Guest Post: Essential Oils & Aromatherapy Safety
This post is part of a series by guest writer Jennifer Chait.
Essential oils are a fairly in depth topic. Basically they’re oils extracted from flowers, plants, grasses, roots, fruits, and leaves. To learn more about the extraction and distilling process visit The International Organization for Standardization.
You can buy essential oils almost anywhere, but your best bet is a specific essential oil shop, a natural food store, or co-op. You want organic 100% pure essential oils. There are tons of synthetics out there. Synthetic oils are ok for scent alone, but don’t hold any real health benefits. The absolute best way to know that you’re buying a brand of pure essential oil is by price. If you see a shelf of essential oils and they’re all the same cost – they aren’t pure. Some essential oils are very expensive to make while others, even pure ones, you can find at a relatively low cost. In any case, if each bottle of oil is $10, move on.
You should also look for dark bottles. Light can ruin the therapeutic benefits of essential oils. Reputable companies almost always bottle their oils in dark glass. Another way to avoid fake oils is to shop with blotting paper. Real oils, contrary to what you may think, are not all that oily. If you drop a few drops of real oil onto your blotting paper it will evaporate and leave no mark. Lastly, once you work with essential oils enough, you’ll be able to tell if an oil is fake by scent alone. Until then you can always buy from a known reputable company like Quinessence Aromatherapy.
Aromatherapy Safety
Whenever you use essential oils you need to dilute them first. In aromatherapy texts, you’ll often see the term, “Carrier oil” or “Base oil” this is the diluter. For example, if you’re going to use lavender to treat a headache, the recipe may say, “Add 2 drops lavender to your carrier oil.” I almost always use sweet almond oil as my carrier. It’s not too expensive, it’s light, but not too light, and has a good scent. You can also try apricot or ask at a natural health store about other options.
One note: if you’re allergic to nuts you cannot use carrier oil made from nuts. This may seem obvious, but I’ve seen a couple people actually use nut oils when they’re allergic. Instead, use a fruit oil, safflower, or sunflower oil instead.
Here are some other key safety tips:
- Before you use a new essential oil you should always do a skin test. Dab a drop on your arm, wait a day, and see what happens. Hopefully nothing happens. If you break out, itch, develop a rash, or something else out of the ordinary happens, don’t use that oil.
- More is not better with essential oils. Essential oils are very powerful and super concentrated. If I see that a recipe calls for 2-3 drops of peppermint, I may try 4 drops but never 10 drops. You never want to overuse oil.
- The National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA) recommends not ingesting oils when you might be able to get the same benefits from massage. There are some treatments that require ingestion or gargling of essential oils, but they’re rare. Unless you know your oils very well, I suggest not ingesting any. Many are toxic when ingested.
- If you’re pregnant never use oils without the direct advice of a care provider who is well-versed in oils. While many essential oils are good for treating pregnancy issues, some can bring on early labor, and other negative side effects.
- I always used essential oils with my son, even when he was a baby. However, I always did a skin test first, talked with his pediatrician, and I have experience with oils. In any case it’s good to use smaller amounts of oil for baby treatments, and never leave a bottle out where your young children can reach it. You should call poison control if your child ingests oil.
Check back tomorrow for some aromatherapy recipes!
Among other places, you can visit Jennifer Chait at Offbeat Homes, Slices of Green, Network Blogging Tips, and Tree Hugging Family.
(photo via SXC.hu)
Tags: womens health blog, womens health, women, woman, health, aromatherapy, essential oils, essential oil safety, aromatherapy safety, alternative medicine, complementary medicine, complementary and alternative medicine, CAM, jennifer chait, lively women, kristen king
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