The Power of Essential Oils

Even though essential oils have been around for centuries, dating back to the early Egyptians and were brought as gifts to Jesus in biblical times (remember frankincense?), they’ve become more relevant today than ever before.Despite their name, essential oils are not oils but are aromatic, volatile substances or essences extracted from a plant, herb or flower by distillation or expression. It is a labor-intensive process resulting in a potent oil that is not cheap, but due to its concentrated nature, a small amount can be used very effectively for a large range of ailmentsHere is a brief story on how essential oils helped my little guy. As a back story our youngest had issues with eczema and “asthma” early on in his life. We took him to the pediatrician who, without taking a detailed history, decided to start him on inhalers and nebulizers. As a physician myself that has in interest in natural approaches to health my wife and I decided to try an elimination diet before giving our child inhaled steroids and beta agonists. The first thing to go was milk. Within 48 hours his respiratory symptoms resolved and within 3 or 4 days his skin was completely clear. A few weeks later we tried reintroducing milk and sure enough, his symptoms came back. So what it turns out is that his symptoms were secondary to an allergy that can be eliminated and not a ‘disease’ that requires prescription medication.This brings me to my current story. While on a recent trip to Colorado our little guy developed quite a nasty cough that kept him (and us) up the first night. Luckily, I had brought along a specific essential oil called Vapor. This particular blend is a combination of eucalyptus, peppermint, cypress, may chang, myrtle, bay, and elemi which have been shown to improve respiratory function. We rubbed it on his chest and the bottoms of his feet and sure enough his cough went away and he slept the rest of the night. On the second night he again awoke with a nasty cough and some mild difficulty breathing. As before we applied the essential oil and within minutes he was breathing comfortably and no longer coughing. On night 3 and 4 we applied the oil prior to putting him down and he slept comfortably through the night. This goes to show that a lot of times nature is all you need to restore health!Essential oils can be a very powerful and useful way to achieve and maintain health and should be a part of everyone’s “medicine cabinet.” Stay tuned to LifestyleRx to hear about other uses of essential oils.Bonus tip: You can use lemon oil to treat warts. I struggled with multiple warts on my hands for years. I tried all the common treatments over an 18 month period with no avail. Finally I read an article about lemon oil and warts and thought I would give it a try. I applied the oil to the warts 2-4 times per day and within 2 weeks they were gone! Nature at its finest.

Dr. Dyer, IntegrativeDO

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