A Quest for Health

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

A couple of months ago, both of our girls began getting recurring ear infections, which of course meant antibiotics. After 2 and 3 rounds of the medicine and no improvement I began searching for other alternatives to the antibiotics. This became even more pertinant when both of them developed horrible (screaming, crying, sleeplessness, clawing ...)yeast infections from the antibiotics and the baby a diaper rash that burned her skin badly. So my option was to give them another medicine to treat the problem from the 1st medicine that caused the problem to begin with! Yikes, that was enough. I put in several calls to friends and people who helped me figure out some oils and probiotics to use to clear everything up, at least the yeast infection, which worked. We still had the issue of draining the fluid that was causing the ear infections to begin with. As it was explained to me, the antibiotics only try to clear up the infection; they don't neccessarily drain the fluid, which is the main problem. So we were referred to a craniosacral therapist in town who used gentle pressure points to get the fluid moving in her ears. We went to three 1 hour sessions which not only fixed the ear fluid problem but helped get her spine and other things lined up. She has been a much happier baby since! If you are local and interested in in her name and number, comment or email me.

So, out of neccessity, I have embarked upon learning how to use essential oils and natural remedies to treat common ailments, mainly with our children. I have been so amazed at how wonderful the Lord is in giving us all the things we need in nature to fix our problems. Don't get me wrong, there are times that modern medicine is necessary, but probably 90% (my estimate) of the time, we can heal our bodies by using everyday things like essential oils or other tools/practitioners available. I will try to explain below some of my findings below and in later posts. Needless to say, I am very excited about my discoveries. To me, this is something new, but it's really not. There are countless references to oils in the Bible, so this is just new to me. I thought i'd try to share some of the things i'm learning.

To begin, let me define what an essential oil is (from Young Living website):

Essential Oils can be used aromatically, applied topically, or taken internally. Young Living's line of pure, therapeutic-grade essential oils and unique essential oil blends are sourced from the world's finest plants. Our oils are not diluted with chemical and synthetic additives and are carefully prepared to maintain plant integrity. This commitment to purity makes Young Living essential oils the world's highest-quality essential oil line.

Let me explain one thing. The reason you will see me use the company name Young Living(YL) a lot is because I have done some research as to why some essential oil's (EO) are much cheaper than YL's. There are no regulations when it comes to EO's. So, that means that some companies may use fillers and other junk in their oils and not even have to label it that way. YL has very strict standards for how they produce their oils. All in all, I feel that YL offers products that I never have to question. I know they are pure and are all made to work with my body and not harm it. I don't have the time to research each and every oil/product from other companies to see which ones of there's truly are therapeutic grade.

Here are YL's standards:

Young Living Therapeutic Grade™
The process Young Living uses when planting, cultivating, harvesting, and distilling a batch of oil is crucial to retaining its vital compounds. Without the exact blend of naturally-occurring plant chemicals, an essential oil can lose its beneficial properties and fail to produce the desired effect.
Young Living Therapeutic Grade (YLTG) means that every essential oil Young Living distills or sources has the optimal naturally-occurring blend of constituents to maximize the desired effect. Young Living is able to make this assertion because our strict cultivation process—illustrated by the Four Ps—guarantees the optimal potency of every Young Living essential oil.

Plants-An oil's potency can be affected not only by selecting the proper plant to cultivate, but also by where the plant is grown, the quality of soil in which the seed is planted, and even the time of day it's harvested.
Young Living has extensive experience selecting the correct species of plant for desired oil potency, planting under optimal conditions, using ideal soil and natural methods to encourage growth, and knowing the precise time to harvest each crop. Only those plants that produce the most active and widest array of therapeutic compounds are selected.

Preparation-Once the optimal soil, plant, cultivation, and harvesting conditions have been adhered to, the plants must be distilled properly in order to meet YLTG standards. Young Living uses a gentle, proprietary technique for steam-extracting the most potent essential oils, which remains unmatched throughout the essential oils industry.
To meet YLTG distillation standards proper temperature must be maintained throughout the distillation process, and pressure, length of time, equipment, and batch size are strictly monitored.

Purity-YLTG standards prohibit the acceptance of any diluted, cut or adulterated oils. Every product Young Living produces—essential oils, oil blends, nutritional supplements, or personal care—meets strict purity standards.
Every batch of essential oils is subjected to rigorous, state-of-the-art analysis at the Young Living chemistry lab. Using some of the most advanced equipment in the world, our scientists subject every batch of essential oils to Gas Chromatograph and Mass Spectrometer testing, and heavy metals analysis. Oils that exhibit even the slightest hint of possible adulteration or tampering are rejected.

Potency-The culmination of the preceding three stages, Potency means that the naturally occurring compounds contained in each essential oil product are of the highest and most consistent bioactive levels. Without strict adherence to the YLTG standard in the Plant, Preparation, and Purity phases, the final product would not have the necessary potency to create the desired effect.

All that said, that's why I am using the YL oils versus others that are sometimes cheaper. I have even decided to become a distributor since I plan to learn about and use these oils. 

I bought Essential Oils Desk Reference 4th Edition book. This book has all of the oils available and how and when to use them. The back part has a reference section that you can look up the health issue and it lists many different oils that can treat it along with different ways to apply them. Or you can look up the oil or oil blend and find out what they are good for. It is focused more towards Young Livings oils and products but also ahs a lot of information in general. I refer to this book almost daily right now. I got this book at a steal from a friend who had an extra. It's not cheap but well worth the money!

The main oils i am using on my kids right now are Thieves and Lemon. Every day I put one drop of Thieves essential oil on the bottom of all of my children's feet. Here is what this is from the Young Living website:

Thieves® was created based on research about four thieves in France who covered themselves with cloves, rosemary, and other aromatics while robbing plague victims. This proprietary essential oil blend was university tested for its cleansing abilities. It is highly effective in supporting the immune system and good health.

You name it, this oil does it! I have heard that this is the oil you want to use to help protect your children from diseases if you don't immunize. That's why I use it for almost everything. YL also makes these products with this oil blend which i am excited to begin using:

Thieves® oil blend is an integral ingredient in Thieves® Household Cleaner, Thieves® Spray, Thieves® Wipes, Thieves® Lozenges, Thieves® Dentarome Plus™ and Thieves® Dentarome Ultra™ toothpastes, and Thieves® Fresh Essence Plus™ Mouthwash.

Here is a great pdf to read about the hundreds of ways to use this oil and products: http://www.nutritech.org/files/Thieves.pdf

When the kids have an acute illness, i rub lemon oil down their spine and put thieves on the bottom of their feet every 15 or so minutes until the symptoms are relieved. We also begin the Zapper routine.

Ah, the Zapper, how do I explain this? It's amazing! I don't know how it works or understand it, but it works! It's a box with with a battery, some electrical parts, and an on/off switch that is connected by leads to 2 copper pipe pieces. The directions say to wrap the pipes in wet paper towels and hold them in your hands or on the feet (i strap these with soft hair bands to the baby's feet while she sleeps) for certain intervals in minutes. I am not crazy, this thing works for anything viral, bacterial, or parasites! You can not feel the "zapping" while it is on you, but the virus, bacteria, or parasite does and it is destroyed. This has already knocked out several illnesses with in a few hours for my kids and alleviated many symptoms from fevers, yeast infections, and stomach viruses. I bought mine from http://www.freespiritenterprises.com/.

This is a lot of info, but there's so much more. I'll continue posting as I can! If you have questions, please leave a comment for others to read or you can always contact me by phone or email.