In this episode of theWhere Parents Talk, host Lianne Castelino speaks with Marcus Fernandez — founder and CEO of the largest homeopathy school in the U.K., bestselling author, longtime educator, and father of two — about natural medicine and family health.
With more than 30 years of experience in the field, Fernandez shares how public perception of homeopathy has evolved, why more parents are exploring natural remedies, and how simple, accessible tools can support children’s well-being. He explains the principles behind homeopathy, common misconceptions, and how natural and conventional medicine can complement one another rather than divide families.
Fernandez offers real-life examples from his work and parenting journey — from soothing colic at 2 a.m. to building resilience during cold and flu season. He also breaks down his top go-to remedies for bumps, fevers, teething, sleep deprivation, and more, emphasizing the importance of education, intuition, and everyday home practices.
Takeaways:
- Understanding the impact of hormonal changes during adolescence is crucial for parents to support their children’s emotional health.
- Fostering open communication about device usage can enhance independence while addressing potential bullying and social media challenges.
- It’s important for parents to educate themselves on consent and relationships to navigate their child’s interactions effectively.
- Homeopathy offers a holistic approach to physical and emotional health, emphasizing the body’s ability to heal itself naturally.
- Practicing discipline through established routines can significantly improve mental health outcomes for tweens and teens.
- As parents, we must be present and observant, as this helps us understand our children’s needs and strengthens our relationship with them.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Homeopathic Education
- Penguin Random House
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You’ll learn the latest on topics like managing bullying, consent, fostering healthy relationships, and the interconnectedness of mental, emotional and physical health.
Transcript
Welcome to the Where Parents Talk podcast. We help grow better parents through science, evidence and the lived experience of other parents.
Learn how to better navigate the mental and physical health of your tween teen or young adult through proven expert advice. Here's your host, Lianne Castelino.
Speaker B:Welcome to Where Parents Talk. My name is Lianne Castelino. Our guest today is the founder and CEO of the largest homeopathy school in the uk.
Marcus Fernandez is the principal of the center for Homeopathic Education in London, England. He's taught in the field for more than 30 years. Marcus is also a best selling author and a father of two and he joins us today from London.
Thank you so much for taking the time.
Speaker C:Thank you, Leon. Thank you for having me.
Speaker B:Not a commonly discussed topic, although increasingly discussed. And I'm looking to you to sort of set the table for our conversation.
Now, over the years you've been leading in this field, how have you seen homeopathy evolve both in practice as well as public perception?
Speaker C:Yeah, it's a really good question.
Yeah, I've been doing a long time, since the beginning of the 90s and when I first got into homeopathy, I didn't know anybody that knew anything about homeopathy. And I would say what I was studying, I was really young, I was like 20. And there's a whole story to that, how I found it.
But yeah, people wasn't really in people's sort of psyche. And actually natural medicine really wasn't.
I mean, especially in my sort of demographic of people, it was always seen as a fringe thing, a hippie thing. If you went to natural medicine and, but I've seen it evolve over this past 30 years.
Whereas now, and I think particularly with the lockdown, the pandemic, that really I saw the biggest shift in 30 years, around that time, 20, 20, when people suddenly were looking for more natural healthcare solution for themselves and their families.
And, and often people get into homeopathy through when they have kids because, you know, when you don't have kids, when you're, you know, single and no children, or, you know, you may be in a relationship with no kids, you know, life's a lot different. People always say this, don't they?
They always say there's life after kids and life before kids and you sort of, don't you have a sort of idea what that means until it happens and you have kids and then you definitely know what it means.
And for a lot of people, they, when they have a child or baby, particularly they got this baby and it's like they just want to, they just want to put natural things into that child.
They don't want to give it drugs or, or anything that could harm it in any way because you know, you, you see a baby and it's, it's perfect, isn't it? It's perfect. So. And I ran a mother and baby clinic for many, many years before I had kids. And it was, yeah, it was always that.
And people would get into these more natural health care solutions because they were, they wanted to go more natural. They wanted, they wanted to, to really. Yeah, not harm their children or harm their babies.
Speaker B:So you talked about COVID as being a driving factor. You talked about kids wanting, or parents wanting to protect their kids. Certainly another driving factor.
Anything else that is driving more families to explore natural remedies and more integrated approaches from your experience?
