May 18, 2025 • 50 mins
What if your medicine cabinet could be condensed into a collection of tiny glass bottles? The world of essential oils offers powerful therapeutic options, but navigating their proper use requires guidance from true experts.
In this illuminating conversation, aromatherapy specialists Robert and Hana Tisserand from the Tisserand Institute take us beyond the aromatic experience into the science of these potent plant extracts. They explain why these highly concentrated substances deserve respect – imagine capturing only the volatile compounds from plant steam, resulting in substances so powerful they can dissolve membranes (both bacterial and human).
We explore practical applications most people never consider. That cooling sensation from peppermint? It's activating specialized receptors without actually changing temperature. The remarkable ability of lavender oil to heal burns? One of the rare cases where undiluted application is beneficial. The surprising fact that essential oils at low concentrations can inhibit bacterial communication without wholesale killing? A perfect alignment with biological medicine's philosophy of fostering balance rather than scorched-earth approaches.
The experts share specific recommendations for common ailments – tea tree gargling for sore throats, rosemary-infused cotton for ear infections, and proper diffusion techniques for respiratory support. They emphasize quality considerations and transparency from companies, warning that not all essential oils are created equal. Look for botanical names, country of origin, distillation methods, and GC/MS testing to ensure you're getting what you pay for.
Whether you're new to essential oils or already incorporating them into your wellness routine, this episode offers crucial safety guidelines and practical wisdom. Remember their parting advice: with essential oils, less is more – these powerful plant medicines require knowledge and respect to harness their full potential without creating unintended consequences.
Ready to expand your natural medicine toolkit? Visit the Tisserand Institute website for extensive resources on essential oil safety and applications.
Find out more here:
https://tisserandinstitute.org/
To contact Dr. Carver directly, email her at drcarver@carverfamilydentistry.com
Want to talk with someone at Dr. Carver's office? Call her practice: 413-663-7372
Reverse Gum Disease In 6 Weeks! With Dr. Rachaele Carver Online Course!
Learn more about here: https://reversegumdiseaseinsixweeks.info/optinpage
Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. Information discussed is not intended for diagnosis, curing, or prevention of any disease and is not intended to replace advice given by a licensed healthcare practitioner. Before using any products mentioned or attempting methods discussed, please speak with a licensed healthcare provider. This podcast disclaims responsibility from any possible adverse reactions associated with products or methods discussed. Opinions from guests are their own, and this podcast does not condone or endorse opinions made by guests. We do not provide guarantees about the guests' qualifications or credibility. This podcast and its guests may have direct or indirect financial interests associated with products mentioned.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Carver (00:01):
Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode
of the Root of the Matter.
I am your host, dr RachelCarver.
Today we are fortunate to haveRobert Tisran and, I'm sorry,
your name also, hannah.
Yes, thank you, I wanted tomake sure.
I said that they work with aninstitute educating
(00:22):
practitioners about essentialoils, so I think this is a
really important topic.
Essential oils are somethingthat's fairly accessible to the
wide majority of people, but Ithink we need to really learn
how to use them properly, andwe'll dive into a little bit
about oral health maybe.
What are the best oils to use,how to use them properly, how
not to abuse them.
(00:43):
So thank you again for bothcoming.
And, anika, tell me, how didyou get into essential oils in
the first place?
Hana Tisserand (00:51):
Thank you for having us, and I think we have
different stories, so I'll letRobert start, because his is
longer.
Robert Tisserand (00:58):
Yeah, so long ago, I barely remember.
Sorry, that was meant to be ajoke, but I was introduced to
essential oils when I was about14, 15 years old because my
mother got into it and I wasliving at home at the time and I
took a casual interest.
(01:19):
And then one day she went toParis to hear a talk on
aromatherapy and essential oilsfrom a French doctor and she
came back with a signed copy ofhis book.
And when I read the book Irealized that this isn't just
about beauty, it's medicinal too.
And then I got interested andthat was my introduction.
Hana Tisserand (01:40):
Briefly, my introduction briefly.
For me it was a sort of acasual interest, also before I
met Robert.
I come from the Czech Republicand Central Europe generally has
a very, I would say, permeablerelationship between herbal
medicine and conventionalmedicine.
(02:02):
So even my medical backgroundfamily my grandma was a nurse,
my mom is a pediatrician there'salways been a herbal tea as
well as.
So that that was always themindset.
But I got full on interestedwhen I met Robert, who came to
(02:22):
give a seminar on essentialsafety in Prague and I was his
interpreter back then and I kindof similarly, listening to his
take and his very evidence-basedfocus, got into okay.
So this is really, there'sreally something here and even
though that was focused onsafety, it was was okay.
(02:43):
So you can approach them in avery, I guess, evidence based is
the right way to put it.
So it's not just a feel goodwellness situation where you
diffuse essentials, but there'sa scientific baseline and that
was 11 years ago and since thenessentials have been as much a
(03:06):
part of my life as they are ofRobert's.
Dr. Carver (03:10):
What do you think is the most common usage of
essential oils?
Hana Tisserand (03:16):
That's a good question.
Robert Tisserand (03:19):
I was reading a couple of days ago I was
reading a report from Bulgaria,a survey, a very good survey,
and one of the questions wasabout how you use essential oils
, and I was surprised to seethat most consumers in Bulgaria
use essential oils for skincare.
That's not so common, I think,in the English-speaking world,
(03:46):
but it's still a thing for sure.
And I don't know what's themost common use, but common uses
include diffusing and ingesting.
Hana Tisserand (04:17):
And interesting, depending on what your
background of aromatherapytraining is, and maybe bath
products that type of thing.
I think there's a differencebetween intentionally users and
unintentionally users uses andunintentionally uses.
So I think with intentional,like people actively seeking to
use essential oils, I wouldagree that a lot of it would be
diffusing for whatever, whetheryou just want to make your home
smell good with something morenatural or it's for a purpose.
(04:37):
But unintentionally essentialsare, I would actually say,
dental care and oral healthwould probably be one of the
highest not so clear to everyoneusers, because peppermint is in
virtually everything frommouthwashes and if not
peppermint then menthol, whichis a major constituent of
(05:01):
peppermint essential oil.
So I think that would be peoplenot necessarily thinking about
using essential oils in the area.
But I'd say that's a giant areawhere essential oils are being
used.
Dr. Carver (05:13):
I think people might think of peppermint more
as like an herb or something,not necessarily the oil, and
obviously it has a nice,pleasant smell and it makes you
feel minty, fresh.
What?
What are the benefits of usingsomething like peppermint oil in
oral care?
It's more than just the smell,right.
What.
What is it?
Could it actually be doing in,say, a toothpaste?
Robert Tisserand (05:38):
oh, in a toothpaste.
There's not a heck of a lot ofpeppermint in your toothpaste
compared to a mouthwash, forexample.
But the benefits of menthol?
Menthol interacts with TRP-M8channel, which sensitizes cold.
(05:59):
So when we interact withmenthol or peppermint oil it
feels cold.
There's no temperature changeanywhere, but it's the sensation
of cold.
So our body reacts to that asif it was ice or some other
source of coldness and theresponse, of course, in the body
(06:23):
is to create warmth.
Perhaps going off topic a bit,but that's why menthol is so
popular for liniments, formuscle pain, because it's it's
heat and cold kind of at thesame time is because it's not
really cold, but it feels cold,which is soothing and refreshing
(06:44):
.
Menthol and peppermint.
So peppermint oil is about 40%menthol.
Dr. Carver (06:54):
Menthol is also very good analgesic Excellent,
and I know there's some thought.
I use a common toothpastecalled Vervitin and for a year
they have a citrus flavorbecause one of the problems with
peppermint and it depends onthe dosage, obviously the
strength, the source of thepeppermint oil but it can be
very killing.
From what I understand, it canbe antibacterial.
(07:16):
So in Revitin they've been verycareful about using peppermint
or menthol, whatever the activeingredients, because what we
always talk about in biologicmedicine is to get away too much
from the killing and think moreabout how do we foster that
healthy environment.
So having too much peppermintcan be too killing, where the
(07:39):
idea behind the Revitin is toprovide the vitamins, the
minerals, the prebiotics inorder to support the so-called
good bacteria.
Can you speak a little bitabout the antibacterial
component?
Hana Tisserand (07:55):
It is antibacterial.
I think pretty much everyessential oil is antibacterial
to a degree, and it's alwaysimportant to compare them to
each other.
Another common ingredient inoral health is eugenol or clove
oil, and that's the killer.
Robert Tisserand (08:20):
That's the one that's going to basically
eliminate.
Dr. Carver (08:27):
Yes, very antibacterial, very analgesic
and very anti-inflammatory,which is why it's so good in
dentistry.
Yes, we use that often when wewe open a tooth and the decay is
very deep.
It's near the nerve, so we havea lot of cracks.
Where we can?
It smells great too right wherewe can?
That?
Usually something we tell youknow patients go down to the
natural food store, get someclove oil because that will help
.
Now, that's something.
(08:47):
The other thing we have to becareful with with essential oils
is a lot of times we want tohave a carrier oil right,
because if we sometimes certainoils, if we just one ingest that
or even put it topically, itcan burn.
I made this mistake with mydaughter one time.
One of my friends said I thinkshe had an earache and I can't
remember what essential it was,but she said rub it behind the
(09:10):
ear.
I didn't hear what she said andI put it directly in her ear
and the poor kid was likescreaming bloody murder.
Why does it have that effect ifyou don't fix it with an oil?
Hana Tisserand (09:25):
The essential oil itself Can.
Robert Tisserand (09:27):
I.
Hana Tisserand (09:28):
Oh, yeah, sure Go ahead, I'm jumping in.
Robert Tisserand (09:40):
I mentioned TRPM8 channels, and these
transient receptor potentialchannels do figure here as well,
because most essential oilsinteract with some of these
channels and they sensetemperature changes but also
irritation.
And so if we have tooconcentrated, if the essential
oil is too concentrated, thesechannels go wild, saying oh,
(10:01):
irritation, irritation, not good.
Saying oh, irritation,irritation, not good, that's one
way of looking at it at least.
Another way of looking at it isit's just too much for the skin
to handle.
Hana Tisserand (10:25):
Undiluted essential oil on the skin will
evaporate the molecules, willdisturb the barrier function of
your skin and basically, yourskin will react to this
concentrated substance.
Robert Tisserand (10:34):
Yeah, it does disturb barrier function.
Hana Tisserand (10:36):
Yeah, because their essential oils have the
unique they're lipophilic andthey will dissolve, dissolve
membranes and that's.
They will do that to your skincells as well as to the
bacterial cells.
And the reason they'reconcentrated which is what I
wanted to point out is becausethe they are natural, but we
(10:59):
concentrate them.
