Beginning Wellness with Essential Oils: Three Main Ideas
- Jasmine Hutchinson
- Oct 3, 2017
- 4 min read
Making essential oils apart of your daily health regimen has tremendous benefits for your health. You may have heard from a close friend or looked up online stories about how essential oils changed the lives of people.
How I started using oils. I began using officially essential oils in April 2017 and decided to use the French method/view. I love natural remedies and using herbs and spices daily; I briefly heard about essential oils in December when my coworker began using them for her plantar fasciitis. I became curious but didn’t think I could afford them so didn’t bother boy was I I ran into another friend in March who used essential oils for her back pain and headaches, I decided to buy them that day and my research began.
What is an Essential Oil? Essential oils are the highly concentrated version of the natural oils in plants. They can be described as the life force of plants. Plants produce their own food and release chemicals to protect themselves- when extracted we call it an essential oil.
Three Main Ideas.
When it comes to using, purchasing, and reading/ researching about essential oils it is vital to consider the point of view. Essential oils can be used three different ways internally (oral/ digestive system), topically (skin), or by inhaling (breathing/ limbic system). There are also three different views (schools of thought) about using essential oils British, French, and German.
British View focuses on the use of essential oils for messages in carrier oils with a concentration of only 2-5%. This view was started by a biochemist named Madame Marguerite Maury. This view discourages the uses of essential oils directly on the skin (neat). The British view focuses on the use of essential oil use more like a fragrance and believes it should never be ingested (aroma more than therapy use).
French View focuses on therapy by using a therapeutic grade essential oils topically, orally, or aromatically (inhaling). This view emphasizes the use of oils to treat diseases, heal the body, maintain health, and aid with emotional wellness.
German view focuses mostly on inhaling essential oils. By inhaling essential oils the oil molecules can go directly into the bloodstream which can then travel throughout the body, some oils even cross the blood-brain barrier. This view believes that the use of pure therapeutic quality oils are too potent to ingest or apply directly to the skin.
Picking the Right Oil
Depending on the view you decide to use will determine which oils you buy. Yes, all essential oils are NOT created equal. It is important to investigate. If you decide to follow the British or German view on how to use essential oils, you probably will want to buy a food or flavor grade oil. Food grade or flavor grade essential oils can be used in are fragrances, lotions, toothpaste, or diffuser around your home. Keep in mind you are not getting the same healing benefits a therapeutic oil. Also, it is important to find a trusted brand; oils of this type only have to put 5% of the actual intended plant to call it 100% pure. Your oil can be cut with
If you decide to use the French method then a therapeutic grade oil is what you are looking for. It is important to pay attention to how the essential oil was extracted from the plan, how long the plant was able to mature before extraction, how it was grown/harvested, and of course look at the reviews.
Choosing the Right Research
When looking up information regarding which oils to use, don’t forget to check for bias. There is a lot of information regarding the benefits and safety concerns when using essential oils. Depending on which Method/View is providing the information you will get a different response in regards to how much, when, who, and how the oils should be used.
I hope you find this information helpful and easy to understand. If you would like more information feel free to leave a comment. Don’t become overwhelmed with information and don’t be afraid to take charge of your health. I use the French Method/View. I and my entire family use essential oils (will share stories along the way). If you are struggling to find a place to buy oils from, I decided to purchase from Young Living, but there are other companies that sell therapeutic grade oils. When you purchase from a company you are trusting them, go out on faith check out their mission and vision statements, what is the company doing in the community… I will share my referral link with every post as a reference but feel free to comment on the company you decide to use below. We are a community working together to make health and wellness obtainable.
Let’s TAKE BACK OUR HEALTH,
Jasmine Hutchinson
Information from this post came from: The Chemistry of Essential Oils Made Simple by David Stewart Ph.D., D.N.M. and The Healing Intelligence of Essential Oils by Kurt Schnaubelt, Ph.D.
Next post- Why should we use essential oils? What should we be cautious of?
Comments