My most recent check on Amazon for “cough medicine” indicated 1242 options. Expectorants, suppressants, decongestants, non-drowsy,  you get the picture.   The back of the label will most likely be filled with side effect and cautionary information.  Our family deals with coughs from colds and allergies naturally without all the man-made chemicals found in these over the counter drugs.  Essential oils have been our best form of defense with taming coughs.  The first thing we do when a cough occurs is to have a spoonful of agave nectar with a drop of lemon essential oil added to it.  The lemon soothes a dry, scratchy throat  and can boost your immune system as well.  For adults, add a drop of  Thieves to this spoonful for a super charged boost in immunity.  The Thieves will also relieve any soreness in the throat.

There are specific essential oils that are helpful for coughs: Eucalyptus Radiata, Eucalyptus Globulus, Ravansara, and wintergreen are especially effective.  Young Living has made a couple of essential oil blends that we use for coughs and colds in the winter.  R.C. is one of the most used oil blends in our home – it has four different kinds of eucalyptus in it  plus peppermint, lavender, cypress and pine essential oils.  At the first sign of a cold or cough, we apply a drop or two to each foot.   Commercial Eucalyptus oils on their own can be too potent for children, but when it is combined with more gentle oils of lavender and cypress it is a great choice for kid’s colds & coughs.  For children under 3 dilute a drop with a 1/2 teaspoon of a carrier oil and massage onto the feet.

Raven is another Young Living blend of ravansara, wintergreen, Eucalyptus radiata, lemon and peppermint essential oils.    The ravansara encourages expectoration and the wintergreen, eucalyptus and peppermint essential oils open up airways.  We find just one application of the oils onto the feet at bedtime is enough to settle a cough for sleep.  For children and those with asthma apply the oils to the soles of the feet.  For adults, massage the oils into the chest, add to bath water or place a drop in a bowl of warm water and breathe deeply.

Alternating application of R.C with Raven may be a powerful remedy with coughs.  Layering the oils increases the synergy between the oils.  For adults, apply 2 drops of R.C. mixed with V-6 oil to the chest area, then 2 drops of Raven on top.  This can also be done on the bottoms of the feet concentrating on the lung area points of reflexology.  For children, mix 1 drop of essential oil with a tsp of V-6 carrier oil or olive oil (or lavender essential oil which acts like a carrier oil), massage onto the bottoms of feet, cover with cotton socks and rest.   If you are using Young Living’s therapeutic grade oils you may not even have to dilute oils when applying to the soles of the feet.  Last week my 8 year old had a cough that started with fall allergies.  I rotated oils, one day applying them every hour (the time it takes for the body to metabolize the oils).  I took 2 drops of 2 different oils  (RC & Raven , for example), rubbed them between my hands and held my hands on the soles of her feet a few minutes.  Her face would light up as she said she could feel her chest relaxing.  Within minutes she’d have a healthy cough to expectorate the junk.

Frankincense also offers powerful respiratory support and it has the benefit of reducing anxiety, often associated with violent coughing spells.  Frankincense is also a very gentle oil as long as it is not filled with chemicals or synthetics.  I use Young Living’s Frankincense neat (undiluted) on the chest or soles of the feet.  Frankincense is very soothing to the respiratory tract especially when diffused.

Drinking plenty of fluids and foods rich in vitamin C are essential to feeling better.  For those with asthma, always apply essential oils to the soles of the feet.  For any persistant cough or difficulty breathing make sure to seek medical care right away

This information is not meant as a substitute for medical care, if you are sick, contact your doctor for advice.

Farid A. Badria, Eman A. Mohammed, Mohammed K. El-Fadrawy, et al (2004).  Natural Leukotriene inhibitor from Boswellia (frankincense): A potential for treating bronchial asthma. Altern & Comp Therapies. 10 (5) 257-265.

Inouye S, Takizawa T, Yamaguchi H. (2001). Antibacterial activity of essential oils and their major constituents against respiratory tract pathogens by gaseous contact.  J Antimicrob Chemo. 47: 565-573.

