33 Dr. Zielinski Essential Oils and Cancer.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
33 Dr. Zielinski Essential Oils and Cancer.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Speaker1:
Hi and welcome to the Cancer Secrets podcast. I am your host and guide, Dr. Jonathan Stegall. Cancer is like a thief who has come to steal, kill and destroy. I have personally seen it wreak havoc on patients, friends and even my own family. But I am on a mission to change the cancer paradigm. Who? The practice of integrative oncology cancer treatment that integrates the best of conventional medicine with the best of alternative therapies backed by science and personalized to each patient. You need a positive voice you can trust. This podcast will share valuable information to give you practical hope for a better outcome. So I invite you to join me on this journey as we seek to change the cancer paradigm together. Hello and welcome back to the Cancer Secrets Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Jonathan Stegall. This is season three and episode number 33. In today's episode, I have a wonderful guest joining us, Dr. Eric Zelinski. Dr. Zelinski, thank you for being with us.
Speaker2:
Well, thanks for having me, my friend. I really appreciate it. And congratulations. Three seasons. That's awesome.
Speaker1:
Yeah, we're rocking and rolling. Yeah. I'd love to let our listeners know more about you guys. Doctor Eric Zelinski. He's a doctor of chiropractic, and he's a public health researcher who specializes in aroma therapy and biblical health. He's a pioneer in the natural living space. He's the author of the international bestselling book The Healing Power of Essential Oils, and also the author of The Truth About Essential Oils and Cancer and the Essential Oils Diet. He's executive producer of the Hope for Breast Cancer documentary and creator of the Essential Oils for Abundant Living Master Class. Dr. Zelinsky and his wife Sabrina founded Natural Living Family in 2014, and since then it has become the most visited website devoted to Bible health and non branded essential oil education in the world. Dr. Zielinski has been featured on various podcasts, radio shows and television programs and is passionate about helping others experience the same health freedom he has enjoyed once again. Zielinski, welcome to our program.
Speaker2:
Yeah, I can't wait to get started.
Speaker1:
Well, as you know, essential oils are everywhere now. And I know that you actually were way ahead of the curve with essential oils. And I actually credit you with with a lot of their popularity today. But, you know, most of our listeners to this podcast have either heard of essential oils or are most likely using them in some form already. And I'm so glad you're here today, because I view you as as the expert, not only in knowledge, but also because you're you're truly objective in looking at the research and in evaluating what the science truly says and not just relying on on hype and what Dr. Google might say. So I'd like to really start out by discussing your journey to essential oils. How did you first become interested in them?
Speaker2:
Yeah, it's a really good question because it wasn't on my radar at all as a young adult as as someone that was really seeking natural therapies to be healed of a variety of different issues. I guess the long and the short of it is I had a dramatic transformation when I was 23 and I became a Christian at that time. I never really had a relationship with Christ. I wasn't living healthy at all, and that produced a lot of issues for me. Like significant issues, I started to develop depression, suicidal thoughts when I was a late teenager, young adult and I self-medicated with narcotics. Alcohol was an alcoholic. I would smoke a pack of cigarettes a day. I would drink a pot of coffee a day, just get through I chronic pain throughout my body. I'll never forget. I went to a neurosurgeon because no one can help me and chiropractors couldn't help me. Naturopaths can help me in. This man did an MRI on me and he looked at me and said, What did you do to your back? You have a spine of a 50 year old. And I'll never forget that because I can't attribute it to anything other than, you know, just I don't know what to say. Standard American diet. A lot of antibiotics when I was a kid was in breastfed took Accutane because I developed acne just I don't know just the cumulative effects of a lot of things produced in me.
Speaker2:
Just, I guess a deep darkness. I had no hope. I really had no hope when I was in my twenties. And that's why I just dove into just narcotics and things, just to get me through a little bit of hope. And I say that to say, Well, I had this dramatic transformation. I mean, dramatic. I was blind. Now I see I met Christ and my mentor said, Eric, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You got to take care of yourself. Well, what does that mean? Nutrition. I completely change my diet. Started looking into supplements, started looking into prayer, meditation, things. I never really did exercise regularly, one by one by one. Gut issues, pain issues, cystic acne. Just all the things that plagued me. Depression gone over a course of a few years. But essential oils weren't on my radar. Never heard of them. I never really knew about them until fast forward, I met my wife who has been using essential oils since she was a teenager and her mother's friend is an Ojibwa Indian practices Ojibwa medicine and my wife developed a chemical burn on her skin, gave my wife her first essential oil kit at 14. Well, I just thought they were smelly stuff, doc. And. And, I mean, no joke. My wife does her thing. She has a routine.
Speaker2:
You look at my wife, she is currently Mrs. Georgia. She was a top six finalist of Mrs. America. You look at her, she's 41 years old and she looks like she's 20. And part of it is because of her natural beauty routine that she does. And so I kind of just but I always tell people, like, I like I'm not going to go play beach volleyball with my guy friend smelling like ylang ylang. We'll take my guy card away. So I never thought of it, but I was a medical researcher at the time and this was about. Several years ago now and I was commissioned. It was my job to write a series of public health reports on the therapeutic efficacy of essential oils for you name it blood pressure, everything from hypertension to blood sugar to to any sort of chemotherapeutic, chemo, preventative effects for pain, nausea or whatever. And I was forced with like reading had it to read hundreds of trials. I'm like, What in the world is this stuff? And here we go. It just catapulted. Now it's been a five year journey of going to aromatherapy school, of writing bestselling books, master classes, and now being featured on an upcoming documentary that's going to be coming up on global streaming services. It's just like I never would have expected it. It wasn't part of my five year, ten year plan. It wasn't.
Speaker1:
Awesome. So so as we mentioned earlier, you know, essential oils are so popular in the cancer community, people are certainly looking into ways they can they can enhance their cancer treatment regimen with essential oils. There's a lot of information out there. How how would you say essential oils work to fight cancer? I mean, I know there's there's several ways, but what are the main ways that essential oils are anti cancer?
