What Are
Essential Oils?
Below are some of the highlights from our “What are Essential Oils?” booklet. If you would like to receive our FREE “What are Essential Oils?” booklet, please click Contact us and we will gladly email it to you.
Here is a short version:
Essential oils are the liquids that circulate throughout plants. They are called the the “chi” or the life force, and they travel around the plant like blood travels throughout our bodies. Their function in nature is to keep plants healthy, free of infection, to repel harmful insects, and to help communication. It has been discovered that essential oils work similar in people as they do in plants. They affect our immune systems, our muscles, internal organs, skin, circulation, body functions, and our emotions.
Essential oils evaporate readily, releasing their aromas into the air. From the beginning of time, our ancestors used the fragrant plants to heal, uplift, anoint, and empower their lives. These aromatic liquids are called "essential oils," but they have also been called "precious oils," “ointment,” "sacred oils," or “Biblical oils.” Throughout history, they were used for physical well being, longevity, beauty, and courage, as well as for sacred purposes in temples and religious rituals.
Some distillers and growers honor the principles of the precious oils or Biblical oils and grow the crops and distill the oils without chemicals in order to retain their therapeutic value. These oils are called therapeutic-grade oils. Young Living’s oils are therapeutic-grade oils and they meet or exceed the AFNOR standards developed in Europe for oils that are used in clinics and hospitals. Note that many of Young Living’s oils also have the FDA label.
Most of the oils sold in the United States are commodity oils (cosmetic, perfume, and food grade) and these oils do not meet the standards for a therapeutic-grade oil. There is a HUGE difference. Comments on this website apply ONLY to Young Living therapeutic-grade oils. A respected researcher, Dr. Peter Minke, said, “If you don’t use therapeutic-grade essential oils, it is better to not use any essential oils at all.”
And, here is a longer version:
Essential oils have been called man’s first medicines. Essential oils are the subtle, aromatic and volatile liquids (the life force) extracted from nature’s trees, flowers, seeds, leaves, roots and barks through distillation. According to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and Chinese manuscripts, priests and physicians were using essential oils thousands of years before Christ healed the sick. They are the oldest form of medicine known to man and were considered more valuable than gold. The practice of using essential oils is noted 188 times in the Holy Bible. Phrases such as anointing and washing feet in “oils” referred to essential oils.
Very few of the oils offered for sale in the United States are therapeutic grade. Most of the essential oils sold in the U.S. today have no therapeutic value. They may smell good, but that’s about it! The health benefits of these commodity oils (cosmetic and food grade) are many times compromised because of being adulterated with chemicals or pesticides or because they are distilled in a way that does not protect the natural properties of the oils. Many of these essential oils are diluted with vegetable or olive oil so the company can sell these "pure" oils cheaply. There is a significant difference between essential oils that simply smell good and those that are therapeutic grade.
How can you tell if an essential oil has been diluted with a fatty oil such as vegetable or olive oil?
It's easy! Pure essential oil is not oily and will penetrate your skin leaving your skin without any oil residue. Why? Because pure essential oil's molecules are extremely small which enables them to penetrate human tissue and pass through cell membranes. Pure essential oil will evaporate. On the other hand, the molecules of fatty oils like vegetable or olive are too large to penetrate human tissue or pass through cell membranes so they will feel oily on the skin and will not evaporate.Try this simple test; put one drop of an essential oil on a paper towel and wait for about 30 minutes. An undiluted essential oil will have evaporated completing leaving the paper towel without a stain. However, diluted essential oil will leave an oily stain on the paper towel because fatty oils do not evaporate.
How can you tell if an essential oil is therapeutic-grade?
This isn't as easy. Even chemically altered or improperly distilled essential oils may have the same constitutes, but they don't have the health benefits because chemicals or improper distillation destroys the natural healing properties of the oils. The most important thing is to know and trust your essential oil supplier.
- Do your research on the company and read or hear testimonials from people who have used the oils from that supplier.
- Read the labels and see if they are for internal use or are they only for external use. If they are not for internal use, that probably means that the oil was processed with chemicals and can not be taken internally. Would you want to put anything on your skin that would be absorbed if you couldn't take it internally?
- Buy from a company you trust. Young Living is the WORLD LEADER in therapeutic-grade oils.
Young Living Essential Oil Health and Wellness Education
Most manufacturers of essential oils don't offer essential oil health and wellness meetings, classes, conference calls or conferences. Most essential oil companies are only interested in selling their oils, not in people's health and wellness. Check out our Essential Oils Events page often. Contact us if you are interested in attending wellness classes or having an event at your home. At Young Living, we care.
YoungLiving is a company that strives to provide people like you and me with educational resources so we learn how to get the greatest health benefit from the oils. When you join our Young Living family, there are free weekly conference calls dedicated to health and wellness. In addition, there are also educational classes available to those who is interested in healing and keeping their body healthy.
Factors that determine the purity of oils
Its natural chemical properties - These natural chemical properties can be affected by a vast number of variables, including the parts of the plant from which the oils were produced, soil conditions, whether the fertilizer used is organic or chemical, the geographical region where it's grown, harvesting methods, and the distillation processes.
