When Health Becomes A Long Game, Families Change

A quiet shift can change an entire household. We sit down with Kyle—a pastor, dad of three, and former skeptic—to unpack how small, steady steps with homeopathy replaced late-night panic with practical calm. From recurring heartburn that outlasted prescriptions to a child’s croup that once meant ER trips, he shares the specific moments that rebuilt trust: pattern-spotting, clear questions, and a simple kit that travels from car seats to mission fields.

Kyle explains why men often struggle to describe symptoms, how that stalls good care, and what happened when he learned to name location, sensation, and triggers without feeling weak. We dig into Ignatia and stress—why admitting you’re overloaded can feel risky, and how the right support sharpened his thinking during heavy seasons. The conversation moves from kitchen-table classes to packed vans in India, where car sickness remedies turned “magic sugar balls” from a joke into a go-to for a team of young men. Along the way, we explore the bigger mindset shift: stop chasing symptoms, start playing the long game, and watch the family’s fear dial turn down.

This is a field guide for curious partners and protective parents who want fewer frantic nights and more confidence. If you’re weighing the difference between quick fixes and root-cause approaches, or if you’re a husband wondering how to support a spouse diving deep, Kyle offers a clear path: learn enough to be useful, commit to a process, and value outcomes over ego. Enjoy the stories, take the tools, and try a calmer way forward.

If this conversation helped, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more families can find it. Your support helps us keep these practical, hope-filled talks coming.

You may also gain Access to my Fullscript dispensary and save 30% by going to: https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/mcrenshaw

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Transcript

Meet Kyle: Pastor, Dad, Guinea Pig

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Welcome back to Homeopathy at Home with Melissa. Hey Melissa.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Hey Bree. Hey Kyle. Hey there. I am super excited to have Bree's husband on tonight. Kyle, welcome. So glad you could be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Thanks. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Bree, do you want to introduce him?

SPEAKER_00 1:39

And I would love to. Okay. Um, this is for those of you watching, you get to see this handsome face. Um, this is Kyle. We've been married 15 years with three sons, and he is. I actually it's almost comical the um cheerleader he's become to me at church. People are often hearing about homeopathy from him, but it has not always been that way. So um he is really great. Now he treats people well, he brings stuff with him on mission trips, and he has learned a ton, but he was my guinea pig early on, too. So um he's a pastor, which is why he tells people at church and goes on those mission trips. If you guys have listened, you know that. But yeah, he's great. And we wanted to ask him some questions after Paul's. Yeah. We were like, let's keep asking the husbands. This was fun.

First Encounters With Homeopathy

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Yeah. If you didn't hear the interview with my husband, go back and listen to that. I'm gonna ask some very similar questions to Kyle and let Brie expound on those, and and this will be fun. So first of all, Kyle, I would love to know what did you think? If you remember, what what did it feel like? What did you think about um Brie studying or learning homeopathy? Do you remember that first gateway class that she came to or when she first started using it? Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Yeah, it's funny because we were living in Pittsburgh, and I think it was probably your first or second gateway class. And I remember her talking about um some of the things that she had heard. We had friends that had used it before, and so we were just vaguely familiar with it, but she really wanted to invest in learning so that she could treat our family better. And so I still remember even like listening, listening to some of the classes on the opposite side of the dining room table, and like looking around at the screen and not realizing that it was a video call. And I'm like, oh hey, everybody. Uh, but I just remember myself being fascinated with some of the things that she was learning, and I was only getting little bits of it. And so that must have been like 2018, I think.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Yeah, 2019. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you were starting to learn it before Gateway. I had been starting to use it and listening to podcasts. Yeah. You knew. So remember when I used it with Beckham's group? And your heartburn was before that.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

It was before that.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Yeah. Which is why when Melissa said, I'm doing this class, and the first one was free. I literally was like, ask questions later, whatever, I'm gonna sign up, and then I had to buy the curriculum, but was like, I'm doing it because everything else was hundreds or thousands of dollars that I was finding at that time. And there were no memory, there was nothing like that. But I had been using it a little bit already. So do you remember like with your heartburn?

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Yeah, I for some reason I thought that was part of the uh like an initial consult with Melissa or something. I do remember in North Carolina we, you know, we were going a more natural approach. Our firstborn was born in a hospital, but she had thrown out the idea last minute of doing a home birth. Our secondborn in 2017 was a home birth. And so we were already delving into uh, I guess like a non-traditional um world when it comes to health and and medicine and everything. And so uh, but I think I just didn't know a lot about it. I just knew it was not the traditional route.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Um so you're used to my weird ideas. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

She she, I mean, ever since we met, she was always interested in just a healthier way of living. And there was always a layer upon layer upon layer of learning and applying.

