June 6, 2025 • 43 mins
In this episode of Crunchy Stewardship, cousins Chrissy Rombach and Katie Jones explore the significance and uses of essential oils from both a biblical and practical perspective. They discuss the origins of essential oils, their historical and spiritual context, and provide a list of oils mentioned in the Bible. The hosts share their personal experiences and the medicinal benefits of various essential oils like lavender and peppermint for stress relief, migraines, and treating fevers. They also emphasize the importance of choosing high-quality oils and avoiding synthetic products. Practical applications of essential oils in daily life, from personal care routines to household cleaning, are highlighted, along with recommendations for reputable essential oil brands. The episode concludes with an invite to their Facebook group, 'Crunchy Christian Mamas on a Budget,' for further discussion and resources.
Episode Takeaway:
Essential oils, far from being a modern "alternative" trend, have a deep-rooted history in human health, biblical practices, and natural healing. When sourced for purity and quality, they offer a versatile and biblically-aligned approach to stewarding one's health and home, providing effective natural solutions for common ailments, personal care, and household cleaning, while emphasizing the importance of understanding their true potency compared to synthetic fragrances.
Books/Authors:
- Dr. Josh Axe's book "Essential Oils": https://amzn.to/4kt94uh
Biblical References/Concepts:
- Frankincense and Myrrh: Mentioned as two of the most highly revered oils in the Bible, brought to Jesus as gifts.
- Spikenard: Mentioned as the oil Mary (sister of Martha) poured on Jesus' feet.
- Matthew, Mark, and Luke: The gospels where the anointing with spikenard is mentioned (though the event where Mary anoints Jesus' feet with costly perfume made of pure nard is specifically found in John 12:1-8, and a similar anointing is found in Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9, and Luke 7:36-50 with different contexts). It would be best to link to the relevant biblical passages.
- Moses giving instructions for anointing leaders: General reference to oils being used in the wilderness.
- Anointing the altar in the tabernacle: General reference to oils and incense in biblical rituals.
- Esther bathing in Myrrh: Reference to Esther's purification ritual before presenting herself to the king.
Products/Substances:
- Epsom Salt: Mentioned for baths for detoxification and fever reduction.
- Coconut Oil / Olive Oil: Mentioned as carrier oils to dilute essential oils for topical application.
- Vinegar and Baking Soda: Mentioned as natural cleaning agents.
- Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap: Highly recommended as an 18-in-1, non-toxic, concentrated soap with essential oils. https://amzn.to/4kt9q45
- Dryer Balls: Mentioned as an alternative to dryer sheets for laundry, with essential oils added for scent. https://amzn.to/43Jzd0M
Essential Oils (specific mentions):
- Lavender: For relaxation, stress reduction, sleep, and baths.
- Eucalyptus: For relaxation, diffusing with lavender, and a good antimicrobial for cleaning.
- Peppermint: For migraines (on temples and behind earlobes), for colds (in diffusers), fever reduction (in baths), draining sinuses (in showers), and for calming the digestive system/healing ulcerative colitis (ingested).
- Lime essential oil: For fever reduction in baths with epsom salt.
- Oregano oil: Super effective antimicrobial for cleaning, more effective than most antibiotics.
- Lemon essential oil: For laundry (on dryer ball
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chrissy (00:05):
Hello and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship.
My name is Chrissy Rombach.
Katie (00:09):
And my name is Katie Jones.
We are two cousins who arepassionate about learning and
sharing knowledge to equipothers to steward their
spiritual, mental, emotional,financial, and physical health
in order to honor God in everyaspect of their lives.
Chrissy (00:24):
In this podcast, we are taking a deep dive into what it
means to steward our lives asGod originally intended for us.
With the resources that God hasgiven us, we are gonna look, at
topics like food, medicine,finances, mental health and tons
more through a natural lens witha biblical foundation.
So without further ado, let'sdive into today's episode.
(00:45):
Today we are gonna be talkingall about essential oils.
Now, I genuinely don't know whythey're called essential oils.
I don't.
I don't know where they came upwith the essential piece of it.
Katie, do you know why they'recalled essential oils?
Katie (01:04):
That's a really great question.
I maybe have my theories, butthey're not rooted in anything
that I have specifically studiedor picked up on, but I don't
know why they're essential.
I do know that, and it'sactually really fascinating when
you start learning more aboutessential oils and where they
(01:24):
came from.
A lot of people consider them aslike an alternative medicine or
an alternative way of healing.
When really it's the moretraditional way of healing
because they were around farbeyond when we have what we now
call our traditional medicine,which is the conventional stuff
(01:47):
at the hospital and at yourdoctor's office and everything.
So I, I'd say they're essentialbecause it was like the form of
medicine that they basically hadsince Adam and Eve, because
essential oils come from plants.
They're derived from herbs andthings, which I guess are
plants.
But plants were around since daythree of God creating the world.
(02:11):
Like so you think about it.
Essential oils were around kindof even for Adam and Eve if they
were doing that kind of stuff.
So, yeah, I don't know.
Do you have any theories as towhy they are essential?
Chrissy (02:25):
I mean.
If we're going off of the ideathat essential oils were like
the first healthcare, you know,and that like the first medicine
and healing, then it, I guesswould be completely essential
for health and wellbeing.
'cause you know, within not longafter the earth was created, sin
(02:45):
entered the world and suddenlywe were no longer able to walk
in unity with God.
And so that's when diseases andhealth issues started also
playing a role in the lives ofhumans.
And so.
I wonder if that is like, thepoint when essential oils
really, truly became essentialis after the fall, because
(03:08):
that's when humanity startedactually having health problems
and they needed ways to heal,and so God gave them these oils
as a means of healing.
And actually in the Bible ittalks a lot about essential oils
and how they were usedthroughout biblical history.
(03:29):
I think in the Bible it mentionsspecific oils and aromatic oils
33 times, which is actuallyreally phenomenal.
and then it also mentionsincense, specifically 68 times,
which incense is a, it'sactually derived out of
frankincense.
So incense is like the, thestick that you'd burn during
(03:52):
rituals and things like that.
And it's, it comes fromfrankincense, which is the oil.
So.
Katie (03:58):
Yeah, I'm actually, I'm looking it up right now because,
so.
Ironically, I went to thelibrary yesterday and I was
like, I'm gonna just see ifthere are any books here on
essential oils.
And I literally go there andtype into their little search
computer and say, essentialoils.
And it shows that they have abook by one of our favorite
(04:19):
authors.
You and I both kind of have.
This guy has one of ourfavorites who talks a lot about
health and wellness.
We've, I think we've mentionedhim here on this podcast, but
it's Dr.
Josh Axe, A-X-E, and heliterally has a book called
Essential Oils.
And one thing that I love aboutthis guy is that he's also a
really strong believer and afollower of Jesus.
(04:40):
And so in all of his books, hetalks about.
Jesus.
He talks about the Bible and howa lot of our, again, the quote
unquote alternative medicines,how they're actually rooted in a
biblical foundation because theywere around before our now
traditional medicines, and itwas probably what Jesus himself
(05:03):
was doing.
I mean, we, again, like yousaid, tons of references to
essential oils and, and I think.
Yeah.
Frankincense and Myrrh.
I actually, I don't know aboutyou.
This is kind of silly.
Frankincense and myrrh, I didnot know growing up were oils.
I, because I think like when youthink of gold, it's like a rock
(05:25):
or whatever, I
Chrissy (05:26):
Oh yeah.
Katie (05:27):
so I just kind of assumed it was also something like that
Chrissy (05:30):
You're referring to when the, the three wise men
bring gold, myrrh andfrankincense to Jesus when he's
born
Katie (05:36):
yes, to Jesus as his baby presents.
Chrissy (05:40):
I think of the little cartoons, you know, you have the
little pile of gold bars andthen I wonder if the cartoons,
like, they were always littlesacks and I always just assumed
they were like sacks of money orsomething like that.
They were, they were holdinglike little jewelry bags, so to
say, in the cartoons.
Katie (05:57):
Exactly.
So here I, I found the list inhis book.
So he talks about 12 oils thatwere revered.
Like the most highly in theBible.
So it's kind of like they weretalked about the most often.
The, the top two arefrankincense and myrrh.
And then it goes on to talkabout cinnamon cedarwood,
(06:20):
spikenard, which I learned.
Spikenard is the oil that Marypoured on Jesus' feet.
Um, in, I guess it's in Matthew,Mark and Luke.
I, I believe it's mentioned inall three of them
Chrissy (06:35):
Yes, this is Mary, the sister of Martha, not Mary
Magdalene and not Mary Jesus'mother.
Katie (06:41):
Exactly, so many Mary's.
Yes.
So she pours Spikenard on Jesus'feet, which, so this is, that's
number five.
Then there's Hyssop, CassiaSandalwood, which is also known
as aloes.
He uses aloes in quotes.
Cyprus, um, I don't know thisone.
(07:01):
Galbanum, not familiar withthat.
Rose of Sharon.
And then Calamus.
So those are the ones that Iguess are mentioned the most
often throughout the Bible, butthere are of other different
ones that were used.
Um, Juniper Berry, I guess isanother one that didn't make the
top 12, but was also mentionedin his book.
