6 Ways to Use Essential Oils to Improve Your Health

6 Ways to Use Essential Oils:

People have been known to use essential oils for thousands of years for their healing and purifying effects on the body.  There are 188 references to these precious oils in the Bible.  They have always held extreme value by ancient doctors and medicine men that used them for aromatherapy, consumption, and skin application.  Research has now revealed the remarkable healing properties within these essential oils.  This article will go through 6 ways to use essential oils to improve your health.

Essential oils are powerful anti-oxidant concentrates (1, 2, 3).  These come from raw plant material such as flowers, leaves, wood, bark, roots, seeds and peels.  These plant ingredients are put into a distiller and placed over water.  As the water is heated, the steam penetrates the plant material and vaporizes the volatile compounds.  These vapors then travel through a coil and condense back to a liquid which is collected in a receiving vessel.

Although there are many powerful essential oils some of the best include lemon, orange, cinnamon and clove.  The citrus essential oils have very unique properties that enhance microcirculation throughout the body.  Cinnamon and clove are the most anti-oxidant dense EO’s.   These oils can be diluted in water, used for aromatherapy or put on the skin surface to derive the benefits.

Citrus Essential Oils

Lemon and orange essential oils come from the peels themselves and have very powerful anti-microbial properties that reduce the growth of pathogenic bacteria, viruses and fungi (4, 5).

They also contain concentrated forms of citrus bioflavonoids known as Vitamin P.  This improves microcirculation into deep capillary beds to enhance tissue oxygenation.  This helps the body respond to stress and recover from exercise more effectively (6, 7).

This function of enhanced circulation also makes it especially useful for promoting healthy skin care.  It is known to help cleanse skin, shed off dead skin cells and reduce wrinkles.  Other benefits include brightening pale, dull complexions and enhancing the quality and smoothness of the skin.

Profound Benefits of Lemon Essential Oil:

Lemon oil is cold-pressed from the lemon rind.  Experts like Dr. Jean Valnet estimates that it takes about 3,000 lemons to produce one kilo of oil.  Dr. Valnet also believes the EO’s of lemon have adaptogenic qualities that support and balance the body’s natural stress response.  This reduces the cortisol cascade and the overall negative effects of stress on the bodily systems.

According to Alva’s Ayurveda Medical College assistant professor Dr. J.V. Hebbar, the benefits of lemon include:

• Cleansing and Purification
• Oral Health and Improves Halitosis (bad breath)
• Digestion
• Thirst Quencher
• Improves abdominal colic pain
• Helps Relieve Cough Symptoms
• Calms Stomach and Helps Relieve Nausea
• Prevents Malabsorption
• Improves Digestion
• Nourishes the Skin
• Promotes Weight loss

Orange Essential Oil:

Orange EO is known to be a powerful anti-spasmodic.  This refers to its ability to reduce muscular spasms by providing mega-doses of electrolytes and citrus bioflavonoids that enhance circulation into the muscular system (8, 9).  This process draws out metabolic waste that irritates the neuromuscular system and sets off spasmodic attacks.

Orange is also a carminative, meaning that it helps remove gas from the intestines.  The citrus bioflavonoids in the orange help to relax the abdominal wall to improve digestion and help eliminate gas.  This oil is also a natural diuretic in that it promotes the toxic release of excess uric acid, bile, pollutants and water through urination.

Clove & Cinnamon Essential Oils: 

Clove and cinnamon essential oils are the greatest antioxidant density.  Two drops of essential oil of clove and four drops of cinnamon oil have the antioxidant capacity of 5lbs of carrots, 2.5 quarts of carrot juice, 10 oranges, 20 ounces of orange juice, 2.5 lbs of beets, 1 pint of beet juice, 4 cups of raspberries or 2.5 cups of blueberries (10, 11).

Cinnamon is known for its ability to enhance insulin receptor site activity.   This is especially important because it reduces the amount of insulin in the bloodstream.  This strongly contributes to stable blood sugar, enhanced fat metabolism and decreased cellular inflammation (12).

6 Ways to Use Essential Oils:

These oils are also known for their powerful anti-microbial effects, immune boosting properties and enhancing brain function.  These oils can be consumed by simply putting a drop or two in water.  Some of these such as clove oil are extremely harsh and therefore challenging to consume.  Be sure to add plenty of water to dilute the volatile components and make it easier to swallow.

They can also be put on the skin to nourish the skin and provide antioxidants into the microcirculation just below the skin surface.  Finally, you can use essential oils as a form of aromatherapy by smelling and breathing in their fragrances.  There are many great scents, and you can check this white tea & thyme scent out which has many great health benefits.

My Wife Loves These Oils:

After meeting me, my wife has really gotten into natural beauty, aromatherapy and natural healing methods.  She has recently been studying strategies to use essential oils. In case you missed my wife’s article about toxic beauty products that we published last fall, check it out here.  You will be AMAZED at how many dangerous chemicals people are putting on their face and body each and every day!

As a family we have switched much of our hygiene products to use essential oil based natural products.  We absolutely LOVE using these plant based oils to:

Sources For This Article Include:

1. Antioxidant Activity of Essential_Oils Link Here

2. Miguel MG. Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of essential oils: a short review. Molecules. 2010 Dec 15;15(12):9252-87. PMID: 21160452

3. Bakkali F, Averbeck S, Averbeck D, Idaomar M. Biological effects of essential oils–a review. Food Chem Toxicol. 2008 Feb;46(2):446-75. PMID: 17996351

4. Waikedre J, Dugay A, Barrachina I, Herrenknecht C, Cabalion P, Fournet A. Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of the essential oils from New Caledonian Citrus macroptera and Citrus hystrix. Chem Biodivers. 2010 Apr;7(4):871-7. PMID: 20397222

5. O’Bryan CA, Crandall PG, Chalova VI, Ricke SC. Orange essential_oils antimicrobial activities against Salmonella spp. J Food Sci. 2008 Aug;73(6):M264-7. PMID: 19241555

6. Garg A, Garg S, Zaneveld LJ, Singla AK. Chemistry and pharmacology of the Citrus bioflavonoid hesperidin. Phytother Res. 2001 Dec;15(8):655-69. PMID: 11746857

7. Li C, Schluesener H. Health-promoting Effects of the Citrus Flavanone Hesperidin. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2015 Feb 12:0. PMID: 25675136

8. Concentrations of Hesperidin and Other Orange Peel Flavonoids in Citrus Processing Byproducts. Link Here

9. Research Gate – Chemical composition of orange oil concentrates Link Here

10. Science Direct – Antioxidant activity of clove oil – A powerful antioxidant source Link Here

11.  Characterization of antioxidant and antimicrobial compounds of cinnamon and ginger essential_oils. Link Here

12. Talpur N, Echard B, Ingram C, Bagchi D, Preuss H. Effects of a novel formulation of essential_oils on glucose-insulin metabolism in diabetic and hypertensive rats: a pilot study. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2005 Mar;7(2):193-9. PMID: 15715893