What Are Essential Oils?

Yesterday I was talking to a woman who was telling me she seeks out alternatives in health care. She sees a Chinese herbalist regularly who gives her bags of green leaves ("Maybe he just pulls them from his backyard, I don't know." she said) to take home and brew into tea. He also gives her powdered herbs.I told her my sister-in-law uses Chinese herbal medicine and techniques at her health clinic and that she uses tinctures of herbs for her patients: special herbal tonics in small brown bottles with an eye dropper.

I asked her if she uses essential oils, too. "What are those?" she asked.

 I thought everybody knew!

So I explained it simply to her:

Essential oils are extracts from aromatic plants.They are liquids that are extracted from plants usually by steam distillation. These liquids are the essences of the plant and have many medicinal properties. People have been using plants as medicine for  thousands of years. They are very potent. You just need a drop or two.

I did not tell her much more but I gave her my card...maybe she will read this blog. I hope so! I should have explained for example that 1 drop of peppermint oil is equal to 28 cups of peppermint tea. Mostly everyone knows peppermint is good for settling the stomach. As is ginger. It would seem to me the quickest easiest thing to do is use essential oils for common maladies.

There is a BIG revival of interest in and use of essential oils now and I believe it is because of the 2 big essential oil companies out of Utah: DoTERRA and Young Living. They are multi level marketing corporations and have as their goals to educate the consumer and offer excellent essential oils at fair prices. They have great compensation plans for anyone who desires to earn money and put in some time sharing these oils and signing people up so they can receive wholesale prices and other benefits. These companies and those people who are signing up daily to join them..are spreading the word and fast! Soon every home will have a collection of basic essential oils to rely on for easing symptoms of illness, preventing illness, relieving stress and.....MORE!

There are lots of blogs, lots of youtube tutorials and lots of articles and sites on the Internet now about essential oils and testimonials of how they have miraculously helped people. More and more scientific studies are being published now that prove the efficacy of certain oils for certain conditions.

It is a wonderful topic of study for any plant lover and for anyone interested in being healthy and having a better quality of life, mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually.