Even As Essential Oils Promise Help, Always Beware Of The Risks – Part 1 

Are Essential Oils Risk-Free? 

Through an acquaintance who worked for a multilevel marketing company, Stacey Haluka discovered essential oils the way many others have in recent years.

Treating everything from minor skin irritations and mood swings to autism and cognitive decline, during an in-home presentation the wellness advocate hailed the fragrant oils as harmless natural remedies.

The result came because Haluka was assured they could be safely ingested and also liberally applied as they come to be so pure. 

A 47-year-old writer and motivational speaker from Ontario, Canada, Haluka says she started using them every day as she fell for it completely. 

Lathering her skin with stress-relieving lavender, she infused her water with citrus oils said to detoxify. A salesperson told her it was a normal detox reaction and advised her to rub frankincense oil on it when a faint rash appeared on her forearm. She then obliged. 

Raised welts began to creep across her abdomen and up the back of her neck after a few months. Where doctors swiftly put her on steroids, ultimately, she landed in the emergency room, eyes swollen, oozing blisters across her face. The diagnosis was a severe toxic reaction thereby from essential oils. 

She has to carefully choose her care products and breaks out in hives when around someone wearing them, four years later, Haluka still struggles who is scarred and still so sensitive to the oils. 

The company that made the oils she used was being sued. 

From the popular fragrant plant extracts, Haluka is among the growing number of people turning up with those chemical burns, allergic reactions, respiratory issues, and other side effects. According to market research firm SPINS, in the past year alone, in the US, the retail sales of essential oils soared 14% to $133 million up from $55 million in 2015.

Not including the tens of millions in sales from multilevel marketers bypassing retail shelves thereby selling directly to people via independent distributors is this. 

Fuelling a surge of interest in essential oils among the people who use either alternative or conventional medicine, those distributors and a higher demand for over-the-counter natural remedies free of those side effects are observed to be coming with the use of prescription drugs.

They are now easily found at Walmart and Target once available only at natural product stores. 

Concerns abound as their do-it-yourself use explodes. 

Cynthia Bailey, MD, a dermatologist in Sebastopol, CA, says for certain essential oils, there is definitely credible science behind certain benefits.

You cannot use them indiscriminately as you have to choose wisely. 

How Essential Oils Work

For centuries, healers have used mechanical presses or steam to extract essential oils totally from fragrant plants as far back as A.D. 1000. Where the compounds are absorbed into the bloodstream, today practitioners can rub oil-infused lotions on the skin. Joie Power, Ph.D., a neuropsychologist and aromatherapist who has then taught nurses on how to use the oils for decades, says they can diffuse them into the air where once inhaled, they bind to smell receptors and stimulate the central nervous system. 

With scientists only recently testing some of the products in controlled human trials, the research behind them remains fairly scarce. Hospitals and clinics now use the oils more and more for stress relief, pain, and nausea relief, and even to prevent bedsores, thanks to a growing number of studies showing how they work. 

It was found that those who breathed a mixture of ginger, spearmint, peppermint, and cardamon had much less nausea after surgery in one recent study of 300 patients. Inhaling lemongrass aroma before a stressful event can prevent anxiety as other research shows that lavender oil can lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Making them popular treatments for dandruff and toe fungus, studies also show that tea tree and oregano oils can fight microbes. As anti-inflammatory others can also be used. 

Companies overstate their potential and downplay risk as the trouble is said critics including long-time aromatherapists. 

The FDA has been sending warning letters to the handful of companies thereby making unsubstantiated claims as their oils could treat everything from herpes to Ebola since 2014. Making such claims should be only those manufacturers of drugs that have passed the agency’s rigorous approval process is the FDA. 

Ill-informed at-home users may misuse them meanwhile. Beginning collecting injury reports online was one group of concerned aromatherapists at the Atlantic Institute for Aromatherapy. Afterward, it has been found more than 268, that come ranging from mild rashes and anaphylactic shock to the internal chemical burns from using oils to treat vaginal yeast infections since the fall of 2013. 55 people including five children and two pregnant women reported serious reactions in 2017 alone. Fewer than 5 to 10% of adverse reactions are reported as the organisation estimates. 

To Be Continued …

There is more to the discussion to be highlighted. Follow us in the second part of it.