Young Living Link

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Doug Corrigan: Welcome to this, the latest edition in our educational series on Young Living products. Now this is somewhat of a special holiday edition, but by saying that I want to say up front for those who might be newer to Young Living that the 3 blends we’ll be discussing today – Thieves, Citrus Fresh, and Christmas Spirit – are popular blends and they can be used throughout the year for a multitude of different reasons; it just so happens that these 3 blends are especially appropriate for the specific, more intense challenges many of us are facing during this holiday time of the year. As many hundreds of thousands can testify, Young Living has hundreds of unequaled products but the reason we’re continually moving forward at a record pace month after month is because of the passion and the talent of our many gifted distributors. I’ve been blessed and impressed by so many distributors, but today I have the privilege of having with me 2 who have never failed to inspire me personally; 2 of our finest oil educators, let’s even call them oil ambassadors, Julie Chertow and Peter Minke. Welcome, both of you. Julie Chertow has been a bodyworker and a healer for 26 years and has spent many years serving specifically the film and music industries in the Los Angeles area, but she maintains an active clientele on the East Coast and the West Coast, and also in her home state of Oregon. She began working with the Young Living oils in 1997; has trained extensively with Gary Young, the Founder and President of Young Living Essential Oils, and she has traveled to Young Living’s farms in Utah, Idaho, France, and Ecuador – sounds like just about every farm, Julie, and you’ve participated in 8 different harvests and distillations of the oils, studying again directly with Dr. Young. She has a thorough, practical, and experiential knowledge of the oils and applies this every day in her healing practice. One of her greatest passions, and why I’ve asked her to join us today, is that she loves to share her wealth of knowledge about the Young Living oils with others. So Julie, welcome!

Julie Chertow: Thank you so much and you could not be more correct, I have such a passion to share what I have been gifted in learning all these years.

Doug: Great, we’re so glad you’re here today. Our other guest, Dr. Peter Minke, earned a PhD in Cell Biology and a BS in Molecular and Cell Biology from Texas A&M University. He’s also a certified Aston-Patterning practitioner, a registered massage therapist, a massage therapy instructor and continuing education provider in Texas. In addition to that he has worked as laboratory supervisor and research coordinator at the Young Life Research Clinic in Springville, Utah. Currently Peter is a member of the Integrative Health Professionals Council and works full time as a massage therapist, and has been teaching about wellness since the mid-1990s. Both of these people have tremendous experiential testimonials and both of them have tremendous firsthand experience with the oils. Peter incorporates juicing, herbal support, breath, bodywork, movement, prayer (we can’t forget that one!), and of course our therapeutic-grade essential oils to stay well and grow healthier every single day. So welcome to you, Dr. Minke.

Dr. Peter Minke: Thanks Doug. Just like Julie said, for me this is a big passion. I love sharing about the oils because of what they’ve done for me and my family, and as you said for me this is not an academic pursuit, it’s not a study, it’s a daily experience of something that I do for myself and have done. I’m a cancer survivor of lung cancer when I was 20 and so this is a really passionate thing for me, to have the tools that I need to get my body well and healthy and to stay healthy. When I found Young Living products that’s what I found, the products that I needed to get where I needed to go, which is to say vibrant health. I’ve been able to help my wife and my family in that process as well, so I love to share these wonderful tools with people because we need all the help we can get in our world today and I’m sure we’ll talk about that in this call.

Doug: Yes, we certainly will! Now one of the main reasons I’ve asked the both of you here today is to help me present these 3 tremendous oil blends and really give us some hands-on experience. Both of you have vast hands-on experience personally using the oils and experimenting with the oils in hundreds of difficult situations. So today more than reviewing the history and origin of these blends, which we may touch on briefly, I really would like for us to spend most of our time in the areas of specific application and usage. Let’s break them down systematically by their aromatic use, their topical applications, and then also how we can use these blends internally where that’s appropriate.

So let’s just start off with the one that is the most popular of these 3, one that has really become a phenomenon in and of itself and has inspired the whole Thieves line of products; our Thieves blend of essential oils. Just for a quick review, for those of you for whom it’s new, the Thieves blend of essential oils contains Clove, Lemon, Cinnamon, Eucalyptus radiata, and Rosemary. Just a quick story; this is based on the Four Thieves Vinegar that was an herbal preparation that, back in the time of the black plague, when that was ravaging Europe and France specifically, these 4 thieves invented a vinegar, the vinegar of Marseilles or the Four Thieves Vinegar. They included all kinds of aromatic plants and herbs in it and this helped them to stay well even in those dire situations during the black plague when so many people were dying horrendous deaths. This of course is a tremendous antibacterial, tremendous antimicrobial, all of the different things that accompany Thieves but the applications really don’t stop there. Let’s dive right in here, Dr. Minke, and explain to us a little bit about what you know about Thieves and how you use it, specifically aromatically.

