Podcast 11 – Essential Oils and Homeopathy

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In this podcast, we cover:

0:48 Using essential oils

5:25 The healing powers of homeopathy

6:34 Essential oils that are also used in homeopathy

9:03 Differences between homeopathy and essential oils

12:53 Rules in using homeopathy with essential oils

15:17 A protocol using homeopathy and essential oils

22:58 The Banerji protocols

Before I learned homeopathy 29 years ago, I used whatever means I had at the time.

When someone got sick, I employed botanicals. I wild crafted herbs from around my property, like St. John’s wort, coltsfoot, nettles and such and made them into tinctures so I always had a store of quality homemade herbal medicines.

Listen to today’s podcast where I answer the question, “So if you know that essential oils have therapeutic value, why don’t you use them in your day to day work?”

I know you are going to like the answer.

And don’t miss today's new protocol to add to your growing homeopathic tool kit.

Ultimately it comes down to you having the tools to buck the system when necessary…transforming meek moms into mighty moms!

Warmly,

PS I recently gave an interview as a participant in an on-line summit called The Essential Oils Revolution Summit. Erica, of Homestead Bloggers Network, introduced me to Dr. Eric Zielinski, one of the two organizers of the Summit. Check it out as I discuss the subject of essential oils and homeopathy.

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.

Jendi: This is Jendi and I’m here once again with Joette from JoetteCalabrese.com. Hello, Joette! How are you?

Joette: Good morning, Jendi! I’m well. How about you?

Jendi: I am well also. And part of that is due to your recommendations.

Joette: Oh, great!

Jendi: I have a lot of friends that use essential oils and I would like to know what you think about them.

Using essential oils

Joette: Well, essential oils bring up actually a broader question and that’s what is my opinion of other methods of alternative health? So I’ll start from the beginning because of course, it’s a very good place to start. Before I learned homeopathy, I used whatever means I had at the time. I depended on my homemade bone stocks, my homemade meals, common sense methods to protect my kids, their immune systems, for when I got sick or my husband. I employed botanicals. I even wildcrafted. And I still do some of that today, too. I wildcrafted herbs from around my property out in the country like St. John’s wort, crowfoot, nettles. I made tinctures out of that. So I always had a store of quality homemade herbal medicines.

So I spent a lot of time learning about the herbs that are indigenous to my area. But I also had a store of essential oils for my old-fashioned vaporizer. Now, you’re too young to remember this but there was a vaporizer that we used to use in the ‘50s and ‘60s that was green glass and you plug it in. Now, when I look at it, I think, “Wow, this is a firetrap.” There’s no grounding plug on it. There it is, electricity extending directly into water. But it worked for all those years and so I used it when my family was in need to. So as far as essential oils go, I began using my old fashioned vaporizer and I would put lavender, etc., in that.

But I began making this lovely concoction that was not unlike one of the formulas produced by the large essential oil companies. Many people know it as Thieves. But a friend of mine got restarted on it and she named it Scoundrels which is such a great word, with of course, reference to the product Thieves. So now my father makes it for most of us in our family today. And when he puts it in a mist bottle, which he does so that when we travel, we can mist our hands and wash them up, he cleverly calls it Scoundrels in the Mist. So it conjures up this image of these interesting old characters from the Middle Ages. So anyway, it’s clove oil, lemon oil, cinnamon oil, eucalyptus, and I think rosemary’s in there, too. And we use it to clean the air and on our hands when we travel, as I said, and we put a few spritzers on in the cold season and spritz it all around the room and I love it. But I didn’t stop there.

Jendi: So you use it actually on your skin and you use it in the air, like just wherever?

Joette: Yes. I like to put a few drops in bathwater or on a handkerchief and I used to take sniffs or give it to my children to take sniffs. And I might add a drop of oil into a carrier oil such as coconut oil and rub it into the skin, the bottom of their feet. But generally, I didn’t give it to them internally. I just wasn’t a hundred percent sure about that. I used mint to make mint ice cream when I was making my own ice cream but I’m particularly concerned about using essential oils internally and in great concentration for children. So I’m rather conservative about the concentration, even for the concentration that anyone inhales. So with essential oils, I believe a little goes a long way. Now, I know there are those who disagree with me but I just don’t know the science about it and perhaps it’s out there. I just haven’t put my mind to studying it.