Speaker C:Yeah, I think people are really turning away without getting too political from the whole big pharma and the whole, the symptom sort of symptom chasing all the time.
And you know, there's been a lot of, as we know there's been a lot of sort of over the years, exposure of the pharmaceutical industry and different things. And I think it's, there's a distrust that that has happened. So I think people are really looking, going just beyond suppressing symptoms.
They want to really sort of get the body into a state of health and well being. And I always use the analogy like the car dashboard, if the oil light flashes, it means there's something wrong in the engine.
But if you just take the bulb out or suppress the symptoms, there's still a problem in the engine. The car is going to break down two or three miles down the road. So what we have to go in the engine, fix the problem, the light goes off by itself.
Now when you say that to people, people get that, they understand it.
And it really is only in the west that we have this concept of suppressing symptoms or separating the mind from the body or ignoring what these symptoms mean because of the signs, the signs of something going on within the body. And if you don't listen to the symptoms when they whisper, the body whispers, you're going to listen to it when it screams.
So I think when you look at other cultures, especially in the east, particularly when they, how they look at health and well being is completely different. And it's not just about symptomation and suppressing it or seeing the body as a, I don't know, a machine. You know, it's not a machine, it's.
It's a phenomenal, phenomenal thing.
Speaker B:I would suspect as well that our, you know, desire to have instant remedies and instant solutions and instant medications, you know, that are prescribed for us also have a role to play.
So for a parent entering this terrain for the first time, let's call it looking into natural medicines and looking into homeopathy, what do they need to know? And if you could differentiate what they need to know from what it is and what homeopathy is not.
Speaker C:Okay, big question. So. I think so I'll take the first part of the question it's looking at. Let's just start with what is homeopathy?
You know, homeopathy is a whole system of medicine. So it looks at you mentally, emotionally as well as physically, but it's also very, very individual.
So for example, how it works is on the law, what's called the law of similars or like cures. Like.
So a good example, you chop an Indian up, your eyes water, your nose runs, where we use onion in a very diluted form for people with hay fever or colds, where the eyes are running and the nose is streaming, sorry, ice streaming, nose running. So whatever can cause something in a large amount, in a small amount, it can cure it. So it's, it's again, coffee is a good example.
You can drink coffee and you come very anxious, very sort of whole nervous system gets wound up and you, your thoughts are running through your mind while we use coffee in its homeopathic form called keffiyeh, for people that have those symptoms that they can't sleep or the phone when they have a lot on the mind, insomnia. So you give them keffiyeh back, which is the diluted form, homeopathic form of coffee, and it balances those symptoms.
So what the remedies are doing is stimulating the body to heal itself. It's like a key to a lock, so it's like a key to an engine.
And a lot of cars are electric now, but when you put the key in the ignition and it starts the engine, this is how the remedies work, that then they are stimulating the body to start healing itself. Now. So, so that's a different model than the allopathic model where you take a drug and it suppresses the symptoms.
Now you talk about things being quick. Yes. Often people will want this quick relief. I've got a headache or I've got a cough, I've got a cold, all this.
And there's different off the shelf things you can take, which now a lot of them being proven Actually a lot of it is, is they don't actually as effective of they're being made out to, to be.
But again we are often, we, we run to that or we, we will often run to the hands of the allopaths because we are fearful and fear is this lack of knowledge. Now if you go back, say I don't know, 50, 60, 70 years and almost like in Canada.
But I know in, in the uk, you know, my grandmother knew what to do if you had a cough, you had a cold, you didn't run straight to the doctors, you went to the doctors if you couldn't sort it out. But there was a lot of stuff we did at home from the kitchen cupboard.
Be it something as simple as lemon and honey for a cough or, or whatever it was, you know, something very simple.
I remember getting a bee sting and when I was younger and my grandmother got some bicarbonate of soda, mix it with a bit of water, put it onto the bee sting and guess what? It stopped hurting. Why? Because it neutralized the sting.
So I think a lot of the time it's this lack of knowledge that people have had which makes them fearful and also the fearful been lack of knowledge of how the body works.
So again going back to the grandmother's wisdom, we knew what to do, there was things that we knew what to do and I think a lot of that has been forgotten. Now what we have is an overwhelming amount of information. So you know, we go to Dr. Google for this and whatever.
