What are the Top 4 essential oils to help with weight loss? With Dr. Eric Z
Chantel: Hey, guys. Welcome to this week’s episode and this is probably, Dr. Z has been one of the people people are just so excited about. We announced it about a week and a half ago that you were going to be on it, and people are so excited. So it’s Dr. Eric Zielinski. Dr. Z is what they call you for short. He’s the bestselling author of The Healing Power of Essential Oils.
Chantel: Welcome. We’re so glad to have you.
Eric Zielinski: Well, thank you for having me. This is a pleasure, and I was grateful for the opportunity to chat just a few minutes before we jumped on and hear your story and how powerful it is, and the impact you have on the world. So the pleasure’s really all mine.
Chantel: Well, I know that your website, DrEricZ.com, you and your wife Sabrina founded it, and you guys have reached six million visitors per year. You guys are now number one source for biblical health and non-branded essential oils education online. That’s pretty impressive.
Eric Zielinski: I wasn’t expecting it. I really wasn’t. This was a hobby blog for my wife, a honey to-do list, where she has a place for her recipes. I was a medical writer at the time, and really, my website was a glorified resume. It was my curriculum vitae to get new clients. Next thing you know, it just exploded. We’re just really honored and blessed to share what we feel is life-transforming information. We don’t-
Chantel: I know that you’ve struggled yourself with all kinds of chronic illnesses from a young age. Talk about that just so people can kind of get an idea of that.
Eric Zielinski: Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, when I tell people I was sick, I say that very respectfully for people that are children or have children with leukemia, cancers, any sort of life threatening conditions, I never had that. I was just chronically not well. I could remember being a young boy with just regular sore throats to the point where my mother and father elected to have my adenoids and tonsils taken out. And then when I got a little bit older, a lot of GI issues like gas and bloating, constipation, and now I know as food sensitivities and allergies. And then it developed into cystic acne, which developed into depression. That’s when things got really serious when I was a teenager, right. I literally started having chronic pain throughout my body. Scoliosis started to develop. And then mental issues like depression, like I mentioned earlier, and suicidal thoughts. I literally was a wreck.
Eric Zielinski: Battling chronic fatigue in college, I would end up drinking up to a pot of coffee a day and smoking a pack of cigarettes a day because I became addicted to stimulants.
Eric Zielinski: I had a life transforming experience when I was 23-years old. That’s when I became a Christian. At the time, my mentor told me, “Look, Eric, your body’s a temple of the Holy Spirit. You gotta take care of it.” I mean, this is your spiritual act of worship. Right? Whether someone is Christian or not, if you are in tune spiritually, you can relate to that.
Chantel: Yeah.
Eric Zielinski: Even though we’re “Bible health educators” we have people from all over the world, from all faiths and spiritual backgrounds, but one common denominator of everyone that follows our work is they are spiritually inclined. There is an element where we know that this temple needs to be treated a certain way. We ultimately reap what we sow. And so if you’re going to sow McDonald’s and pharmaceutical drugs, you’re going to reap the drawbacks of that.
Chantel: That’s true.
Eric Zielinski: It’s been 15 years of a journey, helping people, writing books and articles, and presenting at conferences, and lo and behold-
Chantel: So how did your book come to be? Tell us more about how your book came about.
Eric Zielinski: Yeah. My book, The Healing Power of Essential Oils, is really the culmination of several years of research and writing and interviewing experts around the globe on the therapeutic efficacy of essential oils. The reason I wrote it was because simply no book exists like it. That was shocking because, as a researcher you’re thinking, well, nothing new’s under the sun. We just kind of reshape what other people write and put something together. No one has ever written a health book designed on how to use essential oils.
Eric Zielinski: Now, don’t get me wrong. There’s a lot of good books on A to Z user guides and references, but it’s all more academic-based.
Chantel: Right.
Eric Zielinski: If it’s not academic-based, it’s like a reference manual, but no one has ever written a book, like an actual I want to read this from chapter one to chapter 15 kind of book on essential oils in this light, and specifically not branded.
Eric Zielinski: Now, you got some books out there that push one company or another, but you can’t do that nowadays. The FDA won’t allow you to sell a product and then speak about the therapeutic efficacy. And so, for me, I decided to really focus on and hold onto my freedom of speech as an American, which thank God we still have.
Chantel: Yes.
Eric Zielinski: I’m able to talk freely about what the research says about essential oil. So it was really birth. It was birth. It was one of those true supply and demand things where all of our followers all around the globe. One of the consensus that people asked us is, “We need support. We need a resource. Like, what do you recommend?”
Chantel: Right.
Eric Zielinski: I got a text book. They’re like, “Well, I don’t want that.” I go, “I got my aromatherapy manual that I went to school. You want that?” They’re like, “Well, that doesn’t help me. We want a user friendly book.” And so that’s what it was.
Chantel: As you know, a lot of our listeners are interested in losing weight. What would you say are some of the top essential oils that support weight loss and why?
Eric Zielinski: I’m really glad you asked that question because our next book, in May 2019, is titled The Essential Oils Diet.
Chantel: Oh, wow. I love that title.
Eric Zielinski: Yes. We’re going to be focusing on, and I’ll let the cat out of the bag, here, in just a minute. We’re not focused on numbers. We’re not focused on nutrition numbers at all. No macronutrients, micronutrients. I don’t care about the vitamins and minerals and carbs and proteins. I don’t care about that stuff. I’m teaching people to focus on bioactive rich foods. What does that mean?