(07:23):
But, they clearly had very highimportance in Jesus' time and
even before Jesus was aroundbecause you even hear incense
and oils and things beingmentioned before, because
actually it was kind ofinteresting.
He talks about a bunch of theother references, like Moses
(07:45):
giving the instructions for whenthey were supposed to anoint
leaders in the wilderness andeverything, they would use oils
like frankincense and, otherthings.
So yeah
Chrissy (07:56):
Also, in anointing the altar inside the tabernacle,
they would anoint the altar withoils and burn incense, I
believe, inside of there.
Yeah, so very interesting.
Katie (08:10):
Yeah, for me, in my journey with essential oils, I.
Honestly, I always thought theywere kind of woowoo.
Like, I was like, oh, why wouldyou burn, like, or not even
burn, but why would you put themin a diffuser and have these
scents going in your house, andwhy wouldn't you just spray
something like Febreeze orwhatever
Chrissy (08:31):
Oh boy.
Katie (08:33):
Not, I know it's kind of funny.
Now, now looking back, I, kindof chuckle at myself as I've
learned more about how essentialoils are actually decently
biblical too.
They have, they're rooted inscripture and, with something
that's been used forever.
I always just kind of had thisweird feeling about them
Chrissy (08:54):
Yeah.
Katie (08:54):
I don't really know why and, now I've started using
them.
What about you, Chrissy?
Chrissy (09:00):
I feel like I've started to dip my toe into
essential oils, and I do lovethem.
At first, when I was in highschool, I babysat for a woman
who used essential oils all thetime, and I would always love
the way her home smelled likewalking into her home.
It always smelled so nice, butmy nose became so used to the
(09:20):
smell so quickly that I was notable to actually continue
enjoying the smell.
Little did I know that she wasprobably actually diffusing
essential oils for moremedicinal purposes rather than
merely just making her housesmell good.
But now I realize like actuallydiffusing certain essential oils
that are focused more onrelaxation, like lavender or
(09:41):
eucalyptus, can help you fallasleep quicker.
It can help you focus anddecrease that stress and anxiety
that gets built up, in yourlife.
So.
Katie (09:51):
Yeah.
Lavender is one of those oilsfor me that I felt like growing
up, I always kind of knewLavender helps you relax and,
and helps make you less stressedand, helps you kind of calm
down.
And lavender's actually one ofmy favorite scents ever.
(10:11):
And so I had a lot of lavenderscented things, but now what I'm
starting to understand is thatthere's a really big difference
between.
Essential oils and then like thesynthetic version of these
smells that we have.
And so lavender is a really goodexample of this
Chrissy (10:33):
Yeah.
Katie (10:33):
because it is so popular.
And same thing with somethinglike rose.
You know, you think about allthe rose scented things, it's
not actually made from roses.
It's typically something that'sprocessed in a lab and and made
to smell exactly like the stuffthat you want it to smell like,
Chrissy (10:52):
I think also I don't know for sure about the rose
scent, but at least with thelavender scent, I found it very
easy to distinguish between thesynthetic lavender fragrance and
like the essential oils lavenderfragrance, because essential
oils, lavender, it smells likealmost earthy, you know?
And then the synthetic lavender,every time I smell it, I just
(11:17):
think of Johnson and Johnson'sbaby lotion.
every single time.
And so it's, it's such adifferent, smell, and one brings
about that healing the soothing,restful state, and the other one
definitely does not.
Katie (11:35):
Definitely.
Yeah, and that's kind of whatI've learned is that if you have
something that smells like theessential oil, it doesn't do the
same thing for you as the actualessential oil would.
And so you need to have reallygood quality, high quality oils
in order to receive any of thebenefits.
(11:55):
Before we kind of dive into thata little bit more, I think it
would be good to explain maybesome of the benefits of
essential oils and maybe howwe're both using them in our
lives.
Now, I mean, lavender, I thinkfor both of us is a good example
of, it's just really calmingand, and can help you relax at
(12:17):
the end of the night.
And I love diffusing it in ourhouse, especially when it feels
like we've had a really crazyday and it just kind of helps.
Bring the mood down a littlebit, but Chrissy, what about
you?
Have you been using them, or Iguess you said that you have
been using them a little bitmore.
How have you been incorporatingthem into your life?
Chrissy (12:35):
Yeah, so I definitely do do the lavender quite
frequently.
Especially at the end of astressful day, I will take a
lavender essential oil bath,with some Epsom salt and just
three drops of lavender oil inthe entire bathtub.
And the Epsom salt has magnesiumin it, which helps to detox your
(12:55):
body and take out all the toxinsthat your body has built up
throughout the day, includingsome of that stress and then the
essential oil.
The lavender helps to decreasethat stress also, but so that's
one that has been beneficial forme.
Another way that I actually justdiscovered last week was for
treatment of migraines.
So I recently have starteddeveloping some more migraines
(13:19):
just related to, stress.
You know, like the day aftersuper stressful days at work, I
usually often get a headachefrom the adrenaline crash or,
the day after increased screentime, things like that.
I'll get a headache just fromlike the strain of my eyes, and
so I learned that if you get thehigh quality peppermint oil and
(13:44):
you put it on your temples andright behind your ear lobes,
then those are two very thinpoints of skin on your body
where there's actually a majorblood vessel that runs right
underneath the skin right there.
And so the essential oils canseep through your skin and into
your bloodstream very quickly inthose two spots.
(14:06):
And so within 20 minutes ofputting the peppermint oil on my
temples and right behind my earlobes, my migraine had actually
gone away.
And it was one of those morningswhere I woke up and I had a lot
of things to do that day, and Igenuinely thought I wasn't going
to be able to do anythingbecause of this migraine that I
had.
(14:26):
And I didn't wanna take Excedrinbecause, that just has a lot of
other problems in and of itselfin terms of your gut health and
things like that.
And so I tried the essentialoils and it worked, and it was
great.
I was able to go work out thatday and run a bunch of errands,
and I had significantly moreenergy than normal.
(14:48):
So, yeah.
What about you, Katie?
How have you been using thoseessential oils in your life?
Katie (14:52):
Yeah, I've heard the same thing about peppermint.
I know Wes tried it for aheadache or some sort of pain,
and we had him do it on the backof his neck.
I have heard, I don't knowexactly if like how important
this is, but I have heard thatwhen you use essential oils
(15:13):
directly on your skin, youshould put something like a,
another oil base because the,essential oils itself are so
concentrated that it's morebeneficial to put it with like a
coconut oil, like kind of mix ittogether and then do it.
I don't know.
I did make Wes do that.
I don't know if that changes theeffectiveness or potency or
(15:38):
something of it, but that's justkind of.
That was like something I readat some point somewhere.
I don't know.
But it was also, it might'vebeen something I Googled and it
was like, be careful, but itmight've been one of those
warnings, so that way someonedoesn't hurt themselves.
Chrissy (15:54):
Potentially
Katie (15:55):
So anyway, I don't know if it's super necessary or not,
but maybe just as a warning foranybody trying it, it might be
beneficial to, to mix it withlike an olive oil or a coconut
oil before putting it on yourskin.
I, again, I'm not a doctormyself.
Chrissy's more the doctor herethan
Chrissy (16:13):
I don't know about that.
Katie (16:16):
at least you have a degree in, in some form of
medicine.
And here I am just reading a lotof books and Google stuff, one
of the ways.
We've been using essential oils.
Yes, we've been doing lavender.
We actually, I love lavender andeucalyptus
Chrissy (16:34):
Oh, yes.
Katie (16:35):
in the diffuser.
I also love, when Malachi getslittle colds, I'll do either
like eucalyptus and peppermintin a diffuser in his room, but
also when he gets a fever.
Instead of doing like babyTylenol or something like that,
we've been doing similar to you.
(16:56):
Like we've been doing a, bathwith the Epsom salt, so the
magnesium that helps to detoxifyand you know, it's a lukewarm
bath that helps the fever runits course because generally
speaking, fevers aren'tnecessarily bad.
It's just your body trying tofight the infection that's
inside of it.
And so it's trying to pusheverything out.
So you don't necessarily want tosuppress it
Chrissy (17:17):
The, the fascinating thing about fevers is the
bacteria loves to thrive in ourcore body temperature 98 degrees
environment.
And so that is one of our body'smechanisms to kill the bacteria,
is to increase the temperatureand make the environment
(17:38):
unsuitable for the bacteria tocontinue to live.
And so it, it is beneficial forour body to go through the fever
because it weakens the bacteriato allow our own white blood
cells and our own immune systemto attack the bacteria more
effectively and kill it.
Katie (17:57):
It's, see, it's things like that that we're often
taught that we need to cool ourbodies down and to get the
temperature down, which, yes, ata certain point, high
temperatures can be dangerous,but at the same time, yeah, your
body's trying to fight it, andyou want it to work through that
process so you, you do alukewarm bath to kind of keep
(18:18):
the sweat happening in your bodyto sweat it out and then again,
because the Epsom salt isdetoxifying, like helping draw
out the bad stuff.
Then you put in the bathtub, afew drops of peppermint oil.
And then I've, I've doneeucalyptus.
The peppermint oil also reallyhelps to drain the sinuses.