Heartburn, Croup, And Early Wins

SPEAKER_00 5:19

And so this is side note. But do you remember before homeopathy, I was doing us I had essential oils. I mean, I did all the things, you know. And I had this four four oil combo that I would do for like a sore throat. Yeah. And it was like frankincense, something else, oregano, and whatever. And I remember every time he'd just smell over there like a cooked chicken.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

That's right, because the oregano oil.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Yeah, it was the night before he has a sore throat because he smells like a chicken.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Saturday night before I'd have to preach. Of course, I'd come down with some sort of sinus infection. And so she would like put all the the all the herbs and you know, it smelled like she's like, you smell like a homeopathy with like a breath of fresh air.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

She had these little sugar pills.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Yeah. I love it. So it sounds like maybe um heartburn was your first kind of ex personal experience with homeopathy.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Yeah, that was, I think it was with uh it for personally it was heartburn. And for just our family, it was probably Beckham's recurring croup. And I had croup a lot as a kid as well. So I wasn't very scared of it, but it's still very scary as a parent and being in the ER in the middle of the night and just knowing that there's got to be a better way to handle this. And so seeing fruit from him in that. But then I had I had struggled with like recurring heartburn for our uh our entire marriage. Ever. Uh, like as soon as we were newlyweds, it was almost like just the stress that brought on, like of real life adulting, you know, um, that my body shows up stress more than my mind will recognize it. Heartburn seemed to be one of those things, but there was always a recipe of certain amounts of foods eaten in a sequence when I was in a stressful season that would flare it up. And I remember taking prescriptions for it, and it would work for like a month. And then the next month I'm back to having it every single night, and I'm losing sleep over it. And so I had nothing left to lose at that point. And so she put me on a regimen, and she said, This is to hopefully make it so that you're not having to take something for a heartburn all the time anymore. And it really, it really did work.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Yeah. Which this guy, he would like drink baking soda. I mean, do all the things, like try to drink a glass of milk, and you tried all the other natural things, even that would help for a bit. So I kind of was like, here, try this. It was not far sixy. Yeah. And I mean, I feel like it's worked immediate immediately. No, it didn't keep it away immediately, but he now you really only have heartburn during intense times of stress, like when stress is high.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

And then I eat terrible and it comes back. But but my body responds pretty well to the dosing that it's like I don't have to take it every day and to keep it away.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Nice. I love it. So as a husband and the leader of your family, how do you what does it feel like? What does it look like to see your family's health change from before homeopathy to now using homeopathy? What does that look like?

SPEAKER_02 8:32

Yeah, I think, well, for us, I don't know what like other families are like, but there are certain things that we kind of specialize in as a couple. And so we really yield to her when it comes to a lot of our health and medical decisions. Um, I'm not in the dark about it because I also think like husbands that might be completely in the dark about stuff, um, like you need to learn to some extent. But we we kind of like trust her instinct because that's a a passion of hers, a strength of hers. And then there are other things that I make primary decisions on. And so she's always kind of initiated when it comes to how what we put in our bodies and what we're not putting in our bodies. But I think for me too, um growing up in a household that was always about just medicine, medicine, medicine. And I think that was also an era, but I think just family of origin type stuff and the choices that were made as far as um, and then even like the family doctors that we would go to. I just remember having a conversation with my older brother, who's two years older than me. When we were in college having a conversation about, I think I want to go to a different doctor than what mom and dad has been taking us to. Um, now that we're like making our own decisions like that, because we're like, I feel like he never listens to me, and all he does is just prescribe antibiotics. And then he says, if these don't work, then come back and talk to me. And as like 18-year-olds, we were like, This is there's gotta be a better way, you know. So we were already disen disenchanted and then and then talking to friends who were like, Oh yeah, my brother has like uh antibiotic damage, he's lost hearing and ear because that you know over-prescribed stuff to him. And it was just enough that made you skeptical of how things have always been done that you want to start looking elsewhere, and then eventually it led to homeopathy.

From Fear To Confidence In Family Health

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Yeah. So do you uh notice well, yeah. What is the difference between now using homeopathy in your family and before? Were you guys going to the doctor a lot, or were you just not really?