Larrondo J, Agut M, Calvo-Torras M. (1995). Antimicrobial activity of essences from Labiates. Microbios. 82: 171-172

• Idaho balsam fir- anti-inflammatory, grounding and relaxing to the body.  Effective against respiratory infections, fatigue and sciatica.
• Lavender – calming, relaxant physically and emotionally.  Supports skin health, speeds wound healing in cuts, scrapes and 1st degree burns.
• Wintergreen – naturally warming, muscle relaxant, highly anti-inflammatory and anti-spasmodic.
• Basil – anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic, also anti-bacterial and anti-viral.
• Copaiba - powerful anti-inflammatory oil, antiseptic with almost imperceptible odor.
• Marjoram – relieves muscle spasms, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, promotes intestinal peristalsis, mucolytic, expectorant.
• Peppermint – cooling, anti-inflammatory, stimulating (don’t use before bed!) Synergistic and increases penetration when applied after other oils.
• PanAway - an essential oil blend of helichrysum (heals tissue & nerve damage, anti-inflammatory), wintergreen, peppermint and clove
• Deep Relief Roll-On is a convenient oil blend in an applicator bottle that you can roll on directly to sore muscles.

Joint Pain – is often caused by systemic issues.  Essential oils can bring some temporary relief, but an honest assessment should also be taken of environment, diet and lifestyle.  You can get a Healthy Home Checklist when you subscribe to the Pure Home and Body Newsletter as a starting point.  MSM can be helpful in decreasing systemic inflammation, as well as looking at your diet.  Ningxia Red is a powerful anti-oxidant that works to give your body added nutrition with whole foods rather than synthetic vitamins.  Consult an Essential Oil Desk Reference, Prescription for Nutritional Healing and your holistic practitioner for management of chronic joint pain and autoimmune disorders.

For serious back injuries, essential oils can help bring relief until medical intervention is needed.   Many individuals have prolonged or even avoided the need for surgery when they used essential oils with integrated care by a chiropractor, physical therapist and gentle exercise like yoga with an experienced instructor.  The Raindrop Technique contains many anti-inflammatory and anti-spasmodic essential oils that are helpful for chronic back pain and even for individuals with scoliosis.

Name That Product:  Here’s a challenge for you, a product labeled with “Natural Herbal Ingredients”.  Used by chiropractors, acupunturists, massage therapists and nurses in clinical settings to relieve muscle pain.  One of my biggest concerns is the use of menthol (made as a synthetic or watered down peppermint ),  camphor (inexpensive filler that “smells strong”, may be derived from terpentine, used as insect or moth repellant and in embalming)  and lavender “oil” (not even listed as essential oil, this is probably hormone disrupting synthetic oil) and artificial colors, and chemicals that release formaldehyde (also used in embalming):

menthol 5%, camphor 3%, water, aloe vera gel, isopropyl alcohol, lavender oil, triethanolamine, carbomer, ginseng extract, angelica extract, polysorbate 60, DMDM hydantion, imidazolidinyl urea, blue 1, yellow 5

The first person who guesses this product correctly will get a 5-pack of Ningxia Red singles to help fight inflammation from the inside out!

Most chemicals are absorbed through your skin and circulate into your bloodstream, almost as if you ate it.  Drug companies know this, and now you can find more drugs “delivered” through the skin via patches with nicotine, pain medications and hormone treatments.   What you put on your skin matters!  When you make choices in body care, it’s important to keep in mind the long term results.  Your body will absorb chemicals  not identified by the body as a natural substance.  They circulate them through your body systems like the endocrine system and store those chemicals in your major organs and fatty tissue.  If you are trying to lose weight, you need to get the toxins out of the cellulite before you can really lose weight for the long term.    Antiperspirants contain aluminum, so every time you apply that underarm protection, your lymphatic system is drawing in the aluminum.  Doctors already know this, before a mammography you’ll be instructed to avoid using anti-antiperspirants or deodorants a couple of days before an exam since the metal particles will show up as “landmarks” on scans.  Short term, you probably won’t see any difference, but fast forward 20 or 30 years of daily application and you might see a profound affect.  The bottom line is many of these long term effects are still unknown, so an ounce of prevention where you know it might matter can help.

