Benefits of Essential Oils

Interviewer: Kind of an open question, but what kind of benefits can we get from essential oils, health benefits?

Mindy Green, RA, RH (AHG): Well, I named a few in terms of their digestive benefits.

Interviewer: Mm-hmm.

Mindy Green, RA, RH (AHG): If you eat the herbs, they have a lot of digestive benefits, especially in that mint family. In fact, a lot of those culinary herbs were used to help digestion. But there are other essential oils that have many other benefits: lavender, for instance. You know, there's an old saying . . . 

Interviewer: Mm-hmm.

Mindy Green, RA, RH (AHG): . . . in the aromatherapy world, "When in doubt, use lavender." And it's kind of one of those universal oils that's good for many things, but especially skin things; insect bites, bee stings, sunburns, things like that.

Interviewer: Mm-hm. How do people know what is going to be beneficial for what condition?

Mindy Green, RA, RH (AHG): Well, you need a research referrence. You know, you can either look up the research on PubMed, you can buy a good book on essential oils, you can attend a class. But it is a little overwhelming because there's a tremendous amount of essential oils on the commercial market . . .