Posts Tagged ‘alternative medicine’
Essential Oil Products - And How We Absorb Them
Discover the three ways in which essential oil products are absorbed by our bodies.
The Amazing Parts of Essential Oil Absorption
The Passage of Aromatic Essential Oils Though the Nasal Cavity
Essential oils are the lipophilic steam distillates of plants, meaning they are “fat friendly” and easily pass through cell walls. This means they get into nooks and crannies of the body fairly readily, and get into our bodies fairly readily too! But many folks who use essential oils only by inhalation often don’t consider how they’re absorbed, the actual physiology, or what happens after they’re absorbed. It’s good stuff…
The essential oil compounds (made up of molecules of essential oils), are first breathed in by the nasal cavity. Inside the nasal cavity there are fine hairs or cilia that sort the medicinal molecules and filter them down into the pharynx. From here the inhaled compounds reach the trachea, into the branched tubes known as bronchi, down into smaller tubes known as bronchioles and finally arrive at microscopic air sacs known as alveoli. Each alveolus is lined with thin epithelial cells that enable gas exchange to take place with capillaries of the pulmonary vein. Once in the pulmonary vein, the compounds are taken to the heart and then distributed to parts of the body that are receptive to their medicinal support.
The details of this process are actually quite fascinating. Once the gaseous compounds of the essential oil is breathed in through the nose, this essential oil-bearing air is filtered and warmed by the cilia (or little hairs) and mucous membranes that line the nasal cavity. They then travel though the pharynx, down the larynx (the upper portion of the respiratory tract), move through the trachea (or windpipe), and finds their way into the two bronchi ? each leading to a lung. Once in the lungs, the molecules move through finer tubes called bronchioles and then dead end at the alveoli which are microscopic in size. The air passes through the epithelium of the alveoli through diffusion and picked up by capillaries of the pulmonary vein which lead to the heart. Once deposited into the heart chambers, the essential oil-rich air is distributed to various parts of the body that have an affinity for its compounds.
The essential oil compounds are able to reach organs and various body systems and thus aid in restoring wellness as well as altering one?s sense of stress or fatigue. When the essential oil compounds reach the brain (via olfactory epithelium which stimulate olfactory nerves to send messages to the brain), they stimulate the limbic system component of the brain. The limbic system is largely responsible for emotion and memory. Thus, it is possible to alter one?s emotions by breathing in rejuvenating compounds of essential oils. Essential oils can serve the body as an antiviral, antiseptic, antispasmatic, antitussive (helps in coughing), balsamic (softens phlegm) and as an expectorant.
Entering Through the Skin
Although the skin in not the primary way in which essential oils can reach the blood stream, research has shown that select, highly potent essential oils can penetrate the skin membranes and permeate into the body. The penetration potential of essential oils can be enhanced through heat, such as through the action of massage or through hot water, such as in a bath. And, as will be concluded from above, portions of the essential oil compounds will also evaporate and find its way into the nasal cavity and into the lungs.
Absorption of potent compounds found in essential oils can be delayed or greatly inhibited if they are diluted in a carrier oil verses undiluted. Some carrier mediums or bases for applying essential oils may also affect their active ingredient effectiveness. Aside from penetrating the skin membranes and into the blood stream, specified essential oils are excellent at assisting the skin in healing from abrasions, infections and bruises.
Eating Essential Oils
Taking essential oils by mouth is generally discouraged in the States, likely due to the lack of education on the subject more than anything else. In Europe, one can go to a professional Aromatherapist for their treatment plan, and get their oils at a dispensary. The treatment, when oral ingestion is the therapy, only 1-3 drops is ever taken at one time, and only for the course of the treatment. Most oils are completely safe in this manner, though some may be ‘too hot’ for the mouth (Cinnamon and Oregano are a couple). Sometimes these are taken with warm water. So! Essential oils are very rapidly absorbed this way. When taken “neat”, they’re more than likely absorbed by the tongue, and at the furthest the esophagus. With water, they’re also absorbed in the gut. All these lead to rapid distribution throughout the body by the blood, and to all organs and tissues.
The author is the owner of Ananda Aromatherapy, a source for world-class sandalwood and other essential oils, therapeutic essential oil blends and aromatherapy supplies.
Best Facial Moisturizer - What You Should Look Out For
What You Should Look for (and What You Shouldn’t Find) in the Best Moisturizer.
Can your moisturizer be dangerous? What a silly question. Moisturizers are intended to benefit our skin aren’t they. How could a moisturizer possibly be dangerous?
Sad to say but there are many chemical as well as petrochemical ingredients which are used in so many of the big brand-name skin care products, including moisturizers, which we all take for granted. 2 examples of these chemical ingredients are sodium lauryl sulphate and mineral oil, a petrochemical.
Many of these ingredients are manufactured in laboratories and they are used in personal products and skin care products such as moisturizers because they are particularly cheap. Mineral oil, for example, is cheaper to buy than to dispose of.
If you visit the website of the Environmental Working Group you will see that they maintain a database of information about all of the chemical and petrochemical ingredients used in our personal products such as moisturizers. This database is called the Cosmetic Safety Database and it’s perfectly possible for you to search it to discover many of the health risks of so many of the chemical ingredients used in moisturizers and other skin care products and others.