Dr. Minke: Thieves, as you said, has ingredients that are potently antimicrobial and that’s backed up by research. You can go on PubMed and type in clove oil or oil of cloves for example, or cinnamon oil, and every one of those oils in Thieves are all in their own right antimicrobial, they have various antimicrobial properties whether that means antibacterial or antifungal or whatever. So when you blend them all together of course you get a much more potent combination. As you say, the application for that when sitting in a bottle on a shelf doesn’t do much for you so we have to get it out there, we have to use it. I was just in Australia for their conference and there at the conference Ed Close was presenting. He put his information out there about Thieves as an antifungal, and in that case he used it in a diffuser; diffusing for 24 or 48 hours in an apartment showed amazing results for getting rid of fungus and fungus spores, and so we initially right away have an understanding of applying essential oils by putting them in the air. We call that diffusing or aerosolizing. The nice thing about essential oils is that they’re already aromatic, they already naturally want to go out in the air which is why we smell them as being fragrant, through those chemicals that come into our nose and they hit the olfactory bulb and all the chemistry that goes with that. So we get this experience of these highly aromatic compounds and the nice thing about them is that when we put them in the air they do the things in the air that they’re designed to do, given the plant, which is to say these compounds are potently antimicrobial to protect the plant from invasion from microbes, and also they protect the plant from injury so they’re antioxidant as well. So we get this wonderful protection in the air by putting this out and diffusing it. One of the applications that’s nice, especially around this time when the kids start to get a little snuffly and we start to feel a little bit congested in the head, is to put 20-30 drops of Thieves oil in the diffuser, run the diffuser for 30-40 minutes and get that into the air, especially where you’re spending your time, depending on how big your house is. We own 4 diffusers and we’ll put a diffuser in various rooms and run the diffuser for 30 minutes in each room, and it really makes the house freshen up. Thieves is one of those oils that we turn to for putting it out in the air.

Doug: So you mentioned fungus, I know Dr. Close has talked a lot about mold, we know about bacteria, airborne bacteria; science has been done by Young Living on this specific blend and the antiviral properties of Clove is really one of the great ones, it has a broad-spectrum antiviral activity, so for all kinds of these bad-news microbes that might be attacking us it sounds like Thieves is a great option for that. What better time than during the holidays to enlist this kind of protection, when our houses are so full of people, visitors from all different walks of life and so many people coming together, I can see how this could be a big help. Now Julie, tell us a little about why you’re excited about Thieves and some of the ways you’ve used it.

Julie: Thieves is absolutely one of my most favorite blends, because really the antimicrobial properties, the antibacterial properties are so potent and so powerful, and something that Dr. Minke just shared with us about getting the oils into the air – because let’s say one of your children comes home from school and they’ve brought bacteria or a virus from their classmates – now they’re coughing and sneezing and that virus is in the air. What happens is, everybody else in the family is breathing the germs in and it’s being passed among family members. Then there are reoccurrences that happen so if you can catch it, diffuse, and clean the airborne germs and viruses you won’t be getting sick and the children are not going to be passing it on to their siblings. This is very powerful and I’ve definitely shared with a lot of my clients and families that were getting reoccurrences constantly, ongoing. Also for people who work in businesses and bring home germs and viruses it’s very important. We may not be able to control the air outside, but certainly in our homes we have the power to be able to do that, and that is by diffusing Thieves.

Doug: Also in our office spaces, and some of those areas where we can control a little more of what’s going on around us. What is the reaction then, aromatically, with people who aren’t familiar with essential oils? What’s often the reaction with Thieves?

