Welcome to our fresh, new podcast about essential oils with doTERRA!
Intro:
00:07 What's up everyone. We are so excited to be bringing you a brand new fresh out of the oven podcast. It is going to be absolutely revolutionizing to healthcare all around the country. It is called Essential Oil Healthcare Radio is brought to you by the folks to bring you the paleo mama. I'm Frank. This is Jackie and we are the Ritz' and we want to talk to you about all things essential oils. A couple of quick disclaimers before we get this podcast started. First and foremost by all means we're going to stay brand centric meaning that we will be talking about doTerra essential oils only if you are not a fan of doTERRA that's fine we might make you one but if you. Do not want to listen to the doTERRA centric podcast. By all means you're welcome to move about the Innerspace. But with that also being said we're going to keep it where it's going to be 100 percent good to go. You'll be able to use the same terms you'll be able to use these same things and we're going to talk about to help share this information with your family and your friends in a very confident way because just like Tara says we want to empower you. One drop one person and one community at a time. So without further ado let's go and jump right in.
Frank:
01:26 We're going to talk about some of the most frequently asked questions that we have received about essential oils over the last five years of using essential oils in our home and then introducing them to thousands of people both online and around our local area here in western North Carolina. So let's start off with the very first basic question.
Jackie:
01:48 Yes so what is an essential oil. And I actually underestimated how much people actually know about. What are you. Central oil is in fact we were meeting with our orthodontist one time to share more about essential oils with him and I'm Frank. brought.
Frank:
02:08 Yes.
Jackie:
02:10 Article Yeah went to the online and started printing online articles I had like I was killing it was going to go on there rock it. So I started off and within the first 30 seconds I got shut down.
Jackie:
02:22 He said Well I don't even know what it is essential oil is he said.
Frank:
02:25 The man asked the question what is an essential oil. I looked right at my wonderful wife and I go. All right yikes help me out.
Jackie:
02:32 No you said take it from here because I'm good at that. I'm not good at all the meds. Sure you can handle that.
Jackie:
02:39 So essential oils are pretty much the they come from plants so think of lavender and roots and seeds and leaves. They come from there the essence of that so they have been either steamed distilled. So it's where you actually take the massive amount of herbs like let's just say for instance peppermint you take all the peppermint leaves and you throw them into this big steam distiller. And what happens is it separates the oil from the water that's in the plant and you get what is an essential because oil floats on top of water.
Frank:
03:20 So you were able to take that essential oil that that sort of distills up toward the top and then there's a method to extract that in order to be able to get the pure essential if I could take it back one step.
Frank:
03:30 Essential oils are all over these plants for a couple of different reasons. Essential oils are found in nature because they are certain things like an attractant they bring in they bring it you know bugs that they want to have come in and help spread there. You know I guess for all intensive purposes their gametes are things that help them reproduce and then they also can be an attraction like Jackie just or excuse me had to deterent just said Jackie said meaning that they can also put off a aroma that insect or would be predator would not want to consume or fungus.
Frank:
04:07 And they also work with regards their they work environmental threats as well so essential oils are one of the most basic things that we always show people is a microscope.
Frank:
04:18 It's an electron microscope if you will very very very close imaging of say a peppermint leaf and you can see the actual globules of essential oils as they're being produced by those different pores in the plant in order to create that essential oil for the plant.
Jackie:
04:33 And the one thing that they are is they are very potent so they're usually about 40 to 60 times more potent than the herbal counterpart. So for instance peppermint you know you're going to have a drop of peppermint essential oil is like 40 times more potent than just using the leaves of the peppermint plant. Both have it's benefits you know as a as a budding herbalist and also an essential oil educator. I appreciate all parts of the plant you know including the herbs and including the essential. But both can be used in various different ways so we're going to focus just on using the essential oils therapeutically and I think that you guys are going to really really fall in love with all the incredible ways that you can use essential oils and one of the things that me and Frank always say is that you know we are Bible believing God fearing people and so we don't believe that God left this earth without the medicines that we need on it.
