doTERRA Allyse Sedivy speaks on "Why Now?" Why now is the perfect time ...

Frankincense and cancer...

I have been using Essential Oils instead of synthetic medicines and I've been amazed at how these oils are blessing my life.

Have you ever smelled Frankincense?

I hadn't until I got my own bottle from DoTerra.  When I first smelled it I though: "humm, interesting... pleasant..." It was a smell I had never encountered before. Today it is one of my favorite oils. It has so many uses (maybe I'll go over this on another entry). And this was a cool article I found with information about Frankincense and cancer.

Frankincense: Could it be a cure for cancer?

From the Middle East Business Report on BBC World News by Jeremy Howell

The gift given by the wise men to the baby Jesus probably came across the deserts from Oman. The BBC's Jeremy Howell visits the country to ask whether a commodity that was once worth its weight in gold could be reborn as a treatment for cancer.

Oman's Land of Frankincense is an 11-hour drive southwards from the capital, Muscat.  Most of the journey is through Arabia's Empty Quarter - hundreds of kilometres of flat, dun-coloured desert. Just when you are starting to think this is the only scenery you will ever see again, the Dhofar mountains appear in the distance.  On the other side are green valleys, with cows grazing in them. The Dhofar region catches the tail-end of India's summer monsoons, and they make this the most verdant place on the Arabian peninsula.
Warm winters and showery summers are the perfect conditions for the Boswellia sacra tree to produce the sap called frankincense. These trees grow wild in Dhofar. A tour guide, Mohammed Al-Shahri took me to Wadi Dawkah, a valley 20 km inland from the main city of Salalah, to see a forest of them.
"The records show that frankincense was produced here as far back as 7,000 BC," he says. He produces an army knife. He used to be a member of the Sultan's Special Forces. With a practised flick, he cuts a strip of bark from the trunk of one of the Boswellia sacra trees. Pinpricks of milky-white sap appear on the wood and, very slowly, start to ooze out.
"This is the first cut. But you don't gather this sap," he says. "It releases whatever impurities are in the wood. The farmers return after two or three weeks and make a second, and a third, cut. Then the sap comes out yellow, or bright green, or brown or even black. They take this."
Shortly afterwards, a frankincense farmer arrives in a pick-up truck. He is white-bearded, wearing a brown thobe and the traditional Omani, paisley-patterned turban.  He is 67-year-old Salem Mohammed from the Gidad family. Most of the Boswellia sacra trees grow on public land, but custom dictates that each forest is given to one of the local families to farm, and Wadi Dawkah is his turf.

Camel train

He has an old, black, iron chisel with which he gouges out clumps of dried frankincense.  "We learnt about frankincense from our forefathers and they learnt it from theirs" he says. "The practice has been passed down through the generations. We exported the frankincense, and that's how the families in Dhofar made their livings."  And what an export trade it was. Frankincense was sent by camel train to Egypt, and from there to Europe. It was shipped from the ancient port of Sumharan to Persia, India and China. Religions adopted frankincense as a burnt offering.
That is why, according to Matthew's Gospel in the Bible, the Wise Men brought it as a gift to the infant Jesus. Gold: for a king. Frankincense: for God. Myrrh: to embalm Jesus' body after death.  The Roman Empire coveted the frankincense trade. In the first century BCE, Augustus Caesar sent 10,000 troops to invade what the Romans called Arabia Felix to find the source of frankincense and to control its production. The legions, marching from Yemen, were driven back by the heat and the aridity of the desert. They never found their Eldorado.
Oman's frankincense trade went into decline three centuries ago, when Portugal fought Oman for dominance of the sea routes in the Indian and the Pacific Oceans.  Nowadays, hardly any Omani frankincense is exported. Partly, this is because bulk buyers, such as the Roman Catholic Church, buy cheaper Somalian varieties. Partly, it is because Omanis now produce so little.  "Years ago, 20 families farmed frankincense in this area," says Salem Mohammed Gidad. "But the younger generation can get well-paid jobs in the government and the oil companies, with pensions. Now, only three people still produce frankincense around here. The trade is really, really tiny!"

Cancer hope

But immunologist Mahmoud Suhail is hoping to open a new chapter in the history of frankincense. Scientists have observed that there is some agent within frankincense which stops cancer spreading, and which induces cancerous cells to close themselves down. He is trying to find out what this is. "Cancer starts when the DNA code within the cell's nucleus becomes corrupted," he says. "It seems frankincense has a re-set function. It can tell the cell what the right DNA code should be. "Frankincense separates the 'brain' of the cancerous cell - the nucleus - from the 'body' - the cytoplasm, and closes down the nucleus to stop it reproducing corrupted DNA codes."
Working with frankincense could revolutionize the treatment of cancer. Currently, with chemotherapy, doctors blast the area around a tumor to kill the cancer, but that also kills healthy cells, and weakens the patient. Treatment with frankincense could eradicate the cancerous cells alone and let the others live. The task now is to isolate the agent within frankincense which, apparently, works this wonder. Some ingredients of frankincense are allergenic, so you cannot give a patient the whole thing.
Dr Suhail (who is originally from Iraq) has teamed up with medical scientists from the University of Oklahoma for the task.  In his laboratory in Salalah, he extracts the essential oil from locally produced frankincense. Then, he separates the oil into its constituent agents, such as Boswellic acid.  "There are 17 active agents in frankincense essential oil," says Dr Suhail. "We are using a process of elimination. We have cancer sufferers - for example, a horse in South Africa - and we are giving them tiny doses of each agent until we find the one which works."  "Some scientists think Boswellic acid is the key ingredient. But I think this is wrong. Many other essential oils - like oil from sandalwood - contain Boswellic acid, but they don't have this effect on cancer cells. So we are starting afresh."
The trials will take months to conduct and whatever results come out of them will take longer still to be verified. But this is a blink of the eye in the history of frankincense.  Nine thousand years ago, Omanis gathered it and burnt it for its curative and cleansing properties. It could be a key to the medical science of tomorrow.

