Podcast 90 – 2020 Twenty Tips

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: In today's podcast, we're going to continue on with the theme “2020 Twenty.” That is the theme that we're going to run through this coming year. You'll see lots of things titled “2020 Twenty,” and we're going to be giving you twenty tips today to take into 2020.

Joette, let's get started.

Joette: Love it. It's 2-0-2-0 for the year, and then “twenty” spelled out. It's the “Twenty of the 2020.”

Kate: Yes. So, let's get started with your twenty tips for 2020, Joette. Start us off.

1. Be prepared: Own your medicines

Joette: Okay. Well, you and I worked on this a little bit. The first one we came up with was, “Be prepared.” I mean, that just goes without saying, I suppose. But you know what? Sometimes, we need to hear these things time and again.

That means, own your medicines. If you think you know or you know what medicine to use, you have to own it! Because there's nothing worse than saying, “Okay, my child needs Hepar sulph because of this ear infection.” It's Saturday evening around seven o'clock when no stores are open, or you live in an area where they don't carry them anywhere. There's no Whole Foods or Wegmans or anything like that — or Walmart, because sometimes Walmart carries them. And you have to wait until Monday morning to order it! And you don't get it until Tuesday or Wednesday from Amazon.

Well, that makes no sense. You need to own homeopathy kits. I don't mean one kit. I'm using the plural — kits — because one kit is not enough. You want a 200 Potency kit, you want a 30^th Potency kit, and you want a cell salt kit, just to get started. There are others as well. But I can't urge folks enough to invest in that. Then you'll be ordering a lot more than just those. Those are just your basics.

Kate: I always tell people, have a backup kit, and then have a backup-backup kit, and so on and so forth. When I share with my study groups the kits that I have and the backup-backup-backup kits, and how I've actually used the medicines out of those backup-backup-backup kits, I think they're surprised. But you really need to own more than one kit. Start with one if that's all you have money for right now. Just start with one.

Joette: One step at a time. That's right. But what you should be spending your money on, that should have been one of our tips. This is what you should be spending your money on. Not nail polish. Not café au lait from Starbucks. This is where you spend your money — because this is an investment.

Kate: Okay, Number Two.

2. Know how to order

Joette: Well, what I want to tell folks is how to order. I suggest that folks order a couple of different ways, especially if you're looking not just for the kit, but for single remedies. Order via Amazon for next-day delivery, and literally, you'll get it the next day. But if you want to get a discount, I urge you to go to Boiron (B-O-I-R-O-N), and order there because … they won't have all of the medicines you're looking for, but they'll have a good number of them … When you go to checkout, there's a little box there, a code box, and you put my name in, “Joette” (J-O-E-T-T-E), and you'll get a discount. I believe it's 20%.

Now, don't think for a minute, folks, that I get a kickback because I don't! I do not have an affiliate program with them. Instead, I wanted you folks — I want the general public — to get the discount. It's just a good way of knowing where you've come from. So, either Amazon for a really quick delivery or Boiron for a discount. Then you weigh it out what you're looking for, how soon you need this or that medicine.

Kate: All right. There are others, too, but those are just a couple of the quickest places to get your medicines.

Joette: Thank you. That's absolutely right because there's Washington Homeopathy, there's Hyland’s Homeopathy, there's Hahnemann (H-A-H-N-E-M-A-N-N) Homeopathy. All of those are very reputable companies. Those are the ones that I've used for decades.

Kate: Okay, tip Number Three.

3. Be prepared with knowledge

Joette: Number Three is be prepared with knowledge. Nobody can take your knowledge away from you. This is so key. This is important that you take care of what it is you need to know. So, if you have a family of a lot of girls, and they're coming into menarche, you need to know the medicines that are useful for menstrual cramps, or for behavior problems around menarche, or whatever might come up. You need to know those medicines.

If you have a family of athletes, then you need to know about Arnica, Aconitum and Hamamelis Arnica, et cetera, et cetera. You need to understand what it is your family needs.

If your family never gets a cold or flu, consider yourself lucky because it's pretty rare, then you don't need to know the cold and flu medicines. But if anyone in your family gets these, by all means, you need to know these.

