Essential oils growing in popularity

Gather a group of women in almost any setting these days, and you will probably overhear their discussion about their struggles with health issues.

If they aren’t talking about their own chronic symptoms, they are talking about their children’s asthma and digestive issues. It is not surprising that women are taking their health into their own oily hands with essential oils.

Plants have been used in healing practices around the globe for thousands of years, but the essential oils derived from plants were “rediscovered” in Western countries around the 1980s.

“I carry some of my favorite oils with me in my purse and pull them out to use as needed. A drop of peppermint and a drop of wild orange together is uplifting and enlivening when I am dragging or tired. I also diffuse essential oils at home daily.”

–Mary Thoma

Essential oil therapy has since paralleled the alternative medicine movement for the past 30 years.

Some popular oils used in aromatherapy include peppermint, citrus oils, geranium, lavender, cedarwood and bergamot, but there are endless choices to be found when you consider oil blends. Essential oils are extremely concentrated, such as the 220 pounds of lavender flowers it takes to make about one pound of essential oil.

Area filmmaker Mary Thoma is also an independent wellness advocate for doTERRA, a distributor of pure essential oils. Thoma was first introduced to essential oils at a yoga class, where the yoga instructor was offering them to her students. Now Thoma offers them to people she sees struggling and leads support groups designed to teach people how to reap the benefits of essential oils.

Thoma said essential oils can be used by smelling or inhaling, applying to skin, and less commonly, by drinking or adding them to food.

“I carry some of my favorite oils with me in my purse and pull them out to use as needed,” she said. “A drop of peppermint and a drop of wild orange together is uplifting and enlivening when I am dragging or tired. I also diffuse essential oils at home daily for respiratory support, reducing environmental threats, support for sound sleep and mood uplift.”

“Essential oils do more than simply offer a pleasant fragrance,” Thoma said. “They are high in antioxidants and have amazing therapeutic benefits, many of which have been the subject of published scientific journals.”

And it’s not a tough sell. Many Americans these days are searching for something to relieve their autoimmune problems after mainstream medicine has been unable to help. One visit to one of Thoma’s support groups delivered the stories and perspectives of women of varying ages from different backgrounds, all of whom have come together to form a bond over essential oils.

These oils definitely wake up the senses. First-time users talk about experiencing an “opening-up” of the lungs and body as they inhale an EO for the first time. They claim the antioxidants in essential oils offer a detoxing and healing effect that improves over time. Converts speak of more energy and a strengthened immune system, with nagging symptoms from various ailments vastly improved or eliminated.

Cathlene Myers credits oils with changing her life. “I have asthma and have suffered for about 14 years, so I needed something to support healthy respiratory function,” she said. “I’ve been using eucalyptus and Breathe [a brand-name breathing blend] every day for the last six years. It has helped tremendously. I haven’t actually had to seek medicine in about four or five years. I’ve also wanted something to support weight-loss so it has really helped to just get my hormonal balance in check.”

Patti Carey is another fan of essential oils whose first interest stemmed from her reaction to certain store-bought beauty products. “Every time I bought eye crème it was way too expensive, and if it had any type of firming ingredients at all, my eyes swelled,” Carey said. “I like frankincense and geranium. Both are good for the aging process and skin condition.”

Carey said since joining the group she has experimented with other oils. “They just make you feel better,” she said. “I now use oils to balance my hormones, like geranium and ylang ylang. I use cedarwood for hip pain by putting it on my feet at night. I was just using it for relaxing and I stopped using it for a couple of weeks, and my hip pain was back. Now I use it all the time.”

Carey hit on one of the key concepts of essential oils, which are all about how they make you feel. Using them is a journey that is different for each person. “Listen to your body,” she said. “I have heard so many testimonials about so many different things. It just empowers you to try harder to figure things out and to learn more.”

Another friend from the support group is Mara Alexander, who has been using essential oils for about two years. “I was having major digestive issues, and I also struggle with an autoimmune disease and was on multiple medications for those,” she said. “I also have a women’s health issue and was struggling with extreme pain. So I decided to get into essential oils not to cure myself but to provide some relief. I use the digestive blend daily and Clearly Calm [a brand-name blend] and peppermint and lavender, but really there are about 20 more I love.”

“I was on multiple medications every day for digestive issues and autoimmune issues,” Alexander said. “When I started using essential oils internally and incorporating them into my daily life, I got off all of those medications.”

Brenda Nelson is an area nurse who wasn’t new to essential oils before coming to the group but is learning more about them each day. “I knew about chamomile and lavender, and I just used them to relax,” she said. “But now, I’ve been introduced to a larger variety of oils. I have a sister with pancreatic cancer, and after chemo she feels really bad. I infuse frankincense and OnGuard [another brand-name blend], and it seems to relax her. Maybe it’s the oils, and maybe it’s that I’m there helping her.”

Nelson’s experience brings up another key consideration. None of the women at the group meeting were claiming essential oils cure anything but rather that they offer one way to attempt to reinvigorate and bring the body’s systems back to life in order to work as they were intended. “I do not believe essential oils heal but rather support normal healthy body systems,” Thoma said.

Another example of how people are using essential oils to support or as an alternative to mainstream medicine can be seen in the large numbers of people using oils to treat asthma. More than half of the people at the meeting mentioned asthma. Nelson said, “My youngest grandson is asthmatic, so I use Breathe with him and he doesn’t have to have as many breathing treatments as he usually does,” she said. “And besides, he loves for me to tickle his feet.”

That soothing touch of which Nelson speaks, both with her sister and her grandson, only enhances the use of oils. Other group members talked about how much their children love to use the oils, from frankincense rubbed on the feet to help autism sensory issues to digestive oils and breathing blends rubbed on the abdomen.

Carline Procell hosts the group meetings at the shop she co-owns, Bella Nonnas Olive Oil and Vinegar Tasting Bar. Oils such as coconut and olive are often used as “carrier oils” blended with essential oils for application or in some cases, ingestion. “We meet here regularly,” she said. “I was here one day while they were having one of their meetings, and I needed some consolation,” Procell said. “Mary said, ‘Try this. Smell this,’ and I said, ‘This smells so good.’ Mary said, ‘That’s weird because it smells terrible, but they say if you need it, it smells good to you.’ Now, I use them daily for sinus and allergy issues. I use peppermint oil and eucalyptus oil on my temples when I have a headache, and I use Breathe on a daily basis.”

Procell even gives oils as gifts. “For Easter, for my grandkids and my children, I made little carrier bags where they each got to pick their own oils. My 8-year-old grandson suffers from asthma, and he uses Breathe on a daily basis. And my children use a digestive blend on my 3-month-old grandson to regulate his bowel movements because he’s nursed. The pediatrician was fine with that.”

Procell said one drop of ginger at the base of the neck works well for acid reflux. “My 8-year-old granddaughter loves the grapefruit and the wild orange and lemon,” Procell added. “She puts them in her water every day. All of those things support respiratory use and the immune system. When the kids spend the night with me and they are coughing, I rub Deep Blue (another brand-name blend) on their feet, but I’ve also used a roller ball with olive oil and peppermint.”

Modern medicine and essential oils can go hand in hand. “They aren’t mutually exclusive,” Carey said. “I think there has got to be a lot of knowledge present to go back to natural. If I am ever lying in the street and someone takes me to the hospital, I hope they give me everything modern medicine has to offer, but I also hope somebody comes in and rubs frankincense on my feet.”

LEARN MORE:

For more information on essential oils and aromatherapy, call or text Thoma at 465- 5374 or by e-mail at [email protected]. Other resources include http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmedhealth/PMHT0025082/ and https://essentialoils.org.