5 Things I Discovered About Essential Oils

As a chiropractor, I am always looking for ways to help people feel better and get healthy without using drugs or medication. Chiropractic is so amazing and it is so under utilized. I think the issue being that the profession as a whole is torn between pain management (western medicine mindset) and wellness/ preventative care (eastern medicine mindset). This creates a lot of confusion for patients because some think, “I only need to see a chiropractor when I’m hurting.” While others err on the side of, “Getting regular adjustments helps me maintain a healthy spine and nervous system so that I don’t have to be in pain.” I agree with the latter, which segues into the topic of this post,

ESSENTIAL OILS.

If your way of thinking is that once something is wrong, you seek treatment, essential oils may not be for you. It is so important when considering the use of essential oils to understand that they are not an alternative to prescription medication. If you cut your hand wide open, I would not recommend using essential oils to fix it. Using the right oils can keep it clean and free from infection but you also need might need stitches.

I like essential oils how I like chiropractic care. I use oils regularly to keep my body healthy. I use lemon and grapefruit oils in my water to detoxify my system and speed up my metabolism. Peppermint keeps my appetite under control and makes my breathe smell good. I diffuse lavender, vetiver, and cedarwood at night to help me sleep, and the list goes on. Essential oils have so many uses, these are just some of my daily ones.

Through trial, error, observation, and education, I have discovered a few things about essential oils that I didn’t really know. These are the top five things I have noticed while using my oils:

1.YOU HAVE TO BE CONSISTENT!

Ok I already kind of talked about that, but this is a really important one. If you want to see the true benefits of essential oils, you can’t just use them one time and give up because you didn’t get the result you wanted. Be consistent! Like I said before, I use oils every day. When I am sore or feeling like I am getting sick I load up. Here is where my trial and error came in.

I was feeling sicky a few months ago. I wasn’t using oils regularly but I had quite a few. Right when I got that tickle in my throat, that, “Uh-oh, I feel a cold coming on” feeling, I started using Young Living’s thieves oil. I used it for one day, and I felt like I wasn’t going to catch that cold so I stopped using it. Guess what, I still got sick. I should have used it that whole week, all day, every day. Now I know and I will do better next time.

2.ALWAYS USE A CARRIER OIL

What is a carrier oil and why do you have to use one if these are oils? A carrier oil is an oil more like coconut oil, almond oil, even olive oil. Basically what the carrier oil does is carry the oil into the skin. Some essential oils are known as hot oils. This would be like oregano or cinnamon oil. If you use them on the skin without the carrier oil it feels like a burn. The carrier oil will diffuse the oil enough so that you can use it topically without any issues.

Another reason for carrier oils is that they have a high viscosity. They won’t evaporate quickly like essential oils. By using a carrier oil, your body is able to absorb and utilize the essential oil better. To be honest, oils aren’t cheap and I want as much bang for my buck as I can get so I always use a carrier oil to extend the life of the oil I’m using.

3.ONE OIL DOESN’T JUST DO ONE THING

My oily crew and I always get questions like, “What oil is best for thyroid support?” The answer is a lot of them. Many different oils are going to help the thyroid. Similarly, one oil is going to do many different things. This is where the western medicine mindset explodes.

Let’s take peppermint for example. This is going to help with low thyroid function. It will also suppress your appetite, give you energy, freshen your breath, reduce headaches, reduce nausea, and improve digestion, among other things. So it is hard to say, “If this is wrong, use this oil.” That is one reason I love the Premium Starter Kit from Young Living. You get a little taste of the most common and most beneficial oils. You get you use multiple oils for multiple different things!

4.THEY MAKE OTHER PEOPLE FEEL WELCOME

This point is personal opinion, there isn’t any research to back it. I have owned this practice for a few months now and I use my diffuser every day. I use whatever oil I feel like using on that particular day. At fist I thought some people wouldn’t appreciate the oils, but I quickly realized that they make people feel welcome in the office.

Obviously everyone is welcome, but I’ve noticed with the oils, people feel good. They like being here. Every day, every new oil, someone says they love the smell. I always use uplifting scents that are good for energy. Maybe that is why people like being here. Regardless, I love that my patients like my oils.

5.THEY BRING MY PLANTS BACK TO LIFE

This is a weird one! I will begin with a story. I have a black thumb, so to speak. I have never been able to sustain plants. I’ve always taken good care of my plants. Watering, giving them sun, speaking kindly to them, you name it I try it. Alas, they all end up dying fairly quickly. When I bought this chiropractic practice, the previous doctor had a few potted plants in the office. A patient gave me a congratulatory plant as well. My initial thought was, “Crap! I need to throw these away before they die,” but I finally decided not to get rid of them.

I was watering and putting them in the sun as usual and all of them were slowly dying. To my credit they were sort of dwindling from the get-go. One of pots was on the floor near my diffuser. Each day I would pour out the old diffuser water that had essential oils in it from the previous day into the pot. Every time I did it I would think, “I probably shouldn’t do this, it’s going to kill the almost dead plant.”

To my surprise, that one plant started coming back to life. The leaves opened up, flowers started growing (I didn’t even know these plants had flowers), it looked fantastic. I decided that it was too much of a coincidence that the one plant that looked good was the one plant that got my oils, so I put a different dying plant there. Can you guess what happened? That plant came back to life.

That all being said, oils are good for everything! I highly, highly recommend using essential oils before looking toward drugs and medication to solve your problems. Even if your problem is that you can’t keep your plants alive.