Speaker2:
Well, I mean, I think we need to step back a little bit and realize that we have virtually no research at all on human trials to suggest that essential oils can replace chemotherapy or any sort of medicinal treatment when it comes to the treatment and or prevention of essential oils. However, and I think this is important talk and I know you know this I mean, public health 1 to 1 mandates, you need to have anecdotal evidence to do preliminary trials on in vitro and animal studies. And then from there you do human trials and from there you do cohort studies. And but it all starts with a story. It has to you have to have that or valid scientific research, valid scientific understanding that an intervention can treat and reach a desirable outcome. Otherwise, no institutional review board there. Basically, the safety committee is ever going to approve a study to go through. So when you look at that at the core, there are thousands of testimonials online. And yes, you could we could pinpoint that a lot of these are based from multi-level marketing reps trying to sell oils. But, you know, I'm giving people the benefit of the doubt. I don't think people are inflating their story. And I actually personally know people, personal people who say, look, chemo didn't help, radiation didn't help, surgery didn't help.
Speaker2:
I was at my deathbed and I started using essential oils and I started changing my diet. And the next thing you know, I got better. Well, what was that one variable? We don't know. But I think that's important to realize. First, there's a lot of information, there's a lot of hype because people claim that they've been helped in a variety of ways. But also, I think it's important to realize that when you look at the individual constituents and I know you're very familiar with limonene, I mean, limonene is a chemical that has extremely potent and proven anti-cancer effects like we're talking, can produce a apoptosis, can kill from everything from reaction to oxygen species. I mean, there's a variety of different mechanisms that essential oils use to cutting off the blood flow to prevent angiogenesis to just just killing the cancer itself. But we also know that bleach can kill cancer, so I'm going to drink bleach. So there's dosing involved, there's all this. So when you look at all the different trials out there, we have very few. And this is really important for people to realize, like virtually none, because who's willing to do this kind of research and who's willing to pay for it? There's virtually no research evaluating an essential oil on a group of people and controlling them against chemo and controlling them against nothing.
Speaker2:
Right. That hasn't been done yet. But we do have are several rat studies, animal studies, pig studies, in vitro studies that show individual components of these oils having an extreme preventative or therapeutic effect against cancer. And that so that's theory. But what's really important and there aren't human trials on this how essential oils can help with the side effects related to cancer itself, but also the treatments. So when you administer whatever low dose chemo, when you administer whatever might be a treatment to a patient, they are going to receive a side effect, pretty much guaranteed. What it is we don't know has to manifest, but that's where essential oils can help with nausea, with low libido, with sleep disorders, with pain, with even hair growth. I mean, rosemary peppermint can help stimulate hair growth again. So people that lose hair after chemo, you name it. So that's where, in my opinion, we need to balance the hype versus the testimonials versus what we really know. What the research says when it comes to palliative care, when it comes to treatment, I'm sorry, I'm symptom management. I don't know of anything else that can help, like essential oils, especially pain.
Speaker1:
Right. Well, I appreciate you sharing that because, you know, I talk on this podcast a lot about open minded skepticism. That's really my approach when it comes to cancer treatment. I mean, we need to be open to anything that might work, whether it's conventional or alternative or anywhere in between. But we also need to have a healthy level of skepticism. And you're really summing that up quite well and what you're sharing with us, because, no, we don't have any double blind, placebo controlled, long term human studies on essential oils, but we do still have some evidence and we have some wonderful anecdotal reports and we have a lot of a lot of things suggesting how they work and that they may be helpful. So I say, why not incorporate them? We're doing it in a science based manner and open minded fashion. Why not use them? I mean, we're seeing wonderful results in people like you mentioned. So I think it's great.
Speaker2:
Well, and here's an add on to that and this is the concern I have with most oncologists is they are recommending against. Right. And what the film that I just directed, the hope for breast cancer. When we followed Angela's story, her oncologist said. Eat whatever you want. Like, literally, I want you to gain weight. You're getting sick, eat whatever you want. But also don't take immune boosting supplements and for sure don't use essential oils. That was at first the fear because of the ignorance of the industry of not realizing that there could be potential side effects or contraindications. But here's the thing. I mean, this is the research that's pretty clear on this. There are no known contraindications. To prevent someone from using an essential oil, if just especially for aromatherapy purposes. I mean, just typical through diffusion, through topical, even a capsule form with a low dose. I mean, there's no contraindications. And that's what I want to encourage people to challenge their oncologist, to challenge their doctor and be like, well, why? I mean, what? Why are you telling me I can't use something that can help me feel better, especially mood. I mean, orange citrus, Neroli Bergamot and these are proven anti depressants, antidepressants and anti anxiolytic properties. Like if you're dealing with anxiety, who isn't? You're staring at death. I mean, God help us. I mean, of course you're going to deal with some depression.
Speaker2:
Of course you're going to deal with some stress, maybe panic, like to have something at your disposal that could trigger dopamine and serotonin that can actually help you get into a better frame of mind proven. Proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. Like when it comes to what essential oils have helped to prove mood boosting like no other antidepressants. Right? So why wouldn't you use something that could help you instead of maybe getting on an actual antidepressant? Now, och, och, get on an anti psychotic because. Because you're suicidal, not because you're depressed, you're going to die. That's not the approach we want to take. So what I'm really hoping we bring awareness and encourage doctors to do a little bit more due diligence before they recommend against. And that's why I love your work because you're like, what's the harm? As far as we know, there is no harm. And let me add you this. There are preliminary studies that actually suggest taking essential oils in conjunction with chemo helps chemo be more effective, which there's a lot of reasons why, because chemotherapy typically isn't lipid soluble. We're dealing with a phospholipid membrane around each cell. I mean, essential oils kind of act as a carrier that maybe help chemo be more effective, help protect the non chemo cells or non cancerous cells in the body like there's theory behind that. What? Why not?
Speaker1:
Right? Absolutely. And I'm and I'm happy to speak in terms of just my my clinic and my practice. I'm happy to start doing more of that. I mean, to be honest with you, I mean, this is obviously educational for for our listeners. But but but I'm very happy to under your guidance, to incorporate more essential oils into what we do here with when we give chemotherapy. And I think our patients would love it. So I think that's exciting thing to think about.
Speaker2:
Yeah.
