*Please review safety and applications in my database and by your essential oils company before using essential oils.
Welcome to my first weekend oily tip!
Now, you can find quick take-home, take-aways from my weekly blogs to put all that knowledge and research about essential oils into “drops of actionable inspiration.”
Let me know what you think!
Take Home Review
1. Using Your Essential Oils for Better Gene Expression
The past few weeks, I’ve been discussing essential oils in relationship to epigenetics. I provided research on how our favorite secondary plant metabolites can positively influence how our cells function in a variety of ways. There’s even some preliminary evidence that certain essential oils may affect cellular aging processes!
Although we can’t change our “hardware” (genetic makeup), the science of epigenetics tells us that we can “upgrade and update” our cellular machinery for optimizing our bodies’ functions. This means that we don’t have to be victims of bad health based on our family history, but we can make choices to create better wellness outcomes for ourselves.
In other words, we can’t change our genes, but we can use lifestyle factors to affect how they express themselves.
2. Essential Oils Individualized Balancing Benefits
A quality essential oil will contain a vast amount of therapeutic constituents that your body can “pick and choose” from in order to rebalance its physiological processes. This is the concept of essential oils “synergy” and is one of the most amazing things about essential oils. I refer to it as their “innate” healing power.
True, an essential oil will possess general properties based on its biochemical makeup, but factors such as our own genetic variances, microbiota diversity, and “internal environment” all influence its actions. (Read more about that here, if you wish.)
Essential oils seem to possess a “knowing” on exactly how they can help to balance the body in the way it needs.
I explained this more in part II of my epigenetic series. In it, I highlighted a study that reported on metabolomic markers that essential oils impacted. (The metabolome is the collection of all metabolites from cellular processes in a cell, tissue, organ or organism.) The researchers discovered that the biochemical pathways of individuals were differentially affected.
As summarized in a 2015 review in Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine:
Once the oils are in the system, they remodulate themselves and work in a friendly manner at the site of malfunction or at the affected area.
The Take-Away Tips
1. Alternate oils
Due to individual differences and your body’s changing needs, it’s important to alternate essential oils. This is especially true if you’ve noticed one of your favorite’s “isn’t cutting it.” This can also help prevent sensitization in those hyper-sensitive individuals.
Lavender not as soothing as it once was?
Maybe your body needs some more citrus calming and cleansing with a different calming, citrus blend.
Or, perhaps you need a little “nature pick-me-up” and a drop of your favorite fir oil in the diffuser does the trick!
2. Modulate Your Belly and the Bugs’ it Harbors (Taking Care of Your Microbiome)
If you are still not getting the affects you desire with several essential oils, it may be time to use ones more geared toward your gut and microbiome. Some of my favorites are these digestive oils.
Apply one to two drops a few times a day of the essential oils, diluted in a carrier oil or neat, to the belly. If you are comfortable with ingesting essential oils, 1-2 drops a day in a veggie cap or your favorite milk substitute may also be beneficial. (Digest and Cleanse™ is already blended in a softgel with coconut oil.)
You may find after this, that some of your old favorites are working again like they did previously. You may also discover a new favorite, due to the internal changes you made with your new belly blends!
3. Have You Tried Lemongrass Yet?
There are so many reasons to love lemongrass, but this week I found more. Did you see how many genetic pathways it may benefit? Plus, its safe for kitties, which was a topic last week.
You may want to add a few drops to your diffuser and one small drop to your favorite cooked veggies for the next few weeks!
Summary:
- Alternate Oils (take advantage of those promotional oils and put them in your hard-working diffuser!)
- Modulate Your Microbiome with Belly Blends
- Love on Lemongrass!
Post your comments below and let me know what you think!
Disclaimer: 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.
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.)
Thanks Pixabay.