Jackie:
05:39 We just got to tap into the resources that he's given us and that is the form of plant medicine and so that's why we have really grown to love essential oils and also so many different other ways that we love it and reasons as you know it's handy. You can always have them I don't always have cardamom pods to put in my coffee but I love putting a drop of Cardamom in my coffee every single morning so I'm just so many ways that you can use them. Is one of the main reasons why we really really love sharing more about essential oils.
Frank:
06:11 Here's a fun fact about essential oil uses. Did you know that actually about 300 or more of our modern medicines are to have a basis in a plant and what they do is they just won a pharmaceutically make them in a in a lab.
Frank:
06:24 You're just adding on different chemical groups in order to be able to get a desired effect inside of the body so plant medicine has been around for literally hundreds of thousands of years and the only reason why it may seem a little bit different is because it's finally showing a resurgence again here in America. So every single day you can use these with confidence in a in a overall healthy lifestyle environment. So a question ever to the we always get is how do we even use them.
Frank:
06:54 So essential oils can be used three different ways they can either be chromatically which means that we put them into the air by the use of like a diffuser we can use them topically or we can use them internally. Now doTERRA does have a specific process. It is an 11 step process that allows us as the users to use these essential oils if we can. So consider an internal environment effectively that is a personal choice that we have made but guess what we're not only we're one of six million people that currently use doTERRA and an environment where we consider internal use to meet scientifically if we're going to use a topically and or even aromatically.
Frank:
07:36 You are internalizing some of that oil. So the age old comment about you know utilizing essential oils and that way you know we consume essential oils to our foods that we eat every single day as well. So essentially we have been you know around essential oils for all of our life. And so we just as sure we are assured that by this standard that we really appreciate the essential oils that we use with doTERRA.
Jackie:
08:02 So the first one Frank said was aromatic and that's pretty much breathing in. So when you inhale an essential oil the molecules that are in that oil they go into the back of your nostril into your body. And that way you're able to you know that's a very powerful way to use the essential oils for a various amount of uses specifically emotionally and also for the therapeutic therapeutic use of like respiratory support. You know those are some really great ways that you can use oils just by breathing them in. And now I know many of you probably have an essential oil diffuser sitting at home. Turn that thing on that's another very powerful way to use essential oils. I love my diffuser because I it's almost like the lazy way to use oils. I don't have to sit my kids down and grab a carrier oil grab the central oil rub it on their back.
Jackie:
09:05 I can just put my diffuser on in the kitchen as they're eating breakfast. And I know that they're getting those immune boosting properties of say on guard you know which is our protective blend. They're breathing those in. And so as they go about their day their immune system is already top notch because of me just diffusing on guard. So that's those are the main ways that we use the essential oils aromatically but you can also use it through direct inhalation and that's where you pretty much just place a drop of oil on your hand or you can just breathe that directly out of the bottle cut your nose put that put the palm your hands around your nose and just take a really really deep breath of that oil on those. That is a very powerful way to get the oils into your body. And it almost sends a message directly to your to your body to says hey here's the oils start start your power.
Frank:
10:06 If I may I'd like to add about the whole you know benefit of using them by inhalation or even dramatically as that's what we're talking about is being able to change your emotions there's a lot of there's a lot of evidence out there in terms of when we inhale something we can activate the area of the brain known as the limbic system in the limbic system was a very powerful tool that I'm very grateful that we actually have as human beings. It is the one that helps protect us it gives us feelings of fear or excitement and it actually relates a lot to our memories and so like I always like this to when I was playing football back in high school or whatever the freshly mowed grass on my football field always makes me smile when I go buy a freshly mowed patch of grass I always think of Friday Night Football because that was the smell that I associated with that particular memory.
Jackie:
11:00 And so said for everybody every time we use oregano I actually think of our Sundays growing up with pasta.
Jackie:
11:08 My mom made spaghetti every single Sunday and so every time I smell that aroma it kind of brings me back to those childhood memories.
Frank:
11:17 The downside of abut it. The downside about it is that it can work against you as well. Of course there can be a smell that triggers a negative emotion. And what we want to do is we want to understand what that is and that's going to be a personal effort sort of thing.
Frank:
11:30 But here's the good news. The oils that may trigger that and negative they usually have a complimentary are actually caused the positive emotion instead. So it's a really great way for you to be able to sort of manage your emotions. Is there the use of aroma therapy.
