Dr. Scott Johnson: Beyond Pharmaceuticals - Overcoming the Incurable: How Plant Medicines Heal Without Harm - Deconstructing Conventional

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, welcome to episode number 56.
Today's show is one I'm reallyexcited to host for you, largely
because it helped me clarify afew things about the world of
plant medicines.
My guest is Dr Scott Johnsonand, like me, he is someone who
got into the health professionbecause he was trying to get his
own health back, and what helearned changed his life so

(00:21):
dramatically that teachingothers became a calling.
Part of his story is that hehad a rare disease that he
overcame using nature as hispharmacy, so I'll let him tell
the story of his recovery,including his run-in with an
arrogant, belittling doctor whowas dismissive of what Scott did
to heal himself.
To me, that was just a windowinto how defensive some medical

(00:42):
doctors get when you questionwhat is more or less the only
two tools they are trained intesting and pharmaceuticals.
And as Scott was telling thestory, it hit me how lost so
many doctors are without thosetwo levers to pull.
It's like they don't know whatelse to do to be a doctor if you
don't want to take the pillsthey prescribe.
Anyway, one of the things thatI loved about this interview is

(01:02):
how Scott was able to help meunderstand what I'll loosely
call the spectrum of ways we canuse plant medicines with
increasing potency and precision, and to me, this episode built
upon my earlier interviews withJordan Gunderson, who's an
herbalist, or Kim Rogers, whoused to work in the medical
field and now has a wholeproduct line of tinctures that
draw from nature's pharmacy.

(01:23):
In this episode, dr Scott and Italked at length about essential
oils, which is as close as youcan get to the drug world
without losing nature'spackaging and thus becoming
toxic, which is essentially whatthe pharmaceutical world is a
set of toxic knockoffs.
If you listen to episode numbertwo of my show, then you know
that what we call conventionalmedicine today is really more of

(01:44):
a hiccup in history.
That only goes back to about1910, and it is a system set up
by monopolists who wantedstandardization and patentable
products, and that model is thefoundation of modern healthcare,
which I tend to think is aninsult to the word healthcare.
But I digress.
So, as part of a serendipitoustiming, I guess you could say
relevant to this interview, Icame down with an episode of

(02:07):
pain a few days prior torecording this, but fortunately
I had one of Dr Scott's booksabout essential oils and my wife
has a boatload of essentialoils.
She's been into them for manyyears now.
So we were able to referencehis book, and my wife put
together some specific protocolsfor this weird pain I was
having in my low back and glutes, and it was just reassuring to
know that I have a way to beatthis without a pharmaceutical

(02:29):
and I tell that story in theinterview as well.
So Scott and I also talkedabout various myths related to
essential oils.
We talked about the commonproblem of adulterated oils and
a handful of precautions to beaware of, and we also discussed
various ways oils can be used,from cooking to diffusing, to
topical or internal use.
We even talked a bit aboutcombining various oils with DMSO

(02:51):
, which some of you may befamiliar with from my interviews
with Herb Richards and DrRobert Yoho.
Stick around until the end ofthe episode and Scott gives some
recommendations for peoplestruggling with inflammation,
pain and allergies and more.
In many ways, scott and Isimply scratched the surface of
the topic of essential oils, butmy hope is that I gave you the
first principles to explore thisworld for yourself.

(03:13):
Hopefully this episode emboldensyou with the courage to get
familiar with the ways plantmedicines are relevant to this
episode.
Essential oils can be areplacement of so many of the
things we typically run to thepharmaceuticals for.
So in many ways this episodekind of feels like reclaiming a
lost wisdom or a returning ofour agency to realize we don't

(03:33):
have to outsource the managementof our health to a doctor or a
system.
Like I highlighted in manydifferent episodes of the show,
there are so many effective andaffordable things we can do to
take charge of our health.
So, if nothing else, just thinkof the number of doctor visits
you could skip for yourself andyour family as you get familiar
with how to heal naturally and,most importantly, how to give

(03:55):
your body the support to stayhealthy.
It is so empowering.
So, for context, this episodeis also a great example of the
kinds of things we teach insideour coaching programs.
If you want to work towardliving a pharma-free lifestyle,
check us out atHealingUnitedtoday.
We are redefining the wordhealthcare To make getting into
essential oils a little easierfor you.

(04:16):
I asked my wife to put togethera few links for the bundles of
essential oils that Scottrecommended in the show for
allergies, for immune functionand for inflammation of
essential oils that Scottrecommended in the show for
allergies, for immune functionand for inflammation.
Because Scott recommendedtaking these blends internally,
she included some veggie capsthat you would just fill with
the oils yourself, beyondScott's recommendation.
She also included a link to afamily starter kit which
contains 10 of her favoriteessential oils, and you get that

(04:39):
blend at a discounted price.
As I was recording this, I alsohave some clients who started
taking essential oils for sleep,and so I asked Nina to include
a link for a sleep bundle aswell.
And lastly, she created a linkfor four oils for pain relief
from that chapter of Scott'sbook, which are the ones she
applied about three times to mylow back and glutes to help me
get out of pain just recently.

(05:00):
So, as a little bonus for thisepisode, if you use nina's link,
she is happy to get on thephone with you to answer any
questions you may have.
So look for those links in theshow notes.
In case you didn't know, theshow notes are easy to find if
you're listening to the podcastfrom within the healing united
pma app, and you can find ourapp in the app store for those
interested.
I also included a link to whereyou can get some dmso if you

(05:22):
want to experiment combiningyour oil blends with dmso and,
of course, I will have links towhere you can find scott and his
books.
As you might appreciate, scottand I wrapped up this interview
by talking about the importanceof lifestyle and how there's no
intervention that compensatesfor a host of bad habits.
Friends, it is no one else'sjob to manage your health for
you, and the the so-calledhealthcare system is not going

(05:45):
to teach you how to not need thesystem To learn that.
You will have to take mattersinto your own hands.
But the good news is we havenever had a better cornucopia of
options to take charge of ourwellness.
It just takes a little courageand a willingness to learn and
try new things.
So if you want a naturallyminded doctor, coach and
community in your corner to helpyou speed up that process,

(06:06):
check out our coaching programs.
Maybe what you need isn'tanother specialist.
Maybe what you need is a newapproach to health and healing.
Okay, last thing I'll saybefore I play the episode is
that nothing in theDeconstructing Conventional
Podcast is meant to be personalhealth advice or to substitute
for the guidance of a trustedhealthcare professional.
The content of each episode isfor informational purposes only.

(06:28):
Okay, without further ado, hereis my interview with the
prolific author, researcher andtruth teller, dr Scott Johnson.
All right, hello everyone.
Welcome to today's show.
My guest is Dr Scott A Johnson.
He is a naturopath and anauthor of 28 books.
Well done, Scott.
His life drastically changedwhen he was diagnosed with a

(06:48):
chronic illness, which we willtalk about in just a second.
But after being unsuccessfullytreated with Western medicine,
scott completed exhaustiveresearch and discovered potent
herbs that benefited his health,and he kept his health
condition in check without drugs.
As a result, he is one of themost knowledgeable people in the
world about the topic ofessential oils.
He has since spent thousands ofhours studying natural

(07:12):
therapies and is dedicated tohelping people discover greater
wellness naturally.
Bravo, as I think you'll heartoday, he has a knack for
uniting the art of naturalhealing with some evidence-based
science.
So, scott, welcome to the show.
Thanks for joining me today,you bet.
Thanks for inviting me to be on, christian, it's good to have
you, okay.
So let's start with what gotyou into this world of natural

