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The Truth About Cancer

12 Ways to Use Essential Oils For Healing & Health

By Marnie Clark
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One of the things new users of essential oils ask most frequently is “What do I do with them? I just bought three new bottles and I have no idea how to use essential oils, other than take the caps off and sniff them.” If you fall into this category, this article will offer some great tips on how to use essential oils as part of your healing practice and general health improvement.

Phytochemicals: the Healing Compound in Essential Oils

It is interesting to learn that the very thing that gives an essential oil its characteristic smell is also what provides that oil with its healing ability. There can be hundreds of phytochemicals (plant based chemicals) within each drop of essential oil. Science is just beginning to learn exactly how each phytochemical works in the human body. Having said that, there is still much we do not know!

These phytochemicals have funny names like terpenes, aldehydes, esters, ketones, phenols, oxides, sesquiterpenes, and many more. Each one works differently in the body.

For instance, ketones (found in lavender essential oil, patchouli, hyssop) stimulate cell regeneration, liquefy mucous, and have calming properties.

Aldehydes (found in lemongrass essential oil, melissa, and citronella) tend to be highly anti-viral and anti-inflammatory.

Sesquiterpenes (found in cedarwood, sandalwood, and German chamomile, to name a few) are known for reversing inflammation. Sesquiterpenes are also one of the only substances that can cross the protective blood-brain barrier and increase oxygen to the brain. They can also reverse DNA damage and delete it from cellular memory. As a result, essential oils that contain sesquiterpenes could be quite beneficial for cancer patients.

Essential Oil Quality Varies

The phytochemical make-up of an oil can vary from plant to plant, even on the same farm. Growing conditions, harvesting methods, and even the time of day that the plant is harvested can have an effect on the phytochemical content of an oil. For instance, ylang ylang flowers are best collected between midnight and 9:00 am in the morning. That is when the essential oil content in the flowers is at its highest and best.

So why am I sharing all of this with you? Not only because it’s interesting, but also to underscore the need to ensure that your essential oils, particularly if you are using them for regaining your health, come from a reputable company.

Make sure the essential oils you purchase are organically grown. Be sure that the company knows how to properly distill each of the oils they sell, and that they do not use chemicals during the extraction process. A good essential oil company will also check each essential oil batch using gas chromatography to ensure that each batch has the proper phytochemical constituents. Don’t just rely on a label that says “pure.” These days, that just isn’t good enough.

12 Great Ways to Use Essential Oils

#1. Bottle Inhalation Method – Begin by holding the essential oil bottle about the level of your heart. Waft the bottle a little, moving it ever closer to your nose. Deeply breathe in the aroma, gently at first. If you like it and it seems appropriate, breathe more deeply. When you breathe in an essential oil through the nose, the tiny oil molecules (the vapor) contain all of the same properties that the oil contains. They interact with the olfactory organ and the brain. Oil molecules inhaled through nose or mouth also move into the lungs and interact with the lungs and respiratory system.

#2. Hand Inhalation Method – Drip a few drops of essential oil onto your palms, rub them together to activate the oil, and cup them over the mouth and nose. As with the Bottle Inhalation Method, breathe gently at first and then if it seems appropriate, breathe the oil in deeply − as if you were dragging the oil up over your brain. Be sure to leave your eyes out of this as essential oils do not belong anywhere near the eyes. (Warning: If you do happen to accidentally get an essential oil into your eyes, dilute immediately with a carrier oil like sweet almond or olive, never water. It will burn like crazy but will ease in a few minutes.)

#3. Terracotta Pendant Method – Put a drop of oil on a terracotta pendant, fasten it around your neck, and enjoy the benefits of that oil as you move through your day.

#4. Bedtime Salt Bowl Method – Place a small amount (about 1/4 cup) of sea salt flakes or Epsom salt in a small bowl. Drip 10-15 drops of your chosen essential oil onto the salt. Keep it by your bed. The salt helps to slow down the evaporation rate of the oils, allowing you a longer diffusion throughout the night. A great way to get some anti-cancer potential into you while you sleep.

#5. Steam Bowl Inhalation – Drip your chosen essential oil into a bowl of steaming water (please use filtered so that no chlorine is also inhaled). Place a towel over your head and over the bowl of water and breathe in deeply (be careful if the water was boiled, the steam can be hot enough to burn). Please keep your eyes closed when using this method or use swimming goggles to protect your eyes. The steam quickly vaporizes the oil and it is rapidly absorbed into the throat, sinuses, and then bloodstream. This method is a very direct and potent method. Do not use any more than 1-2 drops of essential oil, or you may find it overwhelming. Please note that heating oils can diminish the therapeutic value of the oil so do not use this method exclusively if you are fighting cancer.