Eric Zielinski: Well, what are bioactives? Bioactives are antioxidants, polyphenols, disease-fighting fat-burning molecules and plants. You know what else bioactives are? Essential oils. People don’t even realize that essential oils are bioactive compounds found in plants. So we walk people through just how to really focus on a heavily plant-based diet that walks people through losing weight, gaining weight sometimes as well, if you need to using essential oils and bioactive food.
Eric Zielinski: So with that, here’s a list of four. I’ve got to give you a little teaser on that.
Chantel: Okay.
Eric Zielinski: The bottom line though, and this is key, we cover this in the book. If you’re living a fast food lifestyle and trying to use essential oils-
Chantel: Right.
Eric Zielinski: … it’s like one step forward, two steps back.
Chantel: Yes.
Eric Zielinski: I know your listeners are way beyond that, but just in case one of your listeners shares this with a loved one who doesn’t understand that or hasn’t been told that, we need to focus on wholistic lifestyle changes. If you have a good diet, and you’re exercising, you’re focusing on mind body stress techniques, or stress relieving techniques, these four oils are super effective at burning fat.
Chantel: I gotta tell you a funny story that really relates to that because my dad, this was a while ago, but he was trying to lose weight, and he started doing SlimFast. Remember when SlimFast, this was like 20 years ago when SlimFast was all the rage. He’s like, “Oh my gosh, I’ve gained, like, seven pounds doing SlimFast.” And we’re like, “Well, Dad, what are you doing?” He’s like, “I don’t know. I take the SlimFast every morning and every time at lunch,” but instead of not eating, he was eating a full breakfast and the SlimFast, eating the lunch and the SlimFast. It sounds so silly, but in his mind, he was literally thinking, “Oh, if I take this shake with my food, I’m going to lose weight.”
Chantel: I like to tell that story sometimes because it’s like that’s the kind of silly things that people do is like, “Oh, I’m going to take these essential oils,” and still be eating Burger King and KFC every meal. It’s not going to work.
Chantel: Let’s talk about autoimmune issues.
Eric Zielinski: Well, the answer though.
Chantel: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Eric Zielinski: I want to make sure because people are like [crosstalk 00:08:21].
Chantel: Yes. [inaudible 00:08:21].
Eric Zielinski: Research, and this is proven, y’all. Like literally, inhaling lime and grapefruit and any oil rich in d-Limonene, specifically, which would include orange and lemon, all the citrus. But specifically lime and grapefruit, inhaling that, and also topical application and ingesting has been shown to tell the brain to trigger what’s known as lipolysis, which is fat burning, fat breakdown, so just by smelling that.
Eric Zielinski: Also, we see a similar effect with peppermint and cinnamon, but they help people lose weight in another way by helping crave unhealthy … by helping curb unhealthy sugar cravings. Cinnamon, we know, helps balance blood glucose, which is one of the main issues with people who have problems with weight gain. So it increases insulin sensitivity as well.
Eric Zielinski: I would say peppermint, cinnamon, lime, and grapefruit are the top four that you want to start implementing and using, and you can use that via your diffuser, which you can see I have mine in the background. It’s a great blend. Mix all four of those in a blend. You could put one drop of each in a gel capsule, put some coconut oil in it, take that once a day. Try it for a month and just see what happens. Right?
Eric Zielinski: Or you can add a nice topical salve and apply that over your tummy. That’s what my wife did. We call her Mama Z, Sabrina. That’s what Sabrina does when she trains for a pageant. She’s a pageant coach and she competes competitive at a high level. And so, what she’s doing to really help with some of the cellulite, or she’s had four babies and she’s 40, and so, she has a whole system where she has a fat wrap, and to really tighten up the tummy and the back of the thighs and some of the problem areas, and you look at her and, you know, she’s got a body of a mid-20-year-old. And so, that really does help to bring some oxygen back into the skin.
Eric Zielinski: There’s ways of doing that and it’s actually all in my current book, The Healing Power of Essential Oils, the fat wrap and the fat burning roll-on, but we go into much more depth in the new book. Yeah.
Chantel: Awesome.
Chantel: We do have a lot of people who, tons of questions about autoimmune issues and autoimmune disease. What kind of essential oil plan of attack would you give us a little hint on for autoimmune issues?
Eric Zielinski: Yeah. Again, I’m glad you asked that because I started researching autoimmunity and essential oils for my book, The Healing Power of Essential Oils, and I was only planning on just maybe a little section, maybe a paragraph because we had so much to cover in this book. It ended up becoming a chapter. So I have a whole chapter devoted to this.
Chantel: Oh, good.
Eric Zielinski: Yeah. I found the common underlying concern, the root cause that essential oils are most effective at is inflammation. Most experts, especially functional medicine experts, all agree inflammation is the root cause of all autoimmune disorders.
Chantel: Yes. Absolutely.
Eric Zielinski: So you could start to tackle that internally by using oils rich in chemicals known as [inaudible 00:11:18], and also, we mentioned d-Limonene, which is also fat burning and cancer fighting and it helps with inflammation. How does this do it all? Well, that’s what plants are for, y’all. God gave us plants for healing.