(07:33):
health.
Tell us about the healthchallenge you had and how that
got you to do the work that youdo today.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, you know my story's interesting, but I find
it closely resembles many otherpeople's journeys into natural
medicine that they had their ownhealth challenges and just
wanted a better option than wasavailable to them.
And that was the same with me.
In my early to mid-20s I wasdiagnosed with a condition

(07:59):
called ankylosing spondylitis.
Most people haven't heard of itbecause it doesn't affect a lot
of the adult population it'sestimated to affect roughly less
than 1% of the adult populationand what it is is a chronic
auto-inflammatory so a littlebit different than an autoimmune
condition, but similarmechanism where the immune

(08:21):
system's going awry andattacking its own tissues.
It's just the part of theimmune system that's gone awry
is different withauto-inflammatory versus
autoimmune, and the most commonsymptom of this is really a lot
of pain, severe pain andstiffness in the back,

(08:41):
especially after rest, and sowaking up in the morning would
be really one of the mostchallenging times, because
you've already had a long periodof rest.
Generally your back can feelreally painful, stiff.
The other problem with thiscondition is it's very
progressive, and when I sayprogressive, I mean that it can

(09:02):
affect many different tissues inthe body.
It can affect your lungs and itcan affect your heart, your
eyes, other joints, and it'salso one that tends to.
If you do a drug route.
It'll tend to respond to a drugfor a little while and then all
of a sudden that drug doesn'twork anymore and so it starts to

(09:23):
kind of override what the drugwas doing.
When I was diagnosed with that,I was put on your traditional
starting or standard medication,which is a non-steroidal
anti-inflammatory drug In mycase it was indomethacin, and I
was on that and it seemed likethat was reducing the pain and

(09:44):
stiffness that I wasexperiencing.
But it wasn't too long afterthat, just a few months in that
I started to have stomach achesand I was going OK.
What's going on here?
This is probably that dreadedside effect of an NSAID that
it's eaten my stomach.
And so I called myrheumatologist and I said hey,

(10:04):
you know I'm starting to havestomach pain.
So what do you recommend?
Is there a different medication?
And he said oh no, we don'tneed to switch your medications,
we just need to give you aproton pump inhibitor, and that
will stop the acidumatologist.
And so he gave me theprescription.

(10:26):
I took the proton pump inhibitorfor only about two weeks and it
seemed like it was helping, andthen all of a sudden, it
stopped working.
I started to have even moresevere stomach pain, to where I
would almost double over, and soI was like, okay, this is not
working.
And so I called him back andthe office was like, oh well,
maybe we can try a differentmedication.

(10:48):
You know, we can give you someZantac in addition to that, and
that will help.
And I was like, oh, thisdoesn't make sense to me.
I mean, I don't want to be ondrug after drug after drug that
are trying to fix the previousdrugs problem that it's causing.
And so I decided to do my ownresearch and try and figure out
something for my stomach, whichI did find.

(11:09):
I found a really great herbalremedy that worked well and it
fixed the ulcer that I had in mystomach, and that made me
fascinated with natural medicine.
I thought, well, if I can dosomething about my stomach, well
can't I do something about theankylosing spondylitis too?
Isn't there going to be asolution for that?

(11:29):
That one was a little bit morecomplex and challenging, but I
was able to.
Through lots of trial and errorand research, I found a group
of herbs that also helped mewith that, and I started to see
big improvements and started tofeel so much better and I was
excited.
I thought, man, thisrheumatologist is going to love

(11:50):
all this stuff that I found,because he'll be able to help
more of his patients.
And so I waited until my nextappointment and I took all of my
supplement bottles up in a bagand I went to the appointment
and I just kind of had thatsitting on the side.
I let him do all the tests thathe does.
They test your flexibility,your lung capacity.
They obviously do the blooddraws to look at how there's

(12:13):
some inflammatory markersthey're looking at, and kidney
function and other things tests.
And he goes man, you're doingexcellent.
In fact I would say you'reabove average for somebody who
doesn't even have this condition.
And so what do you attributethat to?
And I think he was expecting meto say, yeah, the drugs have

(12:34):
just been working so well.
And I said, well, actually Istopped taking all the
medications that you hadprescribed and I started taking
these and I took out mysupplements and was showing him
and kind of telling him why Iwas taking them and what they
were doing and what myexperience had been.
And I could tell that hisdemeanor changed.
He had a facial expression, butI knew something had changed.

(12:57):
But he let me finish.
And then, after I finishedtalking to him, he stood up and
literally pointed into my chestand said if you won't listen to
what I tell you to do and takethe medications I tell you to do
, then get out of my office andcome back when you need me,
because you will.
And then he walked out the doorand just left me sitting there.

(13:18):
I was just in shock and so Ithought I just sat there for a
minute going did that justreally happen?
What is going on?
And so I gathered up all mystuff and I walked out of the
office and found my way back tothe reception and where I could
leave, and the receptionist sayshey, we need to schedule you

(13:39):
for your next appointment.
I said no, I'm not coming back,and just walked out the door,
and I have not been back since.
And so that gave me a passionfor natural medicine to where I
started to say I really want tohelp other people the same way
I've been able to help myself.
But it will take some educationto do it, because I was doing

(14:04):
research as a layperson whodidn't really know biology,
didn't really know themechanisms, pathways, the
targets on cells that I reallyneeded to focus on.
I was just trying to do thingsbased on the limited knowledge
that I had, and so at the time Iwas studying business
management in college and thatwas my goal is to continue in

(14:25):
business management and Ishifted my education to study
natural medicine and then endedup getting a doctorate in
naturopathy, and so that'sreally what drove me to it was.
It was a condition that I wouldnot wish on anybody, but I
consider it a tremendousblessing in my life because it

(14:47):
shifted me down a path that isfar more rewarding and
fulfilling than what I wouldhave been in had I stayed in
business management.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Wow, what a story.
I mean it sounds like in someways it parallels mine.
I didn't go the route you did.
I went to a chiropractor whoturned my understanding of
structure and of nutrition andwhat just kind of taught me how
the pharmaceutical you did.
I went to a chiropractor whoturned my understanding of
structure and of nutrition andwhat just kind of taught me how
the pharmaceutical world worked.
And I just haven't looked backall these 20 something years
later I I'm still in this workand it's that similar story that

(15:16):
your healing kind of becomesyour mission.
I love how you're um, thatarresting moment of being poked
in the chest saying it's just,it's haughty, it's hubris, it's
just so many things mixed into.
Do you think you're god?
Do you have like it the thespell that some doctors are
under to not be able to hearanything outside of what they're

(15:37):
trained in.
It's almost like an insult thatyou say actually the medicines
weren't working but this did,and to hit such a wall of
closed-mindedness is telling.
So thank you for telling thatstory.
Anything you want to add to it.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
Well, I'd just say that that didn't end there.
I have had other physicians whohave sent me messages or even
wrote reviews on my book, sayingI'm dangerous Because I wrote a
book about how to use what I'vedone to help put my ankylosing
spondylitis in remission.

(16:09):
Because I got asked that allthe time People would find out I
have the condition and they'dgo you're not taking any
medications.
How did you do that?
And so it would take a longtime to explain, because it's
not just simply taking the herbs.
I made lifestyle adjustments, Ichanged the way I eat, I
changed my exercise routine, Iadded stretching and
strengthening and core exercisesand these.

