this podcast, Joette shares her wisdom on how to use homeopathy utilizing proven practical protocols. On today’s podcast, Joette and I will have a conversation about her background in classical homeopathy and why she has moved to using the efficacious practical protocols. This is a great podcast to share with others who would like to know more about Joette and the practical protocols. Now let’s get started. Hi and welcome to the Practical Homeopathy® podcast. I am Kate. I am here with Joette today to bring you another exciting podcast. So, grab a cup of tea, sit back, relax, and let’s learn together from Joette. Joette, I wanted to start off today by talking a little bit about that name, Practical Homeopathy®. Some of your listeners may be wondering why the name change? Why move from joettecalabrese.com to practicalhomeopathy.com? So, tell us a little bit about that. The name change Joette: Well, Joette Calabrese doesn’t have any real meaning to it other than it’s just me. But, what’s valuable about Practical Homeopathy® is that it tells people exactly what we’re doing, what I’m doing. That I’ve made something very complex — homeopathy — and brought it down to a usable, fine-tuned level of medicine that folks can use themselves that makes it super-practical. By practical, I mean I want someone to learn about it during the day and use it that night. Classical homeopathy is much, much more complex. So, I have moved from classical homeopathy and have gone towards something that would make it easier for me to teach. It was very frustrating for me, not only while in practice as a classical homeopath, but I would teach homeopathy — I taught homeopathy for years at a local college at first, credit-bearing course in New York State on the subject of classical homeopathy. I taught it in a local college in Amherst, New York, outside of Buffalo, New York. I taught classical a great deal. But, one of my messages was, one of the main messages that I think most people came away with after taking these courses from me was that, “Well, kind of interesting, but I guess it’s not for me because who’s got 10 years to study all this and a lot of money studying and learning medicine from scratch — a homeopathic medicine from scratch.” So, it was frustrating to me because I knew I was losing a lot of people who would otherwise be interested and be able to perhaps treat their families. So, I decided to figure out how I could make this most practical for myself and my family, and for my students and clients. Getting to know Joette better Kate: Joette, let’s talk for just a minute about your background in homeopathy because I’d like your listeners to get to know you a little better. Now, you didn’t ask me to say this. But, I think it’s important that your listeners know that you’re an accredited homeopath with several degrees in homeopathy and have studied with many homeopaths from around the world. You’re an author and a speaker. You’ve taught homeopathy to medical professionals. You’ve been on staff at several well-known, reputable international homeopathic schools. And, you have been on radio and TV. I’m probably missing some things, but if you go to practicalhomeopathy.com which is Joette’s website, you can click on the “About” tab and you can find out more information about Joette if you’d like to know more. Joette: Well, probably most importantly of all the things that you didn’t mention is that I was a mom. That’s where it all started for me. I had been sick, myself for many years. In fact, most of my life I had severe allergies that came and went, came and went. I suffered from them in many different forms, eczema as a child, and lots of bronchial conditions, and then later, gastrointestinal condition, and then later, asthma. So, even from the time I was a little girl, my mother was always searching for alternatives. That was back when I was born in 1952. So, I spent a good deal of my life dealing with these chronic conditions and, also, far too many acutes that were kind of sitting on top of the chronics. Then when I decided to have children, when I got married, my husband and I decided we wanted children right away. I did not want them to go through what I had gone through. I didn’t want them to have the antibiotics, and the steroids, and all the tests, and the allergy shots. All of the gunk that I was exposed to my entire life, I did not want them to be exposed to. So, I decided early on when I was pregnant with my first son that I would go to a conference, actually it was just a lecture given by a homeopath who was a medical doctor. He was retired. He was traveling the country and teaching people about homeopathy. I was about six months pregnant. I remember sitting in this class and I was mesmerized. I had been studying naturopathy, not as a naturopath but I had been studying many naturopathic methods and had gone to chiropractors. I had been studying botanicals and essential oils. I also wildcrafted my own botanicals and made tinctures, et cetera for years. I had heard of homeopathy, but I didn’t really know what it was. So, for the first time ever, when I listened to this man, it seemed as though he spoke in my language. He said that for every condition that a child can have such as fever, otitis media, conjunctivitis, strep throat, eczema, cradle cap, you name it, there’s a homeopathic medicine that will correct it. I had heard something like that from the essential oil people. I had heard something like that from the botanicals. I had heard things like that from the chiropractic. But, it wasn’t bearing out for me. It wasn’t showing me that that was what was happening because I had been using them for decades. I was not as impressed as I wanted to be. So, that very night, I bought a homeopathy kit and bought a book and decided I was going to study homeopathy. I was going to learn about it. So, once I had my child, it came into use immediately. I put it to service right away. I won’t go into that story. I have a lot of stories. I don’t know, we would be on for hours talking about the stories on how homeopathy has corrected this or that. And has saved my children and me and my husband and my parents and our dog and our chickens and our goats and our ducks. I mean we could go on and on about how homeopathy is so efficacious. But, then I started to study more rigorously. We studied in a group. I met with some friends. We met every Thursday night for four years. We studied under a teacher who had been a homeopath, a lay homeopath, from England. She had come back to the US. She came to my house and then other people’s houses. We took turns. We studied homeopathy. She assigned homework, and we learned. As my interest grew, as I became more and more astute with this — it was always classical, by the way. That’s all we learned was classical. I started to repertorize. I got myself a repertory. Then I got a second repertory. Then I got a third repertory. Then I bought materia medicas, and I started studying earnestly. In fact, my husband used to remark that there was never a time when I was seated that I didn’t have either a child or a homeopathy book on my lap, and sometimes both. So, it went hand in hand with mothering. It was my right arm. My left arm was holding my baby, either nursing or feeding or taking care of my children. So, I could not, I don’t know how I would have done this without. In the beginning, I did use essential oils and herbs and supplements, et cetera because I didn’t know enough about homeopathy. I was frightened by some information that I’d gotten in terms of “proving” if you use it too frequently and that kind of thing. But, I didn’t understand it well enough to understand that it’s not as serious as people think it is. It’s really just a way of learning. So, at