Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:47 — 26.4MB)
Subscribe: Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Pandora | iHeartRadio | Gaana | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Anghami | Youtube Music | RSS
IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER:
02:36 A course on pain
06:24 Caulophyllum, Magnesium phosphoricum for pain
19:15 Hypericum, Staphysagria, Arnica, Aconitum after surgery
22:00 Learning the pain protocols and medicines
24:06 Make It Stop! Escape From the Prison of Chronic (and Acute) Pain Using Practical Homeopathy®: Learn Effective Methods to Uproot Pain, Often for Good
LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST:
My new course:
More specific information on use of Caulophyllum:
- Birthing Part Two: The Premier Remedy for Childbirth and a Few More
- Birthing Part Three: Baby is Born, but You’re Not Done Yet! Neither is Homeopathy
More specific information on use of Mag phos 6X:
More specific information on surgery medicines I used:
My Learning Center (complete with Course Selector: How to Pick a Course)
My blog, podcasts and Facebook Live events
Kate: This is the Practical Homeopathy® Podcast Episode Number 86 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: On today's podcast, we're going to be talking about pain which, as many of you know, is a big crisis that we are facing right now. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, over 2 million people had an opioid-use disorder in 2018, and on average, 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. Today, Joette, we want to talk about pain, and how we can address it from a natural perspective.
Joette: There was a time when I dedicated my life to urging anybody whose lapels I could seize and ears I could bash. But now, I approach my subject of homeopathy with a little more grace. I guess I've aged.
But I guess there's also another reason. It's that I don't need to scream it any longer. People are clamoring for this information. They're looking for the alternatives. The jig is up!
These painkillers … am I going to say they should be illegal? Of course not.
There is a place for these kinds of painkillers, I believe. In late stage illness where there is no choice and when homeopathy fails us, then we may, indeed, have to go to something that's chemically derived. But why even consider it if we can avoid using something that could be so detrimental in the long run to our lives and to our families’ lives?
That's why we have decided to put together a course on pain. You've got the title there, right, Kate?
Kate: Yes.
Joette: Because I don't have the title memorized yet because this is all new to us. We're still organizing it and putting it all together.
A course on pain
Wow, Joette, that's a tongue twister.
Joette: That's why I couldn't remember the title, but I wanted to get it all in there!! I want to make it really clear what I'm going to be teaching. We want to have this knowledge, this information, these techniques at our fingertips like a Swiss Army knife of knowledge. We want to be constantly prepared because do you know when the next time you or someone in your family will have pain?
Kate: It's a total surprise. You never know when that's going to happen.
Joette: It is the true definition of an acute. It comes on suddenly! You don't know when it's going to happen. You want to know how to parse through whether it's an injury, so it’s extrinsic or intrinsic, it's something internal, whether it's from the gut from food that has been eaten that was bad, whether it's a chronic condition that’s related to hormones, (for women, for example, with menstrual pain or headaches that are specific to the hormone shifts), whether it's an injury, an automobile accident, a ski accident. We need to be prepared.
Now, I will say I am prepared. I know my medicines. I know them inside and out, and I own them.
Kate: That is key! That is key, Joette.
Joette: Absolutely, because if you know, “Oh, my gosh! This is absolutely a call for Caulophyllum,” and you don't own it, now what? What good is that knowledge? You have to either find a health food store that carries it (which is unlikely), get on Boiron’s site, or Amazon, or if you're a student of mine, you can go to OHM pharmacy.
By the time that happens, the baby is born! Or the hemorrhage is now being dealt with conventionally in a hospital.
I don't want people to believe that I don't think you should go to a hospital or go to a doctor. Of course, you should do that if you need to — particularly if you don't know what to do!
Kate: And if you don't know what it is — what's causing that pain — sometimes you need that diagnosis.