How do you know them? By going to my blog — we'll go into that a little bit further — it's all free, learning from courses, the courses that I teach, learning from the free podcasts that you and I do, Kate.

Kate: Just reading online, reading the online materia medicas and repertories.

Joette: Yes, reading my materia medica, reading others’ materia medicas such as Dr. James Tyler Kent. Dr. James Tyler Kent’s materia medica is online, and it's free. That's where you'll learn about each medicine.

Kate: Yes, know your medicines. Know how to use them. Number Four.

4. Be prepared in advance

Joette: Number Four is very closely related to number three and one. That is to be prepared. Don't wait until you have a need. Know everything. Have everything. Be prepared in advance.

There's no such thing as an illness that comes in a timely manner. Illnesses and injuries come. Yes, they're extemporaneous. They come out of the blue when you least expect it. You don't schedule it in. So, don't expect life to deliver it in that fashion. You need to be prepared in advance with knowledge and the owning of the homeopathic medicines.

Kate: Don't put it off. 2020, this is the year! Be prepared!

Joette: That's right.

5. Stay informed

Kate: Number Five.

Joette: Stay informed about what's going on with the FDA. Get the remedies now. Own as many remedies as you can now. We don't know exactly what will come of these new guidelines with the FDA. It does not look very encouraging. I will be soon interviewing Paola Brown. You'll be able to listen in on what her organization and she is doing — working with the FDA to protect homeopathy.

But stay informed because we need your letters, your phone calls. Whatever she says to do, I urge folks to do. We'll have links on the website. We already have them, but we'll be adding more in the near future.

Kate: Actually, Joette, that interview you were just referring to with Paola Brown of Americans for Homeopathy Choice will be coming out ahead of this podcast. That will be “Podcast 89 titled “ACTION REQUIRED! Due in 5 minutes!” You can listen to that podcast right now.

Let's move on to Number Six, which is one of my favorites as you know, Joette.

6. Join a study group

Joette: You bet. You know why it's one of your favorites? Because you run these!

I suggest everyone join a study group. Kate runs a number of the study groups, and she does an incredible job. So, if you're looking to join a group … and it's all online! It can be done online; it can be done via Zoom or Skype. You can also do it in your own living room. You can join when you can start one, but Kate actually runs them. It's nice to have someone who actually runs them and has lots of experience with homeopathy as well.

There are a couple of different ways you can do that. You can start with yourself even though you know nothing about homeopathy; if you know a little bit about homeopathy; if you want someone who's an expert in homeopathy, then you can work with someone like Kate. I urge you., and you just go to my website and look at …

Kate: It’s Joette’s Study Group: Find Your Study Group Friends. [On Facebook]

Joette: Yes. If you have any questions, you can always contact my office. It's pretty clear how to do that on the website, on the front page. You can ask for help as to, “Are there groups studying now?” Eileen is there to help folks, and so is Audrey. Shannon sometimes joins in as well to help out with those kinds of questions. We can fix you up with a group, or we can direct you as to how to start a group, or whatever you need.

Kate: Those study groups are designed — the books are written, actually — so that you can, without having much knowledge, run a study group. So, don't be intimidated. Just go ahead and get your friends together and start one yourself.

Joette: Well, what I love about the study groups is that it's a great opportunity to bring in friends, relatives, neighbors who are not sold on homeopathy — maybe even our skeptics. Instead of your being the one to explain and to defend homeopathy, if you bring them into a group and say, “Just join us for maybe one class and see if you like it,” others in the group will automatically bring them around with their explanation of how they have treated their families. Because there's inevitably those who know nothing about homeopathy in these groups and those who know a great deal. It's wonderful to have that combination. It’s a great mix.

Kate: This leads us actually into Number Seven. It's a great way to do Number Seven, which is …

7. Have a study-buddy

Joette: … to have a study-buddy. That study-buddy is invaluable, especially if you're approximately the same knowledge, but one of you has knowledge more in, say, fevers because that's what your family gets. Another one might have more knowledge in skin conditions because that's what her family gets. Surprisingly, every family will get fevers and skin conditions, so you want someone who's knowledgeable in that and you're knowledgeable in your field.

