The Young Living harvest of balsam fir trees in Northern Idaho is wrapping up and many of our members volunteered at this special event, held yearly. When you listen to their stories it makes you want to be there too!

What does it take to get a balsam fir tree in a 15ml bottle... and how special is balsam fir essential oil from Idaho? Keep on reading and you will find out (hint...it's as special as frankincense!)

Essential Natural Remedies is now TWO YEARS up and running and we've created a nice little following. But I never HEAR from you! I know you're all out there using your essential oils and have some great stories to tell.

Well, exciting news!!! You can now have your own page, YES, YOUR OWN PAGE on this website. Start by adding your testimonial, put up a photo and tell us where you're from. Then your friends, family or business members can respond on your page or create a page of their own.

It's called Content 2.0 and is a special form of blogging. In essence you'll be adding great articles and testimonials to the site, adding your own special touch and personalizing our site.

The sky is the limit, contribute an article, tell us your story, create a profile. There's two places to go:

1. Create your essential oil testimonial/ story page
2. Ask a question and have it answered page.

Tell us how essential oils have changed your life. I'll send every 10th contributor of a published testimonial or question a F*R*E*E sample of OIL - That could be YOU!

Thank you so much for following us oil-lovers!

Yvonne Lewis
(828)719-9886
www.Essential-Natural-Remedies.com

* * * * * * * Disclaimer * * * * * *

The information provided here is for educational purposes only and is not intended as diagnosis, treatment, or prescription for any disease. The decision to use, or not to use, any of this information is the sole responsibility of the reader.

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In this issue:

1. How Well Do You Know Balsam Fir?
2. Are You a Wholesale Member Yet?
3. Are Essential Oils a Cure for Monster Bacteria like MRSA? ~by David Stewart, PhD
   (long article but extremely educational for those looking for new information on when to use single oils or when to use blends)

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1) How Well Do You Know Balsam Fir?

Unofficial Name: Christmas tree!

Botanical Family: Pinaceae (pine)

Plant Origin: Idaho, Young Living Farm

Extraction Method: distilled from pine needles and branches.

Therapeutic grade balsam fir oil contains 28-49% Alpha-Pinene, 14-24% Beta-Pinene, 13-20% Camphene and 13-20% Limonene which combine to make this a highly anti-inflammatory oil.

Did you know that Limonene (which is a monoterpene) has been studied as an anti-cancer ingredient?

"monoterpenes would appear to act through multiple mechanisms in the chemoprevention and chemotherapy of cancer." (Prevention and Therapy of cancer by dieteary Monoterpenes, Pamela L. Crowell. Journal of Nutrition 1999;129:775-778)

Check out the Idaho Balsam Fir harvest from last year:

Its fragrance is very grounding, stimulating to the mind and relaxing to the body. All the volunteers at the harvest reported being happy all the time!

They were calm and relaxed and felt a great sense of accomplishment despite harsh and muddy conditions and very long,cold hours at hard labor!

Uses: Because of its highly anti-inflammatory properties this is a great oil for arthritis and muscle pains. Throughout history it has been used for respiratory conditions. Do you have redness and swelling anywhere in the body? Apply a few drops of fir on location and follow with a compress.

More Properties and Uses:

• Anticoagulant - blood thinner
• anti-infectious - throat/lung/sinus/urinary tract infections
• fatigue, rheumatism, scoliosis, sciatica
• Raindrop Technique!
• Anti-tumoral - may stop tumor growth (limonene)

Application: Dilute 1 drop of balsam fir to 1 drop of base oil and apply to location.
Inhale from cupped hands or use in a electric essential oil diffuser.
Take as a dietary supplement - I just placed a drop directly under the tongue, tastes quite refreshing.

Reference used: Essential Oil Desk Reference (Essential Science Publishing)

Fast Forward to the 2010 Harvest

Over the past years Gary Young, founder of Young Living Essential Oils and always seen driving the big rigs and heavy farm equipment himself, studied the production of fir oil every month of the year.

Only during the coldest time of year do the fir needles contain the most oil. This stops the needles from freezing up in subzero temperatures.

Oil quality and amount of oil produced decreases dramatically as air temperatures rise.

