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Below you will find articles about me and the nature of work I perform printed in Dunn County News, The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram and Twin Cities Homeopathy. Dunn County News, Menomonie, WI Wednesday, February 11, 2004 Illness closed some doors, opened others
The principle of "vital force" it recognizes in mankind is gaining momentum. Homeopathy is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the world of modern medicine. For Marybeth Buchele, homeopathy is not just a profession or a remedy, it is a life-altering experience. A certified practitioner of classical homeopathy, Buchele chose her career as much as it chose her. Following the birth of her first child, Kate, in 1980, Buchele became extremely ill, suffering from severe allergies. Many of her symptoms developed gradually. Scents, especially new carpet smell, cigarette smoke and exhaust were overwhelming. Many foods, including dairy, wheat, corn, soy, oranges, tomatoes, beef and chocolate, were intolerable. These combined reactions caused her to become so ill that she would occasionally pass out. “I was basically disabled,” she said. While there was a family predisposition to allergies, no relative had allergies to such a severe degree as she did. Compounding her problems, she had chronic fatigue. Medical testes revealed that at some time in her life she had the Epstein Barr Virus—the antibodies were in her system. But she found little help from the traditional medical community. Buchele said she faded, lost weight and “looked like death warmed over.” The years marched on, and although she never really recovered, in 1984 she gave birth to a second child, Lauren. Illnesses hit her even harder with sensitivities, fatigue, chronic headaches and nausea. “I was very, very tired,” said Buchele, “but I struggled on because I loved them [her children] dearly.” In 1988, she had another child, Matt. And conventional medicine still did not provide her with any acceptable answers. “I learned to live with it [illness],” she said, even though it was taking its toll on her marriage, too. Ultimately the marriage would come to an end. Nevertheless, throughout the ups and downs of life, she managed to persevere, seeking answers for her deteriorating condition. “I went on a lengthy quest to find a way to restore my health,” said Buchele. It was then she found homeopathy and the remedies she attributes to her health and well being. She also found her new profession. Although she had earned a degree in journalism from Iowa State University, which she used for a period of time, free-lancing for the Associated Press, Better Homes and Gardens, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and other publications, she found she enjoyed the interview process, but not the writing. “It’s hard to succeed when you like half your job and not the other,” she said. Time spend at home raising her children and coping with illness had also given her the opportunity to be creative as she pursued her needle work of sewing , tatting and knitting and honed her fiber art skills on the loom. And while those avenues appealed to her professionally, too, her health prevented her from traveling down that path. “If I had not gotten sick, I would be Jenny Elliot,” said Buchele with a chuckle. (An entrepreneur, Jenny Elliot is the owner/operator of Dragon Island Designs, a textile and sewing shop in Menomonie; co-manager of the Menomonie Farmer’s Market; proprietor of On Fire! Ovens catering and a Dunn County News columnist. Buchele said she then grew introspective, asking herself, “What is it I enjoy? What is it I want to do?” She found herself reacting to her circumstances much the way her father, Wesley F. Buchele, who invented the giant round baler and taught farm machinery design at Iowa State, approached life. “Growing up as a Kansas farm boy, he saw a problem and wanted to do something about it,” said Buchele. “Baling is hard, heavy, awful work and he wanted to find a solution. Farmers still come up to him and shake his hand for making their lives easier.” Through homeopathy, Buchele found her own solution for health. By 1998, she started receiving compliments about her overall appearance: “You look different,” was a common statement. Now, thanks to homeopathy, she said most of her sensitivities have disappeared and her energy is back. And excited about what she had learned, she wanted to share homeopathy to help make life easier health-wise for those who suffer with poor health. “I found a solution for health and wanted to pass it on to others,” she said. Buchele graduated from the Northwestern Academy of Homeopathy in Minneapolis. Much like many a pre-med student, her classes included physiology, anatomy, pathology, psychology, microbiology and chemistry. She has advanced her education through the Homeopathic Master Clinician Course of Luminos Schools of Homeopathy, headquartered in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, a two-year program she completed last fall. Next month she will complete a four-year postgraduate program with Dynamis School for Advanced Homeopathic Studies, headquartered in England with classes in Denver. Buchele is registered with The Society of Homeopaths (North America) and is certified in Classical Homeopathy by the Council for Homeopathic Certification. In July, 2000 she was listed as one of Minnesota’s top 100 alternative health care providers by Minnesota Monthly Magazine. Still a contributing author, she is now published in The Impossible Cure: The Promise of Homeopathy, and Simillimum Homeopathic Journal, where she is also a consultant to the board of directors and the publication’s marketing director. Originally from Iowa, Buchele lived in Minnesota for 30 years. Her children now grown, she came to Menomonie a year-and-a-half ago. She maintains a practice in St. Louis Park, Minn. And one in Menomonie at 500 Main Street, Suite 