You can meet these study-buddies through your study group. That's exactly how it often happens. But it doesn't have to be. It could be your neighbor. It could be your sister-in-law. It’s a great way to help each other when all else seems to be falling in your household.

Kate: Right. That is one of the benefits of a study group or starting your own study group is finding those people and connecting with them. Okay, moving on to Number Eight.

8. Listen while you work

Joette: Listen while you work. <whistling> I’ve got to do that again. I didn't get it right.

Kate: That sounds like a very sad whistler.

Joette: Listen while you work! <singing>

I can’t believe I’m doing this. Use your car! Listen to the podcast while you're driving in your car, while you're making bread, while you're folding laundry, while you're raking leaves. That's when you learn — listen, listen, listen. Hook up to the podcasts. Hook up to your courses that you've taken from me, if you've started them already. By all means, do two things at once. It's very doable. It’s the way that I studied.

I actually used to take my courses in Toronto. Then when I got home, I would read my notes into a tape recorder … just a little hint as to how long ago that was, based on the technology I'm referring to … then I would play it back when I was cleaning, or cooking, or making beds, or whatever I was doing. It was a great way to remind myself of what I had learned. Because we think we remember, but we don't always do so.

Kate: You actually still, to this day, continue to learn that way. I know you listen to many podcasts.

Joette: I love podcasts. Yes, it's a great idea. I listen to them frequently.

9. You know more than you think

Kate: Okay, let's move on to tip Number Nine.

Joette: Well, let me also tell you that you actually know more than you think you do. What I mean by that is: you don't realize how much you've learned over a period of several months until someone in your group or someone outside of your group asks a question that you learned many months ago, and it's been quite settled in your mind, and you stored it back into the recesses of your thinking. And you don't realize that you do know more than you thought.

Don't be too bold, but on the other hand, have enough guts to be able to say, “I can do this!” Then dig around until you find the answer. Usually, especially if it's an acute or a common chronic, you can find that information on my blog.

Kate: Yes, just insert that condition in the little search box on the top right-hand corner of your homepage. You can search for any mention of that condition in your blogs and podcasts, et cetera. Let's move on to tip Number 10.

10. Start small

Joette: Start small. People think starting small means colds, because they're so common. But colds actually can be pretty difficult to treat. For that situation — for colds — start with something like ColdCalm®. ColdCalm® (C-O-L-D, calm, C-A-L-M). You can read about it on my blog.

It's an excellent medicine as long as it’s a cold, and it's not flu. It's not a sore throat. It’s not bronchitis. It's not a cough. It's a cold. So, it's still up in the head. Maybe it's draining into the throat a little bit.

But start simple. That is a great way to start is with ColdCalm®.

Also, Oscillococcinum is another good one that you can start using. Just read about these on my blog for colds and common sinus infections, et cetera.

But don't consider the fact that you've just started homeopathy, “And I really want to keep my father from taking his blood pressure meds.”

No! That's not what you start!

First of all, we never tell people to stop their drugs when using homeopathy. That's the first important piece of information.

Start small and use these combination medicines to get yourself going with them.

Kate: A great place to start is actually bumps and bruises.

Joette: Yes, you're right, injuries. You're absolutely right. Yes.

Kate: All right, tip Number 11.

11. Use Google

Joette: This leads us to the importance of Googling. You Google the condition — I already said this — you Google my name and the name of the condition. You Google where to purchase the medicines, if you don't find that you're finding them readily in the places that I suggested earlier. But get online and find out what is used for this particular condition.

Now, when you Google something like a name of a condition such as an ear infection, and you go online, generally speaking, other homeopaths will give you the top five medicines.

Instead, I don't do that, generally. I do have some of those in my old blog articles. But in the last many years, I give you the top medicine, the one that is going to affect most often about 80% to 85% of the population instead of forcing you to determine which medicine it is. We can at least start with that top medicine and assume that — given that most people fall within 80% to 85% (that is a high number) — that it's likely the medicine will act.

