Homeopathic consultant Joette Calabrese, a mother and grandmother, believes that nourishing and taking care of the family is a woman’s calling.
As a proponent of mothers taking charge of healthcare in the home, she said using homeopathic medicine is a great way to achieve that.
“I would argue that we women are the ones who really have a handle on knowing how to treat our families,” Calabrese told The Epoch Times. “Unfortunately—I’m going to be brutally honest—I think it’s been ripped away from us ... and replaced with lack of confidence, and in came an industry, a pharmaceutical industry and a medical industry, that’s just gone too far.”
Calabrese has been treating people with homeopathy since 1996 when she first opened her practice. She said one of the benefits of knowing how to use homeopathy is the health freedom it provides.
Even if you just know a handful of homeopathic remedies, she said, it’s a useful tool that can provide freedom from having to be subjected to synthetic drugs or over-testing.
In the school she runs, The Academy of Practical Homeopathy, she teaches people how to use remedies at home. For mothers getting started, she suggests gaining an understanding of something she calls “kitchen table prescribing”—using homeopathic remedies to treat common ailments for your family.
“Now, I’m not saying that all mothers can cure all conditions in all situations, but I always say if you’ve got a household full of boys, you might want to know what the medicines are ... for boys who fall out of trees or who have skateboard injuries,” she said.
For those situations, she treats them with the remedies arnica montana, hypericum, ledum, or ruta.
According to a 2021 review published in the journal MDPI, when arnica was used for acute and chronic pain, it was comparable to ibuprofen and diclofenac and had fewer adverse effects.
“If you have a household full of girls, you might want to know what the best medicines are for menarche [the first menstrual period],” she said.
In that case, she has used pulsatilla, mag phos, and colocynthis for treatment.
According to a 2021 double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, pulsatilla performed better than a placebo in the treatment of painful menstrual periods.
In a case study published in the International Journal of Ayush, an individual was treated with mag phos and gained relief from menstrual cramps.
For food intolerances such as bloating, she has used lycopodium; and for irritable bowel syndrome, she has used homeopathic nux vomica and tuberculinum.
“Does diet matter? You bet it does. Does it matter if you get outside and get fresh air and walk? You bet it does,” Calabrese said. “But when someone has a headache, or otitis media [ear infection], or conjunctivitis, or eczema, or hives, or irritable bowel syndrome, even in spite of doing all of the right things and living the proper way in life, we need a medicine, and this is the medicine that I have found after years of searching through other types of medicines. ... This is the medicine that I think you will call home.”
What sets it apart from conventional medicine, she said, is that is doesn’t suppress symptoms.
Homeopathic educator and wellness consultant Rachna Kapoor, who is also a medical doctor and a Master of Public Health, told The Epoch Times that throughout her medical training and practice, she rarely saw truly lasting results with conventional medications. In many cases, the approach felt like a temporary fix.
“I discovered homeopathy through my own personal health challenges, and the results were truly transformative. What began as a personal journey quickly became a professional passion, and I haven’t looked back since,” said Kapoor.
Calabrese calls homeopathy God’s medicine, because it is made without synthetics and dyes, it has no side effects, its goal is to uproot the condition, and it’s not a mimic of a product; it’s an actual product.
For example, allium cepa is the scientific name for onions, and the homeopathic remedy known as allium cepa is actually made of onions, she said.
The medicine made from onions is diluted many times and is used to treat the symptoms that being exposed to a raw onion would cause. If someone has a runny nose, whether it’s from a cold, allergies, or an unknown cause, and the upper lip is excoriating, the remedy allium cepa 30 stimulates the body’s natural ability to correct the problem, she said.
“So it’s based on the beautiful thought, the theory, the concept that like cures like,” she said.
For Kapoor, homeopathy has become her primary approach to health and healing.
“In fact, I cleared out my medicine cabinet years ago and have rarely felt the need to rely on conventional medications since,” Kapoor said. “Time and again, homeopathy has provided effective solutions for both acute and chronic health concerns. That said, I believe every system of medicine has its place. My goal is always to use the safest, gentlest, and most effective approach available for the individual and the situation at hand.”