Speaker1:
So let's talk a little bit more about specific essential oils for cancer. Are there are there several that or more that you feel are especially good in terms of their anticancer effect or, as you said, for for symptomatic management?
Speaker2:
Yeah. I mean, going back to what I mentioned about the about about the oils rich in limonene, I mean, we know that that limonene itself, especially limonene is a is a potent anti cancer plant based chemical. Right. And you see these in citrus oils, particularly the oils that have the most potent, the most rich constitution of limonene are all the citrus ones really. I mean, everything from top to bottom, orange, grapefruit, neroli bergamot, lime, lemon peregrine and all through. There are a couple of oddballs like dill that kind of like, why is Dill in that list? But it's cool. But those cumin, that's another one. On turmeric, there's actually some good preliminary research about CO two extracted carbon dioxide, extracted turmeric. Everyone always talks about frankincense. And I think there's a disclaimer about that one. The only reason why we're talking about frankincense is because there's a very well known multilevel marketing company that funded a handful of studies that evaluated their frankincense with some in vitro cancer cell trials, and they found positive results. So like, obviously it blew up. And so now everyone's buying 80, $90 bottle of frankincense. I'll just tell you flat out, I'd rather go to orange oil because orange oil costs five, ten bucks a bottle. And I would argue that it's just as effective, if not more than frankincense. But you're getting what you pay for, too. So I want to again, not a big deal. It's not a bad thing, but a self funded, privately funded, industry funded study that raises red flags to me.
Speaker2:
Most researchers would agree. But I'm telling you, I met people that said, you know what? Because frankincense is rich and says water beans, which have been shown to cross a blood brain barrier. I know people that have said, look, it helped with my glioblastoma, it helped with my neuroblastoma and help with you name it, any kind of brain cancer, because you know how hard it is to target brain cancer. It's like, God help us. Why did you do so? I got to say, there's research behind that. But there's other oils. You know, frankincense and myrrh come together. They actually have been shown to have a synergistic effect together against cancer cells. Lemongrass is one that comes up when it comes to women's health and breast cancer, especially. And coming off the heels of this movie that we're coming out with, I'm thinking a lot about breast cancer. Again, August. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. You see research trials about geranium, clary, sage and lavender, which are typically women's health oils as a whole, help balance hormones and help really regulate our cycle mood. But they've also been shown to be positive for breast cancer patients. So a number of reasons why, whether it helps the body, again, recover from a treatment or actually be effective against a specific cancer line itself. On a side note, though, I think it's important to recognize that there there is no reason to be afraid also of any potential estrogenic effects of these oils, especially lavender, lavender and clary sage get some bad rap out there because any sort of estrogen dominant cancer, some women are concerned about using lavender because of its potential estrogenic effects.
Speaker2:
No research to suggest that. And in fact, what we concern or what we consider our Merck manual in the essential oil industry is called our Essential Oil Safety Guidebook by Robert Young. And I'm sorry, Rodney Young and Robert Tyson. And it's basically our contraindication list are full extensive research list and they've gone on record to say, look, there as a whole, the aromatherapy industry is claiming that there is no reason for a woman with estrogen and cancer to be concerned about using clear sage or lavender. So just in kind of debunk a myth out there, in my opinion, essential oils are innocent until proven guilty. And our our medical mindset, a lot of people are like, hey, you're guilty until proven innocent. So I'm like, hey, unless you can prove otherwise, use them and enjoy. Because I would hate for someone not to use lavender to help them sleep, relax, deal with a panic attack because they're concerned about their breast cancer growing, you know? Right. Right. Excellent. That was a lot of information there. You got to press pause, repeat that, get the transcript. It's like brain.
Speaker1:
Dump. That's right. Rewind. Listen again. So so how can patients best incorporate essential oils into their their integrative cancer treatment protocol? And again, we're assuming that patients are truly. Reading there, there, there protocol. So there's probably some chemotherapy, maybe some surgery, but certainly some good nutritional support, probably some supplements. You know, intravenous vitamin C, really just a stress reduction. How do essential oils best fit into that type of protocol?
Speaker2:
I mean, essential oils have such a profound effect at enhancing the immune system because they're rich in antioxidants. They essential oils are bioactive compounds. And I think it's really important because when you look at nutrition, for example, and this is this was actually the thesis of our last book called The Essential Oils Diet. The thesis is the theme. The theory here is that researchers have shown that a diet low in bioactive compounds will never give you robust health. And bioactive compounds are those non-nutritive substances. You know, we have carbs, we have proteins, we have fat, vitamins and minerals. Without these, you will die. But without bioactive components. Those are the carotenoids, the polyphenols, the essential oils, fiber, I mean, fiber. You could live without fiber, but you're not going to have a good, healthy a just bowel movement system going. You're not going to have good motility, but you're also not going to have a good immune system because your gut function is going to be hampered. Same thing without polyphenols. Polyphenols are over 8000 different polyphenols that are just plant based, antioxidant rich chemicals in your food. Same thing with essential oil. So why am I saying this is is is to enhance your ability to heal, to ward off infection, and to essentially be as healthy as you possibly can during treatments. You have to use essential oils or something comparable to just support your body through that.
Speaker2:
And the sky's the limit. I mean, I could give some recipes off the top of my head, but just to kind of step back, I want people to realize, though, that your body, if properly prepared, can handle these treatments and not have to be completely annihilated. You know, and that is something that we've seen and we've worked with several cancer patients with like a lot is that you prepare your body. So my thought would be the same thing like right now is flu season. I mean most depending on when you're listening to this October through in January around that time is flu season. And for people that come to us, the number one question usually is, what do I do? I got to get the flu shot for my job. I'm in the military. I work at a hospital. I have to get the flu shot. I have no option. What do I do? Well, opt out. If you can't, then what you try to do, hopefully, is create like a system where you're building up your immune system, you're enhancing your metabolic function before and then after. And so if you know you're going to have a chemotherapy treatment on Thursday, maybe start on Sunday doing certain things like ingesting certain essential oils, applying a certain essential oils, topically using aromatherapy to really help with your mood, get good sleep, and then afterwards do that same kind of protocol.
