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Essential Oils Might Be the New Antibiotics

theatlantic.com

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Re: Essential Oils Might Be the New Antibiotics

#31

Post by greglindahl »

LogicFailsMe wrote: post #22

I used to have an incurable sinus infection that plagued me every winter. Antibiotics were worthless. Then, after X-rays confirmed my maxillary sinuses were filled to the brim with crud and doctors wanted to cut out large swaths of my sinuses, I decided to hang upside down on my personal quack theory that it might let them drain. To my somewhat surprise, every day I did this an unholy brew of dark brown mucus and blo…

Sounds like both you and traditional medicine were theorizing about the same cause -- you tried a cure that has to be repeated if the situation develops again, while they were aiming at something that might be a permanent fix.

Why did you conclude that traditional medicine wasn't the answer?

Re: Essential Oils Might Be the New Antibiotics

#32

Post by codyb »

Trisell wrote: post #25

My wife is big into essential oils. She initially bought into the hype. Interestingly the company she started to buy from, has soured her due to their business practices. Among other things selling "pure" oils, that really are not as pure as the claim. I will say this when she first started with them, I thought it was all voodoo and witchcraft, but after using various oils, I find that certain ones do give relief of…

That's a pragmatic approach drawing information from the sources available and not drawing a hard line anywhere.

I've never been able to understand people's tendency to insist on extremes. If you're Republican, everything Democrat is bad, and vice versa. If you are an advocate for Eastern medicine all doctors are quacks. Yadda yadda yadda. These may be extreme and a bit simplified but the tendency seems to run strong in some point.

Although, to put it in another frame, perhaps the people more likely to espouse their views are also the ones more likely to take a strong stance which means as a result I tend not to hear from the more pragmatic among us.

Re: Essential Oils Might Be the New Antibiotics

#33

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

sp332 wrote: post #30
LogicFailsMe wrote: post #22

I used to have an incurable sinus infection that plagued me every winter. Antibiotics were worthless. Then, after X-rays confirmed my maxillary sinuses were filled to the brim with crud and doctors wanted to cut out large swaths of my sinuses, I decided to hang upside down on my personal quack theory that it might let them drain. To my somewhat surprise, every day I did this an unholy brew of dark brown mucus and blo…

Since most sinus infections are viral, antibiotics probably did nothing at all.

Correct. Northward of 90% of all URTIs (Upper Respiratory Tract Infections) are caused by viruses and never develop secondary bacterial infections. [1]

If you have a bacterial upper respiratory tract infection you usually feel much less well than when the average viral infection.

The usually route of antibiotics appearing to work is that a course of antibiotics is usually 10 days, by which time you're mostly over the viral infection anyway.

1.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3098742/

Re: Essential Oils Might Be the New Antibiotics

#34

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

thanatosmin wrote: post #8

It's telling that only one of these studies is published in a journal where I can find the full text (with MIT journal access). Sadly, it's only really possible to judge the research in that article, which is questionable. They test the susceptibility of e. coli strains to various oils, at 8-12 uL/mL. I think the only observation one needs point out is that concentration in a person's blood would kill them too. I wis…

Yeah, totally, that's ridiculous. Essential oils should never be taken internally. Having said that, the oils from most culinary herbs can usually be diluted one drop per litre safely.

I studied herbal medicine formally for four years about ten years ago, and I always just tell people "never take essential oils internally" and they say things like "but what if an Aromatherpist (actually a qualification in Australia) tells me to, to which I reply "never take essential oils internally".

Never take essential oils internally. Unless you want kidney failure.

Re: Essential Oils Might Be the New Antibiotics

#35

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

benten10 wrote: post #26

Just so no one is confused (like I was for a long time), essential oils are so called because they are obtained using plant essences, not because they are essential to us in any way (though they may now be!)

The other ones, the ones we need, are correctly called EFAs - Essential Fatties Acids[1].

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_fatty_acid

Re: Essential Oils Might Be the New Antibiotics

#36

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #13
click170 wrote: post #2

It's interesting to hear about the different impacts of essential oils, though when you consider manuka honey also has healing properties as well, it stands to reason that other natural plant extracts could have similar properties.

