Yes, we drank the kool-aid, took the red pill – jumped in and started utilizing the healing benefits of essential oils.
We are always looking to add products and services that increase our patients’ ability to regain their health and stay healthy, so essential oils is a natural fit to our herbal and whole food remedies.
Essential oils utilize the healing properties of the plant. Defined as “highly concentrated plant constituents possessing potent medicinal and cosmetic qualities”, they are the life force or the soul of the plant.
Why Essential Oils?
We were looking for products that were easy to use and got immediate and great results. How could I not recommend something that got great results!
Our Mom’s wanted an easy why to help their kids with common symptoms, especially when they couldn’t get them to take the icky tasting supplements. Our chiropractic patients wanted fast relief for the pains that plagued them.
Whole foods and herbals take time to heal what ails you, but in the mean time, the oils help
with symptom relief.
We had some trial runs with our patients buying different essential oils that claimed to help with various ailments. What we discovered was not one of the patients that tried an essential oil reported no results. Most exclaimed that the pains, headaches, tummy aches, nausea was gone within minutes!
Before going all out, we attended a seminar by a Naturopath and MD on healing strategies utilizing essential oils. After the first hour of the seminar, we were hooked! The seminar addressed the common problems we see everyday in our practice such as Adrenal Fatigue, Hormonal Dsyfunction, Thyroid Dsyfunction and Fibromyalgia.
We have seen many miracles in our years of practice, so we are so excited to have a way to help people feel better faster.
Are essential oils backed by medical research?
Like our whole food supplements and herbals, essential oils are wholly natural and cannot be patented; which means that you’ll never see an essential oil in a pharmaceutical drug. As with all of the natural remedies and treatments we utilize, you can expect that the vast majority of mainstream healthcare practitioners will never recommend essential oils as therapeutic alternatives to drugs. More importantly, because essential oils cannot be patented, drug companies will not waste money studying them. This limits our scientific knowledge of essential oils GREATLY, and the majority of what we know about them are things that have been passed down through thousands of years of personal use and experimentation.
What do Essential Oils Cost and What is Purity?
You may have come in contact with someone who invited you to an oil party. You may have loved the oils but were deterred due to the cost. So you ask..Why are they so expensive?
Enormous amounts of plants are needed to produce essential oil. In fact, on the extreme end, it takes 4000 pounds of Bulgarian roses to produce 1 pound of essential oil. Other plants like lavender only take 100 pounds of plant material to produce a pound of essential oil. Still, can you imagine how concentrated essential oils must be, in light of how many plants are used to produce them? Because it is concentrated you only need to use a couple of drops. The 5ml bottle can contains approximately 85-120 drops, so the bottle will last a very long time.
Essential oils will last for at least 5 years (if not 10), so one bottle could literally last you a decade. Hopefully that thought will help mitigate the cost involved in purchasing some essential oils. Again, because they are SO concentrated and only a tiny amount is needed in anything you do, they’ll last you a very, very long time. The only exception to this rule is citrus oils, which will see a reduction in potency after a year or two.
Not all essential oils are created equally, nor does more expensive necessarily mean “better.” When you see a wide fluctuation in price between, say, lavender essential oils, you can bet that the far less expensive one is likely lower in quality. What I’m saying here is: Understand that you DO have to pay for quality. We recommend essential oils to aid in the healing process called therapeutic benefits so it is essential(haha) that you buy the quality oils or you will not see the benefits. But, if you’re just using essential oils in non-therapeutic fashions, it’s okay to use less expensive oils(disclaimer-cheaper oils may contain toxic chemicals)
Want to test if the cheaper brand you buy is “pure”? To test your essential oil to see how “pure” it is, put a single drop of it on a piece of construction paper. If it evaporates quickly and leaves no noticeable ring, it is pure. If you have a ring left, then it is likely diluted by the manufacturer with an oil of some sort (this test will not work for myrrh, patchouli, and absolutes).
A great testimonial from a new essential oil user from the blog of Jennifer Murray
But last weekend I really put them to the test. I woke up with a horrible sinus infection – head completely congested, painfully sore throat, drainage, headache, the works. I thought I was going to have to make a trip to urgent care, but I decided to give it a day and try to treat it naturally with my oils. What did I have to loose when I was already so miserable? I fixed myself some Thieves Tea with a couple of drops of Thieves, Lemon, and honey, and then I my “oily friend”, recommended layering Frankincense, Lemon, and Thieves on my feet every few hours.Sounds kooky, right? However, you can’t argue with my results. Within a few minutes my head started clearing, and I was able to breath freely through my nose. I was floored! A couple of hours later, my sinus headache was completely GONE without taking any pain killers! I continued this regimen for the next couple of days and continued to benefit from the relief of my symptoms. {Another huge relief? Not having to spend $$$ at the doctor’s office or for prescription meds!}
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Recommended Essential Oils to Get You Started
“What essential oils do you recommend I buy?” is the number one question I receive. It is also the question I asked when we first looked at offering and adding essential oils to our practice. Start small if you are unsure. Buy the oils for the symptoms you currently have and give them a try.
Many people are suffering with spring allergies at present-try the seasonal allergy oils-Lavendar, Lemon and Peppermint. I asked 10 patients to try this remedy before I recommended it(I am skeptical until I see results). All of them reported that the oils really helped with allergy symptoms of congestion, itchy eyes, sneezing etc… So I was sold!
I really prefer to recommend products that would help people get off those nasty, seemingly innocuous drugs for allergy symptoms-Remember any and all medications come with a price! Even over the counter medications!
What I love about these essential oils for allergies, is that they’re offering the body so many other benefits at the same time:
Lavender is antiseptic, and anti-inflammatory and also relaxes and promotes calmness and good sleep.
Lemon is an immune stimulant and is also antiseptic, and at the same time induces relaxation and reduces depression.
Peppermint not only has anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antiviral properties, but it also relieves pain and stimulates the digestive system.
Which oils should I start with can be a tough one to answer, because what essential oils you buy depends on what you’re going you are going to use them for in the first place. Some of the ones we started with:
Peppermint (good for headaches, allergies, use for lip balms and cleaning products, soothing digestion, helps improve concentration and alertness)
Panaway (good for all kinds of joint pain, helps alleviate stressed muscles or other physical discomforts)
Thieves (flu, colds, sinusitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, sore throat, strep, toothache, cuts, poison ivy, and as an immune stimulant. Use it to eliminate odors, disinfect around the house)
Tea tree (great for healing, getting rid of dandruff, oily/acne skin, and cleaning products)
Lavender (great for healing of wounds including all types of burns and even treatment of eczema, dermatitis, scabies and psoriasis, beneficial to the respiratory tract in particular coughs, colds, influenza, eases breathing when lungs and sinuses are choked with phlegm, defends system against airborne viruses)
Lemon (great for lifting moods, cleaning preparations, and sparingly in toners and products for oily skin)
Here is a great chart for the many uses of essential oils. Instead of grabbing a medication, try an oil!