Speaker2:
That would be one aspect. That's exactly what we recommend people to do for the flu shot. And there's certain things like detoxification strategies, like good baths, like how wonderful would it be to give yourself a little bit in me time, which has as much of an emotional benefit as it does a physical benefit. But you can get again, the recipes. I'm not a recipe guy, by the way. That's my wife. Like I'm Italian. And so I'm like a handful of this, a spoonful of that. But you could get like a handful of Epsom salts, a couple drops of lemon and a couple of drops of lavender. Mix it up with some olive oil because you need a little bit of a carrier oil and you let a bath run and you give yourself a nice, warm 20, 30 minute bath like you do that after chemo day. You do that before and after that will actually help help release some of those toxins, help release your body, give your body just a break, even an emotional detox. That's extremely helpful, those kinds of strategies. But, you know, whatever the symptom is and that's one of the nice things about our website natural living family dot com it's a database type up nausea type up, headaches type of libido type of whatever there are. There are remedies and solutions for all that stuff.
Speaker2:
And if it's not in there, chances are it's in my book, The Healing Power of Essential Oil. So I guess my my recommendation would be for sure symptom based management, but also try to do what you could do to prepare your body and also prepare emotionally. And and, you know, going back to the documentary, it's just it's fresh in my mind because we're finishing the final touches. Like every time Angela went for a treatment, she would prepare emotionally. She would actually call my wife and she would pray like every single time, like, are you praying before you treatments? Are you praying that your doctor be guided in the nurses? Are you praying that your body would receive this? Are you praying that the side effects would be nil to none? Are you preparing your heart? Are you allowing yourself to go through this as a. Healing journey. You know, she never called the chemo. She never called a chemo day. It was her healing day. And this whole thing has been her healing journey. She never would call it a cancer diagnosis, you know, and there's an element of not internalizing this stuff. And it's an element of, you know, what, allowing essentially allowing your body to respond in a way where your spirit can guide. And it's very much a faith based it's very much a faith walk and a faith faith based journey.
Speaker1:
Absolutely. It has to be. It has to be. So next question. Do you have some recommendations for for some side effect type treatments? Let's start with nausea.
Speaker2:
Yeah. You know, some of the the best nausea relieving oils you'd be surprised are lemon. Lemon oil has actually been shown proven to help pregnant women deal with nausea related to being pregnant. It's kind of wild just smelling lemon oil. So we like to mix lemon and just escaping lemon, peppermint and fennel. Those are three wonderful oils that you can blend together. And one approach and also caraway is another good one. One approach is to just inhale them, just to smell them through a steam diffuser, which a lot of people love, these ultrasonic diffuser, but also make a body ointment, a body oil that you can apply over your stomach. And the knee thing about essential oils are they're transdermal in research. Studies have actually shown this in human trials, that they penetrate the chemicals in the oil, penetrate into your bloodstream within minutes. And one of the most effective places to put essential oils are actually on your abdomen because of just the sheer amount of muscularity that's there. And also it's a permeable part of your body if you're trying to use essential oils to produce a systemic full body effect. Don't waste your time putting them on your feet. And now there might be reflexology benefits and things like that.
Speaker2:
But think about how callus and hard your feet are. The skin is actually the least permeable part of your body. So your abdomen is a very nice permeable part of your body. Very transdermal. If you get any kind of nausea, that's a great step. Other oils that are really good are tarragon. That's another good oil for for indigestion. I mentioned fennel. Basil is another one. And peppermint seems to be the go to for people and for people that have real bad nausea. You might consider a capsule and you could just get a simple gel capsule. I would never ingest an oil straight, especially if you're dealing with nausea because it could trigger acid reflux. If you can get a gel capsule online, a vegan gel capsule, typically size 000 on Amazon, just put two or three drops of peppermint in it and take it with some food and just see how your body responds to that. That could also help to could help soothe some inflammation. And those types of strategies have actually been shown to help patients with SIBO, small intestinal, bacterial overgrowth and Crohn's and other gut disorders. But there's a lot you can do when it comes to gut health.
Speaker1:
Thank you for that. So buying the capsules or these just empty capsules people would purchase and then add the oils to and then close it back up. Is that how that works?
Speaker2:
Yeah. Yeah, I actually and I forgot one ingredient you always want to dilute because actually helps the body absorb it better. So what I would do is I'll get the capsule, it's empty. You put two or three drops of the essential oil in and then you fill the rest of the capsule with olive oil. That's typically the best solution. That way is diluted and it actually acts as a carrier. Oil helps the body absorb it better. And then again, you want to be careful. And this is one of the Internet myths that really irk me is people just using oils willy nilly. I mean, like they're super concentrated. They're natural as natural can be, but it takes about roughly like three full pounds of lavender to get just an antibody bottle. Lavender. Just just think about that for just a minute. It's a lot of lavender. You're not going to walk into a lavender field and see a pool. Lavender oil. It has to be steamed. Still, it has to be extracted. Same thing with orange. It takes about 40 lemon or orange rinds or 40 lemon rinds to get a bottle of orange after you cold pressed. That's a lot. So this is I've got to say, it's an unnatural natural solution because it's manmade, maybe that it's a manmade natural solution that you're not going to find in nature. And so you have to treat it as such. It has to be somewhat of a healthy reverence and respect for the potential harm, but also the potential benefit.
Speaker1:
Right. Well, I'm glad you mentioned that, because there's certainly people who believe that if something is, quote, natural, that that means it can't possibly have any side effects. And if you believe it's something, whether it's natural or not, if we believe it's something that has an effect in the body, then it certainly has a potential for a side effect. So I'm really glad you mentioned that, that we have to be careful and have a healthy respect for essential oils, because we do know that they have an effect in the body. Therefore, if they're not taken properly, then then they could cause a problem.
