Essential Oils Disclaimer

I have posted a few times about how wonderful and effective essential oils can be. The more I use them (now daily), the more I realize how I depend on and appreciate them.

But--

A couple of things that have happened lately have made me realize I need to say this: Essential oils do not cure or effectively treat everything. And, at least the company who makes the oils I use, doesn't claim that they do. In all the classes I have been to, the presenter always says something to the effect of: "Oils are very empowering because they help you treat yourself and your family and improve your health, without paying to see doctors for every little thing. However, use discretion; the medical community is there to help us when oils can't."

I firmly believe that. Because, I believe:

1. God created plants and herbs for our benefit, both nutritionally and medicinally.
2. God inspired people to understand more about the human body, disease, and how the body responds to chemical compounds, and to create modern medicines that help us recover from illnesses.
3. Both need to be used in wisdom and order. Moderation in all things.

One occurrence that brought this on was that, a while back, someone found out about my last summer's fight with pneumonia and, knowing that I use essential oils, asked, "Didn't oregano work?" (For those who don't know, oregano is a powerful, natural antibiotic and anti-viral herb, and is particularly potent for respiratory ailments.) I didn't have oregano yet at that time, so I couldn't use it for pneumonia. But when asked the question, I didn't have to think twice to know that it wouldn't have worked for me for that particular ailment. After all I went through, I know now that I waited too long to go into the doctor, and too long to go to the hospital after that. Pneumonia is one of those illnesses not to fool around with! If I had seen the doctor earlier on, so much would have gone better and been easier. Maybe there are people out there who get a mild case of it and recover quickly. But I've found that in one way, having had pneumonia is like having had a miscarriage: you have no idea how many people have been through that harrowing experience until you talk to others about it. And everyone who has told me their pneumonia story, has completely empathized with me: "Now I can understand how someone could die from it." "I kept thinking I would feel better in the morning, but I never did." "It was all I could do to work up the energy to go to the bathroom." "I wanted to die." "It took me a year to fully recover." As powerful as oregano is, for someone with an illness as bad as pneumonia, it isn't equipped to combat this kind of nastiness--especially when it turns into something even worse (Legionnaire's Disease), like mine did. (Unfortunately, nasty illnesses require nasty antibiotics, which often carry nasty side effects, and I experienced that too. But, it was better to be alive and experience them than the alternative!)

Again, the medical community is there to help us when oils can't. And another side to the coin is that oils are there to help us while we're waiting for drugs to kick in, since oils often start working more quickly--but might not work as long or as effectively, depending on the drug and the oil.

I always lean toward natural treatment, and I really don't like antibiotics, but there are times and places for both. Case in point: my sister is a nurse who works in a large and very good hospital. Just the other day she reported to me that sometimes they have people come in for treatment who have been using all kind of essential oils hoping for a reversal of symptoms who, as a result, wait so long for doctors' care that things only become worse and are harder to deal with. Don't be like that! Know your limits, know what works for you, and listen to what your body and your gut feelings tell you.