What Kitchen Table Prescribing Might Look Like
Taking on the responsibility for the health of your family can be overwhelming, but the success of treating just one condition can provide the confidence you need, she said.As an example, she recalled one of her first successes with homeopathy. When she lived in Buffalo, New York, every time there was a barometric pressure change she would get a searing headache that rendered her useless. Then she took a homeopathy course and learned about a remedy called kali bichromicum 30 that specifically helped with that type of pain. She learned how to use it and hasn’t had a debilitating headache since the late 1980s.
Calabrese said this traditional role for women is being forgotten. She laid out a scenario of what it might look like to take care of a family using homeopathy.
She said a husband might come home with a headache after a hard day of work, so his wife would give him some nux vomica and a cup of bone stock that’s been simmering all day.
For a daughter who’s supposed to be doing her homework but is complaining about menstrual pain and is irritable, the mother would use chamomile 200 C.
Then if the baby starts to tug at his earlobe because he might have an ear infection, the mother would go to her homeopathy box and pull out hepar sulph 30.
Or if a neighbor comes over crying because she just lost her dog, the woman could reach for the ignatia 200 and say, “Here, dear friend, take this for a while and it will help relieve some of your suffering.”
A case study published in the International Journal of Science and Research suggests that ignatia offers relief for individuals suffering from emotional distress. The case study authors suggested further research.
“That’s kitchen table prescribing. It’s where many women are most comfortable. We love being domestic,” Calabrese said.
“As the heart of the family, mothers are uniquely positioned to notice when something is off and respond quickly with care and compassion,” Michele Kumangai, a mother and a student of Calbrese’s, told The Epoch Times. “Learning homeopathy has transformed how I care for my family. It has helped us address a wide range of issues successfully.”
Homeopathy has given her family greater independence and peace of mind, she said.
“I’ve treated our rabbit’s injured leg, our chickens for parasites, and our cat after poisoning,” Kumangai said. “For our family, I’ve managed everything from bumps and bruises, colds and flus, to more significant concerns like the side effects of my own cancer treatment and my husband’s plantar fasciitis. Thanks to homeopathy, we haven’t needed to visit a general medical doctor in years.”
The homeopathic pharmacies Calabrese likes are Boiron, Hahnemann in northern California, Washington Homeopathic Products in West Virginia, Newton Labs in Georgia, and Helios in Great Britain, as well as Dr. Reckeweg products from Germany.
Calabrese is a homeopathic practitioner, author, educator, speaker, and podcaster who often posts free information about homeopathy online. She said if you perform an internet search with the name of the ailment or condition along with her name, it can provide some good general results.
For people looking to go further, she has an online course called Gateway to Practical Homeopathy where you learn to treat common conditions. She also has courses for specific conditions, such as “Feminopathy,” which is about issues for women and girls; a course about alternatives to antibiotics; and many others.
Watershed Moment
Calabrese said her first watershed moment with homeopathy was when she was pregnant with her first son. The year was 1987, and she attended a homeopathy lecture offered by a doctor.The doctor wrote on a blackboard a list of childhood diseases that had been treated successfully with homeopathic medicine, and it blew her mind.
She was shocked to learn that for each of the conditions—such as measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, and diphtheria—there’s a homeopathic medicine that has been successfully used for over 200 years.
When her baby boy was about six weeks old, he came down with a fever of 105.5 degrees and refused to nurse. She then remembered a homeopathy book she had purchased and a box of remedies she had. The book recommended sulfur 30 for a high fever, particularly if there’s a strange odor in the breath. So she took out the sulfur 30 and put the little pills into her son’s mouth. Her mother was there praying, and her friend suggested going to the doctor or emergency room.
“I knew if I went back to [the] doctor, my son would be on the train forever. Antibiotics, steroids, more antibiotics, Tylenol. I knew that I couldn’t do that,” Calabrese said.
Within about 40 minutes of taking the remedy, he felt firm in her arms. He started to nurse again, and the fever slipped away with one dose of sulfur 30X.
This incident was a turning point for her.
“It was my first effort, my first event, and it was a resounding success that brought me to all these years now. Thirty-nine years later, I’m still doing it,” she said.