So, use your keyboard to find out what you need.

Kate: I just want to add something into this tip. Because while this is great and I do it very often when something comes up, if I just want to look up something quickly and I don't want to search through my notes, I Google. But I do want to say, please write these things down, copy-and-paste.

Joette: Put it down in your notes. You can put it in a 3×5 card. I think it's a great method of learning and storing this information.

Kate: Copy them onto your computer, on your hard drive, so that you have it for the future.

Joette: You bet.

Kate: Okay, tip Number 12.

12. Don’t be discouraged

Joette: Number 12: Don't be discouraged. Just because you didn't get the medicine right the first time, don't assume that you're no good at this, or even the second time, or even the third time. I've made many, many mistakes myself. Sometimes, especially if it's for myself, I can't see the forest from the trees. So, I'm going to suggest to you that you keep trying and keep at it.

Follow the rules, though! You can't just throw remedies at someone one after another. You want to stay within a certain number that you’ve chosen. Of course, that's what you learn in these study groups and through experience — that you don't want to flip around and say, “I'll try this one. Then I'll try that one. I'll try this.”

No, no, no. Whatever you decide to choose for this particular condition, stay with it for the prescribed amount of time, and then you'll see a better chance of success.

Kate: But that also means if your symptoms change, then you do need to change the remedy.

Joette: That's right. That's exactly right.

Kate: Because I think some people get that stuck in their mind that, “I can't change the remedy for four doses.” But in the meantime, you might have gone for half-a-day or a day and your symptoms may totally change if it's a cold or flu.

All right. Let's move on to tip Number 13.

13. Buy from reputable pharmacies

Joette: So, tip Number 13 I've already addressed to a certain degree, but I want to make a point of calling your attention to this. Even though you're buying a kit, even though you own single remedy tubes, I want to make sure that you understand that combination remedies made by Hyland’s, Boiron, OHM Pharmacy, Hahnemann Pharmacy, those that I've mentioned already, Washington Homeopathy, those combinations are really valuable. Sometimes, we can't see what we need to do. Let's say it's your seven-year-old son has leg cramps. Just go online and order one of the medicines that are specifically titled “Leg Cramps,” then stay with that until the condition is complete.

Kate: Tip Number 14.

14. Learn the individual medicines contained in combination remedies

Joette: Well, 14 relates to Number 13. That is, if you're going to use a combination medicine named for the condition (instead of the name of the medicine itself, because there are several instead of only one), I can't urge you enough to read the back of the package with the list of ingredients. Know them! If it says that for that leg cramp medicine, there's Belladonna and Cuprum — I don't remember the top ones that they usually include, maybe Zincum metallicum — you want to know that.

The reason you want to know is you want to learn each one of those. If it turns out that it helps your son, then you want to look up each one of those in a materia medica, each of those medicines, so that you know exactly what those medicines are used for. That's how you learn your materia medica.

Kate: Okay, tip Number 15.

15. Know how to administer the medicines

Joette: Number 15 is to know how to administer the medicines. For those of you who have lots of experience, I'm sure you know this already. But for those who don't, this is much different than conventional medicine. Where in conventional medicine, the drug needs to be absorbed in the stomach — generally speaking, unless it's a dermal application — but it needs to be absorbed in the stomach.

In homeopathy, it's generally in the mouth where it's absorbed. So, you want to keep a clean mouth when you administer the medicine. In other words, you don't want someone who's still eating the sandwich to take the medicine because it will take the medicine right down into the stomach. It may still act, but we know that it will act more appropriately if in a clean mouth.

By clean, I don't mean you brush your teeth, just not food in the mouth. You can tuck the medicine between the gums and the teeth for someone who is maybe young or maybe too sick to even think about doing anything other than just laying there. It will be absorbed naturally in the mucosa of the mouth if you do it in this fashion.

Having said that, I've got to tell this story though. My father, many years ago, back in the early 80s, did not believe in homeopathy. He didn't want to take it. So, my mother and I were very interested in it, and I decided we were going to treat him anyway in spite of himself.

