Essentil Oils, Part Three: I Hate You Then I Love You

Why do I hate the things that are good for me?  It is sad but true.  Most things that are good for me are also disgusting to me.  Case in point:  90% of the alternatives to traditional medicine, including essential oils.  No joke!  I have tried various alternatives to traditional medicine over the years and have always been discouraged by their grossness.  I tried medicinal herbal teas.  Guess what?  Any tea related to a condition I have is guaranteed to taste foul.  Throat Coat? Tastes distinctly of black licorice.  Everyday Detox (to improve liver function)?  A vile combination of flavors I cannot even describe.  Breathe Easy?  More licorice combined with other gross things.   Ditto for the smell of most essential oils.  I like the smell of citrus based oils and little else.

So, here I am, trying alternatives again.  I am sorry to tell you that I still hate them.  Really.  I am not an easy sell on these essential oils because I really don't like the smell or the taste of nearly all of them.  The more beneficial they are, the more I despise them.  That might be a tiny exaggeration, but not much. Unfortunately for me, they seem to work.  Sigh.

Here they are in no particular order:

1. Frankincense.  A famous and highly valuable essential oil.  It smells and tastes absolutely foul.  Most people find the smell exotic, but I am not most people.  Unfortunately, it has helped to reduce the severity of a migraine when a drop or two is rubbed on the roof of the mouth. I have heard anecdotes from other people that it can lessen the severity and length of seizures and many other ailments.

2. Lemongrass:  Helpful in treating migraines and in lowering cholesterol.  It has such a STRONG smell of both lemon and grass that it is overwhelming to my senses.  My husband loves it.  So do many other people, just not me.

3.  Oregano:  Ok, this one is not totally vile, it just kind of smells a little like italian food which is a weird smell to have on your body or to taste (if taken internally) sans food.  Unfortunately, it is anti-everything:  anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-septic.  Of all the luck.  My creepy toenail has never looked so good as it has since I started using oregano oil!

4. OnGuard:  This is a blend made only by DoTerra.  It is also an anti-everything to prevent and treat colds and flus and whatever.  It kills germs, pathogens, mold, fungi and I am sure the list goes on.  99% of the world loves the smell of this stuff. I am the 1%.   I have found that the smell improves greatly when blended with a drop or two of citrus.  I have no idea if it has prevented anyone in our house from getting sick (since you can't measure an absence of something) but I have noticed that some places in my house full of plumbing problems are easier to clean and do not get scummy build up as quickly.  We use this regularly in the diffuser.

5.  DeepBlue: Another DoTerra Blend.  It smells mostly of wintergreen and the smell is VERY strong.  I don't despise wintergreen, but it's a little much for me at times.  I don't really want to use it for a perfume, but this blend has become one of my favorites.  I have a few spots - my wrists and one hip -- that get cranky and painful pretty easily.  Massaging the area with DeepBlue has been surprisingly soothing.  It helped my hip so much!  I actually ran out and am waiting for my next bottle to arrive.

6. DigestZen:  A DoTerra Blend of some of the nastiest flavors known to man, including ginger, anise, fennel and coriander.  What I hate and love the most about this is that it really works well on nausea.  I had a whopper of a migraine last night and a nasty round of vomiting.  Did the migraine cause the vomiting or did the vomiting cause the migraine?  I have no idea but it was awful and I was miserable for a very long time.  I couldn't sleep or even rest, just moan and squirm around trying to find a way to lay that hurt less whenever I wasn't hanging out in the bathroom,.  When I had a moment of clear brain, I remembered that I could try the oils.  I could not bear the thought of swallowing anything, but I read up on vomiting.  There were many recommendations, but the easiest to follow was to put oregano and DigestZen in a capsule.  I managed to get it down (and it stayed down) and my nausea began to ease up.  I followed up by rubbing the DigestZen on my abdomen, and then repeating the regimen any time the nausea returned.  I have also used it to calm heartburn and general stomach cramping after eating something I shouldn't.

Enough for now - I could go on, especially with the DoTerra blends.  They work surprisingly well, but that doesn't mean I am enjoying their smell or taste.  I still hate them less than the alternatives.  And, just like I have found ways to make vegetables more palatable (except for cooked spinach-that's never happening), I will find ways, hopefully, to adjust to the smells and tastes of essential oils.  We'll see.

Essential Oils, Part Two

So, I've been trying to figure out using essential oils. A few weeks ago, I was filling up my vitamin box, trying to get in the habit of taking my vitamins, again.  I started pawing the shelf of medicine in our cupboard and ending up throwing away at least half of it. There were loads of expired prescriptions and just a bunch of stuff that the doctor has prescribed that I don't want. I found the old bottles of ADD medicine that two of my children used to take as well as the multiple medications my doctor had prescribed for my migraines. I used to take a blood pressure pill that was supposed to lessen the frequency of migraines, as well as a monster pill that I would take when my migraines got to the point that I was severely nauseated and seeing floaters and not able to function.

I haven't refilled any of my medications since October and I told my husband a while back that I thought it had been about two weeks (since that time of month) since I had had a monster headache. I used to get them 4-5 days/week.  Using the preventative medication, I'd still get at least two per week. Even with medication, I often got headaches that would last for several days at a time. The last really bad migraine I got was during my menstrual cycle, which I think is probably just something I will live with forever.

I really feel like getting that medicine totally out of my system and beginning to use the essential oils is making the difference. When I get a headache, I can often head it off with the pasttense (a blend by DoTerra which includes peppermint, wintergreen, frankincense and ?) before it gets too bad. And I do not wake up fuzzy in the morning (as I would have with medicine) or with the headache still raging. If the essential oils only do this one thing for me, that is still $108 per month in medicines I am no longer refilling and a lot of peace of mind from not worrying about what those heavy medications are doing to me and my cranky liver.

One of the websites that has been hugely helpful in educating me is www.everythingessential.me

It is a treasure trove of information!  I am still learning, and hoping that I can use the oils to heal  my throat, that is still prone to laryngitis, my liver that is always cranky, and the allergies that plague our whole family!