If you search sodium lauryl sulphate at the Cosmetic Safety Database you’ll see that it is linked to cancer, organ system toxicity, developmental and reproductive toxicity, neurotoxicity skin irritation and more. You’ll see similar concerns if you search mineral oil.
There are many studies that show that these chemical and petrochemical ingredients so commonly found in our skin care and anti aging products such as moisturizers can have health implications. There was a study published recently in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology which was called “Tumorigenic Effect of Some Commonly Used Moisturizing Creams when Applied Topically to UVB-Pretreated High-Risk Mice”. In this study it was demonstrated that, when applied 5 times per day for 17 weeks to mice moisturizers containing mineral oil and sodium lauryl sulphate “increased significantly the rate of formation of tumors and the rate of increase in tumor size per mouse”.
The researchers were extremely surprised from this result because this was not what they were studying. They were actually studying to see if caffeine could cause skin cancer in mice. When confronted with this result the researchers requested that the manufacturer of the moisturizer in question manufacture another moisturizer without any mineral oil or sodium lauryl sulphate in it and when tested they discovered that using this moisturizer produced no effect at all on the growth of tumors in the mice.
If you search at the Cosmetic Safety Database you can find, and read, many of the studies which are relied on by the database to produce the results.
Although it may never have occurred to you there is a wide range of health risks that you may be exposed to because of the use of chemicals and petrochemical ingredients in modern moisturizers and other anti aging skin care products, it is clear that the health risks exist.
So should you decide never again to moisturize? Should you decide to avoid all anti aging skin care products because they contain dangerous chemical ingredients? No. There are alternatives.
There are small but high quality niche skin care companies, one in particular, which see this as an opportunity to get a toehold in the market by manufacturing high quality natural skin care products such as natural moisturizers using ingredients which are known to be safe and which are also more effective than the chemical alternatives. Ingredients used in these products include such natural ingredients as the oils from nuts and fruits.
Of course it is extremely difficult for a small niche skin care company to compete with massive multinational companies in the skin care market, where billions of dollars are at stake. However these companies, one in particular, manufacture high quality skin care lines that are extremely effective and are comprised only of known safe and natural ingredients such as the oils from fruits and nuts. The big name companies don’t use these ingredients because they are more expensive than the chemical alternatives.
It may take longer to find but if you manage to track down some of these natural skin care products, one range in particular, and try them you will be very pleasantly surprised at the results you get. Firstly you won’t be risking your health because they use only known safe ingredients and secondly you will find that the products are extremely effective. But it can sometimes be difficult to find these products because the small niche companies that manufacture them cannot compete with the big brands on television advertising and so do not advertise on television at all.
So although it may come as a shock to you the bad news is that modern big brand in care products such as moisturizers may well contain dangerous ingredients but the good news is that there are excellent natural alternatives available. There are natural skin care products which use only known safe and highly effective ingredients and these work well without risking your health.
I write a website where I seek to expose these issues to my readers and to demonstrate to them that there are safer, more natural and more effective alternatives available. To find these natural anti aging products that produce the results you want without the risks visit my website.
Want to learn more about the best Natural Skin Care Products? Or more about the Best Moisturizer? Visit Peter’s Website Natural Health-Natural Skin Care.
Need Some Healthy Skin Tips?
There’s lots of women out there looking for great looking skin. And although they often don’t realize it what they are looking for is healthy skin. Here’s 3 healthy skin tips.
What you need to look and feel great is healthy skin, because healthy skin resists lines and wrinkles and other skin blemishes much more than unhealthy skin.
You just feel great about your looks, and yourself, when your skin glows with health.
But so many women try so many different skin care products and other skin solutions without making the link. They never think that really what they are looking for is healthy skin. Because no matter how good your skin care products are you can’t have great looking unhealthy skin.
So heres my 3 healthy skin tips.
1. Get yourself healthy.
Obvious though it sounds if you’re healthy your skin is healthy, you can’t have healthy looking skin if you’re unhealthy yourself.
So do you know what you have to do? I think you do.
Improve your diet, drink plenty of water.
And it may sound a little silly but more exercise translates to better skin. Why? Because exercise improves blood circulation and your skin relies on good blood circulation.
2. Avoid 2 of the worst things you can ever do for your skin.
What are the 2 worst things you can do for your skin? Smoking and sunburn. Both are just terrible for skin health and you cant have healthy looking skin if its burned to a crisp and you smoke.
3. Seek out the right vitamins for healthy skin and for general health.
Without making a list here there are various vitamins and other nutrients that are very good for skin health. For example were sure you know all about omega 3 oils, who doesnt. But did you know that omega 3 oils are extremely good for your skin too?
Although it’s difficult to get all the nutrients that are important for healthy skin there is a way to do it.
Use the best all natural skin care products.
So why would you need to be using great all natural skin care products? Because many mainstream skin care products can actually contain ingredients that may damage your skin believe it or not.
The best all natural skin care products actually contain many of the vitamins and minerals essential for great skin health. The very best scientists have researched skin health and know what nutrients the skin needs, and can now ensure that the best products do contain the right skin nutrients.
And the worlds best natural skin care products, as well as providing a wide range of essential skin nutrients, don’t contain suspect ingredients.
There’s is no magic formula to having great looking healthy skin. Follow these simple rules and you’ll have great looking skin right into old age, and you’ll feel great and look great.
If you’re healthy and do the right things for your skin it will show.