Joette: Yes, you often need a diagnosis. Now, do you need a diagnosis for your child's ear infection— if you've seen this ear infection two and three times previously? You don't need another diagnosis to know indeed that that is an ear infection. You're observing. You know that the child's pulling at the ear. The child is crying, maybe even screaming. The ear is red. Perhaps there's a fever.
Do we really need to know — at a pediatrician’s office on Saturday night, at two in the morning — that it is indeed otitis media?
No, you know what it is? You've seen it so many times, not only in this child, but perhaps your other children. That, in itself, is your diagnosis.
But if it's a first time! Or there's pain in a woman's breast — and it's sudden, overt and something that has never been experienced in the past — you use the homeopathic medicines the best you can. You consider what you've taken recently — such as have you eaten a lot of chocolate or if you had a lot of coffee, et cetera.
If all of those can be ruled out, and this pain persists in spite of trying to figure out what it is and trying to deal with it yourself, in short order, get yourself to a doctor and get a good diagnosis! There's no doubt. Doctors are incredible with diagnostics! It doesn't mean they get it every time, but they often get it right.
Caulophyllum for pain
Kate: Let's talk about some homeopathic medicines that you can use for pain. You just mentioned Caulophyllum. Let's talk about when you would use Caulophyllum?
Joette: Caulophyllum is a great medicine for labor, and for labor that's stalled, for a uterus that's not cooperating, so to speak. When everyone around the mother is saying, “Okay, it's been now 20 hours (or whatever they allow in whatever hospital it is), and you are not producing a baby. We've got to go in, and we've got to take this baby.”
And the mother is absolutely beat up. She's exhausted from pushing. She's trying as hard as she can. She's shaking. She can't deliver this baby, and the pain is extraordinary.
The medicine … if the doctor knew anything about homeopathy or if there was a good midwife who knew anything about homeopathy would automatically know to use Caulophyllum. You use it at that moment. Then if the baby doesn’t … we don't see a change, a dilation in the cervix, then we might use it again in another 15 minutes, and then again in another 15 minutes.
In more situations than not — and I'm afraid I don't have the statistics; I've just seen it with my own eyes many times — the baby is born in very short order. This is an age-old medicine. It’s been around for 200 years. It's been used in 200th potency, 30th potency, 6th potency. It's a time saver and an opportunity to keep from having to submit to surgery.
Kate: I wish I had known about Caulophyllum when I was delivering. Oh, my goodness! Think about how many women you might have just saved from having a C-section right now. That's awesome.
Joette: It is awesome. All of our medicines are awesome because they're not synthetic. They're “polite,” is what I call them. There are no side effects.
Kate: Polite.
Joette: Yes, polite. They are! They don't slam the person across the face and beat them up like many drugs do — because they're not synthetic. They're made from nature, and then diluted many times, and potentized until they now become a medicine of great measure.
They're very gentle. They simply stimulate the body's natural ability to correct the problem.
Kate: All right. So, what else can you talk about for pain?
Joette: Well, since we're talking about women, we can also talk about Mag phos, Magnesium phosphoricum. This is also great for men, too. But for women, we most often know about it as a great medicine for menstrual cramps.
It's Magnesium phosphoricum. We call it Mag phos, but I like to call it “Mug phos,” (M-U-G phos) because it's great when you put a dose of it (which is about four to six pills), into a mug of hot water. It delivers it faster.
Put it in, I figure, about one pill per ounce. Let's say it's four ounces of hot water and four pills. Or six ounces of hot water — six pills. If the dose on the bottle says six pills as a dose, then use six pills. It depends on what the outside of the bottle reads because pharmacies make each one of these a little differently because their pills are a little smaller or larger.
It's a great medicine specifically for pain during menstrual cramps. Now, it doesn't treat the pain (although that's what everybody thinks they want). But to be honest, what they really want is they don't want to have cramps which would cause the pain. They don't want the actual muscle — the uterus — contracting. So, what it does is it calms that down, so the pain is no longer there.
