Podcast 38 – Study Group Questions for Joette

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In this podcast, we cover:

02:09    Study group and its importance

08:37    Joette talks about poison, toxicity, and curative aspect

14:14    When would we see results

26:10    When it’s not acting as quickly

34:05    Homeopathic resources available

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. 

Kate:  It’s Podcast Number 38 at joettecalabrese.com. Here’s what we have coming up:

I’m Kate. Today, I’m excited to share with you a discussion I recently had with Joette and Lara. On this podcast, we discussed the benefits of joining a study group and how a study group can bring about a change in thinking for those people in your life who may be skeptical of homeopathy. We also answered a question that is often asked by many of you. If I’m allergic to a substance, can I take a homeopathic medicine that is made from that substance? Finally, we talked about what to expect when using homeopathy for colds and flus and how to be prepared for when an illness occurs. Now, let’s get started.

Hey Joette! It’s great to be with you here today. I’m in Wisconsin and you are in Canada, right?

Joette:  Ontario! Yes, I’m in Ontario, and …

Kate:  And Lara, she’s joining us today as a special guest. Welcome, Lara. Lara is Joette’s course manager. So, Lara, where are you at?

Lara:  I’m in New York. Thank you, Kate.

Kate:  We’re glad that you could be with us today. We’re excited to be able to talk homeopathy together. There is so much good stuff that we have for you guys today. We’re excited to share it with you. So, welcome you guys. Thanks for being here.

Joette:  Oh, this is fun.

Lara:  Thank you.

Kate:  Today, we’re going to be talking about study groups and some of the common questions that you guys ask when you’re taking the study group. Some of the questions that come up over and over again in the courses and just in general, right Joette? People write to you with questions?

Joette:  On the blog, they come in to the office, absolutely, yes.

Kate:  So, let’s get started and let’s talk a little bit about study groups in general. I know that we covered this in Podcast Number 18. So, if you guys want some more information on that, you can go ahead and refer to that podcast and review Joette’s history about how she started her study group and then how the Gateway to Homeopathy course developed.

Study group and its importance

Joette:  Yes, let’s talk about it, because I’ll just tell briefly that the way that I started in homeopathy was to start my own study group back in the 80’s. I gathered a group of friends and we met every Thursday night for four years. It was our ladies’ night out essentially, although we didn’t really go anywhere. We went into each other’s living rooms. At one point, we brought a teacher in and she helped us learn. But other times, the teacher wasn’t available, so we went on — on our own.

What it did was a number of things. It built a community. That’s really important. If you’ve got someone you can count on to ask questions who may be a little ahead of you or even if that person’s a little behind you in understanding, the value of having other people around you who are of like mind is paramount. Because when you’re stuck at 8 o’clock at night and somebody in your family is really sick with the flu or a cold and you can’t think straight because you’re coming down with it as well — isn’t it nice to have someone you can contact and say, “Oh my gosh, So-and-So, can you tell me what did you use that time that helped your family so much?” So, there is that.

There is also your increasing your understanding of cases. Homeopathy is not just understanding the basics of homeopathy, the fundamentals, and then the materia medica, (understanding some of the medicines that are used and also the potencies and frequencies). But, it’s also understanding case-taking, and how soon you give the next dose. How frequently you give it. When you stop, et cetera. And when you hear case after case after case — which is exactly what would be happening by listening to other people’s rendition of their own condition and their family’s conditions — that’s when you learn.

So, I remember when I was in homeopathy school, one of our teachers said, “You will never become a homeopath — truly become a homeopath — until you go into practice. The reason that was so clearly stated — and I couldn’t agree more — was that it’s because you got to see different cases than what you’re accustomed to in your own family. You want to see what people who have one child suffer. We want to see what people who have three dogs and what their dogs suffer. Therefore, what we want to do is get all of those incongruent aspects of homeopathy and pull them altogether. That’s what makes homeopathy much more unified, so that it starts making sense. So, you have those aha moments: “Oh, my gosh. She used Pulsatilla for her child’s stomachache, and I use Pulsatilla for my child’s ear infection. And look at these similarities.” That’s when we learn. That’s when we learn exponentially. It ups our knowledge, and the pace is really picked up in your understanding of how to use this for your family and self.

