Taking a Look at OnGuard Essential Oil Blend
As the seasons are changing, and summer is fading into late summer, and soon into fall, one of the things we're all aware of is the potential to become "under the weather."
As a professional Aromatherapist, I've been able to advise many people to use this Essential Oil blend for various health and wellness concerns, both those with active symptoms, and those who are trying to ward off symptoms. As such it can be used in a multitude of ways, aromatically by inhaling the distilled or passively diffused vapor, as a steam inhalation, or inhaled directly from the bottle. It can also be used topically, applied to the bottoms of the feet, the back of the ear lobes, along the neck and chest - ensuring proper dilution as several of the Essential Oils that make up this blend can be irritating to the skin. It can be used with a dispersant to be added into bath water (not to exceed 6 drops) body lotions (again, ensuring proper dilution ratio not to exceed more than a .5% strength). Under the supervision of an Aromatherapist it can also be taken internally via capsules at the proper strength for a predetermined amount of days, these are just some of the most common ways this blend is used.
The reason this blend is so popular, and used so widely is because of the properties that the single Essential Oils within it contain, and how they work together.
This blend contains:
- Wild Orange (citrus sinensis)
- Clove Bud (Eugenia carophyllata)
- Cinnamon Leaf (Cinamomum zeylanicum)
- Cinnamon Bark (Cinamomum zeylanicum)
- Eucalyptus (Ecualyptus radiata)
- Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus).
Orange (Citrus sinensis) Essential Oil mostly contains monoterpenes, such as d-Limonene (86-95%), Myrcene 1-4%, and alpha-Pinene. It also contains a small amount of aldehydes, monoterpenols, esters and coumarins including bergaptenes (which means that it is a photo sensitive Essential Oil and if applied topically to the skin can cause the skin to be more susceptible to sunburn for up to 12 hours post application).
This chemical profile allows Citrus sinensis to useful in all stress-related conditions such as stress induced colds, or distress brought on by a cold, it helps to ease and relax the circulatory system, and allow the blood flow regain a normal pressure and flow. It helps with our upper digestive tract and helps replenish and cultivate proper beneficial microbiomes in our lower digestive tract in order to bolster our immune systems when they are under threat. It helps to move fluids through the body and decreases inflammation while working to disrupt bacteria and fungi overgrowth or colonization in the lungs especially, but also in other areas of the body, and is a great air-borne disinfectant.
Clove Bud
Clove Bud (Eugenia carophyllata) Essential Oil should not be confused or used interchangeably with Clove Leaf (Eugenia carophyllata) Essential Oil, as they contain different chemical profiles. Eugenia carophyllata Bud Essential Oil contains primarialy phenols including Eugenol (50-95%), Isoeugenol, Methylchavicol and Methyleugenol; as well as esters, sesquiterpenes, oxides, ketones and montoerpenols.
This chemical profile allow this Essential Oil to be useful when we feel discouraged, apathetic, hopeless, have low self-esteem or poor self confidence, when we have low motivation or will power, when we feel vulnerable, helpless or oversensitive. It helps when we have physical and mental fatigue, and are debilitated (I don't know about you, but that totally sounds like me when I'm sick!)
Using this Essential Oil can help us feel more motivation, self-confidence, gain security, and stability. It is widely used to help the body when it is weakened, and when it is cold - the circulatory system is stressed, and is only keeping the core hot, while the extremities can feel cold or even numb. It's properties help restore the thyroid and return normal metabolic function. It also stimulates the adrenals to increase stamina and decrease hypertension. It too helps with the lower GI tract helping our food move along through the intestines and colon to decrease constipation.
Eugenia carophyllata Bud Essential Oil is a strong spasmolytic, which means it stops muscle spasms which disrupt the GI system from it's normal function, and helps also with acute muscle spasms and aches and pains often felt while we're "under the weather." It is used as a broad spectrum anti-infective agent that stimulates the immune system and the lymphatic system to move fluids through the body, and detox the body from infected cells and microbes. It is a strong antiviral, broad spectrum antibiotic, and anti-fungal.
Clove Bud Essential Oil is rarely used by itself, and should never be used topically without adequate dilution, Tisserand & Young in Essential Oil Safety recommend a topical strength of no more than .5% based on the higher range of Eugenol content in order to avoid skin sensitivity.
Cinnamon Leaf (Cinamomum zeylanicum) Essential Oil also contains a high amount of the phenol Eugenol (68.6-87%) and it also has alcohols, esters, monoterpenes, and aldehydes.
Cinnamon Leaf
Cinnamon Leaf Essential Oil increases the IgA (The Immunoglobulin A) response in the body, which is our first line of defense in the body. It also stimulates our nervous system and allows the body to experience increased energy levels. It is analgesic, and helps relieve the aches and pains commonly associated with being "under the weather," and it is anti-infectious, anti-fungal and antiviral.