Chrissy (18:40):
Oh, yes.
Katie (18:40):
so even if you are like really stuffy yourself and just
dropping a few drops of likepeppermint oil in your shower to
help like the sinuses clear up,like Malachi's nose literally
will drain so much when he istaking these baths, but.
So I'd been doing that.
Recently, one of my wonderfulcrunchy mama friends in my
(19:01):
underground crunchy mamas chatgroup who she knows who she is,
if she's listening to this,actually recommended to me that
even better so when a kiddo oranybody has like a fever, you
take about two cups worth ofEpsom salt put some drops of
lime essential oil into theEpsom salt.
(19:24):
Soak it for a little bit, thendump that in the bath
Chrissy (19:28):
Hmm.
Katie (19:28):
and let your body kind of do its job as well.
And I also put a few drops ofpeppermint into the bath itself,
but I don't know specificallywhat the Lime essential oil
does, but I can say that it haseffectively worked twice when
Malachi has had a 102.5 degreefever and he was able to break
(19:49):
that fever within like a couplehours after that.
And it was, I, I, mean, I'mnever gonna go back to using
something like a Tylenol oranything like that.
I mean, even when we weretraveling and he had a tiny
fever, we didn't have our oilswith us or Epsom salt.
And even just putting him in thebath like a nice lukewarm bath,
(20:09):
like letting him play in therejust really helped to also like
like when I have fevers, my bodygets so achy and so I can
imagine like for him too, hemight be feeling those aches and
pains from the fever.
And so just soaking in the bathalone is like really.
Relaxing for your muscles.
So that's been super helpful
Chrissy (20:28):
I also think it's important to hit on the note of
like, at what point do feversactually become dangerous to the
point of needing to go to thehospital?
Now we are referring to usingessential oils for the treatment
of mild fevers.
Before they get to the dangerouspoint.
So we're talking in children,you know, less than 104 degrees.
As soon as you kind of hit overthat 104.5, that's when you
(20:52):
wanna start looking atpotentially going out to the
hospital, depending on the kid'ssymptoms and really symptom
management is gonna be the thingthat would make a parent want to
bring their child to thehospital, you know if a kid
starts having like a febrileseizure or if you start seeing
changes in like your child'scognitive function or their
(21:14):
ability to communicate thingslike that, that are different
from normal, then it wouldprobably be more important to
bring your child to a hospitalsooner.
But, using these essential oilscan be incredibly beneficial in
keeping you out of the hospitalbefore you
Katie (21:30):
Mm-hmm.
Chrissy (21:30):
get to that point, before the fever gets too high
to keep it low, while alsogiving the body the ability to
fight the infection effectivelyso that you don't have to go to
the hospital.
You know what I mean?
So
Katie (21:46):
Definitely,
Chrissy (21:47):
yeah.
Katie (21:48):
There's a lot of medicinal benefits to essential
oils but yeah, modern medicine,especially in like traumatic
situations is, is veryimportant.
But I think what's really coolis, again, like going back to
biblical times and even likeancient Egypt or ancient China,
(22:08):
like they were using these oilsto help cure and reverse a lot
of issues.
So in this book, I was learninga little bit more about some of
the other medicational purposesthat you can use essential oils
for, I have not used them forthese things, but some of the
other like benefits that theywere saying that essential oils
(22:30):
can help with are reducingtoxicity, balancing hormones,
improving digestion, boostingenergy, improving brain
function, reducing emotionalstress, producing radiant skin
fighting infections andalleviating aches and pains.
And not only that, like thesekind of seem almost more
(22:53):
superficial stuff, like some ofthe like different ailments that
we might be dealing with on aday-to-day basis, but.
The three gentlemen who wrotethis book together all have
testimonies of using essentialoils in like helping treat and
cure cancer cases and thingslike that.
(23:13):
So they all, it wasn't the onlything they did, and they don't
claim that essential oils wasthe only thing that cured these
cancer patients but it was apart of the regimen that they
used while fighting off thingslike cancer.
And so I find it so incrediblewhen you learn about this
because so many of the essentialoils have like antibacterial
(23:34):
properties to it.
And so he even gives like anexample of Esther, um, in the
Bible who.
Before she presented herself tothe king, she actually went and
bathed herself in Myrrh for, Iforget what it was like, several
weeks I think it said and andit's like you think about the
process of like detoxifying andgetting off all the bad stuff,
(23:56):
but also the benefits of itprobably made her look
beautiful, like just theradiance that her skin received
from these oils
Chrissy (24:04):
Also fun fact about that, year long ritual of
purifying yourself with theessential oils.
Also act as a form ofcontraception and so that the
king did not suddenly have 300children.
Katie (24:20):
That is so interesting That would make sense
Chrissy (24:22):
That would be really unfortunate.
Katie (24:23):
yeah, if you think about antibacterial.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
I didn't even consider that partof it too.
Chrissy (24:29):
Exactly.
And you know, you mentioned thatthese three authors, use the
essential oils for healingcancers and things like that.
It made me think back, Iremember we've mentioned before
about my mom healing herulcerative colitis through,
alternative means with diet andthings like that.
And peppermint oil was actuallya big piece of her healing her
(24:51):
ulcerative colitis.
She would put peppermint oil onher abdomen and she would put
one drop in her water each day.
And so she would drink it.
Peppermint oil is one of thosethat is safe for ingestion.
Not all of the essential oilsare safe to be ingested, but
peppermint oil you can.
And so just one drop in herwater each day, and that helped
(25:15):
to like calm her entiredigestive system and heal it and
give it the ability to healitself.
Katie (25:21):
So cool.
I, the skin is so fascinatingbecause it's this giant organ
that really takes in everythingthat touches it, which is for
better and for worse.
Because if we're putting thesesynthetic versions of these
scents onto our skin, it's beingabsorbed into our bloodstream
(25:41):
essentially.
In fact, Wes and I had aconversation this morning
because I've gone through theprocess and have changed out a
lot of my personal care, but Ihave yet to tackle a lot of his
own personal care stuff, and Ihad asked him for permission
yesterday if I could now switchout his deodorant because it has
some bad stuff.
It does not have aluminum.
We learned, which was good toknow, but I know which is
(26:04):
typically the thing that youwant to completely avoid.
But it does have like blue dyenumber one and it has like
natural fragrances and thingslike that, which you natural
fragrances that's like a codeword for bad stuff.
Like you don't want anythingthat says fragrance or perfume
in your personal care productsbecause even if it says natural,
(26:25):
it can still be derived from notgreat things like beaver butt,
which is like one of the things,you Google it literally, there's
like beaver butt in like thesenatural, because it's quote
unquote a natural thing in theenvironment.
It's not produced in the lab,but it's still like, that's not
something I want to be in mybody.
That's disgusting.
So anyway, we were having thatconversation of like.
(26:50):
Deodorant specifically is soimportant to change, to have
essential oils in it becauseyour armpits are also very
sensitive and have like thepores there are much larger and
you think about your armpitssweat a lot, but that means your
pores are open and so they'realso absorbing a lot more into
(27:10):
your body.
So if you think about the areasin your body that like sweat
more often, you just have to bereally sensitive about what
you're putting there becauseit's it's just almost like a
direct line to your bloodstream,and so you think about when
you're working out andeverything, your body's
absorbing all of that, and soit's so important, to switch
your personal care products forthat reason.
Chrissy (27:31):
For sure.
For sure.
Katie (27:32):
So we talked a little bit about kind of of the medicinal
benefits for daily uses, and nowI've kind of touched on some
personal care stuff.
Like we could use it to, youknow, benefit our personal care
routines even in just switchingour day-to-day scents, whether
it's through lotion or perfumesor colognes or different body
(27:55):
sprays, we can switch those tothe more natural essential oils
versus the synthetic stuff.
Chrissy, do you use essentialoils in any other area of your
home or personal life?
Chrissy (28:07):
Yes, actually I have learned that essential oils is
also incredibly effective incleaning, one oil in particular
that I have.
Learned that is a supereffective antimicrobial in
general is oregano oil.
It's actually more effectivethan most antibiotics in terms
(28:29):
of killing bacteria and fungusand, things like that.
So yeah, oregano oil is likenearly as effective as rubbing
alcohol or iodine at killingmicrobes that you don't want
around.
So that can be beneficial forcleaning.
Eucalyptus oil is also a goodantimicrobial that is very
(28:50):
beneficial, for cleaning, andmakes your house smell really
yummy.
I sometimes will put like,sometimes my, you know, vacuum
cleaners don't always smell thebest, especially if you like
forget to empty them one time,then it just always doesn't
smell great afterwards.
So I'll take, a little bit ofeucalyptus oil and put a drop on
a cotton ball and stick it inthe canister of my vacuum
(29:13):
cleaner.
So when I vacuum my whole house,then smells like eucalyptus oil.
Katie (29:18):
that's a great idea
Chrissy (29:20):
And so it's kind of like a replacement of that
Febreeze, you know?
'Cause Febreeze, the whole ideais to make your house smell
clean without actually cleaningyour home.
And so if you put essential oilsin a vacuum cleaner or something
like that, or in a diffuser, butthis, in this vacuum cleaner
situation, you're actuallycleaning.