Speaker2:
Yeah, yeah. And there are certain things that we teach about max oral dosage, max dermal dosage. And as you speak, I just remembered a big one, too, for nausea as ginger. But when it comes to ginger, you don't want to put like 15 drops in a capsule. There are rules of thumb. Typically speaking, 1 to 3 drops per dose is relatively safe for everyone, adult wise. Right. But when you start getting more and you go to Pinterest, for example, they're recommending 15 to 20 drops at a time like there is no research at all to suggest that is safe. And people are actually finding liver and kidney toxicity because of just the sheer amount of chemicals that need to be processed. It's almost like overdosing, right? But I don't want to freak people out because the only record we have of people dying, ingesting oils is because they literally ingest it a bottle. It's like ingesting a bottle of aspirin. So there are a little bit of common sense, but there are rules of thumb. And so in my next book, it's going to be about chronic disease. I'm actually I have a specific chapter just on cancer. We're going to cover those contraindications and the research is still up and coming. We still don't know what all the mass oral dosages are for all the oils. But again, two or three drops, I don't know any aroma therapist that's been trained properly that would argue like same thing. Like a lot of the stuff can go in your food. And that's another thing to think about when it comes to your food and nausea. You could easily add one drop of peppermint or one drop of ginger into a dish, some food that has a fatty substance to it. And that's a nice medicinal way, a very highly diluted way, a safe way of ingesting essential oils, too, and also helps make your your whatever food that you're eating that much more flavorful.
Speaker1:
Excellent. So so you've mentioned a few different ways of of administering essential oils, and I'd like to talk about that a little bit more. There seems to be a lot of confusion out there over people say, well, should I should I be diffusing them? So I'm inhaling them. Should I put them on topically? Should I ingest them? And it sounds like all of those are valid methods. They just need to be done in the right manner and the right situation. Is that is that accurate?
Speaker2:
Exactly. And in my opinion, topical application is your biggest bang for your buck because it's like a two for one deal. You get the inhalation benefit because you're essentially walking around as like a walking diffuser. I mean, if you apply oils on your abdomen, you're going to smell them. It's just like having a diffuser. It just doesn't. The off gassing of those volatile organic compounds are only going to last a few minutes versus an hour or two. If you had a diffuser, for example, because it literally takes five, 10 minutes until those oils get absorbed in your in your bloodstream. So again, that's a two for one benefit. I love topical application. It's very safe if you dilute properly and always have a carrier oil. I mean, it's really important because the carrier oil actually helps the essential oils essentially be more impactful of the body. You waste less, it prevents off gassing, opens up the pores. They also most carrier oils have their own healing properties as well. They're antimicrobial. They also soothe the body, soothe the skin. But some claim that actually helps the body absorb them better to inhalations. Great. I mean, there's no more impactful way of of impacting your brain than inhaling something. I mean, just talk to any cocaine addict. I mean, there's a reason why they snort versus inject. I mean, really, if you want to direct impact on your brain, you are inhaling something.
Speaker2:
It's immediate. It's immediate. So if you want an immediate impact on your mood, if you want immediate impact even on your on your digestion, on your immune function, on your emotions, we know that inhaling that the power of smell through the olfactory system can do the job. And so when you inhale something, you're directly impacting your limbic system, your primal mood, your emotions, your brain, your memory. So that can trigger some things that can actually trigger some negative things. And you might not realize it, but you might go pick up an oil, smell it and just feel immediately uneasy. You just might feel immediately on edge, might give you anxiety. It doesn't mean that the oil is bad, just means that maybe potentially something happened, maybe for yourself. It triggers an emotional response that you might maybe just have suppressed. And that's something where you when you look at what certain psychologists and counselors are doing, they're using like emotional recall healing. They're using essential oils to help go through some of those triggers. But also, here's the kicker. As much as essential oils can potentially trigger post-traumatic stress disorder, you can use them to imprint your brain through neuroplasticity, to give you a place and anchor of healing for the future. So let's say you're going through your healing journey now and you just fell in love with bergamot, for example, and bergamot just gives you just great joy, just helps you feel better.
Speaker2:
It's a mood booster. Well, five, ten years now, from now, if you go through an event that kind of stressed out, you go back to Burgman. It takes you back to your healing journey that you're going through today. It's that wonderful. And if any of you doubt what I'm saying, just think. And again, this is all proven in science. Actually, it is what happens. Maybe like you, you walk down stairs, you go into someone's home for Thanksgiving, you smell that turkey. Does it remind you of grandma 20, 30 years ago when you walk by a woman like I do and I smell a specific perfume, it reminds me of my first girlfriend when I was 18 years old. I'm right there. I'm just there. I'm an 18 year old kid with my first girlfriend. Every time it's that's how powerful smell is. It brings you right back. It brings you right back to that moment. And that moment can be whatever it is that you're trying to make that moment. So we encourage people who are getting counseling or going through counseling or emotional recall, healing, whatever it might be to use essential oils wisely and as an anchor to help them potentially for the rest of their lives. I love.
Speaker1:
That. That's great. So so you mentioned Carrier Oil. I wanted to talk a little bit more about that. So, yeah, you said to use a carrier oil. Does that apply to topical? And ingested oils or diffused oils as well or how does.
Speaker2:
Yeah. Not diffused because that would just gum up the system. Your diffuser. Yeah. Ultrasonic water. Diffusers are simply water. There's a hydrate and there's a vibrating disc at the bottom of a water container. You have like a little water tank that has 100 or 150, maybe 200 millilitres in this. This disk vibrates so rapidly that it literally opens up and breaks open the water molecules and the mist and the essential oils. So you just dispersing through steam. It's cold air, it's not heated. So you don't want to use a carrier oil to that. There are others like reed diffusers that would require carrier oil, but you don't get the therapeutic effect like you do through an ultrasonic diffuser. But for topical application and ingestion, it's always indicated, always indicated to dilute. The only reason why you would ever not dilute is like, for example, I was out with my son. We are hiking. He cut himself. This is combat medicine. I mean, we get lavender, put it right on to help with any sort of infection. And this is exactly what medics use in World War One. World War Two, people don't realize before the advent of the antibiotic, what do you think medics used to prevent infection on the front lines, essential oils.
Speaker2:
Wow. And this is, again, combat medicine. It's emergency medicine. Only the concern we have and this is to put a healthy fear in people. What people are doing is they're overusing essential oils and they're creating what's known as sensitization. That's essentially a contact dermatitis. There's so much chemical overload, the body can't handle it. You're becoming you're creating an allergic reaction to it. If you apply straight, undiluted, essential oils on your skin in excess, again, one thing going to kill you two probably will kill you three times is okay. But if you're applying straight essential oils regularly, that's going to be too much for your body to handle. And if you're like many people like myself, your body can develop a resistance to that. It's just too much. It it's too much. It's sensory overload. Also, you can burn yourself. Some of these oils are caustic, I mean, or oregano, clove, lemongrass. I mean, they could really hurt. So we also want to remember dilution as well.
