Podcast 161 — The ‘C’ Remedy for Colic, Cramps and Cysts

Hi, I’m Joette Calabrese, and I welcome you to our health care movement — yours, mine and the countless men and women across the globe who have retaken control of their families’ health with Practical Homeopathy®.

So, for the next few minutes, let’s link our arms as I demystify homeopathy — what was once considered an esoteric paradigm — into an understandable, reproducible, safe and effective health care solution available to all.

This is the medicine you’ve been searching for — my unique brand of homeopathy, PRACTICAL Homeopathy®.

Introduction: The ‘C’ Remedy for Colic, Cramps and Cysts

Kate: (01:00)

Welcome back to the Practical Homeopathy® Podcast with Joette. I’m your co-host, Kate, and I’m looking forward to today’s topic because we’re diving into a homeopathic medicine that I believe every household should keep close at hand. And in just a moment, Joette, our Practical Homeopathy® founder and trusted expert, will explain exactly why.

But before we jump in, I want to welcome all of you. You are in the right place today. If your goal is to become a confident, capable healer in your own family, this podcast is just one of the many resources Joette offers to do just that.

So, let’s get started. Hi, Joette.

Joette:

Hi, Kate. This is so great. This is a very interesting topic today.

Kate:

It is! What sparked our topic of discussion today is a question from one of your Mighties Plus members.

So, some of our listeners might be asking, what is Mighties Plus? And do you want to explain it to them just a bit, Joette?

What is Mighties Plus?

Joette: (01:59)

Mighties Plus is a virtual group. We meet each month, where I’ll get your questions answered.

And there’s much more because there’s also that community. And so, we also have a special lesson in Mighties Plus for each month, so that members can study.

We have those who have been in Mighties Plus for a little while. We have them give us exciting success stories.

And then, we have Remedy Riddles and all kinds of fun things that keep it alive and interesting. So, it’s not just me answering questions.

Kate:

So, one of those things in your Mighties Plus membership site is the flashcards that give keynotes for various homeopathic medicines. And it’s a great way — for whether it’s adults or even children — to learn the keynotes of the medicines.

For those people who may not know what a keynote is, can you explain that, Joette?

What are homeopathic medicine keynotes?

Joette: (02:49)

Well, each of our homeopathic medicines have sweeping, grand ability. They can touch on so many aspects of human suffering and human health. But there are specific aspects of each of them that rise to the top — certain abilities of these medicines — and we call them keynotes. It’s an appropriate name because these are the key aspects of this particular medicine.

So, for those who only know a little bit about Arnica montana, you would understand that — Arnica montana — one of the keynotes, is elements from an injury. So, soft tissue or hard tissue injury would be met with Arnica. That’s a keynote of Arnica montana.

Keynotes of homeopathic Colocynthis

Kate: (3:30)

So, in our last Mighties Plus live, one of the students — which is what sparked this episode, actually —asked you, “Does the homeopathic medicine Colocynthis work for just GI pain (because that’s what you were talking about) related to bullying? Or would it also help with GI pain related to anxiety?”

So, can you take us through how to think about this question, and why it was a good question.

Joette:

Well, I discussed that moment in Mighties Plus. I was describing a case that I had taken years ago about an adolescent boy who had been bullied and had tremendous GI pain. He was practically unable to go to school most days because of this pain, and it was related to having been bullied.

And those are two keynotes that are related to Colocynthis: being bullied or, actually, maybe indignation. And then, following that indignation, the person has stomach pain.

And so, the person wanted to know — that Mighties Plus member wanted to know — so is it only for bullying or would it also help with a stomach pain that’s related to anxiety?

Now, I could actually say, “Sure.”

But what I want to do is get my followers — and especially my students — to learn how to fish. I don’t want to give her the fish. I want her to learn how to fish.

And so, the next step I encouraged her to do — and I’m going to encourage you listeners today to do — that is to find that answer out not by asking me (so that I can give a yes or no answer), but rather to go to our beloved materia medicas.

