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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: Hello! This is Jendi and I’m here
with Joette from JoetteCalabrese.com. Hello Joette! How are you?
Joette: I’m doing well. Nice to see you
again, Jendi.
Jendi: It is good to see you. These two weeks went a little slower but not too much. I was
looking at your website a little bit and seeing how you really have a passion to help moms.
You even go into nutrition. You really seemed like an advocate for the families. So how
does that connect with homeopathy?
Curing and caring for our family
Joette: Well, it really takes an interest in the subject. The subject is taking care
of your family. Most moms are very interested in that subject, of course. Just like anything
else that’s important in life, it takes inspiration which is what I hope to offer
here, too in addition to homeopathy and perspiration because there is some work that’s involved
in learning this lifestyle.
I know what it’s like to be at home with kids. I was a full time mom and I homeschooled
my children until high school. But let me share that when you’re home with them, of
course it’s one of the most important jobs a woman can ever have. It’s pure joy but
it’s physically demanding. It takes emotional stability and it’s nearly fulltime consuming
except for one little area.
We as humans, we moms, for those who love to learn especially when our kids are babies,
we need and crave intellectual stimulation. I know that I did. If you’re a lifetime
learner, that comes automatically. If you’re homeschooling your children of course, you’re
getting that. You’re learning things that you never caught on to when you were a kid.
You learn all kinds of great, new things. But if you’re not homeschooling your children,
there is that desire.
So ought we take up the study of say Renaissance Art or how about something like 19th century
opera. That’s one of my favorite subjects. I would love to take that up more thoroughly.
But wait! Wait! I’ve got an idea. Why not learn something that not only satisfies the
intellectual appetite but it supports our lifestyle so thoroughly. Why not learn something
that will save our family money? Even more importantly, put us in control of our own
destinies and our family’s. That’s where homeopathy comes in.
It’s brilliant! It’s a medicine at its
best. You learn biology, anatomy, physiology, pathology, botany. It’s like going to medical
school of sorts without all the junk science that that attends the profession because you’re
not learning how to subdue symptoms with drugs. You’re actually learning how to cure your
family. You get a full understanding of it with all of these other sciences that are
relevant to it.
Now, I don’t know if anybody really heard me. You can cure your family, not suppress
symptoms, not watch it diminish only to come back later like pressing down on a water balloon
where it bulges out not too long after. You could actually do this with your family. In
fact, that’s the name of one of my books: Cure Your Family and Self with Homeopathy.
So I find this extraordinarily exciting.
For those who don’t have a grand income, I urge them to read my blogs. They’re free
for goodness’ sakes. Download them. Print them. Learn them. Study them. Use them. They’re
very user-friendly and they’re practical. I believe in practical homeopathy. For those
who want to go the next step, they can get CDs. They can learn that. They can get other
homeopath’s books and other homeopath’s CDs. If someone wants to go further, they
can take courses. I have online courses. Other homeopaths have online courses. Then of course,
there’s tutoring. I did tutoring online. Other homeopaths do this.
So this is not just about me but it is about
the idea of taking up a hobby of sorts that becomes your lifestyle. It defines who you
are because you not only then can treat your family for minor issues and sometimes even
more confounding issues. But then you become the community healer, in your church, in your
extended family, in your neighborhood. People will start flocking to you. It’s amazing
how this happens. Once they recognize that you have knowledge and they have a problem,
they’re going to ask you. They may not follow exactly as you say until you gain more and
more of a reputation. But that reputation is gained by knowing this information.
So I find it and I found it. Now my children
are adults now. But I found it very exciting to learn this because I was protecting, helping.
I was a very integral part of the financial aspect of our lives. We didn’t have health
insurance. So this was my insurance and even if we’d had health insurance, there were
times in our lives when we did. Then there was another time in our lives especially as
our children were growing that I don’t know that I would have gone to a doctor for certain
things. I wanted to be able to do it myself. I took it only as far as I was capable of
taking it. It’s amazing for me. Maybe I lucked out. I think there’s partially luck
but a lot of it has to do with the fact that I took this so seriously so early on that
my children didn’t ever have antibiotics. They didn’t have Tylenol. They didn’t
have those drugs that can cause trouble in the end. So that’s how I advocate for families.
Long answer to a short question.
Jendi: Out of curiosity, do your children still practice homeopathy in their homes now?
A wonderful legacy
Joette: They do. They do. They still don’t have Advil or any of those products in their
homes. In their home, they all live together as a matter of fact. It’s kind of fun that
my three sons are together. They cook from scratch. They make full meals every night
and they actually eat together every night. It’s really very nice. I’m really happy
that it’s worked out that way. I don’t know how long that will last. They each have
to go their own ways eventually but at least at this point, they’ve taken it on, yes.
