Class explores benefits of essential oils - Elizabethtown News Enterprise

Essential oils such as lavender, frankincense, lemon and peppermint are said to provide unique healing and therapeutic benefits. To learn more about this growing trend, several women gather each month at the Hardin County Public Library in Elizabethtown.

At the beginning of each essential oil class at the library, Renna Voegerl, a representative from doTERRA, a company that distributes essential oils, said she always offers a little disclaimer.

“Essential oils are not used to treat medical problems,” Voegerl said. “They are used to aid our body in setting it up for homeostasis.”

Essential oils are organic compounds extracted from plants with healing properties. According to the doTERRA website, oils are extracted from the bark, flower, fruit, leaf, seed or root of a plant or tree, and typically are created through distillation, which separates the oil and water-based compounds of a plant by steaming.

Voegerl said the different oils can assist in fighting cold and flu symptoms, relaxing the body and soothing sore muscles, helping with skin conditions, alleviating pain, and improving digestion. Benefits even can help clean and refresh a home by creating homemade personal cleaning products such as disinfectant by mixing a few drops of lemon oil with vinegar and water.

“It’s so good. It sterilizes everything,” she said, noting it doesn’t have to be lemon — any citrus oil would work.

Aside from physical wellness, Voegerl said some use essen­tial oils to improve emo­tional wellness. She said the oils can be used as single essential oils or in complex blends depending on the desired benefit.

Overall, Voegerl said the oils can be used by diffusing them in the air or applied topically. As long as the label on an oil doesn’t say otherwise, the products can be ingested safely, she said.

“I just tell them to be careful and make sure you read your labels,” she said. “That is just safety and that is what we try to teach here.”

Through her own experiences of what essential oils could do for the body, Voegerl said she decided to enter the essential oil business.

“I knew this was something I could help people with and help them change their lives,” she said, noting essential oils currently are a hot commodity. “It’s all coming back. When I started this four years ago, it wasn’t near as popular as it is right now.”

Gary Hamm, owner of ApotheCare Phar­ma­cy in Hardin County and a pharmacist, said he has seen natural oils gain popularity in recent years. He said he doesn’t think the benefits merely are psychological.

“Yes, I do think there is some medicinal basis for using some of these oils. ... There is more too it than just a fad, but I don’t know why it became so popular,” he said. “My conclusion, I think people are looking for other options that are natural.”

Hamm said some of the oils that seem most popular are eucalyptus, lavender and peppermint. He said peppermint oftentimes is used to improve digestion and soothe the stomach.

“The natural oils are used for a lot of different things,” he said.

Voegerl offers the edu­cational class on oils at 11 a.m. every third Monday at the Hardin County Public Library, 100 Jim Owen Drive in Elizabethtown.

Mary Alford can be reached at 270-505-1741 or malford@thenewsenterprise.com.

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