any rate, then I decided I was going to take the big leap and I went to study in Toronto. I studied there for five years. I studied with teachers from all over the world. Some of them were medical doctors. Some of them were lay practitioners. Some of them were naturopaths. Most of them were medical doctors, especially if they came from outside of the US. In doing so, I then sat for certain international exams. I won’t go into them all, but I’ve got my designation. People can look at that on my website. I was a dyed-in-the-wool classical homeopath. By the time I had my third son, I had been trained well enough, I felt, that I could start a practice, and I did. In doing so, I was using only classical. At the same time, even before that time, I started to teach homeopathy. I was teaching so often that I was teaching every night at a different location. So, Monday nights, I would teach in one part of Buffalo, New York, downtown. Another night I would teach at one of the suburbs. Wednesday night, I would teach in the south towns. Thursday night it would be in a church. So, every night was a different class. I did this for years. When I finished, I would teach six classes with one group. That class would finish and then I would start in another segment of Western New York area, Black Rock, West Side, Tonawanda, Cheektowaga. I was all over the place teaching these classes. What I found fascinating is that everyone wanted to do what I wanted to do — treat their families. They wanted to know how to treat otitis media and conjunctivitis and eczema and the same things I wanted to know how to do. But in teaching classical, it was like teaching with one hand behind the back because you had to study so diligently to get to the classical modalities, to get to the point where you could have enough acumen that you could actually cure someone. Sometimes you hit it; sometimes you didn’t. And it was hard. What remedy? Now, what potency? Okay, now what frequency? Okay, now when do we stop? It was an awful lot of conditions that needed to be met in order for all to be lined up like a perfect storm in order to get the remedies right. So, I knew there had to be another way. From classical to protocols Also, in my practice, I was using classical. I also learned that when I was working with folks, I would use the constitutional remedy which is strictly classical. That is supposed to be given one dose, one day. Sometimes, in some homeopathic classical circles, they use it twice in a day (a split dose), or three times over a 24-hour period (also called a split dose). But then you would have to stop. And you’d have to choose only one remedy. How do you choose one remedy if someone has let’s say eczema? Okay, that’s not so hard. But you were supposed to choose one remedy that encompasses everything. What if that person had eczema and then walked in the back and they were clipping bushes and they got stuck in the eye with a branch? Now, they had an eye injury. Okay now, what do you do? Use another remedy on top of that? Certainly, you should. Now, they go back into the house and their eye is all a mess. They got this eczema and they’re itching. Now, they trip over the doorstop and they fall, and they hit their head. Okay now, what are you going to do? Pretend that didn’t happen? Of course, you’re going to give a remedy for a head injury. Okay now, they get in the house and the kids come home and they’re all sniffling. So, he’s like “I got the flu!” Now the guys got eczema, an eye injury, a head injury, and the flu. Now on top of that, that night he’s up all night long because he’s got prostatitis. He’s urinating all night long and he can’t sleep. Now he’s got anxiety. What are you supposed to do with that? Really? Can we really find one homeopathic medicine that’s going to cover all of that? Well no, you can’t! You have to parse it out. So, I found it very frustrating that I still had to live by the dogma: one remedy. So, what I started to do was I started to cheat. What that means is that I would use the constitutional medicine, the main condition for the main, and then of course peripheral conditions as well. Then I would use a remedy that was specific to the miasm, which meant generally speaking, it was a nosode. That’s another category. Then I would also give a cell salt because you can always use a cell salt. Then an acute would come along, and I’d have to give the acute. So, that’s four remedies! That’s not classical! Then I would find that they would contact me and say it worked for the first couple of weeks. But I don’t know, it’s not working so well anymore, so I’d repeat it. Then I would repeat it every week. After a while, I started to realize that I needed more than one constitutional, classically-derived medicine. Kate: Some people might say, “Well Joette, you didn’t get the right remedy.” Joette: Maybe not, but I’d been studying for many years. I was in practice full time. I was already in my 40s. At what point was I going to get it right? Okay, so maybe I’m dimwitted, but I was in school also in Toronto. I would add this onto it — is that in order to be in this school in homeopathy, you had to have been in practice for five years. So, everyone who came to this class, we were all studying under Dr. Ramakrishnan who would come in from India. He was a medical doctor teaching and using homeopathy exclusively in India. He would come and teach us. There were doctors who were coming in to learn this. We’re learning together. One was from Iran and another one was from Ireland, another one from the Netherland, two of them were from Columbia, and another one was from … you know, they were from all over the world. Another from Israel and Great Britain and Canada, of course, because were studying in Toronto, and of course, Americans. So, we got to know each other. I was not willing to admit — just like what you said — maybe I was dimwitted. Maybe I wasn’t going to get this correct. Maybe I just was never suited to this in the first place, and that’s why I wasn’t getting the correct remedy. I’m not telling you I didn’t have any successes. I had successes, but they weren’t fast enough. They weren’t good enough for me. I wanted lots of success. I don’t want 50%, 60% success. I want 90%! Kate: Right. Joette: What are people coming to me for otherwise? To me that feels half-baked. So, the first year, I would get to know these folks, and I never said anything. Then the second year … I kind of whispered to one of the people who I’d gotten to know pretty well. She was a homeopath from Holland. She was probably in her 70s at that time. I said, “I just got to ask you. Do you ever use … (and I was whispering) do you ever use more than one remedy at a time?” She said, “All the time, absolutely.” I said, “Wait a minute. Then do you use … do you ever use protocols where somebody says you should use it a specific way repetitively, time and time again, and that’s the potency you always use or at least you’d start with that and you repeat it x number of times?” She said, “Of course!” I said, “Wait a minut…

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Podcast 44 – Americans for Homeopathy Choice Feb 21, 2018

Show notes

IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER: 03:28 The latest FDA draft guidance for homeopathy 08:24 Americans for Homeopathy Choice, CPG 12:08 Combination Remedies and Nosodes 15:57 Withdrawing the compliance guide 21:33 The probable reasons for doing this 29:23 Copy, paste, and send LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST: HomeopathyChoice.org You are listening to a podcast from practicalhomeopathy.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: We don’t know how far this would go. But, we don’t want our choices — that’s the keyword, that’s the keyword — we don’t want our choices taken away from us. Kate: You are listening to Podcast Number 44 with Joette Calabrese at practicalhomeopathy.com. On today’s podcast, Joette will be conducting an interview with someone who will unpack the recent FDA action on homeopathy. Learn more about what the FDA is proposing, and how you can help ensure homeopathic medicines remain accessible now and in the future. Joette: Hi folks! Tonight, we’re reversing the tables, and I will be doing the interviewing. So tonight, we are discussing something that’s rather important about the laws around homeopathy. We’re going to be meeting with Paola Brown. Now, some of you may know Paola; some of you may not. So, I’m going to tell you a little bit more about her. Paola used to work for me for a few years. We miss her, but she started homesteading. She has three kids and she homeschools. She lives in Texas, of course! She is a member of the Texas Society of Homeopathy. She is an activist for homeopathy. Paola is the President of Americans for Homeopathy Choice. I miss having her on my personal team, but every once in a while, Paola comes back to me and says, “Okay, can I do this with you?” Paola: It’s really fun to be here with you, Joette. I feel a little weird because I am so used to interviewing you for your podcast back when we used to do it together, and we had so much fun. Joette: Well, I know Paola when we started these study groups of, you know, Gateway to Homeopathy, you kind of took that study group and ran with it (is putting it mildly). You used to pack them in. I think you’re still doing it. Paola: I love teaching that study group with your curriculum. I loved it. In many ways, it’s put me in position to do what I’m doing right now for Americans for Homeopathy Choice. I have to say, Joette, I see you as my mentor — of course, as my friend. But, it all started with you — that very first class you taught, Good Gut, Bad Gut. It means a lot to me that you have mentored me and coached me and helped me learn homeopathy and given me personal advice and professional advice. I just really appreciate that. But really, I think one of the biggest things you’ve given me, Joette — that nobody else could do, it was just you that could do it — is you gave me the permission to step up and be the mom that I always wanted to be as far as taking care of my family, and caring for them, and giving me the courage I needed. Joette: I love it! I love it! Paola: I didn’t need that permission, but you gave me that permission that I needed. Joette: I love it! That’s my shtick. That’s truly what I’m all about — giving mothers and grandmothers the right and the permission to get back to being the kind of parents and grandparents they want to be. Paola: That’s right. Joette: It’s a beautiful thing. So, Paola, tell me what’s going on with the FDA. I mean, I have a good idea. And I’ve been in this arena for so long, I’ve seen changes around the FDA and all of that. But give us as briefly, my friend, as you can. Paola: I will try. I actually wrote these points out because I do want to get it real briefly. Right before Christmas … Joette: This was Christmas 2017. The latest FDA draft guidance for homeopathy Paola: Yes, 2017, that’s right. The FDA, they issued … there’s something called a draft guidance. That means it’s a rough draft. It’s not a final document. They’re saying it’s a rough draft. Together with a group of moms, we did not like what we saw in this draft guidance. So, we formed this organization, Americans for Homeopathy Choice. You can see our website at HomeopathyChoice.org. When you download the FDA’s December press release, right from the beginning you know where they’re going. They say that the FDA has developed — this is a quote, “A risk-based approach to create actions on homeopathics that potentially post higher risks to the public health.” In the press release, they used the word “risk” 17 times. I have to say that this is a very suspicious press release, Joette because, by the FDA’s own definition, homeopathy is completely non-toxic. Joette: Yes, ma’am! Yes, ma’am. In fact, that is the argument against homeopathy is that it can’t be of any value because there’s nothing there. It’s just sugar pills. It’s all placebo. So, how is it that it could be risky? Paola: That’s exactly right. Joette: Yes, so you can’t have it both ways when you’re trying to build an argument. But go ahead, sorry. Paola: But what’s also alarming is the amount of prejudice and the coordinated attack that has come from mainstream media. Do you realize that in that press release, they associate homeopathy with rat poison? I mean, it is prejudice. I pulled up five articles, press releases that the FDA has done on Tamiflu. Tamiflu reduces your 7-day flu to 6.3 days. Okay? So, I compared five press releases that the FDA put on Tamiflu and this great, super awesome drug that reduces your symptoms from 7 to 6.3, and the language was so soft. In the one article that they do — the one press release they do on homeopathy — they compare it to rat poison; they say it’s ineffective. I mean just go on and on. They’ve mentioned deaths. What deaths? Joette: Well, the FDA stimulates, and then the media carries it along. Paola: Yes, that’s right. So, you get articles like from NPR, “FDA cracks on homeopathy.” Joette: Well, of course … NPR, hello! Paola: That’s right, or you have NBC said, “FDA cracks down on snake oil homeopathy.” So, neither of us are delusional here, Joette, in saying that the FDA is launching a smear campaign. Joette: Here’s one of the problems. If people understand that basically what this is, is a market square. And I remember — I know we’ve got a lot to talk about, but I have to recall a time when I used to work for NBC. One of my big accounts was Pepsi-Cola. It was my, as we used to say in the business, my “bread and butter account.” It was the account that was the basis for my income for years. One morning, it was a Tuesday morning, I picked up the phone and said, “Joette Calabrese here.” On the other end of the phone, the person said in a very clear voice, “Get it off the air.” I said, “What? Get what off the air?” Now, I recognize the voice because she was my account executive from the agency that represented Pepsi-Cola. I said, “Get what off the air?” She said, “That program last night on the detriments of sugar in children’s health. You know you’re going to be playing it again tonight, Tuesday, and then all through the rest of the week— get it off.” So, at that time, this was back in the ’80, ’81, 1981. I didn’t have a family. I didn’t have children. It never even crossed my mind what sugar could do to children. None of this was of importance to me at any level. So, she said, “Get it off the air or we put all of our advertising dollars into ABC and CBS.” Goodbye to local NBC station in Buffalo, New York. We were the 29th market at that time, which is a pretty big market — television market. So, I very dutifully went to my sales manager, and we both walked down to the news department. My manager sparred with the news department manager and said, “Get it off the air.” He said, “What? Are you kidding me! We’ve been working on this exposé about the detriments of sugar in children’s lives for three weeks. Are you kidding me? No, we’re not!” He said, “Get it off the air.” He picked it up — it was in a reel in those days — and threw it into the trash can. And, that was the end of that. Now, that’s just one little television station. So, if it affects the advertisers, it will affect what is said, and how it is said, and what is publicized out there. So now, multiply that by billions and billions of times, perhaps, in all kinds of industries — whether it’s the sugar or the Coca-Cola or the Pepsi-Cola or the pesticide