Troubleshooting Effectiveness of Essential Oils

Troubleshooting Effectiveness of Essential Oils

It's aggravating to follow instructions in a book, and not get the results you're after. "What's wrong?" you ask. "Do I have poor quality oil? Where the instructions wrong? Was I missing something?" You go to the internet and find the same instructions in a dozen places. "I guess essential oils just don't work for me." you conclude.

It would be a tragedy for you to reach that conclusion, because they do work, and they work wonderfully.

Instead, let's trouble shoot some of the reasons this one trial may have not worked for you so you don't give up on essential oils entirely.

What Could Have Gone Wrong?

Poor-Quality Oils

Please search for the posting on Essential Oil Quality, to help you recognize if the oils you've purchased are Clinically reliable.

Poor-Quality Advice
There is a lot of information on the internet that has been copied and pasted from the original books on essential oils by Tisserand, Worwood, Lawless, Davis, and others. Much of it is written of what Dr Penoel calls, "timid, English-style aromatherapy." Many of the dilutions recommended are just not strong enough to do the job. They may have some minor effect, but not what you would expect in a clinical setting.

Then there are the books and websites that give instructions and promise results that make no sense if you understand how essential oils actually work. You see instructions for curing cancer and other serious diseases that are way beyond the capacity of essential oils. This kind of advice hurts the industry and lowers the confidence of those who trust us to deliver results. The scientists come to disrespect us so they won't conduct trials of essential oils, and we have trouble convincing anyone to try our convincing and logical instructions.

The Clinical use of essential oils has grown tremendously over the last 3 decades. As people try the instructions and therapies recommended by experts, they begin to focus on sharing those that work and ignoring those that don't. The Internet is a tool we can use to help each other honest and verify the value what is recommended.

We offer several valuable tools to help you identify those instructions that are most likely to consistently work for you.

* Ratings, We show ratings by Marcel Lavabre and by Dr Penoel on therapies and oils that they indicate are most affective and powerful. You'll see +++++P for Dr Penoels ratings for L'Aromatherapie Exactement or +++++L for Lavabre's ratings in Aromatherapy Workbook.
* You'll see a larger volume of research and more success stories centered around certain therapies and certain oils.
* You're always going to have more consistent and reliable success with the main essential oils -- tea tree, peppermint, lavender, basil, geranium, lemon, oregano, etc. -- simply because they've proven themselves over and over for multiple uses. That doesn't mean that other lesser-known oils aren't going to be just as effective or possibly even more effective. It just means that the more common oils have had more opportunity to prove themselves and their instructions.

Too Little Oil

The "timid" English aromatherapists have cautiously written many volumes of frightening advice about the dangers of using too much essential oil in a blend. They use the word "poison" a lot and forbid many oils for children and pregnancy that have been clinically proven to be safe. In a way they have done the industry a service because many medical professionals in England have embraced their "timid" approach to aromatherapy. It's largely used for aromatic calming, and incidental help for various conditions, and for those purposes a tiny drop of essential oils can go a long way. In such timid dilutions the quality of the essential oils are not that critical, and the timid results are still real.
However, the medical, clinical, French approach to essential oils use has proven itself safe and highly effective all over the world. Dr Penooel PhD, and others have trained professionals like Jane Buckle PhD, RN, and Ron Guba, and Kurt Schnaubelt who frankly feel that the timid approach doesn't take advantage of all the essential oils have to offer. Millions all over the world are trying essential oils and finding them safe and effective for in-home use in 50:50 dilutions and in capsules as they are recommended. They are verifying quality claims and endorsing the bolder clinical use of Clinical quality essential oils. Competition is also helping us fine the truth of the matter.

Too Much Oil

You wouldn't put a Tablespoon of salt in a 1/2 cup of water for an eye wash. It's too much. It would do harm. You need a saline solution that matches the salinity of tears. The same is true for essential oils. They are powerful an highly concentrated. So, when you're taking them in teas, water, and recipes, you'll need to use some care in regulate the amount of oil you're using.
There is a misconception we all share at one time or another that tells us if a little works well, then more must be better. IN matters of flavoring and many safety issues exacting the opposite is often true.

Take Peppermint, for example. It has a cooling action and can be highly effective in a spray for sunburn. But putting Peppermint straight on a second-degree burn (sunburn) would be a big mistake. In it's undiluted, highly concentrated state, it is no longer cooling but rather irritating. It's too much.
If you're application of essential oil didn't work as well for you as you expected, you may want to check the instruction and adjust the quantity in your blend. This can make a big difference in some applications. For example, diffusing more than 20 drops of an essential oil is too much for your brain and your lungs to take at one time. Using undiluted powerful essential oils like oregano, cinnamon, or thyme all over your face for acne would be dangerous and likely to do harm. You also wouldn't slather undiluted oregano all over your body to get rid of moles, or even diluted oregano. But these strong oils in careful dilution, applied judiciously, offer outstanding clinical benefits.