Kate:  Right, exactly. I know that you see a lot of people that take the Antibiotic course or the Allergic course or the Good Gut, Bad Gut course and then on top of that, they still join a study group because they have that core of group of people that they can continue that relationship with. Oftentimes, those groups go on and they take courses together and continue learning together. So, the study group, although it’s a great first place to plug in and learn, it’s not necessarily the only way that you can do this. You can do study groups after you’ve taken courses and I see that many times.

Joette:  One other thing I just have to add to this is that if you have a mother-in-law or a sister or a husband who is a skeptic of homeopathy, instead of you trying to convince that person who is important in your life, if they join a study group (even if they just come to one meeting) and they hear everyone else talking about it — they’re in! More often than not, they hop in because now it’s a different voice. It’s not your voice repetitively to your sister, to your husband, over and over and over again, “Homeopathy is great. Look how great it is.” No. Now, they hear different voices, and then it starts to come together instead of it just being you. So, it’s a great opportunity to bring in people who are significant in your life into your world … so that you can study and learn together or —  at least if nothing else — they’re not an impediment. Because sometimes a husband who doesn’t agree can be an impediment. You want him onboard. You want to be at the same place together. That’s really critical.

Lara:  I think people joined the study groups for a lot of different reasons. There isn’t just necessarily one way that you have to do it:  where you take the study group first and then you graduate on to a course. We’ve seen people who take the courses first, like Kate mentioned, and then join a study group. I think a part of human nature is once you have some learning, you get excited about wanting to share that learning. Sometimes people take a course — and the course is a more individual thing, you know, people do it at their own pace …

Joette:  They’re alone.

Lara:  Yes, exactly. They are learning maybe alone in their living room in front of the computer. Then there’s a desire to get with a group of people and talk about all the things you learned. And study group is great for that.

Joette:  Yes.

Kate:  Exactly. Last night, we were doing a study group together. One of the people in the study group actually had some friends over to her house and she said, “Hey, can they listen in for just a little bit?” And they did. Then afterwards she said, “Hey, they want to take the study group. They want to take Joette’s Gateway to Homeopathy.” So, just that little bit of excitement in listening to those people share their stories, their success stories with homeopathy and learn just that little bit really excited them about homeopathy. So, it’s a great way. Even if you think you are past that point of learning, it’s a great way to step back, take that course, and just bring some friends into it and take it with them.

Joette:  Then we have lots of questions that come from these study groups. I mean you’re like a study group guru, right Kate?

Kate:  I have taught the study group many times, yes. Every time, my students are the same way. They take the courses over and over again. They take the study groups over and over again. And because we’re always learning something new from each other and just really reviewing that information — you can never review too much.

Joette, I hear these questions so often and I know you do, too. One of the foundational questions that people ask is “Hey, I’m allergic to poison ivy. Can I still take the homeopathic remedy Rhus tox which is actually made from poison ivy?” What do you have to say to those people?

Joette talks about poison, toxicity, and curative aspect

Joette:  Well, there are very few people who aren’t allergic to poison ivy. So, let’s start with that. Poison ivy is indeed a poison. What’s lovely about homeopathy is that it is often made from poisons. The beauty of it is that the poison does not remain. What remains is the curative aspect. So, by diluting poison ivy 200 times for example to the 100^th power, which would mean Rhus tox 200C, what we’re doing is eliminating the toxic aspect of the poison ivy by all of those dilutions. (This is all pharmacologically done and all regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, parenthetically.) It’s a method of diluting so far that it gets to the point where it comes back round again and becomes curative. How that happens is by reducing the toxicity and bringing it down by all of this dilution process. It simultaneously reduces the toxicity and brings forth the curative aspect of that plant.

Now, all plants — every substance on earth — has a curative aspect to it, but sometimes we can’t use it in gross form because, of course, you would break out in pustules and itching and restlessness, et cetera. Just that’s what would happen with poison ivy. But we have found — not I, this is what Dr. Samuel Hahnemann discovered back in the 1700s and all his followers after that — that if you dilute a very poisonous substance, that by doing so, you are now bringing forth its curative aspect at a certain point.

So, what point is that? Well, in homeopathy, we know it’s usually a 3X or a 3C, 6X, 6C. I don’t want to get too deeply into all this because it’s really basically a whole course in learning how to do this — or learning, understanding how this all comes together. But, we’re diluting it three times to the 10^th power, that’s 3X. Three times to the 100^th power, that’s 3C. And we keep going up. So, it matters not that you are allergic or you respond to Rhus tox, or for example Sulphur. Because I know that was the second part of this question was: “What if I’m allergic to Sulphur, sulfa drugs, et cetera, antibiotics?” That would mean, generally speaking, that Sulphur 30C, 200C might indeed be the perfect medicine for you because it’s been diluted to the point where now it becomes the medicine for those who suffer from such.