(16:31):
So I changed so many thingsbeyond just taking these
supplements, and so it wouldtake a long time to explain.
So I finally put it in a bookwhere people could just read it
and they could figure it out andfollow the advice that I have
in there.
And I get messages from all overthe world telling me I started
this and I'm reducing mymedication and I'm doing so much

(16:52):
better, which is really some ofmy favorite messages to receive
.
But then, coinciding with that,I frequently also get messages
in my inbox from physicians orhealthcare professionals or bad
reviews on my book, saying it'sdangerous to not take the
medications and you really needto focus on the medications.
And just last week I hadsomebody who was in on my social

(17:15):
media talking about I was asnake oil salesman and just
trying to sell a cure andbenefiting on people's pain, and
I just think that theseindividuals don't know me at all
if they think that's what it is.
Um, because it's purely to helpgive people hope and another
option to besides the drugpathway.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
Man.
Well, good on you for standingin the fire and taking some of
those arrows so that otherpeople can learn from your
experience.
It's I've I've had similarthings happen and you just kind
of shrug and go.
Well, I can only help those whoare willing and want to walk a
different path, and myexperience doesn't have to be
yours.
So good on you for continuingthat work, all right, well,
let's talk about the wide andwild world of plant medicine.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
So until the.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Rockefellers came along in the 1900s and basically
developed a petroleum-basedmodel of medicine that even
today rudely claims the title.
Conventional Plant medicineswere the medicines of history,
so give the listener a sense ofsome of the history of the use
of plant medicines.
And when did essential oilscome on the scene?

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Yeah, you know plant medicines.
Like you said, they were theoriginal medicine, and so when
we talk about conventionalmedicine, yeah, conventional
medicine is not reallyconventional.
What we call conventionalmedicine today, chemical
medicine, is really only justover centuries long you know
history Whereas we havecenturies and centuries of plant

(18:39):
medicine that have been used.
What I find really interestingabout plant medicine is that our
ancestors figured things outthrough trial and error and
intuition and they just had toexperiment and say, oh, this
worked really well, or no, thisdidn't, or this made me sick,
this made me feel good, and theyfigured things out.

(19:00):
But how often science and nowthat we do in modern times
validates what our ancestorsfigured out through trial and
error and just their intuition.
And we're just starting toexplore and discover the
mechanisms by which they knew italways worked, um, which that's

(19:20):
something that always isfascinating me, as I I don't
want to just know that it works,I want to know how and why, by
what mechanism, because thatjust helps me better understand
and, I think, use theseplant-based medicines in a more
real way, more effective andmore safe.
So plant medicines have beenused really since the beginning

(19:44):
of time.
They were the original medicine.
They were often just crudeextracts teas they would boil
plants in waters and drink theteas.
They would make poultices outof them to put on topically.
So that's a little bit justabout broadly natural medicine

(20:04):
or plant medicine Essential oils.
There's a little bit of a myththat they've been around for a
very long time too.
Traditional essential oils thatare distilled or cold pressed
from plants really haven't beenaround as long as people think,

(20:26):
because there's discussions allthe time about well, we found
frankincense and we foundpeppermint in the tombs of the
Egyptians that date back, youknow, 2000 BC.
So people say, oh, they usedessential oils.
Not really, they used what Iwould term as an aromatic
extract, because they didn't usethe distillation procedure to

(20:48):
get these oils Instead to getthe aromatic compounds, or they
would soak them in wine orvinegar or something like that

(21:11):
that could extract the aromaticcompounds.
So they were using crudearomatic extracts.
It really wasn't until about the10th or 11th century that we
really saw the distillationprocess in use, where we used
steam and water as theextraction method.
There is a little bit of debatebecause some actually make the

(21:33):
claim that Avicenna, which was aphysician back in like the
first century that he may haveused some crude distillation
techniques that employed waterand steam, but there's not as
much evidence for that as thereis in the 10th and 11th century
where we really saw kind of thebooming of distillation as a

(21:55):
method to extract essential oilsand get the aromatic compounds
out of plants.
So that's really when essentialoils started to be distilled,
we started to get true essentialoils.
It's the 10th and 11thcenturies and then from there it

(22:15):
just kind of took baby stepsinto.
People started to explore theirchemistry in greater detail,
started to explore theirproperties, until the modern day
where there's now thousands andthousands of studies on their
properties and their chemistrythat are really helping us to
get to know essential oils at adeeper level.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Nice, okay.
Well, let's define a term here.
So what is an essential oil?
I've always wondered is theresuch a thing as a non-essential
oil?
So is that a thing, or is itlike what makes it essential?
And define it a little morespecifically so the listener can
know what we're talking about.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, and that is controversial in and of itself
because there's not a realconsensus.
There are organizations,especially the aromatherapy
organizations, which have putout definitions of what an
essential oil is, and it'stypically their plant extracts
aromatic, volatile aromaticcompounds that are extracted

(23:09):
from plants using steam or hydrodistillation, and then also
cold pressing.
Cold pressing is where we getour citrus oils from.
They're not, they can bedistilled, but they you're
typically more commonly pressedout of the peel.
So that's been kind of theaccepted definition within the

(23:30):
aromatherapy organizations andeven some scientific
organizations like the ISO,things like that, but that's not
completely accepted universally.
There are some very puristaromatherapists that say I don't
even want to includecold-pressed essential oils, I

(23:51):
only want anything that's beendistilled, whether it's steam or
hydro distillation.
That's the only thing thatshould be considered a true
essential oil, because it'sgoing to be more focused on the
aromatic compounds, whereascold-pressing actually can bring
in some waxes, some pigmentsand some non-volatile compounds
that will come into the process.

(24:11):
And then when you get into thescientific literature it gets
really, really muddy, becausethey'll call an essential oil
virtually anything that has anaromatic compound in it, and so
you really have to look at theirmethods of how they extracted
it to see if it really was anessential oil, because they may
call an absolute which isextracted with like a solvent,

(24:35):
which could be alcohol, could beany other solvent.
They'll call that an essentialoil in the literature.
They'll also call other things,other extraction methods,
essential oils.
One that is particularly growingin being called an essential
oil is through supercriticalcarbon dioxide, and the reason

(24:59):
is is because it's an inertsubstance and you can fine tune
the settings of that to producesomething that's identical
nearly to an essential oilthat's been steam distilled.
That is called a CO2 selectextract.
So it's still considered anextract, but it's an aromatic
extract that really does havevery close composition or

(25:22):
chemical composition to a steamdistilled essential oil.
In fact, when I made that claimand said you can actually
produce what I would consider anessential oil like extract with
CO2, I had an aromatherapygroup that said no, that is not
possible.
And I said, well, I'llchallenge you.

(25:43):
Then let's do an experiment andsee if you can figure it out.
And I took the composition of10 essential oils that had been
extracted from the same plantmaterial with steam distillation
or cold pressing and then alsowith supercritical CO2.
And I gave them the compositionand I said tell me which is

(26:04):
which.
And what I found was that thesecertified aromatherapists
actually were able to determinewhich one was a CO2 and which
one was distilled less than halfof the time, which means it's
simply a guess, because you canguess 50-50 sometimes.
So they could not decipherwhich was the right, which was

(26:25):
which.
And so to me these CO2 Selectsare very close to an essential
oil in their composition.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Got it.
What a fascinating world.
Okay, so is it fair?
Like?
One of the words I was with wasessence oil.
It's kind of you're capturingan essence of a plant and it's
more in the complexity withwhich nature designed it.
Is that a reasonable way toconceive of what's different
about these oils than, say, atea or a tincture or some other
way we could use the herbs?

Speaker 2 (26:54):
A lot of people do call them the aromatic essence
of a plant, but even that is notreally 100% accurate.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
Okay, well, let me ask it this way.
So, basically, whatdifferentiates?
Because what I imagine?
Tell me if this spectrum makessense to you.
There's this spectrum of nowyou can chew an herb out of the
ground, or you could smokesomething, or then you could
crush it and turn it into asalve or poultice or something,
but then you get to morespecific extractions like
alcohol, where you can extractmore properties, and then, to me

(27:27):
, essential oils is a stepbeyond that.
Do I have that accurate?

Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah, the essential oils.
Really, the best way to thinkof them is they're going to
focus on the volatile compoundsin the plant.
Okay, Because although they cancontain trace amounts of
non-volatile compounds, themajority of the composition is
actually volatile aromaticcompounds.

(27:55):
Okay, and so that's the bigdifference.
They're low weight and they'rearomatic.
So, for example, if I were totake a lemon and I were to
distill the peels of it, thatpeel would actually have
bioflavonoids in it and it wouldhave some vitamin C in it and

(28:16):
it would have pigments and itwould have waxes.
If I were to distill it, I'mnot going to get any of the
vitamin C, so I'm not going tohave that.
I'm not going to have any ofthe bioflavonoids.
You may have some of the waxesand pigments, although
distillation is unlikely to pulla lot of that over but I will
have all of these aromaticcompounds which are terpenes and

(28:39):
other aromatic compounds.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
Okay.
So what threshold then, does apharmaceutical cross that an
essential oil does not Like,cause I know probably?
I just even one of my otherinterviews about I think it was
parasites or mold the person whothought of some of her products
basically realized that pharmahad just copied all these
different things from nature andthey changed it in some way.

(29:02):
So where does an essential oilstop that keeps it from becoming
a pharmaceutical, and whatthreshold is pharmaceutical
doing that is different here?

Speaker 2 (29:10):
I think the biggest thing is that the pharmaceutical
companies are looking for onebioactive molecule out of that
essential oil and they will justsynthesize it and create a
synthetic version of it and saythere's our drug, because we now

(29:37):
have the active compound out ofthe lemon essential oil and
it's going to actually producethe effects we want.
And essential oil actuallydoesn't have just a single
compound.
You can look at a really simpleessential oil, such as a
wintergreen or birch essentialoil, and you may only have 12,

(30:00):
18 compounds in it total.
But then you could look atsomething like a rose, a Roman
chamomile, that are highlycomplex and you could have 250
compounds in there.
And so there are these naturalcomplex substances and each one
of the compounds or constituentsthat are within that essential
oil has its own properties.
So when you put all of themtogether you actually have a

(30:25):
additive synergistic andantagonistic or buffering
effects that occur within asingle essential oil and because
of that each one of thesecompounds can act with different
cell receptors, differentmolecular targets within the
body, different pathways andeven by different mechanisms,
and so you actually have agreater response in the body

(30:49):
from an essential oil becauseyou have all of this complexity
that's going on, not an isolatedcompound.
Now, the other part of usingjust a single isolated compound
is you are going to increaseyour risk of side effects,
because that's not how natureintended us to take the citrus.
It doesn't want us to justconsume limonene, it wants us to

(31:12):
consume the entire complexity,because sometimes there are
compounds that are in there,even a trace amounts, that
buffer the toxicity of the maincompound so that we can actually
have a greater response withoutthe adverse effects.
And I always say actually,essential oils have side
benefits, not side effects,because you often get an

(31:33):
additional benefit that youdidn't expect by using it
because of the complexity.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
Oh, that's so helpful .
Yeah, because I knowpharmacists.
They'll take one molecule.
They'll say this to your pointis active, everything else must
have been irrelevant.
And they'll concentrate that sodisproportionately, beyond
anything nature ever would havepackaged.
And when you interrupt thebiology at that kind of level,
yeah, of course you're alwaysgonna have side effects.
But it's great to hear you laythat out, because I hadn't been

(31:58):
able to put it into those wordsyet.
So well done.
Okay, give me an example maybe,where an essential oil has an
upside, so this more volatileorganic compound has an upside
that maybe, like your basicherbal formulation, some
powdered or dried herbs wouldn'thave.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah, there are actually a lot of unique
properties in essential oilsthat give them a benefit.
Okay, one is they are highlylipophilic in their nature,
which means they're attracted tofats.
They love fats.
Well, guess what?
Every one of our cells issurrounded with, it's surrounded
with a lipid bilayer of fat,and so these essential oils are

(32:35):
attracted to our cells.
They can attach to thosereceptor sites on the cells once
they're attracted there, orthey can actually penetrate
inside the cell and theninteract with the organelles
inside the cell.
A great example of that is thatthere's technology now.
That's a special lasermicroscope called laser scanning

(32:57):
, confocal microscopy, and itallows us to look at these
interactions under a cell orunder a microscope and it
visualizes or displays theinteractions in color and you
can see where an essential oilgoes or what it does when it
contacts a cell in thismicroscope.

(33:21):
And peppermint essential oil isknown for being an energizing
essential oil.
One of the places it likes tolocate within the cell is to
your mitochondria, so it couldbe stimulating your mitochondria
to produce cellular energy, andthat's why it's an energizing
essential oil.
So that is one of the factorsthat I think that separates an

(33:45):
essential oil from herbs.
Another is because they'revolatile aromatic compounds,
they actually have access toprivileged tissues that are more
difficult to get herbs to.
When you inhale an essentialoil, some of it goes into the
respiratory tract.
The nice thing about essentialoils is that they don't just
stop at the upper respiratorytract like most things that you

(34:09):
inhale.
They actually can go all theway into the lower respiratory
tract as well, so they can havea complete response in your
respiratory tract that you can'tget from many other solutions.
The other thing is some of thatinhales through your nasal
cavity and actually goes throughthe olfactory system, the
olfactory bulb, and into yourbrain.
Because they're of themolecular weight and they're

(34:32):
volatile, they can cross thatblood-brain barrier, the filter,
and actually enter brain tissueand when they're in there they
can have positive effects in thenervous system and then
downstream that's going toobviously affect multiple
systems, because that's thecontrol center right of all
these other systems, and so thisability to get to privileged

(34:53):
tissues is another thing thatmakes essential oils is kind of
this ideal natural solution fora variety of things.
Those are two things that Ithink are kind of set essential
oils apart from maybe theirherbal cousins, but it doesn't
mean you should just ignore them.

(35:15):
I actually think using both isthe ideal way to use them,
because there are certain thingsthat need to be established
from a dietary supplement orfrom what you're consuming for
essential oils to have the bestactivity.
One good example is essentialfatty acids.

(35:35):
We have to have enoughessential fatty acids in our
diet or through supplementationto keep our cell, that lipid
bilayer, permeable and flexible,and so if you can maintain that
, that means things can enterthe cell and they can also exit
the cell, those cells have toexpel waste, just like we do,
and then they also have to takein nutrients and other things

(35:57):
that are going to be beneficialto their function.
And if you don't have thatalready established in your diet
, then the essential oils maynot be able to work as well.
If you already had a good dietand you were eating these fatty
acids or supplementing itthrough, you know, a fish oil
supplement or some other type ofsupplement.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
Fascinating.
So when I hear the wordvolatile, I think like your gas
can in the garage.
There's like big dangers, butwhat I'm picturing as you're
saying this is something morelike these oils are hungry to be
able to be helpful, likethey're volatile and they're
ready to react and go do thingsthat are beneficial, because
there's a complex of moleculesthat nature has organized for us

(36:39):
in a way that can be beneficial.
Do I have that right?

