By Jeff Wood, MS, ATC, LAT

Assistant Director of Sports Medicine

University of Tennessee Athletics

I have been employed as a certified athletic trainer for 30 years and am currently the Assistant Director of Sports Medicine at a large university in the South, where I have been employed since 2000. My chief responsibility is the intercollegiate baseball team, and I am currently working in my 25^th year of baseball, with 15 at the collegiate level and 10 in the professional ranks prior to that.

I am also the head athletic trainer for a baseball academy in Europe involving approximately 50 elite young baseball players there.

The problems I see are mainly overuse injuries of the shoulder and elbow, along with low back pain and various muscle strains, such as hamstrings and sprains involving knees, ankles, wrists, etc. Contusions from batted and thrown balls are also a common problem, along with the occasional meniscus tear in the knee and plantar fasciitis.

My interest in homeopathy has gradually evolved over the past 15 years. It actually started out as an interest in manual medicine that began with working with a chiropractor who worked on our athletes at the university, then on to osteopathy and naturopathic medicine. Naturopathy took me to Traditional Chinese Medicine. These fields showed me that the body can heal itself as long as we don’t get in its way.

A baseball trip to China in 2007 exposed me to Chinese herbal medicine. I took a couple of courses locally, which led me to frustration with traditional allopathic Western medicine and pharmaceutical drugs that worked against the body’s own wisdom. My personal and professional desire was to use a form of medicine that was more efficient.

However, traditional herbal medicine was “too much” for me with all the intricacies involved with devising and formulating remedies.

It was then that I found homeopathy.

I knew right away that this is what I had been searching for…a form of healing that worked with the body and not against it to provide real healing and health and worked to strengthen the body’s vital force.

In the fall of 2009 I found JoetteCalabrese.com and found her information outstanding. I ordered my 100-remedy kit in the fall of 2009 and her download “Cure Yourself and Family.”

That document has been my “go to” source when treating illnesses with my own family and friends. With Joette’s advice from her weekly blog postings, podcasts and other resources on her website, I have successfully treated everything from urinary tract infections and diarrhea to colds and flu, croup, pinkeye and various other assorted illnesses and infections.

I am currently taking Joette’s “Skin: The Ugly Truth” course.

My frustration with homeopathy arises from not being able to find the exact remedy for a problem and not getting the results as quickly as I would like, but with Joette’s advice on the Banerji protocols I have seen very good results.

Homeopathy certainly shines when it comes to taking care of athletic injuries, which makes my job easier.

I have had too many great results using Arnica montana to recount them all, but one just happened recently while in Italy.

A Dutch player was hit by a 90 MPH fastball in the outer aspect of his elbow. He fell to the ground in immediate severe pain, and by the time I got to him a few seconds later it was quite swollen and purple, and seam marks from the ball were visible in the indention on his elbow.

Evaluation showed no obvious fracture, but he had very limited strength and range of motion. He certainly had suffered a severe contusion to the soft tissue.

I immediately gave him Arnica Montana 200C and applied ice.

No more ice was ever used, but I did administer two more doses of Arnica 200 over the next hour, and then I gave him a water bottle with Arnica 30C to take a dose every hour or so as needed for pain through the evening with instructions to return in morning for reevaluation and treatment.

He did not show up for treatment the next morning, and I assumed that possibly he did not understand my instructions.

However, when I went to the field for practice later that morning, I found him there taking extra batting practice!

He was swinging (!) without any pain or discomfort, and when I reevaluated him he had full range of motion and strength, no swelling, no bruising, and only one little seam mark was present from the ball.

Everyone who witnessed this was amazed that he was able to even move his elbow, let alone swing a bat.

They thought it was magic. I just smiled.

Homeopathy works again!

What I’ve learned from Joette has changed my approach both professionally and personally. I can’t thank her enough for getting this information out to people like me.