We take plant material and wedistill it and whatever
evaporates.
So imagine you having we talkedabout peppermint tea, right?
So you have a peppermint tea.
Imagine that you capture thatsteam and from that steam you
isolate only the volatile, onlythe sun molecule.
So it's super concentrated fromthat plant and we're not meant
(11:25):
to interact with it at thatconcentration.
The only time you interact witha concentrated essential oil on
your skin is when you're peelinga citrus fruit.
Because whenever, if you'repeeling a citrus fruit, the
liquid that you get on yourhands, that's the essential oil,
and you know that that's not.
You need to wash your handsimmediately as well.
It's not really great.
So we concentrate them andthat's why they're so potent and
(11:46):
that's why they need to washyour hands immediately as well.
It's not really great, so weconcentrate them and that's why
they're so potent and that's whythey need to be diluted,
because the body can't handle it.
Robert Tisserand (11:55):
Hannah mentioned interacting with
membranes, and it's aninteresting fact that the most
potently antibacterial essentialoils work because they mostly
dissolve membranes and that'show they kill bacteria.
There are other mechanisms too,but that's the main one.
(12:17):
But they'll do the same to yourskin cells.
Dr. Carver (12:23):
Yes, yeah, unfortunately, I burned my
daughter's ear skin cell.
I didn't follow the directionsproperly, unfortunately.
This is why I always experimentwith my friends and family
first, and why my children.
Maybe why they're so resistantto all my methods sometimes, but
that it's, and so that's reallyimportant how to share, like a
little bit goes a long way.
(12:44):
So you don't.
Yeah, what do you think are thecommon or or best carrier or
oils?
Robert Tisserand (12:50):
can I pick up on what you just said?
yeah, and then we'll talk aboutcarrier oils.
Sometimes it's useful to useessential oils at concentrations
below the threshold where theywill kill bacteria and,
depending on the oil and thebacteria that we're talking
(13:13):
about, we can inhibit quorumsensing, and what that means is
you stop the bacteria frombecoming virulent, from
multiplying rapidly.
This is a process that happens.
It's called quorum sensing.
So when there's a collectivedecision between the bacteria,
(13:33):
okay, we're going into attackmode.
You can prevent that happeningwith many bacteria.
Okay, we're going into attackmode.
You can prevent that happeningwith many bacteria with a few
essential oils without killingthe bacteria the below threshold
.
There is some logic in usinglow dilutions.
Dr. Carver (13:55):
Absolutely, because , like I was just saying, the
goal isn't always just kill thebad right.
We have to understand like whyare they overgrowing in the
first place?
If you can halt that thatprogression, decrease the
virulence right?
We all have so-called bad bugsall throughout our body and the
goal shouldn't always be killingthem, it's to be keeping them
in balance.
So again, where, where, andthat's why really understanding
(14:19):
how essential oils work, I think, is important.
It's very easy to go to thestore and just buy essential oil
and it says I'll use it forthis.
But again, just that's why Iwanted my audience to understand
a little bit more about thenuances of essential oils, so
that we can use themappropriately, not underused,
not overused, so that we can getthe best the advantage of these
(14:42):
natural substances.
Hana Tisserand (14:45):
Yes, that's our whole.
That's all we do.
We're trying to understand howthey work and to get to the
carrier oils.
That will always depend on whatyou're trying to do.
So if we're just diluting theessentials and we're just
looking for a neutral medium tohave them in that doesn't have
any scent, doesn't have anyextra properties, then very
(15:06):
popular carrier oil isfractionated coconut oil, or
sometimes you can get that asMCT medium chain triglycerides.
It's virtually the same thing.
Robert Tisserand (15:19):
It's a little less greasy than it's still
greasy, but it's less greasythan most of it, yeah.
Hana Tisserand (15:26):
It doesn't have that greasiness to it.
It has a very long shelf life,so it doesn't go bad so quickly.
It does, but it takes years.
Many years and it doesn't havean extra scent.
So it's a nice neutral one thatyou can, and especially if
we're talking about your mouth.
It doesn't have a taste either,because the coconutiness of it
(15:50):
is taken away.
Robert Tisserand (15:51):
It has a slight taste.
Hana Tisserand (15:53):
Okay, is it a taste or a texture?
Robert Tisserand (15:57):
Because I was instructed by my naturopathic
doctor to ingest some MCT oiland to try putting it in my
coffee.
Now that was really bad advice.
It has a taste.
Hana Tisserand (16:11):
But it's as neutral as they come.
So that's a very your baselinebase to use.
Robert Tisserand (16:20):
If you want to add some benefits, then you can
look at oils that have extraLike olive oil and its
polyphenols, which are fabulousfor so many reasons, but
basically antioxidant arefabulous for so many reasons,
(16:40):
but basically antioxidant.
There's some really interestingoils, like black seed oil.
Listeners may be familiar withthis.
Hana Tisserand (16:51):
In a capsule form it's taken for health
reasons, but it's very good forskin issues as well.
Yeah, and if we're talkingabout, if we went to talk about
skin care, and now you have awhole area of using different
vegetable oils.
Or you have hemp seed oil,which is fabulous,
anti-inflammatory as well, butit has a very distinct smell.
Robert Tisserand (17:16):
You've got all different… If it's not
deodorized, yeah.
Hana Tisserand (17:21):
Well, if it's deodorized, then you're losing
some of the value as well.
Sunflower wheat germ there's awhole palette of vegetable oils
from different sources that comewith different extra benefits,
but that's more for I would saythat's more for skin care and
(17:42):
skin health and I know one thingwe talked about on the show
before is we have to be carefulwith seed oils because they can
oxidize so quickly and then theybecome a non-health item.
Dr. Carver (17:56):
When they become oxidized like that, they can
create more problems.
So are you wanting to look forsomething that says like
cold-pressed, or is there aquality of?
Robert Tisserand (18:06):
No, I've never understood the aversion to
what's called seed oils.
Can you explain that to me,because it doesn't make sense to
me.
Dr. Carver (18:13):
So a lot of times we think of these omega-6 oils,
which predominantly most seedoils are omega-6.
Some have the O9, some have thethree.
But when they become becausethat's what we see in very
highly processed foods and thereason why we put them in those
foods is because they createshelf stability right.
(18:36):
So a processed granola bark andsit on the shelf for five years
and still have the same quality.
But the problem is when thingsare staying on the shelf, if
they're exposed to light orthey're exposed to heat, they
oxidize and it's that oxidizedfat when that, when it gets into
our body, that can create allsorts of free radicals and
things like that, but are peopleusing oxidized seed oils?
(19:03):
I think they naturally becomeoxidized.
Like, say, if you get asunflower oil, it's in a clear
plastic bottle sitting on theshelf with all that artificial
light coming on it all the time,so it's already oxidized before
you even push In of itself theseed oil.
I don't think is bad, right?
Those again, those areso-called essential oil.
But in the processing of them,right, if they're heated too
(19:25):
high or again there's too muchlight exposed to them, they
become oxidized.
And then therefore the oxidizedfat we know that too, like when
we're talking about heartdisease, right, the LDL and HDL
doesn't really matter, it's theoxidized LDL that really is a
risk factor for heart disease.
Robert Tisserand (19:46):
A couple of things I would say.
One is yeah, they shouldn't bein clear bottles.
Very good point.
Wine bottles are usuallycolored to prevent wine from
oxidizing from the light sources.
(20:06):
And essential oils oxidize too,and we need to be aware of that
and prevent that from happeningas much as we can.
But the other thing is, if youuse an oil that isn't refined at
all, but just the raw fatty oil, most of them contain very good
antioxidants, like thepolyphenols I mentioned earlier.
(20:28):
It's strange to me that in thecosmetics industry they always
look for deodorized anddecolorized fatty oils, which
means all the good stuff's beentaken out.
Dr. Carver (20:43):
Yeah, and that's the problem with processing of
foods, right, it's thedifference between eating an
apple that has all the fiber init and apple juice, right,
because the juice you've takenaway all that fiber, so now the
sugar content is much higher,even though they come from the
same thing.
So anytime we're processing andthat's why the whole whole
foods diet is the key becausewhen you eat a whole fruit or a
(21:07):
whole food, it has all thedifferent ingredients that help
your body, you know, recognizeit and process it properly.
Hana Tisserand (21:14):
Yeah, you're not taking it apart and putting it
back in.
Process it properly.
Yeah, you're not taking itapart and putting it back in.
To get back to therecommendations for people, look
for fresh oils and if you havea smaller, if you have a, and if
you're lucky enough to live ina place that grows olives and
(21:39):
you can have a local farm or alocal source, not just for
olives but for pretty much anyoil, then that's you see the
chain.
I think that's true of anything,of essential oils and of fatty
oils.
The more you can see throughthe supply chain, the better,
because then you have moretransparency.
This isn't always easy for theend consumer to do, even for
(22:01):
essential oils, because acompany will claim we own these
lavender farms in this state,but as an insider of the
business, you know that thatlavender farm is not producing
nearly enough quantity ofessential oil for them to supply
to everything that the companyneeds essential oil for them to
supply to everything that thecompany needs.
So you have to go a little bitbeyond.
But if you can find somebodywho's very transparent with
(22:25):
their chain of production, chainof custody, like, okay, so this
is our chain of custody.
If you can trace the processingthat's happening.
That's always good, sotransparency in the brands?
Dr. Carver (22:44):
for sure, yeah, yeah, absolutely is there.
Think about this oxidation.
Is that one of the reasons mostof the time, you can only buy
essential oils in these tinylittle bottles?
Is that?
Why is that?
Robert Tisserand (22:55):
why is that?
Because, hey, they're priceyand and b, you don't need very
much yeah, it's true, like acouple of drops here if you, if
you bought larger bottles, theywould probably oxidize before
you'd use them that's what I'mthinking.
Dr. Carver (23:10):
And there you, yeah , so you want to look for a dark
colored, the small ones, withgood, good transparency when you
look at the that, that company.
So maybe could you talk about,let let's say, some common
ailments.
Let's say, if you had a sorethroat, maybe Is there a
specific one or a combinationthat you think is really good.
When you're starting to, let'ssay, you want to try to, you
(23:31):
feel like you're getting thecold or the flu, is there some
kind of essential oil blend thatyou could use to try to knock
it out?
Robert Tisserand (23:39):
Tea tree oil as a gargle works well, and it
helps tighten up your throat alittle bit as well, as well as
being anti-inflammatory,anti-microbial.
Dr. Carver (23:52):
So you'd mix a couple of drops in with some
coconut oil and gargle it thatway or put it in water.
Robert Tisserand (23:58):
It needs to be in water.
It's not ideal that you have.
You only need one drop.
It's not ideal that you have adrop floating around on the
surface of the water and you putit in your mouth.
