The Healing Power of Therapeutic-Grade Essential Oils

Not long ago, you'd hear about it regularly in the news: Reports that indicated just how vulnerable we were to a growing number of threats to our health.  From AIDS to Epstein Barr to Lyme's disease to deadly food bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella, the list of pathogens just seemed to keep getting longer.  You've heard of them:

• the mutant, tissue-destroying Streptococcus bacterium,
• the fatigue-causing Cytomegalovirus,
• the deadly Hantavirus,
• the nearly invisible parasites like Cryptosporidium and Giardia,
• deadly new drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis,
• SARS,
• the frightening new outbreaks of "airport Malaria" and mosquito-borne Dengue hemorrhagic fever.

And while you don't hear about the dangers in the same terms today (the politics and money have focused the media's attention elsewhere for the time being), with globalization, some of the microbes we're exposed to are quite exotic; some deadly, others devastating to the quality of life.  The world is becoming a dangerous place in which to live.

A serious situation, but there is hope

Is the situation serious?

Yes.

Today, what used to be a simple illness — like the flu — is now potentially lethal, even to otherwise healthy people.  New antibiotic-resistant bacteria and viral infections that are being imported from all over the world are making it increasingly dangerous for anyone, of any age, to be sick.  And with complications, like pneumonia, that weaken an already sick person, the situation is even worse.

Is there a way to deal with this?

Yes.

This report will introduce you to the powerful healing potential of pure, therapeutic-grade essential oils — possibly the most potent, highly effective, immune-boosting, disease-fighting substances ever discovered in nature.

Essential oils and healing

In 1996, D. Gary Young made the following statement.

The use of essential oils dates back to ancient times, but there has never been a time when essential oils are more needed than today.

The world is facing a medical disaster.  Modern technology has produced the jet aircraft, which can be the instrument of transferring contagious disease around the world in hours.  Fortunately, there are answers that provide a way for us to protect ourselves, our families and friends from these dangers.

Research has shown that, with their immune-stimulating properties, essential oils can dramatically enhance and support the building of the immune system, whether they are inhaled or rubbed on the body topically.  Even those who contract a cold or the flu can recover 70% faster using essential oils.

Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D., one of the leading figures in natural health and wellness, said this in 1996:

I expect that essential oils may some day prove a vital weapon in the fight against strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.  Lavender, thyme and tea-tree oils have been used for centuries as antiseptics; their chemical compounds appear to kill microbes on contact.

Terry Friedmann, M.D., Co-Founder of the American Holistic Medical Association said, in 1993:

[A]romatherapy [that is, the therapeutic use of essential oils] is one of the most powerful yet safe healing modalities we have today.  It should be considered much more in healing.

My feeling, my own philosophy, is that we should have more freedom to use natural, God-given products, like essential oils, over pharmaceutical drugs.  The reason is obvious: the less side-effects we see, the better it is for the patient.  And many pharmaceutical drugs, being of an unnatural nature and processed to such a degree, we lose some of the benefits and get a lot of side-effects.

Historical evidences of the power of essential oils

Texts and artifacts from ancient China, India, Egypt and Europe are replete with references to the healing and protective properties of essential oils.

During the Black Plague of the 17th century, "those in closest contact with aromatics, especially the perfumers, were virtually immune" (Tisserand, 1977).  In fact, " … in Toulouse, a band of thieves is alleged to have stripped and robbed the bodies of plague victims without coming to harm themselves, thanks to an aromatic compound of vinegar, cloves, sage, marjoram, rosemary, juniper and camphor — all known and used in aromatherapy for their antibacterial properties" (Davis, 1995).

During this plague, the town of Bucklersbury, England was almost untouched, while residents of other towns in close proximity were dying in droves.  How could this be?  Because Bucklersbury was the center of the European lavender trade, and lavender has long been know to possess powerful disease-fighting properties.

Dr. Jean Valnet, M.D., a French physician largely responsible for the re-emergence of aromatherapy as a healing art in modern times, notes that

… the idea of using [the properties of essential oils] to maintain or regain health goes back to antiquity.  The Romans had their knowledge of essential oils from the Greeks, who in turn had received it from the Egyptians.  Hippocrates, for example, tackled the plague epidemic in Athens by fumigating the whole city with aromatic essences of plant oils.  Later, in the 19th century, it is known that perfumery workers always showed an almost complete immunity during cholera outbreaks.

In light of today's modern plagues, and the utter failure of our 20th century "wonder drugs" to stop them, could it be that these completely natural, historically-tested substances are the answer to our urgent need for enhanced immunity?

A complex tapestry of aromatic compounds

Modern science has identified over 30,000 of the aromatic molecules that make up various essential oils.  Even so, scientists readily admit that they have only scratched the surface in identifying and cataloguing them.

Consider this: A single essential oil can contain up to 800 different chemical constituents.  This is one reason why the vast number of therapeutic actions of even a single essential oil are not yet fully understood.

The three primary elements of all essential oils are hydrogen, carbon and oxygen.  However, essential oils contain a tremendous number of other powerful chemical groups, including alcohols, phenols, esters, ethers, oxides, coumarins, sesquiterpenes, terpinols, ketones and aldehydes.  These chemical constituents, and the sub-compounds they are made up of, are what give the essential oils many of their most amazing healing properties.

Many scientists believe that, over the course of the next decade, some of these chemical constituents of the various essential oils will help bring a halt to the burgeoning epidemic of chronic degenerative disease now plaguing this country.  Among the diseases being looked at include cancer, arthritis, heart disease, chronic fatigue, multiple sclerosis and more.

