Essential oils have become very popular and with good reason. They can be an easy NATURAL way to maintain good health from day to day. Essential oils hold a lot of claims to improving health and healing. Even hospitals have started using them in treatments!
But are they really worth it? How do I know what to choose? Who can I trust and how do I even begin?
As you read, I hope to help you make the right choice when it comes to essential oils. I want to show you proven research and simple common-sense from what I have experienced with my family!
In this article:
- What are essential oils?
- What can I do with them?
- How do essential oils benefit my health? (TOP 3 Benefits)
- Top 5 oils my family uses most and why.
- How to choose what brand to use.
What are essential oils?
Essential oils are natural (organic) compounds extracted from plants! This is done by different pressing methods, distilling or steaming… Like:
- Flowers
- Seeds
- Bark and different parts of trees
- Herbs and Spices
- Fruits and Vegetables
- Other plants… Did I miss any?
They contain the potent smell of the specific plant or the “essence” of the plant. Essential oils take the powerful healing properties of a plant and infuses them into a bottle of oil. It can be very potent for boosting the health of your body’s cells!
In 1 bottle (15ml) of rose oil can be the equivalent of up to 65 pounds of rose petals! By using essential oils you are taking the best healing properties of that plant and putting them into your body! Will you take advantage of this technology?
Oils taken from plant life has been around for 1000’s of years and found in cultures all across the world. They have been known and now some even proven to help many symptoms you may suffer with today! Essential oils may help things like:
- Enhancing your immune system
- Improving digestion
- Protecting your skin
- Helping sleep patterns
- Calming / relaxing effects
- Numbing pain
- And so much more!
What can I do with essential oils?
Essential oils can be used in 4 different ways:
- Aromatically. Oils can be diffused into the air. This has been used all throughout history and there are therapists who specialize in aromatherapy. If you can smell something then you know it is going into your system. It is awesome to know that you can fill your body and your home with potent plant properties that smell great and at the same time benefit your health!
- Topically. Which means that you can apply them on your skin. The oils are said to go through your skin and into your blood to help therapeutically all throughout.
- Ingested. You can also drink or eat certain essential oils! Remember that the oils are very potent so little is more. Add them to recipes in smoothies or food. Dilute a few drops in a glass of water and drink. I use a few drops of lemon in lukewarm water first thing in the morning to help clean and stimulate my GUT. It usually gets things moving great!
- Home and personal care. Essential oils are used for scents, laundry, cosmetics, cleaning products and personal hygiene among others… Choose essential oils to use on your body and in your environment instead of chemicals that we have just accepted as standard but are very toxic to our bodies.
My Top 3 benefits from using essential oils
There are many benefits to using essential oils and to group them into 3 is hard. I have been using essential oils for 3 years and I picked 3 benefits because they are what I have noticed most in my experience with me and my children.
Relaxation
There are a handful of oils that may help tremendously with sleep, migraines and reducing anxiety as research has concluded. However, we don’t need research when my wife and children sleep consistently better when using oils such as lavender at night. Others that also have helped are frankincense and chamomile.
Teas with these oils are great too! It’s great to know that you have a natural and convenient option at home to help relieve pain and stress quickly.
Me and my wife both take peppermint for any pain, especially headaches. There is always a relief. This study found that peppermint oil efficiently alleviates tension-type headaches.
Reduces inflammation
Inflammation in your cells is what causes disease. For example, arthritis literally means: inflammation in the joints… Just pick any illness and it will most likely lead back to inflammation. This study showed that essential oils may help with inflammatory diseases like osteoarthritis and inflammatory bowel disease.
I have personally noticed great results. For prevention and also whenever I am sick or feel something coming on, I will use extra essential oils and they help any symptoms improve and even go away. Sometimes almost right away. Like pain or congestion for example. Or with cuts and bruises with our kids.
Reducing and preventing inflammation will maintain good health and help improve your immune system which we will get into in the next benefit.