Julie: I definitely never get complaints from diffusing Thieves, everybody loves the scent. It’s so pleasant, the Cinnamon, the Clove, the Rosemary, the Eucalyptus … it’s really a divine-smelling oil! Everybody really loves it. I never ever get complaints from that. For me personally, since I’ve been using this oil for 14 years I have not had one cold or one case of the flu. I used to get sick once or twice a year, and I honestly have not had one, and it’s so amazing, the change I’ve had and that knowledge that I’ve been able to bring to so many people; people who travel on airplanes who are constantly getting sick, people at schools … I have a friend who’s a schoolteacher for preschool kids and she called me one day because she had a bad problem going on with the school. Everybody was getting sick and she was having so much missing attendance in her class, she asked me what she could do. I had her bring the diffuser with the Thieves and she started diffusing maybe ½ hour a day, and then I had her bring Thieves Household Cleaner and start to wipe down the school desks twice a day. She had 100% attendance after she started doing that. All the parents, the principal, and the other teachers started asking her what she did. If that’s not a testimonial, I don’t know what is! I really think that schoolteachers would have such a benefit with using this, as well as places like yoga studios. You know, all the people doing yoga and detoxifying in the classes – this is another place to diffuse oils and also just to clear the air from everybody detoxing and sweating. Plus it’s a much better smell when you walk into a class after another class has been ongoing!

Doug: Certainly, those classes always seem to have a very distinct and less-than-desirable smell! Now you talked a little bit about using them in an airplane, in a confined space. How are we supposed to use the essential oils in a situation like that? We obviously can’t pull out our diffuser. How can we use Thieves in an area like that, and then what do you recommend for topical use?

Julie: I am one with a lot of experience because I travel all the time, and it’s tricky because sometimes there are people who get offended by the oils. What I do, always before I get on an airplane, is I take 2 Inner Defense capsules which contain Thieves, and I always bring my Thieves Spray. I continually spray it down my throat because there is a lot of recycled air on airplanes and you’re breathing in everybody else’s germs that they might be carrying. You can’t get away from that, but I call it my ammunition, my protection, the Thieves Spray. I just spray once down my throat, I do it before I get on the airplane. I also do it once they close the doors because often there’s just like a blast when a chemical covers the whole interior of the plane, and I also have a bottle under my nose that I open up instead of putting it on. It’s the funniest thing because you always see people looking around, trying to figure out where that smell is coming from! It really has helped so many of my clients who started doing this who were traveling for work and always getting sick. Of course I put it on the bottoms of my feet before I even leave for the airport.

Peter: That’s remarkable because it’s exactly what I do. I’ll just back that up; I take an Inner Defense. When I flew to Japan it was a 13-hour flight on one of the shots, and to Australia it was 16 hours, so I’ll take an Inner Defense before I go, I’ll use the Thieves spray throughout the flight. I personally do not put the oils on, I do not take the bottles out and use them on the airplane because of that issue of everything being such close quarters. On occasion I have just opened my little quart-sized bag that has 15 bottles of oil in it and the aroma will come out because during the pressure changes maybe one of the caps leaked a little bit, and a person around me will say “Oh that smells so nice, what is that?” But in general I don’t apply the oils in close quarters like that. I will do the Thieves Spray on a regular basis throughout the flight, and the only thing I would add is that for me, I’ll take some of the 1-ounce NingXia Red packs to give me a little boost internally as well as in addition to the Inner Defense. That’s something that anyone can do, and the nice thing is that you can do it in your office. I had a lady who called me and said she was diffusing the oils in the office and they were offensive to a co-worker, and they actually had to write a report up. I can just say she was really distressed by the fact that she wanted to use Thieves in her own office setting. So she arrived at the solution, basically what you just said Julie, of putting the oils on her feet before she goes to work so she’ll get well saturated through the feet. With shoes on others wouldn’t smell it. Then she would use the Thieves Spray throughout the day, and then take an oil capsule, and that really gives the body the boost it needs without needing it to be aromatically present for the rest of the people there.

Doug: Now you both mentioned Thieves Spray. What if I only have my 15-mL bottle of Thieves? Is that something I can take internally? What do you both recommend for that?

Julie: You can absolutely drop a couple drops of Thieves down your throat, you can put it into water and drink it. Before we had Inner Defense capsules that’s what I used to do every single day, put Thieves in my water and drink it. Also before we had Inner Defense I would make my own capsules with Thieves, so it really became easy with the Inner Defense because they’re premade capsules for us, we just have to open the bottle and take it, and it’s all right there. Plus it also has Oregano and Thyme in it, which are wonderful additions.

