For External Use Only? Not Anymore!
I get this a lot...
"Essential oils should NEVER be applied directly to the skin.
or
"Are you crazy? I heard that you were never supposed to take essential oils internally."
These statements never offend me because in the essential oil world, traditional use of oils has gravitated to the model "for external use only" and, for good reason...until now. Why now? Here's a very brief history of how the apprehension and caution took hold.
A french chemist, Rene'-Maurice Gattefosse (1881-1950) studied the medicinal properties of essential oils for years while working in his family's perfume business. He wrote a book, "Aromatherapie: Les Huiles essentielles hormones vegetales" that inspired Madam Marguerite Maury, an Austrian born biochemist. She pioneered and was passionate about the use of essential oils in massage therapy.
Because of the manipulation of purity, many cautions and contra-indications for the use of essential oils applied "neat" (undiluted) or orally became the norm.
When an essential oil is manufactured, mixed with solvents to increase yield or manipulated from it's complete constituency, it's no longer safe and these cautions are absolutely correct.
Dr. Jean Valnet, M.D.
The french physician, Dr. Jean Valnet came onto the scene in World War II, healing many soldiers wounds and psyche with pure, unadulterated essential oils ie: pure plant essence. He observed that when essential oils are extracted naturally and gently with respect to how nature provided it, from the correct place at the correct time of harvest, these same oils were no longer toxic and provided profound health benefits.
Therapeutic Grade essential oils like Spark Natural's essential oils are a powerful tool to improve your family's health and wellness. Pure plant essence has the ability to communicate with the nervous system, calling it to action. The essence or essential oils have a natural intelligence and are selective in how they kill bacteria, only killing the harmful and leaving the rest to help maintain our health. God gave us a gift and if we respect it, it will and does improve lives.
There's a vast amount of information available on the origin and history of essential oils which I encourage to you research, it's fascinating and so very important in our day and age!
However, I'll stop here. Hopefully, I've given you a little insight into the confusion of "why" cautions are issued. Those cautions are in place for a good reason, when essential oils when the purity and potency of essential oils has been compromised.
Be Well, Seek Understanding, Embrace Change.
In the words of Theodore Roosevelt:
"Dare Greatly..."
...and begin your own essential oil journey!
Enjoy a 10% discount on every Spark Naturals order with a CW coupon code: campwander
posted by Rebecca @ 6:30 PM
12 Comments
12 Comments:
Hi! I have come to love & appreciate your posts so much- they have changed my life! One thing I hear a lot is that certain EOs are not safe for pregnant or nursing mothers, or young children. As a busy, nursing mom of two toddlers, it has kind of started making my head spin as I navigate this path! So, is that claim true? If so, do you know what oils may be in question? Thank you!!
My children take doterras / spark naturals brand peppermint lemon and lavender in a capsule for allergies. My husband takes doterras onguard, lemon and oregano internally in a capsule when he starts feeling sick. I do both of these internal remedies also. They work better than over the counter medicine for my family. My son has tried singular, flonase nose spray, benadryl etc nothing helped like this. The oils camp wander recommends are excellent. I would say its up to you whether you try then internally or not.
I love your blog! I'm new to EOs and I use it quite regularly as a reference. I have had much success with DT Breathe. My son gets croup quite regularly and Breathe has saved use several trips to the doctor. I just wanted to hear your opinion on DT Breathe vs S Respire. I just ordered Respire and the jury is still out for me.
Do you have any studies that show how essential oils are intelligent enough to kill only harmful bacteria? I would love to see an article citing a scientific study.
Search Wikipedia : Thymus vulgaris oil, it sites research done on bacteria strains
http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/mdr.2011.0080
I'd like to say Thank You for the information you provide. Your ideas and blends have worked wonderfully for my family and myself. Everyone needs to make their own decisions where their health is concerned. Keep up the great work.
I looked at Wikipedia and at the link posted, but there is only research on the antibacterial properties. I would like scientific evidence for the claim that essential oils have intelligence and can determine good bacteria from bad bacteria.
Ingesting these oils, no matter how pure, over time can damage the liver. Too much of the safest, best, purest product (food, oils, etc.) CAN be harmful. While ingesting these oils create wonderful results in our health, it does not mean the practice is not causing problems elsewhere in the body that will only be apparent after a period of time, especially if done regularly.
Seems we have a lot of pharmaceutical reps on here. I've had life threatening reactions to traditional drugs that were approved by big business and politicians who sit on the boards. Gosh seems to me Yaz was an approved birth control and now it's been proven to have caused pulmonary embolisms. Guess if EO's don't have multi-million dollar big business behind them they're no good. I will continue my path with EO's and feel better then I have in years! For every one pharmaceutical pill that's approved and then taken off the market, I have to take three more just to mask the side effects of the first one. This is America and if you don't like what s being written, move on!!!!
It seems at the very least these comments are up for grabs. I do use doterra oils but I make a point of reading EO information from people who are NOT connected with the doterra/young living/spark naturals complex to get the full picture. ANYTHING you take into your body that affects something somewhere may do something elsewhere. While I do take EOs internally from time to time (mostly the allergy blend and various antibiotic combos for bugs etc as well as the digestive blend at times when I would previously have popped an antacid) I cringe when I see some of these folks posting about how they are drinking this stuff like its water and claiming that they cannot hurt you because they are natural. They are drugs. Herbs are drugs. Just because something is natural does not mean it does not have potential for harm. I would prefer taking natural things over pharmaceuticals for several reasons (synergy in naturally occurring compounds, control, staying off my insurance companies radar screen among the top reasons) but that does not mean that I delude myself that there are never side affects and I can consume it without the same kind of cautions that I would use with pharmaceutials.
I think this may be what has some people tweaked. That said I do think the English school of aromatherapy is just a wee bit over on the side of too too cautious.
To my knowledge, people have been using EOs internally for several years. Why has so much negativity appeared recently in light of Spark Naturals making the scene?
True, everything can cause negative reactions whether taken internally or topically. I am allergic to several popular pain killers & my children had different anti-biotic allergies. My brother in-law contracted Steven Johnsons Syndrome (look it up - it is NASTY) after taking a popular anti-biotic for MRSA. He spent weeks in the hospital and you could not put your pinkie any place on his body w/o touching a blister.
So far I have had no reactions to EOs and they have made a big difference in my health. I feel much better taking EOs vs synthetic meds when I can.
I've been using essential oils for a few months and find them fasinating. I can't say I've been totally pain free but it has diminished so much and I feel great! I've slowly gotten rid of all my hair, skin and nail care products and replaced them with the oils and have seen a remarkable improvement in all. Nothing has happened overnight but then I didn't expect it to. To say I am very pleased with Campwander and Sparks Naturals would be a real understatement!
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