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IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER:

02:00    The sewing incident and St. John’s Wort

10:35    Eye injury

12:48    Combination remedies

14:55    Botanicals

19:53    Why not just use herbs then

23:48    Buster and Crataegus

 

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST:

Hypericum 200 Arsenicum 200: Banerji protocol to ward off infection in puncture wounds

Ledum 200: for puncture wounds

Silica in a 6X: debris embedded in the eye

Optique®: eye allergies

Trusted homeopathic pharmacies:

Boiron

Hyland's

Washington

OHM

Hahnemann Pharmacy

A Materia Medica: Practical Homeopathy® for Busy Families

Dr. James Tyler Kent’s Materia Medica (free online)

Chamomilla 200C: teething, fractiousness

 

 

Kate:  This is the Practical Homeopathy Podcast Episode Number 65 with Joette Calabrese.

 

Joette:  This is Joette Calabrese, and I’d like to welcome you to the Practical Homeopathy Podcast. Women and men worldwide are taking back control of their families’ health and learning how to heal their bodies naturally, safely and effectively. So, if you’re hungry to learn more, you’ve come to the right place. Stay tuned as we give you the tools — and the inspiration you need — as I share my decades of experience and knowledge using this powerful medicine we call homeopathy.

 

Kate and I love hearing from you. So, consider taking a moment to share your thoughts about this podcast. For example, Ophelia wrote this comment about another podcast. She said, “I search every possible issue that comes up with my little ones and my family to find the remedy that will help. Let me tell you, Joette has everything you need in her articles, podcasts and helpful remedy cards. Thanks, Joette for helping me get on the homeopathy path.”

 

Thank you, Ophelia, for mentioning it.

 

Kate:  Hi Joette. It’s good to be with you today doing another podcast.

 

Joette:  Hi Kate. It’s always good to be with you, too.

 

Kate:  I’m excited to hear what you have to share with us today. You always have great stories, Joette.

 

Joette:  Well, you told me, “Okay, we got some ideas. Why don’t you see if you can come up with something?” I was thinking, my husband and I, and I have my mother with me (she lives with us now), and our dog, Buster, have all moved to Florida. We did it quite a while ago, but now we’re totally settled in. We’ve got a little townhouse and things are moving along. We’re not too far away from where my in-laws used to live in Florida. So, it got me thinking about spending time with mother-in-law.

 

The sewing incident and St. John’s wort

 

There was a time, I’m going to say it was probably about 25 years ago, and we were visiting. We were staying with my in-laws. We had, I think … I think we only had one son. So maybe, it was longer ago … maybe it was 28 years ago. My mother-in-law did a lot of sewing, and I loved sewing too. So, we got out her sewing machine, and I started to sew. I was not accustomed to working on her sewing machine. But years ago, I used to actually sell sewing machines in Chicago at a fabric store.

 

Kate:  You did?!

 

Joette:  I did. It was called the Fabric Barn. I just loved learning about things like sewing machines because it was a big part of my life. I also did alterations and dressmaking for people back then, too. We’re talking long time; we’re talking 1973, folks. So, it was a long time ago.

 

Kate:  Joette, you have a lot of hidden talents.

 

Joette:  Oh, well, I don’t know how talented I was. I was willing, let’s put it that way. So, I’ve done a lot of sewing, actually. (I don’t know if we want to go into this.) So, I’ll just tell a little bit more about sewing because it was a passion of mine. When I first learned how to sew in about seventh or eighth grade, it was part of our curriculum in public school back in Buffalo, New York. Once I learned, I just couldn’t stop. I wanted to make all my clothes. It was just too much fun, and I started to make all my clothes. In high school, I made everything except — we used to call them “shells” — except the knit shell. But I would make my miniskirts and my jackets and my pants. I even covered belts. I even covered shoes with fabric. It was just too much fun! I loved doing that.

 

Kate:  Oh, my gosh, Joette!

