Essential oils are more than what meets the eye.
Essential oils are often used for aromatherapy. Aside from aromatherapy, there are other ways that essential oils can be used.
John Hopkins Medicine states that essential oils “Manufactured by steaming or pressing different parts of the plant (flowers, bark, leaves or fruits) in order to capture the fragrances. “
Ashley Fulton is an advocate of wellness for dōTERRA, an essential oil brand. She shared her experience with aromatherapy and how frankincense has improved her health.
“I have a lot of essential oils my favorite, but if I had to choose one, it would be frankincense because it helped me so much with my autoimmune disease and also three years ago when I had a concussion, ”said Fulton. “It has amazing health benefits that are known to support healthy cell, immune, nervous and digestive function.”
Essential oils can be used in different ways in aromatherapy. Some of these are topical, in food / drink, or by diffusion. Fulton described how she most commonly used her oils.
“I mostly use my oils topically. I dilute the oil with fractionated coconut oil in a 10ml roller bottle so that it is better absorbed by the skin and more convenient to use and be on the go, ”said Fulton. “I like to apply the oil to the neck, wrist, spine or the soles of my feet.”
Fulton cautioned about a few things to consider when it comes to finding high quality essential oils.
“I would recommend that others use essential oils,” said Fulton. “However, not all essential oils are created equal. If you can’t see evidence that the oil is 100% pure and free of impurities and fillers, I wouldn’t recommend using it. “
While essential oils are often used for aromatherapy, they have other purposes as well.
Joel Coats, professor of entomology for the State of Iowa, shared his research into the use of vegetable essential oils as an insect pesticide and repellant.
“In the 1980s, I started looking at orange oil as a possible insecticide and a possible repellent,” Coats said. “And then around the turn of the millennium we began to look at them as a means of defense. And it turned out that some of them are really good repellants. ”
Coats explained why he was interested in seeing essential oils as natural repellants because of consumer demand.
“It seems like the natural ones have a huge market advantage,” said Coats. “So people generally feel much more comfortable with natural products.”
Coats later discussed that essential oils don’t normally repel for long, but that he wants to change that.
“There are many of these on the market – blends of rosemary oil and citronella oil and other oils,” said Coats. “Most of them don’t last very long; they will be gross for half an hour or maybe an hour and sometimes that is enough. But at other times it takes longer, so over the past six or eight years we’ve been careful to look for longer lasting spatial repellants. ”