(29:41):
Then you really do make yourwhole home smell cleaner, you
know, things like that.
I also have heard that likeputting it in your floor
cleaners is very good.
There are some brands, actually,I do believe Dr.
Bronner's is one of them.
That actually puts pureessential oils in their cleaning
(30:02):
products.
And that's how they make thescents of their cleaning
products.
So that's how you know that it'sactually, good for you,
non-toxic things like that.
And the beauty of Dr.
Bronner's is their Castile soapis an 18 and one soap.
And so it can be used for likebody wash, face wash, cleaning
(30:23):
the floors, dishes, laundry,like it is effective for all of
them.
And you just dilute it indifferent ways because it's a
very concentrated soap.
And so obviously you're gonnawant a stronger concentration
for your floors than you do foryour dishes, than you do for
your face, you know?
So, you just dilute it indifferent ways and it works for
(30:44):
literally cleaning everything.
Katie (30:45):
I love that.
So, we do dryer balls in ourdryer instead of doing the
sheets, but I really do misslike the scent that comes with
the dryer sheets and stuff.
And so I learned that if you putdrops of essential oils onto the
actual dryer balls.
It essentially does the samething and it kind of like bumps
(31:06):
around the oils into theclothes.
And I do, I, I'll kind of doeither like lavender or
eucalyptus or lemon, and it's.
It's just, it's like just aseffective and it is great.
And then I know that it's notlaced with all of the bad
endocrine disrupting chemicalsand stuff.
And same thing like, when I wantour house to smell fresh and
(31:28):
clean, especially like if wehave cleaned all day and if we
haven't used any of the reallystrong, smelly stuff, which we
don't really have in our houseanymore
Chrissy (31:36):
like cleaning all day with vinegar, and then your
whole house smells like vinegar.
Katie (31:40):
Exactly, yeah.
When I have like a nice deepscrub day of my showers
especially, and it's likevinegar and baking soda and it's
so pungent and I'll, at the endof all of that, we'll go into
our diffuser and I love puttinglemon in it because lemon is in
a lot of those really toxiccleaning products in general.
And so it already is kind ofnostalgic in that sense, if you
(32:03):
could say that about cleaningproducts.
But I just remember like growingup our house kind of smelling
like that lemony, almost likepine-sol-y kind of smell, which
smells really clean, but it'sreally toxic when it comes in
those versions.
And so putting in it the lemonessential oil into the diffuser
is just as effective.
Chrissy (32:24):
And this could also be a great, swap if you're somebody
who loves to use like the littleplugin, like Gain smelly things
or Febreeze plugins.
Those are incredibly toxic.
And so essential oils are afantastic easy swap that you can
use.
To keep your home smellinggreat, but also without the
(32:48):
endocrine disruption that comesfrom those plugins.
So, yeah.
So Katie, you mentioned earlierthat it's really important to
make sure that you get thehigher quality essential oils
because some of the oils intheir production can be mixed
with synthetics, or they can bediluted with olive oil or
(33:11):
avocado oil and things likethat.
And so, unfortunately becauseessential oils are not as
regulated, it's really hard tofigure out exactly which ones
are good for you and which onesare not good for you.
So, Katie and I decided that weare just gonna talk about the
(33:33):
good ones and just to make iteasy for our listeners, so you
guys don't really have to go outand do all the research.
You know, the research hasalready been done.
We'll give you tips on thingsthat are good to look for if you
do wanna go out and do your ownresearch on good quality
essential oils, but also, we'regonna just give you a couple
brands that are good to use thathave proven through, scientific
(33:58):
trials and things like that, andstudies of them that they are
actually effective and thattheir concentrations are worth
the penny because.
Unfortunately with good qualityessential oils, you are going to
be paying for the quality.
So, first off, I wanted toactually talk about some of the
(34:18):
things that are really importantto look for when you're looking
for a good quality essentialoils.
And often the high quality,essential oils are going to be
incredibly transparent about theingredients they use, the
process that they use to createtheir oils, the concentrations
of their oils, and theeffectiveness of them.
If you're trying to look for anoil and their website is not
(34:43):
super transparent about theprocess or other additives, and
it's hard to figure it out, thenlikelihood is you're probably
not looking at a good qualityessential oil.
So the first thing that youreally want to look for is
purity and quality.
So it's important to have 100%pure undiluted essential oils.
(35:05):
So that's referring to some ofthem are diluted with olive oil
or avocado oil or whatever otheroils that they can be diluted
with, and so they're not gonnabe as effective.
Another thing is, sourcing andsustainability.
So this refers to how the plantsare actually grown that create
the essential oils.
(35:26):
So a lot of the very reputablebrands will make sure that their
plants are grown without use ofpesticides.
That's avoiding that glyphosate,that could sneakily get its way
into your essential oils, whichwould not be good, you know,
diffusing glyphosate throughoutyour house doesn't sound ideal
to me.
The third thing you shouldreally focus on is third party
(35:49):
testing.
So, if the essential oils haveonly been tested by their own
people, then likelihood is thatthey might be trying to hide
something or they're coveringsomething up.
And so you always want there tobe a third party testing
somebody who's uninterested inthe economic gain of the
essential oil company toactually go through and test it.
(36:13):
And, one of the things that theyprovide is a certificate of
analysis, which, is one way thatyou can ensure that your
essential oils have been testedby a third party, and you should
be able to actually view thosetestings from the third party
people.
The next one is variety andavailability.
So you wanna make sure that theyhave a wide variety of oils.
(36:38):
Oftentimes the really goodbrands have a lot of options
because they are focused on moreso the healing aspect of things.
And then also for your ownpersonal priorities, you should
look at the price range.
Like I said earlier, highquality, essential oils are a
little bit higher priced becauseof their purity that they have.
(37:01):
And so if you find an essentialoil at the grocery store that's
$5 or$6 an ounce, you'reprobably not getting that high
quality that you would want inyour essential oil.
And so, you can also look atlike bulk purchases by buying
them in larger bottles, makingsure that they're still 100%
pure.
(37:21):
But that is one way that you cansave money while also using
those essential oils.
So there's just things that youshould look for when you're
deciding what brand of essentialoils to use.
And so lucky for you, multiplepeople have already done all the
work to look through all ofthose things.
So I looked at a coupledifferent resources.
(37:45):
And figured out a top four listof high quality essential oils
that you can confidently andeasily acquire and use, without
being concerned that they aremixed with other oils or that
they're diluted in any way.
(38:05):
And you can be sure that they'reactually going to work for the
medicinal purposes that youwant.
So the four brands are doTERRA,Young Living, RMO, and Eden's
Garden.
And so those are four that, haveproven to be very effective.
They've all had third partytesting and they have very
(38:28):
sustainable practices in termsof how they grow the plants to
create their essential oils.
And I have personal experiencewith both doTERRA and Young
Living Essential Oils.
Actually, and RMO, the only oneI haven't used is Eden's Garden,
and I can tell you those threeare definitely more effective
(38:48):
than the cheaper syntheticversions that I would've bought
from the grocery store.
And you can even like smell thedifference, when I smell the
cheaper, the$6 peppermint oilthat I bought from the grocery
store versus the doTERRA 100%pure peppermint oil.
Like there is a very cleardifference between the smell of
(39:12):
them and, just how I feel afterjust one little sniff.
That sounds a little not great,but you know what I mean.
Katie (39:23):
The, the things that I just wanted to mention, I
actually have not purchasedessential oils from I think any
of those companies.
The few things that I havelearned, and I'm still pretty
new to my journey with essentialoils is sure that they are
organic.
Again, Chrisy mentioned thechemical pesticides and things
(39:44):
that could be laced into the oilif it's non-organic.
So that's a big one for me, isjust always looking for an
organic version.
But also looking and checking tosee if they, if the bottle uses
the scientific name for theplant.
And so they should have usuallyin parentheses, either on the
(40:05):
front of it or in the iningredient list, which should be
only one item, and it should bemaybe like lavender oil, and
then the scientific name andparentheses with it.
And then the last thing is just.
How they extract the oil fromthe plant because they can use
(40:25):
chemicals in that process ifyou're not aware of it.
And so you want to look forthings like whether it's cold
pressed, which is probably theoptimal way of having it, which
is just like the grinding itout, you know, pressing it down.
You think of like that idea oflike a mortar and pestle kind of
a thing.
The way they would probably havedone it in Jesus' time is like
(40:46):
really pressing it for a longtime.
So that's cold pressing, or thisone probably isn't as good, but
is still considered a naturalversion, which is, steam
distillation, which does bringin the process of high heat to
the plant.
And then, I would say the, thereason I try not to do as much
(41:08):
of the steam distillation isbecause does bring in water to
the process.
And ideally they would allowtime for the oil and the water
to separate, because, you know,oil and water don't mix, and so
they should separate.
But there is just that chancefor water to kind of slightly
dilute the, oil itself.
(41:30):
And so I think cold pressing istypically the best option if you
can find it, but steamdistillation is probably the
second best if you can find it.
But if you ever see like anykind of like solvent or CO2
extraction, that usually meansthey've used some kind of high
heat, chemical processed kind ofway of getting the oil out.
