So I went to an essential oils class last night. I had a feeling it would be by doTerra(which
it was), which I have heard a lot about through the natural sites that I
follow, so I was pretty excited. My
mother and my best friend/cousin, also came with me…Now, Andrea (bff/cousin),
and I have been using essential oils for YEARS.
I love to take baths with a calming essential oil in them, Andrea and I
have both taken them internally from time to time, and we knew, essential oils
are good for us.
Well, what ARE essential oils?! Most plants have some oil SOMEWHERE in the
plant – root, bark, flower, leaf, etc.
If you zest a lemon for a recipe, it is because you want that rich
lemony scent right? Well, that is the
essential oil in the skin! If you crush
a leaf of mint in your fingers and immediately smell that rich scent-yup, that
is the essential oil broken down in the leaf that you’re smelling. It is time consuming to MAKE your own
essential oils, and pretty expensive. To
make a 2oz bottle of quality lemon essential oil, you would need a lot of time,
a lot of lemons, and a lot of money to spend on those lemons….when you could
buy a bottle, much cheaper and easier. Essential
oils are loaded with nutrients and can pass the cell membrane easily. This is why anti-VIRAL essential oils can be
so great! Viruses attack cells, and use
the cells to reproduce. If you have a
virus, an essential oil might be just the thing to help you heal quicker.
Essential oils when diffused in the air, can actually kill
bacteria in the air (much better and safer than Lysol spray! And has health BENEFITS, like calming,
energizing, etc.!)
Essential oils can help detox the body safely and slowly! In fact, one of the cleanses that I like the
most(Sureo Cleanse), has organic essential oils IN the drink to help the
cleansing process. Since they pass the
cell membrane easily, they can get into your cells (even fat cells) and clean
out those toxins to make a more efficient body that is better at cleaning out
the toxins. (a clean liver filters
better than a dirty one….:-)
Essential oils can help lift mood, provide energy, heal skin
problems, induce labor, stop labor, make food tastier, remove warts, help with
arthritis, AND heal cancer even! Yes,
they sound a bit hippie dippie.
Actually, essential oils have been used for thousands of years (the
hippies were just cool enough to bring them back into mainstream America). The antioxidant levels in one dose of
essential oils is equivalent to 28ish cups of a tea made from the same
plant. So if I need the benefits of
peppermint, I would rather have a few drops of the oil, and not have to drink
28 cups of the tea…I still like and will drink the tea…but if I need “medicinal”
doses, I think I’ll stick with the oil.
Now, doTerra has some great blends for weight loss, stomach
problems, sleep and respiratory distress, etc.
And the reason that doTerra are “the best” is because they are
certified, by a third party, to be therapeutic grade.
The graduations of oils are as such:
Synthetic-majority of scented oils on the market, typically used
in scented candles, most soaps/shampoos, sprays, air fresheners, etc. They are not therapeutic, will not have any
benefit, and can harm and are often allergenic in some way. A lavender scented candle will not have the
same benefits of a lavender oil diffuser.
My dad and I are actually
allergic to a lot of synthetic scents (as are many people, Daniel’s grandmother
too). But we have never had a problem
with natural, non-synthetic ones.
Food grade-you can ingest these, but they may not be 100%
pure, even if the label says they are, they probably aren’t toxic, but may not
be super effective because of the concentration and sourcing. Most health food stores sell “food grade”
essential oils. These do have some
value. They are pretty expensive for
what you’re getting, aren’t usually organic, and have only a percentage of the
benefits that therapeutic grade would have.
It is important to get organic essential oils! The way that the oils detox the body, they
detox the soil or hold the pesticides/herbicides. If you aren’t getting organic oils, the
likely hood of having a high toxin load is about 100%. I even heard Rachael Ray say once “if you are
zesting a lemon, always use organic, because the non-organic ones have lots of
sprays and paints on them, and you don’t want that in your food.” (my
summary). And that is totally true…even
our lovely local lemons have sprays, waxes, SHALAQ, and paints all over that beautiful
lemon skin…where the important oil is.
So needless to say, if you are getting an essential oil, quality is
CRUCIAL! The essential oils are so
concentrated, you really don’t want bad things concentrated IN them too….(concentrated
Roundup anyone? *crickets*) mountainroseherbs.com has some great food grade, organic oils! Some may even be therapeutic grade!
Therapeutic grade – this is what is good for medicinal
purposes. This is the grade that will
cure and detox, that will be highly effective with a drop or two in your water,
air diffuser, capsule, etc. It is
strong, powerful, and effective. Essanteorganics.com/lovetolive has a lot of good, organic, therapeutic grade EO's.