Each sip from this hot water … just a sip (a tablespoon or so as one sip) … take a sip, and then you put it down. Each sip equals a dose.
Within another 10 seconds, if the pain is still there — and I assume it would be after only one or two sips — you take the second sip. Okay, put it down.
Now, you wait a few more minutes again, and you take another sip. In between your taking the sips, it's cooling off.
I wish that there was alliteration, if I could call this “thermophos,” because it would be much better if it was in a thermos. But “MUG phos” works better because of the “mag” in the Magnesium phosphoricum.
What I suggest is that when someone has cramps, menstrual cramps — and I'm going to talk about other conditions in which we would use this beautiful medicine — we would put it in a thermos by the bedside, particularly if it's someone who's suffering at night. That way, the person doesn't have to get up out of bed, go start the hot water, put it in the cup, and start sipping. It can last in a good thermos for two, sometimes even three, days, and keep it warm.
This is also great for children who have cramps that are different than menstrual cramps — a little boy who has leg cramps, or someone who has even cramps in the back. So, it's a cramping medicine.
If we think in terms of magnesium, a lot of people take magnesium oil, I think that's overkill. This is better than magnesium oil because we're diluting it six times to the 10th power. Mag phos 6X is usually what people purchase. You can find it online. You can find it at your health food store. Magnesium phosphoricum 6X is a beautiful medicine that does not need to be taken consistently.
In other words, after you've taken it a few times — every menstrual period or every time the child has leg cramps, et cetera — you'll find that the need for it becomes less and less.
That's not necessarily so with magnesium oil. Once you start using magnesium oil, you will always be using magnesium oil … or not always, but for long periods of time. The idea with homeopathy is to uproot the condition and not just depend on the gross form of the substance.
Kate: For instance, if you have pain from menstruation, you're using Mag phos. And then the next time you get your period, hopefully the cramps won't be as bad. And then the next time, less and less and less. I've seen that happen in our family's lives. It's very effective.
I get the question all the time, too. “Well, I don't have time to go and make some hot water to put this in.”
Joette: Or they’re in the car, and they don't have availability of hot water.
Kate: Exactly. By my bed, I always have a tube of Mag phos 6X. Because if I wake up in the night, my heart is beating fast, or I have some sort of pain, I just open that Mag phos and take some in the night. I don't get up and make the hot water and do all this. I find it still acts. Maybe it acts faster in the hot water, do you think, Joette?
Joette: Yes, it does. It just delivers it faster. It does not need to be put in hot water. It can be put directly into the mouth, no doubt about it.
Kate: Tell us more conditions that you would use Mag phos for.
Joette: First, let me say this that when someone has pain, I suggest that they just Google my name or go to my blog and put in the name of the condition, where the pain is, for example. Try to come up with some synonyms. Sometimes it doesn't come up. (We don't have the best search engine on our blog. We're still working on that.) And, you'll probably find a lot of information just for looking.
But what I want to do in this course is take you beyond that. I'm giving you examples of those remedies and protocols that are well-known and easily learned and easily memorized. But we're also going to be covering more unusual kinds of pains — such as gallbladder pain. That can be excruciating, and it can also result in surgery.
If it feels imminent that surgery is down the pike, why not? Before you have your surgery scheduled, why not use a homeopathic medicine for such a condition? I'll be teaching that.
I'll be teaching about migraines.
We’ll be going over not only where the pain presents, which organs — skin, the gut, the eyes, the head, the uterus, the teeth, et cetera — but also the names of the conditions, infections, injuries, et cetera.
Then also, pain characteristics. Because that Mag phos pain (the pain that is addressed by Magnesium phosphoricum 6X), is a cramping pain. Sometimes it can be almost searing, but it’s not burning pain. It's generally not stitching pain. It's generally not cold pain. We're going to categorize the pains as well … as to, if we don't have a specific protocol for that condition, what else might we use to come up with the medicine that needs to be applied?
