Essential Oils and Health

I had a wonderful experience yesterday, attending the Fall 2017 Wellness and Spirituality Fair at Algomah Acres Honey House Meadery in Greenland. I had the opportunity to showcase our line of oils and hydrosols, and meet many new people. Our oils received some great personal reviews, though to list them all in an anecdotal fashion seems excessive. Needless to say, I spent the entire day speaking with people about essential oils. 

Which brings me to the topic of this post. Something that I found very interesting over the course of the day, was the number of people who asked me, in one manner or another, what I recommended my oils be used for. This was the question posed by close to half of the people I spoke with. My answer, without exception, is that I do not make recommendations about the use(s) of these oils. As I stated repeatedly yesterday, I simply make some wonderful oils, what you choose to do with them is entirely up to you. While some may consider this an evasion, I do not. The reason I attended the fair was I believed, (and my beliefs were not unfounded) there would be many in attendance who had their own ideas regarding the use of essential oils.

Which brings me to another issue, this one a favorite pet peeve. Health education. As many of you know, I am an educator, a professor of psychiatric nursing in a BSN program, and an RN. I teach students the importance of patient education. In my opinion, the only way a patient can make sound decisions regarding their health is through quality education. One of the prominent features of healthcare consumers in the US is lack of knowledge regarding their own health. The consequences are significant, both in personal health outcomes, and national morbidity and mortality rates. The endless stream of anecdotal health information US consumers are bombarded with is both staggering and detrimental.

Which brings us full circle back to essential oils and health. Are essential oils beneficial to health? History, and a huge amount of contemporary anecdotal evidence would suggest they are. They also present several risks worthy of mentioning. The first of these, which can be problematic with many unproven alternative, or holistic, approaches to health, is encouraging a patient to self treat when traditional medicine has something clearly more beneficial to offer. The second, is that many essential oils are very powerful, even potentially toxic, compounds. The Northern White Cedar oil we produce is a great example. Distilled White Cedar oil contains approximately 70% thujone and it's derivatives. Consumed in sufficient quantities, thujone can be poisonous. So how could I possibly begin to recommend it's use, in a wide variety of individuals, none either assessed or diagnosed, and with an endless list of potential maladies? Can't be done. 

So how should one decide on how to use it? Education. Research. There is a wide array of information available, some professional and research quality, much anecdotal. But the point remains, the information is available. If you seek to employ essential oils in your health practices, it would be prudent to seek better information than the opinions of various vendors/providers who benefit from the sales of the oils you are considering. Below are a few links to material to assist with improving your knowledge regarding our White Cedar oil. One is historical, one medicinal. There is much information out there if you seek it out.

https://druidgarden.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/sacred-tree-profile-eastern-white-cedar-thuja-occidentalis/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1062158/

I had to laugh this morning as my wife and I were discussing the events of yesterday over coffee. She jokingly (she is also an RN) made an off the cuff comment to the effect I was becoming a "snake oil salesman." To read the history of the term, unfortunately, the parallels exist. The difference being I do not, and will not, make claims as to the health benefits of these oils. I will simply continue to distill what I believe, are clearly the best quality oils available.