Certified therapeutic grade – this is doTerra’s grade
oil. It is certified for quality and purity
by a third party. It is guaranteed to be
pesticide free, filler free, etc. It is
beyond the standard of “organic” and EXTREMELY therapeutic. Like most things in this country, the FDA
overregulates a million things, but under regulates a bunch of others(“natural
food” means nothing…I could sell you 100% natural bread loaded with arsenic, bromate, and
chlorine…and never have a problem, because “natural” means nothing...oh wait...that is normal bread...I digress yet again...)….100% pure
essential oil, most likely won’t be, especially if it is food grade, because
there is no regulation on it. Since
doTerra oils are certified by a third party, they are basically the best oils
you can get.
Why do you need essential oils? Well, you don’t. You can take meds for all the same things as
essential oils. You can spray pretty
scents and use nice body lotions, all without essential oils. However, meds have side effects, are often
expensive, and don’t actually heal you…or rather assist the body in healing
itself. Many lotions have nice scents(which
are chemicals made to smell like the actual scent)…but those scents don’t have
any value…and often those lotions some with carcinogens and chemicals (story
for another day)…and again, sprays, kind of the same deal… Or, you could treat most minor to
intermediate problems with essential oils cheaper than meds, safer than meds,
and with much greater benefit and no negative side effects.
I have some organic lemon essential oil on my kitchen
counter, although I use it on my skin too, so it floats between my medicine
cabinet and my kitchen J. Daniel had a TERRIBLE cough on Wednesday
night and I was up all night with him coughing (I think he slept better than I
did:-P ). I took raw honey, several
drops of the lemon EO, and a squirt of peppermint tincture (I don’t have any
peppermint EO), and mixed it all up, and made a cough “syrup” with it. It tastes way better than cough syrup, has no
negative side effects (some people, like my roommate in college, are actually
allergic to traditional cough syrup), and works like a charm. He took it once in the morning, and coughed
ONCE (not a fit like it had been all night) and I made him take more after
lunch…and then maybe coughed once again later that evening. And I give him a spoon a day now while he’s
healing…but he hasn’t coughed since! Yes,
the honey has healing properties…but so do the lemon and the peppermint. I think the mix of all three is what
helped. Also, catching the cough before
it became a lung problem is what helped it not become a real problem needing a
doctor of some sort.
But the beauty of preventative medicine is just that. Catching problems at home, preventing the
doctor visit(like I did with Daniel-he had other cold symptoms, but vitamin C, Echinacea,
and vit D fixed all of that….I digress….)…OR perhaps fixing the body, getting
off the meds that the doctor originally prescribed. Some people are able to come off of sleep
meds, anti-depressants, steroid creams, acid reflux medicine, laxatives, anti-histamines,
etc. just by using essential oils. A
story was shared in the class how a lady was feeling very faint and not well at
all and the doctor had to take her off her high blood pressure meds….because
the essential oils she was using, were so effective in lowering her blood
pressure naturally, that the meds she was on, were no longer needed, infact,
they were hurting her. And the doctor
admitted that! One lady had terrible
varicose veins that hurt, were very unsightly, etc…her circulation has improved
so much, that she was wearing capris, and showed us her very light veins, that
are still healing, don’t hurt, and aren’t unsightly! Essential oils are powerful!
Hopefully, I sparked your interest in EO’s. I learned a lot
last night, and hope to learn a lot more.
Most likely, my mom and/or I will be signing up with doTerra…because you
get a 25% discount on all your orders when you do J.(so if you’re needing some
essential oils, or would like to try some to see their efficacy, hit me up!) I personally have had a LOT of bad reactions
to medicine, which is one reason why I am so against it. I nearly died from antibiotics (like if I had
finished my day’s worth of my prescription, I would have died within a few
hours of taking it. No, I had no
previous allergy), I almost passed out on pain relievers while walking(and I
took a half dose), and birth control messed my hormones up for years. And yes, I took these things “as directed” to
the T. I TOTALLY believe that Western
medicine is amazing for surgery, emergencies, stem cell research/treatments,
and such like that, but there are many preventable, treatable things that
western medicine really drops the ball on.
Annnnd I digress again…Using essential oils for medicinal purposes is
completely safe, effective, with no downside.
But please, if you have the plague, go to the doctor :-P
Love, health, and knowledge,
Becca H.