Kate:  Exactly. That really helps to clear it up in my mind because I know many people ask that. Even if we don’t necessarily have the right answer for it, we know in our minds that it’s not going to hurt us but we don’t know how to articulate that. So, thank you for helping us to articulate that to our friends and our family members who might have those concerns.

Joette:  Yes. Let me also mention this. That in botanicals — herbalism — the herbalists have a beautiful array of materia medica, lots of medicines from which to choose: Chamomilla, and St John's wort, and all of those beautiful medicines that they can use. They can pick them. Make them into tinctures. Pick them, make them into poultices, et cetera, and teas, and oils, et cetera. Beautiful stuff, but they’re limited. In homeopathy, we use those same herbs and botanicals, but we get to use the poisons. The poisons are actually — in my estimation — the most valuable of all the medicines because the poison causes a condition in its gross form, but, in the highly diluted potentised level of homeopathy diluted 200 times to the 100^th power, now we’ve got a medicine that can uproot what that poison would have caused. It’s gorgeous.

So, we use lead: Plumbum. We use arsenic: Arsenicum album. We use Hyoscyamus. We use Belladonna, Nux vomica. Basically, in their original form … They have Strychninum, et cetera. So, what we’re doing with these homeopathic pharmacies — again, regulated by the Food and Drug Administration as medicines, mind you — we are now diluting or they are diluting it down to the point where the toxicity is removed and the curative aspect is brought to the fore. What a brilliant way of using botanicals or toxic substances found on earth and pharmacology and math. It gets the essence of many sciences and pulls them into one, and makes them into the medicine of choice.

Kate:  And it’s gentle, right?

Joette:  Yes, because it’s so highly diluted. There’s so little left that sometimes it’s even questioned whether or not there’s anything left. The point is there’s just enough to be able to gently, efficaciously stimulate the body’s ability to do this. This is what homeopathy does: bring the person back to wholeness. How does it do that? It stimulates that natural ability that we know the body has the ability, for the most part, to be able to do.

Kate:  Well, thank you for clearing that up for us. What are the other questions, Joette that come up? I know that right now, we are in the throes of cold and flu season. So, can you give us some ideas of some realistic expectations when we are using the remedies? For instance, we learn in our study groups or in the courses to treat the cold and flu viruses. What are some expectations that we can have as far as how quickly these remedies are going to act, and how quickly we’re going to see results?

When would we see results

Joette:  I’ve seen the whole gamut. But as I fine-tune my knowledge in homeopathy — and I’ve been using homeopathy for over 30 years — I’m still always learning another homeopathic medicine that could be even tighter than the last one. I find that if you get the right medicine, it can be jaw dropping. It’s so fast. Often people tell me, “Oh my gosh, I felt really sick. I felt like I was coming down with bronchitis. I know that feeling because I’ve had it in the past. But I took that Aconitum and Bryonia. My gosh! I’m going to say two hours, I could feel my energy come back again.” So, sometimes we see that.

Other times, we see that it lingers for a while. The reason it’s lingering in my estimation is you just haven’t gotten the right medicine. Because when you get the right medicine especially for an acute — remember, this is an acute we’re talking — this is not a chronic illness. For an acute, generally speaking, we see it turn around within a few hours or a day or two. Now, if it’s been established and the illness is gone for a while and we see relentless vomiting. For example, my son just had a terrible stomach flu. It started out in the morning. He was pretty uncomfortable, a lot of nausea and vomiting for about an hour. He never contacted me. He figured he could do it himself. He actually did do it himself. The vomiting stopped after taking the fourth dose of the medicine which was great. He actually used Ipecac. Then the nausea persisted a little bit longer. Now, it was about two in the afternoon. This all started early in the morning. He still had nausea. He couldn’t eat. He didn’t feel well. He couldn’t talk for very long because the nausea persisted. He kept taking it every, I think he was taking it about every three hours or so. By about 5 o clock that night, he was able to eat.