SPEAKER_02 10:46

I mean, like it was like early 20s, like if somebody had strep throat or something, we'd go to like urgent care because it was scary. Uh, but I think that's the best way to answer that question is fear.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Yes, I would say that dynamic.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Yeah, like is the fear factor is gone from anything health related. Nothing seemed unconquerable. And even the stuff that people, other people would freak out about our danger level. You know, if we encounter croup with our kids, now albeit we're three kids in, and there's a little bit of like, okay, we've done this before, but then talking to other parents that are like, it's their first kid, their kid has croup, they're terrified because they're like, My kid can't breathe, and it's 3 a.m. And there's no fear in us, and everything that everyone else puts at like a nine out of ten as far as their alarm rate for us, it's like a four.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

And I think that's that's across the board with a lot of things now because we we feel like we've got the tools, uh a wide array of tools to use. And I don't know, just talking to other people that are like they have so much fear around the body and and health and medical stuff, and maybe they've got health anxiety, but like, you know, there's one woman I know, as soon as her husband starts, I mean, as soon as her son starts like puking, she wants to take him to the ER. And I'm like, he's five, he's just like, he's got a stomach bug, let it run his court, but there's so much fear in people.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

I really would say I I would agree with that. The difference in our so we got started pretty young with our kids. So I don't know that we have a huge before and after there was a definite before and after croup. I mean, Beckham was getting croup so frequently that the hospital, the ER literature, was like, just stay home. Yeah, like there's really nothing we can do besides a steroid. And albuterol, she told me, doesn't even act on the bronchioles. Or I mean it acts on the bronchioles, I'm sorry, not on the voice, the croup is in the vocal cords. Yeah. So it doesn't actually even do anything except make the person feel like they feel better. So anyway, I do think the anxiety, the change in the um emotional state of our parenting in our home is very different from others who don't have that the option. Like even with multiple kids. I don't, I just think we there's a lot of um well in a good example.

SPEAKER_02 13:13

She mentioned I'd lead a lot of mission trips to some kind of crazy places. In three months, I'm going to Cuba. And the hurricane that went through has wiped out a lot of the power grid. There's a lot of standing moisture, and so mosquito-borne illnesses are are on the rise more than ever there. And so we've kind of been warned about that ahead of time. And there's some like crazy, crazy like viruses that that make the news that are happening there. But I'm just like talk to her about it. I'm like, but we have homeopathy. Like it really is like I'll just make sure we do you bring remedies with you if you need them.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Yep. We'll take maybe do through your protocol before you go. But really, it doesn't scare me. Like, there's not the fear involved. So I don't know if that I mean, we kind of got really on a tangent about that question.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

But you know, I remember Brie, you and I having a conversation before one of Kyle's mission trips. Like, this is where he's going, this is what he's gonna be exposed to, what should he take? And we can do the same thing before Cuba.

Mission Trips, Mosquitoes, And Preparedness

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Yeah, which I actually do. That reminded me. We talked about that. Maybe we'll make a podcast about it.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

Yeah. Um, it's funny though, because I did go to India with a bunch of young men at the beginning of this year. And so I brought a lot of the stuff, and it was fine, right? But there's still normal stuff, like we're in cars all the time and terrible traffic. They drive differently, the roads are differently, everyone's getting car sick. And so I uh our kids get car sick here, and so I knew what to have, I knew what to bring. And my team of like college and young adult men are like, at first, I'm like, hey, just take this, just let it dissolve on your tongue, you'll feel better. And like the first few days, they're like, Okay, it was I'm like, trust me, there's no sign of it, just take it, you know. And then they they called me like Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, like part way through the trip. Like, but then like five days in, they're like, Hey, do you have any more of those magic sugar balls left? You know, yep. And they're joking about it. They're like, if you they were joking about it, but they were serious about it. They're like, if you rub them on your eyes, you can see the future too. So you know we had we had a good time with it.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

That's great. I love it, I love it. Um, so you know, many men feel like they have they feel pressure to be strong and not complain. And um, but in homeopathy, so when you're not feeling well and Brie has 800 questions for you, yeah. How do you how do you take that? How do you view that? And what what encouragement can you give to men when their wives are learning homeopathy and have questions?

SPEAKER_02 15:53

Yeah, that's a great question. I think men are in a way, they're not great at self-diagnosis, um, whether it's physically or even emotionally, right? And so that's been a practice in us where she's gonna help me, like earlier on in our marriage, identify emotions and help me see that there's a spectrum of things that I could be feeling. And, you know, and so it's been the same with the body, is you don't just have a headache, you have a type of headache, and it might be and like let me ask questions behind that. So I think it's brought a lot of um a lot a lot of those questioning moments have taught me to listen to and recognize my body in a much more in-tune sort of way. That's been such a gift because you're able to then help yourself and help other people help you in the future. And so the the okay, I need to not feel insecure that I'm feeling all these things. This is actually like a language that I'm learning.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

Do you ever get annoyed when you're like in the fluid body aches and I'm like, well, on a one at 10 scale, how bad is it?