Jackie:
11:43 So the second way that he said was topical usage. This is because the central oils are fat soluble so that's kind of their chemical compound means that they're really readily absorbed and they enter the bloodstream pretty quickly when you apply them directly. I mean this is why you know we are huge advocates of using only therapeutic great essential oils because your body your skin is the largest organ on your body. And so when you apply essential oils topically they are entering your bloodstream what 30 seconds some of. So if you apply them on the bottom of your feet where you have really large pores they enter your bloodstream really quickly. So and this is a really great way to use oils if you have like isolated areas on your body that are you know have inflammation or are areas of concern that you want to apply the oils directly or even if you have some minor skin irritations or you are struggling with you know aging signs and you want to use essential oils to combat that. So that's some really great ways that you can use oils topically and the other ways.
Frank:
12:52 No just a couple of things that I know we're going to get into is like you know the use of carrier oils. We always make sure that we use a carrier will it for a brand new two essential oils because we don't think works oil. So carrier oil, Yeah I don't want to necessarily take that for granted. So Keroack or something as simple as what we call fractionated coconut oil which is a very fancy name for essentially what has been done is the parts that make coconut oil come to a solid. You know if it gets below about usually like 72 degrees that will make it a solid. Those parts have been removed and then this oil will stay liquid for the rest of the time. So you can use that all the time. You use different things people have used you know avocado oil almost all coconut oil.
Jackie:
13:37 You know you can use grapeseed.
Frank:
13:40 What that does is that allows the oil to be mixed into a way of creating what is called a dilution. And so it's really nice to be able to utilize one drop in say a teaspoon or more usually of a carrier oil and you're going to get a better surface area coverage. You know and then it helps decrease the sensitivity that you may end up getting if its like an oil that you're not used to or just for the first time. And so those are some of the ways we like to use it topically we also can consider massaging it into the skin. You can use of moist compress.
Jackie:
14:14 Those are always really nice and putting them in your bath with it with Epson salt or some milk. That's another really good way to use it topically. You can apply them to your reflex points your nerve endings that are in your hands and your feet articular therapy. You can also or what is a auricular area which is applying them to you know the ram and the parts of your ears and reflexology we know that all of these areas connect to different organs in your body and so you know why do we recommend putting them on the bottoms of your feet. Because every that will touch every single organ in your body the same as applying them down your spine. You know every single organ in your body the reflex in reflexology touches that part so you cover everything and so why not cover all the bases.
Frank:
15:05 Absolutely. One last way that you can use essential oils is internally. And so they internally use a technique that absolutely is one that will always remain to be controversial. We say by far. It is a total 100 percent personal choice. The reason why we say that is because we have use we have used it now for the last couple of years and be completely fine with it. We think it's a very good way to use. But really what we want to make sure is the take home point is number one you do your own personal research. Make your decision on that but number two is that always use a reliable Essential Oil Company and that's why we went with doTERRA because they use 11 different ways to be able to test these oils against certain things like pesticides and heavy metals. They determine that there's any bacteria viruses fungus anything like that present in the essential oil because then the essential oil will not be used and sold out on the market. And so it's really nice to be able to know that we're getting an essential oil that is safe for internal usage.
Jackie:
16:10 And if you are going to buy any essential oil and it says therapeutic great. I want to warn you that any company can label their oils as therapeutic great. There is now governing agency that overlooks the essential oil companies and gives them the stamp of approval for being a therapeutic great. So that is why whatever company you are using oils with that you make sure that they are testing their oils in many many different ways to you know to combat all those things that Frank just listed out. So we feel completely fine using dietary essential oils internally. You're only internalizing a drop at a time. And we do recommend to put it inside of a gel capsule. You know you can buy veggie capsules through your doTERRA membership and add a drop to it and then topped it with olive oil. And this makes it go down into your tummy smoother. It helps you know your stomach not to get upset from any of the essential oils. So that's how we recommend that you use essential oils internally.
Frank:
17:21 Now I just want to make one quick mention about the way that the essential oils are listed. Is that the FDA has a list and that's called the GRAS-list G.R.A.S. Yes. And that means generally recognized as safe.