(41:54):
So just be aware of those andthat's not the, really pure good
stuff that you want, But, yeah.
Well, I think that about coversit for this episode.
Chrissy, I feel like we kind ofdid a decent job exploring this
topic.
I know that for me, I still haveplenty to learn, but I'm really
excited about learning moreabout essential oils, especially
(42:17):
after picking up this book fromthe library and diving deeper
into all of the specifics.
I will add a link in the shownotes to this book if you're
interested in either buying itfor yourself or going to see if
your library has it, and I'dlove to know.
If you've read it or if you haveany other resources for us to
continue our own journey.
So join us over on our Facebookgroup.
It's Crunchy Christian Mamas ona Budget, and let us know
(42:41):
they're in the group, whatresources you like or if there's
any specific brands of essentialoils that you use, and even if
there's like a cool way thatyou've used essential oils to
help you treat or cure or dosomething with that we didn't
talk about.
I love kind of collecting thisinformation in my own little
arsenal of ways to use the quoteunquote traditional, right?
(43:06):
Because these are thetraditional ways of doing
medicine rather than thealternative ways of doing
medicine.
And so, yeah, share with us inthe Facebook group.
Join us over there.
And yeah, I think that aboutwraps it up.
Any other thoughts, Chrissy?
Chrissy (43:20):
No, I think we pretty much covered it.
But yeah, so we pray for eachand every one of you guys.
And we hope that these episodescan be helpful in your journey
to becoming a better steward ofyour body, your mind, your soul,
your spirit, your finances, andyour families.
And we're praying that thisepisode was helpful for you and
(43:41):
we will see you next time.
Katie (43:43):
time.
Hello and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship.
My name is Chrissy Rombach.
Katie (00:09):
And my name is Katie Jones.
We are two cousins who arepassionate about learning and
sharing knowledge to equipothers to steward their
spiritual, mental, emotional,financial, and physical health
in order to honor God in everyaspect of their lives.
Chrissy (00:24):
In this podcast, we are taking a deep dive into what it
means to steward our lives asGod originally intended for us.
With the resources that God hasgiven us, we are gonna look, at
topics like food, medicine,finances, mental health and tons
more through a natural lens witha biblical foundation.
So without further ado, let'sdive into today's episode.
(00:45):
Today we are gonna be talkingall about essential oils.
Now, I genuinely don't know whythey're called essential oils.
I don't.
I don't know where they came upwith the essential piece of it.
Katie, do you know why they'recalled essential oils?
Katie (01:04):
That's a really great question.
I maybe have my theories, butthey're not rooted in anything
that I have specifically studiedor picked up on, but I don't
know why they're essential.
I do know that, and it'sactually really fascinating when
you start learning more aboutessential oils and where they
(01:24):
came from.
A lot of people consider them aslike an alternative medicine or
an alternative way of healing.
When really it's the moretraditional way of healing
because they were around farbeyond when we have what we now
call our traditional medicine,which is the conventional stuff
(01:47):
at the hospital and at yourdoctor's office and everything.
So I, I'd say they're essentialbecause it was like the form of
medicine that they basically hadsince Adam and Eve, because
essential oils come from plants.
They're derived from herbs andthings, which I guess are
plants.
But plants were around since daythree of God creating the world.
(02:11):
Like so you think about it.
Essential oils were around kindof even for Adam and Eve if they
were doing that kind of stuff.
So, yeah, I don't know.
Do you have any theories as towhy they are essential?
Chrissy (02:25):
I mean.
If we're going off of the ideathat essential oils were like
the first healthcare, you know,and that like the first medicine
and healing, then it, I guesswould be completely essential
for health and wellbeing.
'cause you know, within not longafter the earth was created, sin
(02:45):
entered the world and suddenlywe were no longer able to walk
in unity with God.
And so that's when diseases andhealth issues started also
playing a role in the lives ofhumans.
And so.
I wonder if that is like, thepoint when essential oils
really, truly became essentialis after the fall, because
(03:08):
that's when humanity startedactually having health problems
and they needed ways to heal,and so God gave them these oils
as a means of healing.
And actually in the Bible ittalks a lot about essential oils
and how they were usedthroughout biblical history.
(03:29):
I think in the Bible it mentionsspecific oils and aromatic oils
33 times, which is actuallyreally phenomenal.
and then it also mentionsincense, specifically 68 times,
which incense is a, it'sactually derived out of
frankincense.
So incense is like the, thestick that you'd burn during
(03:52):
rituals and things like that.
And it's, it comes fromfrankincense, which is the oil.
So.
Katie (03:58):
Yeah, I'm actually, I'm looking it up right now because,
so.
Ironically, I went to thelibrary yesterday and I was
like, I'm gonna just see ifthere are any books here on
essential oils.
And I literally go there andtype into their little search
computer and say, essentialoils.
And it shows that they have abook by one of our favorite
(04:19):
authors.
You and I both kind of have.
This guy has one of ourfavorites who talks a lot about
health and wellness.
We've, I think we've mentionedhim here on this podcast, but
it's Dr.
Josh Axe, A-X-E, and heliterally has a book called
Essential Oils.
And one thing that I love aboutthis guy is that he's also a
really strong believer and afollower of Jesus.
(04:40):
And so in all of his books, hetalks about.
Jesus.
He talks about the Bible and howa lot of our, again, the quote
unquote alternative medicines,how they're actually rooted in a
biblical foundation because theywere around before our now
traditional medicines, and itwas probably what Jesus himself
(05:03):
was doing.
I mean, we, again, like yousaid, tons of references to
essential oils and, and I think.
Yeah.
Frankincense and Myrrh.
I actually, I don't know aboutyou.
This is kind of silly.
Frankincense and myrrh, I didnot know growing up were oils.
I, because I think like when youthink of gold, it's like a rock
(05:25):
or whatever, I
Chrissy (05:26):
Oh yeah.
Katie (05:27):
so I just kind of assumed it was also something like that
Chrissy (05:30):
You're referring to when the, the three wise men
bring gold, myrrh andfrankincense to Jesus when he's
born
Katie (05:36):
yes, to Jesus as his baby presents.
Chrissy (05:40):
I think of the little cartoons, you know, you have the
little pile of gold bars andthen I wonder if the cartoons,
like, they were always littlesacks and I always just assumed
they were like sacks of money orsomething like that.
They were, they were holdinglike little jewelry bags, so to
say, in the cartoons.
Katie (05:57):
Exactly.
So here I, I found the list inhis book.
So he talks about 12 oils thatwere revered.
Like the most highly in theBible.
So it's kind of like they weretalked about the most often.
The, the top two arefrankincense and myrrh.
And then it goes on to talkabout cinnamon cedarwood,
(06:20):
spikenard, which I learned.
Spikenard is the oil that Marypoured on Jesus' feet.
Um, in, I guess it's in Matthew,Mark and Luke.
I, I believe it's mentioned inall three of them
Chrissy (06:35):
Yes, this is Mary, the sister of Martha, not Mary
Magdalene and not Mary Jesus'mother.
Katie (06:41):
Exactly, so many Mary's.
Yes.
So she pours Spikenard on Jesus'feet, which, so this is, that's
number five.
Then there's Hyssop, CassiaSandalwood, which is also known
as aloes.
He uses aloes in quotes.
Cyprus, um, I don't know thisone.
(07:01):
Galbanum, not familiar withthat.
Rose of Sharon.
And then Calamus.
So those are the ones that Iguess are mentioned the most
often throughout the Bible, butthere are of other different
ones that were used.
Um, Juniper Berry, I guess isanother one that didn't make the
top 12, but was also mentionedin his book.
(07:23):
But, they clearly had very highimportance in Jesus' time and
even before Jesus was aroundbecause you even hear incense
and oils and things beingmentioned before, because
actually it was kind ofinteresting.
He talks about a bunch of theother references, like Moses
(07:45):
giving the instructions for whenthey were supposed to anoint
leaders in the wilderness andeverything, they would use oils
like frankincense and, otherthings.
So yeah
Chrissy (07:56):
Also, in anointing the altar inside the tabernacle,
they would anoint the altar withoils and burn incense, I
believe, inside of there.
Yeah, so very interesting.
Katie (08:10):
Yeah, for me, in my journey with essential oils, I.
Honestly, I always thought theywere kind of woowoo.
Like, I was like, oh, why wouldyou burn, like, or not even
burn, but why would you put themin a diffuser and have these
scents going in your house, andwhy wouldn't you just spray
something like Febreeze orwhatever
Chrissy (08:31):
Oh boy.
Katie (08:33):
Not, I know it's kind of funny.
Now, now looking back, I, kindof chuckle at myself as I've
learned more about how essentialoils are actually decently
biblical too.
They have, they're rooted inscripture and, with something
that's been used forever.
I always just kind of had thisweird feeling about them
Chrissy (08:54):
Yeah.
Katie (08:54):
I don't really know why and, now I've started using
them.
What about you, Chrissy?
Chrissy (09:00):
I feel like I've started to dip my toe into
essential oils, and I do lovethem.
At first, when I was in highschool, I babysat for a woman
who used essential oils all thetime, and I would always love
the way her home smelled likewalking into her home.