Cinnamon Bark (Cinamomum zeylanicum) Essential Oil contains primarially aldehydes including, Cinnamaldehyde (60-76%), it contains a small amount of the phenol Eugenol (2-13%), sesquiterpenes, momonterpenes, and oxides.
Cinnamon Bark Essential Oil is similar to Clove Bud Essential Oil, in that is is most useful when we are experiencing emotional coldness, withdrawal, apathy, discouragement. It helps to break up listlessness, to increase our motivation, to get ride of fatigue. As a warming Essential Oil, it increases our blood circulation and helps to warm our hands and feet, and helps us feel more connected to ourselves and our surroundings.
Cinnamon Bark Essential Oil has strong broad-spectrum antibiotic effects for both gram positive and gram negative bacteria and can help our bodies get over many bacterial infections. It is also a broad-spectrum anti fungal, and helps keeps our lungs and kidneys clear of fungal infections. It also acts as an antiviral against many respiratory, GI and influenza type infections.
This Essential Oil when used by itself is rarely used with dermal applications, as it's high Cinnamaldehyde content makes it extremely skin sensitizing, and can easily cause skin irritation, or cause adverse skin reactions. The maximum dermal strength of this Essential Oil is .07%.
Eucalyptus Radiata
Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus radiata) Essential Oil (not to be used interchangeably with other Eucalyptus Essential Oils such as Eucalyptus globolus which contain different chemical profiles) contains a high amount of oxides including 1.8 Cineole (63-72%) and Caryophyllene Oxide. It also contains monoterpenes, monoterpenols, and monoterpenals. This chemical profile make it ideal to be used when we are lethargic, drowsy and experiencing mental confusion, disorientation or we have poor concentration, and weak short term memories. This Essential Oil promotes positive thinking, optimism, dynamic affect and self-confidence.
It acts as an expectorant to help ride the respiratory tract of mucous and is often used in cases of bronchitis, emphysema, and pneumonia. It's helpful when there are intermittent fevers as it balances the body's temperature, helping to lower it when it's high and raise it when it's low, so is often used when we experience fever conditions. It's analgesic and anti-inflammatory so is helpful to assist us in the headaches that come from colds.
It has been found to have strong antibacterial action against respiratory infections including whooping cough, rhinitis, laryngitis; as well as GI infections. It is antiviral against acute cases of bronchitis.
This Essential Oil should not be used as an inhalant around children under 8 years old, or with those who have asthma that is not well managed as it causes us to take deep inhalations which can colapse airway passages that are not used to being able to breathe so openly.
Rosemary
The final Essential Oil in this blend is Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) - not to be used interchangeably with Rosemary ct Cineole or Rosemary ct Camphor) which have different chemical profiles. This Essential Oil has a chemical profile containing oxides including 1.8 Cineole (38-58%), monoterpenes including alpha and beta pinenes (4-32%), Camphene, Myrcerene, Limonene; sesquiterpenes; monoterpenols; and ketones.
This chemical makeup allow it to be especially suited for times when we are discourages, pessimistic, depressed, timid, withdrawn, discontented with low confidence and self-worth, when we have chronic tiredness, lethargy. When we're sluggish in the morning as we get out of bed or in the late afternoon after a meal due to poor stamina which leads to poor concentration and memory, can also include headaches, palpitations, cough with muscle pains and GI concerns. (Again, depending on what I'm facing, I feel most of these symptoms when I'm afflicted by various colds throughout the year to a greater or lesser extent.)
Salvia rosmarinus Essential Oil helps with a wide range of cold conditions as it is a circulatory stimulant and so helps the body when it feels it has to conserve energy and focus only on heating the body's core. It helps to stimulate and restore our cardiovascular system as it encourages the respiratory system as a mucolytic expectorant to clear out congestive upper and lower respiratory conditions such as bronchitis, asthma and rhinitis. It helps to restore our liver, by de-congesting it and so helps alleviate GI and digestive concerns that we can experience while ill as well.
This Essential Oil also should not be used for direct aromatic inhalation in children under 8 years old, as it contains camphor which can cause respiratory distress.
If you'd like to see if doTERRA's On Guard can help you, or if you have questions regarding how to best use it for yourself, please schedule a consult or ask at our next session.
I'll be showcasing Lotus Garden Botanical's Powerhouse blend, and Aromatic's International's Lil Sniffle's blend as our seasons continue to turn, as well as looking at the traditional Thieves blend which has been used in traditional medicine prior to the discovery of penicillin for centuries as a ward against illness.
We are part of the body of God, here is praying that this article brings you peace and joy, and helps you to feel better knowing that there are real scientific reasons your body responds well to the use of these aromatics.
Have a blessed day and oil away!