Chantel: Yeah. I’m always kind of questioning in my mind if that, you know, I have a lot of listeners that constantly are asking about autoimmune issues, and is it that there’s just so many people with that problem, or because I’ve mentioned so many times on my podcast that I’ve dealt with autoimmune issues, are people relating to that and gravitating to it? But who knows?
Eric Zielinski: It’s both. Oh, it’s both. It really is. The problem is is that autoimmunity is running rampant-
Chantel: It’s rampant now.
Eric Zielinski: … of the environmental insult. And so, you gotta understand, y’all, your lipstick, your makeup, your lotions, your salves, your body care products, your cleaning products, all that, if they’re not 100% natural, using essential oils, non-toxic, they’re creating an insult to your body. You could look at them like you would a virus or bacteria or fungi. These are chemicals. These chemicals trigger an inflammatory response in your body because your body doesn’t know what to do with it.
Eric Zielinski: The best way of, just think of it this way. Think about what happens when you cut your finger. Let’s say you’re cutting something. You’re trying to chop up some vegetables and you accidentally cut your finger. Well, the inflammatory response that’s natural to your immune system shunts blood to that area, causes it, there’s redness, there’s soreness, there’s puffing. That’s a natural response to bring as much blood and healing to that area as possible. Well, that’s what happens to your entire body systemically when you have chemicals in your bloodstream. That’s what’s known as systemic inflammation. That’s what causes atherosclerosis, like little micro tears in your vascular system. That could cause strokes and anxiety, which can lead to depression and other issues.
Eric Zielinski: It’s all linked together. And so, we don’t realize, literally, especially our skin absorbs all these negative chemicals, so what we try to do is help people use essential oils internally and also topically, and also through the nose because it gets to the system to combat inflammation that way. Also, antiinflammatory foods, exercise, mind body techniques, all this stuff is very, very effective.
Chantel: Now, if you took your family on vacation, obviously, you can’t take all of these essential oils with you, but if you had to pick five that you are personally going to take on vacation with you, what would you take?
Eric Zielinski: You know, it’s funny because my wife does take them all.
Chantel: She does?
Eric Zielinski: She actually has a little briefcase looking thing. Oh, yeah. She does. You can, but for me, my must have oils are orange, clove, peppermint. Those are the three that I really just need on a regular basis. The other two all depends on what I’m looking at doing. If it’s flu season or something, I bring an immunity blend. If it’s something where I need a little more energy or a little more of a mood boost, I’ll probably bring another citrus like a lime or a lemon.
Chantel: Gotcha.
Eric Zielinski: There’s nothing I can’t do with clove, orange, and peppermint. They’re all cost effective. These aren’t the expensive ones. Notice I didn’t say frankincense, which is an expensive one. I probably also, if I had to do five, I’d bring lavender because that would really help calm [inaudible 00:14:39].
Chantel: Oh, yes.
Chantel: All right. Let’s jump right into the questions. This is from Janet in Atlanta. “I have so enjoyed the last couple of podcasts that you’ve done about CBD oil. I’ve been taking it for chronic pain and it’s really helped me a lot. I’m completely off all my prescription drugs.” Great job, Janet. And she says, “I know so many people that would benefit from CBD oil including cancer, but I’m receiving some weird push back from the Christian community who don’t seem to understand the difference in illegal drugs and CBD oil. Also, people who think it’s just another pyramid scheme. What would you say to both of these people and groups?”
Eric Zielinski: Well, I actually have a really good report, it’s an evidence-based report on cannabis oil. So go to my website, DrEricZ.com, and what I would do, I would actually refer them to that article. So go to DrEricZ.com, type up “cannabis”, and you’ll see two articles, one on cannabis and one on cannabis oil. I share what the research really says about it. And because I am a Christian, I actually have a special note to Christians at the very bottom of the article telling them, like, “Look. This is a plant that was given to us by God. If used properly, like any other plant on the planet, then it’s very safe and effective.”
Eric Zielinski: Now, here’s the problem though, and I think this is something we need to recognize is that in the Christian community there’s a lot of uncertainty and fear with anything that could be psychotrophic, and so, we do know that certain cannabis plants are laced with or hybridized to have THC components, which will make you high, and so that’s unbiblical. Right? You’re not supposed to get drunk. You’re not supposed to get high.
Eric Zielinski: So I can understand why Christians are hesitant, however, true cannabis oil as CBD oil has no THC in it. It theoretically should have no psychotrophic effect, but here’s the problem though. There’s no one monitoring or evaluating what’s on the market. I’ve heard of several cases of people having really bad reactions to “cannabis oil”, but it really wasn’t cannabis oil. It was like straight up marijuana oil, which is very different.
Eric Zielinski: With that said, I’d stick with the research. I’d stick with the CBD oil specifically that has no THC in it, that won’t get you high, and it could help with everything from mood disorders, anxiety, pain, cancer, you name it. It’s pretty profound.
Chantel: Awesome.
Chantel: All right. Annette in Harrisonburg. “My niece is currently undergoing chemotherapy for brain cancer, and I can’t get her to consider an alternate approach to chemo. I’ve convinced her to take some essential oils in addition to chemotherapy. What are the best oils I should give her to help with these side effects and what oils can have her help possibly help the cancer from spreading or coming back?”