Jendi: So as a homeopath, did you work with essential oils with the clients or is it just kind of a personal thing?

Joette: No, no, I don’t use them professionally. I have no degrees in the use of essential oils, nor am I interested in acquiring one at this time since I find homeopathy to act so fully and efficaciously that I have no interest, nor do I need to go further. But I do encourage folks to take up whatever it takes to stay away from drugs as much as possible. But as you said, I’m a homeopath and homeopathy has no connection to essential oils despite the misnomer. A lot of people think when they first hear the word homeopathy that it means home remedies. The word hom– in the prefix throws everyone off. It’s a Greek word and homeopathy is not a general term for [natural remedies – 00:05:09]. It does not mean that at all. Hom- means homonym or similar or like and of course, -pathy means pathology. So the meaning of the word homeopathy is in the word. Its definition is actually in the word itself. 

The healing powers of homeopathy

So I’m particularly attracted to homeopathy because of one very important reason. I’ve seen it resolve an enormous amount of pathology. Osteomyelitis. I’ve seen it abort strokes right before my eyes, angina, panic attacks, mend broken bones in half the time. I’ve seen it abort a flu in its tracks. I’ve actually seen it turn a baby in the womb as Dr. Mercy Jackson taught us, we homeopaths, many years ago. I’ve seen it remove food intolerances. I’ve seen it eliminate long-time, lifelong allergies. I’ve seen it restore sleep, abort colic, arthritis. I mean, I can go on. I won’t because that will be this whole session. But what I’ve seen in homeopathy is nothing less than astounding because it’s a complete form of medicine with a compendium of scientific data to back its claims. I felt that essential oils can be useful but I’ve just never seen anything quite like homeopathy.

Essential oils that are also used in homeopathy

Jendi: Are there essential oils that have been made into homeopathic remedies?

Joette: Oh, yeah, good question. That’s interesting. Yes. They say that there are between three and six thousand homeopathic remedies and it’s kind of broad, isn’t it? How many are there then? We don’t really know. I don’t know how many the FDA categorizes in the United States but there are remedies that are used in other parts of the world that we have not begun using here and in Europe and South America. So of course, the delivery is different in essential oils than in homeopathy. Homeopathy is more subtle and it’s on a minute level. But there is a remedy that’s one of the most common, that most people who understand essential oils and those of us who use homeopathy look at and say, “Gee, I wonder what the connection is.”

So camphor is the remedy that I’m thinking of in the essential oil as well. So it’s an essential oil that’s often used as an antiseptic or disinfectant, sometimes even an insecticide in the world of oils. But in homeopathy, once it’s highly diluted using that mathematical process called succussion as well, dilution and succussion and potentization, it becomes a wonderful medicine that antidotes the ill effects of previously used drugs and also incorrectly chosen homeopathic remedies. When I teach homeopathy, I teach that we open a case with camphor 200C. That means it’s diluted 200 times to the hundredth power. So it can work on the ill effects of previous drugs, as I said. The power of that alone is worthy of our attention, given the amount of our population who’s propped up with drugs.

So for example, I specifically used this remedy after my father had surgery years ago to antidote potential ill effects, side effects of the drugs and procedures he was subjected to. Of course, I used other homeopathic medicines to aid in the quickened healing of the wound he sustained as well as helping him readily come out of the anesthetic. So this is the stuff of my blog. I have tips and tricks that I learned by traveling the world for homeopathic methods and having raised my family on this. Bottom line is that homeopathy is a very complex medical paradigm but I take pride in being able to distill it so that anyone can get the hang of it. 

Differences between homeopathy and essential oils

Jendi: Since we looked at a little bit of how they’re similar, what is the main difference between homeopathy and essential oils?

Joette: Well, there are many different ways to approach this question but I am going to take a user-friendly approach. So you know a little bit about my background with essential oils now but I wanted to know how people who follow my blog are using it today as well because I do get mentions on my blog. People ask me questions about it and tell me that they’ve used this or that oil for a condition in which I’ve recommended homeopathy.