Frank:
17:35 And so we make sure that like in all of these products that doTERRA makes they pride themselves on making sure that they end up on the GRAS list in order to you know ensure confidence if you will for anybody who desires to consume them.
Jackie:
17:49 And you definitely can't use every single one of your essential oils internally.
Jackie:
17:54 You need to make sure that you look on your bottle and it'll tell you the supplemental facts. And it also tell you put one drop in for four ounces of water or something like that. Make sure before you take any oils internally that you do check your bottle just to make sure that it is safe to be used internally.
Frank:
18:12 Very good. All right. Let's move onto how do we store and how do we. We've been talking about safety throughout this. We'll talk about you know how do you store them.
Jackie:
18:21 So the best way to store your essential oils and what's really cool is that you know some of my herbal studies that I'm doing they're finding essential oils and herbs and infused herbs that have been stored for hundreds of years and they're still they're still OK. So the best way to store your essential oils is one they already come in a dark bottle. Bottles or Amber Glass. And so they're already in a very dark bottle which is know very important second keep it out of direct sunlight. So I know you want to put your oils up on display and it's really pretty to put them up on the windowsill but don't do that. OK. Put them in a cabinet or put them out of direct sunlight because the sunlight can kind of ruin that oils fast you can actually change it while it can change.
Frank:
19:13 It changes the chemistry.
Frank:
19:14 You know that's what it does.
Jackie:
19:17 What else honey.
Frank:
19:18 Well I wanted to make mention since we are talking about the whole idea talk about the storage and safety. We also want to talk about citrus oils because it your also I think need to be spoken to in a very specific way. Most of the essential oils like Jackie was talking about earlier steam distilled citrus oils are actually cold pressed like think like a cold pressed juice. All the main the main portions of the essential oil and the citrus fruit are actually in the Peel. So that's why when you first start peeling like an orange the very first smell that you get is that orange smell because it's right there resin and that appeal. And so by by mention of that I want to make sure that if you are going to use citrus oils especially if you're going to use them in a topical sense that you don't go out into direct sunlight for at least 12 hours after the use of a citrus oil because there is this terminology I don't necessarily look to use the word toxic unless I'm talking about how to remove toxins but it is called Photo toxin and it actually may in fact discolored the skin too like a different shade of purple.
Frank:
20:19 So we always tell people be careful about utilizing citrus oils and then going out in direct sunlight.
Jackie:
20:24 That those random very random but I think very much needed he said because I wanted because this was all grouped in the whole storage and safety portion of the.
Jackie:
20:33 OK so back to storage. So you also want to make sure that you are not touching the top of your bottle when you're taking and drop out. That is you know that your your hand bacteria will get on it and it you know it can change your essential oils or cause them to go rancid or maybe a little bit faster. Also don't get any water inside of your bottle either unscrew your cap on super tight because air as well getting into the bottle can cause it to go go bad.
Frank:
21:04 Causes do something called flash off flash.
Jackie:
21:08 Yeah. He's good with all like the science.
Frank:
21:10 All right we get another random down. I've got another completely random thought about the whole usage just wraps everything up and I wanted to talk about phototoxicity which we just added that I want to talk about you know such oil use on the body it's optically we want to make sure that we stay away from something called mucous membranes as well. So we don't want to like it essential oils directly in our eye. We don't want to put him in our nose necessarily like we don't want to put them in any of those nether regions that are sensitive. We want to make sure that we stay away from any of those Perfect's. So moving on to the next question. All right. Why does quality matter and where do we source articles from you want me to answer it.
Frank:
21:46 Absolutely.
Frank:
21:47 Smarter about this than I am.
Jackie:
21:49 So my favorite way to describe why quality matters is to tell you story. So this is a story that I heard from Sara Janssen who's a presidential Diamond and doTERRA when she was teaching a business training and I loved it and stuck with me ever since so it's like walking into I love Mexican food. I know a lot of people on here love Mexican food. It's like walking into a Mexican restaurant like a really good authentic one. You know when you have somebody come into your table making guacamole you've got fresh made salsa in fact they have a garden out back where they grow their own tomatoes in their own cilantro their own onions you know and they have the tortilla lady over there. Yeah. Mac and the tortillas fresh made that is doTERRA everything that is made all the quality is so top notch.