SPEAKER_02 16:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

I think practically describe your pain.

Men, Symptoms, And Learning A New Language

SPEAKER_02 17:02

He's like, It's funny because it's been it feels like it's been so long. But I remember the first few times that she was practicing on me, but you're just like, I just feel so terrible, whatever, you know. Um, now I know what's going on, but I do remember the first couple times you practiced on me and you're asking all these questions, and I'm like, seriously, why? You know, she's like, So she explained how it works. This is because you're you're not just giving you something to fix a headache. There's a the reason behind your headache matters, and we need to understand all that.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

And so I mean, this might be one of the questions coming up to me about that. Do you feel like it worked really quickly for you? Or now that I know more about what I'm doing, I do a better job at understanding what's going on, or like giving you the right remedy.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

Yeah, I think I think it's a practice. Like it's gotten better, it's gotten quicker. She's learned me and my body patterns and all of our kids' body patterns, so that helps a whole lot. Um, and then it's funny because this is like just classic mom life. She's gonna take care of everybody else but herself. And so now I get to be the phys and say, Oh, that's coming back. Have you been on your remedy?

SPEAKER_00 18:13

You literally always be like, Did you take anything for that? And I'm like, No.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Like, no, I'm like, I don't want to hear about it.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Oh, but to tell me he can't just give it, he doesn't know.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

I don't know all the terms, so I'll just make up obnoxious fake terms, and she gets the idea, you know. Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

You do that funny. So funny. I love that. Um, I wanted to ask if you if you were to meet a husband whose wife is digging into homeopathy, and he's not quite convinced. So maybe you know, he's like, I don't know, you know, is this this is weird, is this placebo? Is there anything that you would tell a man in that situation?

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Yeah, I think a couple of things. I think one is like we have way too much evidence nowadays that uh traditional American pharmaceutical medicine is is really usually not worth it. Yeah, and and we know like uh there's so many people that have been, I guess, like woken up in a way, or they've had enough bad uh experiences that they're they're willing to look elsewhere. They just don't they just don't know exactly where to look. And so I think you can easily just point out, look, is what you're doing working for you? No. Okay. Well, let's let's look to something that is actually like credible and has tons of research. And one of the things I tell them personally is this is not weird, um, you know, just regular whole when they when they hear holistic medicine, they they lump that in with homeopathy. And I say, this is what it's not, and this is what it is. And I said, even like Western Europe, developed countries that are just as intelligent as we are, they've been in existence longer than we have. I'm like, members of the British royal family take this stuff, it's different than what you think. Just give it a try because you've got nothing else to lose.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Um what about a remedy that you what's a is there a remedy that you're secretly thankful for, even though you don't want to admit that you need it?

SPEAKER_02 20:24

Yeah. Um yeah, there's probably there's probably a couple, honestly. The the first one that comes to my mind is Ignacia.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

I knew you were gonna say that. And I could probably tell you why you wish you didn't need it.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Well, I think you know, I mentioned before that like my body key holds on to stress and my mind copes super well. And so she'll often point out that I'm stressed out when I'm like, I'm fine, I'm happy. And she's like, Really? Because you're going through this, this, this, and this. Any normal person would be stressed out in that situation.

Ignatia, Stress, And Quiet Pride

SPEAKER_00 20:56

I'm like, you've had heartburn four times this week. You were annoyed at the boys at bedtime. And this man is like a the saint of patience. Well, if you could have a person.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

And I think also like she's like, these things are happening in your normal. And then I won't be like anyone be would be stressed out in your life, right? And so it's funny though, because like I would take Ignatia because you're like, okay, maybe some something like this could work for heartburn. It's a physical. Thing, but certainly not like my mental state or emotional state. But I started taking it and her just helping me give context to what is this actually doing, right? Um it's not an antidepressant, it's just to help your brain process what's going on better. And so I would start taking it on a regular basis during a really stressful season and see that I'm just clearer as I sift through everything. And it's funny that I'm kind of like it's the one that you're embarrassed to take because for a guy to admit that something's wrong or that he's not handling something well, um, that's like a shot to the ego in a way. And so there've been times where we're like, I'm like stressed about something or whatever, or I'm responding to something, and I'm like, I don't want to talk about it, I don't want to burden anyone else. I want to, you know, and so like right before we're all leaving the house, I'll like take some ignatia and screw the cap on real quick and put it down. And she comes in, she goes, What are you thinking? What's going on? I'm like, nothing. And I'm like, Ignacia, you want to talk about it? Nope. But usually the ignacia actually makes me able to talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