Speaker1:
More is not always better.
Speaker2:
No. And you know what? I'm glad you said that. The more that I learn about essential oils, the less I use them. And the more that I use them in a way to enhance my life, like I just don't take essential oils just because I'm trying to prevent the flu next month. I'm certainly not taking essential oils to prevent cancer, period. I'm using essential oils to enhance my life. And to me, the biggest bang for your buck is looking at like like how you mentioned how you mention about the toxic overload about your toxic bucket. How is your toxic bucket overflowing right now? Is it overflowing because of body care products, because of certain makeups, because of certain chemicals that you're putting on your body that can be a link to maybe some sort of rise in cancer. What are you doing about that? Making your own products that are essential oil based give you all the benefits that you want without the toxicity so you can reduce your toxic overload. That's how I use essential oils to prevent cancer is by preventing my toxic overload, and especially when it comes to diffusing oils. I have an air doctor or an air purifier in my home. We have good pure water. In my house, we have a close to as toxic, free of a house's you can get. And that took years to develop. But that's how I'm preventing cancer. And I say that very respectfully because there are countless and I'm talking in the tens of thousands, if not more, people that are literally using essential oils, taking a drop of frankincense in their mouth every day to prevent cancer.
Speaker2:
That's not the best approach at all. And if I would argue that's a waste and that could develop resistance, because we know there is resistance in every aspect of life. And I'm convinced that if you do an intervention the same way every single day, that your body is going to adapt, and that's that God's design to adapt to our environment. That's just adaptive immunology, right? The adaptive immune response. So I want to caution people because that's not the best way of using oil to prevent cancer getting healthier. And then also I love to use essential oils to enhance my life like mood boosting and sleeping better and stuff like that. Like that's how, again, I'm preventing cancer is giving my overall stress response a quicker adaptation to it so I don't get freaked out like I used to. I'm not chronically depressed like I used to. I don't have chronic gut issues like I used to. I'm sleeping well, a vibrant libido, enjoying my life, good mood like then. These are the kinds of things that I want to encourage people that I don't know anything else, like turmeric doesn't do that kind of stuff for you. It's limited, like all these things directly related to essential oil. And when I say turmeric, I'm talking like the supplements and the powders and all these things that people are taking. You can't do that stuff with, with, with most supplements on the market and have the immediate reaction that you can the potency of essential oils.
Speaker1:
That's a great point. So so one of the questions I want to ask is arguably the most important is what should our listeners look for when purchasing essential oils? I know you purposely don't recommend certain brands, and I appreciate that you don't because you want to maintain your objectivity in your research. But but are there some general things people should look for when they're buying essential oils?
Speaker2:
Yeah. You know, at this point, my answer is a lot different than it was five years ago. And it's good because things have changed. Transparency is the first thing right now. Any company that is not openly sharing their batch specific reports, the CMS is basically the blood panel of the oil gas chromatography, mass spectrometry report. Any company that isn't showing you what's in the oil, they're either hiding something or they're not at the level where they're willing to be transparent about what they're selling. So all the major companies that are investing in their own on their own dime, by the way. Third party testing because it's not required by law, which is kind of scary. The US FDA is not regulating any sort of manufacturing processes or qualifications or before something gets shipped out to market, which is really scary if you think of it. People are using essential oils to treat disease. Some people are using this to treat cancer and there's no regulation of what's on the market. So what number one is go to the website, look up an oil and there should be a batch specific report of that oil right there. If not, call customer support and say, hey, do you have that? Now, here's the thing. I get this. You're not a biochemist. Most of you listening. I don't expect you to understand and to fully digest what this report says. But like a blood panel, any one of us can go to Redi Labs next door and get a blood panel like a heart disease blood panel. And if you get a heart disease risk panel, all you're looking for is within normal limits of normal limits.
Speaker2:
And they give you an executive report. That's what this is. It's a high level executive report. There is bad stuff or there's not bad stuff. And I'll tell you something, no company is going to put out a report that says there's bad stuff in it and try to sell it to you. Think of the psychology behind it. So what these companies are doing, they're literally throwing away products that don't meet the standard if the reports don't match up. So they're making sure, of course, we're hoping that these companies are in integrity and they're not falsifying documents and all that stuff, which is a valid risk, by the way. So first of all, that is transparency. And next, I would encourage like kind of look at just the company as a whole. You know, it's it's it's with CBD on the rise. I could look at a company right now trying to sell CBD and just be like, I don't know about that. It just looks, you know, look at the label, look at the philanthropy, look at the about look at the mission of the company. Like, what is this company? Where are they getting their oils from? What's the sourcing? Are they open? Are they transparent about every aspect? How are they testing? Give just a quick glance of the company as a whole. If they are paying third party labs to evaluate their oils, thumbs up. They have a batch of report. Thumbs up. You know, their label looks legit, thumbs up.
Speaker2:
And I say that because, man, especially CBD, some of these things look like a Cheech and Chong movie and you're trying to buy CBD oil and it's all psychedelic marijuana leaves. I'm like, okay, probably not the company. I should get my stuff right. I'm not kidding. And my brother has a story. My brother bought an oil like that because right now in Michigan, it's on it's open. It's open season. And he was trying to treat you something. He got this psychedelic looking oil. He called me the day after I went to the E.R. and he started having seizures like this was not pure CBD. Wow. Cbd should have zero to no. Thc should give, you know, any sort of hallucinations. Hallucinations. And I look at some what it was that he showed me the label. I'm like, look at the bottle. It's like he's like, Yeah, I didn't think about that. So I hate to say it, but some of the essential oil, I mean, essential oils are a little more advanced than that. But oil is oil in my world, CBD oil, essential oil, even olive oil. Like all these oils, most of the oils on the market are adulterated. But there are several companies that sell good oil. So anyway, kind of funny in my brother's expense. I love him, but it's like, Lord, help us. But that that is it. And here's the bottom line, though, to this is really key. Purity is purity. You can't get more pure than pure. I mean, just at the end of the day, we're looking for an essential oil that has no adulterants, no contaminant, no pesticide residue, just pure plant chemicals.
