Essential Oils Benefits and Uses

The benefits of essential oil usage are vast. One can receive essential oils benefits throughout the week and employ many different essential oils and their uses. Essential oils are a constant savior around a household. Additionally, they can be the missing key that completes the healing circle whenever one is trying to overcome any challenge. So whether you are just looking for fabulous non-toxic ways to wash your hands, take care of your body, and clean your home, or are interested in natural healing with essential oils, there are many great reasons to know about essential oils and their uses!

Essential oils are actually the oldest and some of the most effective therapeutic agents that exist. Due to the incredibly lucrative biochemical industry of the last two centuries, essential oils benefits have been almost forgotten. Essential oils are from nature, and therefore will not make as much concentrated money as patented commercial products, thus we will not find the power structures of society standing behind their use until these power structures find a way to make a lot of money from them or until the public begins to demand that the laws of nature begin to be followed again by our health representatives.

Essential Oils and the Medical Community

The medical community continues to create stronger drugs in their endless war on pathogens, yet there are alternatives like the use of essential oils, whose antiseptic and antibacterial properties are second to none. Pathogens do not become resistant to them either. A recent U.S. study shows the antibacterial properties of the essential oils of cinnamon and oregano to be much higher than Penicillin and Ampicillin. Also, when the amount of antibiotics was increased in the study, their effectiveness did not increase, however the effectiveness (kill ratio) of the essential oils did. This is an important consideration in places like the ICU of hospitals, where resistant bacteria are making it unsafe for workers, patients, and visitors. Every year 3% to 5% of U.S. hospital patients get diseases they didn't have upon admittance and more than 10,000 people die of them. Essential oils would actually do a better job sterilizing these areas.

Essential Oils Abilities and Effects

Essential oils can stimulate the regeneration of tissue and stimulate nerve cells, they can act to oxygenate and carry nutrients into the cells, and they have been used since time immemorial to kill bacteria, fungi, viruses, balance mood, lift spirits, dispel negative emotions, and create a romantic atmosphere. The Old Testament prophet Moses uses aromatic substances to protect the Israelites from plagues that decimated the ancient Egyptians. In the 15th century, a notorious group of thieves, reputed to be spice traders and perfumers, was protected from the black plague when they robbed the bodies of the dead! It could only have been the essential oils that protected them.

Only in the last 30 years have essential oils again regained popularity as many health care professionals have rediscovered their broad-spectrum antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, hormonal, and psychological influences. Essential oils benefits include the ability to penetrate cell membranes, travel throughout the blood and tissues very quickly, and enhance electrical frequencies, all without disturbing the body's natural balance or homeostasis. Thus essential oils benefits are a highly sought after alternative to synthetic drugs and antibiotics, which in contrast, often have only one action in the body and disrupt the body's natural balance or homeostasis. Essential oils are composites of hundreds of different chemicals and therefore can exert many different effects on the body.

Importance of Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils

98% of the essential oils produced today are for the perfume and cosmetic industry, while only about 2% are for therapeutic and medicinal applications. When looking for therapeutic grade oils it is important that they are truly therapeutic. Adulterated essential oils are dangerous and will become more common with the exploding demand and a dwindling supply of high quality oils. Adulterated and mislabeled essential oils pose serious dangers to consumers, so please really do your research before trusting an essential oil as pure and/or therapeutic grade.

For example, a woman who had heard of lavender essential oils to heal burns, used a lavender oil from the health food store on a burn on her arm from spilled boiled water.The pain actually intensified and worsened. The "lavender" oil she had used was examined and it turned out to actually be lavandin, a hybrid lavendar that is chemically very different from pure lavender. Lavandin contains high levels of camphor and will burn the skin, true lavendar contains virtually no camphor and has burn-healing agents not found in lavandin.

I am aware of only two essential oil companies in the U.S. that use the proper machinery and test standards to accurately detect whether an oil is truly therapeutic grade; Flora Research and Young Living Essential Oils. They are the only ones that have seriously adopted European testing standards (the gold standard for testing oils). You can view all of Young Living's incredible oils by clicking the on the image, but please read more about Young Living Essential Oils below.You may also go to a list of magnificent research on essential oils for more information on essential oils benefits.