Eric Zielinski: Yeah, this is a really good question. One thing, too, I think is really important is that we embrace integrative health care. In my community, Chantel, we have people that are just embarrassed to say, “Hey, I took an aspirin yesterday. I had some pain. You know? Wintergreen wasn’t working for me.” Thankfully, I mean, I can count on one hand how many times my family and I have taken antibiotics in the last 10 years, but even then, I know people that are so extreme that they would never even take a drug.
Chantel: Where do you guys live? Where are you from?
Eric Zielinski: We live in Atlanta.
Chantel: Okay.
Eric Zielinski: Yeah. I mean, in the natural health community as a whole, your favorite doctor so-and-sos and mommy bloggers, a lot of us network and get together.
Eric Zielinski: One thing I want to share with folks, this is really, really important if you’re trying to be natural is understand that medicine’s there. Often times for people, medicine is a gift. It’s a great help for emergencies, especially when natural therapies don’t work. We want them to work and sometimes they just don’t work. It’s about trial and error.
Eric Zielinski: So when it comes to cancer specifically, I wrote a book, it’s on Amazon. It’s called The Truth About Essential Oils and Cancer. It’s only like seven or eight bucks. I really recommend picking it up because it goes through, again, all the research that we know about essential oils. But here’s something that’s really profound. Essential oil’s been actually shown to help chemotherapy be more effective. I would never recommend not using essential oils when someone’s on any sort of therapy.
Eric Zielinski: There are a number. It all depends, also, on what cancer it is because different cancer lines are more effective, are more responsive to certain essential oils. So in general, there is no, like, you use this oil. Everyone uses frankincense. That’s a popular one, but you know, frankincense research has shown isn’t as effective as myrrh when you’re attacking breast cancer, for example. Right? Who would have thought? It’s October 2nd, right? It’s breast cancer awareness month. So some things to think about. Certain oils are more effective.
Eric Zielinski: I would suggest picking up my book. We have it all there. All the research and just know, but know this too. I don’t know of anything else like essential oils that could help with the side effects relating to chemo and cancer, including low libido, digestive issues, headaches and pain, nausea, all those things.
Chantel: For digestive issues, what would you say would be your kind of your top three that you love for digestive issues?
Eric Zielinski: Yeah. Traditionally, there’s a number of oils that work with digestion. Traditionally, you’re looking at fennel, ginger, and peppermint that come up time and time again. For gut issues, you could go a little deeper and a little more aggressive like tarragon and oregano come up for gut issues. A little bit different than digestive, again. There’s two different things.
Chantel: Awesome.
Chantel: Okay. Sandra in North Carolina. “Since I cleaned up my diet and focused on 80% eating clean, my thyroid is functioning so much better. I have significantly decreased the dosage of my medication, and I really want to get off thyroid medication completely. I’m curious how essential oils can help me with this goal.”
Eric Zielinski: You know, that’s a really good question. We need to be really, really careful when anyone is weaning themselves off of a drug. This isn’t just a general disclaimer just to save my own butt. You don’t do it without a doctor’s or pharmacist’s guidance. The ramifications can be deadly. Literally fatal because what drugs do to the body, essentially cripple the body, especially thyroid drugs. If you’ve been on thyroxine for long enough, your thyroid, most likely, isn’t even producing thyroid hormone anymore. You can’t just take yourself off that. It could be fatal.
Eric Zielinski: And so, what you want to do is you want to work with a qualified health professional. Someone, in my opinion, that understands enough about natural therapies, like essential oils, to at least give you some sort of support. I don’t expect these people to be aromatherapists, but most functional medicine practitioners out there understand nutrition, supplementation, and many do understand how essential oils work enough to guide you in that process. We’ve known many people that have weaned themselves off of, under the guidance of a health care professional, through diet, exercise, and using essential oils to support.
Eric Zielinski: Now, interestingly enough, I’m glad this question was asked because my team and I came up with a brand new report on how to use essential oils for thyroid support. It’s on my website, DrEricZ.com. Again, how do I summarize a 3,000-word report into a two minute response? You just gotta check it out. Dive deep into what it is. There’s so much that you could do, and even simply applying certain cellular rejuvenating oils like frankincense and sandalwood and helichrysum, diluted always, over your thyroid can help. That’s something that a dear friend of ours did and she ended up getting off of thyroxin.
Eric Zielinski: But again, always under the medical advice of a health care professional.
Eric Zielinski: You know, that brings us to another point. Be careful, y’all, where you’re getting your health care advice from because I, to answer that question, I need to know what’s your health history, what other drugs are you taking, what’s your blood panel look like?
Chantel: Yes.
Eric Zielinski: And one concern I get, in my heart I get it. I know what it’s like to be depressed, and sick, and anxious, and panic attacks. I know what it’s like to be desperate. I know what it’s like seeking out anyone I can. The questions we get on line scare me because people are like, “This is what I have. What do you think I should do? I’ll do it.” Whoa. Just stop for just a second. Red light. You don’t want to get your medical advice this way because-
Chantel: Exactly.
Eric Zielinski: … there are so many other factors that we don’t know and literally-
Chantel: Yeah. You need to see the full panel. Like for Sandra, we need to see … I’m not a doctor. Your doctor needs to look at the whole scope and the whole picture and just asking a question doesn’t work. But I will tell you, I, personally, did wean myself off of thyroid medicine. The way that I did it was my doctor gave me 15 milligram. So let’s say I was taking 60 milligrams of Armour Thyroid, she gave me all 60 in 15 milligrams, so then I could go from 60 to 45, then stay on 45 for a while, and take my blood, see how I was doing. Then moved it to 30. Very very slowly and continually going to get that blood work checked by my doctor to figure out, hey, where am I and where’s my thyroid at?