Speaker 2 (36:42):
Yeah, and people do get scared of the volatile that
word but really that just meansthat they have the ability that
when they're exposed to the air,they evaporate and turn into a
gas really quickly.
That's what volatility means inthis case.
So don't be scared ofvolatility.
That's just the way that theyturn into a gas when they're

(37:05):
exposed to air.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
Okay, fantastic.
Okay, you made a comment inyour book.
I got your Big Pharma.
Big Pharma doesn't want you toknow about essential oils, which
is a super helpful reference.
But you made the comment thatessential oils can unite the
drug world of rapidly effectivewith the natural world's mantra
of reduce risk of adverse sideeffects.
So anything more.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
You want to say about that.
Yeah, it kind of goes back tothe whole conversation that
we've already been having.
Their unique properties makethem very potent extracts that
can have rapid effects.
I've seen people that have beenin emotional shock because they

(37:46):
have an injury that I have hadthem just inhale some lavender
and within seconds they're outof that emotional shock.
So they can, they can act veryquickly and and then they're
highly potent.
So they can um, they can have asignificant activity within the
the body.
But yet, going back to what wetalked about, they're not just

(38:07):
an isolated compound.
They've got all of thiscomplexity.
They are less prone to have aside effect for that complexity,
but also because they're madeout of the same things we're
made out of.
They still have the same carbonmolecules and the same
molecular atoms and structureand things, and so because they

(38:27):
have the same, they're made ofthe same things we are, they're
easily recognized and utilizedby our body.
They're not foreign to the bodylike a drug is, and so they can
have activity in a positive waywithout having side effects.
Now, that being said, I don'twant people to think I'm saying
they can never have an adverseeffect, because if you have

(38:48):
something that can't produce anadverse effect.
I would say it's nottherapeutic in the first place.
Anything that can produce atherapeutic effect can't produce
an adverse effect.
I would say it's nottherapeutic in the first place.
Anything that can produce atherapeutic effect can also
produce an adverse effect.
It's just how much you take,how often you're exposed to it,
the method of exposure thatdetermines whether you're going
to have a good effect, positiveeffect, or a negative effect

(39:10):
that you don't want to have.
But the therapeutic window foran essential oil is much wider
than it is for a drug, so youcan actually take it more safely
within that window than youcould a particular drug.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
Nice, I love that explanation.
And a hat tip too.
Like lifestyle as part of thewild card or other habits or
exposures and related to, if theyou know rare possibility to
have a negative effect from it.
But yeah, okay, great.
Well then, this may be outsideyour scope, but do can you
contrast essential oils at allwith homeopathy?
Is that a completely differentparadigm?

Speaker 2 (39:48):
yeah, you know they.
They do share the similarity oftrying to work with the body to
support healing.
That's one thing I really tryand drive home with people,
because people always say, oh,the essential oil healed me.
No, the essential oil did notheal you, your body did the
healing.
The essential oil facilitatedthat healing by removing

(40:09):
roadblocks or facilitating thebody's own natural processes.
Homeopathy does the same thing.
Homeopathy was something thatwas fascinating to me so I took
some extra classes on it when Iwas completing my doctorate.
It's pretty complex when youreally get down to classical
homeopathy and trying to get tothe right remedy based on all of

(40:32):
the things that an individual'sconstitution has, their current
emotions, their experience, allof that going on.
So the biggest thing is thatthey do have the same goal of
stimulating the body's ownnatural healing processes.
Outside of that, I'd saythey're pretty divergent because

(40:53):
essential oils are very potentextracts whereas homeopathic
remedies are very dilute.
Infinitesim are diluted down towhere it's not going to trigger

(41:15):
a negative response in the bodybut it's going to trigger a
hemeing response.
But there is a little bit ofsimilarity in them and I've used
homeopathic remedies withessential oils before, which I
know they.
In classical homeopathy theytell you not to, but I wanted to
experiment and see and I foundpositive results using them

(41:36):
together.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
Well done, okay, cool , I like that.
You're just like me.
You're willing to experimentwith things and find what works,
and yet you got the depth ofknowledge to back up.
It's not just a blind stab inthe dark.
Here You're wielding thesetools Well, good job, okay.
So, scott, help us see this newparadigm.
If you could snap your fingersand just implant into humanity
all of your knowledge aboutessential oils, how would we

(42:00):
think differently?
Like what would we stop doing?
What would we start doing, andhow might we approach our habits
or our health managementdifferently?

Speaker 2 (42:10):
I think, first and foremost, we would start using
essential oils preventatively weknow that a lot of then we can
potentially just keep us fromever having to endure a
condition, and so if we canfocus more as using them just to

(42:48):
maintain health, then thatwould make a huge difference in
people's overall health health.
Then that would make a hugedifference in people's overall
health.
We have lots of essential oilsthat can help with metabolic
function.
Lots of essential oils can helpwith our inflammatory response.
Just a couple you know, whenyou think of your metabolic

(43:08):
function, we have lemon grassand cinnamon that you can use.
Those two have compounds inthem that are known to help
support healthy insulinresponses, good insulin receptor
activity, so you have betterinsulin sensitivity, good
glucose management andutilization in the body.

(43:28):
And then you could look atlycopaiba and frankincense.
Those are two great ones forhelping to support a healthy
inflammatory response.
Because we do need inflammation.
Too many people thinkinflammation is all bad.
We don't ever want to have it.
Well, if you didn't haveinflammation, you'd be dead.
Because inflammation isrequired for the immune system

(43:51):
to fight for innovators.
It's what's used to heal wounds, and there are other things
that inflammation is involvedwith as a normal process to keep
us healthy.
It's when it goes outside itsnormal window that it becomes
problematic and can triggermaybe some of the conditions
that people associateinflammation with.
But that would be the starters.

(44:12):
But that's, that would be thestarters.
But then the second thing iswhen we do experience something.
If you have a kit of a certainnumber of essential oils,
there's a lot you can do at home.
You wouldn't have to go to thedoctor every time that you had a
cold or every time somebody hada minor burn or a minor cut or
something like that.

(44:32):
There's a lot that you can dowith essential oils just in your
home.
Many mothers use them, andfathers for the example, to help
their children get throughthings that they're experiencing
at home.
We don't always need to run tothe doctor.
We need to return to where wetake primary responsibility for

(44:54):
our own health and we focus onusing these natural solutions
first, and then you can alwaysgo to a Western medicine if the
natural solution has notproduced the effect that you
need.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Got it.
So what would you estimate?
How much drug use would wediscontinue if we had a working
knowledge of essential oils,like what would be left where
they still have a place?

Speaker 2 (45:37):
more than that, because there are so many
essential oils that work by thesame mechanisms, the same
pathways, the same targets as adrug does, and so, if you know
how to use them properly and youuse combinations especially
when we start blending and usingcombinations we get great
responses that allow us to havethe healing that our body needs,
rather than continue to focuson a drug.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
Right on.
Well, I want to give you ashout out because, perhaps
serendipitously, even betweenthe first time we talked and
recording today, I had a superstressful week on the home front
and my body let me know.
On Saturday it was done, so Ihad this.
It's weird.
I get this.
Maybe you can tell me what itis.
I get this raging pain acrossthe sacrum and upper glutes.