 

Joette:  I used to actually go to the fabric store. I don’t know if people really want to hear this story. But I used to go to the fabric store and buy three or four fabrics — all prints. In those days — back in the 60s — it was the Piccadilly look. 

 

Kate:  What’s a Piccadilly look?

 

Joette:  Piccadilly Circus, it was an area in London, England, that was putting out these kinds of fabrics that were tiny prints, very vibrant … red with yellow flowers … and kind of “flower power” was the look.

 

So, I would buy three or four fabrics and press them all, lay them all out. And I would use one thread for all three of them, so, I made sure it was unifying color. So, if I had red with yellow, blue with yellow, and orange with yellow, I had yellow thread. I would cut them all together. I would make miniskirts. It was a … what is that called … an assembly line!

 

Kate:  An assembly line, yeah.

 

Joette:  An assembly line of skirts! And I would do this every weekend, so that I had three new skirts for the week every week.

 

I know.

 

Kate:  Oh, my gosh!

 

Joette:  It was crazy! I was so good at the zipper foot and putting my zippers in and my buttonholes. I got really good at it. I could hem a skirt in 20 minutes flat. So, I did this all the time, and I loved it.

 

But, I hadn’t sewn for a long time, and I was visiting my in-laws, staying with them. We were on this sewing machine that I wasn’t that familiar with. I was stitching along. I don’t remember what I was making, and my thumb went under the foot, and the needle went directly into my thumb — clear through my entire thumb.

 

Kate:  Oh, my gosh!

 

Joette:  I mean you could see the needle from both ends, on the top of my thumb and the bottom.

 

Kate:  Oh, my gosh!

 

Joette:  I was impaled by this sewing machine.

 

Kate:  Oh, yes, you were.

 

Joette:  Of course, it freaked me … totally freaked me out. So, I yelled out. My husband came and detached the needle from the machine because it was still attached to the machine. My thumb was attached to the sewing machine. It didn’t get as far as the bone. It didn’t go that deep. It went more off to the side a little bit, and it didn’t touch my nail.

 

I was freaking, of course. In those days, my in-laws did not own a homeopathy kit. Otherwise, I would have taken Hypericum, Ledum, and I was feeling like I was going to faint so maybe even Ignatia. But I didn’t have any of those with me.

 

But I did have, they did have a bottle of St. John’s wort. The reason they had this bottle of St. John’s wort was because in those days, my father-in-law used to have a little difficulty sleeping, and I used to make St. John’s wort for him. I used to collect it from the meadow around our home back in Colden, New York. I used to make big jugs of this stuff for him. They had some because I had given it to him for Christmas. It’s made in vodka. I got the bottle, and it was not a little, tiny amber bottle. It was a whole big, fat amber bottle!

 

Kate:  Oh, my gosh!

 

Joette:  I just gulped.

 

Kate:  Oh, wow!

 

Joette:  Just anything to calm my nerves. The pain was not as severe as you might think. It was really more my nerves — just looking at it. It calmed me down right away.

 

My mother-in-law and father-in-law said, “You’ve got to take her to the hospital. You’ve got to go to the emergency room.”

 

My husband said, “I’ll take care of this.” He said, “Where are the pliers?”

 

Kate:  Oh, no!

 

Joette:  I know. They weren’t even needle-nose pliers! He used big, fat, honking pliers. He got the pliers, and he pulled, and I’m shaking — but actually the St. John’s wort helped me a great deal.

 

Kate:  Was it the St. John’s wort or the alcohol that was…

 

Joette:  Oh! I know. Other people have asked me that. I don’t think I drank enough for it to be the alcohol. But I actually thought for a moment, “Oh, I’m just going to live like this. I’ll just live with a needle impaled into my thumb for the rest of my life because I do NOT want this needle to come out. Just the thought of it having gone in, and now it’s got to come out? I’m just going to live this way.” But I came to my senses and realized I really had to have this thing removed from my body.

 

So, we pulled it, and I continued taking St. John’s wort.

 

Now, I don’t know why … Oh! I know why I didn’t have the remedies with me … because I was actually staying with my parents as well because my parents were down here, too. I could get the remedies later on.