> it stands to reason that other natural plant extracts could have similar properties. That's as old as time. - Lemon skin for stomach flu (Salmonella) - Garlic for ulcer (H. pylori). - Onion for food intoxication (E. coli and S. aureus). - Eucalyptus for general respiratory tract infections. - Tamarind and cranberry for bladder infection. - Coconut oil for intestinal parasites. - Honey (any, not just manuka) as a ge…

And more recently we've learned things like:

Cinnamon for stomach ulcer due to inhibitory affect on H. pylori

Cinnamon for blood sugar regulation

Cinnamon for Parkinson's disease

And that's just one of the 214 herbs I've studied intensively.

Re: Essential Oils Might Be the New Antibiotics

#37

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

hedning wrote: post #24
bpodgursky wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's far more complex than this. A lot of meat --free-range cattle and sheep particularly--is raised on land which is not arable for traditional crops. Farmed fish too, when farmed responsibly, can provide a lot of food on "land" which could not have produced other food.

But we aren't lacking land to grow food. We have so much of it actually that we use a third of the arable land world wide to grow feed for livestock, (which accounts for 40% all grains grown)[1]. If we just ate this grain instead we could feed 3.5 billions people extra[2]. Cattle (and sheep) are extremely inefficient. We use 60% of all farmland to produce beef, but it only provides us with 2% of all calories (5% of p…

One issue is that arable land isn't, along with other resources, evenly distributed over the plant, nor do the people have equal access to technology maximise production output.

This is why we need trade, which is arguably better than one form or another of centralised government controlled redistribution.

So the issue isn't, and probably never will be, limits to resources, but limits to human resourcefulness - of which there are none.

Re: Essential Oils Might Be the New Antibiotics

#38

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

refurb wrote: post #17
Mz wrote: post #4

This is so cool: Other research, from a 2011 issue of BMC Proceedings, showed that adding a combination of plant extracts—from oregano, cinnamon, and chili peppers—actually changed the gene expression of treated chickens, resulting in weight gain as well as protection against an injected intestinal infection. I have used all three of those as part of my treatment for my health issues, rooted in a genetic disorder. Th…

Changing gene expression happens all the time due to everyday things like: sunlight exposure, amount of fat you eat, how much sleep you get, etc, etc, etc.

So true. "change in gene expression" is one of those three-word-slogans. A change in gene expression occurs ever time we eat as our liver and pancreas ramp up production of various enzymes.

It's probably true that every activity we participate in cause a change in gene expression as the underlying physical manifestation of a change in biochemistry.

Re: Essential Oils Might Be the New Antibiotics

#39

Post by DubiousPusher »

Carl Sagan, in his book Demon Haunted World, described his bologna detection kit, a set of principals and tests used to get a feel for the veracity of a claim. Here is my Medical modality bologna detection kit.

1. It is claimed the modality cures or treats a wide variety of otherwise unconnected symptoms.

2. Claims about the modality are unspecific. "It boosts the immune system." "It removes toxins."

3. It is claimed the modality is as effective as already substantiated treatments but trials are not controlled.

4. Purveyors of the treatment invoke any benefit besides its efficacy and side effect profile. They emphasize its antiquity or how natural it is.

5. Top researchers of the modality stand to profit from positive outcomes of their research.

6. There is no likely way for the treatment to work.

7. Trials are not double blinded.

Re: Essential Oils Might Be the New Antibiotics

#40

Post by benten10 »

DubiousPusher wrote: post #39

Carl Sagan, in his book Demon Haunted World, described his bologna detection kit, a set of principals and tests used to get a feel for the veracity of a claim. Here is my Medical modality bologna detection kit. 1. It is claimed the modality cures or treats a wide variety of otherwise unconnected symptoms. 2. Claims about the modality are unspecific. "It boosts the immune system." "It removes toxins." 3. It is claimed…

Slightly off-topic, but a Bologna detection kit wouldn't be that difficult to construct: even standard CV software could detect standard Bologna in standard shape. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_sausage

On the other hand, I imagine Italian bologna is prepared with essential oils, so a working Bologna detection kit would also positively identify essential oils.

On the other hand, Sagan's kit would be quite a useful tool in detecting baloney.

As a non-native speaker, I was particularly thrown off by that, and had to look it up. :)

Do I agree with you! Apply the system to homeopathy, and most of it comes off as baloney. The saddest part is, it is often the people who would benefit from 'actual' medicine the most (the sick and the poor) that also fall into the homeopathy trap. At least in the neck of the woods I am from.

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