#6. Ultrasonic Diffusing – An ultrasonic diffuser uses air, water, and ultrasonic vibrations to diffuse the oil into the air. A fine mist is created and released into the air, so it doubles as a humidifier. The concentration of essential oils is gentler since water is used. This method allows the oil molecules to remain air-bound for several hours and does not affect the structure or therapeutic value of the oil. You can use several oils together, for instance frankincense and sandalwood. Two or more oils are better than one, because the phytochemicals in each oil offer different healing properties.

#7. Car Diffuser – Many companies now make car diffusers for their essential oils. Imagine getting a great smelling anti-cancer treatment right in the safety of your car as you drive to work or while running errands! Don’t have a diffuser? Don’t worry − just get a cotton ball, drip a few drops of your chosen oil onto it, stick it in the air vent, turn on the vent and enjoy.

#8. Essential Oil Massage – There are a couple of ways to go about this. You can massage the essential oils into your body, neat, meaning without dilution. Be sure to have some guidance from your practitioner about which ones may require dilution. You can also dilute essential oils by adding a natural carrier oil (organic wherever possible) such as sweet almond or coconut oil, or even olive oil. Apply the diluted essential oils to skin areas with gentle massage strokes. As a guideline, you can make a 1% concentration, which equals one drop of essential oil to one teaspoon of carrier oil. A 2% dilution would be two drops of essential oil to one teaspoon of carrier oil. Be sure to consult a practitioner when using essential oils for children, as they require much weaker dilutions than do adults.

#9. The Foot Absorption Method – Massage a few drops of your chosen essential oils into the bottoms (the soles) of your feet before you go to bed. The soles of the feet contain some of the largest pores in the body. Therefore, the oils are easily absorbed and working in your bloodstream within just a few minutes.

#10. Oral Ingestion – Unless you are working under the guidance of a certified health practitioner, it is not suggested that you take an essential oil internally. It is not that taking oils internally is necessarily a bad or dangerous thing, but you do need some guidance as to which oils are safe to take internally, how much to use, and how frequently.

#11. Essential Oil Bath – Drip your chosen essential oils into a warm (not hot) bath. Use a few tablespoons of a dispersant like full cream milk or coconut oil which will assist in the absorption of the oils through your skin. Then just step into the bath and soak. Not only are you absorbing the oils, but also directly inhaling them at the same time. This is also a great way to finish off those bottles of essential oils that just have a drop or two left in them − just drop the entire bottle into your bath.

#12. Instead of Perfume – Rather than using man-made (and potentially toxic) perfumes, combine your favorite essential oils and wear them on your pulse points, behind your ears, on your collarbone, and on both sides of your neck. Not only will you smell fabulous, you are bringing the phytochemicals in those oils right into your body.

As you can see, there are many ways to use essential oils. Don’t be afraid to try new methods. The important thing is to begin, and to use them every day… because they can’t help you improve your health if they stay in the bottle!

Article Summary

New users of essential oils often wonder what to do with them beyond taking off the caps and sniffing the oils.
There can be hundreds of phytochemicals (plant based chemicals) within each drop of essential oil. These phytochemicals have funny names like terpenes, aldehydes, esters, ketones, phenols, oxides, sesquiterpenes, and many more.
Each phytochemical has different properties and science is just beginning to understand how each phytochemical works in the human body.
The phytochemical make-up of an oil can vary from plant to plant. You need to ensure that your essential oils, particularly if you are using them for regaining your health, come from a reputable company. Don’t just rely on a label that says “pure.”
Here are 12 ways you can use essential oils (see the article for details on how to use each method):
1. Bottle Inhalation Method
2. Hand Inhalation Method
3. Terracotta Pendant Method
4. Bedtime Salt Bowl Method
5. Steam Bowl Inhalation
6. Ultrasonic Diffusing
7. Car Diffuser
8. Essential Oil Massage
9. The Foot Absorption Method
10. Oral Ingestion
11. Essential Oil Bath
12. Instead of Perfume

Cannabis and coconut oil make powerful mixture to kill cancer cells

Humans have cultivated and used the flowering tops of the female cannabis plant, known colloquially as marijuana since history was recorded. Archaeologists in Central Asia even found over 2 pounds of cannabis in a 2,700-year-old grave of a shaman.

