Skin Absorption of EO ** Was: NATUROPATCH ** (Sorta Long)

[Guest guest]

Hi Jody, other food folks ..

 

Some might be sorry this subject came up .. cause it got me on a soapbox

about a subject that concerns me .. and they are being hit with another

of my long and drawn out posts .. but I can't make a short one when a

subject is important .. I try to answer questions that aren't yet asked

in order to preclude dragging the issue into many more posts. ;-p

 

> They won best new product at the Ex*Tracts show last year.

 

Goes to show that those in charge don't really understand essential oils

or chemistry or aromatherapy or physiology.

 

> But I think they're silly ... why give up the pleasure of scent for a

> scented band-aid?

 

Right you are .. but that only applies to folks like us .. folks on this

and other lists who have some knowledge of the emotional, psychological

and physiological benefits of inhalation of essential oils.

 

> And is the function truly the same via the transdermal technology?

 

No m'am .. not same .. in fact, its not effective therapeutically and

its potentially harmful if there is even a small dilution of EO in such

a patch as potential for irritation or sensitization is not small.

 

> I don't know but I would like to. They are selling well for now.

 

Like cigarettes. :-( P.T. Barnum or some other showman said " There's a

sucker born every minute. " This might apply. Might not apply to the

folks who don't understand AT or EO and I expect the majority of those

who buy this are in that category .. but for those who CLAIM to know the

ropes .. they are either suckers or need to dig into the reseach again.

Actually .. they could do about as well without doing research if they

used the old noggin for more than a hat rack.

 

The skin is the largest organ of the body .. and its the most protective

organ of the body. Thanks to the Great Spirit, all chemical components

we come into contact with DO NOT absorb into the skin .. or don't absorb

deep enough to enter the blood stream. Some chemicals will .. some will

not .. and this is good cause if it were no true we'd need a heckua lot

more emergency rooms than we currently have in the U.S. of A.

 

If the entire chemical composition (profile) of a substance did absorb

then we'd be in greater danger of sensitization and even liver damage if

we used oils dermally over a long period of time .. some of the effects

would be cumulative .. they would accumulate faster than the liver and

other body waste disposal systems could eliminate them .. as is the case

with use of Wintergreen and Sweet Birch .. and some others.

 

The issue is not do ESSENTIAL OILS absorb but rather which CHEMICALS in

an Essential Oil can or can't absorb and how deep do they absorb.

 

I'll preface thast by saying it only applies to healthy, undamaged skin.

Damaged skin and/or open wounds can absorb any and all chemicals and

take'em direct to the blood stream.

 

We know that there is SOME absorption of SOME chemicals but I can't give

a complete laundry list of them .. and I don't think anyone else can

either because all of the data is not available .. much of it is done by

private industry and relates only to their products. Some chemicals can

make it through X number of the four layers of outer skin .. but I can't

tell you which ones can make it through each layer. I have (somewhere) a

list of SOME chemicals that have been proven to absorb deeply .. but its

based on toxicity studies of chemicals in isolation .. not in a natural

synergy.

 

Much of the misinformation is based on such testing .. that of isolation

of chemicals. This is not so difficult to understand as it would be a

monstrous task to try to identify ALL the chemicals that make it through

the body's barriers at one time. Much of the testing that is reported

is faulty in that all variables were not given consideration. Like:

 

If we want to apply essential oils to skin and later do blood testing to

see which chemicals entered and which didn't .. we have to ensure the

test subject is not breathing the same air as that in the area in which

the testing is being conducted. We know inhalation is the second most

rapid method of getting chemicals into the body .. injection being the

most rapid. So we would need to have the subject's head in a rebreather

or in the next room if we want to be sure the chemicals detected in the

blood didn't get there via inhalation.

 

These types of tests are rarely conducted .. they're expensive and there

is not much reason to do it .. except as I mentioned above .. a company

wanting to create a particular commercial product can spend big bucks

and time to test ONLY those chemicals they are most concerned with ..

those in their product. Even then, considering the sloppy work that is

accepted by the already compromised FDA we can assume that a lot of the

tests are pencil whipped .. we see hundreds of products withdrawn from

shelves each year after pharmaceutical companies have conducted research

on the human guinea pigs who buy their garbage from drug store.

 

Another reason rumors persist is (my personal opinion) the indocrination

of some European aromatherapy training .. they follow the rumors and

present them as facts .. many European trained Aromatherapy teachers and

practitioners accept .. without question .. that EOs absorb .. and based

on that faulty premise .. any information they put out is what I like to

call " fruit of the poison tree. "

 

Nobody claims there is NO absorption .. even chemicals that would not

normally absorb well can be assisted. One can force certain chemicals

through the skin, but not in the manner aromatherapists use whole oils.