So good. Yeah. I knew that's funny. That's what I would say too. I knew you were gonna say that. I love it. At least you didn't say sepia.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

I talked about either that or nugs, you don't do I was gonna say nugs vomica because sometimes I'll just overindulge on I I love food and I love to cook and too much rich food. I'll wake up in the middle of the floor. I'll wake up in the middle of the night with like really bad indigestion, like nauseous level. And so I need that. And I'm like, it's because I'm like living too good of a life over here, cooking good food and eating too much food.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

So yeah, awesome. Um okay, I think I have just yeah, two more questions.

unknown 23:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

So, what do you think men misunderstand the most about homeopathy?

What Men Misunderstand About Homeopathy

SPEAKER_02 23:22

Oh man, I think one thing that comes to my mind is, and I think it speaks well to men and just the way that most of us are wired, is that a lot of people with homeopathy, they're gonna try in like five or six different things when you really just need to stick with something, give it time to work, let it, you know, because you're you're trying to find something that's gonna work for you long term. And so helping them understand we're not fixing fixing a symptom, we're uprooting a recurring problem here. And um, I actually like had coffee with a guy from church this morning who's doing like a big gut cleanse uh because he's had a lot of health issues. But I'm asking him, okay, after the gut cleanse, what are we gonna do? Because you know that's just not it. Like you can't just stop eating all these kinds of foods. There's a reason that is.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

I'm like so proud right now. I can't like a graduated student.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

So, anyways, I was I was um in a way like saying there's a men love systems and processes. We thrive on them. And you just mention you're playing the long game to any kind of guy, and he's gonna go, okay, yeah, we can do that. I understand that. And I think that's the approach to health is they they know, men typically know things that are worth it are not quick overnight things. Anything that you want to strive for and have and attain in life is going to take like work and dedication and clarity. And you're playing the long game. And men, when they understand that and they're signing themselves up for like a system and a process to get there, they're like, Oh, yeah, I can do that.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

So maybe they're misunderstanding how it works, what they're looking for.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

Because everything we've taken before we got to homeopathy was just about helping with a symptom. Yeah. And it's like there's a better way you can actually just stop getting heartburn chronically.

unknown 25:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

But this is gonna take some time. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Love it. Last question is how can husbands, how can men support their wives in learning, studying, using homeopathy in the family?

SPEAKER_02 25:35

Yeah, I think one is just uh men, men typically, I mean, I think some men are they're gonna feel insecure about the things that they don't know. And they they don't typically love it in their pride or their arrogance. They don't love it when someone else, especially their wife, might know something more than them in a way that's gonna affect everybody. And so for me, it's more so like she's gifted in this as the wife, as the mother of our children. This is her wiring. And you need to just let her run in this lane and thrive in it because you're gonna see the best come out of her and she's gonna help everyone else. So, like, show her some belief, you know, be her cheerleader, but also don't don't just sit there and like mock it or joke about it or whatever. Like, actually do some of the research yourself and have a bit of an education in it and allow yourself to be her guinea pig sometimes, you know. And that's kind of what we did, you know. Like, I was always like, All right, what's the next thing that we're gonna Well, you would listen to ask me questions.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

I don't know if you did your own research, but he would ask me, Well, like, tell me more about that. Yeah, even if he had no idea the words I'm saying. I felt like he cared about it. Yeah.

How Husbands Can Support And Lead

SPEAKER_02 26:52

And and and I think too, is like find another husband that their family has practiced it because she can tell me something all day about this is something we need to do. Um, and a great example was like the home birth that we did with our second child. She was interested in the first one. I wasn't on board yet. So we just had dinner with some friends that they had done a few, and I just I asked the husband questions, and it was leaving that dinner that I was sold on. This is what we're gonna do for our second child. Yeah. So, likewise with homeopathy, find another guy that has lived it, and you know, if you don't want to take her word for it because she's new at it, listen to a husband that's a few steps ahead.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Ray, do you have anything else? Anything else we should talk about?

SPEAKER_00 27:36

No, I feel like I mean we covered it. It was good. Thank you for coming and doing this with us. This was fun. I love it. Um, we're gonna try to get a couple more husbands from our team on here. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

Yeah, thank you so much, Kyle, for coming and just answering and spending time with us. I really appreciate it. This was really good. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

I had fun. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Thank you.