But if you're gargling, you'regoing to pretty much mix it up
anyway.
Dr. Carver (24:18):
But if you're gargling, you're going to pretty
much mix it up anyway, becausedissolving essential oil in
water as a consumer is no easyway, and now we use a lot of tea
tree oil in a lot of dentalproducts too because of that
antibacterial effect there.
Are there any oils that aremore, because the other thing we
see a lot in dentistry isfungus?
Are there specific oils thatare more bacteria related?
(24:41):
Or is that this like asubstance that's antimicrobial,
that can do all sorts ofmicrobes?
Robert Tisserand (24:48):
The sort of heavy hitters in the
antibacterial world are clove,cinnamon bark, cinnamon leaf,
thyme.
Dr. Carver (24:59):
That's pretty much it.
Robert Tisserand (25:01):
That's pretty much it.
Oh yeah, oregano, thank you.
Closely followed then bylemongrass and tea tree.
They tend to be antifungal aswell.
Specifically, those that arespecifically antifungal would be
citronella or palorosa, whichare high in citronella, and
(25:26):
geraniol, which are very goodantifungals.
Dr. Carver (25:30):
How about somebody who has a lot of sinus, like
chronic sinusitis?
Would a certain blend be goodfor diffusing that?
Hana Tisserand (25:40):
For that I would go with steam inhalation.
So you have a bowl of hop waterand you put a couple of drops
is enough, and then you bendover it and you inhale that
steam.
That's really good to get intoyour sinuses.
You don't want the heavyhitters there, because it's very
intense.
(26:05):
So you can go with tea tree isgood.
Again, tea tree eucalyptuswould be great.
Eucalyptus pepper can be alittle strong if you get the
mantle in there, so eucalyptus.
You can even go with lavenderum, which is a gentle option,
especially if you're dealingwith a younger child with
congested nose.
You want to go gentlish andit's still a pretty good option.
Robert Tisserand (26:24):
So with a steam inhalation, the water must
not be boiling, that's just toomuch and the oils will just go
poof.
My advice is just too hot toput your hand in.
Dr. Carver (26:40):
What about?
Could you put them in anebulizer?
Hana Tisserand (26:43):
a drop in a nebulizer Do you mean like
nebulizer as a mask?
Dr. Carver (26:47):
nebulizer, yeah, instead of putting your head
over in a bowl of steam.
Could you just do a nebulizer?
Robert Tisserand (26:52):
You can do yeah.
Hana Tisserand (26:54):
You again have to deal with the issue of
dissolving them in water, so youmight need to make sure that
you don't just get the full drop.
In that case you can probablygo with a hydrosol.
So hydrosol is when we'redistilling essential oils.
You run the steam through theplant material and then the
(27:15):
steam goes through the apparatusand gets condensed and the part
that floats on top that's notwater-soluble, that's the
essential oil, but you stillhave the water part, which is
called hydrosol, sometimesfloral water, sometimes hydrolat
.
You can get it as rose watervery often and essential
companies sell differenthydrolats.
(27:35):
So for nebulizer I wouldprobably go with that, and if
you can get a eucalyptushydrolat, that would be great.
Lavender probably as well.
That would be easier for that,so that you don't have to deal
with.
Is it diluted?
Do I have a droplet ofessential somewhere in the
machine that I then need toclean?
Robert Tisserand (27:52):
So these are not widely sold to consumers,
but they're there.
If you go looking for them,they're definitely there, and
there are almost as manyhydrosols as there are essential
oils because, as Hannah said,you get both when you do a
distillation.
Dr. Carver (28:07):
I know Rosewater.
I think I have a bottle of thatin my medicine cabinet that are
used for cleaning off the skinand stuff like that.
Hana Tisserand (28:16):
Yeah, that's my favorite temner.
It has been for years.
I use it as a temner and youcan drink it as well.
It's used in some cuisines aswell, and essential oils and
hydrolytes are just like there.
I love them.
They can do that for so manythings.
Dr. Carver (28:36):
Are there certain essential oils that you should
not ingest?
Robert Tisserand (28:41):
Not specifically.
No, not specifically.
Except, yeah, there are acouple you shouldn't ingest
because they might kill you.
So there's a couple of verytoxic essential oils mustard and
horseradish, I think.
Both essential oils containallyl isothiocyanate in high
(29:05):
concentrations.
This is the same thing we getin cabbage and broccoli and
these brassicas.
Anyhow, in very, very smallamounts it's fine, it's just a
little spiciness.
But there's a third one calledworm seed oil.
(29:26):
Now, worm seed oil was usedit's so-called because it will
kill worms in your gut and theyused to give it to kids with
worms and the advice was onedrop per year of age.
That killed about 50% of thekids they gave it to.
Dr. Carver (29:51):
So after a few years they realized actually
this wasn't a good idea.
Robert Tisserand (29:56):
So yeah, now these essential oils.
You won't find them, you mightif you tried really hard.
They're not commonly sold, forobvious reasons.
Dr. Carver (30:07):
So is that similar to?
I know a lot of anti-parasiticproducts have wormwood in it.
I don't know if that's relatedto that wormwood or artemisia.
Robert Tisserand (30:11):
I'm not sure if that's the answer.
Well, there is to that.
Wormwood are artemisia and notsure fencing.
Well there is, yeah, there arevarious wormwood essential oils
that are moderately toxic,because most of them contain
something called fujone, andfujone will give you seizures if
you have too much of it.
So bad things can happen.
But you're pretty muchprotected by most sellers who
(30:35):
won't sell you anything verytoxic, or if they do sell
something mildly dangerous,they'll let you know why it's
dangerous.
Dr. Carver (30:44):
And don't be like me.
Make sure you double check theinstructions before adding it
for some kind of ailment.
Hana Tisserand (30:55):
Just to follow up on that it's always about the
dose.
It's always about how much youknow any anything can kill you
in high enough dose and so let'skeep going with some other
ailments.
Dr. Carver (31:09):
let's say you have a baby with maybe a baby who
gets chronic ear infections andthey just keep going and getting
antibiotics and we know therecould be certainly an airway
issue there that could be thesource of it.
But is there a certainessential oil that you might
dilute and help with earaches?
Robert Tisserand (31:27):
I would use rosemary oil 50-50 with a fatty
oil and dip some cotton wall andput it in the air so it doesn't
go inside all the way, ofcourse, and you don't need very
much less than a drop, probablyfor a baby.
Dr. Carver (31:51):
I've seen that work pretty well and how often would
you have to do that?
Or do you just keep the cottonball there for 30 minutes?
Robert Tisserand (32:01):
No, leave it in.
Leave it in and maybe change ittwo or three times a day if
it's still needed.
Dr. Carver (32:11):
That's great and I think as a mom, we're always
looking for those healthieroptions.
We don't want to be giving ourkids so many drugs and
antibiotics when they're young,because now we're learning how
all of those things can have amajor impact on our immune
system.
It doesn't really getsolidified until we're three.
So if we keep pummeling theimmune system whether it's
(32:33):
antibiotics or vaccines or evenTylenol, right, that can have a
major impact on a kid's overallimmune system as they're growing
up.
So it's nice to know aboutthese really natural products
that don't have those long-termconsequences.
Hana Tisserand (32:48):
And it's also good to have and that's my look
on that is that you can escalate, you can always go to okay, so
if we need, to start low go slow.
And it's like okay, I've beentrying this for a couple of days
earache.
I had it as an adult.
(33:08):
No wonder kids are so fussy.
It's one of the worst painsthat you can have.
Adult.
No wonder kids are so fussy.
It's one of the worst painsthat you can have.
So if after a day or two daysof trying this, nothing is
helping, then maybe you escalateto the antibiotics or to
whatever you need Exactly.
Dr. Carver (33:25):
Yeah, I had my daughter.
We went on a cruise.
One time she was getting a cold, we went on an airplane.
I think that just pushed thestuff down in and I had my
essential oils and I had myhomeopathics and my red light
and everything and it just shewas just in agony.
So yeah, she had to get theantibiotic eardrop.
But yeah, I tried all thatfirst and but it just wasn't
(33:47):
cutting it for her so sometimes,sometimes we, we just have to
do that.
Hana Tisserand (33:52):
But yeah, I love the fact that we have all these
different steps when you can gookay, I'm feeling something is
coming on, so I'm gonna gargletea tree oil and that's the best
.
Dr. Carver (34:03):
When you're, like they said, if you want to knit
things in the bud, right themoment you have that very first
symptom.
That's when you hit it hardwith the nutrients, the oils,
all that kind of good stuff.
What about, let's say, if youhave a cut and maybe you don't
want to use Neosporin, right, Isthere something that helps heal
the skin, or are essential oilstoo hot for that?
Hana Tisserand (34:26):
You need.
When you have a cut, you'redealing with the healing, but
you're also.
Neosporin is there to preventinfection.
To prevent infection, you cango again.
Tea tree oil is a goldenstandard.
There needs to be fresh.
I think that's when we talkedabout oxidation tea tree oil.
You just need to make sure thatit's fresh.
Don't put it directly in thewound, but like around it.
(34:49):
Um, and watch out.
If you're putting band-aid onit, it's's going to dissolve the
glue.
The essential oil is going todissolve the glue, so it's not
going to stick.
Yes, yeah, so you may want touse one of those.
I think they're called vetbandages, the ones that are
self-adhesive to itself.
(35:09):
If you're putting essential oilon a wound, lavender is great
for then the recovery of theskin and the repair of the skin,
and lavender is absolutelyamazing for burns.
I think if you ask ouraromatherapist friends,
including myself, we will allhave a bottle of lavender in the
(35:29):
kitchen.
Or you touch a pan, you'repulling something out of the
oven.
You're not careful, you or youget a little burn lavender oil,
in this case undiluted on thatburn and that's.
That's absolutely.
That's one exception to therule of not using undiluted
essential oils.
If you burn yourself, undilutedlavender on that particular
(35:53):
spot on your skin that youburned my mother always wants me
to call her in that sulfursulfidine.
Dr. Carver (35:59):
She cooks all the time.
It's constantly burning herself, so that's good to know.
She has a little bottle oflavender right there, she
doesn't need a prescription.
Hana Tisserand (36:06):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
That's absolutely, incredibly,almost magic.
I've seen blisters heal superquick with lavender Wow.
Dr. Carver (36:18):
Yeah, that's, very exciting.
Robert Tisserand (36:21):
I used to work for a company in the UK and we
created an antiseptic ointmentin a little pot and I don't
actually remember what we calledit, but it had a large red
cross on it and after a fewmonths we got a notification
from the Red Cross that I'msorry, you can't do this.
Hana Tisserand (36:45):
So we had to change the package.
Yeah, what was in it, do youremember?