Eric Zielinski: One thing that’s really key to recognize, and this is something I can tell you definitively, there is no research, like none, to suggest that specific essential oils can help produce thyroid hormone. That doesn’t mean it’s not possible. The approach for someone that’s looking to work with a doctor to using essential oils and supplements in food, the approach overall is to support the body and treat the body itself, to boost immunity, to give your body what your body needs to reach homeostasis and balance.
Eric Zielinski: Two oils for virtually every health condition that someone’s dealing with, two oils that you might want to consider having on hand are sandalwood and ylang-ylang, known harmonizers. What’s a harmonizer? A harmonizer is an agent, like a bioactive compound, like essential oils that supports your body’s natural ability to heal itself. So it’s very different fundamentally and theoretically, it’s different also physiologically, like physically, different than using something like rosemary to boost up blood pressure because you’re hypotensive. It’s something different than using cinnamon to decrease blood glucose levels. This is a different approach. It’s like healing from the inside out, and so we find, again, this is in the research, proven with human trials, sandalwood and ylang-ylang, known harmonizers, they just give, and we don’t understand exactly why, but they help your body reach peace, homeostasis, internally at a cellular level.
Chantel: You even said that, like I’m like, you even said it in a peaceful way.
Eric Zielinski: Really? I’ll say, I went through my own personal hell like a year and a half, two years ago, just being a husband, a provider, sole provider or my home, trying to start my businesses, recently graduating from a second career trade school, getting my doctorate, having four kids. It was a really stressful time for me working 100+ hours a week. Right? I found myself instinctively going to ylang-ylang. I never used ylang-ylang really much before.
Eric Zielinski: I mean, and again, I say this a lot. So if you’ve listened to me before, forgive the repeat, but if you’re new, my little joke is, you know, I’m not going to go play beach volleyball with my guy friends smelling like ylang-ylang. They’ll take my guy card. I mean, there is a point where guys are a little concerned about how they smell. You smell musk. You don’t smell like flowers.
Eric Zielinski: So anyway. I overcame that and I started using ylang-ylang with other oils like lime and myrrh and sweet myrrh, which is known as opopanax. I started making my own blends with sandalwood, and I was instinctively drawn to these oils, and I had no idea why. Now I understand because not only are they helpful for anxiety and their helpful for peace and calming, but they have that harmonizing effect. Over the course of a few months to, now, a year, I actually don’t, I’m not drawn to that right now. Dare I say I don’t need it. They’re still there. Ylang-ylang, of course, is always in our love blend and that’s something good, too, for people who want to boost libido and other things like that, and just create a nice mood, which is very important for couples, but it’s something that I don’t go to on a daily basis like I used to.
Eric Zielinski: So, anyway. That’s, also, we need to trust our intuition. Trust your gut. Be led of God, be led of the Spirit, because again, this is to me a very spiritual journey, and not everything can be something that we could see, touch, or taste.
Chantel: This brings us right to our next question. This is from Erica in Minnesota. It says, “What is your opinion on ingesting versus ingesting/swallowing essential oils? There’s a lot of mixed reviews. Are there certain brands that are better to swallow than others, and are there certain oils that shouldn’t be swallowed? Also, I was taught that I need to put a carrier oil in my capsule, but I don’t understand the point because once you swallow it, and the capsule dissolves, it’s all going to the same place at the same time anyways?”
Eric Zielinski: Really, really insightful. What’s her name?
Chantel: Erica in Minnesota.
Eric Zielinski: Erica. Okay. Erica, you’re thinking. You’re thinking deeper than most people. I’m trying to remember it all. You asked me like five questions or so. Carrier oil, why?
Chantel: The first question was-
Eric Zielinski: Yeah. I’m going backwards. I’m thinking-
Chantel: Ingesting and swallowing essential oils.
Eric Zielinski: Out of all those, the quickest one is the dilution piece. Why do you add a carrier oil? Because of absorbability. Bottom line. A carrier oil acts, it helps your body absorb it. It acts as a carrier which can help your bloodstream. So that’s why you always want to dilute oils topically, too. Otherwise, you’re literally wasting your money, plus it protects. It also can protect your gastric lining, and these oils are caustic. They can cause ulcers, so diluting it helps prevent that. So safety and efficacy, really. Okay? If you don’t dilute, and you hurt yourself, and you’re just wasting your money because your body will not absorb as much.
Eric Zielinski: Internal use. I do not understand, literally, I do, but I don’t. I don’t understand why this is even still an issue. I know why. If we had more time, I can explain more of the history and the politics behind it, but here’s the bottom line. Out of all the essential oils manufactured in the world, again. Take big picture approach. Essential oils are used in your cleaning products. We’re talking conventional. You know? Also in your food and flavor items. Like what do you think flavors your Coca-Cola? Think of it. What do you think flavors your Peppermint Patties? What do you think flavors your lemon bars? Any processed food with natural or unnatural flavoring is essential oil-based. Okay?
Eric Zielinski: Essential oils are also included, as you would expect, in the aromatherapy industry. Like literally buying oils. They’re in five major industries, even the medical industry. Again, what’s in your drugs? Where do you think they get these chemical compounds?