He would complain he has terrible indigestion, or he's got a terrible headache, or something like that, and I would put the medicine in his soup. I actually had been known to put it even in his coffee. Then my mother and I would sit back and watch how he was certain that that soup was the best soup he's ever had because it made him so well within about 15 minutes.

We know that the medicine was acting.

Eventually, my father loved homeopathy, and was starting to learn how to use it himself — administer it to himself and to my mother as well.

But, it doesn't mean it can't work if it's in food. Because certainly, we give it to ruminating animals who are constantly chewing their cud. It’d be almost impossible to keep them from doing that, and it still acts. We put that in their mouths. I believe that's the best way to do it.

Now, some believe that you could put it in a bowl of water or trough of water. I think you could put it in a bowl. We'll go on to talk a little bit more about that in a minute. But a trough, I think, is a little bit too large. I mean, I think that's asking a lot of the medicine.

So, if you must administer to an animal that you can't put into the mouth — because they're aggressive or whatever — then you can put it in their water that you're certain that they'll drink from, and it's just about a couple of cups of water, for example, in the bowl.

Now, for babies, a lot of people ask me, “What do you do for an infant? You don't want them choking on a pill.” A lot of times, what I urge people to do is to mash up the pills with a mortar and pestle, or something like that. And then put water on it, and then draw that up with a little pipette and squirt it into the baby's mouth. That way, they're getting it in liquid form. It's already been broken up and diluted.

Kate: You could just put the pellets in a little… like, two to four ounces of water, though, and let it dissolve.

Joette: Same thing. That's right, if you have that much time. Because sometimes the pellets, if they're in sucrose, will take longer to dissolve. But if you want to move it along faster, and the baby needs it immediately, then you mash it up and put it in water, and it starts to break down.

Kate: That's a great tip. Okay, tip Number 16.

16. Keep important homeopathic medicines in your purse

Joette: Number 16 is to keep important homeopathic medicines in your purse — the ones that you know your family could end up needing when you're not at home. For example, Arnica montana. There's no doubt, that's a great medicine to have on hand for injuries: Arnica montana 200. Aconitum napellus (Aconitum 200), also very good for shocking events, for automobile accidents, et cetera, for bleeding. Arnica is also for bleeding. And Hypericum (Hypericum perforatum), which is excellent for extreme pain if there's an injury.

Those are just three. But you choose according to what you know your family's needs are.

If they're catching colds all the time, then you might add ColdCalm® to that mix. Then you put them in your little make-up bag or a little special pouch that you've got with your homeopathic medicines in it.

It's not a bad idea to label what they're used for. Because if you're the one who needs them — and you can't think straight, or you're not well at that moment — you can at least tell your child or husband to go into your purse and get the one labeled, “injury,” or “head injury,” or “bleeding,” or whatever. And they can pull it out themselves.

Kate: Excellent. I never leave home without homeopathic medicines.

Joette: Yep. Neither do I.

Kate: Okay, tip number 17.

17. Invest in yourself

Joette: Number 17 is to invest in yourself. You know, some of the best investments we can make financially is in someone that we know and trust.

Well, who do you know best? Who do you trust more than yourself? So, invest in yourself. Invest in your learning. Invest by joining study groups. Invest by buying books for yourself. Learn and study. Learn and … I will tell you that if you haven't gotten this far with homeopathy, you need to just push yourself a tiny bit more, and you will be bitten by this bug — because there's nothing more exciting than curing someone that you love of something that up until that time you had no idea how to do.

Kate: Many of your students ask for books or courses for their birthdays, Christmas, and you've mentioned this before in the podcast, but I just started a study group, and many of the people in the study group have either taken your courses, Joette. I believe there are nine courses now. Is that right?

Joette: Yes, that's right.

Kate: Yes. Many of the students that are in these study groups have already taken courses, or they asked for them for Christmas, birthdays …

Joette: Mother's Day.

Kate: Mother's Day, right. Yes. That's a good way to be able to get those courses. Have your husband or some friend gift you with that.

All right. Let's move on to tip Number 18.