or the drug, or whatever industry it is we’re talking about — that advertisers matter. News is not as pure as the news people would like to think it is. It is advertiser-driven. Americans for Homeopathy Choice, CPG Paola: Going back to the FDA then, it’s really unfortunate that homeopathy right now is at this newly disconcerting relationship with the FDA, because for 80 years — or I guess technically 75 years or so now — homeopathy had a really good relationship with the FDA. And then in the last five years since 2015, it just the tide suddenly shifted. So, in light of what we’re reading and seeing from this draft guidance from the FDA, my organization, Americans for Homeopathy Choice reached out to many key players in the homeopathic community. If you to our website, HomeopathyChoice.org, you can read a three-page document that outlines these things. But first, the FDA is saying that they’re going to look at the potential risks that certain categories of homeopathic products carry. So, they’re starting to look at things like nosodes and combination remedies — not limited to, they can look at other things. This could apply to all categories of homeopathy, but right now, they’ve started with things like nosodes and combination remedies. The second thing they’re going to do is they’re going to withdraw something called the Compliance Guide 400.400. Joette: It’s known as the CPG, Compliance Guide 400. Paola: That’s right. So, that’s the second thing they’re looking — which on this document is something created by the FDA for the FDA. But interestingly, it’s been a great document for homeopathy for over 30 years. The FDA uses this compliance guide, the CPG, to make sure that remedies have standardized manufacturing and marketing. It’s a fair document. Joette: Yes, yes, it is. Yes. Paola: It’s been good to homeopathy. It’s one of the reasons we’ve been able to grow to the level we have. So, that’s the second thing. Once this draft document becomes final, they’re pulling the CPG. Then the third thing that we take issue with this draft guidance is that it opens a door to force homeopathic products to go through the same approval process that conventional drugs have to go through. So, as you can imagine, this would make the production of homeopathic products so expensive that it would maim the industry. We don’t charge, like you said, $500 a pill. So, we can’t pay millions of dollars for research to test each product. Joette, the cumulative $3 million that we make wouldn’t even cover one product’s testing. Joette: Right. Well, it’s different kind of research. We’ve done all our research for the last 230 years. That’s all done. That was all established through provings. It’s all recorded and documented. So, we don’t do the kinds of research that conventional meds have to go through because they’re coming up with new ones all the time. We generally use the same … I mean, certainly new homeopathic medicines come up from time to time but for the most part, our medicines have been established. If your child had a fever in 1799 that was really high, you might use Eupatorium or Belladonna. You would do the same thing in 2018! It’s the same medicine, same potencies, same frequencies, spelled the same! The pills look the same. So, that was established a long time ago. So, there’s nothing capricious, shall I say, about homeopathy. It’s been established for a long, long time. It will hopefully stay that way. But go ahead, Paola. Paola: Yes, well, that’s right. So, if this draft guidance comes across and forces homeopathy to do the same testing as conventional drugs, we can’t afford it and like you just said, we can’t apply conventional drug testing methods to homeopathy because it simply wouldn’t work. It’s their own system of medicine. It’s different. Joette: It is different, completely different. That’s right. That’s right. So, you mentioned three main areas that the FDA is targeting in their guidance. Share a little bit more about their focus on nosodes and combination remedies, because I really encourage folks to buy combination remedies from Wal-Mart and Wegmans and those kinds of stores. I like them very much. It’s a great way to start using homeopathy. Paola: Yes, it’s a gateway remedy in a good way. Joette: Yes, right. Combination Remedies and Nosodes Paola: Sure. Yes, I’ll talk about that. So, if you’ve taken any of Joette’s classes, you know how important nosodes are to Banerji Protocols. The FDA is saying that these remedies are going to potentially be “potential to be pathogenic.” There’s no risk for homeopathic nosodes to have the potential to become pathogenic. Because — this is why — the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act states under the HPUS … so, the HPUS is the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States. It’s a piece of the FDCA law. It says the minimum amount that a product can be diluted. So, how can a nosode which is made from disease tissue have the “potential to be pathogenic,” if it’s legally prepared according to the tables — the minimum dilutions that the tables require from the HPUS? The FDA already monitors and enforces this. So, if they’re doing their job, there’s no chance that a remedy, a nosode, can have the “potential to be pathogenic,” as they say. So, the fact that the FDA is rating this issue is a concern because 1.) it’s unnecessary, because they can already police this, and 2.) it’s pretty suspicious. Joette: Well, you hit the word: the verb is to “police.” That is scary, and I don’t know that that’s what they’re doing. But, I’m always suspicious when a government arm is saying, “Hmm, I think we’ll check this out.” First of all, they have funds and the wherewithal. They have very, very, very deep pockets. You can’t fight city hall. It’s pretty difficult to do. Secondly, I don’t like heavy-handed government. That’s what we’re moving more and more towards in our world. I’d like to see that stop, particularly in religious freedoms, freedom of speech, freedom of being able to choose what to write for our families. Paola: Again, it makes no sense that they would even be targeting nosodes because of the “potential to be pathogenic.” Because if they are legal remedies under the law, there’s no way that could even be possible because they have to be diluted to a point where it’s no longer that way. So, it’s frustrating. Then going on to combination remedies. They’re targeting combination remedies. When we talk about combination remedies — this is something that’s important — people don’t realize how important combination remedies are to the survival of the American Homeopathic Industry. You were saying the word “bread and butter.” These combination remedies are the bread and butter of the homeopathic market. They would not be able to sell those single remedies in the store if the combination remedies weren’t being sold because that’s the bread and butter. But, the FDA wants to overregulate these products. So, now these products would have to go through, for example, extensive testing that drugs need to go through. That’s according to the draft guidance. So, if these combo remedies become cost prohibitive to even produce, then pharmacies won’t be able to provide all their other products like single remedies. Like I’m saying, the combinations are the backbone of these companies. So, the FDA’s potential regulations can really make the US an unfriendly place for homeopathic companies. We will begin to see homeopathic manufacturers l…

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Podcast 43 – Becoming Unstoppable! Jan 23, 2018