Now, is that the right amount of time? I think it’s perfect to be honest. If you can miss one day of school or one day of work for a stomach flu when you see your friends and neighbors, et cetera, going on for three and four days, and then when they’re finished, they still are not 100% — I would say that’s pretty darn good use of medicine. The following day, I followed up and I texted him. “How are you doing today?” He says, “I’m fine. I’m back at school.” That’s what we’re talking about! That’s the way we wanted to go.

Now, had he chosen the wrong medicine — even the “wrong” medicine — you can still do a lot of good. A lot of good … because even if you choose the wrong one, by choosing the wrong medicine, the symptoms that you need to really pay attention to will come to the fore. So, if you’ve taken the wrong medicine, and now we started to get diarrhea or pain in the stomach — now we have to look at a medicine that’s specific for diarrhea and pain in a flu, stomach flu for example. That will give us more hints.

Lara:  Isn’t it also possible that different medicines can work to a different extent?

Joette:  Yes. But I have to caution folks — unless you have something in mind, Lara, I don’t have anything in mind like that — but we have to caution folks into thinking that the medicine can only do so much, when really if we have the right medicine it will do plenty.

Lara:  My understanding is that for example, like with the Banerji Protocols, sometimes there will be several medicines given. Sometimes with a disease, there might be the perfect remedy which will do everything but another remedy might do a lot even if it’s not the perfect choice. I’m trying to think of a specific example.

Joette:  I think I know what you’re saying, and here’s my baseline answer. We have 6,000 homeopathic medicines from which to choose. Which one is it? So, the Banerjis have graciously given me their information — which all makes sense anyway, because their medicines make so much sense even if you’re using classical homeopathy. But, it doesn’t mean it’s going to work for absolutely everyone. I use the Banerji Protocols perhaps, or I use an old protocol that I’ve used in the past, or I might use cell salts. There are so many ways to skin a cat that you’re looking at many options. I don’t want people to get too confused and think that there’s only one way to do it. There is one good way to do it. When I’m teaching Banerji Protocols, then by all means, I’m going to urge you especially as a new student to start out with that if at all possible. If you can start with that and then test it out and see if it doesn’t act, then we go onward.

Lara:  I guess I have an example. Let’s say it’s UTI and somebody’s using Cantharis or Sarsaparilla. Is that how you pronounce it, Sarsaparilla?

Joette:  Yes.

Lara:  It takes care of the UTI pretty well but it comes back again. The next time they start with Cantharis and it’s working, but it’s not working great. They introduce Medorrhinum and all of a sudden, that’s it!

Joette:  Beautiful, yes. So, what that means is that you could have probably started out with Medorrhinum in the first place as well as Cantharis, or Sarsaparilla and Medorrhinum, or et cetera, et cetera. We got lots of possibilities here. But I try to give those possibilities that are the most commonly used as our first line of defense. But yes, you’re right. You’re right.

Kate:  Can you give us some ideas as far as dosage because I know your son, you said, took Ipecac for instance. Do you think he took Ipecac 30C?

Joette:  Yes, he used Ipecac 30C because I have taught him that I think that Ipecac 30C is a very good medicine for nausea. Then he also was taking Nux vomica. I didn’t tell him to do that because he was vomiting. I believe that probably the Nux vomica, now that I think back on it, was probably what stopped the vomiting and Ipecac helped with the chronic relentless nausea. So, he was using both. He used Nux vomica in a 200 and Ipecac in the 30. He was alternating them approximately every couple of hours. I actually think in the beginning, when it was really a difficult couple of hours, he could have taken them each one every 15 minutes if it was very severe.

Kate:  Right. Joette, do you want to know an interesting fact?

Joette:  Sure.

Kate:  Our kids, they haven’t had the stomach flu in, I think, over six years. I give homeopathy — and God, of course — the credit for that, because before homeopathy, about once a year, they would come down with a stomach flu because as it goes around, you know, the season usually brings on those viruses. Isn’t that an amazing thing?

Joette:  Yes, it is amazing because it does go around like wildfire. It’s almost impossible not to get these kinds of things unless you’re doing something rather active.

Kate:  Exactly.

Lara:  Joette, that’s a testament to what you talk about: how homeopathy has the ability to so deeply uproot something that it doesn’t come back.