It sounds exciting, challenging and life-changing to be in Northern Idaho on the Young Living farm right now.

Listening in on the last conference call members said they went up to Idaho to spend time with Gary Young and to see with their own eyes what it takes to create an essential oil from scratch.

Well, it takes a lot of muscle, a lot of old, warm clothes which will get very muddy, and many late nights as the harvest went on around the clock.

Volunteers were needed to rake wood chips out of the trucks and load them into giant cookers. After the cooking process these cookers were unloaded, not without the wet product falling apart and needing to be raked and swept out of the way.

One seasoned truck driver volunteered for transport duty of the wood chips from the forest to the distilleries and was met by dangerous, muddy, forest roads that he had never seen before. And here was Gary Young himself teaching him how to take the curves and muddy roads. How many essential oil companies out there have a dedicated owner like this?

Wood chips from the balsam fir trees could not be allowed to sit in the trucks overnight, during freezing temperatures or they would clump together and could not be unloaded into the cookers as they found out in previous years.

Last year 335 gallons of Balsam essential oil were distilled. This year 500 gallons of oil are coming your way! That's a lot of balsam fir! But then again, if you think about all the work that goes into this, not really:

Let's break this down to 15ml bottles:
1 gallon=3.785 liters=3785 milliliters(ml)
times 500 gallons will produce around = 126,200 bottles total.

Now there are over a million Young Living members and customers buying essential oils around the world and balsam fir is used in many other products, the popular Deep Relief Roll-On among them.

This makes me have a renewed respect for the price of our oils and makes me think twice about buying under-priced oils that are most likely extended with other ingredients.

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

There are over 15 bible references to balsam fir, and it was also among the few remaining oil samples found at King Tutankhamens' tomb in Egypt.

What we know for certain is we have another king of oils from Idaho exclusive to Young Living and I hope you will make balsam fir part of your oil repertoire as soon as possible.

Of course you can buy these essential oils at our webstore at retail prices.

But remember, it only takes a one time purchase of the informational starter kit to become a life-time wholesale member. See for more information below.

2) Are You a Wholesale Member Yet?

For $40 you receive an incredible information kit which includes a 5ml bottle of therapeutic grade lavender and peppermint essential oil.

What else?

• a 50% OFF COUPON toward your next purchase of a diffuser
• Essential Rewards Brochure
• Restore Your Core Brochure
• 5-Day Nutritive Cleanse Info
• Thieves Booklet
• Everyday Oils Booklet
• Essential Oils User's Guide
• Start Living Booklet
• Several DVD's
• Creating Abundance Booklet
• NingXia Red DVD
• 3 NingXia Red juice samples

Wholesale prices are 25% off the retail price and ask us about the essential rewards program: you can receive dollar for dollar points toward FREE product.

To stay a wholesale member there is a once a year requirement of a $50 purchase of product otherwise you revert back to retail customer status.

So think about it, but not too long. Essential oils make a BIG difference in your life and you could also SAVE BIG on your healthcare costs.

With the uncertainty of health care reform right now we need all the help we can get and must take matters, our health, into our own hands.

Join us today! Just give us a call and we will sign you up today!
info@essential-natural-remedies.com
(828)719-9886

3) Are Essential Oils a Cure for Monster Bacteria like MRSA? by David Stewart, PhD

Hospitals are where this germ originated and is still where it is principally found. However, since 1982 MRSA has been found outside of hospitals, first detected among drug users in Detroit. Since then it has worked its way into other parts of the community, including playgrounds and gymnasiums. Thus, we not only have HA-MRSA or "Hospital Acquired MRSA" but also CA-MRSA or "Community Acquired MRSA."

The portion of staphylococcal infections in the U.S. due to MRSA has risen steadily at an ever-increasing rate from 2% in 1974 to 63% in 2004. Once MRSA has been acquired, it is usually remains with the infected individual for life and can be fatal. Medical science has no effective treatment for MRSA infections.

A Relative Contracts MRSA

As a case in point, I have a relative, a retired career military man, who accompanied his wife to a hospital for some routine tests for her (not him). He had a small open scratch on his leg. During his visit, he acquired HA-MRSA through that small scratch. His leg swelled up and became inflamed. To date, no treatment has worked in stopping the spread of the bacteria in his body. It has now infected his entire leg and has worked up into his groin. He has been hospitalized more than once for treatments, all of which have been ineffective. It has been five years since his fateful visit to the hospital with his wife and he still carries the infection, which is slowly spreading.

