Four or five years ago my wife was introduced to essential oils by a friend who was selling them as a side business. She quickly became hooked and honestly, I kind of rolled my eyes at the idea of the incredible power of oils to “cure what ails ya”. Now, I don’t want to say that I have been fully converted to the point of thinking that the only medicine I need is the oil of an orange peel or a peppermint leaf but I have really come around to some of the homeopathic qualities of some of these oils.
Have I lost some of you already? Do you think that I’m a Colorado hippy trying to cure serious disease with crystals and positive thoughts? I’m not.
My background is biochemistry and chemical engineering so I have taken a lot of classes concerning neurological and musculoskeletal chemical pathways and how the triggering of certain neurotransmitters or other natural chemicals in your body and although I don’t know exactly how each of these oils work on things like mood, stomach aches, sore muscles, etc. I have seen the results. I will pause again for the rest of you who think I’m crazy to think of another topic you would like to find to read about on our site.
……ho hum……just waiting…….
If you have read this far you might be in the same camp as I am or maybe even some serious oil users. Or maybe you are just amazed that I think some of this stuff works. Either way, you are still with me so let’s press on. I have a pretty decent collection of oils that are in my office that either I have wanted to have or my loving wife has sent with me to help me with any of a number of things I battle regularly like bad moods, stress, tense muscles, allergies and acid reflux.
At home, we have a much much larger collection of them that I have no idea what they are for and cant pronounce about 20% of them. I have a diffuser that has sat on my desk for the last couple of years and I use it daily. I also apply oils directly to my skin. People always come into my office and ask “why does it smell so good in here?” or “what is that smell? I love it!”. I am not trying to fill the halls of my office building with the magical healing power of lavender oil but I enjoy it and I think it helps me, if for nothing more than having a pleasant scent that occupies one sense while I am hard at work.
We also have diffusers throughout our home that my wife puts different oils in to add a nice scent to the house but also to serve a purpose. Mixing lemon, lavender and peppermint are great for seasonal allergies so we often have that going in the living room in the spring when the kids are running in and out of the house and the doors are open and you can see the pollen from the pine trees falling like snow.
My favorite oil is by far frankincense. I put a little on my neck a couple times a day and just the smell of it makes me feel good. After months of using it and going through a couple bottles, I finally asked my wife “what is frankincense supposed to be used for? I just love the smell and it makes me happy.”. She replied, “its main use is for depression, mood and stress”. Okay, that was a pretty good blind study for the scientist in me.
I also use lavender to help me turn off my brain and get to sleep, peppermint to ease sore muscles (just like Icy Hot) and upset stomach, and different blends for stress and allergies. Don’t get me wrong, I still take my medications for my migraines, and eat an antacid if I had too much red wine and pasta sauce, but I have seen a real benefit to these oils. Anyone out there had the same experience? Is anyone still reading at this point?
Anyways, I wanted to take a break from the tech product reviews for a second to tell you about my experience but I really want to hear from you all and your experiences and/or thoughts good, bad or indifferent. Tell us about your experiences in the comment section of this article. Thank you for indulging me.
All of the oils and diffuser were purchased with my own funds.
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I share a similar conversion story. My wife got into it; I thought she was just being sucked into to a money grab; but then it worked; now I too am a believer.
Peppermint on the forehead and behind the ears directly for headaches.
Digestzen (a blend from Doterra) which includes liquorice for upset stomachs
Ylang ylang (a bubble gum smelling oil) also for stomach aches
Frankincense diffused – just because I like it
Ah, there’s my link to a gadget – an essential oil diffuser to spread the smell around the room.
I used to diffuse frankincense but then was told that it is much better to just apply it to the skin. I enjoy it both ways but I like having it on me as I move throughout the day. Thanks for your comment, glad to know others are using these products as well even if they started as skeptics like me.
Haha, count me in; my wife got into it through a friend, I thought it was silly, now a total believer! I have IBS and my wife has migraines. No amount of oils on this earth are going to cure either one of us from those particular ailments, but they sure do help if we’re suffering through a bad bout.
For me, the peppermint oil applied directly on my stomach briefly helps to get through some physical pain, and peppermint pills with enteric coating act as a really good deterrent if I’m going to have a high carb meal. After having suffered for a good 15 years, finding the correct diet and using oils has really helped me not just suffer less, but actually feel good for long stretches at a time!
We might have a trend starting with our wives making believers out of us. I also have migraines and I cannot treat them with oils alone but I have noticed that the combination of oils and my meds helps more than just the meds alone. Thank you for sharing your experience!
Deep Relief is my wife’s go-to for migraines! Definitely won’t make one go away, but she can use it along with Ibuprofen to help keep it manageable until she can get home and take her prescription meds (which she can’t drive while taking.)
I have a roll on bottle of it sitting on my desk for the same thing.
I love my oils! I was a major skeptic at first too, and so was my husband until we saw them work on our daughter who was too young at the time to fall for a placebo affect. I use them for everything. I love it so much I made a business out of it. Balance from doTERRA is my favorite!
Sorry but small children and animals are just as vulnerable to placebo effect as adults. And it seems all the folks commenting.
How can one be subject to a placebo if they are unaware that they are being treated for something? In either case, is an effect any less real if it was caused by actual biochemical intervention through oils versus a placebo effect? If the end goal is to treat a symptom and it is successful, that is enough for me. Just my $0.02.
We are fervent supporters of the benefits of these oils. We first made use of them while living in a flat that had a mouse problem, they would infiltrate our home from the downstairs neighbours’ flat. As we had parrots, we couldn’t use poisons/traps etc… so some research showed that mice dislike the smell of essential oil of peppermint.
We sprinkled some essential oil of peppermint on a few cotton balls and put them in the areas that we knew saw high mice traffic. Voilá, no more mice. It was amazing. Literally overnight we saw a reduction. We would have the odd mouse come back a month or so later as the smell of the peppermint wore off, but re-applying some fresh oil did the trick.
Years later, my wife was diagnosed with an autoimmune/thyroid disorder, Graves’ Disease. In an effort to find a natural remedy to this condition – as opposed to prescription medicine with risky and unpleasant side effects or the removal of the thyroid – she investigated the use of essential oils in combination with other herbal remedies (yes the combination had effect but that is the subject for another discussion!)
Integrating them into our lifestyle has been eye-opening. Similar to the author’s experience, we have used them to to treat a variety of daily ills, from skin irritation, indigestion/heartburn, colds, headaches etc. They can even be used as effective cleaning and disinfectant products… plus they smell good!
I know that she uses Doterra’s oils, but she also gets some from a French producers.
I am sorry to hear about your wife’s diagnosis but than you for sharing your experience. There has been a lot of good info and antidotal accounts of peoples’ results. I hope they keep working for you guys!