Peter: I was at the clinic in Utah when basically that formula was built. They called it Triple O but we never did understand where that name came from, but it was basically Inner Defense. I have a story from that clinic time, back in the day when we didn’t have the Thieves Spray, as you said we would drip Thieves oils on the back of the throat. A custodial worker came to me and he was really bad. All in Spanish he spoke to me and said “My throat is sore, this is miserable, I just have to go home.” I asked what was going on so I looked in his throat and he had this horrible lesion in the back of his throat, it was really bad. I asked him “Do you trust me?” He looked at me like “Well …. yeah?” because Thieves is pretty strong when you drip it basically onto an open wound. So we tilted his head back and I dripped 3 drops of Thieves in the back of his throat and it was very strong, his eyes watered a little bit, and I said “There you go.” In a few moments it stopped hurting and he was amazed. About an hour later he came back in and asked me to do it again, so obviously the experience wasn’t so bad that he didn’t want to repeat it. It was an amazing experience for him; by the end of the day, I think we did 4-5 applications that day, he was pretty much well on the way to mending. I’m not saying that his throat was perfectly fine after one day, but he had moved in that direction. So yes, you can use Thieves oils directly, undiluted, dripped in the mouth. It’s an intense experience to be sure, that’s a sign of application.

A lot of times for head stuff I will actually put 3 drops of Thieves in my hand and rub from behind my ear all the way around my ear and actually the ear itself – not inside the ear, don’t misunderstand me, I don’t drip or dribble Thieves into my ear canal – I’m talking about the fleshy part around the ear and then on the bone behind the ear. I put 3 drops on each ear. I tend to get sinus infections and ear infections, that’s the first thing that hits me when allergy season comes around or a cold or something, it really gets high up and deep back in the ear. I’ll do that repeatedly and it keeps it from ever advancing. It’s an amazing way to apply it. It can be a little bit sharp; some people have sensitivity in the back of the ear, but once you start using the oils a little bit you find that it’s not that bad. When we talk later about Citrus Fresh, that blend is more mild and more gentle so if someone has trouble with Thieves, you could try something more gentle like Citrus Fresh.

Doug: Great recommendation. One of the things you said that is an interesting idea is that if it’s a little bit hot you can use a little bit less or possibly dilute it in some kind of carrier oil.

Peter: Absolutely. A carrier oil means a vegetable oil like olive oil or V-6 oil; we’ve even used flax oil before. We consider flax oil to be more of a nutritional support but it was all we had at the time. Let me go on to say this, a lot of people will say “I can do this for myself, but what about my children? Are essential oils safe for children?” I have 4 boys, aged 14 years down to 14 months and we’ve used oils for 14 years. Right off the bat I will say that quality makes absolutely all the difference in the world when you’re talking about safety so I do want to point that out; if you’re using oils, and especially oils with children, you want to make sure you’re using good quality oils because if you’re not using good quality oils you can have very severe and bad reactions. We have had situations where we’ve used oils from different sources and they were promised to be good quality but they ended up not to be. So as long as we have good quality oils we don’t worry and of course that’s why we use Young Living so we don’t have to worry about the quality; we know the quality is there. So we’ve been using essential oils on our children directly. Thieves oil is one of those that we turn to when the children get a little bit sick or seriously sick, one or the other. We typically use Thieves on the bottoms of the feet for a child, and even for the 14-month-old I will put Thieves on the bottoms of the feet. We do a body-weight equivalent. We teach a class called Family First Aid With Essential Oils and in there we talk about methods of application. One of the things to keep in mind for children is that you want to be dose-dependent; in other words 1 drop for a 10-pound baby would be the same as 20 drops for a 200-pound man. If you wouldn’t mind putting 20 drops on your body as an adult, then it’s certainly okay to put 1 drop on a baby. So I use 1 drop or even ½ drop for an infant, on up to a 25-pound toddler who is running around I’ll put 2-3 drops of Thieves on the bottoms of the feet. It’s amazing how fast they perk up, and when I’m talking about children you can see that when the children start getting clingy, cranky, crying a little bit, wanting to be held and don’t want to be put down, that kind of thing, you aren’t sure if they’re feeling dependent or maybe they’re starting to come down with something. That’s the time when we reach for the oils and it’s just one of those things that’s so easy to do, they don’t have to take anything, you’re not trying to get something down their throat, you just line them up and have them stick their feet out, we rub the oils across their feet and then they’re off and running again. We do that 2 or 3 times throughout the day during these kinds of seasons where, like you said, you have lots of visitors, you have lots of different types of bugs and bacteria and viruses and whatnot from one part of the country or world to the other, and so we have big incubation going on and we want to make sure that we keep everyone healthy. The essential oils are fantastic and Thieves is our front line of defense for that. We use it topically, typically on the bottoms of the feet.