It always smelled so nice, butmy nose became so used to the
(09:20):
smell so quickly that I was notable to actually continue
enjoying the smell.
Little did I know that she wasprobably actually diffusing
essential oils for moremedicinal purposes rather than
merely just making her housesmell good.
But now I realize like actuallydiffusing certain essential oils
that are focused more onrelaxation, like lavender or
(09:41):
eucalyptus, can help you fallasleep quicker.
It can help you focus anddecrease that stress and anxiety
that gets built up, in yourlife.
So.
Katie (09:51):
Yeah.
Lavender is one of those oilsfor me that I felt like growing
up, I always kind of knewLavender helps you relax and,
and helps make you less stressedand, helps you kind of calm
down.
And lavender's actually one ofmy favorite scents ever.
(10:11):
And so I had a lot of lavenderscented things, but now what I'm
starting to understand is thatthere's a really big difference
between.
Essential oils and then like thesynthetic version of these
smells that we have.
And so lavender is a really goodexample of this
Chrissy (10:33):
Yeah.
Katie (10:33):
because it is so popular.
And same thing with somethinglike rose.
You know, you think about allthe rose scented things, it's
not actually made from roses.
It's typically something that'sprocessed in a lab and and made
to smell exactly like the stuffthat you want it to smell like,
Chrissy (10:52):
I think also I don't know for sure about the rose
scent, but at least with thelavender scent, I found it very
easy to distinguish between thesynthetic lavender fragrance and
like the essential oils lavenderfragrance, because essential
oils, lavender, it smells likealmost earthy, you know?
And then the synthetic lavender,every time I smell it, I just
(11:17):
think of Johnson and Johnson'sbaby lotion.
every single time.
And so it's, it's such adifferent, smell, and one brings
about that healing the soothing,restful state, and the other one
definitely does not.
Katie (11:35):
Definitely.
Yeah, and that's kind of whatI've learned is that if you have
something that smells like theessential oil, it doesn't do the
same thing for you as the actualessential oil would.
And so you need to have reallygood quality, high quality oils
in order to receive any of thebenefits.
(11:55):
Before we kind of dive into thata little bit more, I think it
would be good to explain maybesome of the benefits of
essential oils and maybe howwe're both using them in our
lives.
Now, I mean, lavender, I thinkfor both of us is a good example
of, it's just really calmingand, and can help you relax at
(12:17):
the end of the night.
And I love diffusing it in ourhouse, especially when it feels
like we've had a really crazyday and it just kind of helps.
Bring the mood down a littlebit, but Chrissy, what about
you?
Have you been using them, or Iguess you said that you have
been using them a little bitmore.
How have you been incorporatingthem into your life?
Chrissy (12:35):
Yeah, so I definitely do do the lavender quite
frequently.
Especially at the end of astressful day, I will take a
lavender essential oil bath,with some Epsom salt and just
three drops of lavender oil inthe entire bathtub.
And the Epsom salt has magnesiumin it, which helps to detox your
(12:55):
body and take out all the toxinsthat your body has built up
throughout the day, includingsome of that stress and then the
essential oil.
The lavender helps to decreasethat stress also, but so that's
one that has been beneficial forme.
Another way that I actually justdiscovered last week was for
treatment of migraines.
So I recently have starteddeveloping some more migraines
(13:19):
just related to, stress.
You know, like the day aftersuper stressful days at work, I
usually often get a headachefrom the adrenaline crash or,
the day after increased screentime, things like that.
I'll get a headache just fromlike the strain of my eyes, and
so I learned that if you get thehigh quality peppermint oil and
(13:44):
you put it on your temples andright behind your ear lobes,
then those are two very thinpoints of skin on your body
where there's actually a majorblood vessel that runs right
underneath the skin right there.
And so the essential oils canseep through your skin and into
your bloodstream very quickly inthose two spots.
(14:06):
And so within 20 minutes ofputting the peppermint oil on my
temples and right behind my earlobes, my migraine had actually
gone away.
And it was one of those morningswhere I woke up and I had a lot
of things to do that day, and Igenuinely thought I wasn't going
to be able to do anythingbecause of this migraine that I
had.
(14:26):
And I didn't wanna take Excedrinbecause, that just has a lot of
other problems in and of itselfin terms of your gut health and
things like that.
And so I tried the essentialoils and it worked, and it was
great.
I was able to go work out thatday and run a bunch of errands,
and I had significantly moreenergy than normal.
(14:48):
So, yeah.
What about you, Katie?
How have you been using thoseessential oils in your life?
Katie (14:52):
Yeah, I've heard the same thing about peppermint.
I know Wes tried it for aheadache or some sort of pain,
and we had him do it on the backof his neck.
I have heard, I don't knowexactly if like how important
this is, but I have heard thatwhen you use essential oils
(15:13):
directly on your skin, youshould put something like a,
another oil base because the,essential oils itself are so
concentrated that it's morebeneficial to put it with like a
coconut oil, like kind of mix ittogether and then do it.
I don't know.
I did make Wes do that.
I don't know if that changes theeffectiveness or potency or
(15:38):
something of it, but that's justkind of.
That was like something I readat some point somewhere.
I don't know.
But it was also, it might'vebeen something I Googled and it
was like, be careful, but itmight've been one of those
warnings, so that way someonedoesn't hurt themselves.
Chrissy (15:54):
Potentially
Katie (15:55):
So anyway, I don't know if it's super necessary or not,
but maybe just as a warning foranybody trying it, it might be
beneficial to, to mix it withlike an olive oil or a coconut
oil before putting it on yourskin.
I, again, I'm not a doctormyself.
Chrissy's more the doctor herethan
Chrissy (16:13):
I don't know about that.
Katie (16:16):
at least you have a degree in, in some form of
medicine.
And here I am just reading a lotof books and Google stuff, one
of the ways.
We've been using essential oils.
Yes, we've been doing lavender.
We actually, I love lavender andeucalyptus
Chrissy (16:34):
Oh, yes.
Katie (16:35):
in the diffuser.
I also love, when Malachi getslittle colds, I'll do either
like eucalyptus and peppermintin a diffuser in his room, but
also when he gets a fever.
Instead of doing like babyTylenol or something like that,
we've been doing similar to you.
(16:56):
Like we've been doing a, bathwith the Epsom salt, so the
magnesium that helps to detoxifyand you know, it's a lukewarm
bath that helps the fever runits course because generally
speaking, fevers aren'tnecessarily bad.
It's just your body trying tofight the infection that's
inside of it.
And so it's trying to pusheverything out.
So you don't necessarily want tosuppress it
Chrissy (17:17):
The, the fascinating thing about fevers is the
bacteria loves to thrive in ourcore body temperature 98 degrees
environment.
And so that is one of our body'smechanisms to kill the bacteria,
is to increase the temperatureand make the environment
(17:38):
unsuitable for the bacteria tocontinue to live.
And so it, it is beneficial forour body to go through the fever
because it weakens the bacteriato allow our own white blood
cells and our own immune systemto attack the bacteria more
effectively and kill it.
Katie (17:57):
It's, see, it's things like that that we're often
taught that we need to cool ourbodies down and to get the
temperature down, which, yes, ata certain point, high
temperatures can be dangerous,but at the same time, yeah, your
body's trying to fight it, andyou want it to work through that
process so you, you do alukewarm bath to kind of keep
(18:18):
the sweat happening in your bodyto sweat it out and then again,
because the Epsom salt isdetoxifying, like helping draw
out the bad stuff.
Then you put in the bathtub, afew drops of peppermint oil.
And then I've, I've doneeucalyptus.
The peppermint oil also reallyhelps to drain the sinuses.
Chrissy (18:40):
Oh, yes.
Katie (18:40):
so even if you are like really stuffy yourself and just
dropping a few drops of likepeppermint oil in your shower to
help like the sinuses clear up,like Malachi's nose literally
will drain so much when he istaking these baths, but.
So I'd been doing that.
Recently, one of my wonderfulcrunchy mama friends in my
(19:01):
underground crunchy mamas chatgroup who she knows who she is,
if she's listening to this,actually recommended to me that
even better so when a kiddo oranybody has like a fever, you
take about two cups worth ofEpsom salt put some drops of
lime essential oil into theEpsom salt.
(19:24):
Soak it for a little bit, thendump that in the bath
Chrissy (19:28):
Hmm.
Katie (19:28):
and let your body kind of do its job as well.
And I also put a few drops ofpeppermint into the bath itself,
but I don't know specificallywhat the Lime essential oil
does, but I can say that it haseffectively worked twice when
Malachi has had a 102.5 degreefever and he was able to break
(19:49):
that fever within like a couplehours after that.
And it was, I, I, mean, I'mnever gonna go back to using
something like a Tylenol oranything like that.
I mean, even when we weretraveling and he had a tiny
fever, we didn't have our oilswith us or Epsom salt.
And even just putting him in thebath like a nice lukewarm bath,
(20:09):
like letting him play in therejust really helped to also like
like when I have fevers, my bodygets so achy and so I can
imagine like for him too, hemight be feeling those aches and
pains from the fever.
And so just soaking in the bathalone is like really.
Relaxing for your muscles.