Kate: I think of this course, Joette, as akin to your Survivalist Guide. Because you don't know, like we said earlier, when you're going to need this. To have these skills at your fingertips, to be able to categorize the pain and know the different medicines and what kinds of pains they affect, I think it is priceless.
Oh, my goodness! I can't tell you the number of times I've used that Survivalist Guide, and how it has saved us many a trip to the ER.
Joette: People say that they want to be pain free, and I certainly understand that. We're all human. But I want to remind folks that pain, actually, in a way, is a gift because it tells us something is wrong. It may not tell us exactly what's wrong or why it's wrong necessarily, but it tells us, “Pay attention to that organ or to this condition.”
Can you imagine if you didn't have pain receptors, and you were in an automobile accident, and you had no idea that your arm was severed? Maybe you were not aware of what was going on because you were tending to your child or something.
You need to know that there's something going on. Pain is indicative of… it's screaming at us, “Pay attention!”
Now, how do we pay attention? Does that mean that we simply obliterate the sensation of the pain? Well, I'm not going to say that's never called for. For example, if you have to go into surgery, by all means, that's exactly what general anesthesia or local anesthesia is grand for.
But when someone has a headache, to just obliterate the pain is not the goal. The goal is to correct the condition. That's where homeopathy comes in. It helps correct the condition, uproot the problem, so that the pain is no longer necessary. The body no longer needs to produce it because the condition has been resolved.
Kate: You talked about going into surgery, and how sometimes, we need a surgery. Well, you and I worked together when a horse actually stepped on my arm. I went into surgery, came out, and then consulted with you. We came up with a whole list of medicines for me to take.
But it was very interesting, and we talked earlier about the opioid crisis, when I was getting ready to be discharged from the hospital, and they actually said, “No, you can't leave until you take one dose of this narcotic pain medicine because you will need it after the nerve block wears off.”
And I said, “No, I'll be fine.” I had to go round and round and round with this nurse who was not literally going to let me leave the hospital until they knew that my body would handle the pain medicine okay. Finally, Joette, I asked them to just give me a Tylenol, and I would take that for the pain. After I took the Tylenol, I said, “Oh, I feel so much better now. I think that's going to be fine.”
With your help, Joette, I actually did not need any pain medicine after that surgery, and it was a pretty major arm fracture.
Joette: I saw the X-rays. Your arm was mangled.
Kate: Yes, it was. I just used homeopathy for the pain after that. It took a while. I'm not going to say that I was pain free. Because that would just be crazy to think that after a pretty major surgery, you would be pain free. But the homeopathy made it so that I could tolerate the pain, and I didn't need to take those narcotics.
Hypericum, Staphysagria, Arnica, Aconitum after surgery
Joette: But we're not looking for a disposition of being blotto. We just want to be comfortable enough to be able to sleep, to be able to get nourishment, to be able to take on our day a little bit at a time after something like surgery.
I, too, have had surgery many years ago. I had an emergency surgery and the incision was clear across my abdomen. They told me the same thing — that I was going to need painkillers. I said, “Well, thank you, but no. I'm really just fine.”
I used Hypericum. I used Staphysagria. I used Arnica, and even a dose of Aconitum. And those four medicines got me through. By the second day, I was using only … I believe, it was only Staphysagria. I was fine. Really, it was from hip bone to hip bone — that the surgical site was from hip bone to hip bone.
It was not what they expected. It's what I expected.
The reason I knew this is because I had studied. I had made a point of owning the medicines in the potencies that I had learned to use for such a situation, and I had confidence in it.
Now, some people might even call that placebo, but I don't know. I've used these same pain medicines on Buster, our dog; on our cat, Carmelina; on our son’s cat … what's his name? I don't like the cat. That's why I don't remember his name. He’s brutal. He’s just a bad cat.
Kate: Is that the cat that likes only men?
Joette: Yes. He attacks me. He attacks all women. I mean, literally, really attacks. That's why I don't remember his name. No, good old What's-His-Name.