Robert Tisserand (36:49):
I think it was C3, eucalyptus and Lavender.
Hana Tisserand (36:52):
Okay, yeah, that .
Dr. Carver (36:54):
Yeah, that's great because I'm always I use a lot
of like ozone in my practice, soI like the ozonated olive oil,
but that's not always readilyavailable.
Getting the essential is havinga little mix of that.
Yeah, it's again nice to havethese kinds of things in your
medicine cabinet in case andthey're small enough, easy
(37:17):
enough to travel with too, likeI always take some essential
oils and homeopathics when Itravel.
Never know, and sometimes thosearen't, unless you're near a
whole food or something youmight not be able to find
high-quality brands.
Hana Tisserand (37:32):
Absolutely yeah, and travel with them as well.
Robert Tisserand (37:38):
Yeah, we've mentioned diffusing a couple of
times, and I'd like to say thatthere are obviously different
mechanisms for diffusion, and sowe kind of classify it by
active and passive.
So active diffusion is whenthere's like a little machine
(37:59):
running and pushing fragmentsinto the air.
Passive diffusion would be, forexample, you reed thingies,
what do you call them?
Reed diffusers, reed diffusers.
So there's no active pushing ofthe fragrance, it's just there
gradually releasing itsfragrance.
(38:20):
Of course there are otherexamples With very low-level
diffusion.
There are no issues.
But if the smell is getting alittle strong, you don't want to
diffuse for a long period oftime per day Because it can
affect your health adverselyover a long period of time.
Hana Tisserand (38:42):
Not to mention it doesn't have the effect
anymore because you gethabituated to the scent.
Robert Tisserand (38:49):
If you're looking for a psychological
effect.
Hana Tisserand (38:51):
Yeah, and if you're diffusing in the air,
that's usually what you'remostly getting.
You're getting thepsychological effect in there,
you're not.
Robert Tisserand (39:00):
People use diffusion for respiratory
infections, but, although Idon't think it's the ideal
method for that, of course youcan do it and it helps.
But to get a bit more intensiveeffect you could use a personal
inhaler, a thing you put intoyour nose, or a chest rub.
(39:20):
I think that's actually abetter route than diffusion,
although you can do both.
Dr. Carver (39:28):
That's very interesting and recently I
followed this blog that talks alot about looks for kind of
toxic things in common productsand she talks at.
One of the previous posts wasabout essential oils and
phthalates.
I don't know if you guys arefamiliar in all this, how you
know so many products.
(39:48):
I have teenage daughters nowand I keep trying to teach them
like look out for the wordfragrance right or perfume.
We also see that because thereare a lot of phthalates.
We can mess with our hormonesand, um, we find those in
essential oils too.
They're everywhere.
Right, we can't we can't avoidall toxic things, yeah, but are
(40:10):
there certain and maybe thiscomes down to like transparency
and the way that it's distilledor whatever you would think a
natural?
If you're getting your lavenderoil from lavender, you would
think there maybe wouldn't bephthalates, but I don't know,
maybe because they're in theatmosphere now that it's like I
don't think organic existsanymore because there are too
(40:30):
many toxins in the air.
That it's like I don't thinkorganic exists anymore because
there are too many toxins in theair.
Robert Tisserand (40:34):
I've spent many, many years looking at
analyses of essential oils, GCMSanalyses, which go down to
0.01%.
They don't go further than that.
So you won't see, for example,heavy metals, but you'll see
phthalates.
They will come up on the GC.
We very rarely encounter themin essential oils.
There are two reasons theymight be there.
(40:55):
One is gross adulteration.
So you might see 10%, 15%, evenmore of a phthalate in an
essential oil.
That's adulteration.
Somebody's intentionally put itin there for profit reasons.
That doesn't happen much in theethical aromatherapy world, but
(41:18):
it happens sometimes.
Dr. Carver (41:20):
How would you know?
You might not know right.
You have to be careful.
Robert Tisserand (41:25):
No, you might not know.
You might not know.
The other reason you would findphthalates is because
phthalates are in plastics.
They are plasticizers and if,during the processing, any
plastic comes in contact withthe essential oil, it may leach
some phthalates out of a plastic.
It depends on the plastic, itdepends on the nature of the
(41:46):
interaction, and typically thatwill be around 1% of the
essential oil, not 10% or 20%and maybe less.
There aren't any particularessential oils where this will
happen, except maybe forexpressed citrus oils, so not
(42:11):
distilled, but expressed citrusoils, because plastic tubing is
often used in the process.
The Italians have been veryaware of this for some years and
they've taken steps to reducephthalates and also heavy metals
in their expressed citrus oils,and so it's not much of an
issue now, but it was in thepast.
(42:31):
So, yeah, those are reasons whyyou'd possibly find pallets.
Dr. Carver (42:35):
Okay, that's good to know.
We've talked about on thispodcast before the way we get
plastics into our foods oranything acidic or fatty which
oils are by nature liposilic andfatty can leach that.
So you never want to buy,ideally, oils in plastic
containers.
It has to come in glass.
(42:55):
But sometimes you'll seeproducts that have a mixture of
stuff essential oils with otherfats and stuff and it's in a
plastic bottle.
Robert Tisserand (43:03):
The oils are diluted in a product and then
it's put in plastic.
It would be nice to knowwhether any leaching happens.
Dr. Carver (43:13):
So this blog I'm talking about Momovation.
She usually has people send herproducts.
So she did one on essentialoils, maybe a month or two ago,
and of the ones that she sentshe ranks them from worst to
best of the amount of certainthings that are in there.
She just did one on castor oil.
(43:36):
It wasmayed one of my favoritecastor oils.
She found phthalates and thenI'm like, ah, again, it's like
hard to get away from this stuff.
But it's interesting to know,like you said, the processing.
I didn't think about that.
When it's when they're they'remaking it, is it passing through
plastic?
That's how get in there.
So I think that's where I guessI guess comes down to again
transparency of the company.
You want to use asking thosequestions and if the company
(43:59):
isn't going to be forthcomingabout that, then maybe you want
to look for a different company.
Robert Tisserand (44:05):
There are many companies that publish a full
GCMS report for each essentialoil on their website.
However, in most cases, if theysee something nasty, they won't
say it's there, they'll take itout of the report.
Hana Tisserand (44:20):
That's a very cynical way, it's true.
Dr. Carver (44:25):
It's cynical but maybe realistic, I know.
Hana Tisserand (44:27):
Yeah.
But if you're looking for andthat's always a question it's
like, okay, so how do I knowthat my essentials are high
quality?
Can you recommend a brand?
We don't want people to feellike, okay, this brand is always
great because it depends on thedifferent oils that you're
looking for, like somebody willhave a great selection of rose
oil, somebody will have a greatselection of different oils,
(44:49):
Somebody is closer to you, sonot everybody will have
everything that you want, butthere are certain things to look
for.
And if they publish the GCanalysis, even though as a
consumer you might not alwaysknow how to interpret it, the
fact that they are willing tomake that extra step is a good
sign.
Having a full botanical namethat's the sort of Latin
(45:10):
binomial, like Lavenderus,lavandula and Gastifolia.
So having those names for eachof their essential oils so you
can identify exactly what plantthat came from, uh, is a must.
If the company is not doingthat, I wouldn't trust their
essential oils.
Telling you how the essentialoil was obtained, whether it was
(45:30):
distillation or in case ofcitrus's expression, that's a
good sign if they tell you whatcountry the essential oil comes
from.
So the more information theydivulge about the essential oil,
the better.
Robert Tisserand (45:45):
That should also tell you what part of the
plant was used.
So I often see cinnamon oil.
Well, is it from the bark orthe leaf?
Because they're completelydifferent.
You can't just say cinnamon oil, Orange oil.
Another example Is it bitterorange or sweet orange?
Because bitter orange isphototoxic, sweet orange is not.
(46:06):
That's also important in manycases.
Hana Tisserand (46:11):
So the more information they give you, the
more you can trust that they'redoing their due diligence, and
if you can ask them questionsand if they come back to you
with answers, that's always agood sign.
Dr. Carver (46:26):
That's great.
You've obviously written a verylarge textbook also on all the
ins and outs of essential oils.
Is there a website or anotherplace that people can look to
get a little bit moreinformation to help discern what
might be the best product forcertain different things?
Hana Tisserand (46:47):
Our website is reninstituteorg.
That's where you find all ofour information.
Instituteorg that's where youfind all of our information.
I would definitely directpeople to our safety section,
which is a sort of high leveloverview of all the precautions
that you can take to make surethat essentials do not burn your
skin and that you use them toyour benefit and don't overuse
(47:07):
them.
So if you look for safety,we've got guidelines.
We also have what to do ifsomething has happened.
If you've done somethingsomething okay've got guidelines
.
We also have what to do ifsomething has happened.
If you've done somethingsomething, what are the first
eight?
So our safety section is veryuseful.
And then on our blog we give alot of information, both in
terms of how to look for areputable company and we do a
(47:30):
sort of very detailed dives intoif you want to know everything
about essential oils andmosquitoes, for example, or how
to put essential oils inskincare.
Robert Tisserand (47:38):
Many of our blogs are more like academic
articles than blogs.
Hana Tisserand (47:44):
We like to follow rabbit holes.
If you want to go even deeper,then we have online classes that
people can take, from quicksingle lessons as introductory
to more involved certificationcourses, if you decide.
Okay, I really want to know allabout essential oils oh, that's
fabulous.
Dr. Carver (48:03):
I know, yeah, all of us can go down certain rabbit
holes and we resonate withcertain things, so it's really
nice to have all those differentavenues and we all learn
differently, right?
Some of us like to read, someof us want to something, some of
us want that one-on-one.
So that's wonderful that youhave all those different options
that can appeal to the massamount of people.
Thank you, this has been reallyinteresting and exciting and
(48:26):
definitely learned a lot.
So I'm excited to dive ontothat website and have those
resources for myself, for mypatients, dive onto that website
and have those resources formyself, for my patients.
So, thank you so much formeeting with me this afternoon
and, like I said, we'll directeverybody to yours.
Is there any other last littlepieces of information or advice
you'd like to leave the audiencewith?
Robert Tisserand (48:47):
Less is more.
Dr. Carver (48:53):
I think that's very apropos, and I think sometimes
we always think the opposite.
Right, if a little bit is good,then more must be better.
But that is definitely not thecase with essential oils, and
now again, that's why we talkedabout them coming in smaller
bottles, so we don't need a lot.
Robert Tisserand (49:09):
And I'll just add one thing that many
essential oils are antioxidantwhere they can oxidize, but
they're also antioxidant beforethey've oxidized.
But if you use too much of anantioxidant oil it becomes
pro-oxidant.
Dr. Carver (49:23):
Weird huh I think that's how vitamin C works, too
right?