Now, materia medica is a book that has the homeopathic medicines listed, and each medicine is described, the keynotes are included, and it gives a very good description. Sometimes, depending on which materia medica one chooses to read and then study, it can be three pages long of information on one particular medicine. Or you can go to, for example, my materia medica that simplifies it, makes it much easier for the beginner or for someone who needs kind of a quick reference.

So, I want that person who’s asking can it be from another cause, such as anxiety … Can stomach pain, that is a result of anxiety that fits the picture of the remedy Colocynthis, be associated?

And I say, “Please go to your materia medica and read up on it. Because indeed Colocynthis is ailments, such as stomach pain from anger, from indignation, from excitement. And anxiety could be certainly excitement, and the person can be also irritable.

So, if I explain this to someone — and I am happy to do so — they will not know enough to go digging deeper. They will not know enough to go into a materia medica and start reading up on this medicine and all of its capabilities and how it’s related to many different kinds of emotional issues.

Kate:

Let’s widen our lens just a bit. Joette, for those who may not know much about the remedy Colocynthis, and it’s spelled C-O-L-O-C-Y-N-T-H-I-S.

For those who don’t know much about this, can you give us a broader picture of what conditions or symptoms might be addressed with Colocynthis?

Joette:

Well, it’s for pain, but a certain kind of pain. It’s usually abdominal pain, or it can be ovarian pain — a cyst that’s in the ovary. It can be from dysmenorrhea from menstrual pain.

But we were talking about how this was affecting a young teenage boy with gastrointestinal colic, basically.

So, did we need to know whether it was the pancreas or the gallbladder or the stomach or the intestines? It would be useful, but, boy, I’ll tell you, the whole abdominal area is often difficult to fine-tune and determine exactly where it’s coming from … which organ it’s coming from. Sometimes we can, but many times we can’t.

So, it is specific for a colicky pain, a pain that can be very severe. It forces the person to double over, to bend double, or to put their hands against their abdomen and then double over.

It’s for muscles that are cramping. It’s for neuralgias — even sciatica with cramping or shooting pains.

These are the gastrointestinal or the abdominal that include also (besides sciatica), it’s all in the abdominal region. For women, it can be in the ovaries or the uterus as well.

Colocynthis for Colic

Kate: (08:02)

One of the things I think of with Colocynthis is when a baby has colic. Do we use it for that?

Joette:

It’s a wonderful remedy for colic. And the way that we notice that the colic is related to Colocynthis is that when I say that someone doubles over and presses against their abdomen, babies don’t do that. Maybe children who are a little older, but a baby …

You might find that you can calm the baby down a little bit. It might not resolve the condition, but you can calm the baby down by putting pressure on the belly.

And how would that occur? Well, you might be holding the baby up so that the baby’s facing behind you, and the baby’s belly is pressed against your shoulder. And that calms the baby down.

Or if it’s much younger, if you put the baby on your arm and it hangs the way with arms and legs on one side and arm and leg on the other side — like a lion hanging from a branch of a tree over your arm, draped over — because there’s pressure that’s being put on the abdomen, that that’s somewhat comforting.

That tells us that it’s not curing it, but we’re looking at what are the symptoms and how are they presenting? And what makes it a little better, what makes it a little worse? What makes it much better, much worse?

And that gives us a clue that this baby is more comforted when there is pressure placed against the abdomen.

Now, the first thing we think of would be Colocynthis. But we would not know that unless we went to a materia medica and read up on this medicine because someone would say, “Well, is it worse from anxiety?”

Well, maybe. Perhaps the baby was anxious the night before because … who knows: There were loud noises; there were thunderstorms; or it was frightened by a big dog that came running in the room after it. And ever since then, the baby now has (or the child or even the person) has abdominal pains that are somewhat softened by pressure.

Kate:

So, does that emotional trigger have to be there in order to use Colocynthis?

Joette:

Well, that’s a great question, and I think that was part of the original question to a certain degree.

It doesn’t have to be there. No.

