Essential Oils
Essential oils represent nature in its purest form. Extracted from the bark, flowers, fruit, leaves, nut, resin, or roots of plants just one drop contains a complex array of phytochemicals that deliver what seems to be countless benefits to the body.
Used medicinally for thousands of years, the healing power of these oils rests in their ability to promote homeostasis; essentially empowering your body to achieve an inner balance required to heal itself. It should be no wonder that the scientific community has begun to take note as thousands upon thousands of peer-reviewed studies have recently been published in medical journals evaluating their effectiveness.
With such a global emphasis on healthy eating and using natural therapies like supplements the past several years, one may assume that essential oils would now be common place. Interestingly, this is not the case. It’s actually quite shocking to learn how many people are still uncertain as to what essential oils really are.
In the coming years, the understanding of how to use essential oils safely and effectively will no doubt become common knowledge similar to how the heightened awareness of eating gluten-free has become “mainstream.” Until then, each person will find themselves on a unique journey to becoming enlightened to the healing power of essential oils, which will transform the way they look at health forever.
Dr. Z’s & Mama Z’s Transformation
For Mama Z her essential oil transformation happened at the onset of a horrible accident. When she was 14 years old, she suffered a chemical reaction from a conventional facial cleaner that literally burned off the first few layers of skin from her nose to her neck. Painful oozing sores covered her face and nothing she did seemed to help. She tried everything from over-the-counter to pharmaceutical creams, but to no avail.
It wasn’t until she asked her mom’s close friend, a Cherokee Indian who practiced Ojibwa medicine, who recommended a lavender oil-based ointment, that she received relief (and healing!) and she’s been using essential oils faithfully ever since.
Dr. Z, on the other hand, is actually a late bloomer compared to Mama Z when it comes to using essential oils. A medical writer at the time, one of his clients commissioned him in 2013 to write a series of public health reports about essential oils. That’s when he had his “aha” moment.
“I got lost in the literature,” he wrote in his book The Healing Power of Essential Oils (Harmony Books), and after “studying countless peer-reviewed studies, I was floored when I read the clinical research that supported the efficacy of essential oils as a viable option to treat chronic conditions like cancer, hypertension, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, not to mention mental illnesses like addiction, anxiety, depression, and stress.”