So I gathered a team of my employees and canvassed many of my students who use both homeopathy and essential oils, and they also reached out to several essential oil communities online and interviewed a few pros. So from our sample of research, generally speaking, it appears that the vast majority of essential oil users use the oils to prevent disease such as infections. And the benefits in this area, they report, are far reaching, the blends that they call immunity boosters, for example. So that’s one of the main differences, is how it’s used. Expectations are different so the effects and the usage are different as well. Homeopathy consistently, however, goes beyond prevention of disease and it has been recorded to uproot infections and illness once it has been contracted.

That’s not to say that essential oils may not do the same. I’m talking about usage here. You see, homeopathic medicines are intended to stimulate the body’s ability to correct itself. So it’s often illness or condition specific. This means that we use the homeopathic medicines for the actual illness, not usually for prevention. There are exceptions but in general, that’s how it’s done, such as mending broken bones, as I said, eliminating allergies, not just addressing them as they occur but actually rooting them out slowly but certainly.

So in homeopathy, if someone is prone to colds and communicable illnesses like constantly getting ear infections or conjunctivitis and sore throats, that’s reason enough to employ a homeopathic medicine even when they don’t have it upfront to help root it out. We’re supposed to get colds. I believe we’re supposed to get colds. And children are supposed to get child illnesses such as chickenpox. But if the person is sick every month with one thing or another, it’s time to get to the bottom of things and that’s time for correction. And I see that correction made most frequently with homeopathy.

Jendi: And if someone was prone to colds or sore throats, they could use an essential oil, too?

Joette: Well, when we use essential oils, most folks use them for each and every sore throat but a homeopathic medicine would be used over a period of time to root out the problem – I guess I should make that a little bit clearer – instead of having to fix it each time. In other words, its intention is not to have to use anything after a while. That means what’s been done is that the person is essentially fixed. This also means that meanwhile, while the person is suffering from a cold, certainly you could employ both methods. You could use an acute remedy, not the one that we’re using specifically to root out the potential for these chronic colds or allergies, but something that’s also used for an acute. And then you can also use essential oils because I believe they’re compatible. Some people believe they’re not. I disagree. But if you’re going to do that and do what I did, if you’re going to take this on yourself and not depend on prescription drugs for every turn, you certainly want to be fully armed with knowledge of both of these paradigms.

 Rules in using homeopathy with essential oils

Jendi: So if I understand correctly what you’re saying, homeopathy can work alongside essential oils. So they can have a synergy?

Joette: Yes, yes, they can work together. I don’t know that I would call it a synergistic effect because I believe each one stands on its own. But they can be used side by side. But there are some rules. If you’re going to engage in this, you really should know some of the rules that you have to follow.

Jendi: So can you tell us those? I don’t want to do something that would hurt my kids.

Joette: Yeah, yeah. This is how it works. You will antidote a homeopathic remedy or neutralize it or render the homeopathic useless with particularly strong odors. A mint-based oil such as peppermint and menthol if used in its full strength, camphor, tea tree oil, eucalyptus, those very strong aromatics can indeed antidote. So this is how you incorporate the two. Consider separating the oils from the remedy, which means that you take the remedy, then wait 15 minutes, and then use the oils, and don’t use these particular ones in full strength, the ones I just mentioned, those aromatics.

So I like to use the combination of oils in a vaporizer as I said and those that may contain these particular oils. You may remember that Scoundrels in the Mist contains some eucalyptus and I think that’s acceptable as long as it’s not directly under the nose, directly at the face, on the skin. So those particular ones are the ones that I find can indeed antidote. Now, I might want to say, however, that not everyone is antidoted by essential oils so it depends on how sensitive the person is. That’s why it’s so ambiguous. That’s why people say, “Well, does it or doesn’t it?” Well, in certain cases, it does in every situation. In other cases, some people don’t have any of these. So the more sensitive a person is to, say, fragrances, they can’t stand the smell of cigarette smoke, it makes them sick, or they can’t be around fumes, those are likely the people who are going to be most affected by the essential oils and may indeed be antidote.

Jendi: That really makes me think about once again how good it is to keep that notebook or those files of what you are giving to your kids and how they reacted to it.

Joette: Yes, yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

A protocol using homeopathy and essential oils

Jendi: Is there a protocol you could teach us today that maybe would have the homeopathic and then the essential oil?