When you have super, super highdoses of vitamin C, it becomes
an oxidant.
When you have lesser levels ofvitamin C, it's an antioxidant.
So, like we talked about at thevery beginning, right, it's all
about the dosage.
So that makes a difference.
With even these seeminglybenign things.
They can really changedepending on how much we're
(49:47):
using.
Hana Tisserand (49:48):
Thank you so much for having us.
Dr. Carver (49:50):
Thank you, guys.
I hope you have a wonderfulrest of your day and to the
audience, I hope you enjoyedthis episode.
Please join me for the next oneand I hope you all have a
wonderful day.
Hello, I'm Dr Rachel Carver, aboard-certified naturopathic
biologic dentist and a certifiedhealth coach.
(50:10):
Did you know that over 80% ofthe US population has some form
of gum disease?
Many of us don't even know thatwe have this source of chronic
infection and inflammation inour mouth that's been linked to
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dementia, colon cancer, kidneydisease, even pregnancy
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Would you like to learn how toreverse and prevent these
(50:33):
chronic, debilitating conditionswithout spending a lot of time
and money at the dentist?
Join me for my six-week coursewhere I will teach you the root
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You'll learn how to be your ownbest doctor.
Are you ready to get started?
Let's go.
Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode
of the Root of the Matter.
I am your host, dr RachelCarver.
Today we are fortunate to haveRobert Tisran and, I'm sorry,
your name also, hannah.
Yes, thank you, I wanted tomake sure.
I said that they work with aninstitute educating
(00:22):
practitioners about essentialoils, so I think this is a
really important topic.
Essential oils are somethingthat's fairly accessible to the
wide majority of people, but Ithink we need to really learn
how to use them properly, andwe'll dive into a little bit
about oral health maybe.
What are the best oils to use,how to use them properly, how
not to abuse them.
(00:43):
So thank you again for bothcoming.
And, anika, tell me, how didyou get into essential oils in
the first place?
Hana Tisserand (00:51):
Thank you for having us, and I think we have
different stories, so I'll letRobert start, because his is
longer.
Robert Tisserand (00:58):
Yeah, so long ago, I barely remember.
Sorry, that was meant to be ajoke, but I was introduced to
essential oils when I was about14, 15 years old because my
mother got into it and I wasliving at home at the time and I
took a casual interest.
(01:19):
And then one day she went toParis to hear a talk on
aromatherapy and essential oilsfrom a French doctor and she
came back with a signed copy ofhis book.
And when I read the book Irealized that this isn't just
about beauty, it's medicinal too.
And then I got interested andthat was my introduction.
Hana Tisserand (01:40):
Briefly, my introduction briefly.
For me it was a sort of acasual interest, also before I
met Robert.
I come from the Czech Republicand Central Europe generally has
a very, I would say, permeablerelationship between herbal
medicine and conventionalmedicine.
(02:02):
So even my medical backgroundfamily my grandma was a nurse,
my mom is a pediatrician there'salways been a herbal tea as
well as.
So that that was always themindset.
But I got full on interestedwhen I met Robert, who came to
(02:22):
give a seminar on essentialsafety in Prague and I was his
interpreter back then and I kindof similarly, listening to his
take and his very evidence-basedfocus, got into okay.
So this is really, there'sreally something here and even
though that was focused onsafety, it was was okay.
(02:43):
So you can approach them in avery, I guess, evidence based is
the right way to put it.
So it's not just a feel goodwellness situation where you
diffuse essentials, but there'sa scientific baseline and that
was 11 years ago and since thenessentials have been as much a
(03:06):
part of my life as they are ofRobert's.
Dr. Carver (03:10):
What do you think is the most common usage of
essential oils?
Hana Tisserand (03:16):
That's a good question.
Robert Tisserand (03:19):
I was reading a couple of days ago I was
reading a report from Bulgaria,a survey, a very good survey,
and one of the questions wasabout how you use essential oils
, and I was surprised to seethat most consumers in Bulgaria
use essential oils for skincare.
That's not so common, I think,in the English-speaking world,
(03:46):
but it's still a thing for sure.
And I don't know what's themost common use, but common uses
include diffusing and ingesting.
Hana Tisserand (04:17):
And interesting, depending on what your
background of aromatherapytraining is, and maybe bath
products that type of thing.
I think there's a differencebetween intentionally users and
unintentionally users uses andunintentionally uses.
So I think with intentional,like people actively seeking to
use essential oils, I wouldagree that a lot of it would be
diffusing for whatever, whetheryou just want to make your home
smell good with something morenatural or it's for a purpose.
(04:37):
But unintentionally essentialsare, I would actually say,
dental care and oral healthwould probably be one of the
highest not so clear to everyoneusers, because peppermint is in
virtually everything frommouthwashes and if not
peppermint then menthol, whichis a major constituent of
(05:01):
peppermint essential oil.
So I think that would be peoplenot necessarily thinking about
using essential oils in the area.
But I'd say that's a giant areawhere essential oils are being
used.
Dr. Carver (05:13):
I think people might think of peppermint more
as like an herb or something,not necessarily the oil, and
obviously it has a nice,pleasant smell and it makes you
feel minty, fresh.
What?
What are the benefits of usingsomething like peppermint oil in
oral care?
It's more than just the smell,right.
What.
What is it?
Could it actually be doing in,say, a toothpaste?
Robert Tisserand (05:38):
oh, in a toothpaste.
There's not a heck of a lot ofpeppermint in your toothpaste
compared to a mouthwash, forexample.
But the benefits of menthol?
Menthol interacts with TRP-M8channel, which sensitizes cold.
(05:59):
So when we interact withmenthol or peppermint oil it
feels cold.
There's no temperature changeanywhere, but it's the sensation
of cold.
So our body reacts to that asif it was ice or some other
source of coldness and theresponse, of course, in the body
(06:23):
is to create warmth.
Perhaps going off topic a bit,but that's why menthol is so
popular for liniments, formuscle pain, because it's it's
heat and cold kind of at thesame time is because it's not
really cold, but it feels cold,which is soothing and refreshing
(06:44):
.
Menthol and peppermint.
So peppermint oil is about 40%menthol.
Dr. Carver (06:54):
Menthol is also very good analgesic Excellent,
and I know there's some thought.
I use a common toothpastecalled Vervitin and for a year
they have a citrus flavorbecause one of the problems with
peppermint and it depends onthe dosage, obviously the
strength, the source of thepeppermint oil but it can be
very killing.
From what I understand, it canbe antibacterial.
(07:16):
So in Revitin they've been verycareful about using peppermint
or menthol, whatever the activeingredients, because what we
always talk about in biologicmedicine is to get away too much
from the killing and think moreabout how do we foster that
healthy environment.
So having too much peppermintcan be too killing, where the
(07:39):
idea behind the Revitin is toprovide the vitamins, the
minerals, the prebiotics inorder to support the so-called
good bacteria.
Can you speak a little bitabout the antibacterial
component?
Hana Tisserand (07:55):
It is antibacterial.
I think pretty much everyessential oil is antibacterial
to a degree, and it's alwaysimportant to compare them to
each other.
Another common ingredient inoral health is eugenol or clove
oil, and that's the killer.
Robert Tisserand (08:20):
That's the one that's going to basically
eliminate.
Dr. Carver (08:27):
Yes, very antibacterial, very analgesic
and very anti-inflammatory,which is why it's so good in
dentistry.
Yes, we use that often when wewe open a tooth and the decay is
very deep.
It's near the nerve, so we havea lot of cracks.
Where we can?
It smells great too right wherewe can?
That?
Usually something we tell youknow patients go down to the
natural food store, get someclove oil because that will help
.
Now, that's something.
(08:47):
The other thing we have to becareful with with essential oils
is a lot of times we want tohave a carrier oil right,
because if we sometimes certainoils, if we just one ingest that
or even put it topically, itcan burn.
I made this mistake with mydaughter one time.
One of my friends said I thinkshe had an earache and I can't
remember what essential it was,but she said rub it behind the
(09:10):
ear.
I didn't hear what she said andI put it directly in her ear
and the poor kid was likescreaming bloody murder.
Why does it have that effect ifyou don't fix it with an oil?
Hana Tisserand (09:25):
The essential oil itself Can.
Robert Tisserand (09:27):
I.
Hana Tisserand (09:28):
Oh, yeah, sure Go ahead, I'm jumping in.
Robert Tisserand (09:40):
I mentioned TRPM8 channels, and these
transient receptor potentialchannels do figure here as well,
because most essential oilsinteract with some of these
channels and they sensetemperature changes but also
irritation.
And so if we have tooconcentrated, if the essential
oil is too concentrated, thesechannels go wild, saying oh,
(10:01):
irritation, irritation, not good.
Saying oh, irritation,irritation, not good, that's one
way of looking at it at least.
Another way of looking at it isit's just too much for the skin
to handle.
Hana Tisserand (10:25):
Undiluted essential oil on the skin will
evaporate the molecules, willdisturb the barrier function of
your skin and basically, yourskin will react to this
concentrated substance.
Robert Tisserand (10:34):
Yeah, it does disturb barrier function.
Hana Tisserand (10:36):
Yeah, because their essential oils have the
unique they're lipophilic andthey will dissolve, dissolve
membranes and that's.
They will do that to your skincells as well as to the
bacterial cells.
And the reason they'reconcentrated which is what I
wanted to point out is becausethe they are natural, but we
(10:59):
concentrate them.
We take plant material and wedistill it and whatever
evaporates.
So imagine you having we talkedabout peppermint tea, right?
So you have a peppermint tea.
Imagine that you capture thatsteam and from that steam you
isolate only the volatile, onlythe sun molecule.
So it's super concentrated fromthat plant and we're not meant
(11:25):
to interact with it at thatconcentration.
The only time you interact witha concentrated essential oil on
your skin is when you're peelinga citrus fruit.
Because whenever, if you'repeeling a citrus fruit, the
liquid that you get on yourhands, that's the essential oil,
and you know that that's not.
You need to wash your handsimmediately as well.
It's not really great.
So we concentrate them andthat's why they're so potent and
(11:46):
that's why they need to washyour hands immediately as well.
It's not really great, so weconcentrate them and that's why
they're so potent and that's whythey need to be diluted,
because the body can't handle it.
Robert Tisserand (11:55):
Hannah mentioned interacting with
membranes, and it's aninteresting fact that the most
potently antibacterial essentialoils work because they mostly
dissolve membranes and that'show they kill bacteria.
There are other mechanisms too,but that's the main one.
(12:17):
But they'll do the same to yourskin cells.
Dr. Carver (12:23):
Yes, yeah, unfortunately, I burned my
daughter's ear skin cell.
I didn't follow the directionsproperly, unfortunately.