Doug: One of the things we’ve been talking about in regard to topical use, I know that a lot of people tell me, and I’ve done this personally as well with great success, is that if you have a canker sore – a sore inside the mouth, I’m not talking about a sore outside the mouth where I find Thieves a little too hot for your lips – but inside the mouth if you have a canker sore or some kind of open lesion I find Thieves to be intense, it can be intense, but if you really want to get that thing better sometimes it’s a good option and I’ve seen a lot of people use it like that. Any other thoughts with regard to Thieves, Julie?

Julie: Absolutely. I call it the “oh oh” when you wake up in the morning and you have that little tickle in your throat – that is the beginning of an entire 2 to 3 weeks of whatever it’s going to be, not just a sore throat, that’s just the beginning. Then it goes into the whole chest and head cold. If right then and there you get on it with the oils, taking the Inner Defense, drinking NingXia Red juice, and spraying your throat, and I tell people to do one squirt down their throat with the Thieves Spray every 15 minutes for an hour and keep on it – it will literally turn the symptoms around. I have seen this so many times it’s undeniable. People are preventing going into a whole 2 to 3 week full-on pneumonia, bronchitis, chest and head cold. The trick is to get on it right away. Don’t leave the house to take your kids to school and say you’ll do it later, because then it’s too late. You can get better faster once you have something by using the oils, but if you can catch it at the onset that’s the time to do it, and I have never seen this fail, ever. When I say I have not had a cold or flu in 14 years I really mean that. I have had symptoms like the “oh oh” as I call it, but I am on it right away and over and over again I’ve watched it just turn around. You’re not missing work, the kids aren’t missing school, you’re not missing all your fun activities; I mean it’s just such a blessing to have this. It’s incredible.

Doug: It really is that first line of defense that first day. And what a blessing, when you get those deep chest colds, hard sinus infections and things that are just miserable, like you said some of those things last for weeks so why not stop it before it gets going. Any other comments on Thieves? We’ve given some great tips, I know I’ve learned some things and there are some things I want to try. Anything else before we move on?

Julie: Yes, I have another thing I’ve been doing for years, actually Gary Young taught this to us and I’ve shared it with many of my clients. Put 2 drops of Thieves with a teaspoon or tablespoon of Bragg’s apple cider vinegar, and then I mix it with some water to make it easier to drink, but this combination helps to digest and dissolve acids in the body. When we’re acidic that’s when we have an environment that you can get sick in, so this is very very important as a regular thing to do every day to help get rid of the acids. Of course I use AlkaLime too, but this combination is something I love that Gary Young taught us, and it’s really powerful to do. The apple cider vinegar on its own has just incredible beneficial bacteria and enzymes, it helps assist the body to normalize the acid/alkaline balance, it helps cleanse the digestive tract and help with the bowels. It’s also balancing for sodium and it’s excellent for the nervous system. Then you also add the Thieves to that and you have the antibacterial, antiviral, antimicrobial, and anti-infectious … I mean it’s just an incredible combination.

Doug: What a versatile and tremendous blend, something that you have to have with you just all the time. I find it to be, as we already mentioned, a great bridge-builder for those people unfamiliar with essential oils because it has such an appealing smell and it’s just so effective. People can try it and really within minutes can notice a difference.

So let’s move on to another great bridge-building blend, Citrus Fresh. Citrus Fresh contains Orange, Tangerine, Mandarin, Grapefruit, Lemon, and Spearmint. I thought Citrus Fresh was very appropriate to talk about during the holidays because one of the things that people complain about constantly during the holidays is that it’s supposed to be this joyous time of brotherhood and kinship but it’s one of those times for a lot of people, that they find it just flat-out hard to roll out of bed and hard to face the day because of the mood and the holiday blues. Sometimes it’s loneliness, sometimes it’s bad memories of different things that have happened, but a lot of that stuff really comes to us during the holidays for whatever reason. Citrus Fresh, with all those different uplifting, mood-lifting oils, is just what the doctor ordered. What has your experience been?

Julie: I use Citrus Fresh every day because that’s what I drink in my water, so it’s always going into my water. The thing I love about it is that not only does it taste amazing, but there are so many oils in there, all the citrus oils, that are very high in the compound called limonene and that is so amazing for preventing DNA damage. It’s just amazing as well for the fat-dissolving too – your Grapefruit in there, and your Lemon, the Orange oil; all those oils are very good for dissolving fat. So for a lot of people who are working on losing weight that’s a great addition, of course along with right diet and exercise. It’s very uplifting. It’s a very friendly oil; I find nobody to be offended by it so it’s also an oil I diffuse a lot, it’s just a really pleasant aroma. It’s something I will use when I’m teaching classes because I never get any complaints from that and people are always asking, “What is that?”