Improves digestion
There are a handful of oils that can help with digestion. If your digestion works well then your bowels are probably going to work well too. And most of your immune system lies in your bowels so the key (I believe) to good health is having a healthy GUT.
A lot of health problems today may stem from digestion issues.
- Bloating
- Abdominal pain
- Constipation
- Diarrhea
- Allergies
- Autoimmune issues
- Obesity
- IBS or Crhon’s
Usually when I eat either a lot of sugar or processed food my bowels act up. Oils that have helped me and my family with anything around the gut are: Ginger, peppermint, lemon, oregano, tea-tree… Frankincense is known to help with digestion and almost everything…
Top 5 Essential oils your family needs to have!
Again, you may use many and mix oils together to make different potent blends and purifying aromas. But here are the 5 essential oils that I use most and cannot live without!!
- Peppermint. It is great for clearing out sinuses, breathing better, taking away headaches/ muscle pain and helping with digestion among others!
- Lavender. Helps relax, relieve stress, improve sleep and moods. Also relaxes airways and your vasculature. This could help things like high blood pressure. We have noticed it helps to take away itching and helps heal cuts/inflammation quickly.
- Lemon. Lemon is in our morning routine. It helps with digestion, detoxification and cleaning out our bowels. It may also help with nausea. It’s an anti-bacterial and is used in a lot of natural cleaning products. An all around great internal and external cleaner!
- Eucalyptus. We use this along with peppermint for diffusing into the air at night in our children’s rooms. Also applying it to their chests helps tremendously! Cough and congestion diminishes and there is sound, quiet sleep for everyone. It’s so great! It also purifies the body helping the immune system. And it’s known for improving respiratory issues like allergies and bronchitis.
- Ginger and Tea-tree. Ginger is probably my favourite. It is so powerful as it has antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. Anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and full of vitamins and minerals! It improves digestion too! Helps boost your immunity. And of course it is known to help with nausea… Then Tea-tree along with it has similar effects as mentioned above and we use them both in our home.
How to choose what essential oil brand to buy?
My family has used 2 brands through 3 years and currently trying a new brand now… So I am pretty comfortable in giving an honest opinion.
We have tried Doterra, Young living and now Revive. So what do I recommend?
What to look for no matter what you choose.
There are so many companies out there and so many oils! However, most are extremely diluted. This would be just like when you go to buy a fountain pop.. It is mostly water to save and make money.
The same with essential oils. Many companies will dilute or even use synthetic oils. Watch out. Just because they say “organic” or “local” does not necessary mean they are pure.
So you need to be careful and choose a company that…
- Has certifications, research and testimonies.
- 100 PERCENT PURE oil!!
- 100% Therapeutic grade.
- Indigenously sourced.
As far as I know, the 3 companies above meet these. They are very pure and all have similar high standards. I trust Doterra and Young living. Revive, I believe I will as well, because so far the company seems trustworthy and I am very impressed with the quality and price.
Doterra and Young living are both multi-level marketing companies (MLM) so because of this the costs are more expensive. However, there is a points system and an opportunity to have an income when you promote and use their products.
Revive is not. You buy it and there is no “middle-man” making the oils cheaper to buy.
As far as I know, in my research and experience using essential oils, there is no noticeable difference in quality. Some slight differences in smells or different blends but between the 3, the quality is the same.
Have you used these brands? What did you notice?
What company has my family chosen?
Right now we are trying out revive BECAUSE it is affordable for our situation. Revive seems great and I would recommend it! But I am a bit weary because I do not like new companies. I like companies that have been around so that I can see the research and personal testimonies of years and years of good health.
So because of that we have kept our account and we continue to use Young Living. Check out more at Young living.
Right now I would recommend using Young living until Revive proves to be legit.
Here is a link to JOIN Young living today!
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I want to hear from you!
- Do you use essential oils?
- What brand do you use and why?
- What is your favourite oil and how do you use it?
Let me know in the comments below!
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8805113
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22517298
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25612776
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24720812
Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash
Re-think-health 
Your doing a great job Daniel addressing lifes issues with health.
Thankyou, Lynn
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