This is why I always experimentwith my friends and family
first, and why my children.
Maybe why they're so resistantto all my methods sometimes, but
that it's, and so that's reallyimportant how to share, like a
little bit goes a long way.
(12:44):
So you don't.
Yeah, what do you think are thecommon or or best carrier or
oils?
Robert Tisserand (12:50):
can I pick up on what you just said?
yeah, and then we'll talk aboutcarrier oils.
Sometimes it's useful to useessential oils at concentrations
below the threshold where theywill kill bacteria and,
depending on the oil and thebacteria that we're talking
(13:13):
about, we can inhibit quorumsensing, and what that means is
you stop the bacteria frombecoming virulent, from
multiplying rapidly.
This is a process that happens.
It's called quorum sensing.
So when there's a collectivedecision between the bacteria,
(13:33):
okay, we're going into attackmode.
You can prevent that happeningwith many bacteria.
Okay, we're going into attackmode.
You can prevent that happeningwith many bacteria with a few
essential oils without killingthe bacteria the below threshold
.
There is some logic in usinglow dilutions.
Dr. Carver (13:55):
Absolutely, because , like I was just saying, the
goal isn't always just kill thebad right.
We have to understand like whyare they overgrowing in the
first place?
If you can halt that thatprogression, decrease the
virulence right?
We all have so-called bad bugsall throughout our body and the
goal shouldn't always be killingthem, it's to be keeping them
in balance.
So again, where, where, andthat's why really understanding
(14:19):
how essential oils work, I think, is important.
It's very easy to go to thestore and just buy essential oil
and it says I'll use it forthis.
But again, just that's why Iwanted my audience to understand
a little bit more about thenuances of essential oils, so
that we can use themappropriately, not underused,
not overused, so that we can getthe best the advantage of these
(14:42):
natural substances.
Hana Tisserand (14:45):
Yes, that's our whole.
That's all we do.
We're trying to understand howthey work and to get to the
carrier oils.
That will always depend on whatyou're trying to do.
So if we're just diluting theessentials and we're just
looking for a neutral medium tohave them in that doesn't have
any scent, doesn't have anyextra properties, then very
(15:06):
popular carrier oil isfractionated coconut oil, or
sometimes you can get that asMCT medium chain triglycerides.
It's virtually the same thing.
Robert Tisserand (15:19):
It's a little less greasy than it's still
greasy, but it's less greasythan most of it, yeah.
Hana Tisserand (15:26):
It doesn't have that greasiness to it.
It has a very long shelf life,so it doesn't go bad so quickly.
It does, but it takes years.
Many years and it doesn't havean extra scent.
So it's a nice neutral one thatyou can, and especially if
we're talking about your mouth.
It doesn't have a taste either,because the coconutiness of it
(15:50):
is taken away.
Robert Tisserand (15:51):
It has a slight taste.
Hana Tisserand (15:53):
Okay, is it a taste or a texture?
Robert Tisserand (15:57):
Because I was instructed by my naturopathic
doctor to ingest some MCT oiland to try putting it in my
coffee.
Now that was really bad advice.
It has a taste.
Hana Tisserand (16:11):
But it's as neutral as they come.
So that's a very your baselinebase to use.
Robert Tisserand (16:20):
If you want to add some benefits, then you can
look at oils that have extraLike olive oil and its
polyphenols, which are fabulousfor so many reasons, but
basically antioxidant arefabulous for so many reasons,
(16:40):
but basically antioxidant.
There's some really interestingoils, like black seed oil.
Listeners may be familiar withthis.
Hana Tisserand (16:51):
In a capsule form it's taken for health
reasons, but it's very good forskin issues as well.
Yeah, and if we're talkingabout, if we went to talk about
skin care, and now you have awhole area of using different
vegetable oils.
Or you have hemp seed oil,which is fabulous,
anti-inflammatory as well, butit has a very distinct smell.
Robert Tisserand (17:16):
You've got all different… If it's not
deodorized, yeah.
Hana Tisserand (17:21):
Well, if it's deodorized, then you're losing
some of the value as well.
Sunflower wheat germ there's awhole palette of vegetable oils
from different sources that comewith different extra benefits,
but that's more for I would saythat's more for skin care and
(17:42):
skin health and I know one thingwe talked about on the show
before is we have to be carefulwith seed oils because they can
oxidize so quickly and then theybecome a non-health item.
Dr. Carver (17:56):
When they become oxidized like that, they can
create more problems.
So are you wanting to look forsomething that says like
cold-pressed, or is there aquality of?
Robert Tisserand (18:06):
No, I've never understood the aversion to
what's called seed oils.
Can you explain that to me,because it doesn't make sense to
me.
Dr. Carver (18:13):
So a lot of times we think of these omega-6 oils,
which predominantly most seedoils are omega-6.
Some have the O9, some have thethree.
But when they become becausethat's what we see in very
highly processed foods and thereason why we put them in those
foods is because they createshelf stability right.
(18:36):
So a processed granola bark andsit on the shelf for five years
and still have the same quality.
But the problem is when thingsare staying on the shelf, if
they're exposed to light orthey're exposed to heat, they
oxidize and it's that oxidizedfat when that, when it gets into
our body, that can create allsorts of free radicals and
things like that, but are peopleusing oxidized seed oils?
(19:03):
I think they naturally becomeoxidized.
Like, say, if you get asunflower oil, it's in a clear
plastic bottle sitting on theshelf with all that artificial
light coming on it all the time,so it's already oxidized before
you even push In of itself theseed oil.
I don't think is bad, right?
Those again, those areso-called essential oil.
But in the processing of them,right, if they're heated too
(19:25):
high or again there's too muchlight exposed to them, they
become oxidized.
And then therefore the oxidizedfat we know that too, like when
we're talking about heartdisease, right, the LDL and HDL
doesn't really matter, it's theoxidized LDL that really is a
risk factor for heart disease.
Robert Tisserand (19:46):
A couple of things I would say.
One is yeah, they shouldn't bein clear bottles.
Very good point.
Wine bottles are usuallycolored to prevent wine from
oxidizing from the light sources.
(20:06):
And essential oils oxidize too,and we need to be aware of that
and prevent that from happeningas much as we can.
But the other thing is, if youuse an oil that isn't refined at
all, but just the raw fatty oil, most of them contain very good
antioxidants, like thepolyphenols I mentioned earlier.
(20:28):
It's strange to me that in thecosmetics industry they always
look for deodorized anddecolorized fatty oils, which
means all the good stuff's beentaken out.
Dr. Carver (20:43):
Yeah, and that's the problem with processing of
foods, right, it's thedifference between eating an
apple that has all the fiber init and apple juice, right,
because the juice you've takenaway all that fiber, so now the
sugar content is much higher,even though they come from the
same thing.
So anytime we're processing andthat's why the whole whole
foods diet is the key becausewhen you eat a whole fruit or a
(21:07):
whole food, it has all thedifferent ingredients that help
your body, you know, recognizeit and process it properly.
Hana Tisserand (21:14):
Yeah, you're not taking it apart and putting it
back in.
Process it properly.
Yeah, you're not taking itapart and putting it back in.
To get back to therecommendations for people, look
for fresh oils and if you havea smaller, if you have a, and if
you're lucky enough to live ina place that grows olives and
(21:39):
you can have a local farm or alocal source, not just for
olives but for pretty much anyoil, then that's you see the
chain.
I think that's true of anything,of essential oils and of fatty
oils.
The more you can see throughthe supply chain, the better,
because then you have moretransparency.
This isn't always easy for theend consumer to do, even for
(22:01):
essential oils, because acompany will claim we own these
lavender farms in this state,but as an insider of the
business, you know that thatlavender farm is not producing
nearly enough quantity ofessential oil for them to supply
to everything that the companyneeds essential oil for them to
supply to everything that thecompany needs.
So you have to go a little bitbeyond.
But if you can find somebodywho's very transparent with
(22:25):
their chain of production, chainof custody, like, okay, so this
is our chain of custody.
If you can trace the processingthat's happening.
That's always good, sotransparency in the brands?
Dr. Carver (22:44):
for sure, yeah, yeah, absolutely is there.
Think about this oxidation.
Is that one of the reasons mostof the time, you can only buy
essential oils in these tinylittle bottles?
Is that?
Why is that?
Robert Tisserand (22:55):
why is that?
Because, hey, they're priceyand and b, you don't need very
much yeah, it's true, like acouple of drops here if you, if
you bought larger bottles, theywould probably oxidize before
you'd use them that's what I'mthinking.
Dr. Carver (23:10):
And there you, yeah , so you want to look for a dark
colored, the small ones, withgood, good transparency when you
look at the that, that company.
So maybe could you talk about,let let's say, some common
ailments.
Let's say, if you had a sorethroat, maybe Is there a
specific one or a combinationthat you think is really good.
When you're starting to, let'ssay, you want to try to, you
(23:31):
feel like you're getting thecold or the flu, is there some
kind of essential oil blend thatyou could use to try to knock
it out?
Robert Tisserand (23:39):
Tea tree oil as a gargle works well, and it
helps tighten up your throat alittle bit as well, as well as
being anti-inflammatory,anti-microbial.
Dr. Carver (23:52):
So you'd mix a couple of drops in with some
coconut oil and gargle it thatway or put it in water.
Robert Tisserand (23:58):
It needs to be in water.
It's not ideal that you have.
You only need one drop.
It's not ideal that you have adrop floating around on the
surface of the water and you putit in your mouth.
But if you're gargling, you'regoing to pretty much mix it up
anyway.
Dr. Carver (24:18):
But if you're gargling, you're going to pretty
much mix it up anyway, becausedissolving essential oil in
water as a consumer is no easyway, and now we use a lot of tea
tree oil in a lot of dentalproducts too because of that
antibacterial effect there.
Are there any oils that aremore, because the other thing we
see a lot in dentistry isfungus?
Are there specific oils thatare more bacteria related?
(24:41):
Or is that this like asubstance that's antimicrobial,
that can do all sorts ofmicrobes?
Robert Tisserand (24:48):
The sort of heavy hitters in the
antibacterial world are clove,cinnamon bark, cinnamon leaf,
thyme.
Dr. Carver (24:59):
That's pretty much it.
Robert Tisserand (25:01):
That's pretty much it.
Oh yeah, oregano, thank you.
Closely followed then bylemongrass and tea tree.
They tend to be antifungal aswell.
Specifically, those that arespecifically antifungal would be
citronella or palorosa, whichare high in citronella, and
(25:26):
geraniol, which are very goodantifungals.
Dr. Carver (25:30):
How about somebody who has a lot of sinus, like
chronic sinusitis?
Would a certain blend be goodfor diffusing that?
Hana Tisserand (25:40):
For that I would go with steam inhalation.