 

But meanwhile, I took that St. John’s wort, and it made a huge difference in my demeanor. Now, when you get an impaled body part, you really want to take Hypericum 200 (is what I would have used had I had the homeopathic). I might also now today — knowing the Banerji Protocols — I might also have used Arsenicum 200 along with it to protect from infection. But another great medicine — and at that time, that’s what I knew to take — was Ledum 200.

 

When I got back to my parent’s place, I started taking Ledum 200. Meanwhile, the St. John’s wort really acted well. I was calm — not drunk. I was calm. The pain wasn’t bad. I pressed time and again on the wounds — two wounds, mind you (the wound going in and coming out) — to get blood. Thankfully, I did get blood because that is a good way to keep it somewhat clean because it releases any bacteria that the needle might have carried.

 

Kate:  Right. Now, Ledum was because Ledum is for any type of a puncture wound.

 

Joette:  Puncture wound, that’s right. That’s right.

 

So, I took the St. John’s wort for the next several hours, and then eventually, we got to my parent’s place, and I started taking Ledum. In that case, then I took it as I recall — it was long enough ago that I wouldn’t exactly remember if — it was about every 3 hours.

 

Then the next day, it hurt a little bit. It really wasn’t bad, surprisingly. The next day I took Ledum two or three times and the following day, two or three times. Then, by the end of the week, I’d gotten down to about twice a day (over that period of a week).

 

Kate:  Okay. So, you continued to take the Ledum for about a week.

 

Joette:  Yes, I did. Just in case there was bacteria.

 

Kate:  But did you take anything else?

 

Joette:  No, I just took the St. John’s wort from time to time. When I say I took it, the first gulp was a couple of good gulps. But after that, you draw up the pipette in a regular tincture bottle, and it automatically draws up about 15 to 20 drops. I used that — put it in water and drank that throughout the day here and there — throughout that first and second day.

 

Kate:  I bet they couldn’t believe that you weren’t going to the emergency room, huh?

 

Joette:  Well, they saw how calm I was, and that my husband was very calm about it, too. My husband is kind of a rugged guy and really into sailing long distances. He’s had a lot of those kinds of experiences. So, he knows what to do. He also knows how to calm me down, “Just don’t worry. Here, drink this.”

 

Kate:  Funny.

 

Joette:  I know. I know.

 

Kate:  You guys balance each other out well.

 

Joette:  Yeah, we do, we do. So, that’s my sewing machine. I think we’re going to title this particular podcast, “My Sewing Machine Attacked Me!”

 

Kate:  That’s a good title, yes.

 

Eye injury

 

So Joette, as long as we’re on the topic of injuries, what other stories about injuries do you have?

 

Joette:  Yeah, I was just thinking about that. When there’s an impalement into the body like that, we automatically think Hypericum 200 and Arsenicum 200 for the infection. And then Ledum, as well, which is also great for infections, but it is also great for puncture wounds.

 

However, when there is an injury to the eye, now it’s a different remedy. Now instead of Ledum, we use Aconitum. A lot of folks call Aconitum the Arnica for the eye. But any injury to the eye is most often it’s Aconitum. So, whether it’s a puncture wound or a punch in the eye or any kind of injury, we always think of Aconitum.

 

Kate:  Now, isn’t Ledum also really good because I’ve used that when someone got…

 

Joette:  A black eye.

 

Kate:  A black eye, yeah.

 

Joette:  Yeah, Ledum is great for a “shiner,” as they sometimes call them in colloquial terms. So, it’s also great for any time there’s a black and blue around the eye, then we would use Ledum.

 

Kate:  Aconite is more for an injury like say …

 

Joette:  To the eyeball itself.

 

Kate:  Okay, all right. Good. What if someone has something in their eye?

 

Joette:  If there’s debris in the eye, and it’s stuck, now we go to Silica [Silicea] — because Silica automatically sets up a suppuration to push out anything that’s foreign that should not be there. We usually use Silica in a 6X or a 3X. We could take that over a couple of days. That will often push it out or, of course, just an eyewash.

