Homeopathy At Home with Melissa

#16 Homeopathy FAQs

April 05, 2021 Melissa Crenshaw Season 1 Episode 16
Homeopathy At Home with Melissa
#16 Homeopathy FAQs
Show Notes Transcript

Homeopathy FAQs - Learn the answers to your most commonly asked questions:
1. What homeopathy IS and what it is NOT (vitamins and supplements)
2. Using symptoms as our guide
3. What are remedies made from?
4. Are there any side effects?
5. Can they interfere with my medications?
6. What conditions can homeopathy help with?
7. How do I know when to stick with a remedy and when to move on to another one?
8. How often do I give remedies?
9. Is it safe for my whole family?
10. How do I know when it's time to stop taking a remedy?
11. What if I need more help?

Robin Murphy's Repertory and Materia Medica

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

homeopathy, remedy, dose, question, podcast, classes, people, symptoms, bri, lexapro, gateway, side effects, condition, weaning, medication, notes, materia medica, headache, lead, protocols

SPEAKERS

Bri Hurlburt, Melissa Crenshaw

Melissa Crenshaw  00:00

Let me start today's episode with a baby step. Usually, I talk about a baby step that will lead you into a more natural, healthy lifestyle. Today is that, but it's just slightly different. We all need encouragement. You know by now that my heart is to encourage people. Let me just say that sometimes you start this journey, you decide you're going to get your family healthy, and you learn all of these things. You make all of these changes, even if you're doing them slowly. Then what if your family is not on board or doesn't care enough to want to make a change? Making changes is hard for most people. Making a change usually means I have to give up something that I really love, and do something different, which may not love. In Episode 2, I talked about making sure your heart is in it, and that you're committed. So you did that, you wrote down your why, you made a few changes, and your family totally rejected it and refused to eat the healthy bread or pasta instead of the brand that you've been buying for years. Now what do you do? Love. Love covers it all. Be the example, lovingly and quietly do what you're asking them to do. Don't try to control them. Your role is to teach and to lead. Think about how Jesus taught and led his disciples. He used Scriptures and stories and He walked the walk. My suggestion to you, if your family is not on board, is just to do the things in a quiet, humble, loving spirit. Watch them slowly come over to the other side with you. I hope this has blessed you. I hope you enjoy this episode with Bri today, where we talk about the most frequently asked questions that we get in homeopathy.

 

Bri Hurlburt  02:38

Hey everybody, welcome back to the homeopathy at home with Melissa podcast. This is Bri and I'll be back with Melissa today. We have kind of a different style podcast for you guys today. Melissa will do a little intro on what homeopathy is and how it works, and I'm going to be asking her some frequently asked questions. Questions we often get from classes that we're teaching or other moms using homeopathy. These will range from brand new, or people who've never used homeopathy before, to maybe some deeper questions and give you guys some more info on how to learn more. Want to get started, Melissa?

 

Melissa Crenshaw  03:18

Yeah, let's do it. I'm so glad you're with me again today, Bri. I just want to say I was so blessed by reading the reviews yesterday. I was just sharing with Bri before we got started that just went to Apple podcasts and read the reviews. I was blown away by how people are being blessed by this podcast, which obviously blesses me. I was touched deeply. Thank you so much for taking time to rate and review this podcast. It really blessed me yesterday.  Starting out with, "What is homeopathy?" We talk about this in class and I encourage people to come up with their "elevator speech" so that if someone asked you that, you know what you're going to say. For those of you who truly don't know what homeopathy is... homeopathy is a system of medicine that is fundamentally different from conventional medicine. Conventional medicine is also known as allopathic medicine, or what you would get when you go to your medical doctor. Allopathic medicine tends to heavily focus on pharmaceuticals which merely suppress symptoms and can cause side effects leading to further imbalance. These medicines can cause long term chronic conditions. Homeopathy stimulates the body's own healing mechanisms to correct the underlying imbalance that causes symptoms in the first place. Allopathy is opposite and homeopathy employs "like" medicines based on the law of similars. The law of similars asserts that any substance, which can cause symptoms when given to a healthy person, can help to heal those who are experiencing similar symptoms when given in a very minute amount. Since homeopathy has the prefix "home," it often leads people to believe that it's synonymous with home remedies, food supplements, vitamins, herbs, things like that. In fact, homeopathy does not incorporate any of those modalities. That's the very first thing that I want people to learn and know. Homeopathy is a separate system of medicine that stands on its own.