So you have a bowl of hop waterand you put a couple of drops
is enough, and then you bendover it and you inhale that
steam.
That's really good to get intoyour sinuses.
You don't want the heavyhitters there, because it's very
intense.
(26:05):
So you can go with tea tree isgood.
Again, tea tree eucalyptuswould be great.
Eucalyptus pepper can be alittle strong if you get the
mantle in there, so eucalyptus.
You can even go with lavenderum, which is a gentle option,
especially if you're dealingwith a younger child with
congested nose.
You want to go gentlish andit's still a pretty good option.
Robert Tisserand (26:24):
So with a steam inhalation, the water must
not be boiling, that's just toomuch and the oils will just go
poof.
My advice is just too hot toput your hand in.
Dr. Carver (26:40):
What about?
Could you put them in anebulizer?
Hana Tisserand (26:43):
a drop in a nebulizer Do you mean like
nebulizer as a mask?
Dr. Carver (26:47):
nebulizer, yeah, instead of putting your head
over in a bowl of steam.
Could you just do a nebulizer?
Robert Tisserand (26:52):
You can do yeah.
Hana Tisserand (26:54):
You again have to deal with the issue of
dissolving them in water, so youmight need to make sure that
you don't just get the full drop.
In that case you can probablygo with a hydrosol.
So hydrosol is when we'redistilling essential oils.
You run the steam through theplant material and then the
(27:15):
steam goes through the apparatusand gets condensed and the part
that floats on top that's notwater-soluble, that's the
essential oil, but you stillhave the water part, which is
called hydrosol, sometimesfloral water, sometimes hydrolat
.
You can get it as rose watervery often and essential
companies sell differenthydrolats.
(27:35):
So for nebulizer I wouldprobably go with that, and if
you can get a eucalyptushydrolat, that would be great.
Lavender probably as well.
That would be easier for that,so that you don't have to deal
with.
Is it diluted?
Do I have a droplet ofessential somewhere in the
machine that I then need toclean?
Robert Tisserand (27:52):
So these are not widely sold to consumers,
but they're there.
If you go looking for them,they're definitely there, and
there are almost as manyhydrosols as there are essential
oils because, as Hannah said,you get both when you do a
distillation.
Dr. Carver (28:07):
I know Rosewater.
I think I have a bottle of thatin my medicine cabinet that are
used for cleaning off the skinand stuff like that.
Hana Tisserand (28:16):
Yeah, that's my favorite temner.
It has been for years.
I use it as a temner and youcan drink it as well.
It's used in some cuisines aswell, and essential oils and
hydrolytes are just like there.
I love them.
They can do that for so manythings.
Dr. Carver (28:36):
Are there certain essential oils that you should
not ingest?
Robert Tisserand (28:41):
Not specifically.
No, not specifically.
Except, yeah, there are acouple you shouldn't ingest
because they might kill you.
So there's a couple of verytoxic essential oils mustard and
horseradish, I think.
Both essential oils containallyl isothiocyanate in high
(29:05):
concentrations.
This is the same thing we getin cabbage and broccoli and
these brassicas.
Anyhow, in very, very smallamounts it's fine, it's just a
little spiciness.
But there's a third one calledworm seed oil.
(29:26):
Now, worm seed oil was usedit's so-called because it will
kill worms in your gut and theyused to give it to kids with
worms and the advice was onedrop per year of age.
That killed about 50% of thekids they gave it to.
Dr. Carver (29:51):
So after a few years they realized actually
this wasn't a good idea.
Robert Tisserand (29:56):
So yeah, now these essential oils.
You won't find them, you mightif you tried really hard.
They're not commonly sold, forobvious reasons.
Dr. Carver (30:07):
So is that similar to?
I know a lot of anti-parasiticproducts have wormwood in it.
I don't know if that's relatedto that wormwood or artemisia.
Robert Tisserand (30:11):
I'm not sure if that's the answer.
Well, there is to that.
Wormwood are artemisia and notsure fencing.
Well there is, yeah, there arevarious wormwood essential oils
that are moderately toxic,because most of them contain
something called fujone, andfujone will give you seizures if
you have too much of it.
So bad things can happen.
But you're pretty muchprotected by most sellers who
(30:35):
won't sell you anything verytoxic, or if they do sell
something mildly dangerous,they'll let you know why it's
dangerous.
Dr. Carver (30:44):
And don't be like me.
Make sure you double check theinstructions before adding it
for some kind of ailment.
Hana Tisserand (30:55):
Just to follow up on that it's always about the
dose.
It's always about how much youknow any anything can kill you
in high enough dose and so let'skeep going with some other
ailments.
Dr. Carver (31:09):
let's say you have a baby with maybe a baby who
gets chronic ear infections andthey just keep going and getting
antibiotics and we know therecould be certainly an airway
issue there that could be thesource of it.
But is there a certainessential oil that you might
dilute and help with earaches?
Robert Tisserand (31:27):
I would use rosemary oil 50-50 with a fatty
oil and dip some cotton wall andput it in the air so it doesn't
go inside all the way, ofcourse, and you don't need very
much less than a drop, probablyfor a baby.
Dr. Carver (31:51):
I've seen that work pretty well and how often would
you have to do that?
Or do you just keep the cottonball there for 30 minutes?
Robert Tisserand (32:01):
No, leave it in.
Leave it in and maybe change ittwo or three times a day if
it's still needed.
Dr. Carver (32:11):
That's great and I think as a mom, we're always
looking for those healthieroptions.
We don't want to be giving ourkids so many drugs and
antibiotics when they're young,because now we're learning how
all of those things can have amajor impact on our immune
system.
It doesn't really getsolidified until we're three.
So if we keep pummeling theimmune system whether it's
(32:33):
antibiotics or vaccines or evenTylenol, right, that can have a
major impact on a kid's overallimmune system as they're growing
up.
So it's nice to know aboutthese really natural products
that don't have those long-termconsequences.
Hana Tisserand (32:48):
And it's also good to have and that's my look
on that is that you can escalate, you can always go to okay, so
if we need, to start low go slow.
And it's like okay, I've beentrying this for a couple of days
earache.
I had it as an adult.
(33:08):
No wonder kids are so fussy.
It's one of the worst painsthat you can have.
Adult.
No wonder kids are so fussy.
It's one of the worst painsthat you can have.
So if after a day or two daysof trying this, nothing is
helping, then maybe you escalateto the antibiotics or to
whatever you need Exactly.
Dr. Carver (33:25):
Yeah, I had my daughter.
We went on a cruise.
One time she was getting a cold, we went on an airplane.
I think that just pushed thestuff down in and I had my
essential oils and I had myhomeopathics and my red light
and everything and it just shewas just in agony.
So yeah, she had to get theantibiotic eardrop.
But yeah, I tried all thatfirst and but it just wasn't
(33:47):
cutting it for her so sometimes,sometimes we, we just have to
do that.
Hana Tisserand (33:52):
But yeah, I love the fact that we have all these
different steps when you can gookay, I'm feeling something is
coming on, so I'm gonna gargletea tree oil and that's the best
.
Dr. Carver (34:03):
When you're, like they said, if you want to knit
things in the bud, right themoment you have that very first
symptom.
That's when you hit it hardwith the nutrients, the oils,
all that kind of good stuff.
What about, let's say, if youhave a cut and maybe you don't
want to use Neosporin, right, Isthere something that helps heal
the skin, or are essential oilstoo hot for that?
Hana Tisserand (34:26):
You need.
When you have a cut, you'redealing with the healing, but
you're also.
Neosporin is there to preventinfection.
To prevent infection, you cango again.
Tea tree oil is a goldenstandard.
There needs to be fresh.
I think that's when we talkedabout oxidation tea tree oil.
You just need to make sure thatit's fresh.
Don't put it directly in thewound, but like around it.
(34:49):
Um, and watch out.
If you're putting band-aid onit, it's's going to dissolve the
glue.
The essential oil is going todissolve the glue, so it's not
going to stick.
Yes, yeah, so you may want touse one of those.
I think they're called vetbandages, the ones that are
self-adhesive to itself.
(35:09):
If you're putting essential oilon a wound, lavender is great
for then the recovery of theskin and the repair of the skin,
and lavender is absolutelyamazing for burns.
I think if you ask ouraromatherapist friends,
including myself, we will allhave a bottle of lavender in the
(35:29):
kitchen.
Or you touch a pan, you'repulling something out of the
oven.
You're not careful, you or youget a little burn lavender oil,
in this case undiluted on thatburn and that's.
That's absolutely.
That's one exception to therule of not using undiluted
essential oils.
If you burn yourself, undilutedlavender on that particular
(35:53):
spot on your skin that youburned my mother always wants me
to call her in that sulfursulfidine.
Dr. Carver (35:59):
She cooks all the time.
It's constantly burning herself, so that's good to know.
She has a little bottle oflavender right there, she
doesn't need a prescription.
Hana Tisserand (36:06):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
That's absolutely, incredibly,almost magic.
I've seen blisters heal superquick with lavender Wow.
Dr. Carver (36:18):
Yeah, that's, very exciting.
Robert Tisserand (36:21):
I used to work for a company in the UK and we
created an antiseptic ointmentin a little pot and I don't
actually remember what we calledit, but it had a large red
cross on it and after a fewmonths we got a notification
from the Red Cross that I'msorry, you can't do this.
Hana Tisserand (36:45):
So we had to change the package.
Yeah, what was in it, do youremember?
Robert Tisserand (36:49):
I think it was C3, eucalyptus and Lavender.
Hana Tisserand (36:52):
Okay, yeah, that .
Dr. Carver (36:54):
Yeah, that's great because I'm always I use a lot
of like ozone in my practice, soI like the ozonated olive oil,
but that's not always readilyavailable.
Getting the essential is havinga little mix of that.
Yeah, it's again nice to havethese kinds of things in your
medicine cabinet in case andthey're small enough, easy
(37:17):
enough to travel with too, likeI always take some essential
oils and homeopathics when Itravel.
Never know, and sometimes thosearen't, unless you're near a
whole food or something youmight not be able to find
high-quality brands.
Hana Tisserand (37:32):
Absolutely yeah, and travel with them as well.
Robert Tisserand (37:38):
Yeah, we've mentioned diffusing a couple of
times, and I'd like to say thatthere are obviously different
mechanisms for diffusion, and sowe kind of classify it by
active and passive.
So active diffusion is whenthere's like a little machine
(37:59):
running and pushing fragmentsinto the air.
Passive diffusion would be, forexample, you reed thingies,
what do you call them?
Reed diffusers, reed diffusers.
So there's no active pushing ofthe fragrance, it's just there
gradually releasing itsfragrance.
(38:20):
Of course there are otherexamples With very low-level
diffusion.
There are no issues.