Proper distilling – It’s important to preserve as many of the delicate aromatic compounds in the essential oil as possible. These fragile aromatic chemicals are easily destroyed by the wrong temperature and pressure in the distilling process. They can also be destroyed by contact with chemically reactive metals. Any essential oil that is subject to high heat, high pressure, or chemically extracted have a distinctly inferior profile of the natural chemical properties and are not therapeutic.
Independent laboratory testing proves that Young Living essential oils exceed industry requirements, and as stewards of nature’s plant remedies, Young Living maintains higher internal standards, built upon the magnitude of their own rigorous quality assurance requirements.
The Therapeutic Difference
There are three Grades of Essential Oils:
- Grade A oils are pure therapeutic quality and are made from organically grown plants distilled at the proper temperatures using steam distillation. Young Living oils are Grade A oils.
- Grade B oils are food grade; they may contain synthetics, pesticides, fertilizers, extenders, or carrier oils.
- Grade C oils are perfume grade and may contain the same type of adulterating chemicals as food grade oils. They usually contain solvents which are used to gain a higher yield of oil per harvest. Solvents are often cancerous.
Some Characteristics of Pure Therapeutic-Grade Essential Oils are:
- Anti-bacterial
- Anti-viral
- Anti-fungal
- Anti-parasitic
- Anti-inflammatory
- Anti-tumoral
- Antimicrobial
- Antiseptic
Amazing Young Living Therapeutic Essential Oils
- If a cell has been deprived of oxygen, the cell wall hardens and nothing can pass in or out. Essential oils are lipid soluble and can penetrate a cell membrane. If the cell wall has hardened, essential oils can reoxygenate it. This helps the cell to function normally again. Essential oils offer the body the availability of additional 21% more oxygen to every cell in the body within 20 minutes of application.
- There is a barrier membrane between circulating blood and the brain which prevents certain damaging substances from reaching brain tissue and cerebrospinal fluid. This is known as the blood-brain barrier. It has long been assumed by the medical community that diseases such as M.S., Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and Alzheimer’s could be treated if an agent was found that passes the blood-brain barrier. It has now been documented that the agent of sesquiterpenes (natural compound in oils), found in plants, has the ability to go beyond the blood-brain barrier. High levels of sesquiterpenes are found in the essential oils of Frankincense and Sandalwood.
- Phenols and Phenylopropanoilds (natural compounds in oils) create conditions where viruses and bacteria can’t live. Phenylopropanoilds clean receptor sites on the cells. Without clean receptors, cells can’t communicate, the body malfunctions, and sickness results. Phenols increase the velocity in the blood by increasing the oxygen and moving it along. Phenols are antiseptic and can kill bacteria.
- The Monoterpenes and Sesquiterpenes (natural compounds in oils) can reprogram miswritten information in the DNA. With improper coding in cellular memory, cells malfunction and disease results.
- Our organ and body parts have a frequency.The frequency of the essential oil will attract a like frequency in the body. There is a correlation between higher frequencies and better health.
- Most viruses, fungi, and bacteria can’t live in the presence of many essential oils, especially those high in phenols, carvacrol, thymol and terpenes. Clinical research shows that essential oils have the highest frequency of any natural substance known to man, thus creating an environment where disease, bacteria, virus and fungus can’t thrive.
- Clinical research shows that many of the “super bugs” that have modern medicine so concerned can’t survive in the presence of essential oils, nor has there been any pathogen known to resist them by mutating.
- Essential oils are made up of amino acid structures and will penetrate the dermal shield so quickly and absorb into the system very efficiently. When applying the oils to the skin, they will go into the system in 2-3 seconds and saturate the whole body in approximately 21 minutes. The effects (frequency) of the oil can last up to five months.
- Essential oils have a chemical structure similar to human cells and tissues, making them compatible with human protein, which enables them to be readily identified and accepted by the body. Essential Oils, without question, enhance your body’s ability to utilize the protein more efficiently and, by using the oils, you are assisting the body to heal itself.
Comments and testimonials on this website apply to THERAPEUTIC-GRADE YOUNG LIVING OILS ONLY because of their purity and potency.
Sources: Healing Oils of the Bible by Dr. David Stewart and various educational sessions
Get our free complete version of "What are Essential Oils?" by simply clicking on the "Contact us" link and request it. There is no obligation to you.
How To Use Essential Oils
Naturally Healthy with
Young Living Essential Oils
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Young Living Essential Oils
The World Leader in Essential Oils
Diane Baana - Young Living Distributor/Sponsor No. 988544 - Minnetonka, MN
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Ashby, MN
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Detroit Lakes, MN
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Disclaimer Notice: This information is intended for educational purposes only and is not meant to substitute for medical care or to prescribe, treat, or diagnose any specific health condition. If you have a health issue, please contact your health care provider. The information provided by this website and this company is not a substitute for a face-to-face consultation with a health care provider and should not be construed as individual medical advice.