Special healing properties of essential oils

Many essential oils provide exceptional support again infectious agents; but, " … unlike conventional antibiotic drugs, essential oils are 'probiotic': they kill pathogenic bacteria, but tend to leave beneficial bacteria intact.  Finally, bacteria typically do not acquire resistance to essential oils, as they so often due to antibiotic drugs" (Keville and Green, 1995).  And, instead of just working against pathogens, " … some oils … stimulate the immune functions" (Friedmann, 1995).  This is vitally important, since a sterilized world creates its own health problems.

Equally important, pathogenic microorganisms don't become resistant to essential oils, as they do to modern day synthetic drugs.  Dr. Valnet says, "The body cannot become 'habituated' in the pejorative sense of the word — i.e., no longer able to derive any benefit — to the oils anymore than it can become habituated to pure mountain air or personal hygiene.  The results remain the same; they do not lessen over any length of time."

And, unlike many of today's most popular antiseptic chemicals, essential oils don't harm human tissue.  As Dr. Valnet writes, "Essential oils are especially valuable as antiseptics because their aggression towards microbial germs is matched by their total harmlessness to tissue — one of the chief defects of chemical antiseptics is that they are likely to be as harmful to the cells of the organism as to the cause of the disease."

What is more, the beneficial effects of essential oils can often be felt almost immediately.  Incredible as it may seem, recent research has shown that essential oils, when placed anywhere on the body, will reach every cell of the body within 20 minutes (Young, 1995).  They will almost instantly penetrate a fingernail or toenail to reach fungus underneath.  This stands in marked contrast to the average of 13 to 23 hours for the therapeutic constituents of dried herbs to reach the cells of the body following ingestion.

What's more, essential oils are extremely concentrated.  When properly extracted, the oils contain virtually all of the plant's healing nutrients, oxygenating molecules, amino acid precursors, coenzyme A factors, trace minerals, enzymes, vitamins and more.  And because essential oils are so highly concentrated, they can be many, many times more potent than the herbs or plants from which they are derived.

The successful applications of therapeutic-grade essential oils are so varied and so great, the list of healing benefits literally boggles the mind.  Their therapeutic properties are far too numerous to fully describe here, because there are literally thousands of chemical compounds and sub-compounds in the different essential oils, each of which has its own therapeutic actions on the human body.

The healing power of essential oil frequency

The effectiveness of essential oils can't be fully understood without some discussion of their frequency.

Frequency is the measurable rate of electrical flow that is constant between any two points.  Everything has frequency.  Dr. Robert O. Becker, in his book The Body Electric, established that much about a person's health is determined by the frequencies of the person's body (Becker, 1985).

Research has shown that, when the frequency of the human body drops substantially, it indicates that the immune system has been compromised.  This echoes the principle suggested in earlier research by Royal Raymond Rife, in which various microbes were measured for their unique frequencies and killed with the administration of higher frequencies.

This is important because therapeutic-grade essential oils have the highest frequencies in the natural world.  (By contrast, poorly distilled oils are essentially inert.  They may have much of the same chemical composition, but don't have the ability to affect any therapeutic action.)  Their high electrical frequencies appear to be related to their ability to kill even the most virulent forms of pathogenic microorganisms, and boost the immune system of the human body.  For example, Dr. Valnet states that the essential oil of clove "has been found to have electronic constituents which are opposed to cancer and to virus diseases."

With essential oils, quality is everything

In order to realize any of these amazing benefits from your use of essential oils, you must use truly therapeutic-grade oils.  Poorer quality oils just will not provide the same therapeutic benefits.  In some cases, they can be quite harmful.

Let's face it: not all essential oils are created equal.  In fact, many, if not most, of the essential oils on the market today are what's called "perfume quality" oil.  Usually found at health food stores or sold through discount mail order suppliers, most of these are over-processed, chemical-laden, highly adulterated and de-natured products that, in reality, are little more than cheap perfume made from various odorous plants.  They contain little or none of the beneficial therapeutic qualities of pure essential oils.

Of course, generally speaking, consumers are totally unaware of this.  The oils smell nice to them, so they assume they provide the benefits they're seeking.  They really can't be faulted for this belief; many of those selling these oils may have no idea either.  Unfortunately, it's only when you get the oil home and use it that you find out that it's completely devoid of therapeutic benefits.

Pure, unadulterated therapeutic-grade essential oils are very difficult to come by, and are often quite expensive.  This is why many marketers sell oils that are diluted and/or adulterated.  Often, this problem starts at the source.  Buyers for oil distributors, who are not adequately trained in oil chemistry, purchase inexpensive oils in large quantities, thinking they're getting decent oil.  These poor-quality, denatured oils are then re-bottled in smaller quantities for sale to the public at steep mark-ups.

The gold standard for quality oils, suitable for true aromatherapy purposes, is AFNOR.  There's only one essential oil producer in North America that sells AFNOR-certified oils.  It's oils are produced from plant sources organically grown on virgin land from select seeds, watered with mountain spring water, harvested with exacting detail to the effects of time, moisture and temperature, and distilled on-site, using a patented, low-temperature, low-pressure distilling technology, to ensure an oil that contains all of the healing constituents.  Distilled in small batches, each batch is quarantined and tested in an independent, AFNOR-certified lab for quality.  Only then are the oils made available to the public.  (Learn more about the production methods here.)

Today, with the growing threat of deadly super-bugs, you can safeguard your health, and the health of your loved ones, with the powerful therapeutic and immune-stimulating properties of essential oils.  They are a simple and extremely pleasurable way to stay healthy in an increasingly unhealthy world.