Essential oils and the medical community

Despite the fact that thousands of people report successful use of essential oils to treat or prevent a variety of ailments, some representatives of traditional, mainstream medicine dismiss their claims.

“I’m not aware of any evidence essential oils can influence the course of any disease,” says Dr. Stephen Barrett, a retired psychiatrist who runs quackwatch.org and is critical of alternative medicine claims.

Alleged lack of evidence is also the reason Dr. David Gorski, a physician who blogs at sciencebasedmedicine.org, gives for his skepticism.

“When considering ‘alternative’ medical treatments, evidence that they work are the key, and the highest quality evidence comes from randomized clinical trials,” Dr. Gorski says. “Anecdotes and testimonials are not high quality evidence and can be highly misleading due to placebo effect and quirks in human memory such as confirmation bias.”

But proponents of essential oils and aromatherapy point to literally dozens if not hundreds of studies on the topic as support for the use of the substances. Many of those studies, though, are inconclusive, and, ultimately, EO supporters have to rely on those anecdotes and testimonials that Dr. Gorski mentions.

Some Christian physicians also frown on reliance on essential oils, though, or, at the least, question their effectiveness.

While Donal O’Mathuna acknowledges that the use of essential oils in aromatherapy or massage may have some relaxing or positive effects, he says, “claims that aromatherapy or essential oils effectively treat any illness have very little evidence to support them.” O’Mathuna is co-author of Alternative Medicine: The Christian Handbook and a senior lecturer in ethics, decision-making and evidence at Dublin City University in Ireland.

O’Mathuna points out, for instance, a study regarding use of peppermint oil aromatherapy following surgery to reduce post-anesthesia nausea. The study showed that the use of peppermint oil aromatherapy brought relief, but no more than rubbing alcohol did. The authors of the study, he says, “concluded that having people focus on an aroma was more significant than what oils were giving rise to the aroma.” Further studies, O’Mathuna reports, found no difference between use of essential oils through aromatherapy or massage, and a placebo.

Other Christian physicians also have their doubts. A 2004 article in Triple Helix, a magazine of the Christian Medical Fellowship in England, says, for instance, that “there does not appear to be a rational scientific basis for (aromatherapy).”

“The wide range of practices and techniques employed, from bath oils through to massage treatments, complicates the process of assessing aromatherapy’s efficacy,” the article says. “In addition, dosage by most of these methods must surely be imprecise.

“Few clinical trials have been attempted, but Professor Ernst’s Desktop Guide to Complementary Therapies includes two systematic reviews that do not reveal any conclusive evidence for efficacy. A Consumers’ Association investigation found, ‘… little evidence that the use of essential oils for massage provides any greater benefits than a pleasant smell.’”

Stacy McDonald, a Samaritan Ministries member who is also an independent distributor for Young Living Essential Oils and author of the commonscentsmom.com blog, agrees that few clinical trials have been attempted, but she suggests this shows that medical science hasn’t given the therapy a proper chance—possibly for financial reasons.

“I don’t think as many studies have been done because essential oils can’t be patented,” Stacy says. “It’s not something they want to invest a lot of time in. What’s the incentive for them?”

Stacy says that one of the problems with studying the effectiveness of essential oils is that there can be variation among bottles of the same kinds of oil. “It depends on the soil—how it was grown. Each batch is going to be different. So that doesn’t really work when you’re doing scientific studies, when everything has to be very uniform and the same every time.”

Dr. David Hill of doTerra Essential Oils, however, says many studies of essential oils have been conducted and can be found in sources like the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed online. Plus, he says, the chemistry processes found in essential oils have also been studied.

“I think we’re living in a very exciting time,” says Dr. Hill, who heads up doTerra’s science advisory board. “Most of my day today has been spent talking with other physicians. Medicine is recognizing there is therapeutic benefit found with essential oils and many other types of modalities and approaches to health, and that we should work to embrace them and learn more about them. There’s a wide variety of research that’s being done, a great body of research that’s already being produced.”

The information provided is for educational purposes and is not meant as medical advice. Please contact your own physician for advice on your particular situation.