18. Do not encourage people to get off of their conventional drugs

Joette: Number 18 is to not encourage people to get off of their drugs — their conventional medicines. I would never urge someone to do that. In my practice, and when I teach, I tell folks that they stay on the medications for these chronic conditions — such as Synthroid or blood pressure meds, et cetera, et cetera — and that you use homeopathy in tandem with them, so that slowly the person can improve with the use of homeopathy. Perhaps with the guidance of this person's doctor or their pharmacist, they can start minimizing the amount of medications that they're taking.

We're not wild about drugs. There is a place for them! However, it could be potentially dangerous. If someone were to hop off of a drug, there are boomerang effects and many ill-effects from doing something like that. Homeopathy can be used in conjunction with many conventional drugs.

Kate: That's very important. Okay, tip Number 19.

19. Use the protocols

Joette: Use the protocols that I teach. Many times, people say, “Well, I've got your protocol, but I was thinking maybe I would go to a higher potency of that Arnica,” for example. Let's say it's Hamamelis 200/Arnica 3, that's a Banerji protocol. They'll say, “Well, I think that the person really needs a higher potency of Arnica 200.”

I say, “Really? So, all of those years that this protocol has been used, and with thousands, tens of thousands of people that they have found clinically have been benefited by this — you feel that perhaps this might not be right for you.”

I can't urge you enough to put that aside and not think that way. It is very important that if I teach a protocol that you stick with the protocol exactly as it's written. When you become an expert — I mean, the kind of expert where you've been in practice for many, many years — and then you find that sometimes that protocol doesn't act fully, then you shift over. But let's not assume that we know how to use a medicine when we have a protocol that's been used for, oftentimes, as long as 150 years.

Kate: Right. I think that applies to what's written on your blogs and people that consult with you, why mess with it? I've had many people ask me, “Well, I know Joette said, use this in a 6 potency. But I think maybe I have it in a 30, and I don't want to order it, so I'm just going to use the 30.”

I say to them, “Why are you doing that? Order the 6C potency. Use the 30 …

Joette: If you can get it. Right, right.

Kate: Yes. But get the correct medicine. Why mess with success?

Joette: Well, homeopathy is a very complex medicine, and human health is a very complex subject. To add another complexity to it that doesn't follow the simple rules, I think, is foolhardy.

Kate: Yes, I agree.

Okay, and we're going to finish big with Number 20.

20. Don’t give up

Joette: Number 20 is big: Don't give up.

Some things are more difficult to treat than others. I've made many, many mistakes. That's how I learn, especially when I treat myself. I said this earlier, there's often a blind spot when you're working on yourself. You can't decide what it is you're even working on. Is this a cold or is this an allergic reaction? It can be very difficult sometimes, but don't give up.

You might need to take a break for a while. That's certainly understandable. A break for a day, a few hours, a week, a month, but then come back to it again, because what you'll glean by starting afresh or staying on path is beyond our wildest dreams.

This is the medicine that we've all been looking for.

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 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.

I am a homeopath with a worldwide practice working with families and individuals via Zoom. I'm also a teacher and most importantly, a mom who raised my now-adult children depending on homeopathy over the last 31 years. I lived decades of my life with food intolerances, allergies, and chemical sensitivities until I was cured with homeopathy, so I understand pain, anxiety, and suffering. You may feel that your issues are more severe or different than anyone else’s, but I have seen it all in my practice and in my work in India. My opinion is that nothing has come close to the reproducible, safe and effective results that my clients, students and I have achieved with homeopathy.

Call today and learn how homeopathy might just be the missing piece in your health strategy.

Joette is not a physician and the relationship between Joette and her clients is not of prescriber and patient, but as educator and client. It is fully the client's choice whether or not to take advantage of the information Joette presents. Homeopathy doesn't "treat" an illness; it addresses the entire person as a matter of wholeness that is an educational process, not a medical one. Joette believes that the advice and diagnosis of a physician is often in order.

We've provided links for your convenience but we do not receive any remuneration nor affiliation in payment from your purchase.

The Author disclaims all liability for any loss or risk, personal or otherwise incurred as a consequence of use of any material in this article. This information is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.