Multiple applications equal more exposure Let’s look at hand sanitizer for example.  My focus in health is very much on my children’s exposure to chemicals.  Kid’s bodies are more vulnerable to toxin overload simply because of their size and developing bodies.  Hand sanitizer is one product I have chosen to convert to a healthier option.  Most hand sanitizers have alcohol as their main ingredient.  Hand sanitizer dispensers are everywhere: bathrooms, stores, libraries, churches.  Everywhere you turn, your child can fill her hands with foaming hand sanitizer.  It looks like fun until you think about the dose of alcohol absorbed into her skin every use.  Alcohol baths had once been used in hospitals to lower fevers.  This practice has since been discontinued because the medical community realized patients were absorbing the alcohol through their skin and getting very ill.   There are plenty of safer options in hand sanitation including a few that rely on naturally anti-bacterial essential oils like Young Living’s Thieves Hand Sanitizer that utilizes cinnamon, rosemary, clove and lemon essential oils to clean hands.

Look at your daily routine   Body lotions,  shampoos and shower gels are also other potential points of chemical absorption.  Most products contain artificial fragrance (a.k.a “parfum”), just a combination of secret chemicals, many linked with endocrine disruption.  Your endocrine system regulates your hormones, thyroid, metabolism, pituitary gland and more.  Avoid any products with the ingredient “fragrance” as the manufacturer can use a combination of unknown chemicals under this term.   Parabens have most recently been found to disrupt hormones,  and the FDA has banned the use of them in children’s bath and body products.  Paraben ingredients are allowed in other products, though.   As adults, we still rely on properly functioning hormones don’t we?  How many of you know someone in their 50′s, 40′s, even 30′s on thyroid medication?

Name That Product   I was surprised when I read on the product samples in my husbands “goodie bag” that one product contained Parabens!  This sample was a gift to athletes, training for months on end to get their bodies into top shape for an event.  I’m pretty conservative when it comes to what I use in my family, I realize this is new information to some of you, but would you use this product knowing that it contains ingredients banned for use with children?  Here are the ingredients:

menthol, carbomer, FD&C blue #1, FD&C yellow #5, glycerine, herbal extract (flex paraguariensis), isopropyl alcohol USP, methylparaben, natural camphor USP, propylene glycol, silicon dioxide, triethanolamine, purified water.

I’m going to have a little fun with this, and see if anyone can guess this product. Whoever can comment back first with the correct answer will get a 3-pack of  Young Living Thieve’s Hand Sanitizer, an $18 value!

I’d love to get your input on this, would you use products with these ingredients?  Treat your body products like food for your skin, read your labels and know what you are putting into and on your body!

Congratulations to Cindy G. for guessing this product, BIOFREEZE, used by massage therapists, chiropractors and bodyworkers to release muscle tension, aches and pains from aging and active lifestyles.  If you want truly natural muscle and pain relief,  Therapeutic Grade essential oils are the best choice.  You’ve got many options including:

• Peppermint  (anti-inflammatory & cooling)
• Idaho Balsam Fir (anti-inflammatory  and muscle relaxant)
• Basil (anti-spasmodic and muscle relaxant)
• PanAway is a Young Living blend that eases joint & muscle aches and pains
• Raindrop Technique oils (helpful for back pain, using many anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic oils like peppermint, basil, marjoram and cypress)

Give yourself the best and reduce the chemicals you are exposed to.  Chemical laden products work for the short term, with effects on your future health unknown.  For most issues, there are essential oil options that work to bring your body into balance and support your health.  Check an Essential Oil Desk Reference for more issue specific uses of essential oils.

