Mixing Oils - Safety

[Guest guest]

butch owen <butchbsi

Wed, 11 Jun 2003 16:22:39 -0700

Mixing Oils - Safety

 

 

Hi y'all,

 

In general, there are some oils that probably shouldn't be used at

all. Many disagree with me .. and maybe I would agree with that

disagreement IF I could be assured that those oils were being used

under the close supervision of a professional .. and even then, not

for extended periods of time. Two that come to mind are Sweet Birch

and Wintergreen.

 

On the other hand .. what oils to blend is often, in my opinion, a

commercial game more than creation of a miraculous healing " synergy. "

Example .. some dude wrote to a buddy of mine ..

 

> I am wondering if you are interested in a new Super Blend of

> essential oils? My last blend of 141 oils provided extremely

> powerful support for the whole body and the new blend is much

> stronger. The next blend will contain the largest variety of

> essential oils in the world.

>

> Please message me with any comments or suggestions if you are

> interested.

 

Now when you folks get up off the floor .. after you've imagined the

next blend being 267 oils or whatever .. ;-p give this some thought

cause some folks are throwing together 5-6-7-8 oils and thinking that

it must be better that way cause if one is good 8 is 8 X better. Lots

of interpolation and extrapolation there methinks. And .. if you

wanna know the website this feller cites .. write me off line and you

got it.

 

But the real danger is percentage of EO to carrier. If we use one oil

with a proven safe dilution percentage of 10% .. another with 5% and

one more with 6% .. and we use those percentages for each oil .. we've

gone way beyond a level of safety because the effects are cumulative.

Though a patch test is good it doesn't prevent the ol' immune system

from registering that onslaught of oils as a hostile invader and

reacting the next time its exposed to one or more of those chemical

constituents .. meaning sensitization.

 

One more thing that makes me grin now and then .. when folks are

looking for a particular level of a major chemical component .. they

do it cause the novels on AT have repeated this over and over till

folks think its AT doctine. Lavender 40/42 gotta be better than

Lavender 35/40 says they. Hogwash! Might smell better and if you're

looking for odor then it might be important .. but even then there are

many EO that get their odor from minor/trace chemical components.

 

Even worse .. the tale-spinners have made it so desireable to have

this or that level of major components .. though there is no real

basis in fact .. that the con-artists often boost Linalool and

Linalool acetate and get more $$$ for the adulterated products.

Sometimes they use natural chemicals but still, when you upset a

natural chemical equation there is a down side in that you reduce the

percentages of the trace chemicals .. which more times than not might

have more to do with the therapeutic value of the EO than do the major

chemical constituents.

 

Knowing percentage of major chemical componets in an EO can sometimes

tell you a bit about the odor of the oil but its not very effective

for judging efficacy and safety .. unfortunately, rumors and

misinformation controls a lot of the teachings in the cottage-industry

of aromatherapy.

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

 

Who's been sorta missing cause he's trying to catch up and ain't gonna

make it ... but still going to the Rose Fields of Isparta on 20 June

for the annual harvest/distillation if'n he ain't under snakes. ;-p

[Guest guest]

, " Butch Owen " <butchbsi wrote:

>

>

>

> butch owen <butchbsi

> Wed, 11 Jun 2003 16:22:39 -0700

> Mixing Oils - Safety

Butch wrote: >

>

> But the real danger is percentage of EO to carrier. If we use one oil

> with a proven safe dilution percentage of 10% .. another with 5% and

> one more with 6% .. and we use those percentages for each oil .. we've

> gone way beyond a level of safety because the effects are cumulative.

>

We touched on the subject not long ago when I asked the question about

essential oil chemicals having cumulative effects on the body. Butch

and Martin had several helpful replies and I think Martin explained

that when more than one oil goes into a blend the person would have to

have a good understanding of chemistry and math to know exactly how

much of the chemicals are blending so as to not exceed the safe level

of exposure to chemicals that both essential oils share (I'm not

quoting-just relating his idea). BUT regarding the above statment

specifically: Does anyone maybe have an idea what percentage of

dilution of eo to carrier may be within safe limits when blending

oils? and I only mean mixing two or so oils together, not anything

above 3-for example _______ % of blended oils in a carrier is small

enough that even shared chemicals shouldn't be harmful. I'm already

thinking this is one of those questions that probably can't really be

answered as it would probably depend on what the " shared " chemicals

are and if it is such a small amount maybe it wouldn't have any effect

anyway but just thought I'd give it a try! Thank you, Susan