 

Bri Hurlburt  05:43

I think that's a really good thing to point out because I was one of those people five years ago, when somebody approached me about homeopathy. And I said I was familiar with homeopathy. She was shocked, and now I understand why. I had essential oils, and I knew about all of these herbs and remedies that I can use at home to make myself better when we're sick. Now I understand why she was surprised, because that's my reaction. People don't usually recognize that homeopathy is not holistic medicine even. Something that helps me too when we talk about allopathic medicine versus homeopathy is how Joette talks about the fire alarm. For any of you guys who haven't taken any of Joette's classes or been in any of our gateway classes, she talks about how allopathic medicines turn off the fire alarm, but the fire is still going on. That's a short version of what she says, but it really helps me to understand what homeopathy does. It uproots the actual condition, instead of just turning off the alarms and rooting it deeper and deeper into our bodies.

 

Melissa Crenshaw  07:09

Right, the alarms are symptoms. The symptoms are telling us exactly what we need to do and what's happening in the body. I love how she says that in one of the gateway classes, and we dig deeper into that in those classes. The allopathic medicine just turns it off and then you think you're okay because you have no symptoms.

 

Bri Hurlburt  07:34

Let's start with question one and see if some of these other questions I have are answered. Question 1. What are the remedies made from?

 

Melissa Crenshaw  07:44

Remedies can literally be made from anything. Anything that you can touch, feel, see. Plants, animals, insects, minerals, organs, metals, diseased products. You can make a remedy from anything.

 

Bri Hurlburt  08:05

Are there any side effects to the remedies? 

 

Melissa Crenshaw  08:08

Absolutely not. There are no side effects. Side effects are secondary, typically undesirable effects of a drug or a medical treatment. That's the definition of a side effect. Homeopathy only stimulates the body to do what it was made to do without the side effects.

 

Bri Hurlburt  08:26

That is a big one for people in my life who I recommend homeopathy to. To be able to tell them there are not side effects. So that's a great question. Question 3. Will the remedies interact with any medications?

 

Melissa Crenshaw  08:40

Absolutely not. That's what I love about my practice. I can help people even if they're on lots of, or even just one medication. They can still be helped. They don't have to stop taking their medication. Homeopathy never interferes with allopathic medications, but sometimes allopathic medications can impact the action of the homeopathic medicines. I still would not allow that to stop me. I would still use homeopathy and just let do as much as it can do because it can actually help you to get off of the medications.

 

Bri Hurlburt  09:20

And what do you recommend in that situation? Just weaning off of your current medication with your doctor? Continue to see your doctor and monitor that and maybe intuitively weaning off as you feel better?

 

Melissa Crenshaw  09:36

Yeah, that's right. Anytime you're prescribed a medication, you need to work with the prescriber to come off of it. My story that I told him that in the very first podcast was, I was on Lexapro and I loved it. It made me feel better. Then I found homeopathy and started learning the truth of what Lexapro could do to me long term and that it wasn't uprooting anything and that when I came off of Lexapro, I was going to be back in the same situation. I went and talked to my doctor and said I want to use this homeopathic medicine and not the Lexapro anymore. He said to wean off of it.

 

Bri Hurlburt  10:21

Okay. What other types of health concerns can homeopathy help with?