The other thing that happens is that thing with association. When we are having an experience, if someone’s taking a class from me and they’re learning and they’re smelling this aroma; when they start learning more or studying more they’re going to have the memory recall because of the aroma that was diffusing during the class. That’s something that’s very important. Also we were talking that during this holiday time this oil is very uplifting, it’s a gentle upliftment, it’s fantastic for kids. I definitely find that this works for calming kids down and for keeping the mood elevated for everybody. It’s an all-around fantastic oil; I love it.

Doug: Great. You’ve mentioned several areas – aromatic use, internal use, and the topical use. Dr. Minke, weigh in on those things, what has your experience been?

Peter: There’s not much to add actually; Julie talked about the things I would mention. I might word it slightly differently, like she was talking about the limonene content; the research on limonene definitely indicates that it helps protect the body from cancer. There is some documentation about the citrus oils actually helping to activate the immune system, so we have white blood cell activation with Lemon oil for example and I think it probably applies to all the citrus oils. It has effects on circulation, even some vitamin and mineral absorption, vitamin C absorption especially with citrus oils. They are extracted from the peel or the rind of the citrus fruit so if you take your lemon or your grapefruit peel and you squeeze it you’ll get the juice out of it and that juice is mostly the essential oil, which is what we’re talking about. Because it’s not actually a concentrated, distilled product it’s much more gentle as Julie said, a very very gentle product and you can use a lot of it. We’ve actually used one of our oils on infants if they have quite a significant illness and you need to get a result very quickly and you’re worried about maybe putting too much oil on a baby, the citrus oils, the Citrus Fresh, the Lemon, Tangerine, Orange, any of those individual oils are great to use for infants because it’s very gentle on the skin and the body can tolerate a lot of them. The amount that you can use for the citrus oils is much higher, which of course adds to you being able to use more repeated doses and then you don’t have the negative impacts of skin irritation; it’s very gentle.

There are so many powerful uses for Citrus Fresh because it has all the different citrus oils in it, but it also has Spearmint and it’s interesting that that’s been added because Spearmint is actually very supportive of the thyroid and a lot of times during the holidays we get worn out, we get adrenal fatigue, we have our thyroid getting stressed out because we’re keeping odd hours, we’re staying up, trying to get the house clean and getting ready for family to come. We get a little bit down, the thyroid gets worn out and the Citrus Fresh can be a wonderful boost to the thyroid gland by having that extra boost of Spearmint oil in there. It has so many versatile uses; putting it in the air for the uplifting mental effects, effects on the mind for essential oils in general will go in to help stimulate the brain, they go through the olfactory bulb, hitting the limbic system with the chemistry to activate and stimulate the limbic system which is the control center for the emotions and the hormone balance. It’s so powerful to use aromatics during the holidays, well all the time but especially during the holidays, and Citrus Fresh is no exception to that; it’s very uplifting.

One of the ways to apply Citrus Fresh; we use that to diffuse but we typically use it topically when there’s a fever-related illness because of that activation of the immune system. We’ll grab the Citrus Fresh or any of the citrus oils and use those topically on the kids, and use them every 10-15 minutes. We do a very concentrated effort of applying these oils every 15 minutes. If it’s a nighttime fever for example, they sometimes happen; rather than running out to the emergency room or the urgent care, definitely we want to make sure to get that fever down and we’ll turn to the citrus oils, Citrus Fresh or even just straight Lemon and apply those on the feet and/or on the arms every 10-15 minutes. Within 2-3 applications the fever is down so it’s one of those things that as a family, as a family first aid component, these oils are absolutely fantastic. Just to have the confidence to know how and when to use them is the trick. In the class I taught in Australia we focused a lot on prevention like Julie was mentioning, that if you catch it really early it’s much, much easier to deal with than if you wait until it sets in. So Citrus Fresh is definitely one of those powerful ones in our arsenal that we love to turn to for all kinds of reasons.