So we sort of in the opposite, the opposite place. However, I think the health starts at home. They talk about charity begins at home, health starts at home and I think there's things that we can do.
Now listen, I'm not anti medicine, right? I'm not anti medicine at all. To me it's like a scale. If I'm in a car accident, the first place I want to be is a hospital.
Okay, I'll be taking maybe Arnic if I'm going on the way. So, so, so and it's, you know, you've got to be sensible about these things.
But there's lots you can deal at home before you need to go to the doctors or use the medical services. Coughs, colds, bumps, the bruises, all the things, you know, war, sore throats, hay fever, whatever they may be.
There's plenty of natural remed you can take in order to get your body to stimulate it to heal itself.
Now when you do that, when you, when you take the remedy, what it does, it stimulates the body to heal itself and every time you do that, it gets stronger and stronger, like going to the gym. The more you use the remedies, the more the body works, the stronger it becomes.
So it's, that's what the sort of long term effects that is that you build resilience and if you can do it with your children, if you can do it with your kids from a very early age, then you're building that resilience and that health and well being for the future. I don't know whether I answer your question, Leanne. I went off on a bit of a.
Speaker B:No, it's a terrific answer and I think it's a really important reminder that you shared with respect to health starting at home.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:So, and you know, I know from personal experience as well, old wives tales are things I still rely on. Right. Is what they, they call them.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:But they worked for reason.
So I'm really glad to hear, hear you reference that when we talk about some of the sort of basic things that parents need to know about natural remedies, what would you say they need to have in their toolkit?
Speaker C:Wow, that's a really good question. Again, there's so many, I mean, in my book I've got like the top, my top favorite 10, but you know, I'll give you top three of those.
Number one is Arnica. You have to know about arnica. Arnica montana, arnica. You can get it as a cream, you can get it as a, as a remedy like in pill form.
But arnica is for bumps and bruises. It's the universal remedy for bumps and bruises.
You know, you bang, injure yourself or even at the gym, you pull, pull, you know, you're doing some weights and you put whatever it is or little Johnny falls over in the playground or outside, give him some arnica. It's the number one remedy for trauma, for bumps and bruises. Everybody should carry that in the bags, in their, in the, in the car, everywhere.
And I'm thinking here, particularly for kids, second one would be, I'd say belladonna. Now belladonna is great for fevers. It's you know, kids who get fevers, it can be babies, children who get fevers, very dry, hot, red hot.
We've all been that situation. It's always like two o' clock in the morning and a Belladonnov is great for that.
And there's other remedy like Acolyte, which is good for the first stages of a cold, especially cold from a dry cold wind.
So again, like the uk, like Canada and wherever people are if you're out in a dry, cold wind and you feel yourself coming down with something, you can take the remedy aconite, and it can nip it in the bud. Okay. It can stop it from developing, you know, to something else.
Another great remedy is arsenicum arsenicum album, which is good for diarrhea, vomiting, chamomilla, which is chamomile. But chamomile are the remedy is good for teething, but such an amazing remedy for teething and for colic as well. I remember my little boy.
He's not so little anymore. Now he's 15. But when he was. When he was a few weeks old, again, it was the middle of the night, he was screaming with colic.
And I. I had him in my arms and he was, you know, arching his back and he was screaming. He's in such pain. And you know, as a parent, you do anything to take that pain away.
And I went to my little remedy kits and I'll show you an example of a little kit here. In fact, I'll show you. Now, this is a. This is a remedy kit. We have remedies in.
Went to my little remedy kit and you can see all the remedies are in there.
And I went for the remedy chamomilla, because it's a big remedy for colic, especially when they're screaming, they're in pain, and they're angry, really angry. And I gave him one little remedy, went into it onto his tongue. And as soon as he touched his tongue, I just felt his whole body just go disco.
And I could feel that relaxation going from this screaming wild banshee to this. He closed his eyes.
And even though I've been practicing palmyopoly at that point for about 10 years, I was still blown away by how effective it can be. So I think I'm telling you is not from just the. This is practical experience. I've not only been a practitioner, but also using it on my own children.
And I can give you many, many examples of that. So that's just another good remedy to have. I could go on and on about different remedies you can take, but.