Or it’s there, but you don’t notice it. You may not have realized it.

And I’ll tell a story about that, a case that I took years ago. But before I do that, let me answer the question as frankly as I can. It doesn’t need to be there. But if it is, it really shores up your argument for using this medicine over another medicine, say Arsenicum album or Nux vomica or Ipecac or something like that.

We really want to be able to shore up our argument as best we can. And if there is an emotional component, yeah, we’ll add that in, and it just builds our argument for using this.

**A clinical case study in Colocynthis for abdominal pain**

Joette: (10:39)

The case that I’m referring to that I think would be instrumental in understanding was an adolescent boy whose mother brought him to me, and he had tremendous abdominal pains. So severe with these pains that he was missing a great deal of school.

And when he had these pains — and they weren’t all day, but they were a good many hours, every day — he would double over and press against his abdomen. It wasn’t clear that that’s what he was doing in the very beginning, but it became more and more clear that this is what gave him a little bit of comfort.

So, I used a couple of homeopathic medicines. I used one, one time, and then another one, another time, and just, there was no improvement.

And the mother had put an enormous amount of effort into what she was feeding him. She was convinced that it was something that he was eating that was causing this. So, she rearranged her entire kitchen. She rearranged her ideas on what the family should be eating. She read and read and read, tried to find an answer to this, convinced again that it was something that he was eating.

And indeed, that makes sense.

But what didn’t make sense was that he didn’t have this all his life. Instead, it just started happening about six months before she brought him to me.

So, after the second — I think maybe it was the second or the third appointment — I asked. And I had asked before, but perhaps I didn’t ask properly because I didn’t get the answer that I needed. I asked, “What preceded this? Why is it that this boy was fine until six months ago? What happened seven months ago? Was he given an antibiotic? Did you move? Your marriage is still intact, right, Mom? Was there anything that could have shifted emotionally or physically?” (Maybe she started a new vitamin regimen, and it could be some kind of a synthetic vitamin that could be aggravating his abdomen.)

And so, when I asked this question in that way, asking, giving ideas — potential ideas — anything emotional, anything physical, anything extrinsic, the mom and son exchanged glances.

And then she said to him, “May I tell Joette about this?”

And he said, “Sure.”

So, she relayed a story to me that had occurred about seven, eight months ago of a boy in the school who was bullying this boy. And he felt trapped. He loved school; he wanted to be there, but he felt trapped by not being able to go to school comfortably because he was anxious, and I would say, experienced indignation and embarrassment in front of his friends.

So now we’ve got a couple of different emotions here.

So, when the mom told me this, it finally clicked. I said, “Oh my goodness. This is the medicine: Colocynthis. Because when someone has colic, whether it’s gastrointestinal or even ovarian or uterine, that follows an indignation, anger, irritability, excitement, loss of stature in their little community, in their school community, or anger towards them, and following that, there’s colic in the abdomen, et cetera, this is likely a medicine that we need to strongly consider.

His mother described how he bends over when the pain is severe, and he’s got his arms folded in front of himself and pushing down on them. That’s when it was clear to me that this was the need for the remedy Colocynthis.

And so, could we have used this had they never told us this? I might have come to it. But what really struck me was this story that ever since these events seven months ago, this boy has been suffering.

So, we used Colocynthis. We used it, I believe, in a 30th potency, as I recall. It was so long ago. I believe it was a 30th potency, probably, once or twice a day for a few days. And the mom called me and was so grateful that she was teary. She shared that, “My gosh, after the first dose of Colocynthis 30, he fell asleep,” something that was unusual for him.

And after the second dose, he felt steadier, or maybe, I don’t know, more firm in who he was. She said he started to think a little differently.

By three days of using Colocynthis, the pains were gone. He was back to himself and was excited about going back to school and felt resolve in his ability to be able to handle this bully at school.

It completely shifted this boy’s school experience, how he ate. The mother could relax and not have to worry about all the foods that he was eating, how perfect she had to be, how perfect it had to be when they went out to dinner, et cetera.