(46:19):
It's like writhing worthy,where there's no relief, there's
no position that you can'tthink about anything else.
Nothing makes it stop and I'vemaybe got it once twice in the
last 10 years, but it comes, andthe only thing that has ever
given me any relief was Tylenol.
I couldn't beat it withanything else.
And we have your book now andyou have chapter by chapter of
so many, like you know,allergies or pain or headaches

(46:41):
or whatever in there, and so wejust pulled it out and started
referencing it.
My wife has got this giant wallof essential oils that she has
and we just started mixing andmatching them and, sure enough,
it enough.
It totally took the edge offand made me able to sleep.
It helped me calm down and bythe next day I was better.
It never has it gone that fast.
So he's not crazy to say theseoils can really do something

(47:05):
dramatic if you know how to usethem and combine them, and you
happened to highlight a few mywife doesn't have, so we have
more to order, but it works.
I'm just thrilled to be able togive people another tool to
where they're not stuck going tosomething toxic like Tylenol
that can do so many negativethings to you.
And if we can just understandand use nature's pharmacy in

(47:27):
this potent form with a littlemeasured amount of it my wife
was able to there's.
So, as you know, there's somany different ways to use it.
You can put it on your skin,you can put it in a capsule and
swallow it, you can do it orally, and we even combined it with
DMSO and I found it to beremarkable.
It gave me even more confidencethat yep, nature's got an

(47:48):
answer for this.
I just need to do my homeworkor have reference guides like
your book to be able to go anddeploy what I know.
So thank you for that andanything you want to add to that
little story or I'm sure you'vegot dozens and hundreds like
that.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
Yeah, I could.
We could talk a lot about that,but the reality is is it's it's
really just focusing on whatyour body needs in order to
allow the healing mechanismsthat are already inside your
body to work their magic.
We have so many systems thatare designed to keep us in a
state of health.
They want to keep us in a stateof health, but the modern

(48:22):
lifestyle is often contrary toit.
We eat processed foods, we aresedentary, we're exposed to
chemicals ubiquitously in ourenvironment, and so there's all
of these things that are gettingin the way, and so, if we can
have something that then isgoing to help facilitate those
rather than be a roadblock,that's when the magic of

(48:42):
essential oils really occur, andwhen I create protocols and put
them in my book, it's based alot on the mechanisms that they
work by and making sure thatwe're targeting what is going to
help the body in its ownhealing processes, and that's

(49:02):
the goal is to just stimulatethose healing processes.
Let the body do its work.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
Right on.
Well, thank you for doing that,because it has personally
helped me.
I love it.
Love it Okay.
So what are some?
Maybe some common myths aboutessential oils?
I think you mentioned one thatthere's never any potential of
overdoing it, or what otherthings might people misconceive
about essential oils?

Speaker 2 (49:22):
There's a lot.
There's a lot of myths outthere.
Some of them have beenperpetuated for many, many years
.
One of the ones that Icontinually see is there was a
study published probably maybemore than a decade ago now maybe
it's been even 15 years wheresome researchers claimed that if

(49:42):
you used products thatcontained lavender essential oil
, especially on your boys, thatyou were going to actually
trigger gynecomastia in them,which is breast development, and
so this study got published inone of the journals that many

(50:05):
physicians and doctors read, andso they took it as gospel and
ran with it.
That study has been debunked somany times as pseudoscience
that it's actually, in myopinion, it's to the point where
it's unethical to keep sharingit, because you can look at how
they confounded their ownresults based on the

(50:27):
methodologies that they used.
When you look at the productsthat they were claiming that
actually caused this.
Those products have actuallynow been tested and found to not
even contain a drop of truelavender essential oil, so they
don't even contain lavenderessential oil, so they don't
even contain lavender essentialoil.
They may contain syntheticchemicals that are found within
lavender, like you can getsynthetic linoleic acetate and

(50:51):
you have linoleic acetate insidelavender.
So they're taking thesesynthetic chemicals that they've
produced to mimic what's foundin lavender essential oil
produced to mimic what's foundin lavender essential oil.
So that one is just veryfrustrating that it continues to
be shared.
It's shared by accounts thathave major millions of followers

(51:14):
, and so then everybody getsscared and throws their lavender
away.
That's one, but I think anotheris that all essential oils are
quality and pure, and that issimply not the case.
I keep in contact with the someof the world's leading chemists
on essential oils and, and thecurrent consensus is that we're

(51:35):
about 80 percent of essentialoils that are commercially
available are adulterated, andso that's a very high number.
If you go to your grocery storeor a big box store and you find
essential oils and they'recheaper, much cheaper than what
you would see elsewhere, that isa red flag that you probably

(51:57):
don't want to use that essentialoil because it's not going to
be pure.
And the problem with so muchadulteration in the industry is
that people can use theseadulterated essential oils and
then they do have an adversereaction because they have
synthetic compounds in them thatthe body is not used to, and
then they think, oh well, Iguess lavender essential oil is

(52:17):
toxic, because that's what itcaused to me.
No, it wasn't lavender oil thatcaused that.
That was a synthetic cocktailthat was disguised as lavender
that caused that, and so youhave to be really careful with
the essential oil quality thatyou are using.
You should find a company that'stransparent in providing you

(52:40):
the tests that they perform, andnot only that, that performs
multiple tests, because you cancheat or you can get over a GCMS
analysis.
If that's all they're doing totest their oils, you can fake
that out so that people can gooh, this is a high-quality oil.

(53:00):
You have to do chiral analysis,you have to do optical rotation
, you have to do specificgravity, you have to do all of
these other tests that arelayered one on top of another to
really truly ferret out andfind if it's a quality oil or if
it's one that we shouldn't beusing.
I mean, there's lots and lotsof other myths beyond that, but

(53:23):
those are probably two that Ithink everybody should be aware
of, because you can't expect thegood results from a poor
quality oil.
And, at the same time, don't beafraid of the fear mongers who
continue to share this studythat's been debunked so many
times that it's justpseudoscience.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
Okay, good stuff.
Well, you're making me think ofcorollaries in the health or
the food world.
I know avocado oil, olive oiland honey are three products
that they've cut them with somany other oils or put corn
syrup or other things into theproducts.
It's just another argument forknow your farmer, know your
source, understand where thesethings are coming from.

(54:04):
Yeah, I had my wife actuallyhad.
We had, you know, this shelf orprobably half a dozen, maybe a
dozen different oils that shehad got, I think, from a grocery
store, and then she realizeddoTERRA was had better oils and
so, blindly, one day she cameover to me with one of each like
this is lavender from whereverand this is doTERRA.
And she had me smell them andtry to guess which ones were the

(54:27):
better oil.
And every single time I'm happyto say my nose actually works.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
I was able to go.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
I think this is the good one and sure enough it was
the doTERRA oil, so, yeah,there's something to even just
your smell test can go a longway.
So in your book about essentialoils I mentioned, you have so
many different categories ofways that you I think there's 19
or 20 different healthsituations where you can use an
oil.
So get practical a second.
So talk to maybe the mama bearout there or somebody who's

(54:55):
wrestling with something fairlycommon.
What are some of the?
Maybe if you had your top fiveremedies or your top five health
situations, that, like this, iskind of a layup, I can easily
address these or often has apretty noted benefit.
Talk about some of the thingsthat you use it for the most.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
Yeah.
So a lot of people find thatthey have an immune system that
is hyperactive and that thatalso includes some inflammation
in the body that's going on, andwhen you have those two things
you often experience discomfortand aches as well.
So if those things are going on, one of the things that I have

(55:35):
found very helpful in supportingthe immune system to be
tolerant and also balanced inits activity but also to help
support that healthyinflammatory response and reduce
the aches that are associatedwith that is a combination of
essential oils that you wouldput inside an empty vegetable

(55:57):
capsule, and this isfrankincense and copaiba and
then a fir essential oil, sothis can be Siberian or balsam
fir.
They're similar in theirchemistry and they have the
chemistry that I'm looking forfor this activity.
But people put depending on thesituation and how well you know

(56:18):
what you have going on in yourindividual situation, they'll
put in somewhere from betweenthree and five drops of each in
the capsule, then fill the restof the capsule up with fatty oil
.
That can be MCT, avocado, oliveoil, coconut oil, whatever
ingestible oil that you havethere and you take that
internally and that's beenworking really well for a lot of

(56:42):
people.
I actually had somebody oncesend me a video of them just in
tears and talking about how thatwas the only thing that has
ever been able to give them anyrelief and how grateful they
were that I had published thatin my book so that they could
use that, that I had publishedthat in my book so that they

(57:05):
could use that.
Another thing I'd say is there'sa lot of people who are
concerned about theircholesterol levels.
We know that lemongrassessential oil has been used in
clinical research to help reducecholesterol levels.
It has a modest effect on it,but it did have an effect and
it's certainly better than astatin drug.
Lemongrass essential oil isabout three drops that were put
in that same type of capsulesituation that they were taking

(57:28):
and I was trying to remember Ithink they may have actually
taken that twice a day.
It may have only been once, butthat's another thing that
people could potentiallyconsider.
For moms, often, you know, theyget worried about kids who have

(57:49):
an illness and so sometimes theyjust need a mild essential oil
to help the kid get through it,help their immune system work,
and one of my favorites foryoung children is diluted lemon
essential oil, and I can justapply that along the spine and

(58:10):
have them have the support theirimmune system needs to help
fight whatever they're fightingat the time, and that's also
just something that justprovides a relaxation to the
body.
The more relaxed state we canget our body in, the more it can
heal.
Anytime we're wound up or tight, there's tension, there's

(58:31):
stress, our body is not going towork to its full extent, it's
not going to be as effective ingetting us back to homeostasis,
effective in in getting us backto homeostasis, and so, when we
can promote a relaxationresponse, that's super important
for um, for that to to occur.
Um, I don't know those.