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IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER: 01:24 Joette shares some advice for the New Year 07:03 Pulsatilla 16:34 Goals or tips for the more experienced 20:06 Listen and observe 27:42 Choosing between Aconitum and Ignatia 37:04 Know the homeopathics that your family needs LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST: Gateway Guided Study Group Pulsatilla Hepar sulph Arnica Cuprum Aconitum Homeopathy kits Thanksgiving in Stitches (blog) Joette’s Facebook Page Mercurius viv Arsenicum Rhus tox Antimonium crud Hypericum Allergic?! course Ignatia Aconitum Hypericum–Arsenicum 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: One of your commitments to the New Year is to learn how to crack the code for your family’s illnesses. Take it on, really make this your focus. Because it’s inevitable that if you make it into a focus, it will turn into reality. Kate: It’s Podcast Number 43 at joettecalabrese.com. In this podcast, Joette gives us some of her secrets to setting goals and strategies to become unstoppable using homeopathy. We will learn more about homeopathy for ear infections, cold sores, deep sorrow, and how to determine when to use Aconite and Ignatia. Now, let’s get started. Welcome, Joette. It’s a new year, 2018. I know you’re very excited about the things that you have planned for the coming year. I’m excited as well. Today, let’s spend a little bit of time just talking about goals and how to achieve those goals, and how we want to help our families. Joette: Yes, that sounds like a great topic. Kate: Joette, looking forward, be our visionary. Guide us as we go into the New Year in how to help our families using homeopathy. Joette shares some advice for the New Year Joette: Well, let me start by saying that homeopathy, classical homeopathy, and homeopathy in general is a very vast, in-depth subject. It can seem overwhelming. In fact, it is overwhelming. What my goal always is — my personal goal and my professional goal — is to make it as easy as I possibly can for my students, my clients, my readers and listeners to try to get the complex and bring it down to something really simple. There’s actually a word in Italian. The word is sprezzatura. It means getting the complex or the lofty and huge and bringing it down to a level that makes it look like it’s effortless, even though there’s a lot of complexity behind it. So, I love that word because it kind of touches on the fact that we’re getting something — human health and a medicine that approaches it so elegantly — and making it simple and doable and breaking it down and parsing it into pieces. That’s always my professional goal — not just for myself for years in the past but also now for my students and readers and listeners. I believe that it’s very doable. We can get something that’s complex and make it simple by approaching it, not by saying, “Gee, I want to cure cancer.” You know what I mean? No, no. You want to start from small. You want to start with your own family members. I always encourage folks to number one: try to work with others, if you possibly can. Join a group. Join a study group. Start a study group. I mean, I always talk about the study groups that are available, our Gateway classes that are available through the website and then meeting with people from all over the world, for that matter, or all over the country or just those in your neighborhood, your church group. It’s not the only way to do this. There are many ways to do this. But, once you join a group or start a group, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you will accomplish what seems like the impossible. Kate: So Joette, I want to interrupt you really quickly here because I think a lot of people are intimidated, or some people are anyway, by starting a study group. They think, “Oh, I have to be at a certain level to start a study group.” That’s really not true, right? Joette: No. It has nothing to do with level at all. You don’t have to have any understanding of homeopathy whatsoever. All you have to have is a will to want to learn. That’s always at the core of everything is to want to improve yourself. Once you have that ability to find that in yourself and pull it out from deep inside and say, “I want to learn this. I don’t anything about it, but let’s all learn together.” Even if you bring in people who know more than you, that’s great. All you have to do is be the organizer — or join in and not be an organizer at all and just be a neophyte or whatever level that you’re already at. My teachers always said when I was first starting to study homeopathy, they said, “The only way you’re going to learn — really, really learn — is if you step outside of your little world. Either go into practice or start treating people around you.” What he meant — it was Jeremy Sherr actually who I first remember saying that — what he meant was that the only way to learn is if you do a lot of it. You can’t just do … if you have one child, you’re not going to get an awful lot of experience in this. But, if you have a child, and a dog, and a husband, and a mother-in-law, and a sister-in-law, and a church group, or you join a group of others who are doing the same for their families, you’re going to expand your knowledge just by being exposed to other people’s problems and other people’s illnesses. It’s the only way to do this. So, I find that the folks who learn the fastest — who are treating their families — are the ones with really large families, six kids, nine kids, twelve kids, or lots of animals, lots of livestock, lots of pets. People who are in a group, a church group, or who study together with others — those are the ones who learn the fastest. And of course, motivation! You got to have that motivation. You got to have that will, that burning desire: “I am going to figure this out! I’m tired of these ear infections in my kids. I’m tired of the chronic strep throats. I’ve had it with the boils. I’ve had it with the eczema. I have got to figure this out. I’m tired of the drugs, and I’m tired of the can being kicked down the road.” That kind of motivation is unstoppable. Once you have that fire under you … especially if it’s a mother or a grandmother. No one can stop a mother or a grandmother from being highly motivated to take care of their families. We’re like lionesses. Kate: Right. But, you have to be determined, too. You have to have some guts, spunk, and moxie in order to do this because it’s not always easy. There are going to be times where you don’t hit it right away and get the right remedy. So, you have to set some goals, have to be determined. Right? That is where being within a group of people — whether it’s a study group or just a group of friends or your church group like you said — that’s helpful because you can bounce ideas. They can support one another. You’re not alone doing this. Pulsatilla Joette: Right, right. Inadvertently, you’ll learn by listening to someone else’s troubles. Your child may never have otitis media, but another mother’s children have them all the time. You think, “Oh well, I don’t have to worry about that because my kids don’t get otitis media. Instead, my kids have got food intolerances.” You’ll listen to the mother. You’ll listen to how she uses Pulsatilla for her child’s ear infection, and it works beautifully. It’s especially useful for when the child has just had ice cream or a lot of foods from restaurants. She gives her Pulsatilla, and it cures the otitis media. You know that your child has a problem with food intolerances, and you just learned that Pulsatilla is a great medicine for food intolerances, especially foods from restaurants and from too much ice cream or too much dairy or too many creamy foods. You just pulled from the hat so to speak, pulled from your classmate’s or your friend’s experience. Then you synthesize that, and you find that Pulsatilla is great for both food intolerances