Written and pictorial evidence of cannabis use is scattered throughout numerous cultures indicating a wide acceptance and use of the plant for thousands of years.

Drug Classification Halts Use

Federal prohibitions outlawing the therapeutic and recreational use of cannabis were first imposed by Congress with the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Later, the plant’s organic compounds (cannabinoids) were classified as a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

This classification puts the plant in the same pool as heroin and states that cannabis possesses “a high potential for abuse … no currently accepted medical use … [and] a lack of accepted safety for the use of the drug … under medical supervision.”

In contrast, cocaine and methamphetamine – illegal for recreational use, may be consumed under a doctor’s supervision and are classified as Schedule II drugs. Examples of Schedule III and IV drugs include anabolic steroids and Valium. Analgesics that contain codeine are defined by law as Schedule V drugs, the most lenient classification.

In Support of Therapeutic Use

Federal lawmakers continue to use the dated drug classification as a means to defend criminalization of marijuana. However, there appears to be a very little scientific basis for the categorization of the plant. As its prohibition has passed 75 years, researchers continue to study the therapeutic properties of cannabis.

There are over 20,000 published reviews and studies in a scientific literature that pertain to the cannabis plant and its cannabinoids, almost one-third of these have been published in the last 4 years. A keyword search on PubMed Central (the US government library of peer-reviewed scientific research) shows 2,100 studies alone since 2011.

Modern culture is now catching up on what our ancestors knew, and public opinion and relaxing state legislation are leading the way for more people to use medicinal marijuana for a wide number of medical conditions. At present, marijuana for medical purposes is legal in 20 states and the District of Columbia.

While the debate continues to boil at both state and federal levels, there has been a strong and growing trend of acceptance related to the growing body of scientific evidence indicating that marijuana may indeed contain some powerful medicinal properties that we would be foolish to overlook.

Joycelyn Elders, MD, former US Surgeon General, wrote the following in a March 26, 2004, article titled “Myths About Medical Marijuana,” published in the Providence Journal:

“The evidence is overwhelming that marijuana can relieve certain types of pain, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms caused by such illnesses as multiple sclerosis, cancer, and AIDS — or by the harsh drugs sometimes used to treat them. And it can do so with remarkable safety. Indeed, marijuana is less toxic than many of the drugs that physicians prescribe every day.”

Ray Cavanaugh, Ph.D., National Director of the American Alliance for Medical Cannabis (AAMC), wrote the following in a 2002 article titled “The Plight of the Chronically Ill,” posted on the AAMC website:

“Many of the chronically ill have successfully sought relief with the use of medical cannabis, an age-old remedy that now shows real scientific efficacy. Hundreds of thousands of the sick have replaced disabling narcotics and other psychotropic medications with nontoxic and benign cannabis. The anecdotal evidence is overwhelming.

Folks with spinal injuries able to give up their walkers, AIDS patients able to gain weight and keep their medications down, cancer patients finding relief from the terrible nausea of chemotherapy, chronic pain patients once again functional with their consciousness restored from narcotic lethargy, and folks once disabled from crippling psychiatric disorders and addictions, returned to sanity and society with the assistance of a nontoxic herb with remarkable healing powers.”

The American Nurses Association (ANA) wrote the following in its Mar. 19, 2004 “Position Statement: Providing Patients Safe Access to Therapeutic Marijuana/Cannabis,” posted on the ANA website:

“The American Nurses Association (ANA) recognizes that patients should have safe access to therapeutic marijuana/cannabis. Cannabis or marijuana has been used medicinally for centuries. It has been shown to be effective in treating a wide range of symptoms and conditions.”

Researchers at the University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research announced findings from a number of randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials on the medical utility of inhaled cannabis in 2010.

The studies used the FDA ‘gold standard’ clinical trial design and reported that marijuana should be the “first line of treatment” for patients suffering from neuropathy and other serious illnesses.

Neuropathy is a type of pain associated with diabetes, cancer, spinal cord injuries, HIV/AIDS and other debilitating conditions. The trials indicated that marijuana controlled pain as good or better than available medications.

Scientists continue to study the effectiveness of cannabinoids all over the world. In Germany, there have been over 37 controlled studies, with over 2,500 subjects, assessing the safety and efficacy of marijuana, since 2005. In contrast, most FDA-approved drugs go through far fewer trials with fewer subjects but are approved for use.