Joette: Yeah. I’ll give you a really easy example. I love giving people takeaways and let’s start with something that most people who may be listening may already know about but I’ll show you how you integrate it. Here’s something that everyone should know how to use, too, and that’s Arnica montana 30 or 200. That remedy, Arnica montana is used at the onset, or at least as close as possible, for a soft tissue injury or a head injury. Of course, if it’s serious enough, you certainly head to the emergency room, obviously. But on the way, you’re administering Arnica montana 200, preferably. If it’s serious enough, you may even want to go higher with IM or 200 every few minutes if it’s very serious so that you allow the action of the medicine to begin right away. This remedy has a reputation for reducing shock, it softens hematomas, accompanying anxiety, the person usually calms right down, and if there’s an open wound, it can often even protect from infection. This is all taken orally, mind you. These are little pills.

So my children have done a great deal of skiing in their lives and we’ve tended animals on our property. So there was always some injury or another. My kids who are actually now adults grew up knowing how to use Arnica montana 1M. Each of them had a bottle of Arnica montana in their ski jackets. They knew how often to use it and when to stop administering. They were often on the slopes together and so if one was injured, the other one would come to his aid and get his bottle out of his pocket and treat his brother. I mean, it never really happened that it was necessary but I wanted to be sure that they never had a problem.

Jendi: So what might you use alongside of Arnica montana as an essential oil?

Joette: You could certainly use frankincense for a head injury or [cypress fir – 00:17:14]. These are essential oils to support in a broken bone. But I have seen homeopathic Symphytum 200 mixed with Calc phos 6X work quick magic on bone healing in my own family and Arnica montana. Arnica montana, by the way, is used by professional ski teams in Switzerland and Germany, etc., and other areas of the world. And I also might add parenthetically that plastic surgeons in the US and throughout the world count on Arnica montana for hematomas and ecchymosis after surgery. Ecchymosis is the black and blue marks that occur as a result of it. So you could use [cypress fir] or frankincense as the essential oil. And in addition to that, start administering your Arnica montana, Symphytum, etc., Calc phos.

Jendi: So you obviously know that essential oils do have therapeutic value. So what is behind your decision not to use them in your day to day?

Joette: Well, professionally, my reason is in my experience, I find homeopathy to be so sweeping in its ability, so easy to learn when I teach it, at least the practical way that I use it and I teach it, so inexpensive and wholesome that I simply focused and dedicated the last 29 years of my life to it. It’s that simple. It’s been my experience and I’ve seen it work. So I have mastered as much as anyone can master in 29 years of study and family use and my practice. So I dropped essential oils in lieu of it.

I mean, basically, that’s what I’m telling you because homeopathy rarely fails me. This is not to say I don’t use my Scoundrels as a preventative measure and I wouldn’t consider frankincense. But for example, I used to see clients in my office and someone came in once who had infectious disease. If they had a cold or a flu and I knew my employees would be coming later, I’d spray the office with my mixture. So I certainly used it but not really in as much of a therapeutic method as many might expect. I have also used essential oils for my family. And when people tell me that they want to use essential oils, I tell them, “Certainly, go ahead and use it.” But it’s not my foundational go-to. My firmament is homeopathy.

Jendi: Professionally, you are a homeopath but personally, you are more than just a homeopath.

Joette: Well, I find that this path upon which most of us in North America travel before we get to homeopathy, when we finally get to homeopathy, what I consider truly the ultimate medical method, we pass through many towns, so to speak, if we’re on this road. Some of them are worthy of holding onto and using in tandem with homeopathy. Others may fail us and they’re pushed to the wayside so that the superior methods become more and more the focus of our study and our usage. It’s a matter of evolutionary process is the way I see it, my own personal evolutionary process of moving down the chain of what works more thoroughly and more consistently, more cost-effective, and is more learnable.

The problem with homeopathy is that while it fulfills all of this criteria I mentioned here, it has not until now been an easy method to use because it has been historically difficult to determine the correct remedy to match the condition. So until I learned many of the methods and gleaned enough protocols that I could have an answer at the tip of my fingers instead of having to study a case for an hour and a half or until I gathered enough by learning from my colleagues and going to India and studying the great masters, I did use other methods here and there as well.