Doug: It sounds like some great options, and those are some reasons that I haven’t used it for but I know some of the things that Julie mentioned, we love that first thing in the morning drops in our water; we rotate the citrus oils and we always rotate Citrus Fresh in there. We find the flavor kind of stimulates the digestion for us with the Spearmint element and also really helps to get the body’s acid and alkalinity right and just gets you ready for the day. The other thing that Julie mentioned that was interesting, and I’ve heard it before, rubbing it into different areas that are concerning to us as far as areas of fat and areas that we’re tying to minimize, and I know the Citrus Fresh can be effective there. During the holidays where I think Citrus Fresh can be a really great addition to our aromatic repertoire with these oils such as Grapefruit, Spearmint, all the different oils but specifically the mint and the Grapefruit oil can help you to suppress the appetite. Now some of you would say, “Maybe I don’t want my appetite suppressed during the holidays!” but I’m telling you, how many of us wish that we didn’t overdo it and maybe having Citrus Fresh in the air can help people to have a little bit more restraint, a little bit more self-control around all those goodies. The research really says that Grapefruit, Spearmint, and some of those other citrus oils can really help to take the edge off the appetite and instead of relying on food to boost our mood, these oils can help us do that.

With that, we’ll move to the one that’s the automatic holiday blend, although it’s interesting that a lot of people say that they use the Christmas Spirit blend throughout the year because it’s just such a tremendous and delicious-smelling aromatic, and here we have a blend of oils that’s pretty simple: Orange, Cinnamon, and Spruce. Let’s start with aromatically and emotionally, what is Christmas Spirit and what are these oils going to do for us, Dr. Minke?

Peter: The Orange is very uplifting as we mentioned with regard to the citrus oils. When we add the Cinnamon to it, it’s actually one of those oils that stimulates the brain, it’s more stimulatory, it helps with the adrenal system and can actually work with both mood and some of the hormonal stuff so that Cinnamon is really quite powerful. It actually has aphrodisiac qualities for men. Then we have the Spruce, which is a conifer oil which means it’s coming from one of the evergreens, and that is one of those very spiritually clearing and uplifting kind of oils where you feel like you’re out in nature, in God’s cathedral, and that open-air feeling really just allows the spirit to open up. So we get an interesting combination when we have this basic uplifting with the Orange, we have the stimulation in the body (not in any kind of over-stimulation way but just a gentle sort of activation of stimulation) with the Cinnamon, and then we have the openness and expansiveness with the Spruce. It’s a fantastic blend, as you say. We use it all year around, it’s what we diffuse in our office. It is a very familiar smell; people will immediately say “Oh I smell the cinnamon,” and then they will notice the notes underneath it. But it’s a wonderful oil to diffuse and to put on. Topically it has some of the bite that the Cinnamon oil brings with it but it’s not too bad so we use it topically, we use it aromatically, there are all kinds of applications there.

Doug: Great. Julie, what has your experience been?

Julie: I remember Gary saying to us and teaching us that because of the Cinnamon it’s very anti-infectious too, so when we’re diffusing it he said it’s not just smelling good but it’s actually helping your immune system, boosting your immune system and helping to prevent you from getting sick as well, so I start going back and forth a lot with Thieves and Christmas Spirit and use it all year long, not just at holiday time. It’s an oil that I just adore the smell of; it’s intoxicating.

One of the fun things that I love to do at holiday time, especially now that we have the Aria diffuser, is putting 15-20 drops in the Aria diffuser, and it has a place where you can actually plug your iPod in, and so I have recorded Christmas holiday music and I will put my iPod in the Aria and diffuse Christmas Spirit with the music going, and people – all my friends and family and everybody – just love it. And again with the association, with that feeling of holiday time, family, great food, friendship and then again the smell of the oils diffusing, that association is going to set into the brain, into the amygdala area, and that memory is going to be stored with an association, hopefully, of a great time. It’s a very uplifting oil, absolutely.

The other thing I love to do with it is put it on the bottoms of my feet and my spine for the immune system, with the Cinnamon oil in it. Another thing I’ve used it for is that when I’ve gone to different cabins, rented different cabins, when they have a wood-burning stove I’ve put a pot of water on the stove and put drops of Christmas Spirit in there and it’s wonderful; it goes throughout the whole area of the room.

Doug: So in a pinch we could do something like that if we don’t have our diffuser handy. Another great tip! Now aromatically, one of the things that really jumps out to me, and you actually triggered this association Peter when you talked about how it can really open up our spirit. The Lakota Indians, in their tradition, use Spruce a lot in that regard. They use that as the oil to communicate with the Great Spirit and it has a very balancing effect. And Cinnamon, you can’t smell Cinnamon without really having a feeling of generosity, a feeling of great mood, it’s like you said it’s one of those mildly stimulating but very positive and uplifting oils. That’s why you see Cinnamon in a lot of the other blends, we talked about how it’s in Thieves but it’s also in Abundance because just generally, emotionally Cinnamon is thought to attract wealth and those good things that will come to us. So we have many great options here with regard to Christmas Spirit. I’ve really learned a lot and I think we’re probably going to have our best holidays ever as we implement these different oils on our behalf and on the behalf of those in our families, friends, and loved ones … really just a great blessing. As we wrap this up, any other thoughts about the things we’ve discussed?

