Protect Your Kids; Protect Yourself

With the diseases that are flooding across our southern border and then being shipped across the country by the federal government ~trust me, chicken pox is the least of my worries~.  Schools are bracing for up to 50,000 illegal kids.  With Ebola, enterovirus, and TB in our schools and in our communities, what is a mom to do?  Panic?!?  I've done that.  Be angry?!?  Absolutely!  But the bottom line is that I have to protect my family.  I have to protect my kids.  I cannot depend upon the government ~especially this current regime~ to protect them.  I can't keep my kids isolated from the world.  That is not practical.

My belief has always been that God created us with a wonderful defense system called the immune system.  I have never been a germaphobe believing that the way to a good immune system is to exercise it.  That is how our immune system works.  This is also the science behind immunizations.  Introduce an antigen into the body and then the immune system produces antibodies that fight the invader.  Antibodies also neutralize toxins and activate complement which assists in killing bacteria, viruses and infected cells.  This is called adaptive immunity.  Each of us is different and each of our immune systems are different.  We all come into contact with different germs and bugs, but most of the time, our immune system protect us.

This brings me to the story of the thieves during the plague that ravished Europe on and off for centuries; literally wiping out villages and large populations.  The story goes that there were thieves that pillaged the villages after the plague had wiped out the population.  Why were these thieves immune from the plague?  As the story goes, these thieves were perfumers who rubbed themselves with certain plant oil extract which protected them from this most contagious disease.  Old wives tale?!?

Fast forward to today; science is catching up to these ancient practices.  Studies have found that certain essential oils have antimicrobial properties.  This study cites cinnamon and clove as being antimicrobial and anti-fungal on different bacteria and fungus including on E-coli ~I wish I would have had this information when my daughter caught an E-coli bug which resulted in her kidney failure~.  This study shows the effectiveness of cinnamon bark, lemongrass and thyme against respiratory tract pathogens.  Another study shows how the phytochemical eugenol (found in cinnamon and clove showed prominent anti-mold activity.  Orange oil is high in d-limonene ~a powerful anti-oxidant~which has been studied for it's ability to combat tumors growth.  What was it that our moms pumped into us when we started sniffling?  Why orange juice, of course.  Did you know that the aspirin has it's roots ~literally~ in nature?  From the Aspirin Foundation, "The active ingredient in aspirin, acetyl salicylic acid, is a synthetic derivative of a compound, salicin, which occurs naturally in plants, notably the willow tree."

So what's my point?  I believe in medicine and science.  Just like God gave us brains to use in the advancement of civilization in other areas, the same can be said for medical science.  So I am not going to advocate for throwing out all modern medicine ~unlike many others who are on the "all natural" bandwagon and believe that Big Pharma is bad~.  What I am doing however, is sharing what I am doing for my family as an added precaution.  My family is using a blend of essential oils that is formulated to support healthy immune function. Wild orange essential oil, combined with clove, cinnamon, eucalyptus and rosemary offer a fragrant, natural and effective alternative to synthetic options for immune support.

I also have soap with the protective blend of essential oils at every sink.    I clean with it as well.

Here a couple of studies that show the effects of a protective blend of wild orange, clove, cinnamon, eucalyptus and rosemary on influenza ~flu~ and MRSA ~staph~.

For more information on what essential oils are and their history, just email me.

It's up to us as parents to protect our families as best we can.  Essential oils are one of my weapons to do just that.