Expecting Results too Quickly

Beware of your mindset where essential oils are concerned. If you are too focused on the allopathic mindset because of using over the counter OTC drugs, you may miss the outstanding benefits of essential oils. For example: the holistic model that Dr Penoel teaches recommends that when we have a respiratory infection, we don't want to stop the flow of mucous. We want to get it out of the way as quickly as possible so we can accomplish a deep and permanent healing. The over the counter, synthetic drugs will dry up and clog up the mucous -- preventing deep healing and actually extending the disease and giving it a better chance of returning later on.

Our personal experience with Dr Penoel's healing of upper respiratory infections is this: if we act quickly, and apply all the therapies he recommends, the symptoms are very manageable we can work full days with a full-time job throughout the whole illness, and a few days later come out more energetic than before.

Essential oils often work slower than the allopathic drugs, but they work more thoroughly and permanently to restore balance, energy and vitality.

With this in mind, it's important to remember Dr Penoel's advice to continue with his therapies for several days after symptoms are gone. This prevents what he calls "morbid transfer", which is having the infection transfer to other organs for more serious manifestations. Or, it prevents the disease from returning again too soon. Be patient with essential oils. They are safe, they are pleasurable to use, and they provide deep and lasting healing.

Here's another rule of thumb he uses for thorough healing. When you have suffered with a condition for many years, it may take you one month of serious therapy to clean up a year of damage to your body. For example, if you have suffered with a chronic headache for 5 yrs, it may take you 5 months of serious cleansing to rid yourself of them. A quick symptomatic headache remedy, like Peppermint on the temples, may provide some relief, but if you want to be free of the headaches entirely, you will need to pay the price. There are many conditions of this nature that only a deep cleansing with multiple instructions can accomplish. You can't expect to permanently undo serious damage with a single, quick fix.

Allopathic medicines are most often designed to control the symptoms, not permanently cure the ailment. They are not capable of accomplishing the kind of deep healing that many of these essential oils can. But we must be patient and obey instructions to get long-lasting and even permanent results.

Expecting Results That Cannot Be Delivered

This is an error that many of the books and website fall into. We have read the books, attended many lectures, and listened to many so-called experts who claim to cure things that simply cannot be cured with essential oils. Yet, because they want to sell more oils, they persist in holding out hope and selling large quantities of oils to people desperate to believe their stories.

Dr Penoal PhD, has a lot of experience with this in his clinic because he is often contacted as the medical professional of last resort when all allopathic treatment and drugs have failed. It's often a cancer that has spread too far or people who have lost their eyesight and their limbs to diabetes. So much could have been done using essential oils for prevention earlier in their lives, but the best use of essential oils for these people is calming them while they await the inevitable or make it through surgeries. the alloppathic route or even some other alternative routes are the best route for them to take at these serious stages of degenerative disease.

As Dr Jane Buckle PhD, RN, says, essential oils will not grow a new valve in your heart, but they will certainly make a valuable contribution to your calming and healing after the surgery. And that alone could save your life.

If you were disappointed by a recommendation that you thought promised a cure, you may want to revisit the actual promise. The oil recommended for your heart condition may have merely been "palliative" for calming you and helping your body recover after surgery. Many books merely use medical terms that arehard to understand like "vulnerary" (wound healing capability) or "carminative " (eliminating gas). But they don't indicate how reliablle the action or what you should actually expect. The effect may be relatively mild, and some other therapy may be far superior.

If there is virtually no evidence-based research behind the claims, then you're probably not going to experience the results you expect. At least start by trying therapies that have plenty of anecdotal evidence borne out in clinical practice of which there are a great many.

That's why we have inserted Dr Penoels rankings of therapies and effectiveness of various treatments because they represent clinical and vitro findings by actual medical chemists and licensed medical doctors.

Sensitivity

The likelihood of an allergic reaction to a natural substance like an essential oil is much more remote than an allergic reaction to synthetic substances in typical massage lotions. But, if you have any hint that you may be allergic to any topically applied substance (hair dye, lotions, acetone, etcc) or if you get hay fever, asthma, or other allergic reactions, it may be wise to try a patch test.
Dr Jane Buckle (PhD, RN) suggests that you double the strength of the dilution you will use for massage and put it on an adhesive bandage applied to the inside of your arm for up to 24 hours. If the area becomes red and inflamed, you may want to dilute a little more than recommended or even restrict your topical use to the bottoms of your feet only. Dr Penoel (PhD) claims that he's never seen an allergic reaction from applying essential oils only to the bottoms of the feet. However, it is possible because anyone can have an allergic reaction to any number of things that would be safe for the vast majority of us.

Fragrance allergy affects only about 1% of the population and most of it is attributed to synthetic fragrances. Natural essential oils have been used in soaps and lotions for hundreds of years without significant allergic concern (Buckle, pg 84-85)

When some essential oil company distributors try to dismiss an allergic reaction claiming it to simply be a detoxification, this is not accurate, and could be dangerous to the person suffering the reaction.
If you have concerns mentioned above, do the patch test, and always if you have allergies & health concerns, use only "Clinical" grade essential oils, for your safety.