 

Melissa Crenshaw  10:29

Homeopathy is great for any physical, mental, emotional, behavioral health concern and in emergency and trauma situations, medical care may be required as homeopathy, of course, cannot perform surgery. However, homeopathy can greatly assist in first aid, emergency, and trauma scenarios. You can shorten the severity of the condition. You can dose homeopathic medicines on the way to the hospital and then allow the doctor to take over with whatever needs to happen and then give remedies after to help the person heal faster.

 

Bri Hurlburt  11:15

I think something maybe to share here too, is there are things I think people assume they have to live with forever. Autoimmune diseases, maybe, or even ADHD, depression and anxiety. A lot of times we're told these are hereditary, or this is just something you have to live with forever. Even high blood pressure. There are so many things, people don't even think that there's another solution. That maybe I can live free of this someday. So just to encourage any of you who think, whether it's a gut issue or some kind of mental health issue, just to question. Homeopathy is not a miracle worker, but I do believe it can treat those and you've told me things that you've treated with it. So if you're questioning in your spirit at all if this is something you have to live with or if there's another way, there is! It's at least worth a shot.

 

Melissa Crenshaw  12:13

Yes, absolutely.

 

Bri Hurlburt  12:15

Okay, Question 5. In an acute condition, how do I know when to stay with a remedy and when to try a different one?

 

Melissa Crenshaw  12:23

That is such a great question that we get really often. We always use the four-dose rule in an acute condition where you have a cold, cough, flu, injury, pain that's a new condition. You want to keep good notes. Place a number of severity, on a scale of one to 10, on the condition. So let's say I say that my cough is a five on a scale of one to 10. It's kind of medium. It's not terrible, but worthy of treating. I would take the chosen remedy four times, and I meet the intensity of the condition with the frequency of dosing. On a scale of one to 10, if you're up at a 10, you're going to dose very frequently.

 

Bri Hurlburt  13:18

Which could be what?

 

Melissa Crenshaw  13:20

Every five minutes to an hour. Then if it's down at a two or three or four, then maybe you would dose every three to six hours. You decide,

 

Bri Hurlburt  13:33

Does that change based on the potency? If you're using a 30 c versus a 200? Or does that not matter? You just dose based on the intensity.

 

Melissa Crenshaw  13:44

It can change. We generally dose 30s more often than 200s because the 200s go deeper and they're going to work deeper. After your fourth dose, then you reassess the situation and say what is my pain scale now? Now it's a four, where before it was a five. That's just a tiny little improvement, but it is an improvement. So that means you stick with that remedy and keep going. If there's zero change - you’re still at a five or higher - then you need to move on, change remedies, and do something different.

 

Bri Hurlburt  14:20

Okay, so a few questions. Maybe you have a really bad headache, and you dose four times, every 15 minutes for one hour. You're thinking this is getting significantly better. Two hours later, that headache comes back bad but it did work. You can still dose again every 15 minutes or something for another hour, right? You might dose close together, spaced out, close together again, but if it's working or if it did work, you can do that?

 

Melissa Crenshaw  14:56

That's right. Always go back to the remedy that worked. Always. If it worked, then you got to stick with it. Sometimes people think, Gosh, I'm giving this so often, maybe there's something better. No! Stick with it if it's working.

 

Bri Hurlburt  15:13

That is good to know. It is so hard! I don't know why it's so hard to do that. You can do four doses in one hour or you could do four doses in 24 hours, and I am so impatient. I'll try it twice and be like, No, I'm not waiting 24 hours for this to get better. I'm just gonna try another one. And it doesn't work! So even if you're tempted, do the four-dose rule! There's a reason it's there. I speak from experience!

 

Melissa Crenshaw  15:43

Me too. I have to admit that, and I wasn't gonna admit this to anybody. But here I am on a podcast and I'm gonna do it. Last week, I had a headache and it was a bad one. I didn't follow my own rule and I did not get relief. It's hard. That is to encourage you, that it's hard, even for me. When you're in pain or you're sick, it's hard to think. You need somebody to encourage you to stick with it. Find a good buddy, somebody that you can text or Voxer and just say, I'm really struggling with this headache today, what do you think? Let them encourage you to stick with it for four doses.