So that's been super helpful
Chrissy (20:28):
I also think it's important to hit on the note of
like, at what point do feversactually become dangerous to the
point of needing to go to thehospital?
Now we are referring to usingessential oils for the treatment
of mild fevers.
Before they get to the dangerouspoint.
So we're talking in children,you know, less than 104 degrees.
As soon as you kind of hit overthat 104.5, that's when you
(20:52):
wanna start looking atpotentially going out to the
hospital, depending on the kid'ssymptoms and really symptom
management is gonna be the thingthat would make a parent want to
bring their child to thehospital, you know if a kid
starts having like a febrileseizure or if you start seeing
changes in like your child'scognitive function or their
(21:14):
ability to communicate thingslike that, that are different
from normal, then it wouldprobably be more important to
bring your child to a hospitalsooner.
But, using these essential oilscan be incredibly beneficial in
keeping you out of the hospitalbefore you
Katie (21:30):
Mm-hmm.
Chrissy (21:30):
get to that point, before the fever gets too high
to keep it low, while alsogiving the body the ability to
fight the infection effectivelyso that you don't have to go to
the hospital.
You know what I mean?
So
Katie (21:46):
Definitely,
Chrissy (21:47):
yeah.
Katie (21:48):
There's a lot of medicinal benefits to essential
oils but yeah, modern medicine,especially in like traumatic
situations is, is veryimportant.
But I think what's really coolis, again, like going back to
biblical times and even likeancient Egypt or ancient China,
(22:08):
like they were using these oilsto help cure and reverse a lot
of issues.
So in this book, I was learninga little bit more about some of
the other medicational purposesthat you can use essential oils
for, I have not used them forthese things, but some of the
other like benefits that theywere saying that essential oils
(22:30):
can help with are reducingtoxicity, balancing hormones,
improving digestion, boostingenergy, improving brain
function, reducing emotionalstress, producing radiant skin
fighting infections andalleviating aches and pains.
And not only that, like thesekind of seem almost more
(22:53):
superficial stuff, like some ofthe like different ailments that
we might be dealing with on aday-to-day basis, but.
The three gentlemen who wrotethis book together all have
testimonies of using essentialoils in like helping treat and
cure cancer cases and thingslike that.
(23:13):
So they all, it wasn't the onlything they did, and they don't
claim that essential oils wasthe only thing that cured these
cancer patients but it was apart of the regimen that they
used while fighting off thingslike cancer.
And so I find it so incrediblewhen you learn about this
because so many of the essentialoils have like antibacterial
(23:34):
properties to it.
And so he even gives like anexample of Esther, um, in the
Bible who.
Before she presented herself tothe king, she actually went and
bathed herself in Myrrh for, Iforget what it was like, several
weeks I think it said and andit's like you think about the
process of like detoxifying andgetting off all the bad stuff,
(23:56):
but also the benefits of itprobably made her look
beautiful, like just theradiance that her skin received
from these oils
Chrissy (24:04):
Also fun fact about that, year long ritual of
purifying yourself with theessential oils.
Also act as a form ofcontraception and so that the
king did not suddenly have 300children.
Katie (24:20):
That is so interesting That would make sense
Chrissy (24:22):
That would be really unfortunate.
Katie (24:23):
yeah, if you think about antibacterial.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
I didn't even consider that partof it too.
Chrissy (24:29):
Exactly.
And you know, you mentioned thatthese three authors, use the
essential oils for healingcancers and things like that.
It made me think back, Iremember we've mentioned before
about my mom healing herulcerative colitis through,
alternative means with diet andthings like that.
And peppermint oil was actuallya big piece of her healing her
(24:51):
ulcerative colitis.
She would put peppermint oil onher abdomen and she would put
one drop in her water each day.
And so she would drink it.
Peppermint oil is one of thosethat is safe for ingestion.
Not all of the essential oilsare safe to be ingested, but
peppermint oil you can.
And so just one drop in herwater each day, and that helped
(25:15):
to like calm her entiredigestive system and heal it and
give it the ability to healitself.
Katie (25:21):
So cool.
I, the skin is so fascinatingbecause it's this giant organ
that really takes in everythingthat touches it, which is for
better and for worse.
Because if we're putting thesesynthetic versions of these
scents onto our skin, it's beingabsorbed into our bloodstream
(25:41):
essentially.
In fact, Wes and I had aconversation this morning
because I've gone through theprocess and have changed out a
lot of my personal care, but Ihave yet to tackle a lot of his
own personal care stuff, and Ihad asked him for permission
yesterday if I could now switchout his deodorant because it has
some bad stuff.
It does not have aluminum.
We learned, which was good toknow, but I know which is
(26:04):
typically the thing that youwant to completely avoid.
But it does have like blue dyenumber one and it has like
natural fragrances and thingslike that, which you natural
fragrances that's like a codeword for bad stuff.
Like you don't want anythingthat says fragrance or perfume
in your personal care productsbecause even if it says natural,
(26:25):
it can still be derived from notgreat things like beaver butt,
which is like one of the things,you Google it literally, there's
like beaver butt in like thesenatural, because it's quote
unquote a natural thing in theenvironment.
It's not produced in the lab,but it's still like, that's not
something I want to be in mybody.
That's disgusting.
So anyway, we were having thatconversation of like.
(26:50):
Deodorant specifically is soimportant to change, to have
essential oils in it becauseyour armpits are also very
sensitive and have like thepores there are much larger and
you think about your armpitssweat a lot, but that means your
pores are open and so they'realso absorbing a lot more into
(27:10):
your body.
So if you think about the areasin your body that like sweat
more often, you just have to bereally sensitive about what
you're putting there becauseit's it's just almost like a
direct line to your bloodstream,and so you think about when
you're working out andeverything, your body's
absorbing all of that, and soit's so important, to switch
your personal care products forthat reason.
Chrissy (27:31):
For sure.
For sure.
Katie (27:32):
So we talked a little bit about kind of of the medicinal
benefits for daily uses, and nowI've kind of touched on some
personal care stuff.
Like we could use it to, youknow, benefit our personal care
routines even in just switchingour day-to-day scents, whether
it's through lotion or perfumesor colognes or different body
(27:55):
sprays, we can switch those tothe more natural essential oils
versus the synthetic stuff.
Chrissy, do you use essentialoils in any other area of your
home or personal life?
Chrissy (28:07):
Yes, actually I have learned that essential oils is
also incredibly effective incleaning, one oil in particular
that I have.
Learned that is a supereffective antimicrobial in
general is oregano oil.
It's actually more effectivethan most antibiotics in terms
(28:29):
of killing bacteria and fungusand, things like that.
So yeah, oregano oil is likenearly as effective as rubbing
alcohol or iodine at killingmicrobes that you don't want
around.
So that can be beneficial forcleaning.
Eucalyptus oil is also a goodantimicrobial that is very
(28:50):
beneficial, for cleaning, andmakes your house smell really
yummy.
I sometimes will put like,sometimes my, you know, vacuum
cleaners don't always smell thebest, especially if you like
forget to empty them one time,then it just always doesn't
smell great afterwards.
So I'll take, a little bit ofeucalyptus oil and put a drop on
a cotton ball and stick it inthe canister of my vacuum
(29:13):
cleaner.
So when I vacuum my whole house,then smells like eucalyptus oil.
Katie (29:18):
that's a great idea
Chrissy (29:20):
And so it's kind of like a replacement of that
Febreeze, you know?
'Cause Febreeze, the whole ideais to make your house smell
clean without actually cleaningyour home.
And so if you put essential oilsin a vacuum cleaner or something
like that, or in a diffuser, butthis, in this vacuum cleaner
situation, you're actuallycleaning.
(29:41):
Then you really do make yourwhole home smell cleaner, you
know, things like that.
I also have heard that likeputting it in your floor
cleaners is very good.
There are some brands, actually,I do believe Dr.
Bronner's is one of them.
That actually puts pureessential oils in their cleaning
(30:02):
products.
And that's how they make thescents of their cleaning
products.
So that's how you know that it'sactually, good for you,
non-toxic things like that.
And the beauty of Dr.
Bronner's is their Castile soapis an 18 and one soap.
And so it can be used for likebody wash, face wash, cleaning
(30:23):
the floors, dishes, laundry,like it is effective for all of
them.
And you just dilute it indifferent ways because it's a
very concentrated soap.
And so obviously you're gonnawant a stronger concentration
for your floors than you do foryour dishes, than you do for
your face, you know?
So, you just dilute it indifferent ways and it works for
(30:44):
literally cleaning everything.
Katie (30:45):
I love that.
So, we do dryer balls in ourdryer instead of doing the
sheets, but I really do misslike the scent that comes with
the dryer sheets and stuff.
And so I learned that if you putdrops of essential oils onto the
actual dryer balls.
It essentially does the samething and it kind of like bumps
(31:06):
around the oils into theclothes.
And I do, I, I'll kind of doeither like lavender or
eucalyptus or lemon, and it's.
It's just, it's like just aseffective and it is great.
And then I know that it's notlaced with all of the bad
endocrine disrupting chemicalsand stuff.