Jendi: So essential oils and botanicals and vitamins, they seem easier to learn about, easier to find and choose from.

Jendi: Yes, they are. With essential oils, if you’ve got a cold, you would likely choose from two or three oils, perhaps you blend them together and start sniffing. But with homeopathy, you have to do more reading in some circumstances and a lot more than choose the most fitting remedy. But that’s the classical homeopathy. That is, you need to observe nuances of the sufferer to determine if this remedy or that would fit best. And I’m not saying that I don’t draw from my classical background. Certainly, after all these years of studying it and teaching it and writing about it, I certainly still draw from it. But it can be frustrating for those people who are new to this and it becomes too complex in the world of homeopathy. So that’s why people, I believe, one of the reasons they are drawn to an easier method such as essential oils, botanicals, and vitamins, for example.

 Jendi: But you share an easier way of homeopathic remedies, right?

Joette: Yes. Well, actually, every homeopath who is seasoned has eventually come up with shortcuts. Some glean simply by being observant and practice, others by reading the books of the great homeopathic masters. We’ve all done this. This is what I do. This is what I read at night. On my lap when my family and I are traveling and my husband’s driving or my sons are driving, I’m studying the great homeopathic masters of the last two centuries. Attending post grad, of course, is sharing with and learning from my colleagues. But you can accumulate, to be honest, only so much over the limited amount of time that we’re in practice. Human conditions and suffering is vast and we homeopaths have a finite amount of time to observe and collect data that is simple and in our fingertips.

 The Banerji protocols

So let me step back and make it clear that homeopathy works and it works thoroughly and often to complete resolution. But I want to make this clear. It’s not a hundred percent guaranteed. Its capabilities are often astounding even to me after seeing results time and again. The glitches that the system of choosing the remedy has complexity to it and has stymied many a neophyte, even those who are more experienced. But I’m here to say that this has changed. Enter the Banerji protocols. Some people might believe that the Banerjis are paying me to say this but it absolutely is not so. I am so grateful to the information that they shared with me.

The reason I keep giving accolades to these incredible doctors in Kolkata, India with whom I worked for two consecutive years is because they have gotten what would take other homeopaths a lifetime to accumulate and distill. They’ve gathered their [errors – 00:23:56], accumulated data, and offered them to me, to the world. Additionally, their model is extraordinary in that they don’t see the average number of patients as other doctors throughout the world. No. They each take – get this – 100 cases per day, and there are 10 of them. And they are open six days a week. That means they’re seeing a thousand cases per day and six days means 6,000 medical cases per week. I’m sorry, I don’t know any other medical paradigm that does that.

Now, some might argue, “Well, how can they possibly take a case in just 10 to 15 minutes?” Well, it’s because they have junior doctors who have taken a good portion of the case, gathered the information, looked at the x-rays, checked out the sonograms, blood tests, etc. So I don’t care what kind of medicine you practice. No doctor that I know, and I was living in that medical world for many years, takes that many cases. So there’s no data anywhere that can boast these numbers. Of course, what’s so great about numbers, well, it offers irrefutable evidence and this distills down to specific remedies for specific conditions. It’s clean, efficacious, and again I’m not going to say every time, but it often is efficacious and if nothing else, it’s indisputable.

Jendi: So if you kind of wrapped up everything we said so far, can you give us an overall picture?

Joette: Yes. The upshot of this message is this: Do what you need to do to get your family and self as far away from drugs as possible. I’m not saying we never use drugs. I want to make clear that people understand that. I also don’t mean that you just stop taking medications and flat out just start using another method. But the fewer drugs you take, the better off you and your family will be, generally speaking. I know it’s sweeping but it is generally correct. Employ botanicals, essential oils, whatever means to get a handle on keeping things simple. Get the protocols I teach in my blog, tuck them in your hip pocket, and start using homeopathy as often as you need.

Jendi: Thank you so much, Joette. I’ll keep my essential oils in my cupboard to use occasionally and keep learning about homeopathy as well.

Joette: Thank you for doing this with me, Jendi. I can’t resist alliteration so I’m going to put it this way. It’s my method of making mighty moms.

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. If you liked it, please share it with your friends. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit joettecalabrese.com and schedule a free 15-minute conversation.