But we've used these homeopathics on the animals, and they don't know what placebo is — particularly if you’re putting it in their water, and many times, we've had to do that with the cat.
Kate: Well, it must have been the same placebo that helped me because I took those four medicines after my surgery.
Joette: Right. Oh, those placebos are really powerful, aren’t they?
Kate: Yes. For those of you wondering right now, I used those same four medicines after my surgery as well.
Joette: Staphysagria, Aconite, Arnica, Hypericum.
Kate: And the Staphysagria, if my understanding is correct, is not as much for the pain but to help with any infection that might be brewing after such a surgery, correct?
Joette: Well, it’s for an incisional site. So, anything that might come from that, whether it's a potential infection, whether it's the pain of the incision itself. It's for a clean cut. Yes.
Kate: Staphysagria isn't if you get some cut that's jagged. It's more of a surgical knife or you slice yourself with a knife.
Joette: Yes, right, when you're cutting carrots, and it's a brand-new knife. Yes, certainly.
Learning the pain protocols and medicines
Kate: Joette, so many times people ask me, “Where can I get all the protocols? Where can I find that ‘magic list’ of all the protocols that I need?” I tell them that it is not as easy as that. If there was just a list of protocols, that would be great. But you would still have to know how to use these protocols and these medicines.
People ask, “Well, can I just purchase the Banerji book, and will that have all the protocols in it?”
I say, “No, not all the protocols are in there.” If you want to learn these protocols, really, the only place that I know of is by taking your courses.
Joette: Well, and you're still not going to learn them all because there are, I don't know, 6,000 human conditions? It would be like an encyclopedia. Once you learn the protocols that I teach, then you can extrapolate to a certain degree.
You'll see how you apply this protocol that seemed as though it was just for this condition. But because the pain is so similar, and it's in the same area of the body, the same organ, that you could potentially use it for this condition, as well. So, it takes a little more depth than that.
I mean, I wish that I had all the protocols, too. So, what I did was I went to India, and I worked with the Banerjis for collectively a year and a half — sat by their sides and jotted them all down and learned and studied.
Some of them were still not exact because there are conditions in which for some people, it makes more sense to use this protocol; for other people, it makes a little more sense to use that protocol. I don't want to color the idea that this is not formulaic — because it is much more formulaic than any other method I know in homeopathy. But there is some maneuvering that you have to do in order to utilize this for absolutely every situation.
Kate: I just wanted to make it clear that I don't know of any magic list that we have that's out there with all of the protocols. Do you?
Joette: No, I don't think there's anything like that.
Kate: Tell us a little bit more about what you're going to be covering in the pain course, and I'll just call it for short, “Make It Stop!”
Joette: Well, one of the conditions, of course, will be joint pain, gut pain, headache pain, injury pains.
Kate: Is there something for a pain in the butt?
Joette: You mean like our children, our neighbors?
[Much laughter]
Kate: I believe you'll be covering sinus pain as well. But stay tuned because more information will be coming out shortly about the course on pain.
Joette: For those folks who believe that the best way to deal with pain is just to take Tylenol, acetaminophen, a couple of aspirin or something like that. You don't have to take opioids, right? They wonder, “Why would you go through all of this, take an entire course just on the idea of pain, and how to treat it homeopathically?”
Kate: What about those who say, “I'll just use my essential oil?”
Joette: Right, essential oils, too. Well, sure, if it works. If you get something that works, then perhaps this is not the course for you.
But the difference is that homeopathy — when we're talking about it compared to conventional medicine — again, homeopathy has no side effects. That's the first thing.
The second, of course, is what we said earlier and that is that we're uprooting the condition. That's the idea. It's not about just getting rid of pain.
The third is certainly if you have essential oils that deal with migraine pain, by all means, use it.
And if you don't have the time to take a course like this, I certainly understand.
