Show notes
In this podcast, we cover: 03:30 Lyme disease, its origin and remedies 08:31 Joette shares her take on Lyme disease 17:37 Treating the symptoms like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, leaky gut 22:20 Symphytum and Rhus tox for joint pain 24:13 Coinfections, Lyme testing 29:19 Some more Q&A You are listening to a podcast from joettecalabrese.com where nationally certified American homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese, shares her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition. Paola: It’s Podcast 29 at joettecalabrese.com. Today, we’re going to talk about Lyme disease. For today’s podcast, we’ve taken a lot of questions that people have submitted to Joette about Lyme disease. So, before we get into the questions, we’re going to spend a little bit of time defining how Joette views Lyme disease — using her lens of homeopathy. So, we’re going to look at Lyme disease and how it’s affected the news and the media. We’re going to look at chronic Lyme disease versus acute Lyme disease. An interesting tidbit: we’re going to learn about where the word Lyme disease came from. Then we’re going to delve into your questions. I think this is going to be a great episode. So, here we go. Hi! I’m here with Joette. I’m excited to do another podcast with you, Joette. Hi! Joette: Yes. I always look forward to these, Paola. Paola: Thank you, me too. Today’s topic is a really hot button topic especially this summer. Have you heard about kind of the frenzy around Lyme disease this summer? Joette: Oh yes, it’s everywhere. Paola: I think the media is saying that this is going to be one of the worst summers for Lyme disease. Joette: I have heard of that. But the news says Zika is going to kill every child; that SARS is going to make you cough your guts out; that Legionnaires’ is … I mean, they do this every year. Paola: Yes. When I was in high school, it was the bird flu. Joette: Swine flu, bird flu, Asian flu, we’re all doomed. We’re just doomed. So, I never paid much attention to that. I mean, it’s every single year there’s a scare. I think it happens for a couple of different reasons. We won’t go into that in this particular podcast. But I think there are reasons for all of that. Paola: Well, I feel like if anyone here is listening, they might feel like you were right on those other diseases. But they might feel like Lyme disease is a legitimate concern. Joette: All of them are legitimate concerns. Paola: Oh, okay. Joette: Do you know what I mean? When you think about it, SARS, that’s a legitimate concern. People were dying in Toronto, or so they said. We don’t really know. We never really got the end. I don’t mean to say that they’re lying. I’m not attaching myself to a conspiracy theory. But we don’t really know the end numbers to these kinds of things and what really occurred. Paola: Yes. They’re not well-reported. Joette: No matter what it is, it’s a threat. Lyme is generally not life-threatening, so, we can put that aside. It doesn’t kill people. I mean, could you die from Lyme? I suppose it’s possible. But, it doesn’t have a high mortality rate. It’s more a chronic condition. Paola: Yes, more of a life-altering condition. Joette: Yes. Paola: I have here a number of great questions that our social media team has been collecting in regards to Lyme disease. I want to go through some of these. But basically, I want to review your position on Lyme disease so that our listeners who might be new to you, Joette, can understand. What is your position on Lyme disease as far as treating it with homeopathy? Do we treat this broad, chronic Lyme disease? Joette: Here’s the thing: Is it Lyme because someone just got a bull’s-eye rash and they just pulled a tick off of their arm a few days ago? Or are we talking about this chronic Lyme that they’re discussing? Paola: Okay. Well, let’s talk about acute first. Lyme disease, its origin and remedies Joette: Okay, which is the Lyme that I’ve written about on my blog. I knew that there was such a thing as chronic Lyme, but it wasn’t as big as it has been in the news, et cetera, when I wrote that original blog some three years ago. So, the way I looked at Lyme generally (even though I knew it could go chronic — we understand that) is that Lyme is from a bacteria from a deer tick. And, I know that any kind of insect bite, pretty much, you use Ledum palustre. That’s what I wrote in my blog, Ledum palustre 200C. I would urge people to go to that blog because I’ve got the entire protocol laid out there. Now, I live in the country. We have 15 acres. We’re in New York State. The next state over is Connecticut. Lyme, Connecticut is where it got its name because it became so big in Lyme, Connecticut area. Paola: Oh Lyme, Connecticut is actually … Joette: A town in Connecticut. Paola: Interesting. Joette: So, my father-in-law had Lyme. They were in Connecticut when he got it some 30 years ago. I said it on a podcast recently, but when I think about it, it was probably closer to 45 years ago he got Lyme. It was not as prevailing as it is today. So, when we look at it as an acute: here’s a tick. Take it off. Collect it. Put it in a bottle. Put it in vodka (in the highest alcohol content vodka you can find). Label it: the date, who you found it on, which family member, where… Paola: Where on