And even forcing or assisting is not to say that they make it through

all layers of skin and into the blood stream. Why entry to the blood

stream through the skin is important enough for some folks to hype in

the first place puzzles me cause the best route of entry is olfactory ..

most of those volatile molecules will make it to the bloodstream.

 

Somebody once wrote on another list: " There is scientific evidence that

SOME chemicals do absorb in the skin. But the quantities that make it

through to the bloodstream are very minute (peak concentrations only

reach around 0.00000003 g/ml). There is no evidence of whether or not

this minute absorption has any real effects. (Journal of the Society of

Cosmetic Chemists, Vol. 48, No. 6, p. 277) "

 

BUT .. what they left out was that this study may have no relevance for

aromatherapy/massage because of the dilution used in the study .. it was

a test of l-carvone (main component in spearmint oil) absorption into

the skin. They used a 20% solution of carvone in a peanut oil and most

massage therapists use about a 2% solution. The conclusion of the study

was that a 56 kg human subject had absorbed one nanogram or 1 billionth

of a gram of carvone. What that meant wasn't determined. What they

didn't do but should'a done .. was follow this up with a test after the

chemical was inhaled and look for physiological changes. If there were

none then mayhaps the test had no relevance .. I think.

 

The arguements to support absorption are many .. but they can never pass

the test of science .. or logic. One is Lavender or Garlic applied to

the sole of the foot being detected in subsequent blood counts (and on

the breath) after less than an hour. Danged betcha it'll happen .. and

you don't even have to put it on your own foot .. you can put it on the

foot of the feller next to you and get the same results .. ;-p You are

gonna smell it and its gonna be found in your blood.

 

Also, the soles of the feet and palms of the hands are the most UNLIKELY

places we can expect absorption. The Great Everywhere Spirit would not

be so careless as to give mankind feet and hands that are likely to come

into constant contact with all kinds'a nastyness .. then let that crap

absorb? They are the toughest, thickest, most padded part of the skin.

 

The hands and feet WILL absorb water quicker than other parts of the

body .. but that has to do with an abundance of sweat glands and a

shortage of other type glands .. I'll not go there now as this is long

enough as it is. ;-p And I won't go into any medical evidence because

there's an abundance of it and its contradictory .. and none I've seen

addresses the points here .. simply because of the errors of testing.

Like chemicals in the kidneys/livers of rats .. no wonder they find such

things .. poor rats would have to live without breathing to not have

something in their bods .. hard to fit a rat with a rebreather. ;-p

 

If you thought I was finished .. you're wrong. I'm just getting to the

point. ;-) Here comes a recap and an attempt to show why absorption is

useless as a means of attaining therapeutic value.

 

Discussing dermal absorption is confusing as some folks claim that the

essential oil absorbs into the skin .. and more confusing when they say

the EO makes it's way to the blood stream.

 

To make such claims is a mouthful because what we really must look at is

which of the thousand and one chemical constituents of an EO actually

absorb - what part of the skin area is tested, how much of it absorbs -

how deep does it absorb - what's the rate of absorption vs evaporation,

what conditions (sweating, heat, cold, addition of other chemicals or

whatever) might assist or preclude the absorption .. and other factors

that are generally not considered when some folks talk about absorption

of " essential oils " instead of absorption of " individual chemicals " .

 

I'd like to dismiss the business of smell/taste of substances applied to

the skin .. we smell what we taste and we taste what we smell cause the

nose and mouth are connected .. that's a defense mechanism the Great

Everywhere Spirit built into warm-blooded critters.

 

We generally agree that some chemicals CAN penetrate the outer layers of

the skin (how many of the four ??) but that's not what this is about ..

its about absorption to a point of getting into the blood stream.

 

Most arguements used to support the position that EOs absorb are made

invalid and therefore, become fruits of the poison tree because we are

not really concerned with the EO to begin with, but rather with the

various chemicals in the EO. There are some chemicals that are known to

absorb rapidly .. others are proven to not absorb at all. As for most

chemicals, we just don't know! Why? Because they've not been tested.

 

Now .. if we wanna hang on to this anyway, we're gonna blow hell out of

one of the sacred cows of AT .. that of the need for natural synergies

for dermal application. Keep in mind that the Great Everywhere Spirit

made it possible for some plants and critters to survive and thrive

whilst others fell along the wayside .. I forget the exact figures but

it goes like maybe 80% of life forms that ever existed no longer exist.

This evolution or survival of the fittest created perfect organisms that

were able to handle the onslaught of enemies and were able to procreate.

Part of that perfection is a natural synergy .. take away an integral

part of a human's blood or the chemical profile of a plant or whatever,

and we have a less than perfect organism that is no longer as effective.