(58:51):
Those are a few that I thinkjust come right off the top of
my head on some of the thingsthat that people can do in order
to just have relief at home andtake care of yourself and be
responsible for your own health.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
Yeah Well, and to, I guess, help moms or even our own
family.
We've learned and appreciatethat a fever isn't something to
be afraid of.
It's something the body's doing, it's work.
And so how do we help the bodythrough a fever?
If our kid has a cough or youknow they're stuffy, like there
are oils or there are othermethods we have that can, to
your point, just aid the body inbeing able to do what it's

(59:28):
trying to do, and I love thatthere's some specificity with
plant medicines that we canapply in these ways.
So, um, anything about forallergies or maybe for, um, just
pain levels that you maybehaven't mentioned yet.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
Yeah, the allergies.
There's actually quite a bitfor that.
One of the common things thatpeople love to do is take a
combination of lemon, lavenderand peppermint.
Each one of those has a littlebit of a unique activity in the
respiratory system or with theimmune system to help people who
have seasonal allergies, and sothat's typically ingested again

(01:00:04):
in a capsule.
You can just take them in acapsule.
Peppermint works multiple waysin your respiratory system.
It actually stimulates aciliary beat response, which
basically is what your body usesto expel mucus and get it out
of the respiratory tract, whichyou can often have a buildup of

(01:00:25):
that when you're havingallergies.
It also is what's called abronchodilator.
So when you put peppermint onyour skin, topically you feel a
cooling effect, and that'sbecause it's actually
interacting with receptors thatare in your cells that are
called transient receptorpotential, melastatin 8 or TRPM8

(01:00:47):
receptors.
That triggers a coolingresponse in the body because
it's sending cooling signals tothe nervous system and the
nervous system responds bycooling the area of the body
because of that.
Well, those same receptors areactually found within your
respiratory tract, and so whenpeppermint goes inside your
respiratory tract and interactswith them, it actually triggers

(01:01:10):
a widening of your airways andso you can have a better airflow
in and out of the lungs.
We often see when people haveallergies it becomes restricted
or constricted the airways.
They can also spasm, and soit's going to help relax that
and allow that not to happen.

(01:01:30):
Lavender is used because it'sactually a natural antihistamine
.
It does what's called mass cellstabilization.
So your mass cells are cellswithin your body that contain
these granules, and some of thegranules that they contain are
histamine.
Histamine is actually one ofthose things that are released
that triggers all of thesecharacteristic symptoms of

(01:01:50):
allergies the runny nose, thewatery eyes, the itchiness.
Is histamine triggering that?
By stabilizing mast cells itbasically lavender helps reduce
the number of those mast cellsthat are actually degranulating
and allowing the histamine tojust travel throughout the body
and cause these symptoms.
And then you have the last onewith lemon.

(01:02:13):
Lemon just overall helps tosupport the immune system and
its immune activity, and so it'skind of you get a combination
of those three work really wellwhen it comes to allergies.
You mentioned pain Topicalessential oils actually are very
effective as well.

(01:02:34):
There is a whole host ofessential oils that can work
well.
I mentioned peppermint and itscooling effect If you can cool
that area of the body.
That's like applying ice, andso it's going to reduce an ache
in that area.
Wintergreen is another one thatit's high in methyl salicylate
and so it can be very supportive.

(01:02:55):
It's what's called a counterirritant, so it causes a little
bit of irritation locally and soyour body kind of focuses on
that irritation there and itdoesn't think about what's going
on beneath the surface there,which is helpful.
You can look at other essentialoils, Like I really like
Copaiba topically and I like thefur oils topically, and you can

(01:03:19):
add other ones in, likeanything that's high in camphor,
like rosemary essential oil.
There's just a whole host ofessential oils that you can
combine into a blend and put ontopically and and have good
benefits or good relief man,that's so cool.

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
It's just a cornucopia of options and it's
just on us to try and whittle itdown to things that work
individually.
It sounds like that would alsohelp asthma as well.
Is that accurate?

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
Yeah, yeah, especially the peppermint,
because that's one of thecharacteristics of asthma is
that spasming in the airway.
So if the peppermint can relaxthe airways and open them, that
can be really helpful.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
Got it and you mentioned last time we talked
that there's a few that you liketo combine with DMSO.
What would you suggest thatthis oil is even better if you
put it with DMSO?

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
Yeah, you know you can get synergistic responses
when you combine certainessential oils with other
botanicals that are topical.
Dmso is one of the things thatyou can combine it with.
I usually just use very, verysmall amounts of DMSO, but I'll
add it to any of those oils thatwe just talked about
wintergreen, copaiba, peppermintto have an additional activity.

(01:04:32):
Dmso is known to drive deepinto the tissues.
It's kind of a driver productand it has its own relieving
properties, so it just kind oftriggers an amplifying effect
when you use it with thoseessential oils.
At least that's been myexperience.
I have a blend that I use forpeople who have really tough

(01:04:54):
pain that they're trying toattack that nothing else is
really working.
That includes DMSO and itcombines other things like
Arnica and some St John's wortoil with several essential oils.
That works really well.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
Right on.
Yeah, it's been a fun tool inour health kit and it's done so
many amazing outside the box,unexpected things for us and our
client base.
It's just been remarkable how,when you can just take the
tailwind of that, dmso pulls theoils with it or puts it in
places where the body needs alittle boost.
It's remarkable and hopefullythis, this episode, gives you

(01:05:32):
all some some courage to go trythese things.
So any other ways that wehaven't talked about of using
oils We've talked about capsules, internally, topically.
I guess cooking is another one.
People, you can use oils forcooking too, yep.

