Tuesday, November 4, 2014

My Experience with Diffusing Essential Oils

I just wanted to share my experience with diffusing essential oils in our home.  In researching what happened to my family, I found little information online about the possible negative effects of the oils, but I found plenty of personal experiences and questions like my own in forums being discounted by representatives of different oil companies.  

I've been using various essential oils for several years now, mostly for cleaning purposes or to add fragrance to my homemade lotions and chapsticks.  Tea tree oil has been helpful with cloth diapering and I have loved adding some lavender or eucalyptus to things like homemade bath salts for wonderful fragrance.

As a lover of alternative medicine and natural healing, I was very excited when everyone around me started talking about essential oils being used in place of over-the-counter medications for minor health complaints like headaches and runny noses.  I'm willing to give just about anything a chance, so when my kids' sitter started selling doTerra, I decided to purchase a few items from her.  I never went into it thinking they would cure cancer, but I was hopeful that they could help alleviate the symptoms of things like a cold or sleeplessness.

My first purchase was doTerra's insect repellent blend, TerraShield.  After spending a very uncomfortable Memorial Day weekend camping with my family and ending up covered head to toe with bug bites because I wasn't willing to spray us down with traditional bug sprays, I was willing to give this a shot.  For our Fourth of July camping trip I applied the bug blend to the kids and they didn't seem to be as eaten up after the trip.  I'm not sure if that speaks to the effectiveness of the product or the fact that there were less bugs around on that particular trip.

After that I decided to buy a few other products from my friend - the Balance blend and the Past Tense roller for headaches.  Balance smelled good - I bought it because I thought it would be a good thing to have on hand in a house with four small children.  I can always use some balance!  Past Tense was my favorite product by far.  If I felt a small headache coming on, there was something soothing about the tingles I would get on my temples and neck where I rolled on the oils.  It's not that the headaches went away; I just think the pleasant smells and tingles distracted me long enough to feel better.

After that I bought OnGuard, hoping it would help our house remain healthy this winter, as well as various oils that smell nice to me - lavender, eucalyptus, rosemary, etc.

One day, while babysitting my sick children, our sitter brought over her oil diffuser.  She said that diffusing the OnGuard into the air would help to purify it and keep the healthy children from catching the bug that was beginning to sweep through the house.  When my oldest son started coughing that night, I didn't connect the diffused oils to it at all and just assumed a cough was part of whatever sickness his body was fighting off.  I also began to experience a tightness in my chest, but discounted it as my body beginning to come down with the bug.

It's now been a month since we bought the diffuser and I've tried different oils with the same effect every single time - someone in the house ends up wheezing and coughing.  At first I thought it might be that I was just adding too much oil to the water, so I decreased it to only one drop, but that didn't make a difference.  Then I stopped diffusing anything with peppermint and eucalyptus in it, as some literature I read said that those oils should not be used around children (they can cause respiratory issues).  That meant no more OnGuard in the house.

Soon even things like lavender and lemon, which I was simply diffusing through the house to give it a nice smell, were beginning to bother my husband (who had asthma as a child), me, and my oldest son.  I would describe the feeling that I get as the same I have experienced after cleaning with harsh chemicals.  It's as if my lungs are irritated and burning. 

It is very difficult to find literature about the safety of these essential oils.  I've asked several people affiliated with doTerra about the safety of their use, especially around children.  All of them have assured me that they are safe to use because they are natural.  But just because something is natural, it doesn't mean it is healthy for everyone, right?

In trying to research the safety of the essential oils, I've come across lots of information about side effects in pregnant and nursing women, as well as small children.  As a nursing mother with many small children, these are things I didn't even think about before I starting rubbing these oils on myself and my babies.  I'm thankful now that we didn't start ingesting them without doing any research.

I feel like in the natural/alternative health community, we are quick to dismiss criticism and we assume that things that come from nature have to be good for us, while anything made in a laboratory is bad.  We forget that things like essential oils, which are concentrated far beyond how one would find them in nature, are just as potent and dangerous to some people as pharmaceutical drugs.  We wouldn't just give our children dosages of random drugs given to us by friends without researching their safety, so we need to treat the essential oils the same way.

We are no longer diffusing oils in the house.  Yesterday was my last attempt and after only ten minutes with the diffuser on, filled with oils that are not supposed to be unsafe for kids or cause respiratory distress, my son was coughing and complaining of shortness of breath, my husband said he was starting to wheeze, and my lungs were starting to burn.  Perhaps others can handle the oils, but it sounds like they are an irritant for members of my family.  And the response to the inhalation of oils has me questioning the safety of applying the oils topically.  Some of these oils are capable of melting plastic, so I'm not sure they should be used without proper training on the sensitive skin of children.  We will, however, continue to use the oils for things like cleaning and other home maintenance (bug repellent or adhesive removal - stuff like that).