Joette:  Yes. So that if my son for example, let’s go back to that. He got the stomach flu and he had this nausea and vomiting. If it goes around again this year, or in the spring, or next year, now he’s girded. He’s held up by the fact that the remedy, back now in October 2017, has corrected the condition, to a certain degree. Now, does it mean it’s going to protect him forever and ever? Sometimes yes, and sometimes no. But if it doesn’t, then the next time he gets it, it’s very likely it’ll be a milder version. Meaning it won’t be as intense. It might even finish off a little bit sooner while using Ipecac 30 and Nux vomica 200.

Kate:  Right. So, we have your son’s example, a recent example of when he had the stomach flu. And then six months ago, one of my kids woke me up in the middle of the night saying that they were not feeling well. They felt nauseous, maybe a little bit of a tummy ache. I gave them Arsenicum album 200C. Just one dose of that and within an hour I would say, an hour and a half, they were feeling better and they went back to sleep. But before homeopathy, the “BH” days, I can see that that stomachache — your kid waking you up in the middle of the night with a stomach ache — usually it’s going to end up in some diarrhea or throwing up or something.

Joette:  You’re up the rest of the night until the morning with that child… now, the child misses school the next day and then the other commitments you or the child may have.

Kate:  Exactly. You’re exhausted. The family is exhausted. Then it goes on to the other family members. So really, you’re not just talking a day even, you’re talking about a week or more.

Joette:  That’s right. I remember when I was sick. I’m sorry Lara. I do want you to get in here because I want your opinion on this, too. But when I was sick when I was a little girl, I remember never being sick for anything less than two weeks, anytime I got a cold, anytime I got a fever, sore throat, ear infection. That was back in the 50s. Two weeks. That was just the way it was. We just expected it.

Lara:  I feel like mothers are like farmers in this sense. You know how they say, Joette and Kate, that farmers are … kind of like … they’re the ground zero or the frontline when it comes to things like nutrition and vitamins and stuff because they’re always thinking about the bottom line? They’re thinking about, “What do I need to keep my cows healthy enough that they will reproduce successfully, and that they will give enough milk so I make a profit?” and all that kind of stuff. So, doctors — I think, human doctors — get away with a lot that farmers don’t get away with because they always have to find practically what is working.

I was thinking about when you and Kate were talking about kids because I think mothers are like that, too. Like practically you can tell what makes a difference in terms of how many times the kids are getting sick, how long they’re getting sick for, how severe the illnesses are for. You see the repercussions when things don’t work because they’re missing more school; you’re getting less sleep as a family, all that kind of stuff.

Joette:  Yes, so that you know “your herd.” Basically, you know exactly how your child normally reacts and now how your child reacts when you give the homeopathic medicines.

Lara:  And it ties in to what you’re saying about how mothers and grandmothers: They’re the ones who really know. I mean like we can depend on our scientists and our doctors for a lot, but the bottom line is who’s observing that child and that family day to day.

Joette:  Mothers know there’s nothing like the watchful eye of a mother. I don’t mean necessarily it even has to be a mother with a human child. It can be a woman or even a man. But more often it’s a woman who is raising puppies or who has animals that they’re raising on the fields and lambs and cows, et cetera. When you are in charge, when you have a charge over another living being, you pay attention and you pay attention closely. It becomes your focus. A mother to have this focus — it’s just natural.

Kate:  I don’t want to give people a wrong impression either about how easy it is.

Joette:  Yes, yes, I’m glad you brought that up.

Kate:  Sometimes it is hard. I gave that great example of my child with the stomachache and how quickly it went away. But there have been times, Joette, when — and I know mothers can relate — when my kid has a cough and a cold and it is days, and we are struggling and they are coughing. Granted, I think it’s not as severe as it would have been without homeopathy for sure, and there’s relief. Whereas without homeopathy, I didn’t see the relief. Where now, you can give some homeopathic remedies to help the cough. And even though they still have the cold for three or four days, the cold isn’t as severe and the cough isn’t … you know, you can go for hours without that bothersome cough. And then they need the remedy again. So, talk a little bit about when it doesn’t act that quickly.

When it’s not acting as quickly

Joette:  Well, when it doesn’t act that quickly, you need to reassess what you’ve given. I always say four doses — up to about four doses and about four hours apart. Now, that is a very basic structure — a skeletal structure. If someone is, again, vomiting relentlessly, you’re not going to wait four hours to give the medicine. You’re going to wait … maybe 15 minutes. But, you know you’re not going to wait a week! So that I’m trying to give a basic structure of how often to use it. Four hours is kind of — you can go every 15 minutes if it’s very severe, or if it’s not so severe then maybe every two hours — if it’s really rather mild, you might use it every four hours. So, when you see that after about four doses (and it’s very severe and you’ve given that medicine every 15 minutes or every hour, et cetera), and you’ve given four doses and you see no change whatsoever — now that’s the key. We should talk about what change means. But if you’ve seen no change at all after about four doses, maybe five, again that’s just a benchmark, then it’s time to reassess and stop what you’re using. Now, look at what’s presenting now.