The research on cannabis has shifted from studying its ability to alleviate symptoms of a disease such as nausea associated with chemotherapy to its potential role in modifying disease. Medical marijuana has been shown to slow the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and moderate autoimmune disorders including multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Cannabis and Coconut Oil

Medical marijuana capsules infused in coconut oil are an alternative way to therapeutically use cannabis without having to inhale it through smoking. Infusing cannabis into coconut oil also allows for easy entry into the liver where it can be rapidly processed.

Coconut oil is used because of its high amount of essential fatty acids which makes it a good binding agent for the cannabinoids. Not to mention its amazing health properties. Half of the fat in coconut oil is comprised of a fat that is not frequently found in nature, lauric acid.

Lauric acid has been called a “miracle” ingredient due to its health-promoting capabilities and is present in a mother’s milk. In fact, it can be found in only three dietary sources—small amounts in butterfat and larger amounts in palm kernel and coconut oil.

In the body, lauric acid is converted to monolaurin, which is a potent antiviral, antibacterial and antiprotozoal substance. Because monolaurin is a monoglyceride, it can destroy lipid-coated viruses including measles, influenza, HIV, herpes and a number of pathogenic bacteria.

Testimony – A Success Story

While many remain suspicious of the therapeutic benefits of cannabis, Stan and Barb Rutner are convinced of its efficacy. This couple has stood in the face of cancer a number of times and survived to learn from their experiences.

Barb had two bouts of breast cancer and Stan were diagnosed 20 years ago with non-Hodgkin lymphoma which, after treatment, disappeared. However, in 2011, it returned. Cancerous nodes in his lungs were diagnosed and later he was told that the cancer was in his brain. The outlook was grim indeed.

As he went through the harsh treatment of chemotherapy and radiation, Stan and his family wanted to find a natural solution that would help improve his quality of life and even prolong it. Hearing that cannabis was effective in helping with the pain and other effects of chemotherapy for cancer patients they were more than open to give it a try. According to Stan and Barb, medical cannabis was the golden ticket.

The Rutners daughter, Corinne and her husband did some research and it was decided that daytime cannabis capsule infused in coconut oil would be a good choice. After two weeks of taking the capsule, Stan was able to give up his oxygen tank that he was tied to around the clock. He began to gain weight, sleep better and get stronger overall. After several months, a brain scan revealed that Stan was completely cancer free.

The Rutners are convinced that cannabis works as an anti-cancer medicine. According to John, the Rutners son-in-law:

“There is no doubt in my mind that cannabis pulled my father-in-law out of the wasting stages of cancer and enabled him to gain strength and in turn fight this horrible cell malfunction with success. While many would say that the chemo and radiation could have played a part, he would never have lived long enough to find out without cannabis oil.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHBPKtnvX1U

https://theheartysoul.com/cannabis-infused-coconut-oil/

Ginger: 10,000x Stronger Than Chemo In Cancer Research Model

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Food and Health October 19, 2015

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By Sayer Ji • Originally published on GreenMedInfo.com

A new study reveals ginger contains a pungent compound that could be up to 10,000 times more effective than conventional chemotherapy in targeting the cancer stem cells at the root of cancer malignancy.

A new study published in PLoS reveals a pungent component within ginger known as 6-shogaol is superior to conventional chemotherapy in targeting the root cause of breast cancer malignancy: namely, the breast cancer stem cells.

As we have discussed in greater detail in a previous article titled, “Cancer Stem Cells: The Key To Curing Cancer,” cancer stem cells are at the root of a wide range of cancers, not just breast cancer, and are sometimes referred to as “mother cells” because they are responsible for producing all the different “daughter” cell types that makeup the tumor colony. While cancer stem cells only constitute between .2 and 1% of the cells within any given tumor, they have the seeming “immortal” ability to self renew, are capable of continuous differentiation, are resistant to conventional chemotherapeutic agents, and are tumorigenic, i.e. are capable of “splitting off” to create new tumor colonies. Clearly, the cancer stem cells within a tumor must be destroyed if cancer treatment is to affect a lasting cure.

The new study titled, “6-Shogaol Inhibits Breast Cancer Cells and Stem Cell-Like Spheroids by Modulation of Notch Signaling Pathway and Induction of Autophagic Cell Death,” identified powerful anti-cancer stem cell activity in 6-shogaol, a pungent constituent of ginger produced when the root is either dried or cooked. The study also found that the cancer-destroying effects occurred at concentrations that were non-toxic to non-cancerous cells – a crucial difference from conventional cancer treatments that do not exhibit this kind of selective cytotoxicity and therefore can do great harm to the patient.

