Therapeutic Essential Oils with Medicinal Properties
Essential oils can offer truly amazing benefits to help the body restore balance and health. There are hundreds of different essential oils, each with its own set of therapeutic and medicinal properties. As compared to pharmaceutical drug products, essential oils offer a huge ray of hope (and a safer track record) by supporting the body to address health challenges naturally.
If you are looking for alternative ways to support your body in health, only the highest quality essential oil with potent medicinal properties should be used. However, trying to determine if an essential oil meets the demanding quality for medicinal purposes is often challenging.
Medicinal Properties of Oils
Essential oils have hundreds of healing properties. Essential oils can affect every system in the body, from nervous system, circulation, lungs, muscles and immune system. Some oils have anti-viral, anti-fungal and/or anti-bacterial properties. Others can help the body to deal with pain, inflammation, mood and stress.
Most commonly, essential oils enter the body through the skin or nose (via smelling or diffusing them) and are transferred throughout the body by the blood system. Only oils of the very highest medicinal quality, non-toxic variety, and those that are labeled by the FDA as “GRAS” (Generally Regarded As Safe) should be considered for medicinal use. Special precautions apply for children, the elderly and pregnant women.
When using oils medicinally, it’s best to work with a natural health care professional to ensure the essential oils are appropriate for you and to monitor your progress.
How to Verify Medicinal Quality Essential Oils
Medicinal essential oils are meant to affect the body on multiple levels and should be of the highest quality for the best results. Over 98% of essential oils on the market today do not meet the exacting standards of a true therapeutic grade or medicinal essential oil.
The following are qualities to look for in a true medicinal essential oil:
- E.O.B.B.D. tested. Ensures that strict identity, processing and quality testing requirements are met. Ensures the oil contains potent yet natural amounts of key active ingredients, and that they are not adulterated with chemical synthetics that are not as effective. Testing verifies that the oil lacks impurities such as solvents, pesticides and other contaminants. Click to learn more about EOBBD essential oils.
- Organic or wild-crafted (if available). Helps ensure a clean, high quality plant origin.
- Therapeutic expertise from the formulator. The formulator of the oil must have specific experience selecting oil sources to maximize medicinal properties. This expertise is especially important when making blends of oils.
- Technical expertise. Knowledge and experience in quality testing is crucial, including the ability to recognize the subtle signs of both quality and adulteration in test results.