Julie: I’d like to add one more thing about Citrus Fresh. I’ve introduced this to many people who love it: If you get seedless red grapes when they’re in season, take them off the vine, wash them and put them in a bowl, add 3-4 drops of Citrus Fresh and stir it up and put it in your refrigerator I tell you, it is one of the best, healthy desserts you have ever had. I’ve been doing that for years; I’ve been serving it at dinners, things with my friends, as snacks, and it is just incredible. I wanted to add that because it’s just a wonderful, healthy way to eat.

Doug: Great, I’m going to run home and try some of that with different fruit! That’s a great recommendation and it really brings us to the larger recommendation that all 3 of these oils will really give us some great flavors. They’re pleasing to the palate, especially in combination with many other foods. Citrus Fresh would be far and away the best one for those recipes and so that’s a great tip!

Peter: I would like to say that with essential oils in general, and of course these blends that we’ve talked about – Thieves, Citrus Fresh, and Christmas Spirit – essential oils are some of the most amazing tools that we have available to us. God’s medicine is what I call it because of the plants that are producing it and as long as we’re not messing them up, all we do is extract them out of the plant and take care of that process as Young Living does, we have access to some of the most amazing healing substances on the planet. I’d like to say that I’m just very grateful to Gary Young for all the work, the diligence, all the passion that he has and that he shares. Because of him we have available to us, for the first time really in the history of humanity, the kinds of oils that were only available to kings and pharaohs of the past. If you look back to the days of Jesus, Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, and when the Magi brought Jesus the gifts they didn’t bring the leftovers, they brought the best they had and of course that was Frankincense and Myrrh essential oils. So we’re talking about something that, throughout the ages has had value beyond gold, beyond measure, and now we have them available to us, especially through Young Living with the quality and consistency that they bring to the product, we have available to use these essential oils like never before in the history of humanity. We can, for the price of one massage basically, buy a bottle of Frankincense. Amazing what we can do now with essential oils and how available they are, and so I’m very grateful for that and how we use it in our family and all the benefits we’ve gotten from that. I’d just like to leave with that; to say thank you to Gary for bringing this out, sticking with it, and we hope to be part of helping to spread the word.

Doug: Well said, Peter. I just want to emphasize that same thing. In fact Gary and I were having a discussion the other day on a little bit different topic but for some reason the conversation proceeded down a different path and we started talking about what a blessing these oils have been, of course to us personally, but to so many people worldwide and Gary said, and he said this with a lot of power, he just looked me in the eyes and he said “We have something very, very special here.” I just get the hair on the back of my neck standing up again when I think about that, because he was so right and I agreed wholeheartedly that there is something very special with all these different products, really blessings from the Maker that we get to use on a daily basis.

Peter, I’ve so enjoyed having you here and you’ve given us many great first aid tips. I just want to mention for people there is a great resource that Peter has gone to a lot of trouble to create in regard to first aid and essential oils, especially for the family. He has created a great educational series that people can access out there. You can find it at www.minkewellness.com. On that site you can access some of Peter’s educational materials which are really all around Young Living products, and I think many will find that tremendous. So thank you for being with us, Peter. Julie, any final words?

Julie: I would also like to add my gratitude for Gary and Mary and all the integrity and the tremendous amount of time and effort and energy that he is constantly putting into research, traveling the world, and finding the most amazing medicinal plants, the testing, and all the measures he goes to to bring us the highest-quality oils. They are a gift! And when you have your own experience and your own personal testimonials, when you use the products and the oils, it’s all about sharing with the world because you can’t help it when you have seen it. As a massage therapist, and Peter knows this, we are privileged to be able to witness and watch tremendous changes on a constant basis with so many different people that it becomes undeniable. Like Peter said, it’s so easy – we just give a credit card number and they’re delivered to our door! Not like the ancient days and the caravans that would take months and months to bring the oils. It’s just such a blessing and I personally feel so blessed. I also want to thank Gary, Mary, and everybody at Young Living who is doing their part to make this happen for all of us.

Doug: We feel your gratitude and we feel your passion. On behalf of Young Living corporate, and all the Young Living audience out there I thank you Julie and Peter for joining us today. It’s been a tremendous time and we will definitely do it again sometime. On behalf of Julie, Peter, and myself I thank all of you listeners and I wish you all Godspeed in your journey towards health.