Essential Oils, Can They Really Help Me?

 

(Written for https://www.youngliving.com/blog/)

What Are Essential Oils?

Can essential oils really help me? Why yes, yes they can!

Have you ever heard of essential oils? Maybe it was from a friend that raves about them or a kooky relative who is all into natural healing. Well, believe it or not, essential oils can help you in many, many ways, from being applied directly to the skin, consumed via pill form, or inhaled with a diffuser by aromatherapy. 

Essential oil’s unique scents react differently with the brain, to promote healing within the body. I’m going to borrow the words of Tony Ferrari, a Ph.D. in chemistry, since they can explain the science behind essential oils much more clearly than I can. “When you smell an essential oil, its constituents bind to receptor sites in the nose, which read the aroma molecules and send signals through the olfactory nerve to the limbic system and amygdala in the brain. There are more than 5,000 chemical compounds that make up commonly used oils, each of which binds in a different way to different receptors, so their effect can vary widely.”

In layman’s terms, the scent of oils triggers our brains to respond in a certain way, to promote healing. Depending on the oil, they can do anything from alleviating stress and anxiety, to relieving PMS symptoms, to healing a cold, to treating minor burns, and helping with general health and well-being. They are one of the many wondrous ways that nature has provided for us to be able to heal ourselves naturally.

How Are Essential Oils Made?

Essential oils are extracted from the plant’s leaves or petals. They are known as “volatile oils,” because the essential oils evaporate quickly as they come in contact with oxygen in the air. The resulting oils capture the plant’s smell or “essence,” or the “essential” portion of the plant. Because it is a concentrated dosage of the plant extracts, instead of just simply the plant like you would find out in nature, it is highly effective and can help heal people. The essential oil can either be a single oil, or a blend of single essential oils, to obtain whatever the desired result is. 

Essential oils are created in a number of ways. One way is through cold-pressed extraction, where the essence of the essential oil is literally pressed from the plant. This method is most common for citrus oils, like lemon, or orange oil, where the peel of the citrus plant is pressed to extract the essential oil, which is filtered from the plant matter or peel. 

Another method of how we can get the essential oil is through water or steam distillation. The act of distillation or steaming the plant’s leaves or petals allows the essential oil that we want to be separated from the water-based compounds of the plant, so that we can have highly concentrated doses of the desired oil. The way that oil is extracted, as well as the differences in temperature and pressure, determine the quality of the essential oil that is collected.

And essential oils from Young Living are at the top of the list, with the highest quality and purest extract of the oils available, that are taken straight from the plant and not mixed with other ingredients to make the oil go further. Young Living’s therapeutic grade essential oils can be up to 100 times more potent than the plant itself. Because of their potency, you can see their effects with just a few small drops of the oil.

How Do I Use Essential Oils?

When using essential oils, because of the highly concentrated doses of the oil extract, you want to be cautious about how you use them and not apply them directly to the skin, drink them straight, or bathe in an entire bath full of essential oils.  Typically, just a few drops of essential oil is strong enough to have the desired effect. Always follow the instructions for the particular oil on how it should be applied. No matter how you use the oil, you will want to store them in a cool, dark place for better storage life. Generally, there are three different methods to use essential oils. 

Internal Usage:

Internal usage is the least used method to use the oils. Depending on the oil, you can either swallow or gargle them or ingest them in pill form. Due to the highly concentrated form of essential oils, ingesting them in high volume can be dangerous for you, since they are much stronger when you are swallowing them directly versus inhaling them through your nose or applying directly to the skin. Always follow the instructions of use for the particular essential oil you are using, and consult your health physician before ingesting or swallowing any essential oil, in pill form or otherwise.

