For my family, healing illnesses with essential oils has not always been the case. Once upon a time I relied solely on the medical community and pharmaceuticals for all of my and my family’s health care needs. From about the age of three to seven years old my eldest daughter, Lin, suffered from chronic and acute bronchitis. I tried repeatedly to get her help for her condition, but the cure never lasted for very long.
My daughter would start by coughing in the middle of the night, followed by lung congestion, fevers, headaches, fatigue, and a multitude of other respiratory-related symptoms. She would have to miss school and I would lose days of work. When it would get so bad that I feared she had pneumonia, I would take her to a local physician in an attempt to get her well again.
The doctors would always prescribe antibiotics and cough medicine for her. The antibiotics would cause her to develop rashes and the cough medicine often contained codeine, which would turn her into a crazy child. After taking the medications for several days, she would get better … for a while. This repeated illness took a huge toll, not only on her, but also on the entire family. I worked at a minimum wage–paying job and didn’t have health insurance for anyone in the family. We could not afford to take her to the doctor every other month, pay for the medications, or miss days of work to care for her, but we felt as if we had no choice.
Then I began reading about homeopathy, herbs, essential oils, and home remedies. I studied the materials, talked to people who had used alternative healing methods in their lives, and bought the essential oils and herbs that I had read would put an end to bronchitis. I was adamant that I would take control of her illness and no longer rely solely on pharmaceuticals for her health. This was not a very popular approach in the 1970s and ’80s, but I felt that the prescribed medications were not providing a long-term solution.
Soon enough the cycle of bronchitis began again. Lin began to wake up in the dead of night coughing, and her lungs rapidly became congested. I finally decided to make a thyme infusion with honey, and fed it to her by the teaspoon every hour. I made a rub out of eucalyptus essential oil, peppermint essential oil, and olive oil. I applied this to her chest morning and night. I was nervous, and not at all sure I was doing the right thing, even after all of my research. During the first night, she showed marked improvement. I was encouraged by her apparent progress, so I continued her regimen of thyme teas, infusions, and tinctures and the essential oil rub as often as I could. After about three days, her coughing had completely stopped, her lungs were clear of congestion, and she felt like running, playing, and being the active child that she was meant to be. This was the first time in three or four years that I had found an actual cure for my daughter, without just relying on prescription drugs that would mask the symptoms.
I was so overjoyed with my daughter’s remarkable recovery that I continued studying essential oils, alternative medicine, and herbs at a frantic pace. I craved any information I could find about homeopathic remedies, alternative healing methods, and herbalism. I was soon incorporating these methods into our daily lives. My daughter never again got as ill with bronchitis as she had before the essential oils and herbs were applied to her. She did get coughs from time to time, but we always turned to our alternative medicines and cleared her up right away.
There is not an illness in existence for which there isn’t a plant that can potentially offer relief. This has become a mantra in our family for the past forty years. While some plants’ purposes have yet to be discovered, a multitude of medical benefits have been derived from their essences in the form of essential oils.
People think that aromatherapy simply means smelling the essential oils. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although smelling a drop of eucalyptus oil and peppermint oil can clear the sinuses in one breath, there are so many other ways to apply, use, and benefit from essential oils. Various methods of usage include powders, diffusers, rubs, poultices, applied neat (without carrier oil), massage oils, steams, bath additives, inhalers, and countless others, all of which are included in this book.
Having loved essential oils and herbs for most of our lives, we encountered many issues with the books that were available on using them. We wanted a book that is straightforward in its description of the ailments, disorders, and complaints and one that also contains easily accessible recipes. Essential Oils for Healing is that book for us and hopefully for you as well. It lists the subjects in alphabetical order and in a comprehensive, precise way that is easy for the layperson to use. For example, if you are searching for back pain, just turn to the Bs and you’ll find not just information about back pain, but also a list of all of the essential oils that can potentially help with that condition, any major warnings and contraindications concerning your back pain remedies, and recipes using the essential oils all listed on the same page.
We are passionate about using essential oils in our lives and in the lives of our families. We have experience, knowledge, and an understanding of how essential oils work to provide relief. We have used essential oils to help our friends, our children, and our grandchildren overcome illnesses and complaints for most of their lives. We have each studied, used, and loved essential oils and herbs for several decades.
There is an overwhelming desire today for books that are devoted to the chemical-free and natural-healing lifestyle. Many people don’t want to use medications that are actually manmade chemical compounds designed to mimic what essential oils and plants do naturally. Many essential oils can be just as effective—or more effective—in treating illness as man-made chemical drugs, but are much cheaper and, in my opinion, better for you. There is a large movement, not only in the United States but also all over the world, to turn toward homeopathic and alternative medicines. People are buying essential oils at a phenomenal rate; they may not know how to use them, but they want to learn. We’re confident this book will provide you with a better understanding of how these natural remedies can be used with facts and recipes that are easy to follow and replicate at home.