Jendi: That’s all they knew so it’s
probably almost second nature.
Joette: Right, well I just got off the phone with my oldest son. He was having lunch and
I said, “So what do you do at lunch at work? Do you buy the lunch there?” And I was curious
as to see if lunch means that he’s buying it. Oh no. He says, “My brother and I made
dinner last night and it’s soup.” They used bone stock. He made some soup. He brought
it to work with him that day or today. So it warms my heart to hear that.
Jendi: That is awesome because how many young
guys do you know that will do that? They got old already.
Joette: I know, I know. Well I emphasized
it. When the boys were being raised, I taught them how to make yogurt, keefir, how to grind
the flour and make bread. I taught them the importance of making bone stocks, the importance
of using a lot of good animal fats, butter, lard, tallow, et cetera. So it just became
a part of who they were. Because I’m Italian, I love to cook. I love preparing meals. I
love eating. I love cooking and everything around food. So I think they took that on
as well which is really very satisfying.
Jendi: That will help them with their health the rest of their life.
Joette: Oh, I hope so and I believe so, yes,
yes.
Jendi: So I didn’t know anything about these homeopathic remedies until I talked
to you. So replacing the drugs is new to me but I can honestly say I’ve always been
leery of them. Even growing up, it was always like a last resort. We did chiropractor if
we had headaches, not Tylenol.
Joette: Great! Great!
Jendi: So now I’m still really leery but when they were little and if you call the
doctor, right away they say, “Go get this medicine off the store shelf and use it.”
So right now I have twins, three about twin-aged children. Can homeopathy cover any illness
that they get?
A cure for any illness of all ages
Joette: Yes, yes, it can. It seems counterintuitive to give someone something that not only doesn’t
cure, addressing what you were talking about before. But worse yet is a synthetic, commercial
product that causes side effects. It’s almost as though you’re rubbing salt in the wound.
When someone is sick, that’s when you give them chemicals? It doesn’t even make sense.
It flies in the face of common sense. But unfortunately, we have been told repeatedly
over the past 80 years that this is all there is. I’m here to say it’s not all there
is. In fact, there’s a whole world.
You know how when the first time you go snorkeling or scuba diving, you knew that under that
water there was a luscious world of color and depth and excitement? But it’s not until
you put that mask on and you go down, or you lay on the surface and float on the surface,
and you see it, and you experience it yourself firsthand that you realize the depth and breadth
of what’s under that water on a coral reef for example. That’s what it is to get involved
in homeopathy. You knew that there had to be another way. Intuitively we all know there’s
got to be another way. This stuff, these drugs are problematic at best. So there had to be
another way. Would God make it so difficult for us to be able to take care of our families
that we have to use something that has blue dyes and unpronounceable ingredients? No!
There is another way. So that’s homeopathy. That world is once we put our goggles and
mask on, we’ll see a whole new world.
It doesn’t take long for us to figure out that the drugs are not going to cure. We don’t
kick someone when they’re down. It also was not uncommon for folks to start questions,
just like you did. You wonder is the emperor wearing clothing. After a while you start
seeing that he’s naked. Wait a minute! This has been false all this time. I think I said
earlier in other podcasts, it’s not that I believe that all of modern medicine is unworthy.
But I would say certainly surgery and I think I’ve talked about this before is incredible.
What they’ve done with surgical procedures is downright remarkable.
But when it comes to mothering a child and
taking care of ear infections and otitis media, conjunctivitis, strep throat, bee stings,
injuries that are not terribly serious, the list goes on and on. You have a sickness after
having eaten the wrong foods or a post Halloween stomachache or diarrhea or something. That’s
something every mother can take care of. There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind. Not only do
I know this personally in having raised my children this way but I’ve been teaching
this close to 28 years. I’ve taught it in many arenas and schools and in churches and
educational institutions and colleges. People come back and tell me, “Oh, my gosh! I can’t
believe what this did for my child’s ear infection. That’s the end of the ear infections.
We used to see them every three months. We don’t see them at all anymore and it was
repetitive. So yes, this is medicine. This is the medicine we’ve all been looking for.
It is applicable in just about every situation except for strictly surgical needs.
Jendi: Even things that we think aren’t
really an illness like pimples, some of the cosmetic things homeopathy helps with.
