What Are Essential Oils?

Essential oils contain the healing properties of plants in a very concentrated form.

They are made by distilling plant material to extract the oil. It can take 16 pounds of the fresh peppermint leaf to produce one ounce of essential oil! They can heal the body, mind, and spirit. They can improve the overall function of the immune system, oxygenate cells, repair damaged tissue, cleanse the body, and bring the body and spirit into balance.

There are 3 categories of oils available today:

• Fragrance oils–used to fragrance a room, like you would find at Bed Bath & Beyond, and contain zero therapeutic benefits and often contain harmful chemicals.
• Flavoring oils—used to flavor foods and candies, and contain zero therapeutic benefits but can be ingested.
• Pure Essential Oils—contain nutritive and therapeutic properties of plants. Only buy pure essential oils!There are many companies that provide good quality pure essential oils. It’s a matter of preference who you choose to buy from. In my experience, the oils sold in health food stores are the lowest quality and the oils sold by non-multi-level marketing companies are the highest quality. My favorite company is Butterfly Express. Their approach to essential oils most closely follows my own beliefs and opinions regarding essential oil purity, methods of use, education, and distribution.

What to Use and Why:

When living with PCOS, our main focus is to balance our hormones. Essential oils can aid in this process. As we all have our own personal brand of PCOS, we will have varying levels of success with this. The three most common oils for treating hormone imbalances are clary sage (for estrogen imbalance), thyme (for progesterone imbalance),and sandalwood (for testosterone imbalance). Other oils that can be helpful are basil, cypress, fennel, geranium, and lemon. I also really like a blend of oils called EndoRelief (sold by Butterfly Express) that supports theendocrine system. EndoRelief contains cumin, cypress, coriander, dill, geranium, myrtle, nutmeg, oregano, petitgrain, and sage essential oils. Another blend I like is called WomanWise (also sold by Butterfly Express) which aids in hormone balance. This blend contains clary sage, jasmine, lavender, marjoram, patchouli, spikenard, rue, and St John’s Wort. For women who are approaching, at, or have completed menopause, you would use the oil Balance (sold by Butterfly Express) for hormonal support instead of WomanWise. Balance contains chamomile Egyptian, chaste tree, clary sage, cypress, lavender, marjoram, myrtle, peppermint, rose geranium, sage, yarrow, and ylang ylang. You can rub the oils (diluted with coconut oil) over the abdomen several times a day, or on the inside of the ankle (the reflexology spot for the uterus).

One of the more frustrating aspects of PCOS is the persistent acne. As long as I’m a true Diva, my acne is completely gone, but sometimes I’ll have an indulgence and pay for it later on my face. I have found that tea tree oil (also known as melaleuca) is great at zapping those deep cystic breakouts. Some people like to add it to their daily face wash. For some, that is too drying and they prefer to use it directly on the breakout. I’ve also heard thatlemon oil works well too. If applying the oil directly to your skin is too strong, try adding a small amount of coconut oil. If coconut oil makes your acne worse, you can use witch hazel or even distilled water to mix with the oil to decrease its strength.

http://pcosdiva.com/2015/10/you-asked-for-it-the-essential-oils-for-pcos/