Safety Is Number One Priority
There is a whole lot to say about safely using essential oils, so I am going to break it down over time.
First I want to say I do not encourage the ingestion of essential oils...EVER! Ingesting essential oils can be downright harmful. Essential oils are EXTREMELY concentrated plant extracts that can be super powerful. For example, one drop of Roman Chamomile essential oil would be the equivalent to 35 cups of Chamomile tea!!! I don't know about you, but there is no way that I would ingest 35 cups of chamomile tea.
So what can happen? A LOT! First the most common thing that can happen is stomach irritation and upset. Not very pleasant, huh? I don't think so, but even worse side effects can occur like ulcers in your mouth, throat, and stomach lining, severe allergic reactions, degradation of the enamel of your teeth. If that is not bad enough, ingestion of essential oils can even cause seizures and in some cases even death.
So to save yourself some pretty serious side effects just DON'T INGEST ESSENTIAL OILS.
Let's talk about putting essential oils on your skin. Applying essential oils to your skin is called applying them topically. You may see this term used if you do a search on the internet for ways to use essential oils.
Can you safely apply essential oils to the skin. The short answer is YES, however there are a few steps that you need to perform for safety.
NEVER just open a bottle and drop essential oils on to your skin. The term used for this practice is undiluted. For the same reason we do not ingest essential oils, because they are extremely concentrated, it is not good to apply essential oils to the skin undiluted.
What can happen?
Common is skin irritation, redness, even burns. Hypersensitivity, allergic reactions, contact dermatitis, and photosensitivity, or phototoxicity. Yeah, so pain, itching, redness, irritation, burning, and more unpleasant side effects.
I am not trying to discourage the use of essential oils. I am just telling you that there are best ways to use them and use the safely.
When you apply them to your skin you should dilute them in a carrier oil.
A carrier oil is a vegetable oil usually derived from a fatty portion of a plant, like a seed or a nut. The carrier oil can even have therapeutic benefits as well. You will find that you probably have some common carrier oils in your kitchen, for example olive oil, grapeseed oil and avocado oil. There are too many to be listed.
We will talk carrier oils soon.
Dilution takes a little bit of measuring and counting, but it is not difficult to do.
Lets start with peppermint essential oil. It is great for all sorts of aliments, one example is headaches.
You want use to help get rid of that pesky headache, so you want to dilute it before you apply it to your pulse points, temples and neck.
Lets make it easy, you go into your kitchen and grab your trusty bottle of extra virgin olive oil, grab a clean glass bowl and your kitchen scale. Measure out 1 ounce of olive oil. This would be 30ml. From there we are going to add our essential oils.
For children, elderly, pregnant and nursing mothers we will add 3 drops of Peppermint essential oil. This would make a 0.5% dilution, which is generally regarded as safe for use. If you are a normal, otherwise healthy adult, then we would make a 2% dilution, so we would add 12 drops of Peppermint essential oil.
Just a word to the wise, I recommend using glass, and when I mix I use a wooden craft stick (available at most dollar stores or craft stores). Don't use plastic, as some of the chemical components of essential oils can actually leach chemicals from the plastic or can in some cases melt the plastic.
Once you are done mixing you would apply and let the oils work their magic.
It wouldn't hurt to perform a skin patch test first. More on that next week.
Until then, stay safe my friends and don't be afraid to contact me for more information.