From now on, if my children are fighting a cold, we'll go back to using herbal teas to help with symptoms - something that used to work for us with great success.  A warm cup of peppermint tea is much less potent than the concentrated peppermint oil and can have the same effect.  And if I'm looking for a safe alternative to synthetic fragrances to make my home smell better, I'll go back to simmering cinnamon sticks and orange peels on my stove.  They smell just as good and I've never had trouble breathing from them.

Since the Internet seemed to be lacking in information about the downsides to essential oil usage, I thought I would share my experience.  This is just that - my experience - and I firmly believe we are all created differently, so some bodies may be capable of handling the diffused oils.  Perhaps there is something in our home already irritating our lungs and making it hard to tolerate the oils.  Or maybe we have allergies or sensitivities most people don't have (as a food and seasonal allergy family, that could be likely).  I would just warn anyone reading this to research what oils you are using on your family members before using them and make sure to educate yourself on the proper use of them before doing so.  Proceed with caution in the same way you would with any other drug or supplement.

-Jessica

7 comments:

Sarah said...

I've never been comfortable diffusing the oils overnight in the boys room, even though they have a diffuser/nightlight thing in there that someone gave us. I do use the oils at births though. But I do always have the moms smell them first and make sure it doesn't irritate them. Sometimes they just hold the bottle and smell it when they want to, and sometimes I put a few drops in a warm washcloth that they hold to their nose.
Oh! I can tell you that I have a VERY bad reaction to concentrated orange oil. It burns my skin horribly and I can feel it for hours afterwards, even if I shower.

Jessica said...

I remember your doula doing the same thing with a washcloth at your births. I could smell the oils but it never bothered me the way diffusing them does.

I'm honestly wondering if there isn't something, like mold, already irritating our lungs in this house and that's why we're having this reaction. Even if not, though, I think it's important for people to know that their children could have the same reaction before they, like you mentioned, run a diffuser all night in a room with the door closed. You just never know!!

Stephanie said...

The way Young Living and doterra are using mlm to sell essential oils without education is absolutely terrifying!! There is a lot to know about using them safely - and there are a lot of good blogs by professionals who have used eo's before they were a fad that provide a lot of info. I'll have to find some of the ones I've read and email them to you. They should NOT be ingested like many suggest and are so concentrated that they should definitely be used cautiously. If I get one more email telling me to use lemon oil instead of fresh lemon in my water from someone who just wants sales I may just give them the what for. Lol

Tara said...

Yup, agree totally. I use them with much caution. Refuse to take them internally, and have been taking online courses at learningherbs.com for a couple years now to learn the foundations of herbalism and how to use my own garden to prepare gentle and effective remedies. Also, my five element nutritionist gets so so upset about the mlm oils. She akins the oils to pharmaceuticals these days. Super potent chemicals being tossed around without proper training and people are really throwing their bodies out of balance.

I do have a small collection of oils that I have diffused on rare occasion, and I have never connected the idea of diffusing with lung irritation. This is important to note, since Jovie has asthma. Thanks for sharing this.

Blessed said...

Wow, thanks! We do not have a diffuser, but I sent one as a present with certain doterra and YL oils as a present to Susanna, the adoptive mom who lost her son recently. I had sent them as a present when they were struggling with so many health issues and having bad smells in the house because of it. Now I feel like I need to pass along this info to her! : (

I have several friends who represent doTerra, one of them a RN who uses them in her practice. I trust these women completely to give me the info they know--but how much do they know? Probably only what is available on the internet. : )

And I have one acquaintance who somehow hurt her vocal chords gargling with EOs and could not talk louder than a whisper for over a year. Her voice is just now coming back.

That said, I have been using EOs and really like them for some things. I am not sensitive to wild orange neat (without a carrier oil) and when I feel a sore throat coming on I rub some on the skin over my throat glands. It seems to help me not get sicker.

Thanks for sharing your story!

Anonymous said...

Hi there, I'm Lindsey! I have a question regarding your blog. Could you please email me when you have a moment? Thank you so much, looking forward to hearing from you!

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Joanne said...

You are right, it seems just because it is 'natural' all assume it is safe, yet there are so many things in nature that are not safe and, a very good point, essential oils are highly concentrated ... which is not natural.

I appreciate essential oils but and cautious. Thank you for the post.