And same thing like, when I wantour house to smell fresh and
(31:28):
clean, especially like if wehave cleaned all day and if we
haven't used any of the reallystrong, smelly stuff, which we
don't really have in our houseanymore
Chrissy (31:36):
like cleaning all day with vinegar, and then your
whole house smells like vinegar.
Katie (31:40):
Exactly, yeah.
When I have like a nice deepscrub day of my showers
especially, and it's likevinegar and baking soda and it's
so pungent and I'll, at the endof all of that, we'll go into
our diffuser and I love puttinglemon in it because lemon is in
a lot of those really toxiccleaning products in general.
And so it already is kind ofnostalgic in that sense, if you
(32:03):
could say that about cleaningproducts.
But I just remember like growingup our house kind of smelling
like that lemony, almost likepine-sol-y kind of smell, which
smells really clean, but it'sreally toxic when it comes in
those versions.
And so putting in it the lemonessential oil into the diffuser
is just as effective.
Chrissy (32:24):
And this could also be a great, swap if you're somebody
who loves to use like the littleplugin, like Gain smelly things
or Febreeze plugins.
Those are incredibly toxic.
And so essential oils are afantastic easy swap that you can
use.
To keep your home smellinggreat, but also without the
(32:48):
endocrine disruption that comesfrom those plugins.
So, yeah.
So Katie, you mentioned earlierthat it's really important to
make sure that you get thehigher quality essential oils
because some of the oils intheir production can be mixed
with synthetics, or they can bediluted with olive oil or
(33:11):
avocado oil and things likethat.
And so, unfortunately becauseessential oils are not as
regulated, it's really hard tofigure out exactly which ones
are good for you and which onesare not good for you.
So, Katie and I decided that weare just gonna talk about the
(33:33):
good ones and just to make iteasy for our listeners, so you
guys don't really have to go outand do all the research.
You know, the research hasalready been done.
We'll give you tips on thingsthat are good to look for if you
do wanna go out and do your ownresearch on good quality
essential oils, but also, we'regonna just give you a couple
brands that are good to use thathave proven through, scientific
(33:58):
trials and things like that, andstudies of them that they are
actually effective and thattheir concentrations are worth
the penny because.
Unfortunately with good qualityessential oils, you are going to
be paying for the quality.
So, first off, I wanted toactually talk about some of the
(34:18):
things that are really importantto look for when you're looking
for a good quality essentialoils.
And often the high quality,essential oils are going to be
incredibly transparent about theingredients they use, the
process that they use to createtheir oils, the concentrations
of their oils, and theeffectiveness of them.
If you're trying to look for anoil and their website is not
(34:43):
super transparent about theprocess or other additives, and
it's hard to figure it out, thenlikelihood is you're probably
not looking at a good qualityessential oil.
So the first thing that youreally want to look for is
purity and quality.
So it's important to have 100%pure undiluted essential oils.
(35:05):
So that's referring to some ofthem are diluted with olive oil
or avocado oil or whatever otheroils that they can be diluted
with, and so they're not gonnabe as effective.
Another thing is, sourcing andsustainability.
So this refers to how the plantsare actually grown that create
the essential oils.
(35:26):
So a lot of the very reputablebrands will make sure that their
plants are grown without use ofpesticides.
That's avoiding that glyphosate,that could sneakily get its way
into your essential oils, whichwould not be good, you know,
diffusing glyphosate throughoutyour house doesn't sound ideal
to me.
The third thing you shouldreally focus on is third party
(35:49):
testing.
So, if the essential oils haveonly been tested by their own
people, then likelihood is thatthey might be trying to hide
something or they're coveringsomething up.
And so you always want there tobe a third party testing
somebody who's uninterested inthe economic gain of the
essential oil company toactually go through and test it.
(36:13):
And, one of the things that theyprovide is a certificate of
analysis, which, is one way thatyou can ensure that your
essential oils have been testedby a third party, and you should
be able to actually view thosetestings from the third party
people.
The next one is variety andavailability.
So you wanna make sure that theyhave a wide variety of oils.
(36:38):
Oftentimes the really goodbrands have a lot of options
because they are focused on moreso the healing aspect of things.
And then also for your ownpersonal priorities, you should
look at the price range.
Like I said earlier, highquality, essential oils are a
little bit higher priced becauseof their purity that they have.
(37:01):
And so if you find an essentialoil at the grocery store that's
$5 or$6 an ounce, you'reprobably not getting that high
quality that you would want inyour essential oil.
And so, you can also look atlike bulk purchases by buying
them in larger bottles, makingsure that they're still 100%
pure.
(37:21):
But that is one way that you cansave money while also using
those essential oils.
So there's just things that youshould look for when you're
deciding what brand of essentialoils to use.
And so lucky for you, multiplepeople have already done all the
work to look through all ofthose things.
So I looked at a coupledifferent resources.
(37:45):
And figured out a top four listof high quality essential oils
that you can confidently andeasily acquire and use, without
being concerned that they aremixed with other oils or that
they're diluted in any way.
(38:05):
And you can be sure that they'reactually going to work for the
medicinal purposes that youwant.
So the four brands are doTERRA,Young Living, RMO, and Eden's
Garden.
And so those are four that, haveproven to be very effective.
They've all had third partytesting and they have very
(38:28):
sustainable practices in termsof how they grow the plants to
create their essential oils.
And I have personal experiencewith both doTERRA and Young
Living Essential Oils.
Actually, and RMO, the only oneI haven't used is Eden's Garden,
and I can tell you those threeare definitely more effective
(38:48):
than the cheaper syntheticversions that I would've bought
from the grocery store.
And you can even like smell thedifference, when I smell the
cheaper, the$6 peppermint oilthat I bought from the grocery
store versus the doTERRA 100%pure peppermint oil.
Like there is a very cleardifference between the smell of
(39:12):
them and, just how I feel afterjust one little sniff.
That sounds a little not great,but you know what I mean.
Katie (39:23):
The, the things that I just wanted to mention, I
actually have not purchasedessential oils from I think any
of those companies.
The few things that I havelearned, and I'm still pretty
new to my journey with essentialoils is sure that they are
organic.
Again, Chrisy mentioned thechemical pesticides and things
(39:44):
that could be laced into the oilif it's non-organic.
So that's a big one for me, isjust always looking for an
organic version.
But also looking and checking tosee if they, if the bottle uses
the scientific name for theplant.
And so they should have usuallyin parentheses, either on the
(40:05):
front of it or in the iningredient list, which should be
only one item, and it should bemaybe like lavender oil, and
then the scientific name andparentheses with it.
And then the last thing is just.
How they extract the oil fromthe plant because they can use
(40:25):
chemicals in that process ifyou're not aware of it.
And so you want to look forthings like whether it's cold
pressed, which is probably theoptimal way of having it, which
is just like the grinding itout, you know, pressing it down.
You think of like that idea oflike a mortar and pestle kind of
a thing.
The way they would probably havedone it in Jesus' time is like
(40:46):
really pressing it for a longtime.
So that's cold pressing, or thisone probably isn't as good, but
is still considered a naturalversion, which is, steam
distillation, which does bringin the process of high heat to
the plant.
And then, I would say the, thereason I try not to do as much
(41:08):
of the steam distillation isbecause does bring in water to
the process.
And ideally they would allowtime for the oil and the water
to separate, because, you know,oil and water don't mix, and so
they should separate.
But there is just that chancefor water to kind of slightly
dilute the, oil itself.
(41:30):
And so I think cold pressing istypically the best option if you
can find it, but steamdistillation is probably the
second best if you can find it.
But if you ever see like anykind of like solvent or CO2
extraction, that usually meansthey've used some kind of high
heat, chemical processed kind ofway of getting the oil out.
(41:54):
So just be aware of those andthat's not the, really pure good
stuff that you want, But, yeah.
Well, I think that about coversit for this episode.
Chrissy, I feel like we kind ofdid a decent job exploring this
topic.
I know that for me, I still haveplenty to learn, but I'm really
excited about learning moreabout essential oils, especially
(42:17):
after picking up this book fromthe library and diving deeper
into all of the specifics.
I will add a link in the shownotes to this book if you're
interested in either buying itfor yourself or going to see if
your library has it, and I'dlove to know.
If you've read it or if you haveany other resources for us to
continue our own journey.
So join us over on our Facebookgroup.
It's Crunchy Christian Mamas ona Budget, and let us know
(42:41):
they're in the group, whatresources you like or if there's
any specific brands of essentialoils that you use, and even if
there's like a cool way thatyou've used essential oils to
help you treat or cure or dosomething with that we didn't
talk about.
I love kind of collecting thisinformation in my own little
arsenal of ways to use the quoteunquote traditional, right?
(43:06):
Because these are thetraditional ways of doing
medicine rather than thealternative ways of doing
medicine.
And so, yeah, share with us inthe Facebook group.
Join us over there.
And yeah, I think that aboutwraps it up.
Any other thoughts, Chrissy?
Chrissy (43:20):
No, I think we pretty much covered it.
But yeah, so we pray for eachand every one of you guys.
And we hope that these episodescan be helpful in your journey
to becoming a better steward ofyour body, your mind, your soul,
your spirit, your finances, andyour families.
And we're praying that thisepisode was helpful for you and
(43:41):
we will see you next time.
Katie (43:43):
time.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.