Factors that affect the rate of absorption of essential oils

#1: The area size of skin matters
Even if a set amount of essential oil is applied to the skin via carrier oil, less is absorbed if it is only applied to small patches of skin. The beauty of skin is that we have a lot of it, which allows for application over a generous portion of the body.

#2: Different areas of skin
Are more permeable than others. The palms of the hand, soles of the feet, forehead, scalp, behind the ears, inside the wrists and armpits are more permeable than the legs, buttocks, trunk and abdomen for the water soluble components of the essential oil.

#3: Subcutaneous fat has a poor blood supply
Which means essential oils applied to these areas may tak longer to be absorbed.

#4: Type of skin makes a difference
Mature or dehydrated skin slows the absorption of essential oils.
(Note: apply oils after bath or shower, when skin is most hydrated)

How to use essential oils

Is there “intelligence” in essential oils that makes them easy to use?
I think so.
We’ve learned that essential oils contain an extremely complex assortment of chemical constituents. For thousands of years natural aromatic substances have worked in harmony with the human body. Essential oils are merely the distillation of these aromatic substances. Your body recognizes the oils as safe and natural. Even your cells respond to them and know what to do with them. It’s amazing to think that with every drop, the intricate metabolizing and healing systems inside your body are interfacing with complex, natural, molecular combinations to bring you optimal health and deep healing. Those of us who have used them for decades can assure you that they work amazingly well for what they’re intended. And they deliver many beneficial surprises as well.

Not only topically & aromatically but also through respiration & ingestion. These therapies are not only effective in a medical, clinical way, but they’re also full of unexpected pleasure & delight. They’re also safe & convenient.

One of the great advantages of essential oils is their versatility. If you can’t ingest them, you can apply them topically. If you can’t use them topically, you can inhale them. Or you can do it all and compound their effectiveness.

Topical Applications

General Massage Therapy
Healing touch is the most natural of instincts. We massage the back of our neck when we feel tense. We massage our toe when we stub it.

Essential oils enhance massage. And the more regularly we use them the more effective they become. We feel it’s counterproductive to suggest overly complicated ways of using essential oils. There’s no need for elaborate application systems or complicated massage movements. We are more likely to use essential oils regularly if we can quickly master safe, simple, convenient, and pleasant ways of using them.

Mother’s have been instinctively massaging their babies for millennia with a caring touch that has just the right pressure. So go with your instincts about massaging yourself and your loved ones. If you feel insecure, watch a few basic YouTube massage videos and incorporate essential oils into your massage oils, lotions, liniments and creams according to the following guidelines.
How to create a simple massage oil blend

Depending on the specific therapy outlined you’ll want to blend a carrier (mixing) oil such as grapeseed, jojoba, rosehips or coconut (fractionated) oil with a few drops of essential oils or blends.

Be sure to mix well.
Oil Strength Mixing Oil Essential Oil
Strong oil like 8 teaspoons 1 drop
Oregano, Thyme 1 teaspoon 15 drops
Cinnamon &
Clove
Minder Oils 1 teaspoon 5 drops
(carrier oils) 1/8 cups 30 drops

To decide how much oil to use per massage, according to Valerie Ann Worwood, you will simply “cup your hand and pour the oil into it but not so much that it pours into the finger creases or over the edge of your hand. One teaspoon is adequate for most bodies” (Worsood pg 12). You can mix the oil in a small bowl if you feel you need more. Keep it simple.

The most common, convenient, and effective carrier oils for use with essential oils are jojoba, grapeseed, rosehips, and coconut (fractionated). There are many other vegetable oils that can be used as well.

Rosehip oil is a rich, amber, organic oil that is high in essential fatty acids. It is a wonderful mixing oil for preparations that treat dry weathered skin. It works wonders on scars and is the premier oil for wrinkles and premature aging. Use it in all your finest skin care blends.

Grapeseed oil is a light, silky, easily-absorbed oil that is used in many light creams and lotions. It doesn’t leave a greasy feeling on the skin. It is the oil of choice for those with any type of skin sensitivities.

Jojoba oil is actually a plant wax that is liquid at room temperature. It is favored because of its stability. It is wonderful for the skin because it is so similar to the skin’s own sebum, it has a rich golden color.

Fractionated coconut oil is odorless and colorless. It doesn’t stain and easily washes out of clothing and sheets. It has a long shelf life. It absorbs quickly into the skin and at the same time reduces essential oil evaporation so the essential oils have a better chance of penetrating. It is a digestible and healthy cooking oil and can be used in capsules.

Be sure to keep your blends in dark amber or dark blue bottles and store them away from heat & sunlight.

Drop Equivalents
20 drops = 1/5 teaspoon = 1ml
100 drops = 1 teaspoon = 5ml
300 drops = 1 tablespoon = 15 ml
600 drops = 1 ounce = 30 ml
(5ml bottle oil = 100 drops, less with thick oils may be 80 drops)

http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/treatment/aromatherapy

References from
"Integrated Guide to Essential Oils & Aromatherapy"
All References for using Clinical grade Essential Oils ONLY.