 

Kate:  Oh, I really love the eye drops by Boiron. It’s called Optique®.

 

Joette:  Yes! I love those, too. They’re great.

 

Kate:  I’ve used them for pinkeye. I’ve used them for just raw, irritated eyes. They are amazing.

 

Joette:  Yes. They can also be even for allergic situations when there’s a lot of lacrimation — tearing, tearing, tearing — or they’re raw and itchy and burning and rubbing from pollen, et cetera. That’s a good place to start. It’s not the only place we go, but it’s a great place to start.

 

Combination Remedies

 

Speaking of that, Kate, I love combination remedies! Boiron does a great job; so does Hyland's; so does Washington; so does OHM; so does Hahnemann Pharmacy out in San Francisco. I like these combination medicines that you can find often at Wal-Mart which is where they belong! We want remedies at Wal-Mart. We want them there. We don’t want this to be exclusive to only high-end health food stores. We want everyone to have access to these medicines.

 

Kate:  Yeah, my friends and I, we stock up when they go on sale, whether it’s online or locally. So, we love the combination remedies. It’s nice to have. Especially, they make great gifts for people who don’t know a lot about homeopathy. If you want to recommend to a relative or a friend who doesn’t know a lot and just, “Here, keep these with you.”

 

Joette:  Yes, leg cramps or teething tablets. Now, what I tell folks is, look, if you really want to learn homeopathy, there are many different ways to “up” your knowledge. One of them that I think is great is if you use a combination medicine, and it’s working nicely for you or your family member, turn it over. Turn that little bottle over and read the ingredients. Now, read those ingredients and look each one up so you understand why that medicine acted for you or your family member.

 

Open up your materia medica — my materia medica or go online and look at Dr. James Tyler Kent’s materia medica. You can find that for free online. It’s rather extensive, and it can be a little overwhelming sometimes. But, definitely, you want to look up why did that medicine act. It will teach you your materia medica.

 

You want this knowledge because there are unifying threads that you’ll find, “My goodness, look at this. This Chamomilla helped my baby with teething, but look at this: it also helped the baby not be irritable. So, maybe next time the baby’s just plain irritable, and there’s no teething, maybe I should just consider Chamomilla.” That’s how you learn and extend and draw out your knowledge.

 

Kate:  Yeah, good suggestion. Good tip.

 

Botanicals

 

Joette:  We were going to talk about herbs, botanicals. I mean, since St. John’s wort (harkening back to my story) was so effective, people might say, “Well, why not just use herbs?” And I say, “Sure, why not? Use herbs. Botanicals are wonderful. I believe, however … and this is founded in my years of experience of having used herbs and making my own tinctures from scratch by harvesting the plants in my area. (Or if I didn’t have those plants available to me, sometimes I would buy them in bulk and make my own tinctures.) So, it’s a great idea to learn botanicals so that you can utilize that information and extend it further into your homeopathic knowledge.

 

But homeopathy just takes it to the next step.

 

Kate:  Yeah, just another tool to use, but if I had to choose one, definitely homeopathy.

 

Joette:  You bet.

 

Yes, homeopathy is so efficacious, and there is so much information on how to use it. Especially if you use these protocols that I teach on the blog and in my courses, it makes it so much easier. It takes the mystery out of “What potency?” “What frequency?” “How long?” “What am I watching for?”

 

The problem with just plain, old classical homeopathy and plain, old herbalism is that you don’t know how far to go. What’s next? “Okay, I know what medicine to use. Now, what?”

 

That’s what I try to take the mystery out of. That’s why we call itPractical Homeopathy®. 

 

Kate:  Practical, yes. It’s practical. That’s why it’s practical.

 

Joette:  It’s like a recipe.

 

Kate:  Let’s talk a little bit more about some herbs. How about when you have an abrasion, a cut? Because I think there are some herbs that we can do topically on a cut that you have talked about in the past.

 

Joette:  Well, if it’s not a really deep cut, then I would use a tincture — because if you use a tincture on a deep cut, you could send the person through the roof because of the pain from the alcohol. Now, there are products that you can find made by Boiron and Hyland’s, et cetera (from online and also health food stores) where they make ointments, or you can make your own ointment.

 

I often made my own ointments which was really great. I would gather the St. John’s wort flowers, for example, and calendula flowers. I actually grew my own calendula. I would put it in a double boiler and put it in some olive oil. The double boiler would have, of course, the hot water underneath so it would keep it warm. Then I would steep these plants in the olive oil. It would not cook it. It’s not meant to be cooked. It’s meant to be steeped in slightly warm — well, I shouldn’t say slightly — warm water, pretty warm to the touch, so that they release their plant ability.

 

Kate:  How long do you do that for?

 

Joette:  Well, sometimes I would do it all day. I would just have it on the stovetop while I was preparing meals and taking care of my family. It would just go all day on the back of the stove.

 

I’m sure that those who are botanical experts might say, “No, no, no, that’s too long.” Or some might say, “Oh no! It should be longer than that.”

 

That’s the way I always did it.

 

Then I would strain the flowers at the end of the day. Sometimes I’d let them sit all night long in the olive oil. Then I would strain them and put those flowers into my compost. And then the oil that was rendered with the curative action of these plants, to that I would add beeswax. So, I would shave little bits of beeswax in there to tighten up the emulsion and make it more an ointment instead of a liquid — although you could certainly use it just like a liquid. But I often made these into Chapsticks and salves. That’s right. So, I would add the beeswax until I could see that it was thickening enough to get a good ointment, or the texture and the thickness and tightness of a lip balm.

 

Kate:  So, you still collect herbs to this day, don’t you?

 

Joette:  No, I don’t do it anymore. I’m in Florida now. I haven’t found any natural places yet to start digging around. But, I did up until about a year ago, yes. But I’ve got to find out what’s around here. Now, I have something new to learn.

 

Kate:  There are always so many fun things to learn. I think that’s the fun part of life, so much to learn and know.

 

Joette:  Oh, we want to be students forever.

 

Kate:  Yes, and with 6,000 homeopathic medicines, we can be students of homeopathy forever.

 

Joette:  Oh, my goodness! Yes, it’s forever. No doubt about it. It’s a definite forever.

 

Kate: I think there’s more actually. And they’re continually making new homeopathic medicines, right?

 

Joette:  Yes, they are. Yeah, they’re called “provings.” I have a friend who works on these provings pretty regularly. She travels the world and does so. It’s great because you learn how to use plants or matter, whatever it might be that they’re studying in a new way and make a medicine from it.

 

Why not just use herbs then

 

Kate:  So Joette, we’re talking about the difference of herbs and homeopathy.  If herbs are so great, why not just use only herbs and not homeopathy?

 

Joette:  Let me give you an example. We were talking about Chamomilla earlier for teething for babies and children. If you have a child who is teething, and you happen to have chamomile growing in your yard — or if you don’t, you can just certainly buy it  (you can buy it in tincture form or in capsule form, et cetera) — you can give it to the baby, and it will help with the teething. There’s no doubt about it. It will calm the child down a little bit. It will often help with the pain. You have to give it frequently. Or you could make it into a tea, because if the child’s really young, you certainly don’t want to give them something that is made with alcohol. But you could make some tea, and it will work.

 

Now, however, get that Chamomilla flower and make it homeopathically. Now, we’ve got a medicine to reckon with. Now, if we dilute it 200 times to the 100^th power … and it’s not done by us, of course. You could do it yourself, but we count on these pharmacies — these homeopathic pharmacies — to make these for us. If we buy Chamomilla 200C, now if you give that to your child who’s teething, not only does it eliminate the fractiousness of the child (that irritability that seems so unreasonable, the sensitivity to the slightest touch, the inability to sleep, the crying out in the middle of the night because of the teeth pain) … now when you give that to your child (for example, twice daily for a few days), you not only make the teething more comfortable for the child, but it’s very likely that you may never have to give Chamomilla again even when the next tooth comes in. Or if you do, the sensitivity to the pain won’t be as great. But if you do need to use it again, you use it every time the child needs it. Perhaps by the third tooth or the fourth tooth coming in, you won’t need Chamomilla anymore.