Jackie:
22:48 You know and then across the street you got taco bell. And that is all other essential oil brands that really don't value quality and the importance of it. So quality is very very important it's just like eating good things. You know why do we recommend people who go to farmer's markets and to buy organic and to eat non GMO. It's the same thing so quality is super important because it changes all the therapeutic ways that you can use that oils. You know I would never ever recommend somebody to take or to even put on their body and essential oil that they just get from the grocery store. Because we know that it has all these other things added to it it's not 100 percent pure.
Jackie:
23:35 So to me that's that's how I explain quality. I'm sure Frank's going to have a way more science.
Frank:
23:41 not at all. I think that that was fantastic. What I will though do is I'm going to talk about sourcing and so quality and sourcing kind of go hand in hand because I have the the luxury if you will I'd be great. I've been blessed to be able to be go back to school and get a degree in agricultural education. So my Master's in agricultural education. We talked a lot about sustainable agriculture and doTERRA prides itself on sustainable agriculture. Most of the oils that we use are actually not even Sourced here in the United States. They are actually sourced from different countries. A lot of those countries are developing third countries like third world countries. And so there's a twofold reason why we do this. I'm a big proponent of local regional food. I think that by supporting your local farmers markets. Great way to spend your food dollars because it stays in that regional local system and then you're able to get even more products from those farms for the future because they have those good resourcing tips and tricks in mind.
Frank:
24:39 Well that's what I love about you know how doTERRA sources their oils. They actually try to keep those dollars. They give a fair market price for those essential oils that are made in those countries and a lot of those dollars are used right down in those local villages at times for those individuals who are responsible for sourcing the parts of the plant that we use to make those essential oils. So the sustainability model is unbelievable. I think it's top notch it's world class and they have that in mind. And so the lemons for example that are used to make lemon oil from doTERRA those lemons come from Corsica which is in Italy the environment in Corsica Italy is bright sunshine good temperate environment something that lemons can thrive in such as plants do very well in an environment like that. On top of that they give the type of essential oil from those lemons of which are of therapeutic value. So if those same lemons were grown in I don't know I'm going to do something crazy Antarctica if you could somehow grow a lemon tree in Antarctica you are definitely not going to get the same therapeutic benefit or chemical profile out of that lemon tree that you would if you grow it into something like Corsica Italy.
Frank:
25:51 That's like why buy your wine from somewhere in the United States you get it from France when I think of avocados I think of only Mexico or California is where I would like to get my avocados from because I know those are the environment in which those plants particularly and everything and affects the essential oil even the you know the range the levels of which it was grown.
Jackie:
26:13 So how high is the elevation. When did they harvest it.
Jackie:
26:17 Because like Frank said there is this thing called flash off which you know how do you describe flash flash off is just so so essential are volatile aromatic compounds meaning that they're they're active right. And so they react with different environmental conditions and stressors that are put on them as well and so and so when you open up something or you place that on your skin and you drop it on the skin or whatever there is a tendency for some of that volatility to flash off of the essential point it's like you know I'm a gardener and we we harvest our tomatoes in the morning.
Jackie:
26:51 You know that's that's when you harvest them so you know the same with the essential oils you know and when are they collecting the Roman chamomile or flowers. Are they collecting them in the afternoon. Because that's when they're paying people to collect them. Or do they wait until the morning or the early morning where there'll be less flash off and all of that aromatic compound goes into the distiller which goes into your essential oils.
Frank:
27:14 Very good. Let's move on to another one so we can wrap this up for this session will do. Why are some brands more expensive than others. So the reason why is because I think about it like this we love analogies by the way between the Ritz's and so by walking into a Mercedes. I'm just going to draw a nice car example out there I walk into a Mercedes dealership. I'm not going to be looking for you know Honda Prius and the reason why both of those cars are great. But the reason I say that is because you need to be going out and looking for and purchasing what you want. And so I'm not necessarily describing her as the Cadillac of oils but you know what I feel like it's the Cadillac that was I think like of all the other essential oils that we have used in the past. We use many for probably the past decade at the end.