Eric Zielinski: Out of all the industries in the world that use essential oils, 50% of all the oils manufactured in the world are consumed by the food and flavor industry. So what does that mean? You’re consuming essential oils all day long and you don’t even realize it.
Eric Zielinski: The difference is dosage. Going back to your Coca-Cola, it’s a special proprietary blend that no one knows unless you work at Coke, but it’s like microdoses of essential oils with all their sugar water to give you what people know and love as Coke or Pepsi or 7 Up, right? All these different flavors. So when it comes to the medicinal aspect of essential oils, dose is important. The first step, and again, we cover all of this in our master class and in our book because this does warrant further discussion because there’s a huge list. I can’t give you that list of the ones that, I mean, there’s a huge list of things of the oils that are safe and not safe. But in general, a vast majority of oils that you find in the market are going to be safe for internal use.
Eric Zielinski: The few that aren’t, that you shouldn’t, bitter almond, wormwood, rue, wintergreen, and there’s a list. Again, I list them on my website. I list them in my book. There are several that you need to be cautious of, but the vast majority of them, the eucalyptus, the rosemary, the lemon, the lime, the peppermint, the basils, like all these oils, if the herb is safe to consume, it’s most likely, most likely that it’s safe to consume, but it’s not always, there’s always exceptions to the rule.
Eric Zielinski: One way that we like to ingest essential oils to get a therapeutic dose, a minor therapeutic dose is through culinary. I’m telling you. If you love guacamole.
Chantel: I love guacamole. I have to be real careful. You know, it’s funny. We had a doctor on our show, I can’t remember who it was, but she talked about how, that something in avocados has a feel-good thing where you just feel good. I can’t ever get enough avocados and guacamole for me.
Eric Zielinski: Well, you’ve never had guacamole without a drop of cilantro in it. You don’t know what it tastes like.
Chantel: Oh, my god. I love cilantro. I am a cilantro-
Eric Zielinski: [inaudible 00:32:07].
Chantel: This is what I tell the people when I do the guacamole or wherever I am. I say put so much cilantro in it that once you get to the point where you’re like, oh, my gosh, she can’t possibly want more, put another cup. Just put one-
Eric Zielinski: Same thing with your Peppermint Patties.
Chantel: So you would say one drop of cilantro oil in your avocado for your guacamole?
Eric Zielinski: Yeah. So, if you’re making a dish, a guacamole, that will serve two, three, four people, you could put about two drops per dish. Same thing with your lime. I would actually do two drops of line and two drops of cilantro in your guac. Same thing with your spaghetti sauce. Put a couple drops of oregano. Just typically speaking, two drops of essential oil can replace up to a tablespoon or herb or zest in any recipe. So it’s a lemon zest, an orange zest, a peppermint. Whatever. All these things.
Eric Zielinski: Same thing with the mints and same thing, you know, we covered herbs, mints, and spices. Cinnamon. You typically don’t want more than two drops per dish as a whole. Right? You have a couple drops of this, couple drops of that, but you don’t want 100 drops of essential oil. It’d get too much.
Eric Zielinski: But that’s a really nice way of having a low dose therapeutic, what we call a culinary dose. But for people that are trying to treat systemic issues and chronic disease including cancer and autoimmunity and diabetes, that’s where capsules come into play. You want to have a gel capsule filled with a carrier oil, like we talked about earlier, and anywhere from three to four to five drops max, like max, in a capsule. I recommend usually starting with two or three drops, and having them up to two times a day, and monitor how your body responds to it. You want to be under the guidance of a health care professional.
Eric Zielinski: Here’s the disclaimer. That’s really serious, y’all. You don’t even know what’s going on in your body biochemically. I cover this in my new book about chemical soup. We literally are walking chemical soup. Your thoughts, the toxins from the air, the things that you’re eating, what you’re putting on your skin, the drugs that you’re on, your supplements, all of this makes up a chemical soup that you have no idea of there’s going to be an interaction. And yes, essential oils can and will interact with certain drugs.
Eric Zielinski: The best example, and something that’s very important, is people that are on cumin and their blood thinners. Stay away from ingesting clove. So your favorite essential oil brand, they have immunity blends, main ingredient is clove. You don’t want to be ingesting that if you’re on a blood thinner. I mean, that’s a disaster for, that’s a recipe for disaster. Right?
Eric Zielinski: So there’s certain things you need to be cautious of and certain drug interactions, and that’s where you want to go to your pharmacist, like, “Look. I’m looking to treat this XYZ disease and here’s what I want to do. Do you have any advice?” Your pharmacist should know. If not, then you pick up my book, you watch my master class, you start to dive deep. If you’re really trying to treat a disease, treat it as such, and don’t be flippant about that.
Chantel: Got it.
Chantel: All right. Alex in Bedford says, “I struggle with really bad anxiety, but I really don’t want to get on medication because I’ve heard stories from my friends. What are the best essential oils that I can use for anxiety and how should I be taking them? Diffusing, swallowing, rubbing, etc? I tried diffusing one oil called stress away, which is a blend, at night time, and it gave me crazy dreams, which is the opposite of the effect I was going for. LOL. Do you think this caused my weird dreams or was this just a coincidence?”