Speaker2:
Done. All right. But your body still might not respond well to that oil. We talked earlier about maybe a post-traumatic stress, some sort of memory issue, some sort of limbic system trigger. But there's what's known as the organic septic evaluation in aromatherapy, where you need to experience the oil, taste it, touch it, smell it, experience it, and then your body might reject it. And there's a number of reasons why, primarily because of biochemical individuality. Biochemistry has changed moment by moment, day by day. And I found people, especially people that are dealing with a toxic burden, like a toxic overload. Their body are have been so adapted to the toxic chemicals and especially the aerosols. And when they smell something pure, like essential oils, it's too much. It's almost sensory overload for their body. I've seen people, especially with peppermint and menthol oils, get headaches from good oils that I know are good oils. They get headaches, and then once they go through a detox reaction, they lose some weight. They get into a better mindset, different mindset some months down the line, the same exact oils like Wow, I love this is great. So I just yeah I just want to say, do you have to experience it? And there is a little bit of trial and error. I mean, this is not hey, I get this, I love this company and let me buy 1000 kit, get a little starter kit, get two or.
Speaker2:
Three oils. All of them have it for like ten, 15, maybe 20 bucks. Get a little baby kit and just experience those oils and you're like, okay, how does my body react to this? And here's the reality is no reaction is a good reaction. What we're trying to find, especially when you get a little coconut oil or olive oil in your hand, put a drop of, let's say, lavender and rubbing on the back of your hand. It's called the skin patch test. It's just like what you do for your carpet before you clean your whole carpet. The recommendation said, Hey, pick an inconspicuous corner, make sure it doesn't stain, and if it's good, then do the rest of the carpet. Same thing with oil. This kind of makes sense. So try on the back of your hand. And what we're looking for is anything adverse rashes, any sort of eruptions, any sort of pain, any sort of burning. If you put that on your hand again, a little bit of olive oil, a drop of lavender or whatever it might be that you bought. And if you get no reaction, that's a good sign. That means your body is at this point not allergic to that. There is no negative reaction to it. You should be able to use that going forward, but you still need to be cognizant because the danger doc, and this is legit, I mean, and this is a rampant myth on the Internet is that someone who uses an essential oil and gets an adverse reaction. I guess what bloggers are calling that.
Speaker1:
What's that.
Speaker2:
A detox reaction? And this is this is ingrained ingrained in multilevel marketing propaganda. And I've spoken at these conferences, at these events and these people, and they've almost tarred and feathered me out of one event. You're like, What are you talking about? Arts out. The best oils are pure in the world. If you apply something on your skin and if your skin reacts in a negative way, that's your body saying Stop. But we forget that common sense. And we're like, Oh, it's just my body, my body's reaction to it. Detoxing from toxic chemicals, folks, that's not how detox works. All right. So I want to put that out there. Unless you're in the essential oil world, maybe never heard of it, but just a little bit of Pinterest, a little bit of Googling, you're going to find that really quick. That's not true. That's called sensitization, allergic reaction. So anyway, going back to the organic uptake evaluation, how does your body react and spon respond to the oil, test the oil and then be really in tune? And if you don't have one, especially for people who are caretakers of or going through a cancer journey, you need to be journaling. I mean, you have to be I mean, out of all the different conditions in the world, this is the one because this is a lifelong diagnosis. Right. Your life has been changed forever. Hopefully, God willing, in a good way. You need to be documenting what's working, what's not working, how you feel. You have to be obsessive about it. Like, Oh, I had two and a half bites of this and then no, no, no, but overall, what are you doing? What's working? What's not working? Let's try something new and, you know, share your emotions a little bit, your feelings. But more importantly, you have to have a reference guide of something you can go back to because you're going to forget and you're not going to want to forget when it comes down to it.
Speaker1:
Hi, this is Dr. Stegall. Thanks again for being a loyal listener. If you love the Cancer Secrets podcast, I know you're going to love my Cancer Secrets book as well. In the book, I take a comprehensive look at cancer and its history while also digging into the treatment protocol. I wholeheartedly believe in integrative oncology. Integrative oncology uses the best of modern medicine with alternative therapies backed by science and personalized to each patient. I not only focus on common cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, but also on more outside the box treatments such as intravenous vitamin C, mistletoe, nutrition supplementation exercised and repurposed medications. I explain which tests you should have but probably aren't getting. I address the power of Mind-Body Medicine and the importance of our thoughts and our words. I also take a look at common myths about cancer. Some of these will surprise you. I will teach you to be an open minded skeptic and give you the hope you need to fight cancer. Grab your copy today on Amazon in paperback or Kindle format. So, Dr. Zelinski, thank you so much for for all this great advice you've you've shared with us today. I know a lot of our listeners are going to want more information about how they can better incorporate this information and learn more about the ins and outs of essential oils. How can our listeners learn more about you?
Speaker2:
Please go to our website and the website is Natural Living Family Dot com and just enjoy a lot of resources for you and get plugged in. You can join one of our newsletters, get plugged into one of our upcoming free screenings of our master class. You'll have links to our books and all kinds of great resources. So thank you for joining the family.
Speaker1:
Well, I know you've written several great books. I mean, one of my favorites is Essential Oils and Cancer. I mean, that's that's that's that's that's all my bookshelf behind me here. The Truth about Essential Oils and Cancer. And I found it to be an awesome book for me to learn. And I know our listeners as well will benefit from it. So I encourage everyone to check that book out and then certainly go to your website as well to get get plugged in. I'd like to just end, if you don't mind, by talking a little bit about biblical health. I know that's a big part of what you do. And I know you and I both are working from a from a Christian perspective in what we do. Tell us a little bit more about biblical health and how that kind of ties into to your overall mission.