that cause whatever — stomachaches or whatever — that are related to, as I said, eating too much dairy or having ice cream the night before or earing at a restaurant. Then it causes stomach issues, and it can cause ear infections by doing the same. What do you know? You now know some very important keynotes to the remedy, Pulsatilla. So, even though it may never seem as though that particular condition will come your way — that otitis media that her family is suffering — you have just learned how to apply the knowledge that she gained and is spreading through your little community and using it for yourself. It’s gorgeous. There are unifying threads in homeopathy that can help us pull it altogether. This is the way I imagine it sometimes: a blue satin ribbon from one family to the next family to the next family. It goes round and round and it just floats between the families. And we all connect to it. It’s beautiful. So, instead of it being a burden, now it becomes an excitement. “I get it!” There’s nothing like that light bulb coming up over your head and you’re saying, “Oh my gosh! I get it. Look at what Pulsatilla does.” Then what you do is you go to your materia medica. If you don’t own one, you go online to the free materia medicas. What should you read? Pulsatilla! What do you know? Then you learn not only is it good for otitis media after having had ice cream, or stomachaches after having had ice cream or eating at a restaurant, but it’s also great for girls who are going into menarche and had irregular menstrual cramps and menstrual periods. We can go on and on and on. Once you make that your medicine that you want to understand, you will not miss a case with Pulsatilla, most likely. You’ll know it. So, that’s how you take off one bite instead of thousands of bites at once. You can’t cure cancer, but with a little bit of knowledge on homeopathy — although it’s done all the time at the Banerji Research Center in Kolkata — but, you can treat these kinds of conditions and learn that medicine. Now, when you finish with Pulsatilla and you’ve got that down, chalk it up and now you learn another medicine that is related to it. How do you go about doing that? Well, let’s say that woman comes back again, and she says, “Well, my daughters are helped by Pulsatilla, but my son, boy, every time they get an ear infection, I use Hepar sulph.” You say, “Whoa, whoa, wait a minute.” Now, that’s connected. Hepar sulph helps with ear infections. What else would it help with? Then you start studying Hepar sulph. Now, you’ve got two medicines that you want to understand. I always urge folks to write them down on 3-by-5 cards. I know that’s very retro. But, it really works. I’ve got 3-by-5 cards all over my house. I had more of them on homeopathy before. Now, they’re saying for my family and me to live by, or something I want to remember, or a word that I want to learn — a vocabulary word. Well, I’ve got them pasted up all over the house (you know, double-sided Scotch tapes, that kind of stuff). Kate: We have those remedy cards that you can print out from your blogs. Joette: Yes, yes, the remedy cards, absolutely. Make a copy. Put one in a book. Some people put them in a three-ring binder. These are all free folks, right on the blog. So, you can put them in a three-ring binder and organize them according to condition. Some people tell me they put them in little recipe boxes. Then if you make a double copy then you have another one because this is an important one that you want to memorize, for example. You stick it onto your rearview mirror in your car. So, every time you get in the car, you look at it again. After a while, you’ll learn it. Then all you have to do is hear someone who is helped by it and how they went about doing it, and it then becomes yours. With this, step by step, inch by inch, you’re growing your garden of knowledge in how to cure others and yourself. It’s a beautiful avocation. Kate: I have a friend that she gets up every morning, and she has a commitment to herself to just spend — whether it’s a half an hour or an hour — just looking at remedies in the materia medica. Just learning about even one remedy like you were saying — one medicine that she just looks at every day. So, by the end of the year if you did that every day, you would know quite a lot about a lot of different medicines. Joette: Well, I’m not so young anymore. So, I can’t memorize one and consider it committed to memory forever. I mean, now I do have them committed to memory pretty much, because I did it when I was much younger. But, I know my memory is not as good as it used to be, and I can’t hold things like I used to. So, I might need to study a remedy for two or three days if I were to start this afresh now. But nonetheless, even if you took three days to learn one medicine and just the keynotes — not the whole thing, not every aspect of it — but the keynotes and those aspects of the medicine that are useful for your family. That’s what you want to study. You want to know what is going on in my family. My husband gets shin splints. You need to know the remedies for shin splints. Your daughter gets menstrual cramps? You need to know the medicines for menstrual cramps. Your son is prone to impetigo? You need to know the remedies for impetigo. Not just know them, you need to own them. Because what good is it if you don’t have the medicine and you got to wait a week before it comes in the mail. So, owning and understanding. Owning on that intellectual level is really key. Now, it doesn’t mean you have to memorize constantly. You don’t have to just memorize. I mean there are books. My books? I’ve got them right there. You can just look them up. You can look these medicines up. You can look them up on my blog … what to use for impetigo, what to use for otitis media, menarche, painful menses and menarche. You can look them all up. But to know a few, a handful, of really important medicines. Like if somebody has a head injury. You don’t want to have to look that up. If your husband has a skiing accident or falls off the roof while he’s cleaning the gutters and he has a pretty serious head injury, on the way to the hospital, you don’t want to be paging through a book. You want to know you’re going to give Arnica or Cuprum or Aconitum ASAP, and continually give it, and know how to give it. Kate: Not only that, but you have to have those in your purse, in your pocket, somewhere you have to have those remedies. Joette: Yes. Well, if you own a kit, a little homeopathy kit — and we sell them in the office, but you can get them online, you can get them in many places with 100 remedies in it (the small) — you just throw that into your purse on the way out and into the ambulance or whatever. You should throw that in there. Now, you know you’ve got everything. You’re all set. So, no matter what comes your way, you’ve got your phone with you. You’re going to look this up. If you’re part of a study group, you can look up… We put a blog up recently of someone who had been, I think it was Portugal, and her husband — is it Portugal or Spain? Well, they were at a wine tasting event, and he cut his hand very, very severely. She was part of one of the study groups that we run. She got online and went to Facebook. She was telling people what was happening. People were responding and telling her exactly what to do! I mean, those were like her buddies for life now. These are people who she now owes a debt of gratitude, and she understands that. She really is very grateful for how responsive and helpful they were. Beautiful! You don’t even need to look it up. There’s someone right there — in there waiting. Kate: Yes. I find that over and over again. I hear stories of that, and I see it personally. You’re out and about. You can’t keep your wits about you. You go to that Facebook page, and you just type s…