I mentioned the possibility of essential oils to him, but he is a relative of mine and, as many of you have experienced, we have no credibility with our relatives. (Mark 6:4) He is also a devout believer in allopathic medicine. Having a Cadillac insurance program from being a veteran, he is content to keep receiving free medical treatment, even though it is not working. Unless he eventually resorts to a non-allopathic solution, he will most likely suffer from this infection for the rest of his life and, perhaps, even succumb to it.

Will Medical Science Find a Solution to MRSA?

Since the pharmaceutical approach to resistant strains of bacteria is to develop stronger and stronger antibiotics, there a pharmaceutical solution is not likely to ever be found because any antibiotic stronger than Methicillin would be more likely to kill the patient than the bacteria. Vancomycin is another antibiotic nearly equal in potency to Methicillin, but it, like Methicillin, can also be lethal to the patient and has not been found effective against MRSA.

Since it was the plethora of man-made antibiotics and antibacterial agents employed since the 1950's that were the creators of MRSA and other resistant strains of bacteria in the first place, it is not likely that any medicine synthesized in a laboratory will ever be a solution. In fact, additional more powerful man-made drugs would most likely result in giving birth to even more virulent microorganisms. MRSA is a Frankenstein of the Medical System's own creation. The solution to MRSA must come from outside the medical paradigm.

Are Essential Oils Effective Against MRSA?

Since Modern Medicine has no cure for MRSA and is, in fact, the cause of MRSA, the most likely means to combat MRSA is essential oils, which are among the most versatile and effective antimicrobial agents known. Not only do essential oils have powerful antibacterial properties without side effects, they are also incapable of producing resistant strains of bacteria as synthetic pharmaceuticals do.

There are two reasons essential oils do not and cannot create resistant strains of bacteria:

(1) Essential oils are extremely complex, comprised of hundreds of compounds, while laboratory-produced medicines are simple, usually consisting of only one or two active ingredients. Thus, bacteria have less difficulty in breaking the codes of a man-made medicine than in attempting to form a resistance to a natural medicine like an essential oil.

(2) Furthermore, essential oils are never twice the same while every batch of a pharmaceutical drug is always the same, reproduced with laboratory exactness. Hence, with repeated exposure to the same identical drug, bacteria eventually figure out its toxic properties and develope resistance. However, since essential oils are never identical from year to year, even if bacteria did figure out an oil's effective components in a given year, they would have to start all over with the next crop.

The reason essential oils are not exactly duplicatible is because they are products of the vagaries of nature. The essential oils of a plant vary to adjust to their environment, just as human blood adjusts from morning to evening, from season to season, and from climate to climate. A plant's oils are actually different from morning to night each day and from week to week throughout the growing season. Furthermore, the growing environment for a plant is never the same year to year. Some years are warmer than others, some cooler, some with more rain, some less, and if you compare the same species grown in different latitudes, altitudes, climates, and soils, you get even greater variations.

A basil plant will always produce a basil oil with the same suite of compounds, but from year to year and place to place, the relative proportions of the hundreds of compounds comprising basil oil will be different. Essential oils are like fine wines. Since no two years are the same, neither are two year's wines the same even from the same vineyard. That is why vintners put dates on their bottles, since each year's wine will a little different in taste, color, and fragrance.

Therefore bacteria will never figure out nor become resistant to an essential oil because they are too complex and because they are always changing. Man-made medicines are temporary, but God's medicines are forever. Hospitals used to use the Oil of Onycha (Styrax benzoin) dissolved in alcohol (called Tincture of Benzoin) as their most effective antiseptic and antibacterial agent to cleanse and sanitize their wards. If hospitals and medical doctors would have continued to use natural agents like Onycha, we would not have resistant strains of bacteria, such as MRSA, to threaten us today.

The Versatility of R.C.