So, if the child is or the person is vomiting relentlessly and they stopped vomiting but now they’re coughing, are you going to give that vomiting medicine? Are you going to give that? It’s for the gastrointestinal condition? If the primary concern now is a cough, no. Now you have to go to a medicine that is specific for the cough. Have you lost it? Have you lost the case by doing this? No, the case is evolving. It’s very likely that had you not given the homeopathic medicine, this would start out with vomiting and nausea and turn into coughing but you’re shortening that duration. So, you’re always looking to see what is happening now. What am I observing now?

When we look at, for example, is this person improving? If the person stops vomiting or let’s say they continue vomiting and they’re very nauseous, yet, now they’re smiling. Now, they’re not freezing anymore. Now, they’re not frightened anymore. That’s some improvement because if the person even if it’s your husband who’s freezing cold; he’s vomiting horribly; you can see that he’s panicking; he’s feeling really uncomfortable, really sick and he continues to vomit but his demeanor changes and it becomes more positive — you better stay with that medicine because you’re doing some good. That’s how you know. The vomiting may still continue but you’re looking for the overall wellness of the person or here’s another great indicator: the person falls asleep.

Here you are on the bathroom floor with your loved one, and they’re vomiting and suddenly they fall asleep. Beautiful, cover him up. Keep him warm. Have a hot water bottle close by. Make sure they’re really comfortable. Clean up the bathroom as best as you can and let them sleep. Now, if they wake up and it comes back again, most parents don’t realize that what has happened was positive and it meant that the medicine was acting. They’re thinking, “Oh no, it’s back again. They just got a little rest, but they lucked out.” No, no, no, no. This means the medicine is working. Sleep for a situation like this indicates that the medicine is correct. Now, what do you do? There’s that remedy again? You reintroduce it. You give it again. It needs another stimulus, and you’d start again.

Lara:  It’s so important to look at the big picture like you’re saying Joette, because if somebody brags, “I never get a cold,” but they’re constantly tired; they’re weak; they don’t have the energy to do stuff. Well maybe, you’re not getting a cold because your immune system doesn’t have the strength to ward off infection. It’s like when people talk about fevers. It’s very important to have the vitality to actually mount a fever. It’s a weak person who never gets a fever because they’re body isn’t capable. Symptoms can be good. They can be a sign that the body is functioning well.

Joette:  You bet. And also, sometimes the more virulent the response — like you said with the fever — if they can mount a fever, that’s very positive when it’s a child. Now, adult is a little different, but children are supposed to get fevers when they get sick. If they can do that, then you’re going in the right direction.

Lara:  If they still have say a runny nose and they sneeze, but they feel more energy, they feel happier, what’s that a sign of?

Joette:  It’s a sign of improvement because there’s nothing wrong with having runny nose because you’re clearing out the mucosa, or the cough remains but it’s not a gagging or a croupy cough. Now, it’s a clearing cough. It’s liquidy. Good, that’s very good. But that child now can go back to school. The child is sleeping properly. He can start drinking his bone stock. He can start having his kefir or whatever else he’s eating or drinking. Yet, he still has a cough that’s clearing out his chest. Keep him low. You always want to keep people low, children low, when they’ve had respiratory infections especially in the chest. But that cough that’s still clearing out even days, even a week later — as long as the vitality is good and the cough is liquidy and not keeping the child from living his life such as sleeping and eating, et cetera — then we’re moving in the right direction.

Kate:  That’s what I look for. My daughter tends to get coughs frequently. So, it’s beautiful when I know I’m in the right direction — just like you said — when she actually perks up and now, she wants to interact with us. So, she’s smiling and she gets up out of bed. She’s walking around and wanting to do things. So, that to me is a sign that yes, the remedy is working. She is still coughing like you said and it may be a while, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. As long as her vitality is going in the right direction and it’s positive then that’s okay, right?