But yeah, I mean, for parents particularly, especially if they've got very young kids, baby is not getting enough sleep. You know, it's like sleep deprivation. And. And you. Is the remedy coculus cocculus. It's made from the Indian cockle. It's called cocculus.
And again, it's for sleep deprivation. I also use it for people that air. Like air air crew who are flying around the world, different time zones.
But for parents that are feeling absolutely exhausted, that they're exhausted from not what, you know, being up at night, different hours, Coculus is such a great, great, great remedy. So I could tell you so many remedies that take. It's all in the book. It's all in the book.
Speaker B:Well, and let's talk about the book because it's called homeopathy at home. And you talk about making natural medicine more usable.
So could you share sort of one small daily ritual or habit that parents can, you know, adopt that can quietly sort of transform their family's well being over time.
Speaker C:It's education, education, education, education.
The reason I wrote that book, when I got approached by Hay House, well now Penguin Random House to write it, they really wanted to get behind homeopathy. They really wanted to get behind it. And for me, I said before about charity begins at home, health begins at home.
And it starts off and normally, and I, you know, it is normally the mother that I found over many, many years and he same with my family. My wife, you know, she sort of see the custodian of, of the, the kids and the health and the remedies.
You've got to start learning about, about these remedies. Okay? There's no, there's no other better way. And the more that you learn it, the more you embody it.
And when you embody it, you know what to do in a situation. But this is why I wrote the book. I didn't write the book. And I say this in the book. Don't just have it on a shelf. This is it.
Want it to be in the kitchen. I want it to be dog eared. I want it to be. You have tea stains on it, you know, on people to be using writing in it.
Because the more you get to use this book. So for example, like here, let's just open a page. Coughs, let's go to colics because colic's a good one for parents as well, especially young babies.
And I've just got here the top five remedies for colic. So I start off by saying what is colic? And those symptoms and the top five remedies that are useful for colic.
Now when you're looking at remedies, there's different remedies because the people have different symptoms or kids can have different symptoms. So I was saying about my son, Cameron Miller.
So with Cameron Miller that they want to be, they want to be carried, but not only do they want to be, you put them down the scream, the place if you, if you carry them, but rocking them quite backwards and forwards quite a lot, that's the thing that soothes them. Okay, so. And often they'll again draw the legs up, which is again a common symptom, isn't it, in colic.
But they may have diarrhea and the diarrhea may look like chopped spinach and eggs.
And so these, these specific characteristic symptoms where another child may be, you know, maybe doing the opposite, you know, it might have the opposite symptoms, might not be pulling the legs up, might want to be arching its back. So in homeopathy, what we're looking for is these characteristic symptoms. So there's just not one remedy for colic.
There could be five different remedies of colic according to your individual symptoms. And then after those five remedies and you'll find which one suits you. It's like a game of snap. You go, oh, that's it.
Yeah, it's got that, that and that. That's what the remedy I need to give.
And then when you see it in action, when you see it working, you don't forget it, you know, and you'll find with children and adults, they'll often will do the same remedy. So if you have colic again, they may do the same remedy again because it's a pattern that they do that, that particular child.
But also in the book, I put other home remedies. So for example, here I've actually, I've seen this in.
Mothers when they're breastfeeding and the child's got terrible colic and I'll be giving them the remedy chamomile, and it really helps, but it keeps coming back and you give it again and it's fine and it keeps coming back. And I asked, I often ask the mother, you know, what you eating? Go back, what they're eating and drinking.
As we know, this can affect the child when you're, especially when you're breastfeeding. And often they've stopped drinking tea and coffee, but they're drinking herbal tea and often they're drinking chamomile tea.
So they're drinking too much chamomile tea and it's going through the breast milk and it's causing upset for, for the baby and putting him in this, in this state. So that's the aim of the book, top five remedies for each condition.
So it starts with everything from anxiety to coughs and colds, bumps and bruises, hay fever, all the way up to warts. And it's Got the top five remedies and then it's got home remedies, you know, that you can also use as well, which within your kitchen cupboard.
Speaker B:That is so interesting how you've broken it down. And also the fact that, and you stated that there's not one remedy that fits different conditions, that you have to see what the characteristics are.
I think that's a really important point. On that note, Marcus, there's often a perceived divide between natural and conventional medicine.
