To stretch or not to stretch? As Shakespeare's Hamlet notoriously declared, “That is the question.”
Sometimes stretching is great! For instance, stretching your major muscle groups before running? Excellent.
Sometimes, stretching is bad. I mean, no one condones stretching the truth!
But then again, sometimes stretching is, well — complicated.
That’s exactly how I would describe the subject of stretching your homeopathic remedies. Yes, there is a lot of information out there about dissolving remedies in water to make more medicine by “grafting” (mixing active pellets and grain alcohol or water together with blank pellets), but there's a little more to it.
While I do see a time and place for stretching remedies, I want to discourage it as a regular practice.
There already exist a number of variables in treating a condition. Why on earth would you want to introduce another one? Why be concerned whether you measured correctly? Why worry if you prepared the container adequately? If the medicine is later determined ineffective in treating the condition, you’re then in a position to have to question if you chose the right remedy or if it was simply that your grafting technique was wrong!
Why play pharmacist?
The pharmacies know what they’re doing; all you need to do is put the professionally prepared pellets in the mouth with the confidence they've been properly medicated.
Another reason I discourage stretching remedies is the current climate of adversarial energy aimed at homeopathy in the United States. We certainly don’t want to put our pharmacies out of business just because we don’t want to spend a few extra bucks. We need them and they need our business. And while I'm on the subject, buy American for many reasons. But that's a subject for another blog that is planned for the near future.
And let’s face it, these medicines are inexpensive. Especially compared to conventional pharmaceuticals.
Super, unbelievably, undeniably, outrageously inexpensive.
With every remedy we purchase, we are both encouraging and financially supporting the entire homeopathic industry. If we don’t support the pharmacies, we could find ourselves lacking readily available remedies one day because they’re nearly gone. It has happened in the past. It could happen again.
Now, am I saying never, ever stretch a remedy? No. I’m just saying it's not sound to make it commonplace.
However, what if your entire family has had coughs and colds and you notice at 6 o’clock on a Saturday night that you’re down to your last few pellets of Bryonia and Aconitum?
In such an instance, yes! It is certainly a situation in which stretching a remedy is warranted — stretching until an order arrives in the mail or you can drive to the store for more is justified. Will it still work? If you have no choice, you do it and hope for the best. Most likely, it will act.
How would you do it? The easiest method is in water. Add the dose (between 2-5 pellets) into an ounce or so of the purest water you have, allow it to dissolve, then stir it once. Now a teaspoon becomes a dose. Some say to use one ounce, others use as much as four.
Look, when I’m treating Buster the Bad Office Dog, I just toss about 4-5 pellets in his water. That is, unless I want to be certain that he gets each and every dose. When we treat poultry or livestock, again, in a small water trough it goes. If you are using a remedy for something non-critical and long-term (say you’re trying to make your hair thicker with Silica), well, that might be a time when it would be okay to use it in water. But if you’re suffering from the flu? Please, put the pellets directly into the mouth. It's just not worth taking a chance.
See what I mean? In my opinion, when it comes to homeopathy, the subject of stretching is complicated. I only encourage it under the right circumstances — I absolutely discourage it if it's just to save a little money.
Warmly,
P.S. I discussed this subject during a recent Q&A I did on Facebook Live. If you are not part of our Joette Calabrese Facebook Group yet, I encourage you to join. I try to do a Facebook Live event every Monday night at 8 pm Eastern. While I don’t discuss specific cases and their remedies, I do discuss subjects of broad interest and sometimes, I address general questions I have received. I really enjoy interacting with the participants, and I hope to see you there! If you’re not able to attend the event while it is live, please look at my Video page to find replays of previous events.
I am a homeopath with a worldwide practice working with families and individuals via Zoom. I'm also a teacher and most importantly, a mom who raised my now-adult children depending on homeopathy over the last 31 years. I lived decades of my life with food intolerances, allergies, and chemical sensitivities until I was cured with homeopathy, so I understand pain, anxiety, and suffering. You may feel that your issues are more severe or different than anyone else’s, but I have seen it all in my practice and in my work in India. My opinion is that nothing has come close to the reproducible, safe and effective results that my clients, students and I have achieved with homeopathy.
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Joette is not a physician and the relationship between Joette and her clients is not of prescriber and patient, but as educator and client. It is fully the client's choice whether or not to take advantage of the information Joette presents. Homeopathy doesn't "treat" an illness; it addresses the entire person as a matter of wholeness that is an educational process, not a medical one. Joette believes that the advice and diagnosis of a physician is often in order.
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| Joette is not a physician and the relationship between Joette and her clients is not of prescriber and patient, but as educator and client. It is fully the client's choice whether or not to take advantage of the information Joette presents. Homeopathy doesn't "treat" an illness; it addresses the entire person as a matter of wholeness that is an educational process, not a medical one. In order to be treated or diagnosed, Joette believes that the advice of a holistic physician is in order. 2009-2021 © Joette Calabrese – Practical Homeopathy® - HomeopathyWorks® - Health and Wellness - Privacy Policy
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Joette, you are an angel on Earth! I have learned so much from you and your courses. I honestly wouldn’t survive without this knowledge. I realize that seems dramatic, but when you are set free from the drugstore, it’s liberating! Thank you so very very much!
What kind words! Many thanks for sharing them with me. And yes, freedom from drugstores is the ultimate freedom. I can’t tell you the number of pharmacists who come to me as clients and students.
Joette What you say is perfectly right. Encourage stretching under the right circumstances and discourage it if it’s just to save money. We should make our own decision whether to stretch or not to stretch.