320. Currently accepting new clients, her local office hours are by appointment, by calling (715) 231-6068. Also a teacher, Buchele offers classes on homeopathy, women’s and children’s health (she and her husband have nine children between them—“lots of opportunities to treat children and a good way to learn”), lifestyle changes and natural healing. “I enjoy reaching out and educating people,” said Buchele. “For me, it’s a lot of fun.” A lemons-to-lemonade story, Buchele’s venture is all and more than she had hoped it would be. A blend of old and new, this career allows her to use her interviewing skills while helping people. But now, the face-to-face interviews are longer (initial consultations are generally three hours in length) and during that time, she not only asks questions about background and symptoms, but makes observations, assessing skin color, hair, eyes, energy, posture, gait, and more. She said the condition of nasal mucus and fingernails are also health indicators. “Homeopathy is a safe, scientific system of healing which recognizes the interaction between our bodies and our emotional states in treating illness, rather than focusing just on the disease alone,” said Buchele. “The idea is to know how the body works and to understand the diseases, signs and symptoms.” Symptoms, she said, are your body’s way of talking to you. But if the symptoms are removed but the root or cause of the symptoms is not dealt with, the same problem can recur. Homeopathy seeks out the root cause to eliminate it altogether. For that reason, she works holistically, working with “the whole person,” looking at everything going on in a person’s life that contributes to his or her inner imbalance. Based on her in-depth fact gathering, Buchele then chooses a single remedy best suited to the individual. “Each person responds to life differently,” she said, “therefore we give one remedy at a time.” Remedies, of which there are more than 4,000, are all-natural preparations (in liquid or dry pellet form), often plant-based and made from herbs, minerals or other natural substances, and are officially recognized by the FDA and held to exacting standards of manufacture by that agency. Developed from documented experiments called “provings,” remedies have undergone extensive studies. Homeopathy Today, a monthly publication of the National Center for Homeopathy in Washington, D.C. that is targeted to the homeopathy consumer, states, “Anything that can cause symptoms can be studied in this way.” In homeopathy, many substances have been studied and are now used in non-toxic form. Remedies remain stable, retaining their therapeutic properties and, according to Buchele, with proper storage may have a shelf life of nearly 100 years. Prices vary, but may range from $6 to 20 per bottle. Remedies can be used in conjunction with other therapies such as nutritional and chiropractic. And Buchele said homeopathy has also been successful in treatment of animals. While most remedies are available over-the-counter, self-care is not always considered appropriate, thus individuals find guidance and information through homeopathic practitioners. Buchele said homeopathy successfully addresses inflammatory conditions, autoimmune diseases, chronic gastric and intestinal disorders, stomach or head pain, depression, breathing problems and shortness of breath, difficulty concentrating and staying on task, chronic muscle or joint pain, chronic fatigue, allergic disorders, seasonal “blues,” anxiety, viral syndromes, chronic ear infections, skin diseases, inflammations and eruptions, menopausal symptoms, menstrual complaints and other hormonal imbalances and many more conditions. Additionally, she said frequent recurrence of colds, flu, headaches or other acute illnesses and their tendency to become chronic is aborted. Basically, according to Buchele, conditions amenable to homeopathic treatment include anything that does not involve destroyed tissue. However, even in cases if irreversible tissue damage, homeopathy can ease a person’s symptoms, improving quality of life without the side effects of drugs. While on a remedy, individuals may notice a change in one to four weeks. But, after the initial consultation, Buchele advises that clients who get the best results visit with her about every four to six weeks for at least a period of six months. And, in answer to, “Why did my friend get worse before she got better?” Homeopathy Today states, “Sometimes healing is a bit like cleaning house—it’s a little messier when you’re in the middle of cleaning than before you started. But usually, when that happens you feel better anyway…This response is called an aggravation.” And while on a remedy, most homeopath’s clients continue to see their family physicians. “Homeopathy is not ‘instead of’ but ‘along with,’” said Buchele. Although Buchele’s services are not covered by health insurance, the costs may be eligible for reimbursement through a person’s work-based medical-flex plan. “It is very important for people to know ‘there are other choices,’” said Buchele. “We live in a time when we have choices and options. And that’s a good thing. If you lose your health, you are not stuck there the rest of your life.” Because she has first-hand experience with illness followed by success through homeopathy, Buchele feels she can truly relate to her clients and they to her. “When you have received the gift of getting your health back, what better thing to do than pass it on to people, which is why I’m so passionate about this,” said Buchele. “I truly found my niche in life. Had I not gotten ill, I would never have this focus,” she said, fully aware of the irony. “I’m doing exactly what I want to do and I’m having so much fun helping people get their health back. I want others to learn about this safe, effective, gentle way of working on your health.” Reprinted courtesy of The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, Copyright 2003.
Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, Eau Claire, WI Wednesday, June 25, 2003, page E1 After experiencing results from the remedies herself, a Menomonie homeopath seeks to give patients an By Pamela Powers, Menomonie News Bureau MENOMONIE — Cologne, magic markers, paint or anything with a scent made Marybeth Buchele ill in the early 1980s. More than two dozen of the most common foods caused her to have allergic reactions. “I was told there was nothing conventional medicine could do,” she recalled. “I decided that was not an acceptable answer, and I kept looking.” Exhausted, gaunt and losing weight and having explored other treatments, Buchele traveled to Las Vegas to a homeopath and started taking suggested remedies. To her delight, she had some turnaround in her health. She began reading more about homeopathy (pronounced “ho-mee-opp’-athy”) and giving remedies to her children, friends, her friends’ pets and eventually attended and graduated from Northwestern Academy of Homeopathy in Minneapolis. Buchele has been a practicing classical homeopath for more than four years in St. Louis Park, Minn., and Menomonie. “Homeopathy helped me return to a normal life,” she said. Homeopathy started in the early 1800s when Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician who renounced the practices of the day of bleeding and purging, studied the effect of drugs on the body. His primary theory was that like cures like. He proposed that small amounts of a substance that could induce a set of symptoms in a person could cure a disease with similar symptoms. Very small amounts of a remedy, which are herbs, minerals or other natural substances, are used. A classical homeopath will only suggest one remedy at a time to a client, Buchele said, noting more than 4,000 different remedies exist. Homeopathy treats the whole person, not just symptoms, she noted. “People get knocked sideways by things in life,” she noted. “They get into a rut. Homeopathy helps nudge them out of the rut. Homeopathy is not an instant fix.” Buchele, who moved to Menomonie last year, meets with a client and does a thorough interview of two or more hours to learn about the person. She looks at everything in that person’s life, not just their symptoms. She then decides on a single remedy to best fit that person’s needs. The person tries it, and if quick results aren’t seen, she will suggest another remedy. About half of her clients are children. “We are becoming less and less healthy as a species,’ she said, noting parents may be concerned about side effects of traditional medicines or are searching for another way to help their children. She does not advise people stop any medicines they may be taking. “This is complementary, “ she noted. Becky Glass of Prairie Farm, is a believer in homeopathy and was pleased to see Buchele locate a practice in Menomonie. Her 12-year-old daughter, Amber, saw Buchele in January. The girl had serious problems with nausea and abdominal pains, despite seeking traditional medical care and tests. “We finally arrived at a remedy we are using,” Glass said. “It seems to be turning around. This winter she was bad 90 percent of the time, now she is good 75 percent of the time. I believe the work Marybeth has done is what’s turned my daughter’s health around. We feel we’re on the right track.” Sandi Borgmeyer of Menomonie, who ran a study group in the late 1990s on homeopathy and has used remedies herself, said Buchele has a lot to offer Menomonie in terms of alternative health. “Everybody can benefit, from the very young to the very old,” Borgmeyer said. “Homeopathy looks at the whole person and restores good health.” According to Buchele, some of the conditions that homeopathy has been effective with are: low energy; earaches; difficulty focusing; too frequent colds and flu; menstrual difficulties; blood sugar swings; high or low thyroid function; excessive worry; “the blues”; respiratory/breathing difficulties; sleep problems; over-reactions to foods, chemicals, dust molds and pollens; chronic head or muscle pain; stomach upsets and skin eruptions. The American Medical Association encourages patients to tell their physicians if they are using homeopathic remedies. The Food and Drug Administration recognizes homeopathic remedies, but the AMA points out the efficacy of the remedies have not been proven. Buchele, who earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Iowa State University, said even though some may believe the remedies have a placebo effect, children and pets help prove that this is not true. Homeopathy cannot help conditions that involve destroyed tissue, although it may help ease symptoms. Buchele continues to study homeopathy and is studying at the Dynamis School for Advanced Homeopathic Studies, headquartered in England with classes in Denver, and through Luminos School of Homeopathic Master Clinician Course with Louis Klein. Luminos is headquartered in Vancouver, B.C., but classes are in Minneapolis. She also is a member of the Minnesota Homeopathic Association and the North American Society of Homeopaths and is a practitioner member of the National Center for Homeopathy. Putting Homeopathy to the Test! By Marybeth Buchele “Ok, Marybeth, I’m going to homeopathy to the test,” said one of my patients about her preschool child. They both had just consulted me for constitutional care and I told the mom to call me if either of them came down with a cold, flu, sore throat, etc., so I could suggest a remedy to help them over any illnesses. That morning the child had the beginnings of an earache: fever, pulling on the ear, weepy and clingy. Normally this child is very outgoing, full of energy and self confidence. The symptoms sounded like the child needed the remedy Pulsatilla. I recommended the mom give the child up to three doses (three pellets of the remedy per dose) separated by about one and one-half hours over the afternoon. If the child still had symptoms after the third dose, I asked the mom to call me. Early that evening the mom called to say her child’s ear infection had not progressed into the severe pain and high fever which had been the child's pattern with ear infections in the past. But the child was still lethargic and a bit clingy and obviously not back to her normal self. Since she had responded well to the Pulsatilla, I suggested the mom give the child one more dose of that remedy. Because I was at a meeting, I told her I would call her back later that evening. We talked about 9 p.m. In the background I could hear the child playing noisily and happily. “I can’t believe this!” the mom said. “Less than a half hour after I gave her that last dose, she perked up and now she’s acting completely normal. I can’t believe I didn’t have to take her to urgent care. Homeopathy is great!” —A true story—
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