It’s possible! However, if you are hoping that essential oils are a cure-all for all major diseases, you are going to be disappointed.
On the positive side, essential oils are able to complement standard medical care. They may be able to solve problems that standard medical care or prescriptions haven’t been able to solve – for particular situations! If you focus on the strengths of essential oils, they can offer practical help for a variety of common problems. This includes helping cuts, wounds, bruises, inflammation, acne and, especially, skin infections!
How Bacteria Spreads
Bacterial infections are spread from airborne bacteria and by touching surfaces infected with these organisms. The very air we breathe may be contaminated from someone else’s sneeze or breath. Touching a telephone or ATM key-pad may spread these bacteria. Anything someone else has touched can be contaminated with bacteria.
We come into contact with these organisms daily and bring them home with us. For the most part, we are never aware of this because our body’s immune system is always on the job, daily killing and over-powering invaders. But what happens when someone’s immune system has been compromised? Unless the immune system can overpower the invasion, bacteria continue to multiply until they have created a stronghold called an “infection”. Once established, the infection can worsen until the body itself is overpowered by the infection and can no longer support life.
Essential Oil: Nature’s Antibiotic
There is no better way to prevent and protect your family from bacterial invasion than through natural supplements – including the use of our monolaurin and therapeutic-grade essential oils. This is one reason why essential oils have been used since the beginning of time – they are nature’s health insurance program against pathogenic bacteria.
We are strong believers in the ability of nutrition supplements to strengthen the body, including its natural healing system. However, they cannot prevent and protect the body from bacterial invasion in the same way that essential oils do. Both are good and necessary for optimum health but our monolaurin and essential oils directly attack pathogenic bacteria!
Give Essential Oils Respect!
Remember that essential oils are very concentrated liquids and are very powerful. We do not recommend taking essential oils internally! We know there is considerable promotion of aroma-therapists that do recommend internal use. However, the scientific evidence is VERY weak. Most information is subjective. We prefer to stay with nutritional supplements that have considerably more evidence for internal use.
Also, most essential oils should not be applied undiluted on the skin. There are a few, such as tea tree oil, that are often used full strength (called “neat”) directly on cuts. However, most essential oils can be extremely irritating in full concentration. We believe the diluted blend of the 16 essential oils we use in the Ultimate Skin Infection Defense are not only safer, but more effective because of the intermixture of oils.
Some Sample Studies on Essential Oils
We have full articles on essential oil studies that have been conducted, as well as a listing of research references. However, we thought you might like to see a few summarized here while we are talking of curing infections.
In studies conducted at Weber State University, the essential oils of cinnamon, geranium, lemongrass, oregano and rosewood proved effective against streptococcus and staphylococcus. Studies in Europe showed thyme proved effective against anthrax, typhoid, diphtheria, and Koch’s bacillus, as well as meningococcus. The essence of lemon oil proved effective against pneumococcus, staphylococcus (MRSA) and diptheric bacillus.
Here are some additional referenced studies:
Burt, S. A. (2003). Antibacterial activity of selected plant essential oils against Escherichia coli O157:H7. Letters in Applied Microbiology 36, 162-7.
The research studied the antibacterial properties of five essential oils (EO) on Escherichia coli O157:H7. The results show that oregano and thyme EO have significant in vitro colicidal and colistatic properties. (Bay and clove bud EO were active, but less so in the case of E.coli O157:H7.)
Inouye, S., Yamaguchi, H. (2001). Antibacterial activity of essential oils and their major constituents against respiratory tract pathogens by gaseous contact. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 47, 565-73.
The antibacterial activity of fourteen essential oils and their major constituents in the gaseous state were evaluated against four different bacteria by Inouge and Yamaguchi (2001). The authors found H. Influenzae to be most susceptible to most essential oils examined. The research also indicated that the antibacterial action of essential oils was most effective when at high vapor concentration for a short time. (This is one reason for our Aroma-Ace recommended settings.)
Sherry, E., Warnke, P. H. (2001). Percutaneous treatment of chronic MRSA osteomyelitis with a novel plant-derived antiseptic. BMC Surgery 1(1).
The single case clinical report described the use of a polytoxinol (PT) antimicrobial, a complex mixture whose major components are tea tree oil and eucalyptus to cure an intractable methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection of the lower tibia in an adult male.
Hammer, K. A., Riley, T. V. (1999). Antimicrobial activity of essential oils and other plant extracts. Journal of Applied Microbiology 86, 985-90.
Hammer et al. investigated 52 plant oils and extracts for their antimicrobial activity(1999). They said a number of EO components has been identified as effective antibacterials, e.g. carvacrol (from oregano), thymol (thyme), eugenol (clove), cinnamaldehyde and cinnamic acid (cinnamon), lemongrass, and bay
Caelli, M., Porteous, J., Carlson, C. F., Heller, R., & Riley, T. V. (2001). Tea tree oil as an alternative topical decolonization agent for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. The International Journal of Aromatherapy 11(2).
In this pilot study, 30 adult patients infected or colonized with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), tea tree oil products were found to perform better than mupirocin and triclosan, although the number of patients was too small for the difference to be statistically significant.
(We have looked at many more studies for essential oils included in skin products. We recommend products that include ingredients found here. Most studies are limited to a few essential oils. But it is still fun to see a few studies.)
Back to articles on essential oils, Here.