This course is designed for people who want to be completely self-reliant as much as possible — who have families to take care of, want to take care of themselves, or they've gotten to the end of the road. And they've been using all of the essential oils, supplements, and synthetic vitamins, have changed their diets a number of times, have used other methods — and they have failed.
None of what I teach is for everyone. But if you have a penchant for learning, you have an innate curiosity, and you want to take control of your family's health and your own, this might just be the avenue for you.
Because taking care of yourself and others is freedom. It’s freedom from limitations, and it’s freedom actually from our own egos. It releases us from feeling as though it's only about us — because it isn't. It's about many. It's about us, our children, our grandchildren, our neighbors, our church mates, our livestock, wild animals, our pets.
Kate: And, so many people have problems with pain. If we can help other people, I think it's an amazing gift to be able to give.
Joette: That's right, the gift of good medicine.
As I hope you know by now, on my blog, podcasts and Facebook Live, I offer as many protocols for simple conditions as I can — for free, without affiliates or advertising. But let me be clear. When it comes to more complex conditions, it’s key that you learn how to use these medicines properly. I want you to be well-trained. So, I save discussions of the more involved methods for my courses in which I walk students through each method with step-by-step training.
I hope listening to this podcast has inspired you to follow in their footsteps. With the proper training, you, too, can nurture and protect the health of your family and loved ones with Practical Homeopathy®.
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 Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Pandora, Stitcher, TuneIn and iHeartRadio.
Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit for your health strategy, visit PracticalHomeopathy.com.
Miss Joette, I have not been in the practice of homeopathy as long as you, but I too use Banerji protocols. They do work. I change a few of them to fit the need. Yes I’m considering to take your Jan 2020 course to enrich my savie!
I hope you’ll indeed join in. Additionally, I’m in the process of putting together a course that is specific for practitioners that may also be of interest to you> it should be completed in 2020.
What about the pain from the afterpains after giving birth? It’s worse with subsequent children especially those who breastfeed. Would mag phos work in the same way as menstrual cramps? I’m thinking it would work for that kind of pain after reading this podcast.
Thank you for including links to other pertinent blog posts that relate to your podcast. That’s very helpful!
We have addiction in my family. One member is not here anymore due to opioid addiction as a result of surgery. So when my 15 year old daughter underwent ACL surgery and they wanted to prescribe Oxycodone I refused and explained the family history. I asked what else I could use? They made me feel like I would be a horrible mom if I did not give it to her……”Do you want your daughter to suffer?” What kind of question was that? I would do the surgery myself if I wanted her to suffer !! I knew I’d have to figure it out myself. Having gone through too many skin cancer surgeries and my husband had gum surgery we both successfully used Arnica 30 but I wasn’t sure it would be strong enough for this surgery where they would cut her muscle, hamstring and drilled into her bone. I had been using some Classical homeopathy and had never heard of 200 strength. Thank heavens for Google ! She came out of surgery high as a kite, I gave her a sip of water with Arnica 200 and kept giving her sips on the car ride home and for the next few days after the nerve block wore off. She had NO pain. NONE! That’s one less teenager who could have got started on the addiction highway.
what about arthritis pain
If you’re asking me if I’ll be teaching how to address arthritis, the answer is a resounding “yes!”. It will be one of the main topics.
arthritis pain from hips to legs
Joette, is there a for the remedy for phantom pain? A friend of mine had his left arm amputated 3 years ago due to cancer. He has not been able to get any relief for the pain, in fact its worse now. He is depressed about his life due to the pain. Can homeopathy help him?
I covered pain in all areas of the body, organs, and otherwise in my online course titled “Pain”. Phantom pain is real and can be maddening. If you’re a member of one of my Gateway to Homeopathy Study Groups, you can join their Facebook pages and get in on the discount buys.
I hope this helps.
Thank you Joette for your response on phantom pain. Is there a suitable remedy for tightness/pain on top of scalp/head and sensitivity of the hair follicles in the area? Also I am in your mighty members group, should I be posting queries there or here?
Thank you