 

So .. let's look at the Damask Rose, for example. With the most modern

analysis equipment, man has been able to identify close to 350 chemical

components within that rose .. its suspected that there are hundreds -

thousands? more trace chemicals not yet identified. Now Old Mastah

didn't allow no chemicals to be in that rose that were without purpose.

It wasn't a case of .. " Well, I built a rose and only filled 98% of the

storage capacity so I reckon I better throw in some filler chemicals so

the others won't be bouncing around and stuff. "

 

IF .. all of those chemicals do not absorb (and we KNOW they don't)

then only some of them are absorbing - huh? Where is the synergy?

 

I'll answer this with an opinion .. ;-p That synergy is in our minds ..

not in the EO. It was in the plant but when man performed the unnatural

act of distillation, not only did he lose water soluable portions of the

plant, but he created some new chemicals that Old Mastah never planned

to have in His perfect organism in the first place. So much for the

natural synergies. But don't feel badly .. we know that whatever is

left in the EO we use in AT works .. no question about that. But will

it work if we use only a portion of that which is left??

 

Why is there not a lot of research on absorption? Cause nobody cares.

Those with the money to conduct expensive research don't care because

they have nothing to gain unless the research is leading up to their

marketing of a product where they need to know the absorption rate of an

active chemical ingredient ... or maybe whether it will absorb at all.

 

To determine which chemicals do/don't absorb, man would have to test

individual chemicals .. a bunch of chemicals .. and they would have to

be extracted from natural products if we wanna get an accurate reading

cause those that are man-made are likely to have a different molecular

structure and that will affect the outcome.

 

What some folks seem to WANT to overlook is that we are smelling what is

being placed on our skins .. so proving absorption would require a

difficult and costly series of experiments which ensureed that chemicals

detected in the blood stream did not get there through the most likely

avenue .. the olfactory system. This is what blows most arguements out

of the water .. how to keep that subject from inhaling those millions of

volatile molecules floating through the air, that get to the bloodstream

faster than will the most rapidly absorbing chemical components? We

don't gotta be able to detect odors for the molecules to affect us or

get where they wanna go .. some poison gases have no odor so they add

bad odor to them so we can detect them - if our olfactory system is not

working at all then I think we gotta be dead.

 

That should make some folks think again when they say the subject of a

massage is getting relief from the absorption of the EO. In fact, the

massage giver is gonna breath in more molecules and faster cause they

rise .. the recipient is also gonna breath them in - no way to prevent

that unless you fix it where they can't breath at all.

 

And the recipient of the massage is gonna get therapeutic benefit from

massage whether we use oils or not - just the manipulation, touch and

the attention is very therapeutic to the mind, the body and the soul.

 

I don't worry about what folks believe as long as it doesn't negatively

affect the life, liberty or property of other folks .. and that includes

being unsafe. I see no harm in belief of all kinds of things that can't

be proven ... but such beliefs can cause us to not progress much in our

learning on a particular subject if we begin with a false .. or unproven

premise. Any brillant ideas we get later might be clouded by that false

premise. It can put us on the wrong path.

 

We are glad the body's largest organ protects us from total absorption.

If it didn't, we'd be spending a lot of time in the hospital for detox

and/or first aid because we come into contact with bad stuff on a daily

basis. We are glad poison plant juices (like poison ivy or oak) only

irritate the skin instead of absorbing .. and we are glad we can soak in

a hot tub without absorbing water and drowning.

 

Smart folks will admit we don't know a lot about this subject, and will

admit there's a shortage of evidence to support what beliefs we do have.

Then we have folks like Gary Young and his band of MLM folks who seem to

have all the answers.

 

I don't claim to have knowledge here .. I'm just not ready to buy what I

believe is illogical. Till I get better info from folks who understand

AT and human anatomy, physiology or pathophysiology, this is my story

and I'm sticking to it. ;-p

 

Oh yea .. remember .. if we wanna stick to the belief that stretched or

adulterated or fractionated or otherwise manipulated oils do NOT provide

the same therapeutic value as do natural oils .. that is .. oils with

ALL of the chemical components present .. then we must discard a notion

that absorption gives benefit cause all the chemicals are not there ..

OR .. discard the foundation of AT that says they gotta be there.

 

> Time will tell if they stick!

 

They might Jody .. in the absense of factual information they might do

well .. as have some of the so-called Aromatherapy products Glade has

out now .. they're even in the supermarkets here in Turkey.

 

> Jody

>

> > Discreet, easy to use, Naturopatch delivers real

> > aromatherapy benefits without muss or fuss.

 

Y'all keep smiling, Butch http://www.AV-AT.com