their body or where in the state? Joette: Where on their body. Well, listen if you’re in Allegheny at the time, then you might want to write Allegheny State Park or something like that and make it clear where you were. It helps you to remember what the incident was many months, if not years from now. You’re saving the deer tick to make it into a homeopathic medicine if you choose or even do some research on it. Paola: Like later down the line if they actually get an acute condition of Lyme. Joette: It turns into a chronic, you have the tick to prove one way or another. You got your evidence. Paola: So basically, you can turn that homeopathic remedy into a nosode. Do you have instructions on how to do that? Joette: I don’t know. I have it in my Survivalist Guide. Paola: Oh, that’s right. That’s right. You do teach us how to … Joette: It’s pretty clear there because you can do this with many kinds of insects, et cetera, that can cause trouble. You can learn how to make a homeopathic medicine. So, we won’t go into that now. We could probably do that in another blog. But, I just want you to know that that’s possible. Then the first thing you do is you give Ledum palustre, 200. 200C is most commonly used these days, but if you only have 200X in your neck of the woods then you could use that. We use it every 3 to 6 hours, 3 to 12 hours. The reason I don’t give exact numbers is because through the years, my family — including our dog, we had goats, our three sons (who are now all adults), my husband, and neighbors, et cetera — have had so many ticks. No one’s ever gotten sick from any of these ticks. Perhaps I’ve gotten a little lackadaisical about it. I say, “Ah, well, twice a day.” But if you’re really worried and most people are very anxious about this, it’s because they’re reading all of the news reports, you could do it every 6 hours for a few days. Paola: Yes. My girlfriend Heather, her daughter got a tick. She did your protocol to a tee, every 3 hours. And that made her feel better. Joette: Yes. Some people are very comforted by that. You become less worried as you get more experience about certain things and more worried about other things that you know are concerning. Go to my blog and it will give you exactly how to do it. Paola: Yes. We’re even updating that blog. It’s June 2017. We’re coming out with an update to that blog to reworking it a little bit. Joette: And adding a little more, just building it so that there’s more information. Paola: So definitely go and look into that. It was a June 2017 blog. It will be coming out if it’s not out already. So, let’s shift in to kind of a chronic Lyme situation. Joette: Let me also step back and mention one more thing: We have deer on our property. We have a lot of deer on our property. We have a big pond. They come and take a little sip from the pond. They go down. They tromp through my tomatoes when I used to have my tomato garden. They go throughout my hostas; they eat them all down. We are part of the trail from the top end of the ski area all the way down to the bottom end of the ski area where we live. So, it’s not as though we are not exposed to this. We have deer everywhere. It’s a wonder they don’t knock on the door and ask what else we’ve got for dinner. Paola: Right, right. Joette: We have a lot of hunters around us. So, this is a plentiful area with deer. So, I don’t want anybody to think that well, we were just lucky. Our ticks are not from deer and et cetera, et cetera. No. It is prevalent here as it is anywhere else especially in New England and upstate New York area. Paola: Right, okay. Joette: Now, let’s say somebody got a tick. By the time they hear this, it was a year ago. If they’re not sick, there’s nothing to treat. I wouldn’t even give it a thought. But now, if they’re chronically ill, now, this is where everyone gets stuck. Paola: One of the things is, if all these people in your life have been bitten by this tick, it’s almost like it’s not necessarily the Lyme bacteria that are the concern, but it’s the terrain or the health of the person that’s a concern. Joette shares her take on Lyme disease Joette: Yes, I think it is. Look, I’m not an MD. I’m a lay homeopathic practitioner. I’m an educator. I’m a mother. But, I’ve been doing this long enough now and worked with homeopaths from all over the world. I have worked in India for many years, where we see very serious illnesses. I will tell you that in my experience, it seems to me that we’re going through a phase on the internet, on the news, et cetera — I might be completely wrong about this, but if you’re asking my opinion and that’s why you’re here is that you’re interested at least in hearing it — I think this is somewhat some hysteria involved. Paola: Or maybe it’s just … it’s a rabbit hole. People are overall sicker with chronic illness, and they’re trying to find the solution and a reason for it. It seems like — I don’t want to minimize it — but kind of the pendulum has swung in the direction of Lyme disease. We’re more and more and more attributing it to that. But Joette, people are getting labs and they’re seeing that they have the Lyme bacteria in them. Joette: Yes. I’m not surprised. I think we probably all have Lyme bacteria. I think if we dig around, we’ll find cancer in most people. If we dig around, we’ll find parasites. We’ll