Speaker2:
So for me, when when I was saved from the darkness, that's the best way I can describe it. Like I was in a physical, mental, emotional darkness. I experienced a light, you know, I was blind. Then I could see I started to look at the scriptures in a whole new light. It was like manna from heaven, like bread. Just feeding me, feeding my soul and spirit. And I started seeing things that were oftentimes glossed over in my own paradigm and made my own thinking, even from things that I've heard in church. Just just guiding principles and how to live. You know, the book of Proverbs is filled with just nuggets of truths about our words, about our actions, and about our health. And so I started to look at certain things like a happy heart does good, like medicine. Well, that kind of got me on, like a whole, you know, whole just bunny trail of just looking at positive affirmations, positive psychology, looking at how our mental aspect can affect things like speaking. Things that are not as though they were. The power of our words. Life and death is in the power of the tongue. And they who delve, they who indulge in it, will will experience the result thereof. I mean, if you believe you're going to die and if you speak death, it's going to happen. We call it self proclaimed prophecy. It's also known as the nocebo effect. It's a scientific phenomena. But if you trigger the placebo effect, I'm healthy, I'm strong, I'm well. I'm a big fan of positive affirmations.
Speaker2:
I'm a big fan of what the Bible says. Meditate on God's word daily. You know, that was part of the paradigm. That was part of a culture. The Jewish culture is to read the word, memorize God's word in the shower and the speak. It it's something very foreign to us. You have to put yourself in the position, like go to church or put in a podcast or something to get you in that place. Like it was so part of their culture. They had no other option but to do certain things. But it was also part of the Jewish culture where laws like I started looking at some of the Leviticus laws and I started looking at some of the things that they were doing. The Old Testament often made sense, like the anointing oil, like why would God tell Moses to get this big old vat of olive oil, put myrrh, cassia, cinnamon in it and calumnies, and sprinkle and anoint the altar after they did slaughter of animals all over. Like that was an antibiotic. I mean, that was an anti fungal agent like that. Those oils have been shown to kill fungi, bacteria. And I mean, when you just kill and slaughter an animal, that's pretty antiseptic. I mean, how do you make a clean environment? Like there's an element there? They're like, why do they use incense? I started just again looking at certain things, but ultimately the overarching concept of biblical health for me is that God through his spirit, has given us what we need to know what's right or wrong.
Speaker2:
And I believe and I encourage people to be more prayerful about what they do and just don't do what the doctor says without considering it, praying about it. In fact, there's a Bible command that says Test all things and hold fast to what's true. Just because I said something doesn't mean I'm 100% accurate. I'm a person, I'm a human, I'm fallible. But I've seen people. I've seen people what I call beat cancer God's way. I've seen people beat disease in a very unique way. They've been led of the Lord let of the Spirit. And I do believe it's a journey that God needs to be at the center, like the concept is from the Book of Proverbs is you commit your way to the Lord. He will establish your steps. He will guide you in a multitude of concerns. There's victory and safety. So I do believe that any any doctor who is willing to pray for their patient can be led in a way that would be very unique that gets away from this one size fits all approach to any sort of disease. And to me, that is the secret to health, because what's going to work for me? It's not going necessarily going to work for you. We're different for individuals. So again, biblical health at its core dives into balance. It dives into realizing we're emotional beings, spiritual mental beings, and we have to look at us as a whole. And through the Bible we see God really cares about our emotions.
Speaker2:
He cares about our body, he cares about our spirit. He cares about our finances. And we need to recognize that we're interlinked in that way. So that's our mission, is help people find balance and find abundance, find blessing, find peace and prosperity in those areas of life. So you enjoy life, you enjoy your relationships, you have good, healthy thoughts. And when something happens to you, you know how to manage it. You won't be a victim of your circumstances anymore because we walk by faith, not by sight. So anyway, it's a wonderful journey, realizing that God is not forsaken us. So wonderful journey. Realizing that we have a Lord and Savior who loves us. And I got to say, for all intents and purposes, it is only by God's grace that we're not all dead. I look at what we've done. I look at the chemicals that are in the air. I'm like, Lord, you did a number on our bodies. Like, what a wonderful machine to be able to adapt to all this stuff. So the question isn't why do bad things happen to good people? The question is, how do we stop hurting ourselves? Because praying that God heals you of lung cancer and you're smoking a pack of cigarettes a day is probably the stupidest thing anyone can ever do. You know how many people are not receiving a healing because they're doing something in their body? Don't even realize they're hurting themselves. So this is biblical health to me.
Speaker1:
Realizing this is dead.
Speaker2:
And we reap what we sell. Right. So that's it, y'all. It's really simple when it comes down to it. And the more in tune you get and the more you listen to the Holy Spirit. The more you'll be guided in and God willing, work with a doctor like Dr. Skal here, who is in tune with that and who's respectful of that and wants to join with you in that. And then there is such a power in prayer, there's such a power in healing and a power of community and fellowship.
Speaker1:
Well, thank you so much, Dr. Zielinski. I appreciate you and the man you are and certainly all of your knowledge. Thank you for sharing all of this with us today. I know our listeners really benefited a lot from it.
Speaker2:
Well, thanks for having me. You're welcome. It's been my pleasure.
Speaker1:
And just as a reminder, please subscribe to the Cancer Secrets podcast. If you've not already and if you're enjoying this podcast, please share it with a family member or friend. And please leave us good positive reviews on iTunes if you haven't already. And we'll have more really great information coming your way as we progress through season three. And just a little bit of a preview, Dr. Zelinski, we're going to be talking again very soon about your upcoming documentary. I want to actually devote an episode just to that. But if you could just very quickly give us a little teaser about your hope for breast cancer documentary coming out.
Speaker2:
Yes, please, folks, go to hope for breast cancer. It's a story of a young woman's journey through integrative cancer treatments. A young mother. And I'm blessed to have you, Doc, as one of our expert speakers to kind of flesh out what integrative oncology is and how patients can really do some good stuff for themselves. It's a journey, and it's a wonderful story, and I promise you you'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll leave with hope.
Speaker1:
We'll look forward to having you back on very soon and we can talk more about that. I'm excited about it and I know a lot of people are going to be blessed by it. So thank you for doing that.
Speaker2:
Thank you.
Speaker1:
All right. Well, we'll look forward to talking with you soon and and for all of you listening. Thank you so much. And we'll see you soon. Bye bye.
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