Eric Zielinski: Oh, no. Definitely not a coincidence. You actually had an adverse response to that blend. That’s something we all need to recognize. Now, I can’t speak to the purity of that blend or the brand. But one thing to remember, and this is an overall rule of thumb with everything whether it’s a supplement, whether it’s a drug, a pharmaceutical intervention, or an essential oil, is that purity doesn’t guarantee safety. Purity doesn’t guarantee efficacy.
Eric Zielinski: What does that mean? Well, it doesn’t matter if it’s pure. What matters mostly. It does matter, but purity, what matters most when it comes to your interaction is how your body responds to something at a biochemical level. Nothing can guarantee the results that you’re looking for. The same way a drug, the same way a supplement, the same way a food. Well, this is the best organic, non-GMO, locally grown whatever I’ve ever, you know? You can still have an adverse reaction to it because there’s something in your body.
Eric Zielinski: One thing we need to realize, too, is moment by moment, day by day, year by year, our biochemistry is different. It just makes sense. Think about it. Your air is different. The chemicals on your skin because of the products you use are different. The foods are different. Biochemically we’ll never be the same. We’re constantly adapting to our environment. We’re constantly in flux. So that makes all the sense in the world. Doesn’t mean that oil’s junk. It just triggered something in your body.
Eric Zielinski: So when it comes to anxiety, there are several essential oils. Out of all the things that we’ve seen in the research, sleep issues, depression, and anxiety rank as the most evidence-based out of all the human trials that we have on essential oils specifically. You’ll see oils like valerian, lavender. You’ll see vetiver, roman chamomile come up as very nice calming sedative oils. Ylang-ylang, I mentioned earlier, specifically. One that comes out a lot, that a lot of folks don’t even think about-
Chantel: Every time you say that I’m going to think about you going out to play volleyball with the [inaudible 00:37:39].
Eric Zielinski: I know, and then taking my guy card away, right?
Eric Zielinski: One thing people don’t know about, typically, is, yeah, a lot of people have heard the ylang-ylangs and the lavenders and the chamomiles and vetivers. Like those are the calming oils. What a lot of folks don’t realize is citrus oils, specifically bergamot, has been shown repeatedly in the research, and it can help stop a panic attack in its tracks.
Chantel: Wow.
Eric Zielinski: I equate panic to anxiety because I dealt with that. They often feed into each other. Sometimes people don’t even know the difference. What is it? I’m panicking. I’m having anxiety? It’s like that.
Chantel: Right.
Eric Zielinski: Bergamot is one that I would pick up. And so, if you want a whole list, and again, I did a literature review on this, if you go to my website, DrEricZ.com, search up anxiety. You’ll see several articles. We even have an anxiety spray for dogs and pets because, hey, you know, sometimes pets can get agitated, especially if you add a new pet into a new home.
Chantel: Right.
Eric Zielinski: But spritzers, having something like a spray bottle, like this, and making your own blend.
Chantel: Oh, I love that. Just like, “Oh, you’re stressing me out.” That would be awesome. Oh, my gosh. As soon as someone stresses you out, you just kind of pull it out. Spritz. Spritz.
Eric Zielinski: Literally. I mean, and you know, having this out, having an aromatherapy inhaler like this, to me, anyone that battles anxiety needs to have this. This thing looks like a lipstick tube. You can get fancy ones like this or one that’s a medical grade plastic. Inside is a cotton swab. You soak that with essential oils, and again, all the recipes are in my book, and when you’re having an attack you literally just smell. You could be on a subway, could be at work, but this is very concealed. It fits in your pocket, your purse, your desk office drawer, and you don’t need to bother people with spraying because when you spray, it’s everywhere now. But this is another way.
Eric Zielinski: Applying it topically. The back of your neck is a good approach. On your abdomen, also because it’s a very permeable part of your body. It really penetrates into your bloodstream within minutes. This sort of thing. Again, we always want to dilute essential oils. We always want to have blends that work for us. It takes trial and error.
Eric Zielinski: For example, this is very practical, whether it’s my website, my book, or someone else’s, you’ll typically get a list of essential oils that have been known to work for a condition. You want to start practicing. You want to start doing some trial and error. You want to start seeing what’s going to work for you. When I say practicing, what I mean is a doctor practices medicine, which means she will prescribe a drug for you and then she’ll monitor your progress. If it’s not working the way that you want it to work, she’ll change the protocol. You need to do the same thing.
Chantel: Yeah. That gets us to our next question. It says, this is Jamie in Suffolk, she says, “I once went to an essential oil party where they were selling oils. The lady who led the party said that if there’s an oil whose smell really offends us, our body is telling us that we actually need and crave that oil. Do you agree with this and is there any truth to it? If so, will you explain. I’ve noticed one smell in particular that I can’t stand is clary sage, and I’ve struggled with hormonal imbalance my whole life. This kind of made me think that her theory is true.” Jamie in Suffolk.
Eric Zielinski: Yeah. Jamie, so, that’s absolute nonsense.
Chantel: Okay.
Eric Zielinski: Now, your body still might be craving something and you might not enjoy it. I don’t really like broccoli. I’ll just be real. You know? I don’t really like the taste of freshly juiced kale. I mean, who does? Maybe you do.
Chantel: I do, actually.
Eric Zielinski: Just straight up kale juice? Good for you.
Chantel: Not straight up, but I do like, if I do kale, spinach, and celery I love it.