find heavy metals. We’ll find overgrowth of yeast. We’ll find everything that people are looking for. If you dig far enough, if you decided you’re going to be Vasco da Gama and start going on a discovery, you’re going to find everything! So, at some point, we have to make a decision and say, “Really? Do I really want to know absolutely every little thing that I’ve got in my body? Do I want to know that I’ve polyps in my colon and go for colonoscopy every year? Do I really want to go this far?” Because what homeopathy allows us, is the ability to calm down. The reason it does that is because we don’t have to find every little disease, and then become crazy about it — because it does cause craziness, including myself. I was like that myself many years ago, because I started to dig around. I’m like, “Oh my gosh, it’s Epstein-Barr. Holy cow, it’s also cytomegalovirus. Oh, my goodness! It’s also …” And in those days when they were testing me, they didn’t find Lyme probably because they weren’t looking for it. I’ll bet it was there. Paola: Right, right. Yes. Joette: “Oh, my gosh. You’ve got herpes. Oh, my gosh.” It could go on and on. Of course, you’ve got herpes. I had chicken pox. Of course, it’s going to show up at least in the titers. Paola: What you’re saying is in the language of homeopathy, it’s not that these conditions don’t matter. If knowing that you have Lyme helped cure the person, you would be all for it. But in the language of homeopathy, it matters not if you have all these hidden little bacteria or whatever in your system. In homeopathy, we don’t care about the possible theorized root cause. Joette: The etiology. What is the cause? Oh, it must be the Lyme. Paola: The candida overgrowth. Joette: It must be the candida. Oh, it’s heavy metals. Paola: Right. Joette: Because I get the people for whom those paradigms, I’m not saying it never works by going after it that way. But the way that I see it is I get all the people for whom those paradigms did not act, did not work. So, by doing that, I get the people who say, “Well, I was told I have heavy metals. I’ve been taking these chelated mineral supplements. I’ve been doing these cleanses. My heavy metals are coming down, but you know what? I’m still sick. I still have chronic fatigue. I still have fibromyalgia. I still suffer from brain fogs. So, darn it all, I guess it wasn’t those.” “Let’s look at this! Oh, it must be the yeast. Oh, it’s yeast overgrowth. Okay, now, we do the yeast cleanse, no sugar and no dried fruit.” I’ve been through all of these… Paola: Right. Joette: Personally myself and this is what I hear others describing. So, it comes down to we don’t know the cause of that chronic fatigue. Couldn’t it be perhaps menopause? Couldn’t it be 9-11 anxiety? Couldn’t it be that flu that really brought you down to your knees? Paola: Your divorce, those stresses? Joette: Couldn’t it be the pesticides that are sprayed around your house? Couldn’t it be the blood pressure drugs you’ve started taking? Couldn’t it be the psychotropic drugs that you take for sleep, Ativan, et cetera? Why couldn’t it be all of those? Certainly, it could be any of these. But, to try to pinpoint exactly which microorganism, exactly which input into the human system it was that triggered this? Oh my gosh — good luck. I don’t know how you could ever figure something like that out. Paola: I’ve said this before to some of my study group students. Especially in the language of homeopathy — if you want to understand how to use the language of homeopathy to get to your heath goal — it doesn’t matter. There is a podcast, Podcast Number 24. It’s called Subjects That Bear Repeating where you and I, Joette, talked about a conventional diagnosis and then the theorized diagnosis which are all these things you’re talking about: the candida, the Lyme. So, really, if you listen to this podcast and you’re kind of confused as to what Joette is saying, go to Podcast 24 and listen to that. Joette: Here’s the difference. In homeopathy — especially the method that I use, what I call practical homeopathy, much of it based on the Banerji Protocols — I like a conventional diagnosis, a conventional doctor. You go to the doctor and he says generally, “Yes, you’ve got fibromyalgia. Yep, you’ve got constipation. I’d call that chronic fatigue. Yes, yes, brain fog, there’s your diagnosis.” Those are the diagnostics. So, you go to an alternative practitioner, and they theorize. “It must be …” And that’s what we’re all talking about. “It must be you have inflammation.” Really? Of course, you’ve got inflammation! Paola: I know. I had a girlfriend send me a text message once, “Paola, I think my diagnosis is inflammation.” I go, “For heaven’s sakes, every disease starts with inflammation.” Joette: That’s right. Paola: It’s what it is. I had to explain to her. Joette: Sometimes people come back from the doctor. They say the doctor says it’s stress. Uh, hello! That is the world! Of course, there’s stress. Everybody’s got some stress. When we try to distill it down to, “It must be …” and that’s the answer. It may not even be, to be honest, the message that the naturopath (or the clinical ecologist, the functional doctor, or the chiropractor, or even the conventional doctor) is giving. It might…
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