I most recently was thinking about ‘alcohol baths’ which have been strongly discouraged because of possible alcohol poisoning.   You may have never heard of alcohol baths used for lowering a fever unless you were a nurse 30+ years ago or know someone who was.  My mom was a nurse and was trained to use alcohol baths as an option.  In time this practice was eliminated because of the potential harm it may cause and is no longer taught in medical school.  There are many articles on the dangers of alcohol baths and ethyl alcohol because the alcohol is absorbed through the skin.  Could this same effect result from applying an alcohol based hand sanitizer on the hands “as often as you like”, more quickly with a small child of 20-30 pounds?  I’d rather not find out, so I use essential oil based hand sanitizers which have no alcohol.

Young Living makes the Thieves Hand Sanitizer which is based on the Thieves essential oils of clove, cinnamon, rosemary, lemon and Eucalyptus radiata.  Clean Well is another brand that offers a spray sanitizer, alcohol-free, based on Thyme essential oil and aloe.    If you have been using essential oils for any time, you know that skin absorption is one of the benefits of using the oils, especially on children.  The essential oils penetrate the skin barrier and go directly to the bloodstream.  The skin is our largest organ and capable of absorbing many substances.

Hand sanitizers are a convenient way to cleanse the hands in a pinch if there is no running water, but even the CDC advises to keep the hands clean with soap and running water.  The CDC even advises that hand sanitizers  “should not be used in lieu of hand washing”.  Check out this link for proper hand washing techniques.  And use old fashioned soap – not anti-bacterial, chemical laden versions adding to the chemical absorption through your skin.  Young Living also makes some nice foaming hand soaps in a Thieves blend or Lavender.

This is a strong blend of essential oils and should be diluted 1 part essential oil to 1 part carrier oil.

Melrose is a strong topical antiseptic that cleans and disinfects cuts, scrapes, burns, rashes and bruised tissue.  It helps regenerate damaged tissue and reduces inflammation.  When diffused it dispels odors.

A copy of this recipe appears in the museum of old Marseille:

“Take 3 pints of strong white wine vinegar, add a handful each of wormwood, meadowsweet, wild marjoram and sage, 50 cloves, 2 ounces of campanula roots, 2 ounces of angelica, rosemary, and horehound and 3 large measures of camphor.  Place the mixture in a container for 15 days, strain and express, then bottle.  Use by rubbing it on the hands, ears, and temples from time to time when approaching plague victims.”

It is from this recipe Gary Young formulated the “Thieves” blend of essential oils.

We use PanAway as first line of defense with a bump or fall.  We were climbing rocks a few days ago and I fell onto my elbow.  I could tell from the instant pain it was a hard fall.  I applied PanAway as soon as I could stand on solid ground.  The pain subsided in a minute and I never got a bruise.  This is a typical result in our family.  One of the boys accidentally through a football directly into my friend’s face, right by the eye. After my initial humiliation of the event I quickly grabbed my PanAway and applied it around my friend’s eye-being very careful not to get it in the eye.  I was imagining the black eye that would result from this impact.  It never bruised.  The sooner you can get an essential oil onto injury the quicker the body can start repairing the tissue.  In the medical community it is common knowledge that pain sensations cause stress in the body which slows down the healing process.  Don’t tough it out if you have PanAway on hand.  Apply the essential oils as soon as you can and your recovery time (and bruising) could be much less.

PanAway 5ml bottle    wholesale $29.75    retail  $39.14      (this size is a part of the Everyday Oils Collection – a great value for getting started with essential oils)

You can order Young Living oils at wholesale (select Independent Distributor and order a $40 Start Living Kit for lifetime wholesale pricing, and no monthly minimums)  or retail (select customer). 

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not meant to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.

One reason I like Young Living products is Gary Young has formulated some great blends like Panaway, Deep Relief Roll-on and Aroma Siez that contain some expensive oils like helichrysum.  You don’t have to purchase all the different oils to mix up a recipe and you get synergistic blend of powerful oils that is greater than the individual oils themselves.