R.C. Oil Blend has been applied successfully for pneumonia, for dissolving calcium deposits in joints, and to stop snoring, although its primary purpose is to relieve "Respiratory Congestion." That is what the initials, "R.C.," stand for. RC has been effective with many forms of congestion including colds, bronchitis, sore throats, sinusitis, coughs, lung infections, and respiratory allergy symptoms. However, in a series of laboratory tests at the Young Living Laboratory and Weber State University in Utah (See citation below), of 91 single essential oils and 64 essential oil blends, while Lemongrass was found to be the most effective single oil, R.C. was found to be the most effective blend.

Seventy-eight of the 91 single oils tested showed measurable inhibitory activity against MRSA. The top ranking oils, in descending order of effectiveness, were Lemongrass (Cymbopogen flexuosus), Lemon Myrtle (Backhousia citriodora), Mountain Savory (Satureja montana), Cinnamon Bark (Cinnamomum verum), and Melissa (Melissa officinalis). The most effective single oil, Lemongrass, completely inhibited all MRSA growth on the test plate.

Since Tincture of Benzoin (containing Oil of Onycha) used to be the principal antibacterial cleansing agent used in hospitals, as mentioned above, it would be interesting to see how Onycha measures up in killing the MRSA bacteria. Unfortunately, this study of 91 single oils did not include Onycha.

Fifty-two of the 64 blends tested showed measurable inhibitory activity against MRSA. The top three ranking oils, in descending order of effectiveness, were R.C., Motivation, and Longevity. The most effective blend, R.C., also completely inhibited all MRSA growth on the test plate.

R.C. is a blend of 10 species, including three species of Eucalyptus, as follows: E. globulus, E. radiata, E. citriodora, Myrtle (Myrtus communis, not Lemon myrtle), Pine, Spruce, Marjoram, Lavender, Cypress, and Peppermint. The Power of R.C. in combating MRSA is far beyond any of its individual constituents. In fact, two of the constituent oils (E. globulus and Myrtle) both scored zero in their ability to inhibit MRSA growth. Meanwhile, the effectiveness of R.C. as a blend was almost triples the effectiveness of the most powerful ingredient, which was Peppermint oil. This finding dramatically illustrates the power of oil blends over many oil singles. An oil blend usually has capabilities not manifested by any of its components, which is why blends are preferred by most aromatherapists for healing applications.

The same was true of Motivation, the second most effective blend. Motivation contains only four single oils: Roman Chamomile, Spruce, Ylang Ylang, and Lavender. Ylang Ylang, alone, had no inhibitory effect on MRSA whatsoever while the other three ingredients all scored less than half as effective as the combination of all four. Thus, the power of Motivation against MRSA was found to be greater than that of any of the individual species comprising the blend.

It is also interesting to note that the three most effective blends (R.C., Motivation, and Longevity) contained none of the five most effective single oils (Lemongrass, Lemon Myrtle, Mountain Savory, Cinnamon Bark, Melissa).

Can the Whole be Deduced from its Parts?

The conclusion is that one cannot deduce the properties of an oil blend from a knowledge of its components. Additional properties will always manifest in a blend that are not demonstrated by any of the singles that comprise it, while many properties of the singles do not manifest in the blend. This is why effective blends must be formulated intuitively and not by logic. All of Young Living's blends were formulated by Gary Young, all by intuition, some even by way of intuitive dreams.

The same principle is true of single oils in that one cannot deduce the properties of an essential oil by knowing the properties of its individual compounds as isolates. Attempting to do so would be like trying to deduce the taste and texture of a chocolate cake from the taste and textures of the individual ingredients, viz. white flour, shortening, sugar, salt, eggs, baking powder, bitter cocoa, and vanilla extract. This is why scientific studies on the properties of isolated single compounds of an oil do not reveal the nature of the oil and why knowledge of a single oil does not reveal the nature of a blend containing that oil.

This principle is true even to the extent that a compound that is highly toxic alone can be safe, non-toxic, and therapeutic when occurring as an ingredient in an essential oil. Many aromatherapists who fear certain oils have been trained in a school that teaches the fallacy that properties of isolated compounds studied in laboratories apply to the natural oils in which they are found. Thus, many aromatherapists avoid perfectly safe and therapeutically effective oils because a laboratory has found one or more compounds in the oil that, by themselves, are harmful.