From your experience of now 30 years and counting, how can those two sort of divides actually complement each other? Other. Can they? Yeah, when it, you know, when we're talking about everyday family life.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. To me it's not. Look, there's too much polarization going on in the world at the moment.
You don't have to be, it doesn't have to be sort of like for and against. To me, it's always about choice when it comes to our healthcare.
So sometimes, you know, you'll see many people way go to the doctors for the diagnosis but come for the humming path of the, the treatment because they don't want to take the medication. And I always say it's about having an informed choice. You know, you should always have choice.
What you put in the body and what you put in the body of your children. It's absolutely. That's my, that's my personal feeling and actually professional thing as well that, you know, you've got to.
With every drug there's a side effect and people really got to remember that they're called drugs for a reason. Drugs are drugs, whether they're allopathic drugs, recreational drugs, they are drugs.
They have an effect on the body and they have a dominating effect in the body. So they dominate, they suppress those symptoms. Now in some circumstances you may need to use that, but it's about having a choice.
So as a parent, we need to know that we've got a choice, that I could try this and I'll try it for a while and if it's not working, then I'm going to go seek some other advice.
But as a parent, and I say this to all parents and I really, really, truly believe this, you know your child better than anybody, Better than anybody. You know, when you listen to your intuition, you know, when your child is sick and when your child is really sick.
So I've had a situation with my Jimmy had an appendicitis. It didn't start off that painful. He started off like any other, you know, condition, like an appendicit starts Sort of a bit of pain.
We gave him some remedies, different things, but the pain started to get worse and we give him some other remedies. And then I said to my wife, I think this is an appendicitis. So we went to the. Well, we call it A and E, you call it er and guess what?
It was an appendicitis and it needed to be operated on. So this is why I say it's a scale. But there's many things you can do before that, but you know, with your intuition.
And I didn't necessarily know that just because I'm a homeopath and a practitioner, you know, when your child is, is ill, does that make sense? I think, and I think a lot of the time we've lost that, we've lost that connection. We doubt ourselves. Yes, you should always get an opinion.
But we've lost that and I think as well back to families, you know, not living in these nuclear families where your grandmother was there, all these different people were there who'd been through all these things, had children and you know, they, they would also would help you with that and that decision making. So I think it's that it doesn't need to be a divide. There's plenty of doctors who are also homeopaths.
I, I know them and I know them personally and I also teach. For me as well, it doesn't have to be opposite. I think it's about choice around your health care. It's like antibiotics.
Alexander Fleming said, if you use antibiotics willy nilly, in other words, all the time, for every little thing, you're going to lower the whole health of the nation. And this is why you're getting all this might, you know, this, this sort of antibiotic, antibiotic resistance because of the overuse of antibiotics.
Now I just don't blame the doctors for that. I also blame the patients who are demanding it. But often you don't need antibiotics for a cough or cold if it's not bacterial, if it's viral.
So that's my thing again, it goes back to the choice around healthcare and informed, informed choice.
Speaker B:One of the things that you talk about is winter resilience for a busy parent, what does that actually look like in every day practice, winter resilience?
Speaker C:Well, it's not avoiding getting sick. Look, we all get sick and again the Chinese and Chinese medicine would say having a cough or a cold was a good thing.
It's about the body getting really discharging and you'll find often this is where often I will talk about rhythm as well, is looking at the rhythm of the seasons or the cycles.
So, you know, if you look at the equinoxes, without getting too esoteric, but the equinoxes, which are ancient, ancient rhythms, 21 September, you'll find people get sick around that time. I don't. It's like where everybody is listening from. But in the uk, kids go back to school now.
It's not just about the kids coming back together again, it's also the cycle and it's the equinoxes. So often people will get sick around these equinoxes because it represents the changes of the seasons.
So health is our ability to adapt to our environment. That means if you get chilled, it was a cough, the night's not getting damper. And people can often get sick if they can't, if they're.
If their constitutional health is a little bit weaker. But often it's an opportunity to, to get rid of things ready for the winter.
So you'll see on the 21st of September, around that time, not on the exact date, obviously, the 21st of December, the 21st of March and the 21st of June, you'll see these cycles. So back to your question, because I will go from tangents. It's not about avoiding colds, it's about how you bounce back from them.