 

Because what homeopathy does is it takes it to such a deeper level by that dilution process that it stimulates the body’s ability to correct the problem. Because children should be able to teethe without pain and fractiousness and sleeplessness and screaming out in the night and kicking off of their parents when they’re picked up and irritability. Teething should not be a painful condition. So, what homeopathy does is it corrects the whole condition with all of the satellite conditions related to it, not just the fact that the child is teething.

 

Kate:  It does it in a gentle way.

 

Joette:  Gentle because it’s so highly diluted as well. Now, think of teething not just for a baby. Think of teething for molars that are coming in for a child who’s a little older. Or how about teething with wisdom teeth erupting in young adults? Instead of having those wisdom teeth yanked from the gums, why not just use Chamomilla 200 twice a day for a few days and calm that pain down — and the fact that there’s even pain in the first place.

 

Kate:  It’s also great when you get braces. That calms that pain of the teeth moving in the gums and the jaw.

 

Joette:  Yes, absolutely. So, that’s taking a beautiful, simple plant — Chamomilla — and making it into a homeopathic medicine shows us how the dilution process brings the curative action to the fore and makes it even more powerful.

 

All right, let me use Buster, my dog, as a good example of using a tincture to help him get past a condition.

 

Kate:  Okay!

 

Buster and Crataegus

 

Joette:  Buster, we thought was becoming super-hyper and anxious and having a lot of problems with breathing and anxiety. He was panting frequently, et cetera. I was giving him Ignatia, and it would help. He’s an older dog. He’s going to be 14 this spring. So, I figured it was the anxiety because he can’t stand to have my husband away from him. When my husband leaves the house, the dog stays at the door. I know …  it’s really …

 

Kate:  I didn’t know he was so attached to Perry.

 

Joette:  Oh! He’s very attached to my husband. It’s really ridiculous. So, that’s what I thought was going on.

 

But then I realized, no, it’s not working. Ignatia helps here and there. The panting — I just didn’t know panting can mean so many things in a dog. I treat animals homeopathically pretty regularly, but I do need a diagnosis. I’m not a vet. I need a good diagnosis.

 

So, my husband took Buster to the vet, and she declared that he had congestive heart failure, and that he had probably had this for quite some time. And I agreed because this behavior that we were observing had been ongoing for … I’m going to say … a good two years.

 

So, she said to my husband, interestingly, “Homeopathy can’t treat that, you know,” because she knew that we were going to take the dog back and treat homeopathically.

 

My husband said, “She said, ‘Homeopathy can’t treat this.’”

 

I said, “Yeah. Okay, right.”

 

I chose a couple of remedies for him, homeopathic remedies, and I won’t go into because we’ll be teaching this a little bit further. I will tell you the names of the remedies, but I won’t tell you exactly how they’re used because I don’t want people to make mistakes on this. I really want to teach around this. But I used Lachesis, Lycopodium, and what we’re discussing now, I used Crataegus.

 

Now, Crataegus is a tincture, a mother tincture. It is hawthorn berry. I put the hawthorn berry tincture — or Crataegus — into his water, and he drinks from it every day. So, he gets this every day. That’s one of the protocols that I used for this particular condition.

 

Now, Buster was so bad that he would pace at night. He would wake us up through the night. It was really getting so severe which is why, of course, we took him to the vet. What is going on? Does he have asthma? This is really awful. He had also this horrible, deep bark like he was a chain smoker. And I know Buster never smoked! That’s why I was thinking this might have been asthma or emphysema or something.