The authors of the study further affirm these points:

“Cancer stem cells pose serious obstacle to cancer therapy as they can be responsible for poor prognosis and tumour relapse. To add into the misery, very few chemotherapeutic compounds show promise to kill these cells. Several researchers have shown that cancer stem cells are resistant to paclitaxel, doxorubicin, 5-fluorouracil, and platinum drugs [8, 16]. CSCs are thus an almost unreachable population in tumours for chemotherapy. Therefore any compound, that shows promise towards cancer stem cells, is a highly desirable step towards cancer treatment and should be followed up for further development.”

The researchers identified a variety of ways by which 6-shagoal targets breast cancer:

It reduces the expression of CD44/CD24 cancer stem cell surface markers in breast cancer spheroids (3-dimensional cultures of cells modeling stem cell like cancer)

It significantly affects the cell cycle, resulting in increased cancer cell death

It induces programmed cell death primarily through the induction of autophagy, with apoptosis a secondary inducer

It inhibits breast cancer spheroid formation by altering Notch signaling pathway through γ-secretase inhibition.

It exhibits cytotoxicity (cell killing properties) against monolayer (1-dimensional cancer model) and spheroid cells (3-dimensional cancer model)

It was in evaluating the last mode of 6-shagoal’s chemotherapeutic activity and comparing it to the activity of the conventional chemotherapeutic agent taxol that the researchers discovered an astounding difference. Whereas taxol exhibited clear cytotoxicity in the one-dimensional (flat) monolayer experimental model, it had virtually no effect on the spheroid model, which is a more “real world” model reflecting the 3-dimensionality of tumors and their stem cell subpopulations. Amazingly, this held true even when the concentration of taxol was increased by four orders of magnitude:

“In contrast [to 6-shagoal], taxol, even though was highly active in monolayer cells, did not show activity against the spheroids even at 10000 fold higher concentration compared to 6-shogoal.”

This is a highly significant finding, as it affirms a common theme in cancer research that acknowledges the primarily role of cancer stem cells: namely, while conventional techniques like surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy are effective at reducing a tumor’s size, sometimes to the point where it is “debulked,” burned,” or “poisoned” out of the body even below the threshold of re-detection, the appearance of “winning the battle” often comes at a steep price, as ultimately the cancer stem cell population regrows the tumors, now with increased vengeance and metastastic invasiveness, resulting in the cancer “winning the war.”

The monolayer model, which does not account for the complex immunity of actual cancer stem-cell based tumors against chemoagents like taxol, represents the old preclinical model of testing cancer treatments. The spheroid model, on the other hand, clearly shows that even 10,000 times higher concentrations of taxol are not capable of beating this ginger component at selectively targeting the root cause of the tumor malignancy.

In their concluding remarks, the authors point out a hugely important distinction between natural anti-cancer agents and conventional ones that have only been introduced in the past half century or so, namely, “Dietary compounds are welcome options for human diseases due to their time-tested acceptability by human bodies.”

Unlike modern synthetically produced and patented chemicals, ginger, curcumin, green tea, and hundreds of other compounds naturally found in the human diet, have been “time-tested” as acceptable to the human body in the largest and longest running “clinical trials” known: the tens of thousands of years of direct human experience, spanning thousands of different cultures from around the world, that constitute human prehistory. These experientially-based “trials” are validated not by RCTs, or a peer-reviewed publication process, but by the fact that we all made it through this incalculably vast span of time to be alive here today. Consider also that if our ancestors made the wrong dietary choice by simply mistaking an edible berry for a poisonous one, the consequences could be deadly. This places even greater emphasis on how the “time testing” of dietary compounds was not an academic but a life-death affair, and by implication, how the information contained within various cultural traditions as “recipes” passed down from generation to generation are “epigenetic inheritance systems” no less important to our health and optimal gene expression as the DNA in our own bodies.

Ultimately, this new study adds to a growing body of research indicating that cancer stem cell targeting approaches using natural substances present in the human diet for thousands of years are far superior chemotherapy and radiation, both of which actually increase the relative populations of cancer stem cells versus non-tumorigenic ones. For further reading on ginger’s anti-cancer properties, consult our Ginger Research database. Also, you can use our Cancer Research Health Guide for thousands of studies and articles about natural healing approaches for cancer.