That's the most important thing is how you bounce back from them. So that's why by using these more natural remedies that like now, this time of the year, it's winter here now in the uk.
Well, autumn into winter, you know, we get on the, on the elderberry syrup, you know, full of packed vitamin C. Great for the health, great for the lungs. So it's just having this, having these things that we can do at home, which will give us that resilience. But also it's things like, you know, sleep.
I mean, sleep is the biggest thing. Just sleep. Eating, nourishing, eating real food. I had this so many times with people asking me, patients particularly, what should I eat?
I said, we'll start off by eating real food. Well, what does that mean again? If your grandmother could recognize it, it's a real food. Oh, okay. Just these simple things.
But sleep, I think of all the things is the biggest one here. The nights are closing in. So as a family, you know, instead of every.
On the phones, and that's on a whole nother subject on the phones or on the iPad, you know, switch the TV off, just play some games, you know, sort of like be with each other. And I think especially with our kids, you know, we need to be with our kids. We need to be. And that means being present.
Speaker B:It is such an important point because it also will allow you to be more in tune with your child.
Going back to your earlier point about being able to recognize what's happening to them, even if they're not able to articulate it, depending on what their age is or they're not sure what it is, building on what you were talking on that.
Speaker C:Can I just follow up on that point? Yeah, so yeah, and that's where observation skills come in, isn't it?
Well, we obs, like I said, if a child is not, is not verbal yet for what, you know, because of the age, then we're looking at observations, aren't we? We're looking how the child is, how they're holding themselves.
But when we're busy on this thing, which I've got switched off all the time or I remember actually when my son was about 2.
I was on my laptop, I was working for home, this is way before lockdown, I was working on my laptop and he kept coming up and trying to close the lid. And I thought we just sort of being a bit naughty and whatever.
And he, I just sort of had this insight what he was doing was he was saying, dad, put it away. Be with me. Be, be, be with me, be in the present with me. And actually I think that's what children do more than anything.
And my personal, I think such a great gift as a parent is that our children teach us to be in the present.
Because kids, and we've all been there up to a certain age in the present, not dwelling on the past, not worried about the future, just being in that present moment. And I think for all aspects of health and connection to our families and our children, we need to be more present. We need to be more present.
It's a gift.
Speaker B:It is, it is a gift.
And you know the example of the laptop and the child shutting it down, I'm sure lots of parents listening to and watching this interview are going to be able to relate to that because it seems like we've all had that experience at some point in our parenting journey.
Continuing on the winter resilience piece, Marcus, for a minute, what would you suggest a family could do in terms of small shifts in the short term that would help them boost their well being during the winter season? And which one should they prioritize?
Speaker C:Well, it's a really good, again, good thing. I mean, I think the top three get outside, you've got, you know, get outside, get outside as a family. Put the. Put your wellies on, put.
Even if it's cold, put the coat on, get out into the fresh air. You know, again, it's being with each other, but also about light. It's like light is so important, especially in the morning.
It sets a whole circadian rhythm and you're hearing a lot about this now. It's. It's very sort of. It's really being talked a lot about, especially on social media.
But that light first thing in the morning is so important and so crucial because it sets the circadian rhythm of how you're going to sleep that evening. So I think get outside, get the natural sunlight, be out in nature, obviously, is. Is a great thing. Plus the kids love it. Kids love it.
You know, no matter what age, they love it. They love being outside with you. You know, being outside with you. The other thing is, I would say eat rhythmically. You know, I think.
There'S so much snacking goes on, we just need to eat more in. More of a rhythm. I've got my own thing. Why intermittently fast? It suits me. Obviously you can't do that often with kids.
But, but being a rhythm, you know, sit and eat together, that's the other thing as well. Sit and eat together, wholesome food, warm again, a lot. This is common sense, Leanne, but it's. We.
Forget it, you know, Comments, you know, it's common sense, but often not common practice. You know, we need to. We need to, you know, really sort of embody. What, what, what does food mean again? What are we teaching our children?
You look at places like France, I mean, God, they, they have this whole thing, don't they, about. We don't have it in the uk, but this whole thing about taste and, and, and, you know, food and the texture and, you know, it's an art, isn't it?
It's an art. And not just rushing, eating in front of the TV or, Or, you know, it's. There's something there to, to again, which is, I think, very, very wholesome.