 

By starting the Crataegus, Lachesis, Lycopodium, Buster turned around at least with the pacing within about four days. By the end of the week, he was no longer waking us up. By the end of ten days, the panting was gone; the coughing was gone. He started to have better bowel movements, and he became chipper. He became puppy-like and playful which we hadn’t realized had been missing from his behavior for quite some time.

 

He’s a new dog. He’s a new poodle!! I see a completely different dog. Now, he’s been on these medicines, and we will not take him off of them. He will stay on these probably for the rest of his life. Can you hear him barking in the distance?

 

Kate:  Yes.

 

Joette:  See how happy he is? He’s happy to greet people at the door.

 

So, we will keep him on these homeopathic medicines and this herbal, probably, for the rest of his life. It has done wonders for him.

 

So, another thing that I want to mention that the vet had told my husband was don’t let him go up and down stairs. Don’t let him get into the heat. Don’t let him get overexcited. And he goes up and down the stairs! (We were carrying him for a while until he started to become well again.)

 

Is he cured? I don’t know. I would call it a cure. At least, it’s a temporary cure even if it only lasted another several months. This has been going on now … he’s much improved for the last … I’m going to say maybe it’s been three months. So, what we see is a new poodle. If it just buys us or him another year out of his life, I’m delighted. But I suspect he’s going to make it quite a good deal further than that.

 

Kate:  Wow! That’s so exciting.

 

Joette:  Isn’t it? Isn’t it great? So now, what we’re doing is we’re integrating this herb — because it is part of the protocols, one of the Banerji Protocols — although everyone in homeopathy knows Crataegus is a very important botanical to be used for any cardiac condition.

 

I would have used it for tachycardia. I use it for my father for tachycardia for years, and he took it every day. This is how we integrate using these botanicals along with homeopathy. So, it’s not as though homeopathy trumps all botanicals, but we use them in conjunction here and there.

 

Kate:  This brings up a question that a lot of people have asked. That is, what is the difference between an “herbal tincture” and what we call a “mother tincture” in homeopathy?

 

Joette:  It’s the same. It’s one and the same.

 

Kate:  For those people who don’t know what a mother tincture is in homeopathy, can you explain it?

 

Joette:  Well, it means that we’re still getting the original substance such as Chamomilla, the flowers I put into alcohol. They are kept there generally for a fortnight. After that time, the flowers are discarded. Now, you’re left with a mother tincture. From that mother tincture, now the process of the homeopathic potentization is begun, which is the dilution and the potentization process.

 

Kate:  Yeah, that’s your basis of all of the other dilutions.

 

Joette:  That’s right. That’s right.

 

Kate:  Well, I think we’ve covered quite a lot on this podcast today, Joette.

 

Joette:  I think we have. The message I always like to leave folks with is to clear your circuit board of the old ideas that you need drugs for every this or that. Instead, look at the alternatives. These alternatives are not only just a “potential.” Homeopathy offers medicines and solutions for all conditions — pretty much all conditions.

 

It doesn’t mean we never use modern medicine. I always want to emphasize that. Surgery can be very, very valuable. I would never urge someone just to hop off of their drugs that they’re already taking. They stay on those medications until an alternative can be found, and then they still stay on those medications until it’s clear that the homeopathic is acting properly.

 

But I want people to shift that thinking from, “I must use a drug” to, “I wonder if there’s an alternative?” Then what that offers folks — mothers, and now fathers (as evidenced by one of your podcasts with the Dads with Audacity), grandmothers, and those who don’t have children but take care of animals, livestock and pets, et cetera — what this gives you is freedom. And there is nothing like that freedom from fear, freedom from, “Oh my gosh, what do we do now?” You’ll know what to do. You want to plan ahead. You want to learn as much as you possibly can in using homeopathy and those adjunct herbs, as well.

 

Kate:  Good words, Joette. Thank you for sharing with us today.

 

Joette:  My pleasure.

Kate:  You just listened to a podcast from PracticalHomeopathy.com where nationally certified homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese shares her passion for helping families stay strong through homeopathy. Joette’s podcasts are available on iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Stitcher, and TuneIn radio.

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit PracticalHomeopathy.com.