 

Bri Hurlburt  16:28

That is really good. I think it can be really hard to also do the four doses when you have seen it work with one dose sometimes. To me, I'm thinking if it's the right remedy, it should work the first time. But that does not always happen, especially with headaches or colds. Those are hard. Maybe one more thing that I could throw in for this question... I have little kids who can't really rate one to 10 for me. So I take other notes, like if he's coughing, how often do I notice his cough? Especially when you have more than one kid or you're busy, you don't recognize the improvement. So I take notes a little differently and think back on symptoms and severity. So if you have little kids and you need to do that or pets, you might have to take a different kind of note than a scale of one to 10.

 

Melissa Crenshaw  17:27

So good. Observation is huge. We have to get good at observation. That's a good point.

 

Bri Hurlburt  17:33

Okay, Question 6. how do I know how often to give a remedy?

 

Melissa Crenshaw  17:39

Meeting the intensity of the condition with the frequency of the dosing is really up to you. How bad is it? Are you bleeding profusely? Then you're going to dose every five to 10 minutes on the way to the hospital. Are you vomiting every 30 minutes? You're going to dose every five to 15 minutes are after every episode. If you have a headache, that's a level four and it's not stopping you from doing your thing, then maybe you would dose every three to six hours. Give it time to work.

 

Bri Hurlburt  18:14

This is safe for anybody in our family, right? Infants to elderly people? In any of these situations, you can use homeopathy?

 

Melissa Crenshaw  18:24

 That's right. Absolutely. 

 

Bri Hurlburt  18:26

Okay, Question 7. How do I choose a remedy when there is no protocol? That's a good question.

 

Melissa Crenshaw  18:33

That's a big one, right? I'm super excited to tell you a couple things. If you've never taken one of my Fearless classes, we use Joette Calabrese's Gateway to Homeopathy I and Gateway to Homeopathy II curriculum. You'll learn a little bit of that in there and practice a little bit. I do also have my proprietary mentorship program coming up. I'm working hard on it. I don't have it ready yet, but we are really going to dig deep into that and we're going to really practice how to use a repertory and a Materia Medica. If you already own a repertory to Materia Medica, that's what you're going to do if you don't have a protocol. You're going to open up your repertory and repertorize the symptoms. If you don't know how to do that, that's something that we can learn in depth in classes. Make a list of the top five to eight remedies that show up, read each of those remedies in the Materia Medica, and then make a decision and stick with it for four doses.

 

Bri Hurlburt  19:40

I had actually not repertorized often until I was really familiar with homeopathy. Maybe for some of you who this is brand new and those words even sound like gibberish to you, my journey was similar. I googled a lot and I would just do whatever I could find on Google. I picked one and I tried it. Then I did the Gateway classes and I started learning more. I would try to come up with what I think I should do based on what I learned, and then I would do those acute consults with you all the time. I would learn and I kind of had you either reiterate what I had come up with, or sometimes do something different. I was able to ask you why, so those acute consults are very helpful if you actually want to learn how to do it yourself.

 

Melissa Crenshaw  20:36

Yeah, you just made me think of two things. A lot of people are afraid to ask me why because they don't want to offend me. You have to remember that my goal is to teach you, and you can't learn if I don't know what you your questions are. Always ask me. The second thing is that I'll make sure to link my favorite repertory and Materia Medica, in the show notes so that you can go and look at those and buy those if you want to.

 

Bri Hurlburt  21:09

Okay, Question 8. How do I know when to stop taking a remedy?

 

Melissa Crenshaw  21:16

Oh, that's a good one, too, that we get a lot, right? You always stop when you're very much better. We have to allow the body to finish the work. The homeopathy is going to stimulate the body, so let the body do its work.