Joette: Yes, because it’s not necessarily
illnesses. It’s also conditions. Think of it that way. Skin problem is often just a
condition. We don’t call it a disease if someone doesn’t have acne vulgaris or rosacea
or something extreme like that, although I just offered a class. I just finished it last
night which has been recorded. We’ll have it up and running at some point soon on that
specifically, on how to treat acne vulgaris and rosacea and eczema and psoriasis and skin
issues. So yes, it covers everything. I can’t think of anything it doesn’t cover other
than as I said requirement for a surgical procedure.
Jendi: Yes and especially if you’re a family
that’s really watching your budget, when you have something like that, you don’t
necessarily go to a dermatologist for it.
Jendi: Because it costs extra time, extra money.
Joette: Oh, how about that time, how about
that time? Can you imagine? I’ve thought about it and I’ve talked to other people
who spend a lot of time in doctors’ offices. Usually it’s the elderly. It’s very sad
to me because it’s a lifestyle that it becomes myopic. All they can think about is the next
doctor appointment. That almost becomes their outing. It’s depressing. I’ve seen it
happen too many times. I’ve seen it in my elderly relatives.
Thankfully my parents are not caught up on
that conveyor belt, partially because my mother was of this ilk as well. My mother was not
unlike your mother. We went to chiropractors who I believe in. By the way, I believe very
strongly in chiropractic. I think everyone should have a good chiropractor. My mother
made our food from scratch. Not that we didn’t have Oreos and potato chips once in a while.
But for the most part, everything was made from scratch because she was at home tending
her children. There was a nice dinner every night, so between that and my mother eschewing
the idea of drugs in the first place.
My grandparents were from Sicily. When they came to this country and I don’t believe
that it’s all that unusual but when they came to this country, they were suspicious
of doctors. They were suspicious that when you went to the hospital, you went there to
die. Of course now it was a different time. It was back in the 1920s, 1930s, et cetera.
But they were very suspicious of their nostrums and they wanted to use their own ways. So
my mother took that up. She’s now in her late 80s. I was raised that way myself even
though we did succumb to drugs. There’s no doubt about it because we didn’t have
these other tools.
But you see homeopathy offers the tool. This gives us what we’ve been lacking as mothers
for all these years, for these last many decades. Because homeopathy was in every educated home.
I say educated because those were the women who took it on. Louisa May Alcott wrote about
it in Little Women. How they used Belladonna for a fever that I think Jo had or maybe her sister.
So all families that were educated, the mothers, the women were educated in learning how to
treat their families with homeopathy. It was just a given throughout the United States
and of course Europe, and India, South America, et cetera.
. Jendi: Now, a lot of the moms are busy working
out of the house, getting the kids places and I noticed you have this CD that you wrote
on your website. Put it in your car and listen to it over and over. Then you can learn and
then you can have this stuff in your cupboard so that you know what to grab and give to
your children.
Treating colds
Joette: Right. It should become second nature after a while and it will. At first it seems
insurmountable but it really is not, particularly if you have a family where your children are
prone to colds. If they get colds too frequently or when they get them, they’re too extreme
or they last too long, the remedy you want to have on hand isCalc carb 200, Calcarea
carbonica, Calc carb is an abbreviation, Calcarea carbonica 200. When it’s used every other
day over a period of months, many and most families find that the colds start diminishing
or they abort altogether. This is not a remedy that we would use for someone who doesn’t
get colds frequently. You don’t use it and say, “Oh well, it’s coming up the cold
season. I think I’ll take this.” No, no, no, no, no, this is specifically for someone
who has a problem with immunity to colds and flus and infections like that. It’s one
of my favorite all time remedies.
It can be used in a 200 potency. That’s Calc carb 200 every other day or if you have
a homeopathy kit and you happen to have it in the 30, that’s a Calc carb 30 then
it can be used once daily. Many times, families use it every single day for a few months and
they watch their children not miss school. They don’t miss piano lessons. They’re
actually robust and back into the game. It’s a wonderful remedy that every family should
own. Sometimes you’ll find it in homeopathy kits. Your kit is a little box with 100 remedies
and my office sells them. If folks are ever interested, you can get them on these kits
online. So you’ll find this remedy readily available. And it is one of my favorites.
Jendi: If you do want to just protect against
colds, do you have a suggestion for that or is it just like vitamin C?
Joette: No, I would say it’s Calc Carb to
protect against colds. Now, if you’re talking about someone who doesn’t get colds very
frequently and you just want to be a little extra cautious then vitamin C. But I would
not take vitamin C. I would eat foods with Vitamin C. I don’t like vitamins. I’ll
be honest with you. They’re usually synthetic.
What you can use is rosehips. I have rosehip plants in my garden. I harvest the rosehips.