FRANKINCENSE FACTS

·    Boswellia sacra grows in Oman, Yemen and Somalia

·    Other Boswellia species grow in Africa and India

·    The tree may have been named after John Boswell, the uncle of Samuel Johnson's biographer

·    In ancient Egypt frankincense was thought to be sweat of the gods

Properties

Analgesic
Antidepressant
Antifungal
Anti-inflammatory
Antiseptic
Astringent
Diuretic
Sedative

Wellness Uses

Calm and Stress Relief
Cold and Flu Season
Emergency Salve
Immune Strengthener
Skin Care

Common
Health Concerns

Asthma
Brochitis
Dermatitis
Indigestion
Skin Disorders
Sore Throat
Stomach Ache

information taken from: http://www.everythingessential.me/Oils/Frankincense.html

Depression & Essential Oils

Some of you know that I have struggled with post partumdepression after both of my pregnancies (to others this may come as a surprise). Going through depression STINKS. I could write pages about what it feels like but I don't feel like spending time writing something that is not uplifting...

What I want to share here though is that I've done a lot of research about different sources of help for those suffering from depression and I feel blessed to have discovered that essential oils can help in a natural, non-invasive, non-addicting way without ANY negative side effects. Keep reading...

 (Written by: Daniel Macdonald and taken directly from http://discovertruthwithin.wordpress.com/2011/03)

Depression & Essential Oils

What essential oils would you suggest for feelings of nervousness, anxiety and depression?

In my practice I have learned that feelings of depression are often localized within one or more of the seven energy centers of the body. Each center has a distinct and separate energy to it. These may include;

 Spiritual Depression

Feelings of being cut off from God, abandonment, feeling alone, not wanting to be here on the earth, are all connected with the seventh center of the body. Spiritual transitions (such as birth, periods of extreme growth where our material security is threatened, & death) are more difficult for some people than others.

Suggested oils for emotional support: Frankincense, White Fir

 Spiritual Blindness, Apathy, Lethargy and Despair

When the sixth center is stressed or shut down, there is a feeling of “being in the dark.” Life seems dreary and it is difficult to focus. In this state our perceptions of reality may be skewed, making it difficult to “see the light at the end of the tunnel.” In this state we need light, sunshine and hope.

Suggested oils for emotional support: Lemongrass, Purify

 Swallowed Emotional Hurts

Many of us have learned to swallow our pain. Statements such as, “if you do not have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all,” teach children to suppress their emotional hurts. Though many people believe they do not hold on to their emotional issues… the body remembers. We cannot hide from our  suppressed emotions. We learn from Karol Truman in the book, “Feelings Buried Alive Never Die,” that in time suppressed feelings can manifest through poor health, illness and disease. The body acts as a compass, perfectly mirroring the deeper emotional/spiritual issues that are going on inside of us. Instead of covering up the information (symptoms) the body is giving us, we can learn to feel gratitude for the information that the body is providing us. It is through learning these valuable lessons that we can restore the body to balance.

Suggested oils for emotional support: Lavender  

 Feeling Unloved and Unloving Toward Others

The fourth center is connected to the fifth center and swallowing emotional hurts. When we do not express our feelings they can become buried in the heart. Feeling unloving towards others is simply information that we are not fully loving and accepting ourselves. When we do not feel self-love we may also block God’s love because we feel we are not “lovable.”

Suggested oils for emotional support: White fir, Ylang Ylang, Geranium, Rose

 Self-Judgment, Suppressed Anger & Not Feeling Good Enough

This is perhaps the most important energy center in our society. The third center relates to how we feel about ourselves. Many people struggle with feelings of judgment and self condemnation. Feelings of “depression,” in this center look like the inability to digest feelings, life, and situations. Another theme here is ANGER. Suppressed anger literally causes our energy to be De-Pressed or to feel “deeply pressed.” When anger arises many people transmute these feelings into sadness, and feelings of low self-worth. We do this out of a need to protect others from our anger, but in doing so we destroy our own sense of self. We do not have to hurt others to be honest about our emotions. Also anger is a more positive emotion than sadness, judgment and guilt. Anger moves us out of our stuck, hopeless feelings into a more lively state willing to act and change.

Suggested oils for emotional support: Bergamot, Citrus Bliss

 Loneliness, Poor Emotional Circulation

Feelings of loneliness, withdrawal, and isolation often get stored in the second center. This center relates to our ability to circulate feelings, energy, and even blood through our system. If we do not keep an emotional “flow,” we may begin to feel bogged down, stagnant and depressed.

Suggested oils for emotional support: Cypress, Whisper

Fear, Unsupported, Family Issues, Feelings of Not Belonging

The first center represents our relationship with our tribe (family). Sometimes living in integrity with self causes us to go against spoken or unspoken family patterns and traditions. Some family traditions represent old ways of thinking and doing things that are detrimental to our health and happiness. While some families are open to change, most “tribes,” do not feel comfortable when others choose step out of the mold they have created. It takes courage to live according to truth irregardless of other people’s response. The lesson in this center is that we can learn to both live our own life while also feeling connection, love, and a sense of belonging in our family/tribe of origin.

Suggested oils for emotional support: Balance, White Fir