Medical Quality Essential Oils

Medical aromatherapy is the science of using essential oils for health and healing. Medical aromatherapy has a 5000 year old history going back to the ancient Egyptians. Internal usage of essential oils is a safe and effective means of curing many illnesses and dysfunctions in the body, in children and adults if a safe concentration (1-10%) of the right essential oils is used. But most importantly, the right quality of essential oil must be used--medical quality.

Listen to a short, 3 minute discussion of medical quality essential oils here:



It's really important to know the quality of your essential oils because many companies that use essential oils in their products, including many reputable companies, do not know how to tell a quality essential oil from an adulterated one. You can, though with a sensitive nose.

When you smell an essential oil or a shampoo, soap, etc. that claims to have "pure" essential oils, pay attention to the feeling around your jaw and up the side of your head. If your jaw tightens up, or you feel a slight headache, or like there is a vice around your head, that essential oils has been adulterated--cut with a synthetic version of one of the naturally occurring compounds in that oil to "boost" the scent.

The most common oils they do this too are:

• Lavender
• Jasmine
• Neroli
• Citrus oils (Orange, Grapefruit, Lemon, Lime, Tangerine, Bergamot, etc.)
• Clove

Even more concerning than these cut oils are fragrance oils, sometimes listed:

• fragrance
• parfum
• fragrance oil.

Often times, they contain BPA (bis-phenol A) an endocrine disruptor that can cause damage to the human body in serious ways. Infants and children are the most susceptible to this because they have more surface area of skin relative to their weight. In fact, a recent study in the journal Pediatrics found that when infants, children and adults used lotions and shampoo containing BPA as "fragrance" it was absorbed through their skin, into the blood--just from a few minutes of exposure.

Now, I know that you know that the big guys use this stuff shamelessly in their "kids" lines, but I'm very disappointed to see that many of the "eco" and "green" companies fall trap to the Medusa of fragrance oils--even after they spent money using cheap essential oils.

Caveat emptor. Read your labels carefully and be well.

PS: BPA is in baby bottles, water bottles and lots of other products. Please look for BPA free products whenever possible.