And again, I'd say slower evenings. Slower evenings, you know, as the evenings are.
Drawing in, which again, they like this dock here now, quarter to six, just slow everything down, you know, slow everything down. Read, play games, but slow down. And that when we slowed. Eat at least two hours before you're going to go to bed, but no screen time.
You know, we've got to really, really deal with this.
It's such a, an epidemic and we're, you know, Kids model what we do, you know, and again, just to slow those evenings down, even with like, with a warm bath and a lot, a lot of people do that with their kids when they're very little. But you know, it's just really slowing things down into, into sleep. So again, it's common sense, but not always common practice.
Speaker B:We've talked about your school, you've got a book as well, and you've also created an AI assistant to help families with home prescribing.
Can you tell us and take us through what sparked that idea and how you see technology amplifying but not, not necessarily replacing humans in healthcare?
Speaker C:Yeah, good question. It's been a little bit controversial, I have to say, in my community.
I first talked about it last year in a conference in Bali and basically I worked with this company out of San FRANCISCO probably about 18 months ago, because I see what we can't deny. Technology. Technology is here. AI is here. It's been here for long, actually longer than people realize. In your phones and everything, anything.
But we can't, we can't bury our heads. And in my community, particularly in the whole natural health and well being space. We can do that.
What I'm always looking for, just like the book, just like doing courses that we offer, how can I get to people? How can I share this information?
My vision has always been to enhance the health and well being of humankind through the education application of homeopathy. That is my North Star. I've been on that for 30 years and I will continue to be on that.
What I found with web create, what I've actually done is created. It's an AI clone, okay? It's an AI clone called ass markers.
Actually in my book you can scan the QR code, I give it away for free, where people, especially parents again, they can access this AI clone.
And it's based on all my books, it's based on my podcast, it's based on my videos, everything that I've done, it's all in there in a small language model. Doesn't go outside it, no hallucination, it just sticks to that. And it's really for home prescribing.
So you can, you can text, text me WhatsApp me and say, hey, look, you know. Lisa's got a cough, you know, it's really bad since she's came home from school. And I will go back and say, okay, what makes it better?
What makes it worse? Because I'm trying to find out the characteristic symptoms. Remember there's like could be five remedies for that cough.
And I'll ask different backwards and forwards and then I'll come up with the wise to think is the right remedy and how to take it. I don't. We don't do anything chronic.
It's just got to be home prescribing as this thing I've said, like, you know, coughs, colds, things that you find every day at home. But also you can, you can speak to me. So you can phone me, you'll speak to me.
It's a bit weird, the kids think it's really funny, but you can actually speak to me like you're speaking now in my voice. I, I will speak in any language from Chinese to, to Japanese, to Turkey, whatever language you speak.
And you have a backwards and forwards conversation with me. So what I found with people, I've got over a thousand people using this now at the moment, around the world. We're still testing it and see how it is.
But what people love is that they can get my advice 24 7.
So if it is 2 o' clock or 3 o' clock in the morning and they wake up and they may have diarrhea or again, there's a fever or there's a cough or whatever it is, you can ask me, ask Marcus and I'll tell you what to do. Including home remedies from the kitchen cupboard, as well as, as well, whatever's in the book. So people just find it really, really useful.
And they're also finding it useful because they're learning more about homeopathy. So through the questions that I asked them back, they're learning what they need to look out for and what to observe.
So it's been a really great thing. And as you said, this is an enhancement. This is not to replace people, it's enhancing what, what we do.
I cannot talk, I cannot hold, you know, or give advice to thousands of people around the globe simultaneously. It's impossible. Well, what I can do is use my clone. I'm very clear, it is a clone.
It's not because some people think it's me they're talking to, it is a clone just to help them find what they need at that moment. And to me, that's how, that's how we spread homeopathy and we enhance everybody's health and well being.
Speaker B:So much great information shared. Marcus Fernandez, founder and CEO of the center for Homeopathy, Homeopathic Education in the UK and author of Homeopathy at Home.
Really appreciate your time and your insight today. Thank you.
Speaker C:Yeah, thank you how time goes when you're having fun. Thank you.
Speaker B:Thanks.
Speaker A:To learn more about the today's podcast guest and topic, as well as other parenting themes, visit whereparentstalk.com.
