Essential Oils don't work!!

Essential Oils are Everywhere.  Some are very good, many are full of additives making them worthless.  So when someone says that Essential Oils don't work, my first question to them is....Have you ever tried them?  If so, where did you purchase them from?  Many times the answer is that they purchased them from the grocery store.  Therein lies the reason they don't think they work.  BUT.......there is a TON of information out there that proves why Essential Oils DO work!  Read on this awesome article written by Doug Corrigan.  

**********************

What do you say to someone when they pontificate that essential oils don’t work? Do you share your experience, only to have them say that your observations are nothing more than the “placebo effect”?

Here are 5 points that help them see the light. The approach I outline below is based on my experiences in the western framework of medicine. My (Doug Corrigan)  Ph.D. is in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and I have spent a good deal of my career developing biomedical tools for the pharmaceutical industry to help them discover new drugs through the western approach to medicine. What I am suggesting is in line with what I believe to be the steps necessary to cause a rational thinking mind to overcome certain barriers that may exist.

1) The Volume of Peer-Reviewed Published Research on Essential Oils- A good first step would be to sit down at a computer with your friend, or ask them to go through this exercise on their own time. First, go to “Google Scholar.” Google Scholar searches the world’s library of peer-reviewed journal articles, and is more comprehensive than PubMed. However, you can certainly go through this same exercise in PubMed.
Type in the phrase “essential oils” in quotations to search for that exact phrase in the title, abstract, or keywords of the papers. That search will return 2 million results. You can also search for “essential oil”, and that will return ~500,000 results. Now, not all of these articles will be about the health benefits of essential oils, but you can peruse from page to page and find an endless litany of titles and abstracts of peer-reviewed research papers about essential oils, their mechanism of action, and their documented health benefits. To get more specific, you can search for the following phrases:

“essential oil” bioactivity
“essential oil” clinical
“essential oil” effect
“essential oil” health
“essential oil” properties
“essential oil” (any specific bioactivity or mechanism of action)

You can also search for the plural form “essential oils” in combination with any of these other key words.
This may be the first eye-opening experience required by your friend to realize that there may be real science behind essential oils.

2) The Track Record and History of Essential Oils - Essential Oils are not new or some fad. Essential oils, plant extracts, and herbal preparations have an astonishing and robust history that extends back thousands of years through many ancient cultures. This is the largest clinical trial in the history of mankind --a clinical trial that was performed on millions of people with different nationalities and genetic backgrounds, over thousands of years. Many of these cultures were disconnected in geography and time and, yet, they all converged on the same conclusion: Plants have amazing medicinal qualities. This is well documented in ancient texts, archeology, and other literature. Western medicine is really the new kid on the block, and because it’s comparatively young, the long-term effects of western medicine are unknown. Egypt (3000 B.C), China (2700 B.C), India (3000-2000 B.C.), Greece (400 B.C.), Rome (1st Century A.D.), Persia (1000 A.D.), Europe (Middle Ages), and France (1800’s – Present) all have volumes of texts that describe the medicinal qualities of hundreds upon hundreds of different plant extracts.

This knowledge was not translated into the modern era until scientists, doctors, and chemists in France began formalizing and advancing this knowledge in the practice of “aromatherapy” in the 19th and 20th centuries. These “fathers of aromatherapy” include individuals such as René-Maurice Gattefossé, Jean Valnet, Paul Belaiche, Jean-Claude Lapraz, Daniel Pénoël, and Pierre Franchomme. During the 1800’s and 1900’s, these pioneers reinvigorated the ancient use of essential oils and plant extracts, and reframed their use into what is now known as aromatherapy. The European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur.) references the prescription of essential oils for certain medical conditions as a standard medical practice, and this is practiced routinely in German and France, with increasing prevalence in the U.K. The U.S. pharmacopoeia is woefully negligent in this area and, in my opinion, requires updating.

In summary, western medicine is the experiment. Natural medicine is tried and true, and there’s plenty of documentation to prove that point.

