Therapeutic-Grade Essential Oils vs.
Snake Oils
by Caleb Eaton
Here’s a visual way to understand one significant
difference between a true essential oil and most of
the other stuff on the market today.
Let’s first look at water--H2O--one atom of oxygen
and two hydrogen. This in itself is small enough to
be permeable to the skin. But we seldom see water in
that form. Usually dozens and hundreds of water molecules
are strung together. It’s still water, but the longer
the chain, the less effectively it absorbs through
the skin (or intestinal wall) into the body. It’s sort
of like trying to sweep pine needles through the cracks
of a wooden deck. It can be done, but it is much easier
if the pine needles are broken into small pieces. There
are health products that claim to break down long-chain
water into short-chain water so it is absorbed into
the body more efficiently. In a way, it is “more nutritious” water.
(I prefer to use a few drops of YL oil in my water,
such as lemon, orange, tangerine, grapefruit, Citrus
Fresh, peppermint, cinnamon, cassia, Thieves, etc.
I’m not certain that it has the same effect, but I
suspect it does. And I know I’m getting the therapeutic
effects of the oils. I also know that essential oils “digest” petrochemicals,
hence the residues of plastic water bottles are gobbled
up. The chlorine of tap water is neutralized in much
the same way.)
Now think of essential oil molecules as the individual
water molecule. By nature, it does not chain together
like water. The easy way to know this is because of
the aroma. Open a bottle of peppermint and the molecules
don’t just sit there...they jump out of the bottle
and begin filling the room.
How small are they? In his book, Healing Oils of the
Bible, David Stewart explains that there are enough
molecules in one drop of essential oil to divide 40,000
of them among each and every cell of your body. Considering
their volatility and frequency (highest of any natural
substance), you can easily see why an essential oil
applied anywhere on the body will be in every cell
within minutes.
Let’s consider oils sold by most companies. Aromatherapists
trained under the British model learn that applying
essential oils neet (undiluted) is very dangerous.
This fear is appropriate considering that they use
adulterated, perfume grade oils. Before therapeutic-grade
oils readily available to the masses, this was the
only thing there was to work with. Adulterated means
that synthetic (dangerous) ingredients are added to
give an oil a consistent smell--something very important
to the perfume industry. Besides consistency, adulteration
is also convenient when an oil comes from a crop that
is harvested too early or late in the day or during
the wrong season when the therapeutic constituent of
the plant is low. Or when the plants are distilled
at too high of pressure and heat because volume takes
precedence over therapeutic value. So, with adulteration,
you end-up with a dangerous, synthetic substance attached
to a highly effective delivery agent--an essential
oil. Yes, if this type of essential oil is used, it
is very important to dilute it with a fatty vegetable
oil.
So let’s look at fatty oils. Their chains of molecules
are huge. Although a minute potion may be absorbed
into the body when placed on the skin, it mostly just
sits there and, unless you wash it off, you smell rancid
the next day. Imagine a few tiny molecules of essential
oil stuck within the folds of these gigantic, fat molecules
of olive oil. There is a much better chance that they
will escape into the air than there is that they will
be absorbed by the body. Hence, it becomes relatively
safe to use the dangerous essential synthetic oils
that non-YL aromatherapists use.
Folks, if you ever go to one of these people, just
get a plain old massage. That might have some real
benefit. But don’t kid yourself that the oil rubdown
is doing anything worthwhile.
When you see the $5 bottle of so-called essential
oil in the health food store that is twice the size
of YL bottles and a quarter the price, you can have
a good chuckle. The value of what’s in the YL bottle
is not comparable to what’s in that other bottle...literally.
It’s not hundreds of times better. Not thousands. How
can you compare the value of something that is good
for you versus that of something that is bad for you
but has a similar smell?
But feel free to get that $5 bottle of oil. Let’s
says it’s lavender. You can do some interesting comparisons
with undiluted therapeutic-grade lavender. Smell each
of them, one at a time. You virtually have to shove
the $5 bottle up your nose in order to smell it. Yet,
if you breath in therapeutic-grade lavender with your
nose too close to the bottle, the aroma is so strong
and full that you’re likely to burn your sinuses--the
molecules are bursting out of the bottle.
On another day, enlist an assistant (this will be
a great learning experience for kids) and use two different
rooms of similar size. The assistant will take the
$5 oil into room #1 and close the door behind himself/herself
and open the bottle. You wait 60seconds, then barge
in and note the smell--if anything. Leave quickly so
that your sense of smell won’t adapt. After a few minutes
when your sense of smell has neutralized, do the same
in a second room with the therapeutic-grade oil.
A third experiment is to get an empty bottle that
is the same size as the $5 bottle of oil. Put 10 drops
of therapeutic-grade lavender into it and then fill
the rest of the bottle with a vegetable oil. This may
be all it takes to make an oil with the aromatic strength
of the $5 bottle. If the therapeutic-grade combo is
weaker, add a few more drops until the two smells are
close in strength. (The two smells will never be identical--one
is true, the other is synthetic.) Considering that
there are roughly 285 drops a lavender essential oil
in a 15ml bottle, you are now able to make dozens and
dozens of your own $5 bottles of oils if you so desire.
We begin to realize just how diluted (and useless)
the original $5 oil is. No matter that it says Grade
A, 100% Pure, or even therapeutic-grade. It is perfectly
legal for companies to market as such because these
terms have very little meaning by FDA standards. The
only way to know that you are getting something of
therapeutic quality is to look for AFNOR on the bottle.
Oh! By the way, when finished experimenting with that
original $5 bottle of oil, it makes great ant poison.
:)
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