Eric Zielinski: Yeah. Just again. Think about, you know. Here’s my thought. Do you life to eat or do you eat to live? Do you use oils to live or do you live to use oils? With that mentality, clary sage proven over and over to be one of the most effective women’s health hormone balancing oils on the planet. Right? So you might not like the smell of it, but how does your body respond to it clinically? There are certain oils, like I really didn’t like ylang-ylang. I mean, it’s just, it’s all right. It’s really strong, but I used it and it helped me. I felt different. I was drawn to it because of how I felt. Okay?
Eric Zielinski: I would say if you don’t like the smell of something, what you want to do is you want to try clary sage, lavender, and geranium, for example. Maybe you put in some ylang-ylang. That’s a nice blend. See how your body responds to it. But there’s absolutely no scientific reason or even, and don’t take it offensively if you teach this, it’s absolutely non-commonsensical to say that your body craves something that is repulsive to you. Like that, to me, also, evolutionarily speaking, that doesn’t make sense. You crave what you want.
Chantel: Yes. I agree with that. I say that all the time. It’s like, think about it. Like for me, if I’m starting to get a cold, I’m going to crave oranges or orange juice.
Eric Zielinski: Yeah.
Chantel: Your body will tell you, “This is what you want.”
Eric Zielinski: Yeah. Often times. I mean, just, again, think why we crave sugar so much because there’s an evolutionary advantage to having carb-loading when you’re going to have feasting for two, three, four, five days, right? Think. We didn’t have all the food available to us. Think why we crave sex. It feels good. I mean, there’s a reason why people have cravings the way that they do.
Eric Zielinski: Look at your primal cravings. [inaudible 00:43:35] insight to all that.
Chantel: All right. Corey in Little Rock. “I want to start diffusing some oils in my office that will help make everyone alert and productive, especially in that afternoon slump. What are some of the best oils that I can diffuse that won’t be too strong and smelly, but will really give everyone that extra oomph that we all need? Any ideas?” Corey in Little Rock.
Eric Zielinski: So, Corey, the concern is that what might not be too smelly for you or strong, might be to someone else. Like we just heard from the previous question, someone who is repulsed by clary sage. So is there no one scent or blend that everyone will like. But with that said, again, going back to trial and error, what I like to use, and what I found is very effective to get that little extra boost are the mints. The spearmints, the peppermints, and the wintergreens. What I like to do is mix litsea, also known as may chang, with rosemary. Actually, it’s what’s in this blend right here. Rosemary, eucalyptus, litsea, peppermint. This is just a nice perk up and go, helps you focus, energizes you.
Eric Zielinski: Peppermint’s been actually shown clinically to increase and boost athletic performance. So it makes a lot of sense. It helps you breathe better, and when you breathe better you get more oxygen. More oxygen means more energy.
Eric Zielinski: That’s a great blend as well. Just start with that or rosemary, the herb of remembrance. You know, a little bit of rosemary and I like to add, sometimes, an orange to that or a citrus. They really blend well together.
Chantel: All right. Last question. Helen in Virginia Beach. “My son is almost five months and I’ve had recurring mastitis almost twice a month in both breasts since he was born. I really don’t want to stop breastfeeding because of the cost associated with formula, and, of course, the health benefits. I also don’t want to constantly take antibiotics either. What are some oils that I can use to help this?”
Eric Zielinski: First, do me a favor because we don’t have time to cover everything. Go to my website, type up “breastfeeding”. Mama Z wrote a great report on that and all the things that she does. One thing that we used was actually roman chamomile tea. We steeped tea in hot water and we did compresses. That is very effective. I mean, chamomile will just take out, I mean, just help take out any sort of infection out of the nipple.
Eric Zielinski: One concern, in general, and there are again, chamomile and lavender, too, that really work. You want something very safe. Something very soothing. One concern about using oils specifically on the nipple is that the baby will actually suck on the nipple shortly afterwards if you’re nursing regularly, and you don’t want to burn the baby or have the baby interact with that. So the rule of thumb is right after nursing, that’s when you apply the essential oils, diluted heavily. You need one or two drops per teaspoon or carrier oil. So a good recommendation is coconut oil, unrefined organic coconut oil because it’s antifungal, a teaspoon of that, one drop of lavender, one drop of roman chamomile, and that could be your salve that you can apply immediately after nursing, but you want to give your body at least an hour to an hour and a half between nursing and application because, again, you don’t want baby just to, some people don’t think about that. They apply the oils, 15 minutes later, baby’s nursing. You don’t want that. So I want to stress the importance of that.
Eric Zielinski: Yeah. Chamomile and lavender are good ones that you want to start with. If you need some more support, then you can actually apply more of the anti-infection oils around the breast itself and not on the nipple. That could be, again, diluted heavily, you could go with oregano, thyme, and lemongrass, but of course, you always want to be careful. These are really, really potent oils, and make sure there’s at least an hour and a half to two hours between application and nursing because you don’t want baby to be just inhaling those strong oils.
Chantel: Awesome.
Chantel: Well, it is been such a pleasure talking with you. Listeners, go to DrEricZ.com. Their website is amazing. You’ve got so much content on there. It’s absolutely one of the best sites I’ve seen. I love it, love it, love it.
Chantel: Thank you so much for being on our show and we will put a bunch of notes in the show notes with some upcoming launches and classes he’s got as well. If you haven’t gotten his book, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Get it today.
Chantel: Thanks so much for being with us.
Eric Zielinski: Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.
Chantel: All right. Have a great one. Bye bye.