What are essential oils?
Okay, so what is an essential oil? Essential oils are just parts of plants with amazing health benefits. That’s it! Just parts of plants.
"Essential oils are organic compounds extracted from plants with tremendous healing properties."
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Dr. Josh Axe
DC, DNM, CNS
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If you look at that picture below of the green leaf - that is a peppermint leaf. And the picture to the right - that is a peppermint leaf under a microscope. You see how there is a little white sac right there? That is the oil sac. So that is what we are talking about with essential oils.
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Remember this is the first question we want to make sure you know how to answer. So when someone asks you what an essential oil is - you can say - just part of a plant!
PEPPERMINT
I wish we were in the same room so I could put a drop of peppermint in your hands! I’d have you rub your hands together - being careful not to touch your eyes - cup your hands over your nose and mouth and take 3 deep breaths. After that you'd take your hands and rub them on the back of your neck.
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Imagine it really opening up your airways. It’s a great one to grab if you’re having trouble breathing, or have a stuffy nose, just one drop in your hand and you can breathe easy.
Oils are chemically complex so they can affect our bodies in more than one way. Unlike pharmaceuticals that are designed to do one specific thing, the essential oils can work with our bodies in multiple ways. Peppermint is a great example of that because it’s not only great for helping you breathe, but also if you’re having some digestive issues, or head tension, if you have any achy muscles, or need help focusing or remembering something. You can pull out your peppermint and quickly feel better, relax your muscles, focus and remember where you put your keys. It’s also great if you’re feeling warm, whether that’s from being outside or hormones or you’ve caught something - peppermint is great at cooling your body down.