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
Cool, yeah.
The one thing that you need tobe aware of if you use them for
cooking is some of them are verystrong, and so you may think,
oh, oregano is a great spicethat's used in, you know, my
grandma's Italian cooking, andso let's put a few drops in
there and then all it tasteslike is oregano.
So it's very, very strong.
Sometimes all you need is atoothpick dip inside there and

(01:06:07):
add that to your dish.
But I like to use essential oilsin cooking and other foods that
I consume.
You know, I work out in themorning and after my workout I
generally have a smoothie thathas protein and some fruits and
other things in it, andsometimes, when I have a
chocolate protein that I'm using, I'll add some peppermint

(01:06:29):
essential oil and it actuallymakes it taste like you're
drinking a peppermint patty, andso it's nice.
Or I'll add some tangerine oiland then it's like you're having
that Christmas orange thatyou're drinking.
It's like you're having thatChristmas orange that you're
drinking.
I also will add like some lemonor lime to my chicken, and so

(01:06:52):
just mix some of that in someolive oil with some other spices
and you can go and apply thatto your chicken that you're
grilling or adding peppermintinto some ice cream, that we
make homemade ice cream, and sowe'll have some ice cream, add
peppermint and you have mintchocolate chip there.
That's certainly better thanwhat you're buying at the store.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
Fantastic.
I never thought to put it inice cream or smoothie.
So yeah, it's just.
It's a fun world.
I see why my wife has so manydifferent oils now and she's a
kid in a candy store learningall the different ways to use
them.
But it's.
It is exciting and there's, itbecomes just part of your
lifestyle to think what oilwould I use for that?
Or where could I use that?
She likes to anoint the kidsheads when she prays over them,
or she likes to put a diffuserin the room and and just in many

(01:07:33):
ways change the mood of theroom.
It does wonderful things.
There's so many great ways touse these oils.
So is there anythingsignificant?
Maybe that I haven't thought toask you about the world in
general or specific, that I'llmake sure everybody knows this.

Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
You know, I think we've covered a lot of the
things that I think are just sofoundational for people to know
if they really want to useessential oils.
The one thing I would sayoutside of that maybe we haven't
talked about, is people need tobe aware of potential
interactions between theessential oils they're taking
and any medications that they'reon.
That's something that peoplefrequently ask.

(01:08:13):
There is potential, although Iwould say clinical experience
says that they're not reallyvery common.
It's pretty rare to see anessential oil and a drug
interaction, but they can occur,especially with something like
a wintergreen essential oil.
It's virtually 99% methylsalicylate, which is a compound
similar to aspirin, and so thatinteraction between aspirin it

(01:08:38):
can occur with methyl salicylate.
In the wintergreen essentialoil, or even birch essential oil
, it's also high in methylsalicylate.
So it's just good to be awareof those and make sure that
you're consulting an informedhealthcare practitioner or
pharmacist that can say, okay,these are potential interactions

(01:09:00):
.
Most of them will have no clue,but if they don't have a clue,
then that's when you need to doyour own due diligence.
And in my book that's calledmedicinal essential oils, I have
what's an appendix in the back.
It's appendix G.
You can flip to it and say okay, here's aspirin, here's all the
essential oils that canpotentially interact with that.
Or I'm taking a diabeticmedication, and so here is all
of the things that canpotentially interact with that.

(01:09:22):
Or I'm taking a diabeticmedication, and so here is all
of the things that canpotentially interact with that.
So we're at least aware ofthose things and not just using
them concurrently at the sametime to where we might have a
response.
We don't want to have.

Speaker 1 (01:09:38):
Great, I'm glad I asked.
That was an important nugget.
So thanks for saying that.
All right, so as we startwrapping up here, I guess I
wanted to maybe just zoom backout with you and kind of remind
the listener of the importanceof lifestyle, or of you talk
about the difference betweenhealth span and lifespan and
really just quality of life.
So say anything you want to tothe listener, just to kind of
inspire them and remind themthat their health is their job

(01:10:01):
to manage.
No one is going to manage itfor you and it's on us to do the
work to learn these things andjust reap the benefits of it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
Yeah, I'm glad that we're ending with lifestyle,
because it's so important thatthat's established first.
Anything that we use beyondlifestyle is going to work far
better if we're also focusing onour lifestyle, and all too
often people just want to comeinto natural medicine and say
I'm taking X drug, what is thesubstitute that I can take?

(01:10:31):
And that's not really hownatural medicine works.
Natural medicine is reallylifestyle medicine and we need
to look at how are you eating,how are you moving medicine?
And we need to look at how areyou eating, how are you moving,
what do you do to manage yourstress?
Are you sleeping well?
Are you trying to minimize thetoxins that are coming into your
body?

(01:10:51):
And then, once we get all ofthese foundational lifestyle
things set, then we can usethese natural solutions with far
greater efficacy and we getgreater results at a more rapid
pace.
And so it is so important thatwe kind of become our own family
physician, our own personalphysician, and take primary

(01:11:15):
responsibility for our ownhealth and make sure that we are
getting our lifestyle in orderand then we use these options.
That was one of the biggestfrustrations when I first got
into natural medicine.
I was working with clients.
Who was that?
Come in and say, well, I justwant you to tell me what I can
take instead of this drug.

(01:11:36):
And I said, well, we're notgoing to be able to work
together.
Then, because that's not how Iwork, we need to look at
everything that you're doing inyour life, because no amount of
taking an essential oil is goingto really override If you go to
McDonald's every day for lunchand you're eating a box of
cereal in the morning and you're, and then you just come and sit

(01:11:57):
on your couch all night andwatch Netflix.
So if you don't, if you're notgoing to put in the work, you're
not going to see the results.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
Yeah, If you're not a participant in your own healing
.
The analogy I make is just kindof imagine putting good food in
dirty sink, Like you.
Just you can't get the systemto heal when the water is inside
.
You is still dirty.
We've got to clean that out andthat's that's lifestyle.
Are you pooping every day andmultiple times a day, Are you?
Are you getting the exitcleaned out so that the stuff

(01:12:26):
that should go goes?
And to your point, I have youreduce the influx of what's
burdening you, and if we, if welose that macro frame, then the
rest of this is just majoring inminers.
But once that's working, oh mygosh, these oils then become
super effective.
So any other thoughts you wantto leave the listener with
before we call it a day?

Speaker 2 (01:12:48):
I would just say that don't lose hope, because I
would say my condition isconsidered incurable and it's
considered one that's going tobe a debilitating condition that
is going to affect your lifesignificantly the older you get,
and I'm an example ofovercoming that through

(01:13:10):
lifestyle changes and using thenatural solutions that are
helpful.
So don't let somebody tell youthat there is no hope.
I have seen some prettymiraculous things occur in
people's lives because they werewilling to put in the effort to
make changes and then use theright solutions, guided by the
evidence that we have and alsoleveraging that healing art that

(01:13:35):
has been around for so long.

Speaker 1 (01:13:37):
Yeah, right on.
Okay, well, it's been so goodhaving you Tell people where
they can hear about your newestbook or where they can find your
podcast or website anythingelse you want them to know about
how to learn from you even more.

Speaker 2 (01:13:49):
Yeah, so most of my books.
You can find my books atauthorscottcom forward slash
shop and then I'll have a linkto all of the books.
I don't sell them directly frommy website, but that'll have
links to either get them fromAmazon or other bookstores.
There are a handful of themthat I allow people to purchase
directly from my printer.
My printer has allowed that sothat you can go and get one,

(01:14:13):
bypass the middleman and godirectly to him.
You get a little bit betterprice that way, so that's also
on the website.
You can find me on my socialmedia channels.
I do have a Facebook page.
It's just Scott A Johnson onFacebook and then on Instagram
it's Doc Scott Johnson, and thenmy podcast is Regaining Health

(01:14:34):
and Humanity.
So that's.
You can find that on yourstreaming services.
That's, you know, Apple,Spotify, all the major streaming
services, as well as YouTubeand Rumble.

Speaker 1 (01:14:43):
Right on, you are everywhere.
It sounds great, okay.
Well, thanks for that knowledge, and I would just say, go get
his books, people and follow hiswork.
If this is an interesting topicto you, I do not know of anyone
better to learn from.
So thank you, scott, so muchfor being on the show today.
It has been great having you.

Speaker 2 (01:15:00):
Thanks, christian, it's been a pleasure.

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Dr. Scott Johnson: Beyond Pharmaceuticals - Overcoming the Incurable: How Plant Medicines Heal Without Harm

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Dr. Scott Johnson: Beyond Pharmaceuticals - Overcoming the Incurable: How Plant Medicines Heal Without Harm