It relieved not just him, but the whole family, because it is a ricocheting event. When one cog in the wheel is off, the entire family is. It relieved especially him and secondarily his mother. Beautiful medicine, this Colocynthis.

**Can Colocynthis also be used for GI pain related to anxiety?**

Kate: (15:29)

Yes.

Now, I think I should ask you that question again, which was asked by your Mighties Plus member. Does Colocynthis work for just GI pain related to bullying, as in your story, or would it also help with GI pain related to anxiety?

Joette:

Well, given that Colocynthis is used for bullying, indignation, excitement, being angered, being distraught emotionally, I would say it’s very likely that if the pain is not unlike what I’ve just described, and it follows anxiety, I would say it could be a very good choice. Yeah.

Closing thoughts

Kate: (16:07)

Okay. So, what are our takeaways today, Joette?

Joette:

The takeaway is that before you choose a homeopathic medicine, don’t go by my story alone. Go to your materia medica. Own a couple. If you’re interested in this subject, own a few of them. You can go to my materia medica, which is very simple, quick reference, or there are online materia medica that are free, and I talk about them all the time.

But it behooves you to own the ability to at least have access to one and reach out and read the medicine before asking.

I mean, it’s a great question. I’m glad that she asked this question, but I urge people to ask the question of themselves. When you open up the materia medica, and you look up Colocynthis, you will learn that, indeed, from excitement, ailments from excitement, colic from excitement — whether it’s menstrual colic, whether it’s gastrointestinal colic — colic as a result of excitement.

And so, does anxiety fall into the category of excitement? And I would say, “Of course.”

So, it’s not like if you have strep throat; here’s the medicine, and there you are. You’re done. Bob’s your uncle.

No, my friends. These medicines have broad abilities, sweeping abilities, and you want to know that picture. And once you use this medicine, say, for this person who’s asking about colic following anxiety, you’ll remember this medicine. You’ll never forget it.

I know it’s an unusual word. These homeopathic medicines are all in Latin because it’s the real thing. This is actually made from a plant.

So, I’m sharing my story with you because perhaps you don’t have one yet about how to use Colocynthis. So, this story about the boy with the colic pain is mine to share with you to help you remember this. And as you do this, you’ll have stories. You’ll grow your own collections of homeopathic stories as you treat those around you.

So, I guess the bottom line is it’s all about collecting: collecting knowledge and your collection of assorted stories.

Kate:

Thank you, Joette. This has been so insightful. I appreciate you sharing.

Joette:

My pleasure, Kate.

It’s my honor to share many lessons on this simple method of using homeopathy for free —without affiliates or advertising — here in my podcasts, but also my blog posts and Monday Night Lives.

But it’s critical that you learn how to use these medicines properly. These podcasts should serve as only the beginning of your training. Peruse JoettesLearningCenter.com to find fun study group opportunities and in-depth courses developed by subject.

So, with the proper training, you can join the thousands of students before you in developing the confidence and competence to protect the health of your family and loved ones with my brand of homeopathy, Practical Homeopathy®.

Kate:

You just listened to a podcast from internationally acclaimed homeopath, public speaker and author, the founder of The Academy of Practical Homeopathy®, Joette Calabrese. Joette’s podcasts are available on all your favorite podcast apps.

To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit for your health strategy, visit PracticalHomeopathy.com.

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Podcast 161 — The ‘C’ Remedy for Colic, Cramps and Cysts

Episode Description

In this podcast, we cover:

Additional resources:

Introduction: The ‘C’ Remedy for Colic, Cramps and Cysts

What is Mighties Plus?

What are homeopathic medicine keynotes?

Keynotes of homeopathic Colocynthis

Colocynthis for Colic

A clinical case study in Colocynthis for abdominal pain

Can Colocynthis also be used for GI pain related to anxiety?

Closing thoughts

Never lose your place, on any device

**A clinical case study in Colocynthis for abdominal pain**

**Can Colocynthis also be used for GI pain related to anxiety?**