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Podcast 42 – Moms with Moxie: Sharing Successes Jan 18, 2018

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IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER: 03:54 How Gina started with homeopathy 08:50 Allergy: Apis and Carbolicum acidum 14:42 Dislocations and cell salts 16:09 Gout 18:53 Tools/Resources to use 25:15 Migraines LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST: Feminopathy course Survivalist course Apis mellifica Gateway to Homeopathy study group class Pulsatilla Teen Hormones and the Gut Nat phos Joette’s Free Resources page Phytolacca Students of Joette Facebook group (students only) Joette’s Study Group, Find Your New Study Group Friends Allergic?! class Sanguinaria 30 Natrum muriaticum 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. Gina: One of my daughters had tonsils that were really puffy and swollen and they looked really bad. A couple of hours later, I got out my flashlight and looked at the back of her throat and like, the white patches are gone! The tonsils are about half the size they were before. Kate: You are listening to Podcast Number 42 at joettecalabrese.com. Joette: Each day from my office, I get to see how homeopathy is transforming lives all over the globe and 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. Kate: Today, I’m here with someone that many of you already know and may have actually communicated with on Joette’s Facebook page. My friend, Gina Conrad, joins us today from her home in Iowa. Gina has such a sweet and giving heart. She is so generous with her time and her knowledge of homeopathy. Gina, I want to welcome you to the podcast. I’m excited to be here with you today and to have a conversation with you. Gina: Thanks a lot, Kate. I’m happy to be here. Kate: Gina, tell us a little bit about yourself and what your background is and maybe a little bit about your family. Help us to get to know you a little. Gina: Sure. I was born and raised in Iowa. I have four children. I’m a homeschooling mom. I actually went into homeschooling kicking and screaming. I didn’t think it was a good idea. And, here I am in my 13th year of homeschooling. So yes, and I’m still learning as we go through it. My reasons for starting homeschooling have changed. I think everybody homeschools for different reasons. I went into it thinking, “Oh, we’ll just do this for one year then put the kids back in school.” It didn’t turn out that way. It’s actually been a very good experience. I keep learning. Every year, I learn something new. Kate: We are always learning, aren’t we? Especially when it comes to homeopathy. So, you are a nurse. You consider yourself forever a student, right, a researcher, a student? You love to research and to help other people. When they write about a condition that they have, you love to look it up and to share what you learned with other people. Gina, that’s what I appreciate about you. You are just always so willing to give of your time. Gina: I actually went into nursing because I was curious about health and how to maintain health. Once I got into working as a nurse, I realized that the medicine wasn’t always bringing people to health. I actually found that the fewer medicines people took, the healthier they were. I thought that was really odd because I always thought the way to get to health was to go to the doctor and take the medicines they always told you to take. I guess my experience with medicine evolved over time because I would see people take the medicines. Oftentimes, they would get very sick from them. Sometimes they got very much better. I mean, there is absolutely a time and a place for medicine. I’m thankful that we have the hospitals and the doctors that we do. I guess I see a blending between the two worlds, between the medicines and the hospital and the things we can do with homeopathy. Kate: Tell me Gina about when you found Joette and sort of your journey into using homeopathy. How Gina started with homeopathy Gina: I originally heard about Joette through the Wise Traditions newsletter. In 2003, my son had his 15-month shots and he became very ill after that. He had chronic diarrhea. He had eczema from head to toe. He lost almost nine pounds between 15 months and two years. Kate: Wow, that’s a lot. Gina: It was a lot. It was really hard to parent him because he would lay on the floor and spin and scream. I took him to five different doctors to try and figure out what the heck had happened. I’m like, “This is not the kid that I had a few months ago.” He was suddenly allergic to so many foods. He couldn’t eat corn, or dairy, or soy, or nuts, or wheat. My sister-in-law introduced me to homeopathy back in 1991. I had been using the Hyland’s teething tablets. I’d used Chamomilla. I knew how to use homeopathy in an acute situation. But, I didn’t know you could solve some of the bigger, chronic issues. It wasn’t until the Feminopathy course that Joette was advertising that I figured out, “Oh wait a minute! Some of these big problems, you can handle with homeopathy.” Joette actually showed me that you can solve some of these chronic issues on your own at home, and then when to give the remedies. That was something I didn’t quite understand. Because with the traditional, constitutional remedy, they would give it to you, and then you’d wait several months and take the remedy again, if it was necessary. But, I learned from Joette that you can take the remedy when you need it and when to read the signs to re-give the remedy. Kate: So, actually, did you consult with Joette first or did you take a class first? Gina: I consulted with Joette first. My son had a cyst, a ganglion cyst on his wrist. He had asthma and several food allergies. We had seen a physician locally. After several years of not getting anywhere with traditional medicine, we had done a program similar to NAET, which was an allergy elimination program. That seemed to help her a while, but after a couple of years, some of those allergies crept back. Joette was able to help me with homeopathy. We’re to the point now … we were on GAPS for about eight years with many, many foods. There were 56 foods that we had to avoid for a long time. Kate: 56! Gina: I know. That’s a lot. It was really horrible: corn, soy, dairy, all nuts, anything green, beans, legumes, all legumes and beans and I don’t know, pulses. It was a long list. But, we’re to the point now where we can eat anything. We can go into any restaurant and he can order anything off the menu and not have an asthma attack. Before, if he had an egg, we often end up in the ER with an asthma attack. I learned how to treat the asthma at home. I kept an inhaler for a long time, just in case the homeopathy didn’t work. But, I haven’t had to use it. Actually, it expired, and I have not renewed the inhaler. We just haven’t needed it. He’s had I think one episode of wheezing last summer when the fireworks were going off and the air quality was really poor. He got a little bit wheezy, and I gave him a homeopathic remedy and it worked really well. Kate: That changes your life, didn’t it Gina? Gina: It did. My daughter has a friend who unfortunately passed away this past summer from an asthma attack. I guess I didn’t realize that you could actually die from an asthma attack. As a mom, to be able to know that you can treat your kid and teach them how to treat themselves in the future — so that, hopefully, they can pass that message along and pay forward and say, “Hey, you don’t have to take these medicines that can be really harmful for you.” Which, for us, the inhaler would cause his heart to race. It was just really scary. So, the homeopathy