Aromatherapy:

“The smell is strong with this one.” But seriously though, the sense of smell is the strongest of the five senses in the human body. Essential oils are effective because we inhale the fragrant scent, and it goes directly to smell receptors in our brain, which then tells our body how to react. It is how the essential oils can influence our physiological, mental, and emotional states and uplift them. Depending on the oil, they can have calming or energizing effects, or help assist your body in healing from minor injuries or colds. To use essential oils by aromatherapy, you will most often just simply use a diffuser. With a diffuser, you place a few drops of whatever essential oil is wanted, along with some water, for there to be enough liquid to turn into steam and then just turn it on. You can purchase essential oil diffusers on Amazon for anywhere from $15 - $40.  A diffuser quickly disperses the oils into the air so they can be inhaled and benefit everyone in the room, not just the person that you applied the oils to on their skin. And, a nice added side benefit is the oils make the room smell nice. For someone that hates taking pills and has a hard time swallowing them, being able to enjoy the benefits of health without having to swallow or choke anything down is pretty dang good.

My favorite oil to put in the diffuser for aromatherapy is Young Living’s Thieves Essential Oil, which is a combination of Clove, Lemon, Cinnamon Bark, Eucalyptus Radiata, and Rosemary essential oils, and helps boost your immune system. That particular oil will be running in the diffuser 24/7 in our house during the cold, harsh winter months in sub-zero Idaho. Another favorite oil that we like to put in the diffuser is Young Living’s Lavender oil, which helps with cramps during PMS (this will become you and your significant other’s new favorite oil during certain times of the month), as well as help reduce a headache or migraine. It also helps to promote a sense of calm and relaxation and helps you sleep at night, which is super helpful for my husband to use right on the bedside table since he suffers from insomnia. 

Topical Use:

A very effective way to apply the essential oils is topically, and apply them directly on your skin, wherever the injured area is. A benefit of applying the oils topically is that they easily penetrate the skin. Once the essential oils are absorbed into the skin, they stay in the area that they are used, as well as travel through the bloodstream, so they can do their job and begin to work their magic. If there is a particular area that is injured, you would want to put the oil wherever it hurts, such as: on a sore muscle, or directly on your throat for a sore throat, or on your temples and behind your ears for a headache. You will want to apply the oils every few hours since its potency will have worn off by that time. Because of the potency and highly concentrated form of the “essence” of the essential oils, you may want to dilute the oils before applying them directly to your body, so they do not cause a reaction and skin irritation and to prevent any allergic reactions. Children typically have more sensitive skin than adults, so you will want to dilute the essential oil more so for them than for the skin of an adult.

Carrier Oils And Their Importance:

Carrier oils help “carry” the essential oils to their desired location. Molecules of the essential oils are very, very tiny, so they can actually pass through the skin and into the body quickly. So, if you want to keep the essential oil on your skin for longer, you should dilute it with a carrier oil, thereby making it more gentle on your skin, as well as increasing the surface area that the essential oil was applied to.

Some common carrier oils are:

• Almond oil
• Avocado oil
• Coconut oil
• Jojoba oil
• Pomegranate seed oil
• Sesame oil
• Grapeseed oil
• Olive oil

There is no need to get carried away with the carrier oil and go out and buy something fancy. If you don’t have any of the other more expensive options available, olive oil works just fine and is actually what I have been using as my carrier oil for years now. Unlike essential oils, the carrier oils listed above don’t evaporate quickly and don’t give off strong scents, so they are perfect to combine with your fragrant essential oil and apply directly to your skin.

When applying the desired essential oil to the skin, you will want 1 drop of the essential oil per 3 drops of the carrier oil. So, for example, if I had a headache, I would put some of Young Living’s Lavender essential oil, since they are the best of the best, in my oil diffuser. And, to attack the headache from multiple angles, I would also put 1 drop of Lavender oil, and 3 drops of olive oil in the palm of my hand, and then gently massage onto my temples and the back of my ears. If I had a sore throat or a cough, I would put some of Young Living’s Thieves oil in my oil diffuser, as well as 1 drop of Thieves oil and 3 drops of olive oil in the palm of my hand and apply it to my throat and chest.