They’re little cherry-like sized hips that taste quite good. You can buy them at the
health food store. They’re dehydrated and ground up and then put in little capsules.
They’re loaded with vitamin C naturally. I like the food with the substance rather
than the synthetic version of it because most vitamins are a synthetic version of the real
thing. I like the genuine. I can’t help but consider always looking for those products,
homeopathic remedies as well as food substances that smell real to me, that feel real to me.
That’s what I’m looking for. I don’t want anything tinkered with.
Jendi: If there was only one homeopathic
remedy that every family should have and understand how to use, what should it be?
Remedies worth having all the time
Joette: Yes, good question. Certainly that Calcarea Carbonica 30 or 200 but I’m going to
actually step outside of the box and offer two. One is Nux vomica, N-U-X; second word
is vomica, V-O-M-I-C-A, Nux vomica. It can be used to the 30th potency or 200 potency.
What I love about Nux vomica is that it’s great for overdoing. So too much candy from
Halloween, too much food after thanksgiving, too much alcohol in an adult after New Year’s
Eve, overstressing, becoming overwhelmed by city life or fast paced life.
It’s excellent for husbands because they
have so much responsibility and they often work very, very hard in an intellectual setting.
If it’s not an intellectual setting, it might not be quite as useful. It’s great
for kids when they overstudy, when they’re worried too much about exams and they start
getting stomach or gastrointestinal issues such as constipation or diarrhea or both,
and alternating between both. So I love Nux vomica.
I actually tell a story about Nux vomica because
it’s great for hangovers. When my sons were younger, you may already know this story.
When my sons were younger, they knew homeopathy. I taught it to them as part of their homeschooling
curriculum. Nux vomica was one of them. They quickly learned that Nux vomica is
for hangovers. So when they got to the age where they were interested in drinking alcohol,
I hid all the Nux vomica. I said, “If you’re going to drink because you know that’s
against the rules, if you’re going to drink alcohol especially underage or you’re going
to over drink even of age, you’re going to suffer. You need to suffer. If you don’t
suffer, you’re not going to learn your lesson. I’m not going to give you a little pill
that’s going to take away that groggy, painful head, disoriented stomach. You’re going
to live with it.” Well, I thought that I was successful in this but then one day, I
found in one of my son’s cars a bottle of Nux vomica. He had gone out and bought one. But
I took it. We, mothers have that prerogative.
So Nux vomica, Calcarea Carbonica, and there’s one more. This is the one most people
learned when they first start learning homeopathy. It’s Arnica Montana, A-R-N-I-C-A,Arnica
Montana, like the state of Montana. It’s a fabulous remedy for injuries. Injuries to
the head, I like 200 potency for that. Injuries to soft parts, injuries even before surgery,
after surgery, for broken bones, for ecchymosis which is black and blue, particularly after
surgery and any injuries after. It’s great for sports injuries. So those are my top three.
I’ve got so many more, of course. I could go on all day but we can start with those
three.
Jendi: Now the Nux Vomica, you said it’s for stress and worry. If a family is stressing
about moving or finances or something, how often should you take it?
Joette: The more extreme the condition, the
more frequently you would take it. So if it’s very extreme, someone is vomiting relentlessly
for example then it would be say every hour or two. If it’s not so extreme and they’re
feeling just logy and out of sorts then it might be twice a day. Anywhere in between
would be a consideration.
Jendi: My 10-year-old daughter, when we have something big that’s going to happen, she
tends to stress the day before. I recognized that, know that and just try to calm her down.
But this is something that would help?
Joette: It’s possible that it would. I’m not going to say. It is not specific for that.
It’s more when they overstudy so they’ve overworked their brain. Now their body is
paying for it particularly if it’s a gastrointestinal reaction.
Jendi: What would be your parting advice
for moms and families that we can take to the bank?
Essence of motherhood
Joette: Okay. Well, I believe that knowing
how to cure your family is the epitome of womanhood. It’s the essence of who we are.
It’s what we do best. It comes from us deep on a soul level. When you learn how to do
this, it’s what I would call parental exceptionalism. This is what takes us to the next level of
parenting. This is what puts us, excuse me, but in a class on our own. This makes us the
kind of parent that gives us a legacy, more than just the love, training them up properly,
teaching them what’s important in life. But it also teaches them how to then teach
their children so that we can break this cycle of drug after drug after drug for even minor
or major issues. So those are my parting words.
Jendi: Thank you so much. Thank you for teaching and for being an example of it.
Joette: Oh well, thank you for noticing.
Yes, it’s a pleasure. Thank you.
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
with Joette herself.