has been such the game changer for us. Kate: Oh, yes. We’ve been there, Gina, the same exact place. It’s terribly frightening to watch your child struggle to breathe and have those allergic reactions. Yes, I have been right there. Joette has helped us so much with that same thing with my daughter. So, I know it gives you freedom, right? I think freedom is a word. You feel empowered. You’re not afraid to go out, and you’re not afraid anymore if he has a reaction because you know what to do. You have the remedies. You carry them with you, right? You carry them always with you? Allergy: Apis and Carbolicum acidum Gina: I do. I carry this smaller, half dram size in my purse — for myself. I also have had an allergic reaction. I went to the allergist, and they couldn’t really pinpoint exactly what I was allergic to. So, I found that if I eat pine nuts, my throat will get really tight and it hurts to swallow. My tongue gets really heavy. I get really angry. I get irritable and I start yelling at my kids which is unusual. They’re like, “Mom, are you having an allergic reaction?” I’m like, “I think so!” I just felt really irritable and angry. My heart starts racing. There are two remedies that I carry with me just in case of an allergic reaction for myself. My kids, the asthma stuff, I carry that with us. We just haven’t had to use it. But, for myself, I carry … I learned about in the Survivalist course that Joette put together. So, the two remedies I carry for myself are Apis 200 and a 1M (if the 200 isn’t strong enough, then I will use the 1M). I also carry Carbolicum acidum in a 6C. That, I learned about in the Survivalist course. I think the keynote for the Carbolicum acidum, for me, is “almost impossible to swallow.” So, when I have throat symptoms that matched that — that it’s really, really painful to swallow and I can’t hardly swallow at all — then I’ll take the Carbolicum acidum. But, most of the time Apis takes care of an allergic reaction for me. Kate: That’s beautiful! Gorgeous to know that you can have the power to help yourself and you don’t have to resort to rushing to the ER. Gina: Well, I found when I had an allergic reaction, my doctor was not able to tell me this is what you’re allergic to. He told me you’re going to need to monitor what you’re eating. If you have an allergic reaction, take Benadryl. He didn’t think that my allergy was enough to prescribe an EpiPen. So, he told me to just take Benadryl and Zyrtec together. But I found that when the Benadryl wore off, my symptoms returned. My throat would still swell. My tongue would get very thick and heavy, and it was hard to talk. So, I would take another dose of Benadryl. For like a week —sometimes two weeks, it depended on how severe the reaction was — but it could be up to two weeks that I would have the throat pain and the heaviness of the tongue. When I did go to the doctor and I went to the allergist, they said, “There’s really nothing else we can do for you. You’re just going to have to work through this. Always carry Benadryl with you at all times, in case you have an allergic reaction.” But, once I started using the homeopathy, I found that if my throat got really sore and it hurt to swallow or my tongue got really heavy, and thick, and it was hard to talk, and I got really angry and my heart would race — if I took the Apis, within a couple of minutes that swelling and the soreness was gone. I would say down by 50%. If it started to come back, I would take another dose of the Apis, and maybe five minutes later when it returned again, I would take another dose of the Apis. Within 10 minutes or so, I felt so much better. I could swallow. I could talk. Those symptoms did not return. I think I’ve pinpointed it to certain foods. Sometimes it’s like a mango that comes from South America. I suspect maybe they spray it with different pesticides than we do in the US. It might be like a pesticide exposure that seems to cause this reaction. Last spring, I was walking through the grocery store and they have little samples of water in the health food market. They handed these samples out. I took a drink. Within a minute, I could feel my throat was swelling and my tongue was getting really heavy. It hurt to swallow. I went to talk and my voice was really deep. My heart was racing. I thought, “Oh my goodness. What in the world did I eat?” I pinpointed it to this. It was erythritol, the sweetener that they used in this “healthy” alternative-water-drink that was in the grocery store. I pulled out my Apis. I took a dose. Three minutes later, I needed another dose. But, within 10 minutes, I felt back to normal again. My throat was no longer sore, and it didn’t hurt to swallow. Have you ever had an allergic reaction like that, Kate, where your tongue gets really thick and heavy? It’s really hard to talk. Kate: No. Gina: I wonder in little kids, if they would be able to express those feelings if they were having an allergic reaction. I think I’m to the point where I can realize that really quickly and do something about it. Kate: Well, how would you know? If there’s a young child and they can’t … they don’t know what’s going on. They’re probably just really irritable. When we see kids that are acting up emotionally, that maybe there are allergies or things that are wrong physically, but they don’t know that that’s what’s causing the irritability. Gina: Exactly. Kate: We got to know each other a couple of years ago, right? We were in a Gateway class together. I’m so glad that you joined my first Gateway class! It was a couple of years ago. So, we’ve been friends since that time. I feel like we’ve been through a lot together health-wise, with homeopathy, through these last couple of years. There are so many stories I know that you have that you could share with us. So, Gina, you were telling me that you were cleaning out a closet and you came across a sling. You thought, “Whoa! I just remembered that I don’t need my sling anymore!” So, tell me about that. Dislocation and cell salts Gina: Yes. I dislocated my shoulder, my right shoulder in high school. Since then, I’ve had chronic dislocations. I’ve had surgery twice to put my shoulder back together. The last time was in 2013. But, always for those many years, if I picked up a purse wrong or I put my coat on wrong, I would throw my shoulder out. I wasn’t able to do regular stuff. After working with Joette, she recommended some cell salts for me to help strengthen the joint tissue. I thought, “Yeah, right. This is really going to work.” So, I’ve dealt with this for 30 some years. I really didn’t have much hope. But, I always kept a sling in my car, and I kept a sling in my drawer. I kept a sling in my closet because if I was having a really bad day, I would pull the sling out and just rest my shoulder. I was cleaning my closet and I found this sling, and I thought, “When was the last time I used this? Oh my gosh! This was before I used the cells salts.” I think it was Calc fluor 12X and Calc phos 3X. I think that was the combination that helps strengthen the ligaments. I just saw that sling today. I’m like, “Oh my gosh! I am so excited. I don’t need this anymore. I’m going to pack it away.” So yes, that’s homeopathy and cell salts. Kate: Yay! That made you a believer in cells salts, didn’t it? Gout Gina: Yes, absolutely. The gout, oh my goodness. So, I knew what gout was … my neighbor had gout years ago. I’m always curious about these things like, “Oh, you have gout. I’m going to go home and look it up in my medical dictionary and find out about it. Because if you have it, there’s a chance that someone else in my life someday will have it.” So, I kind of knew what gout was. I knew it affected usually the great to…

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