But if the smell is getting alittle strong, you don't want to
diffuse for a long period oftime per day Because it can
affect your health adverselyover a long period of time.
Hana Tisserand (38:42):
Not to mention it doesn't have the effect
anymore because you gethabituated to the scent.
Robert Tisserand (38:49):
If you're looking for a psychological
effect.
Hana Tisserand (38:51):
Yeah, and if you're diffusing in the air,
that's usually what you'remostly getting.
You're getting thepsychological effect in there,
you're not.
Robert Tisserand (39:00):
People use diffusion for respiratory
infections, but, although Idon't think it's the ideal
method for that, of course youcan do it and it helps.
But to get a bit more intensiveeffect you could use a personal
inhaler, a thing you put intoyour nose, or a chest rub.
(39:20):
I think that's actually abetter route than diffusion,
although you can do both.
Dr. Carver (39:28):
That's very interesting and recently I
followed this blog that talks alot about looks for kind of
toxic things in common productsand she talks at.
One of the previous posts wasabout essential oils and
phthalates.
I don't know if you guys arefamiliar in all this, how you
know so many products.
(39:48):
I have teenage daughters nowand I keep trying to teach them
like look out for the wordfragrance right or perfume.
We also see that because thereare a lot of phthalates.
We can mess with our hormonesand, um, we find those in
essential oils too.
They're everywhere.
Right, we can't we can't avoidall toxic things, yeah, but are
(40:10):
there certain and maybe thiscomes down to like transparency
and the way that it's distilledor whatever you would think a
natural?
If you're getting your lavenderoil from lavender, you would
think there maybe wouldn't bephthalates, but I don't know,
maybe because they're in theatmosphere now that it's like I
don't think organic existsanymore because there are too
(40:30):
many toxins in the air.
That it's like I don't thinkorganic exists anymore because
there are too many toxins in theair.
Robert Tisserand (40:34):
I've spent many, many years looking at
analyses of essential oils, GCMSanalyses, which go down to
0.01%.
They don't go further than that.
So you won't see, for example,heavy metals, but you'll see
phthalates.
They will come up on the GC.
We very rarely encounter themin essential oils.
There are two reasons theymight be there.
(40:55):
One is gross adulteration.
So you might see 10%, 15%, evenmore of a phthalate in an
essential oil.
That's adulteration.
Somebody's intentionally put itin there for profit reasons.
That doesn't happen much in theethical aromatherapy world, but
(41:18):
it happens sometimes.
Dr. Carver (41:20):
How would you know?
You might not know right.
You have to be careful.
Robert Tisserand (41:25):
No, you might not know.
You might not know.
The other reason you would findphthalates is because
phthalates are in plastics.
They are plasticizers and if,during the processing, any
plastic comes in contact withthe essential oil, it may leach
some phthalates out of a plastic.
It depends on the plastic, itdepends on the nature of the
(41:46):
interaction, and typically thatwill be around 1% of the
essential oil, not 10% or 20%and maybe less.
There aren't any particularessential oils where this will
happen, except maybe forexpressed citrus oils, so not
(42:11):
distilled, but expressed citrusoils, because plastic tubing is
often used in the process.
The Italians have been veryaware of this for some years and
they've taken steps to reducephthalates and also heavy metals
in their expressed citrus oils,and so it's not much of an
issue now, but it was in thepast.
(42:31):
So, yeah, those are reasons whyyou'd possibly find pallets.
Dr. Carver (42:35):
Okay, that's good to know.
We've talked about on thispodcast before the way we get
plastics into our foods oranything acidic or fatty which
oils are by nature liposilic andfatty can leach that.
So you never want to buy,ideally, oils in plastic
containers.
It has to come in glass.
(42:55):
But sometimes you'll seeproducts that have a mixture of
stuff essential oils with otherfats and stuff and it's in a
plastic bottle.
Robert Tisserand (43:03):
The oils are diluted in a product and then
it's put in plastic.
It would be nice to knowwhether any leaching happens.
Dr. Carver (43:13):
So this blog I'm talking about Momovation.
She usually has people send herproducts.
So she did one on essentialoils, maybe a month or two ago,
and of the ones that she sentshe ranks them from worst to
best of the amount of certainthings that are in there.
She just did one on castor oil.
(43:36):
It wasmayed one of my favoritecastor oils.
She found phthalates and thenI'm like, ah, again, it's like
hard to get away from this stuff.
But it's interesting to know,like you said, the processing.
I didn't think about that.
When it's when they're they'remaking it, is it passing through
plastic?
That's how get in there.
So I think that's where I guessI guess comes down to again
transparency of the company.
You want to use asking thosequestions and if the company
(43:59):
isn't going to be forthcomingabout that, then maybe you want
to look for a different company.
Robert Tisserand (44:05):
There are many companies that publish a full
GCMS report for each essentialoil on their website.
However, in most cases, if theysee something nasty, they won't
say it's there, they'll take itout of the report.
Hana Tisserand (44:20):
That's a very cynical way, it's true.
Dr. Carver (44:25):
It's cynical but maybe realistic, I know.
Hana Tisserand (44:27):
Yeah.
But if you're looking for andthat's always a question it's
like, okay, so how do I knowthat my essentials are high
quality?
Can you recommend a brand?
We don't want people to feellike, okay, this brand is always
great because it depends on thedifferent oils that you're
looking for, like somebody willhave a great selection of rose
oil, somebody will have a greatselection of different oils,
(44:49):
Somebody is closer to you, sonot everybody will have
everything that you want, butthere are certain things to look
for.
And if they publish the GCanalysis, even though as a
consumer you might not alwaysknow how to interpret it, the
fact that they are willing tomake that extra step is a good
sign.
Having a full botanical namethat's the sort of Latin
(45:10):
binomial, like Lavenderus,lavandula and Gastifolia.
So having those names for eachof their essential oils so you
can identify exactly what plantthat came from, uh, is a must.
If the company is not doingthat, I wouldn't trust their
essential oils.
Telling you how the essentialoil was obtained, whether it was
(45:30):
distillation or in case ofcitrus's expression, that's a
good sign if they tell you whatcountry the essential oil comes
from.
So the more information theydivulge about the essential oil,
the better.
Robert Tisserand (45:45):
That should also tell you what part of the
plant was used.
So I often see cinnamon oil.
Well, is it from the bark orthe leaf?
Because they're completelydifferent.
You can't just say cinnamon oil, Orange oil.
Another example Is it bitterorange or sweet orange?
Because bitter orange isphototoxic, sweet orange is not.
(46:06):
That's also important in manycases.
Hana Tisserand (46:11):
So the more information they give you, the
more you can trust that they'redoing their due diligence, and
if you can ask them questionsand if they come back to you
with answers, that's always agood sign.
Dr. Carver (46:26):
That's great.
You've obviously written a verylarge textbook also on all the
ins and outs of essential oils.
Is there a website or anotherplace that people can look to
get a little bit moreinformation to help discern what
might be the best product forcertain different things?
Hana Tisserand (46:47):
Our website is reninstituteorg.
That's where you find all ofour information.
Instituteorg that's where youfind all of our information.
I would definitely directpeople to our safety section,
which is a sort of high leveloverview of all the precautions
that you can take to make surethat essentials do not burn your
skin and that you use them toyour benefit and don't overuse
(47:07):
them.
So if you look for safety,we've got guidelines.
We also have what to do ifsomething has happened.
If you've done somethingsomething okay've got guidelines
.
We also have what to do ifsomething has happened.
If you've done somethingsomething, what are the first
eight?
So our safety section is veryuseful.
And then on our blog we give alot of information, both in
terms of how to look for areputable company and we do a
(47:30):
sort of very detailed dives intoif you want to know everything
about essential oils andmosquitoes, for example, or how
to put essential oils inskincare.
Robert Tisserand (47:38):
Many of our blogs are more like academic
articles than blogs.
Hana Tisserand (47:44):
We like to follow rabbit holes.
If you want to go even deeper,then we have online classes that
people can take, from quicksingle lessons as introductory
to more involved certificationcourses, if you decide.
Okay, I really want to know allabout essential oils oh, that's
fabulous.
Dr. Carver (48:03):
I know, yeah, all of us can go down certain rabbit
holes and we resonate withcertain things, so it's really
nice to have all those differentavenues and we all learn
differently, right?
Some of us like to read, someof us want to something, some of
us want that one-on-one.
So that's wonderful that youhave all those different options
that can appeal to the massamount of people.
Thank you, this has been reallyinteresting and exciting and
(48:26):
definitely learned a lot.
So I'm excited to dive ontothat website and have those
resources for myself, for mypatients, dive onto that website
and have those resources formyself, for my patients.
So, thank you so much formeeting with me this afternoon
and, like I said, we'll directeverybody to yours.
Is there any other last littlepieces of information or advice
you'd like to leave the audiencewith?
Robert Tisserand (48:47):
Less is more.
Dr. Carver (48:53):
I think that's very apropos, and I think sometimes
we always think the opposite.
Right, if a little bit is good,then more must be better.
But that is definitely not thecase with essential oils, and
now again, that's why we talkedabout them coming in smaller
bottles, so we don't need a lot.
Robert Tisserand (49:09):
And I'll just add one thing that many
essential oils are antioxidantwhere they can oxidize, but
they're also antioxidant beforethey've oxidized.
But if you use too much of anantioxidant oil it becomes
pro-oxidant.
Dr. Carver (49:23):
Weird huh I think that's how vitamin C works, too
right?
When you have super, super highdoses of vitamin C, it becomes
an oxidant.
When you have lesser levels ofvitamin C, it's an antioxidant.
So, like we talked about at thevery beginning, right, it's all
about the dosage.
So that makes a difference.
With even these seeminglybenign things.
They can really changedepending on how much we're
(49:47):
using.
Hana Tisserand (49:48):
Thank you so much for having us.
Dr. Carver (49:50):
Thank you, guys.
I hope you have a wonderfulrest of your day and to the
audience, I hope you enjoyedthis episode.
Please join me for the next oneand I hope you all have a
wonderful day.
Hello, I'm Dr Rachel Carver, aboard-certified naturopathic
biologic dentist and a certifiedhealth coach.
(50:10):
Did you know that over 80% ofthe US population has some form
of gum disease?
Many of us don't even know thatwe have this source of chronic
infection and inflammation inour mouth that's been linked to
serious consequences like heartdisease, diabetes, stroke,
dementia, colon cancer, kidneydisease, even pregnancy
complications.
Would you like to learn how toreverse and prevent these
(50:33):
chronic, debilitating conditionswithout spending a lot of time
and money at the dentist?
Join me for my six-week coursewhere I will teach you the root
cause of disease.
You'll learn how to be your ownbest doctor.
Are you ready to get started?
Let's go.
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