Young Living has several blends of oils that might be useful for managing a headache:  M-Grain (marjoram,lavender,peppermint,basil,Roman chamomile, helichrysum)  Brain Power (frankincense,sandalwood,melissa,cedarwood,blue cypress,lavender,helichrysum) Clarity, Deep Relief Roll On (cardamom,rosemary,peppermint,basil,bergamot,geranium,jasmine,lemon,palmarosa,Roman chamomile,rosewood,ylang ylang)  (peppermint,lemon,Idaho balsam fir,Copaiba,clove,wintergreen,helichrysum,vetiver,Palo Santo) and Relieve It (spruce, black pepper, peppermint, hyssop).

Plants: Therapeutic grade oils must come from the proper species of plant.  Lavender and Lavandin both produce an oil that smells like lavender, Lavandin, however has much higher levels of camphor in it.  If you applied a lavandin oil to a burn the high levels of camphor could actually make the burn worse.   Even some species of lavender after harvesting and distilling have levels of camphor that are too high to be used as therapeutic grade lavender.  The only way you can be guaranteed of a therapeutic grade oil is to purchase it from a reputable company you trust to test each batch of oil for purity and potency.

Processing: Therapeutic grade oils are volatile liquids that must be processed properly to maintain the integrity of the aromatic compounds.  The process is specific chemistry, not unlike cooking.  The fragile compounds in essential oils can easily be destroyed by heat and pressure as well as contact with chemically sensitive metals such as copper or aluminum. Therapeutic grade essential oils should be distilled in stainless steel. Any compromise in processing can result in a loss of therapeutic constituents and increased toxins.  Plants must be distilled at the proper time to maximize the healing constituents in the oil.  Lavender for example is distilled 12 hours after harvesting.  It is at that point the flowers have absorbed the maximum amount of energy into the flowers where the oil is distilled from.  It is also important to harvest oils from the proper part of the plant. Therapeutic clove oil is produced from the buds,but an oil smelling like clove can be harvested by distilling the stems and leaves.  The average consumer can not distinguish between the two oils since they both have the same ‘aroma’.  The only difference will most likely be when one does not experience the benefits of an oil beyond aroma.

Purity: Therapeutic grade essential oils should have nothing added and nothing taken away.  Essential oils may actually be harmful if they are thinned with synthetics or have chemical fillers.  If a lemon oil, for example is labeled as “not for ingestion” it could be it has harmful chemicals added or it is a chemical reproduction of a pure lemon oil and is not safe for ingestion.  If a pesticide sprayed lemon is used and distilled, the essential oil would contain concentrated amounts of the pesticide in the finished lemon oil.  Both would smell like lemon oil, but the average consumer could not detect the toxins in these lemon oils.  It takes sophisticated equipment like Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging equipment to differentiate therapeutic grade oils from a plant from a chemical counterfeit.    Even Gas Chromatography is not technical enough to differentiate these oils.  The difference would also be noted in the results produced by using the oils.  Because there is little regulation you as a consumer do not know the actual contents of many products.  For more information on secret chemicals in the fragrance industry, check out www.ewg.org, The Environmental Working Group, a non-profit organization dedicated to testing the safety of our products, everything from cleaning and household ingredients to health and beauty products.

Potency: A true therapeutic grade essential oil will produce results! Before you invest in essential oils, make sure you research where a company gets their supply of plants and how they process those plants.  Young Living grows many  of their own plants, owning land in Mona,Utah , St. Maries, Idaho , Ecuador and France.  Gary Young the founder was originally a farmer by trade and is committed to providing only the highest grade of essential oil to consumers.  Every bottle of oil Young Living sells is tested rigorously for purity and potency.  Anything not meeting the standards is rejected, sometimes up to 3/4 of the oils offered to Young Living by outside vendors are rejected because they do not meet therapeutic standards.  Those inferior oils are going to end up in our free market someplace else.

So it is with confidence I am grateful to share with you how Young Living Essential Oils have blessed our family.  I am sure you will see benefits as well just by giving your family the time and attention to research essential oils as an alternative to toxic chemicals and take the step to incorporate them into your healthy lifestyle.

The information in this article is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.  For medical treatment, see your doctor.