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Essential Oils and the Brain

In our last clinical tip, I explored how essential oils impact brain and cognitive health through (1) modulating hormones and brain signaling patterns, (2) shifting brain electrical activity, and (3) protecting the nervous system (neuroprotection). They accomplish these aspects through the direct interaction of their aromatic molecules with our cellular receptors.

In this video, I will continue with the topic of essential oils and neuropsychology. Specifically, I will discuss how these plant secondary metabolites can be used in naturopathic and functional medicine to address the root causes of mental health issues.

First, we will begin with how the clinical use of essential oils, naturopathic medicine, and functional medicine all share common principles in healing.

 

Five Reasons Naturopathic Medicine, Functional Medicine, and Essential Oils Are the Three Amigos

Essential oils are the perfect tool to support a naturopathic and functional medicine approach to brain and mental health. This is due to their multifaceted aspects. In fact, the medicinal use of essential oils shares five principles with these two forms of holistic healing including:

  1. An Integrative and Holistic Effect: Essential oils have immediate, multiple beneficial effects which simultaneously impact the emotions, body, and spirit.
  2. A Natural Approach: Their multi-factorial and synergistic properties work with the body and mind, rather than manipulating them.
  3. Enhancing Healthy Lifestyle Practices: Empowering individuals with healthy living options is important in naturopathic and functional medicine. Essential oils are a modality that seamlessly fits into these wellness practices.
  4. Addressing Stress and The Root Cause of Illnesses: Using essential oils not only addresses physiological imbalances, but often what precedes or co-occurs with them. For example, we discussed in our last clinical tip how essential oils intercept chronic stress patterns at the level of perception, mitigating the negative downstream impacts.
  5. Honoring Biochemical Individuality: Essential oils’ effects are based on biochemical individuality. This means everyone will respond differently to essential oils based on many distinct factors. These include each individual’s unique chemical makeup, detoxification capacities, genetic variances in enzymes, health status, and memory-based associations with a particular aroma. This makes essential oils a form of personalized medicine that is essential to naturopathic and functional medicine treatment.

Bonus: Prevention is the Best Cure: Since essential oils support the mind-body-spirit and fit into healthy living, using them daily can help to keep our physical and emotional states balanced.

So, know that we understand how well essential oils, naturopathic medicine, and functional medicine fit together, let’s look at how they can combine to support brain and mental health.

 

The Underlying Factors Leading to Brain and Mental Health Issues

Getting to the cause of a disease is an important principle that naturopathic and functional medicine providers share. As noted, essential oils can intercept at the root of brain and mental health issues.

Below I’ve listed some of the main factors that interfere with optimal emotional and cognition health. In the next section, I will briefly highlight how essential oils can help correct these aspects.

Underlying causes of brain health problems:

Now, let’s look at how essential oils can mitigate the effects of these triggers.

 

Essential Oils Address the Underlying Causes of Brain and Psychological Imbalances

Essential oils can impact every one of the above brain health factors that cause dysfunction in the mind and body:

  • They modulate the immune system, inflammation, and cellular stress through various pathways. This supports mitochondrial health and relieves the negative impacts of environmental exposures leading to neurodegeneration.
  • Some essential oils support enzymes that help the body detoxify and act as antioxidants. This allows one to better deal with toxicants, even if they are genetically predisposed to be more sensitive.
  • They are neuroprotective, preserving cognitive health and helping one deal with brain trauma.
  • They are antimicrobial, antiviral, and antifungal, aiding in mitigating stealth infections.
  • The can positively affect neurotransmitters, including if one has genetic variants in them.
  • They support digestion and assimilation and a healthy microbiome.
  • They beneficially modulate stress, cortisol, hormones, and resulting blood sugar issues.
  • They support vagal tone, enhancing parasympathetic activity. This brings calm to the mind and body so autonomic physiological functioning can be optimal.
  • They impact our emotional health, helping us heal from trauma and adversity. This is based on the concepts of psychoaromatherapy and neuroplasticity. They also influence brain electrical activity.

As you can tell, essential oils address all the brain unbalancing factors that I listed above.

This makes them perfect allies for any health and wellness protocol.

I hope you found this clinical tip useful and empowering for your self-care and wellness practices.

As always, I will have all the links to the resources, references, and concepts from previous clinical tips listed in the resource section below.

Let me know your thoughts and your favorite essential oils for brain health and why.

If you like this content, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and newsletter. This will help us reach more people and empower them with natural health information and safe and evidence-based essential oil education.

Also, by subscribing to my newsletter, you’ll stay up to date on my latest clinical tips, blogs, news, and podcasts. You will also be the first to hear about the release of my upcoming brain health program. This program has been a labor of love, and I cannot wait to share it with everyone. I really believe it is so needed today with all who are struggling with brain health, and I feel it’s been in my heart and mission for a long-time to help. This really is not your typical “program”, but more of a true transformation.

So, with that being said, take good, gentle care of yourself and I look forward to sharing more with you real soon.

 

Resources

*Transcript has been edited for grammar and ease of reading.

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Disclaimer: This material is for information purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prescribe for any illness. You should check with your doctor regarding implementing any new strategies into your wellness regime. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. (Affiliation link.)

This information is applicable ONLY for therapeutic quality essential oils. This information DOES NOT apply to essential oils that have not been tested for purity and standardized constituents. There is no quality control in the United States, and oils labeled as “100% pure” need only to contain 5% of the actual oil. The rest of the bottle can be filled with fillers and sometimes toxic ingredients that can irritate the skin. The studies are not based solely on a specific brand of an essential oil, unless stated. Please read the full study for more information.

Thanks Pixabay and Canva.