Thank you.
Narendra.
I live in Sweden where we no longer find homeopathics at the pharmacy. And worse – are no longer able to buy homeopathics at high strengths. Glad to hear your plea to keep buying 😉
Dear Joette, thanks a lot for your article To stretch or
Not to stretch. I have gone through your article just now which is very much interesting and informative
Please carry on and continue to enlighten us.See you again.
Do you have any comments on the dosage (one whole tube of pellets per dose) of Oscillococcinum for flu? Why such a large dose for a homeopathic remedy?
To ensure that you’ve gotten a full dose. I’ve used less from time to time but as I always say, if you hope to get the results that we have come to expect, don’t play with dosage amount.
This is an interesting post! I had always wondered about whether putting the pills in water was a good idea or not. But, the rationale I’d heard before about doing that is that dissolving them in, say, 8 oz. of water made the remedy more potent. Is that true?
Theoretically, yes, but to what degree would be a matter of precise measurement.
You are talking about two different things here. I agree I would not graft remedies in order to save money as you are diluting the potency of the remedy. You are taking a single dose of the larger potentized water and making it into multiple doses when spreading it onto other pellets. When you purchase pellets from a pharmacy, they made the pellets directly from the potentized water. However, in terms of water dosing – in the 6th edition of the Organon – it’s not called stretching. It’s called water dosing. Hahnemann not only recommended water dosing in his last version, he insisted upon it. Those of us who have treated with LMs and even C potencies know that water dosing works just as well – and sometimes even better – than dry dosing. You only need 1 or 2 pellets in a bottle of water (or glass bottle as we used). The size of the water bottle will make a difference in the size of the dose. The strength of the dose is always the same – whatever potency you have added. But the size of the dose will matter too – especially for those sensitive. Hahnemann’s recommendation was about 4 oz of water but I have used 8 oz and even larger water bottles with no lack of reaction. It’s also the best way to repeat a dose more frequently, whether it be daily, hourly, or every 15 minutes, with succussing the bottle before a dose to slightly increase the potency. Remember, the sugar pellets are only a carrier for the remedy which was made with water. You don’t have to hope it works, Hahnemann proved it worked over and over again.
Actually, I think you missed my point. The discussion was not on the topic of water dosing and the reason for that is that most folks who read this blog don’t readily have access to water remedies. I also don’t teach the use of LM’s for those same logistical concerns.
But, golly-gosh thanks for the lesson.
I’m sorry – I didn’t mean to step on any toes. My point was just that – all remedies are water remedies because the sugar pellets are impregnated from the medicating potency (of water). C potency remedies work great in water just like LM potencies. I was trying to clarify that for your readers and support your thought that grafting is not a good idea. But again, I’m sorry if I spoke out of turn and please delete my comments if you feel it isn’t relevant to the discussion.
OK. I understand your point now, but my focus is to get the complex and simplify it for busy families. It’s about practical results, not doctrine.
Is it ok to dissolve 1 dose in water to give to a baby or toddler?
Yes.
A number of my family members and myself and my 15 month old are treating ourselves with cal phos and calc fluor for dental issues so I dissolve the dose on the bottle into 4 oz of water and we all use it 3 times a day. Older ones take a teaspoon and the baby takes a 1/2 teaspoon. Sometimes I have swirled it before giving. Should I not be doing that? I realize I am talking cell salts and this post ia probably speaking more on homepathics. Joette teaching has been invaluable.
Stretching under the right circumstances is exactly spot on. I know of a wonderful homeopath who lives in South Africa and she does amazing work in her country and other surrounding African countries where she teachers pastors to help and teach their communities to use homeopathy. They learn to place remedies in water so the patients can take the bottles home and also these are very poor communities and the remedies that they do receive are all donated and so they have to all share what they have.
You recently spoke on FB about how robust remedies are and how they have survived air-port x-rays and going through your clothes drier. Can the same reasoning apply here with remedies – that they are robust enough to handle being added to water? If remedies work after being x-rayed or put through a drier, is adding them to water really a variable to be concerned about? I am not trying to argue anything, but I’ve always had the impression from you that water dosing was fine, except when following Banerji protocols.
My concern is that if the remedy you’re counting on doesn’t act because of further dilution, it would be a shame to misinterpret it and move on to another one, thinking you’ve chosen wrongly. Having said this, if its been working, certainly stay with it.
This is very interesting! Our local homeopath (who also owns a natural health store that sells a ton of homeopathic remedies) recommends taking 2 pellets instead of the recommended 5. It makes sense to support the homeopathic pharmacies, though!
I started doing a Banerji protocol for a chronic issue for my son and he is terribly allergic to dairy and the dry dosing was giving him unbearable itchy hives. We only did the dry dosing for a week and it was getting worse and worse and I know it was from the lactose in the pills. I understand water dosing is not ideal, but in a situation where the child cannot have dairy, is it ok to water dose for a chronic issue? Any tips for doing it? Should I stir each time? Succuss after the first dose? Should I use the water until it is gone, or switch it out after a few doses? Boil the teaspoon each time? I really want to help him and try this so any advice is appreciated. Thank you.
Your questions are involved and best answered in my course “Allergic”.
I noticed that after having taken sugar pellet remedies too often, my teeth start to hurt. I heard you say somewhere that the potentized remedy is on top of the sugar pellet only. in that case, can one suck on the sugar pellet for about 10 second and then either spit out the rest of the pellet or swallow it so the sugar gets out of the mouth.
Yes, and most of these medicines may be purchased in water or alcohol directly from the pharmacies.