Always do a “patch test” the first time you use a new essential oil. Apply the oil and a carrier oil only to a small area of skin to test out how sensitive your skin is to that particular essential oil. If you start to feel itchy or a slight burning sensation, then add a few more drops of the carrier oil to dilute the essential oil. Some essential oils are naturally stronger and more potent, and you will need to dilute the essential oil with greater amounts of the carrier oil to ensure you don’t get a rash or skin irritation from the oils. For example, Thieves and Oregano essential oils are stronger and more potent and may need 4-5 drops of the carrier oil to offset the one drop of essential oil, while Lavender essential oil is not quite as potent and may only need 3 drops of carrier oil.

What Are The Best Essential Oils?

There are over a hundred different kinds of essential oils from Young Living out there for your use. With so many options, how do you find the ones that are just right for you and your family? Well, it depends on what you want and the type of health benefits you and your family are looking for. Here are some options you will want to consider adding to your premium starter kit, to improve the health and well-being of your family and yourself. 

Calming Essential Oils:

Lavender oil is probably one of the most popular essential oils since it has so many different kinds of health benefits. It helps relieve stress and anxiety. It also helps you to relax and be able to sleep easier. It helps alleviate headaches, as well as reduces the itching of bug bites, and soothes burns and skin irritations if applied topically.

Chamomile or Roman Chamomile helps calm and soothe the mind, as well as is useful on skin. It has been found to treat skin conditions such as inflammation or eczema. It also promotes the health and strength of the immune system.

Bergamot oil is another essential oil that is known to help reduce anxiety and stress. It has also been seen to help alleviate symptoms of depression.

Invigorating Essential Oils:

Peppermint oil, when applied topically, has a cooling sensation on the skin. It helps with fevers, muscle pain or sore muscles, sunburns, and itchy skin from poison ivy or bug bites. It can also help with headaches. Peppermint essential oil also helps promote respiratory and digestive health.

Wintergreen relieves symptoms of achy joints, rheumatism, sore muscles, and back pain. It can also help reduce irritation and swelling. The oil of wintergreen is very warming and helps stimulate the body.

Boosting The Immune System Oils:

Melaleuca or tea tree oil has a very medicinal scent and has many, many uses as it helps boost the immune system. Tea tree oil is used to boost the immune system and as an antibacterial to fight infections. It also can be used as an anti-inflammatory and for antiviral treatment. Tea tree oil can also be used to treat and alleviate sore throat, coughs, and pneumonia. The essential oil of tea tree has also been found to help treat eczema and help with staph infections and bug bites.

Thieves oil is another versatile essential oil that helps reduce stress, fight off infections and neutralize bacterial and viral pathogens. It boosts and strengthens a weakened immune system, improves digestion, and can strengthen bones and help reduce inflammation. Thieves oil can also lower fevers, help with skin conditions, aid in weight loss, and improve poor respiratory health.

Eucalyptus oil helps boost the immune system by helping heal many minor ailments. It helps relieve and clear up nasal congestion, asthma, and sinus related head colds. It can also be used as a tick repellant. I personally like to put a few drops of eucalyptus essential oil on a small rag and put the cloth on my pillow whenever I am sick, to help clear my head and sinuses, so I can breathe easier when sleeping. Another benefit of this essential oil is it helps you to relax and relieves stress. 

Essential Oils Are The Bomb

As you can see, there are many different uses for essential oils. The types of illnesses and ailments that can be helped by essential oils are only limited to your imagination. While essential oils do not promise to magically cure any and all diseases that the human body may come across, they have been proven to help alleviate many illnesses and aches and pains and to promote general health and well-being. They have also been shown to potentially help children with autism, as a supplemental aromatherapy, to help them focus or promote a calming effect. As with all medicine, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, make sure you look at the warning labels, as well as consult a doctor before using any particular essential oil. 

Let’s not wait any longer to help our families and us be healthy, and let’s get a starter kit of essential oils from Young Living. It will be well worth the cost, and you will use the oils for years to come as you lessen the number of doctor’s visits, reduce the cost of medical bills, and heal you and your family naturally.