Oils or Medications?

I watched a great educational video from Dr. Haggerton who is a Diamond leader in my oily organization. He delivered some info on the differences between essential oils and medications and I really wanted to share it in this space.  First, let me say that when we talk about essential oils here, we're talking solely about Young Living's oils. You can read more about why they are legitimately 100% certified therapeutic grade pure here. 

Spoiler Alert: This is not a negative review of medications. I believe medications are necessary in many cases and do not take for granted how blessed we are to have modern medicine available to us. This is literally the differences between pharmaceutical medicines versus Young Living essential oils and how they affect the body differently. Ok, here's the recap from the video...

Medications are synthetic, though perhaps a derivative of plants, they are artificial (produced in a lab). Their purpose is to force the body, or a particular system in the body, to do something that it wouldn't normally do on it's own. Dr. Haggerton uses cholesterol medication as an example. It's a necessary change that the body needs to make in order to continue functioning properly. The body cannot regulate that system on it's own, so it's relying on the synthetic material to forcibly change.  Secondly, medications work fast.

Essential Oils on the other hand, are not synthetic. They are made of the essential therapeutic properties of specific plants(you can read about that here), and oils will assist the body in functioning the way that it was designed to function. Dr. Haggerton goes on to say that the body is built to heal itself, and by using oils to aid specific bodily systems will enhance the body's natural responses.  Likewise, oils work slowly, over time, as if they're teaching the body.

I think sleep is a great example for this. We could take a sleeping pill and quickly crash on the pillow and have a groggy, foggy morning then repeat this cycle night after night because we simply can't wind down or turn off our brain. However, knowing the calming and grounding effects that certain oils have on our bodies systems that regulate sleep and emotions, we can use those to slowly and naturally wind down, fall asleep, sleep deeply, then wake up feeling rested.  

Using oils to address a set of symptoms, while helpful and relieving, is only a small part of benefits that oils can provide. "Symptom chasing" isn't the goal. Overall wellness and health is the goal. So, by using oils consistently and daily to support different functions of the body we can 'teach' and guide our body's natural responses. I suppose it's a way to be more gentle on our bodies and work in concert with how our body naturally responds. 

It's an interesting concept and has provided a really great way for me to articulate my perspective about using essential oils in our family. 

I hope you found this helpful!