Joette:  Yes. You have to assess. You have to know when to fold. You have to know when to say okay, this is bigger than me. I need to get to a doctor. There is that aspect of this as well. Because we don’t want somebody to get pneumonia because you thought you could handle it. Until you feel really, really confident with homeopathy, I’m going to encourage you to always be on the fence. Just in case, let’s see how far I can go with this. Let’s see what I can do. If you can cure your family member, your husband, your child of something that’s an impending long infection before it gets that bad, you really got a handle on your life. You really got some reins to hold. It’s a beautiful thing. There’s nothing more heady than being able to cure someone you love. I mean I can’t think of anything better. Curing someone you love! Holy cow, that’s amazing!

Kate:  It is. It’s such a great feeling. Joette, you often say, too — you recommend to people — drive to the hospitals. Sit in the parking lot. Get some blankets and some games or whatever, some snacks. Sit there if you’re not confident and just wait. Give the homeopathic medicines and just see what unfolds. That way, you’re close. You’re there if you need to be there.

Joette:  You’re even closer than sometimes being in the hospital and getting into the emergency room. Being on like the 7^th floor of the Gastroenterology Department or something and then you need emergency care, by the time they get a gurney and bring you back down all the way to the emergency room, who knows how long that will be! But you’re right there. You have your legs and your child, and you can carry your child or walk in with your husband if you need be. So, I think that all emergency room parking lots should have like big screen TVs … like an outdoor show or something … and popcorn … some bone stocks sold on the side.

Kate:  Wouldn’t that be amazing?

Joette:  Yes.

Kate:  So, we’ve talked about quite a number of things. If I’m still stuck and I’m needing to figure out better method of helping my kids, and learn more remedies, and how to help them get through those colds and flus, what do you recommend Joette? What would be a next step for people?

Homeopathic resources available

Joette:  Well, here’s the thing. Put together what makes the most sense for you and your family. If your finances are limited then you might want to go with the study group which is Gateway to Homeopathy. I think it’s under $60, and it’s several classes together with these other folks. If you want to jump into a bigger course then by all means, How to Raise a Drug-free Family is a great way to go. But, I don’t believe that it has to be that way.

If you’re new to homeopathy or even if you’re not, use my blog. It’s totally, completely free. I’ve been authoring this blog with my homeopathy tips and methods for 10 years. Every single week, we put out information. And often, we’d put out information twice a week. The whole idea of this blog is for you to be able to utilize this for your family at no cost whatsoever.

But I do urge you to get a kit, a homeopathy kit, or at least if you have a Whole Foods nearby or a health foods store, and even Wal-Mart carries homeopathy, even Walgreens carries homeopathy. Make sure you know where these remedies are so that you don’t get stuck at say 10 o’clock at night and say, “Oh, I know exactly what to give,” and then you don’t own it. So, own as many homeopathic medicines as you can and get started that way.

Kate:  That is key, I think is to have the tools because you can have the knowledge, and you don’t have the tools and then you’re stuck. I say to my students all the time. There is so much information that Joette has available on her blogs and her podcasts. Dig into that. Dive into it. Learn as much as you can. Be prepared for when those things occur. Don’t wait until your kid has a cold or a stomach flu to learn these things.

Joette:  Well, I just want to add, I’m not the only one out there. There are a lot of homeopaths with lots of great information. So, don’t think that it’s just me. I give protocols to make it super easy. But there are lots of great homeopaths out there. So, don’t just read me. Read lots and lots and lots of other ways to approach this as well.

Lara:  But even if they just do read your blog, Joette, I think that’s like a course in and of itself. All those different articles spanning such a long time have so much information.

Joette:  Yes, that’s what I hope to present to the world.

Kate:  Your mission is what, Joette?

Joette:  100,000 homes by 2020. Reaching 100,000 homes, so that each of these homes has got homeopathy as the mainstay of their medicine or at least simultaneous.

Kate:  All of your listeners were a part of that, right? We’re a team.

Joette:  You bet, you bet. It’s great. Let’s get this out everyone.

Kate:  Well, thank you so much for having this conversation today. Lara, thanks for joining us.

Lara:  Thank you.

Kate:  It was really great to be able to talk to you guys today and to discuss some of these things that weigh heavily on our listeners’ minds.

You just listened to a podcast by joettecalabrese.com where nationally certified homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese shared her passion for helping families stay strong through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition. Joette’s podcasts are available on iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Stitcher, and TuneIn radio.

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.