3) Plant Molecules Form the Basis of Western Medicine - Most people are unaware that the over 50% of modern drug compounds are molecules that are either directly copied or inspired by molecules that are found in natural products, such as plants. When western medicine started in the early 1800’s with the isolation and identification of singular compounds, the cadre of drugs that resulted were derived primarily from plants. Morphine, Codeine, Atropine, Ephedrine, Quinine, Aspirin, Theobromine, and many others were all derived from natural plant sources. Continuing into the 1900’s, and even today, this practice continues. Why? For a variety of reasons, including:

A) Natural compounds are much better at interacting with and binding other natural molecules (like the molecules that make up our bodies) because they are compatible. Naturally derived molecules are more inclined to specifically interact and bind with the shapes that are associated with other natural molecules.

B) There is a symbiotic relationship between certain plants and animals in which plants produce and harbor molecules to sustain and promote health. Therefore, the probability of discovering a molecule in plants that benefits health is much greater than the probability of discovering a drug through screening millions of artificially created molecules designed in a lab.

C) The chemical diversity of molecules in nature is not reproducible by artificial, synthetic means. Many of the chemical structures (i.e., molecular shapes) found in nature are practically impossible to reproduce in a lab. Yet, it is these diverse structures that are needed to design or discover molecules that offer novel bioactivities to treat health conditions.

“Chemists started making libraries of hundreds of thousands to millions of compounds. But they were simple compounds. Mother Nature doesn’t make simple compounds. Mother Nature wants compounds that fit into particular places.” – Dr. David Newman

A comprehensive study by Dr. David Newman (former director of the Natural Products Division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)) showed that over a 25-year period from 1981-2006, 52% of the 1,186 new drug molecules developed and approved by the FDA were directly copied or inspired by a natural product. These FDA approved drugs include pain killers, anesthetics, anti-Alzheimer’s, antidepressants, anti-allergy, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antiviral, and anticancer medications, among many others.

Grasp the ramifications of this quote from the Scripps Research Institute in Florida:
“Natural products remain the best sources of drugs and drug leads, and this remains true today …….Natural products possess enormous structural and chemical diversity that is unsurpassed by any synthetic libraries. About 40% of the chemical scaffolds found in natural products are absent in today’s medicinal chemistry repertoire. Natural products represent the richest source of novel molecular scaffolds and chemistry."

Essential oils are comprised of hundreds of structurally diverse molecules that work together synergistically in our cells. The research of biochemists and molecular biologists has uncovered a microcosm of the interactions that take place between essential oil constituents, and the biomolecules that comprise our cells, as well as the interactions that take place between the constituents

and bacteria, fungi, and viruses. The Mechanism of Action (MOA) has been identified at the molecular level for certain constituents, and there is a great deal yet to discover. The bottom line is there is substantial research that connects the way they work at the molecular level to the positive health effects observed at the physiological level.

4) Modern Day Testimonials – There are literally millions of people benefiting from the use of essential oils today. Young Living alone now has 4 million members. Over the last 2 decades, the growth in aromatherapy has created a very large grass roots community of millions of people who have testimonies associated with the positive health benefits of using essential oils. Testimonial sites, blogs, and social media groups attempt to capture many of these stories, and the sheer volume and consistency of these testimonials provides strong evidence that the health benefits being observed in our modern era parallel those recorded by ancient cultures.

5) I (Doug Corrigan) have witnessed the benefits of using essential oils for my family, especially my children. Because of my western pharmaceutical background, I was very skeptical that essential oils could provide any sort of efficacy. The effects that I have observed in my family, and myself, over the last 4 years has erased any doubt whatsoever in my mind that they do, indeed, work very effectively. Some of the occurrences that I witnessed over the years were miraculous by western-science standards, and could not be attributed to a placebo effect due to the nature of the results that I observed. What’s your story? I think when you combine the four points that I discuss above with your own personal story, a very convincing picture begins to emerge – one that would hopefully intrigue any skeptical individual who is open to learning more.