Table Of ContentBegin Reading
Table of Contents
About the Authors
Copyright Page
Thank you for buying this St. Martin’s Press ebook.
To receive special offers, bonus content, and info on new releases and other great reads, sign up for our
newsletters.
Or visit us online at
us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup
For email updates on Vannoy Gentles Fite, click here.
For email updates on Michele Gentles McDaniel, click here.
For email updates on Vannoy Lin Reynolds, click here.
The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use
only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright
infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you
are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher
at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.
To our husbands:
Vance, Jerry, and Jesse
INTRODUCTION
For my family, healing illnesses with essential oils has not always been the case.
Once upon a time I relied solely on the medical community and pharmaceuticals
for all of my and my family’s health care needs. From about the age of three to
seven years old my eldest daughter, Lin, suffered from chronic and acute
bronchitis. I tried repeatedly to get her help for her condition, but the cure never
lasted for very long.
My daughter would start by coughing in the middle of the night, followed by
lung congestion, fevers, headaches, fatigue, and a multitude of other respiratory-
related symptoms. She would have to miss school and I would lose days of
work. When it would get so bad that I feared she had pneumonia, I would take
her to a local physician in an attempt to get her well again.
The doctors would always prescribe antibiotics and cough medicine for her.
The antibiotics would cause her to develop rashes and the cough medicine often
contained codeine, which would turn her into a crazy child. After taking the
medications for several days, she would get better … for a while. This repeated
illness took a huge toll, not only on her, but also on the entire family. I worked at
a minimum wage–paying job and didn’t have health insurance for anyone in the
family. We could not afford to take her to the doctor every other month, pay for
the medications, or miss days of work to care for her, but we felt as if we had no
choice.
Then I began reading about homeopathy, herbs, essential oils, and home
remedies. I studied the materials, talked to people who had used alternative
healing methods in their lives, and bought the essential oils and herbs that I had
read would put an end to bronchitis. I was adamant that I would take control of
her illness and no longer rely solely on pharmaceuticals for her health. This was
not a very popular approach in the 1970s and ’80s, but I felt that the prescribed
medications were not providing a long-term solution.
Soon enough the cycle of bronchitis began again. Lin began to wake up in
the dead of night coughing, and her lungs rapidly became congested. I finally
decided to make a thyme infusion with honey, and fed it to her by the teaspoon
every hour. I made a rub out of eucalyptus essential oil, peppermint essential oil,
and olive oil. I applied this to her chest morning and night. I was nervous, and
not at all sure I was doing the right thing, even after all of my research. During
the first night, she showed marked improvement. I was encouraged by her
apparent progress, so I continued her regimen of thyme teas, infusions, and
tinctures and the essential oil rub as often as I could. After about three days, her
coughing had completely stopped, her lungs were clear of congestion, and she
felt like running, playing, and being the active child that she was meant to be.
This was the first time in three or four years that I had found an actual cure for
my daughter, without just relying on prescription drugs that would mask the
symptoms.
I was so overjoyed with my daughter’s remarkable recovery that I continued
studying essential oils, alternative medicine, and herbs at a frantic pace. I craved
any information I could find about homeopathic remedies, alternative healing
methods, and herbalism. I was soon incorporating these methods into our daily
lives. My daughter never again got as ill with bronchitis as she had before the
essential oils and herbs were applied to her. She did get coughs from time to
time, but we always turned to our alternative medicines and cleared her up right
away.
There is not an illness in existence for which there isn’t a plant that can
potentially offer relief. This has become a mantra in our family for the past forty
years. While some plants’ purposes have yet to be discovered, a multitude of
medical benefits have been derived from their essences in the form of essential
oils.
People think that aromatherapy simply means smelling the essential oils.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Although smelling a drop of eucalyptus
oil and peppermint oil can clear the sinuses in one breath, there are so many
other ways to apply, use, and benefit from essential oils. Various methods of
usage include powders, diffusers, rubs, poultices, applied neat (without carrier
oil), massage oils, steams, bath additives, inhalers, and countless others, all of
which are included in this book.
Having loved essential oils and herbs for most of our lives, we encountered
many issues with the books that were available on using them. We wanted a
book that is straightforward in its description of the ailments, disorders, and
complaints and one that also contains easily accessible recipes. Essential Oils for
Healing is that book for us and hopefully for you as well. It lists the subjects in
alphabetical order and in a comprehensive, precise way that is easy for the
layperson to use. For example, if you are searching for back pain, just turn to the
Bs and you’ll find not just information about back pain, but also a list of all of
the essential oils that can potentially help with that condition, any major
warnings and contraindications concerning your back pain remedies, and recipes
using the essential oils all listed on the same page.
We are passionate about using essential oils in our lives and in the lives of
our families. We have experience, knowledge, and an understanding of how
essential oils work to provide relief. We have used essential oils to help our
friends, our children, and our grandchildren overcome illnesses and complaints
for most of their lives. We have each studied, used, and loved essential oils and
herbs for several decades.
There is an overwhelming desire today for books that are devoted to the
chemical-free and natural-healing lifestyle. Many people don’t want to use
medications that are actually manmade chemical compounds designed to mimic
what essential oils and plants do naturally. Many essential oils can be just as
effective—or more effective—in treating illness as manmade chemical drugs,