It is this fallacy upon which many aromatherapy books post lists of "forbidden oils, never to be used in aromatherapy for any purpose." These taboo lists include perfectly good oils like cinnamon, clove, basil, oregano, mountain savory, birch, wintergreen, cassia, tansy, pine, and even benign oils like vanilla. Of course, adulterated oils improperly distilled and grown with chemicals and insecticides can possess toxic properties. However, if one uses only Young Living oils, which are pure, unadulterated, properly grown, and properly distilled, one need not worry about toxicity.

It is interesting to note that Thieves Blend, which is a favorite antimicrobial blend that has been shown to be effective against a variety of bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi, is not particularly effective against MRSA. In fact, it is less than half as effective as R.C. This is surprising since Thieves contains Cinnamon Bark oil, which is one of the top three effective singles against MRSA. Yet Thieves, as a blend, was only about half as effective as Cinnamon Bark oil alone.

Practical Implications

The data cited here were all done in vitro in a laboratory on cultures of MRSA on test plates. While most of the oils tested are considered by the FDA as "GRAS" (Generally Regarded as Safe) for oral ingestion, no essential oil has been approved by the FDA for human use to treat a disease. The data definitely show promise for the possible treatment or prevention of MRSA infections, more promise than anything medical science has been able to find thus far. Furthermore, applying Lemongrass or R.C. has no negative side effects like antibiotics and no toxicities to humans like synthetic antibacterial agents.

So how can you make practical use of the research cited above? For one thing, if you are going to visit a hospital or spend time in a hospital, cover the soles of your feet with R.C. or Lemongrass. Rub one or both of these oil on your hands as an "antimicrobial oil glove" so that when you touch doorknobs, hospital furniture, elevator buttons, or public telephones, there will be a thin oil barrier between you and any possible MRSA contamination. MRSA is primarily spread by contact and not as an airborne pathogen. You might exercise the same precautions as in a hospital visit when visiting a public gymnasium where you are sharing workout equipment with strangers. Then when you go home, diffuse R.C. or Lemongrass, scrub your hands, and face with soap to minimize any exposure you may have had with invisible MRSA microbes.

Better to avoid going into a hospital altogether, if possible. Hospital personnel and pastors who regularly visit hospitals are at particular risk, not only to themselves, but also to their families since they can potentially carry MRSA into their homes.

If you do acquire a MRSA infection, realize that the medical profession can do little, if anything, to help you. However, you can safely apply R.C. or Lemongrass locally at the site of the infection and in any other way deemed advisable, even internally. Additional research is going to be required to determine the extent to which essential oils can prevent and/or cure MRSA infections in humans. At this time, Lemongrass and R.C. have demonstrated the greatest promise of all possibilities in combating the spread of MRSA and of bringing relief to those who have already contracted it.

Personally, if I were to be diagnosed with a MRSA infection circulating in my body, I would head for Gary Young’s clinic in Ecuador where essential oils can be administered intravenously. This is the only place in the world where essential oils are administered directly into the blood stream. I would request an I.V. containing a suspension of R.C. and/or Lemongrass oil. The clinic routinely administers oils such as Frankincense, Helichrysum, and Thieves intravenously, but to my knowledge an R.C.I.V. has never been administered to date. But if my system was found infected with MRSA, I would be willing to be the first to receive one.

Thanks to the Researchers

The scientific data cited in this article are published in an article entitled, Inhibition of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) by Essential Oils in the Flavor and Fragrance Journal, 23:444-449, (2008). This journal is published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The research was carried out, compiled, and reported by Sue Chao, Gary Young, Craig Oberg, and Karen Nakaoka as a collaborative project between the Young Living Laboratory, Lehi, Utah, and Weber State University, Ogden, Utah. The publication of this research is the first step toward FDA approval of essential oils in MRSA prevention or therapy.

This type of research is highly hazardous to those who engage in it since you are working closely with a potentially deadly microbe or one that can infect you for life. Great precautions must be taken to minimize any possibility of infection among the researchers and laboratory staff. I want to personally thank the individuals named above who took a risk on behalf of humanity to provide us with this valuable information.

"Reprinted from The Raindrop Messenger, a free eline newsletter, with permission from Dr. David Stewart. To subscribe or download back issues, visit www.RaindropTraining.com."