Using WINTERGREEN???

[momswildchild61]

just came across a online essential oil supplier, who sell a synergy for meditation which include:

cedar himalayan, narde ind, frankincense, wintergreen [sm=confused-smiley-012.gif]

i thought wintergreen is banned to use? or does all the precaution only applies when used in massage?
if it is, then i want to ask if it is safe for pregnane women to use any oils in their burner, even the ones that are emmenagogue? beacuse i know there are quite alot of women suffer from insomia when pregnane, and i happen to know someone who used lavender. how about rosemary with epilepsy?

 

[ancewrine6]

my dad uses wintergreen as part of his muscle soothing remedy... i think he gets it from Boots.

 

[Czech.]

darren,

oh....really? but it is highly toxic......or may be the precaution only apply to oils when used in aromatherapy way...? so confuse.[>:]

 

[hrpyache]

I dont think he buys it neat. I'll ask next time I speak to him!

 

[Ja Sm]

Hi guys,

yeah winter green and himalayan cedar are fantastic oils! just finished degree in Comp therapies and did alot on the chemistry of oils and although winter green can be irritant it is a brilliant analgesic if used correctly. its reccommended to use it on people over 9yrs and at a maximum of 3% and not for use with warfarin or NSAID's medication. Himalayen is a strong anti-inflammatory but not for pregnant ladies.

Pregnant women using burners- my friend used massage blends and burners through her pregnancy and all was great. Maybe speak with the lady's midwife before hand so she is aware what is going on. Alot of the properties of oils are lost when heated in a burner so they may longer be emmenagogue but I'm not 100% some one else may know tho.

Rosemary and epilepsy- mixed views on this, some say yes use it it's great for them while other say stay well clear. could always just use a drop. hard to say with epilepsy cuz a slight smell of anything can spark a fit.

hope this helps

 

[Bunny Breeder 22]

I also bought from pharmacy an aromatherapy back pain blended oil and that had wintergreen as one of the ingredients. It has been excellent for pain.

Sports people, say for example rugby players use wintergreen to warm thei muscles up before a match on a freezing autumn day.

I think the precaution is there as it is very strong and can be irritating to sensitive skin. It just has to be used in tiny amounts and it is recomended for use only by experts who know what they are doing.

 

[sexproninfo]

amaris,

thanks for the sharing. but i think it's hard to tell who's 'expert' enough to use oils like this. so many people, like me has qualified and yet still feel clueless when using less common oils. i was taught never, ever use wintergreen as it is toxic and it's banned from using. i've also looked up some books(although my collection is limited) and they all say unsafe to full no matter what. i think it's quite hard for new therapist like me to explore, as there are so many wonderful oils out there with little information about them.

 

[pooh Bear]

i would say,know the oils you learned about inside out,get used to their chemical make up and the you can move on to the lesser known useful ones.I would suggest attending a course that goes into more detail about these types of oils.........will have a mooch around but not even sure if one exists!

 

[TalswannaBymn]

Hi all

if wondering about the toxicy of certain oils, i would recommend having a look at Robert Tissarand's Essential Oil Safety: A Guide for Health Care Professionals - it is rather expensive, so see if your library stocks it or ask on here -hp- to see if someone can give you chemistry info about wintergreen or other oils you're concerned about. the link below will take you to amazon, so you can see what the book looks like:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0443052603/qid=1126858410/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_26_2/202-7249736-6596633

Another good book is Aromatherapy: Essential Oils in Colour by Rosemary Caddy, which shouldn't cost more than £8 - it gives you a colour wheel with each oil, showing its chemical make up - although not having looked at it too recently, i don't know whether wintergreen is listed.

And Julia Lawless's Essential Oil Encyclopaedia, which contains a pretty comprehensive a-z listing of essential oils.

I'm currently still doing my ITEC holistics dip, and i'm certainly no expert on chemistry. however, a friend of mine on my course has recently finished her phd in chemistry and she said that used in small amounts, for short periods of time and for the right reasons there is no reason why you can't use the supposed 'toxic' oils. they are usually toxic in certain ways of application, as you know ingesting oils like eucalyptus up to 4ml has been known to kill - if you read the robert tissarand book mentioned above it will give details.

also, wintergreen is used in olbas oil, a wonderful decongestant that is widely available and has been used for years - you can also ingest a small amount from the olbas oil pastiles also widely available.

essential oil of wormwood, which is used in Absinthe, is known to be toxic but only in very high doses when ingested. Absinthe is still sold all over the world, the only difference is at what percentage of alcohol - it's only sold at 55% in the UK, but 70% in the Czech Republic - which is said to cause it's main toxic effects, which goes for any alcohol if drunk excessively and for long periods of time.

nutmeg is also an hallucinogenic, like wormwood, but can only harm when ingested in ridiculously high quantities. it can also leave you in a deep coma like sleep for more than 16 days according to what i've read - again robert tissarands book very helpful.

these are some of the oils they tell you not to use because of their toxic effects, but have they actually told you what effects they have and what doses cause them? Bergamot oil, for example, is also toxic, but no one tells you not to use it, because it is only mildly photo-toxic - it was used in sun creams not so many years ago, of which there is a reference in the Louise Tucker Aromatherapy book. it all depends on the oils chemical make up i would suppose.

for my course we had to do an assignment on the toxicity of essential oils we used and ones we wouldn't, of which we had no info from our college, we had to read books from the library and search the internet. i suggest, you might want to do a personal research project of something similar, so you get to know the benefits and the concerns relating to the essential oils you do use and some of the ones you don't e.g. wintergreen.

every aromatherapists experience with essential oils is different, and how each client reacts to them is also different. when looking in the books like the ones mentioned above and other aroma guides by shirley/len price or chrissie wildwood etc, most are based on their own personal experience as aromatherapists and therefore information differs. the same goes for aromatherapy tutors' experience, as they don't treat the same clients and the same ailments as each other. thus, trial and error, for want of a better phrase, plays a slight part in aromatherapy, as we don't instinctively know what the client is going to react best to - we try for synergy, but it doesn't always work. so we keep trying til something does work.

hope this is helpful,

love and ligh