Frank:
27:59 And so I would offer to you that we know the quality once we first opened up that essential oil model we knew like I can tangibly feel an improvement in my family's health. And I actually was not the one that introduced the central as a family of course it was Jackie and so I just knew that there was something going on there and I just had to find out more about it. So that's why we urge you find out some more about it as well we're here for questions we love comments. We love questions. We just want to help you understand that you get what you buy or you get what you pay for. And so if you want to do value oils and that's your thing do it. But if you want to do a really good top notch oil that you know is going to be a safe and effective for your family and friends. That's what we do.
Jackie:
28:42 That's why something like Don't tell if you want a high therapeutic grain like doTERRA. I mean like Frank said if you caught it doTERRA tests their oil. 11 different ways. All that takes extra money. But I would rather pay that right now instead of paying for my health later. So that's why we choose to pay upfront to keep ourselves healthy. So later on in life we're not covered in all these different kinds of bills.
Frank:
29:09 So yeah so that's that's one of the main reasons why that is the main reason why we went with doTERRA maybe because we really wanted to make sure and then we found out certain things like that are philanthropic ventures with something called Healing Hands Foundation is amazing echo impact source saying they're one of the only companies that has this new website called source to you that Jackie brought it up wrote quicksort to you as a website that lets you know where that oil was sourced when there's a batch number on the bottom of the oil.
Frank:
29:37 You can actually look that up insource to you know give you the supply chain of what has happened with that essential oil and now they put the GCMS reports which are on sourcetoyou.com which is a way of saying GCMS as is a fancy acronym stands for gas chromatography mass spectrometry but literally GCMS as a sort of the fingerprint of what an essential oil should look like you'd look at it by the different what is called constituents in that oil. And based on that you should have a certain percentage of a constituent within that oil. I'm not a chemist and so therefore I'm not going to pretend that I am.
Jackie:
30:11 But it's nice to see that those types of reports are also available to those that want to know and I'm going to I'm going to ask Frank the last question which is on on our list them see if he can answer it. Why aren't dietary essential oils labelled organic?
Frank:
30:25 So thankfully I do know the answer to that. She forgot to write this down but everybody asked me that.
Frank:
30:31 I figured this is a very fair way to finish out our time for today. We're at about the 30 minute mark so I think that you know if you're listening to this on the way to work have a wonderful day.
Frank:
30:41 Things like that that's going ended with why isn't doTERRA labeled organic? Well the organic process to me as a farmer is actually a process in which I see some capitalization going on with that. And so if I go to a store and I see something labeled organic yes it does in fact make me want to buy that product more than if I buy its counterpart directly on the same shelf. But when I find out where it's sourced from it it makes me very leery to want to do that because it could be coming from thousands of miles away. Yes it's on an organic farm but it's thousands of miles away which goes against my personal opinion of local regional food. So with that being said these oils are sourced like I said from developing countries and countries from all over the planet. They're going to have different standards of what they will consider organic than the USDA standards of what's labeled organic here in America. And so are anybody trying to jump through those hoops of trying to label something organic that has an international source.
Frank:
31:43 They're going to be chasing their tail and they're going to be spending way too much money especially because doTERRA sources from over 40 different countries.
Frank:
31:52 Of which about half or more than half are developing. So they may not even have a governmental structure right that says yes we can label these are as organic. So that's that's the bottom line is is that I love to use this term beyond organic because I feel like that is what we're getting when we purchased doTERRA is that yes they go to the same testing.
Frank:
32:14 If you look at what organic testing is versus what doTERRA does I would be I would be very happy you say that you will be impressed and appreciate and confident the fact that it's not just the organic testing that goes on but it really has some additional testing it goes on to make sure they're safe for families.
Frank:
32:35 Hey everyone if you enjoyed that podcast that you just heard please make sure that you mash on that subscribe button. We also have another podcast that we're running with Frank Ritz who is a combat veteran of the U.S. Army and he wants to talk to you about what he is calling unconventional wellness. Are you interested in getting better sleep? Focusing on good nutrition and getting out and moving and being able to manage the toxins in your life? That podcast is for you check it out. Unconventional wellness radio and you can listen to us on iTunes Stitcher Google Play even Spotify will be coming very soon. Hope to catch you over there. We'll catch on to our next podcast.
