Essential oils in lung health

In early 2012, two different people contacted me at the same time, telling me that some patients with Cystic Fibrosis in Germany had improved their breathing (lessened shortness of breath) and their lung capacity, while helping fight their bacterial infections by a simple process of inhaling steams of lavender essential oil. That is, the old-fashioned procedure of boiling up a liter of water, pouring a few drops of essential oil in it, and breathing the steams under a towel, during some 10-15 minutes.

This triggered a research that has enabled me to help improve many people’s lives by now, including my own.

I started by inhaling lavender essential oil, steamed, for a few months myself. Lung capacity improved a little, but perhaps more importantly, my resident lung bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) went from resistant to all antibiotics to sensitive to more than half of them, in just 2-3 months.

As summer came and steams were not an option anymore, I started exploring other ways of administration, as well, and learned to apply essential oils in multiple ways, for multiple purposes and health problems.

As time went by and I had to buy new bottles of oil, I tried many brands available in stores in Spain, noticing to my great surprise and puzzlement that although they all said “100% pure essential oil from Lavandula angustifolia” the smell was different in each, and moreover, while some made me breathe deeper and better, others gave me a cough and discomfort. Why was this?

I finally was able to settle for some good brands that felt good to my lungs.

It would not be until 2015 when I plunged into studying the chemistry behind essential oils and the laws that govern what can be written on the label of the product. To my dismay, I found out that as long as an oil has its 4-5 main constituents in the right percentages, by law the label may say “100% pure essential oil” when in fact it has been completely synthesized in a lab! Each pure oil, when extracted from a plant, has hundreds of constituents, so the fractions of them obviously do not have the same effect, especially if our purpose is improving health, and not merely obtaining a nice perfume.

I soon started sharing my knowledge of essential oils in health forums, especially those related to cystic fibrosis. One of my personal projects is communicating health approaches from around the world to Spanish speakers, in a separate blog I have (in Spanish). I find it extremely satisfactory, especially when the users live in countries with little health care, when they report back that by using the oils as I suggested they have been able to avoid/reduce antibiotics and stay in better health over the past few years.

In December 2015 I had the experience myself, of applying essential oils in a variety of simultaneous ways and totally avoiding an antibiotic treatment (which otherwise are frequent in Cystic Fibrosis), increasing lung capacity at the same time in a rather remarkable way. I was thrilled to have found something so effective!

Finding out the myriad of powerful uses of essential oils, being as they are the most concentrated form of plant medicine, I am now passionate about sharing knowledge about them. If not for you or your immediate family or friends at present, you never know when someone may fall ill: I would like you to know, at that point, that essential oils can help! So that is why I am teaching these short classes, since January 2016: to give some basic information and help you make an informed decision about this wonderful health tool, and be able to give you guidance in case you want to buy them to use yourself.

Wholly natural, 100% pure, organic, pure power straight from Nature – and they also smell divine! 🙂 Isn’t it wonderful?