Member Spotlight: 'Essential oil guy' Dr. Eric Zielinski talks about the essence of his message
By Kathryn Nielson · Nov 26, 2018
Editor’s Note: It’s important to realize that essential oils may only be shared when prescribed by a licensed provider to treat a medical condition, and only in limited amounts. See Guidelines VIII.B for details.
Dr. Eric Zielinski may be one of the reasons that essential oil usage is soaring.
In 2016, $5.91 billion was spent on essential oils around the world, but that amount is expected to reach $12.85 billion by 2023, according to Stratistics MRC.
Essential oils have taken off through multilevel marketing, but “Dr. Z” doesn’t market or endorse any brand. Instead he became the go-to “essential oil guy” by providing quality educational materials that use an evidence-based approach. His website now draws more than half a million visitors each month, and his most recent book, The Healing Power of Essential Oils, is an Amazon best-seller.
But it wasn’t always that way.
Crying out to the Lord
Eric’s spiritual rags-to-riches story started in early childhood. He always seemed to be battling some type of sickness or infection. At age 5, he developed a chronic stammering condition, which triggered even more self-consciousness and led to social anxiety. Those conditions were exacerbated by chronic pain, fatigue, gut issues, cystic acne, and depression, finally leading to suicidal thoughts. He self-medicated by using nicotine, alcohol, and narcotics. At 22, he was on the brink of an emotional and physical breakdown.
It was about then, on a business trip in 2003, that Eric met a man named Enoch, who shared the Gospel with him. This wasn’t new information to him. He had grown up attending church, but his experience was more about religious tradition than spiritual depth. However, the Christian faith as explained by Enoch was different.
“I believe God literally heard me cry out to Him,” Eric says, “An ‘I was blind, now I see’ moment. In an instant, all my addictions—gone. Anxiety, depression, addiction—all gone.”
Enoch also taught Eric that his body was the temple of the Holy Spirit and that he needed to take care of it as a spiritual act of worship. Eric took it to heart. Though God delivered Eric instantly from his addictions and mental pain, his health came back more gradually as he was inspired to learn about nutrition and natural remedies. It was during that process that he began to sense a call from God. He spent his free time sharing the Gospel and teaching people how he had recovered his health naturally. Just a few years later, he met his future wife, Sabrina, and the ministry would grow deeper.
Known to most now as “Mama Z,” Sabrina had suffered a chemical burn on her face as a child. After trying to heal it using traditional means with no success, she turned to lavender oil and found healing. She never looked back. Despite Sabrina’s success and years of experience with essential oils, Eric still disregarded it as “smelly stuff” when they first met and even through the first few years of their marriage.
Introduction to essential oils
When the Zielinskis decided to pursue a wellness and health ministry, they packed their bags and moved from Michigan to Georgia so Eric could study to become a chiropractor. While in school and with a family to support, he needed an income, so he began working as a medical writer and public health researcher. Early on, one of his clients commissioned him to write a series of public health reports on essential oils. After researching their many benefits and discovering many studies showing their therapeutic benefits, he was hooked. Though he earned his Doctor of Chiropractic degree, he never went into practice because the opportunity arose to take his health education materials to a broader audience online.
Dr. Z teamed up with friend Jill Winger of theprairiehomestead.com for an online conference called “The Essential Oils Revolution,” which streamed interviews with experts across the globe. More than 165,000 watched, launching Dr. Z’s reputation as the “essential oil guy.”
Deluged by emails from people wanting to learn how to use essential oils for their own healing, he realized he needed education beyond his public health and chiropractic training. He enrolled in the Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy to learn about the clinical application of essential oils so he could answer the questions he was receiving.
Using oils as an evangelistic vehicle
People were hungry for health solutions, and he believed that God was using essential oils as a vehicle to teach them about health as well as about Christ.
“I’m here to reach people for Christ and to educate people on Biblical health principles,” Dr. Z says. “I had no idea God would use oils as the tool to motivate them to change their lives for the better.”
Dr. Z is doing just that through his blog, online materials, podcast interviews, and now with The Healing Power of Essential Oils, with over 25,000 copies sold since its release in March.
The theme of the book is to exercise a Biblical mindset regarding health by taking ownership of it.
“At its core, my work is to spread research-backed information on essential oils and is designed to teach families that they don’t need to visit their health care provider for every little ailment,” Dr. Z says.
'Think twice' before getting on pharmaceuticals, he says
In his book, Dr. Z quotes a Medscape report in which a doctor states that, out of the 50 patients he sees a day, “easily 75 percent of them have no business seeing a physician. And 80 percent of those patients are expecting antibiotics.”
“I want people to think integratively, to think twice before getting on drugs.” Dr. Z says.
And essential oils play a vital role. Dr. Z is quick to remind skeptics that many drugs we take are based on chemical compounds found in plants. Aspirin is one example. It is similar to substances found in willow trees, which people have been using medicinally for thousands of years.
In fact, up until World War II, before the development of antibiotics, combat medicine used tea tree, thyme, oregano, and lavender oils to cure gangrene on the battlefield.
“This isn’t new stuff,” Dr. Z says, “It’s ancient, Biblical medicine.”
He encourages people to go to natural sources first for all non-emergency medical needs, including the mental and emotional disorders he suffered as a youth. The goal is to use essential oils to heal the body “so that you don’t need essential oils” to get through the day.
“Now I use them because I want to, not because I have to,” Dr. Z says, “And that’s a huge difference. The goal is to use natural solutions so you aren’t bound to them forever. Otherwise, you’re falling into the same medical trap that have people on drugs for the rest of their lives.”
With the goal of helping people restore their body back to health, free of sickness and disease, Dr. Z’s mission is to help Christians learn how to properly eat, exercise, and think, so they can live lives that will promote lifelong health and vitality into their 100s.
DrEricZ.com offers resources covering healthy living, recipes, gardening tips, and essential oil use for many health-related topics from minor issues to aiding in the treatment of some cancers, diabetes, obesity, and much more.
“We can truly live a balanced healthy lifestyle,” Dr. Z says, and he’s on a mission to prove it.
This article is for educational purposes only and not meant as medical advice.