 

Bri Hurlburt  21:33

So, not all the way better, very much better.

 

Melissa Crenshaw  21:35

That's right. But then also, don't get upset if you do get all the way better. A lot of times I'll take one dose and it's gone. That's totally fine, but if you're taking a remedy three or four times every day and then you get very much better, just go ahead and stop and let your body finish. If you get worse again, you can just start the remedy again. Another time to, of course, stop the remedy is when the condition is completely gone. Don't keep taking a remedy after you're better or if you've chosen the wrong remedy. After that fourth dose, if there is zero change, then you're going to stop taking that remedy and take another remedy. Taking the wrong remedy over and over and over again is never a good idea.

 

Bri Hurlburt  22:23

Okay, Question 9. Our last question. What if I need more help?

 

Melissa Crenshaw  22:30

I have lots of free resources. On my website, go to the "Free Resources" tab. You'll find protocols and guides there to help you. Of course, use this podcast. You can go back and look at the previous podcasts and hopefully find something that would help you. I give suggestions in each of those for remedies. All of these podcasts are transcribed into my blog, but I also have other blogs that I have not done podcasts on. Classes are the best way to dig in deep. We've got the Gateway to Homeopathy I classes, which are on my "Learn Homeopathy" tab on my website, the mentorship program that's coming up, and then Quizlet. Quizlet is a free service, and I charge a minimal fee for you to use to study the remedies and the protocols. Even if you don't want to study them, you can buy the Quizlet classes just as a reference. If you have a headache, go and see what protocols I have in my Quizlet class. You can pull the protocols out of Quizlet and put them in your notes. What I have in Quizlet right now is basically my 20 years of notes and experience, and it's just on a few conditions. I'm gonna keep adding Quizlet classes, but you're getting a lot of information for a small fee.

 

Bri Hurlburt  23:59

To clarify, this is stuff that we do not cover in the Gateway I and II classes. We've been talking about some of it, but it's not based off of your notes.

 

Melissa Crenshaw  24:07

That's right, it's all different.

 

Bri Hurlburt  24:10

If I could add a quick thing about the classes... I think we say the word classes sometimes and that can be intimidating to busy moms or busy people. We say "classes" - and they are because you're learning things - but they are a couple of hours once a week. You're not having to like study all week or do a ton of homework. The Gateway I class is only five weeks long. Five Tuesday nights or Thursday nights. Gateway II is only four weeks long, so it's not a lot and they're not expensive. If you are at all interested in learning enough where you feel competent treating your family, it's doable, even if you're busy, and you can always join in later even if you can't schedule out all of the nights in a row. If you miss the second week, come back and join the second week in a future class. I was super thankful that I finally bit the bullet and did it because it wasn't as big of a bullet as I thought. It's really doable.

 

Melissa Crenshaw  25:19

Yeah, so just try to commit to four or five nights, or weeks really. Like you said, it's not a lot of work in between. Just commit to it, and then you have all of this information. Right now, our classes are on Tuesday and Thursday nights, but they change sometimes. Sometimes we do them in the morning, sometimes we do them on different nights. And I try to change it up. Yes, I have to fit my schedule, but I try to help include people. A lot of people are asking me right now for a morning class again because I've done that in the past, so that might come up again.

 

Bri Hurlburt  25:59

Okay, those are all the questions we have. I know that we have more questions that are frequently asked, but that would take two hours! Maybe we'll do another one of these later. If you have more questions and want to learn more, I would really encourage you to check out Melissa's blog. All of this is in the show notes, and on her blog is a transcript of these podcasts, so you can also go back and look at anything we said today. Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoy your week.

 

Melissa Crenshaw  26:31

Yes, thank you, Bri for helping us work through these frequently asked questions. I'm going to start sharing this podcast every time somebody asked me these questions.

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