Essential oils -- I'm not sure there is a natural remedy that has been more controversial over the last twelve years I've been a naturopath. People either love them or hate them and the FDA has done their best to crack down on what you can and can't say about about essential oils, with the worshippers of all things pharmaceutical wasting no time placing them into the category of "quack."
In case you didn't know, an essential oil is a volatile liquid carefully extracted from a plant that’s used medicinally for all sorts of health imbalances. Once carefully extracted these oils can be used for inhalation, ingestion, absorption, and are used for all sorts of household and personal products like laundry detergent, hand sanitizer, shampoo, toothpaste, and skincare. It’s the chemical properties in these oils that provide the benefit and once applied to the skin these properties hit the blood stream within three seconds.
Despite what you may have been led to believe, essential oils are not a trend, voodoo, or woo. They’ve been around a long time, are mentioned over 188 times in the Bible, were referenced in Chinese manuscripts and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and were even used during the time of the ancient Egyptians as medicine. People survived the bubonic plague thanks to this stuff. No joke.
Here are just a few of the properties scientifically associated with essential oils: They can be antimicrobial, antiseptic, astringent, diuretic, anti-fungal, anti-infectious, anti-bacterial, anti-depressant, anti-microbial, anti-parasitic, anti-spasmodic, immune-stimulanting, decongestant, anti-asthmatic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-tumoral, anti-rheumatic, sedative, laxative, disinfectant, anti-catarrhal, pain-relieving, and restorative.
I could go on, but you get the idea. You can probably understand why having essential oils in your arsenal isn't a bad idea. I would also say that given how hard aromatherapy has been attacked over the years, that should be our first clue that they might just possibly be everything they're cracked up to be.
If you want to learn more about essential oils and dive into the studies, check out this post I wrote on my blog. For those who have been following me for awhile and ordered from Better Essentials using the Living Whole promo code, they are closing their doors. You can sign up under me here if you'd like to source your oils from the same place I do and have access to my inbox with all of your aromatherapy questions, or go to www.youngliving.com and use #25781047. Brands vary in quality, so I always make sure that the oils I use are sustainably sourced and harvested, are therapeutic grade, and meet the highest quality standards.