Not too new & Internal Us

[Guest guest]

Hi Esther Jo

The LLx comes from the days when I belonged to some small lists where

most members were friends and corresponded often and quickly. Its

short for :

Love

Liz x :-)

 

On to ingestion.....

 

Hi All

I'm going to reproduce here a post I made on this same topic a week or

so ago on a different forum. The subject came up and one or two people

saw no reason not to take oils internally.

 

In most countries EO's are regarded as cosmetic products (except where

used as industrial flavoring, which then comes under food regulation

and is a separate issue again) so suppliers cannot - legally -

recommend ingestion of the products they sell, even if there was

sufficient information about internal use of EO's for them to do so.

Aromatherapists (in UK) - are not taught internal use and are

therefore not insured, or qualified to prescribe them. Not only that,

but the very word *prescribe* leads to the assumption that the

therapist has *diagnosed* the condition for which they are

prescribing, and (again in the UK) only the medical profession is

allowed to diagnose health disorders and disease. If a therapist does,

they can be prosecuted for practicing medicine without a licence and

(to my mind) rightly so, because they are NOT qualified to diagnose

nor do they have the investigative means to do so.

Then there is the other consideration that if I as an Aromatherapist

prescribed - say peppermint - for what I *thought* was IBS, I could be

delaying a client from seeing a doctor and, perhaps, getting an early

diagnosis of bowel cancer. At the early stages, this a treatable form

of cancer, but delayed diagnosis leads to poorer prognosis.

Self medication - well, that's fine, we can and we should take

responsibility for our own health. But should we take responsibility

for the heath of others? Such as our children? I mean that in the

nicest way because sometimes a little knowledge can be very harmful.

About 5/6 years ago a well publicised case in the UK told of a young

couple who spoon fed neat peppermint to a colicky baby on the advice

of a pharmacists assistant. They gave him too much, it's a natural

product and they *thought* it would be OK. Sadly the child died as a

result. An extreme example, but its these extremes that lead to

problems, heartache and draconian regulation and/or legislation.

Then there is the thorny subject of adulteration. The more costly an

oil the higher the possibility its been messed with. Sad, but true. So

you could well be doctoring yourself with synthetic chemicals that are

less tested (for internal use) than OTC medication.

Most oils used in food flavoring are what we (therapists) would call

adulterated. Only they call it standardisation. This is where oils are

produced to a standard (constituents added or taken away) so that each

batch of sweets, cookies, chocolate or pesto tastes exactly the same

as the last. They also take out harmful chemicals at the same time. In

other words, oils used in food production are not *exactly* the same

as the oils we use, in many cases they only have the same names.

EO's are not cordials, or concentrated compounds of the whole herb.

The distillation process produces - in some cases - whole new

chemicals that are not present in the fresh or dried herb. Other

chemicals are destroyed or the molecules are to large to come through

distillation. We have no idea - no traditional usage to look to - of

what the effect of these new chemicals can do (good or bad) within our

bodies, or how those missing parts brought together the whole

herb/healing effect.

 

With so many variables, from not knowing what pre existing health

problems a person has that may be exacerbated by ingestion of

essential oils, to the quality of the oils they may use and the fact

we simply dont know how they are processed by the body, my personal

advice would be to stick to inhalation and topical use if helping

someone.

If in doubt about that, just stop and think of the pharmacists

assistant who though a few drops of peppermint would be safe, never

anticipating that the recommended *few drops* would turn into half a

bottle.

Experiment on yourself if you must - but never experiment with someone

else's health and well-being.

LLx

[Guest guest]

Thanks for that, Liz.

 

Just a note to let you all know the polls are closing later today......add

your clicks while you can.

 

Cheers,

Christina