
Essential Oils Might Be the New Antibiotics - marcusgarvey
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/01/the-new-antibiotics-might-be-essential-oils/384247/?single_page=true
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thanatosmin
It's telling that only one of these studies is published in a journal where I
can find the full text (with MIT journal access). Sadly, it's only really
possible to judge the research in that article, which is questionable. They
test the susceptibility of e. coli strains to various oils, at 8-12 uL/mL. I
think the only observation one needs point out is that concentration in a
person's blood would kill them too. I wish it were otherwise, but you can't
believe all peer-reviewed science.

~~~
refurb
This kind of reminds me of all the "X cures cancer" media reports. It's not
that hard to kill cancer cells in a petri dish (or in a xenograph model). Tens
of thousands of compounds have killed cancer cells in models, but failed
entirely in humans.

~~~
lobf
Yeah, a bullet kills cancer pretty well. The trick is targeting just the
cancerous cells.

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qntmfred
Some folks in my circle of friends have been raving about essential oils
lately as home remedies for everything from general relaxation, to treating
dandruff to avoiding cold/flu symptoms. I'm all about improving our
understanding of microbiology and moving away from excessive antibiotics use,
but honestly these folks are wellness product hype jumpers though, buying and
selling from each other via stay-at-home-mom pyramid type businesses and it's
hard not to dismiss it as another way to overcharge pseudo-sciencers

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LogicFailsMe
I used to have an incurable sinus infection that plagued me every winter.
Antibiotics were worthless. Then, after X-rays confirmed my maxillary sinuses
were filled to the brim with crud and doctors wanted to cut out large swaths
of my sinuses, I decided to hang upside down on my personal quack theory that
it might let them drain.

To my somewhat surprise, every day I did this an unholy brew of dark brown
mucus and blood would drain out of my nose after a few minutes. A couple weeks
later the crud dissipated and so did the sinus infection. I haven't had a
serious infection of more than a few days since 2011.

What's my point? Keep an open mind here. Traditional medicine wasn't the
answer here. Homeopathy is nonsense, but there are occasional bits of truth to
mine from alternative approaches.

~~~
sp332
Since most sinus infections are viral, antibiotics probably did nothing at
all.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Correct. Northward of 90% of all URTIs (Upper Respiratory Tract Infections)
are caused by viruses and _never_ develop secondary bacterial infections. [1]

If you have a bacterial upper respiratory tract infection you usually feel
much less well than when the average viral infection.

The usually route of antibiotics appearing to work is that a course of
antibiotics is usually 10 days, by which time you're mostly over the viral
infection anyway.

1.[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3098742/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3098742/)

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andrewflnr
My gripe is that "essential oil" is only slightly more specific than
"chemical", so it's meaningless to talk about essential oils in general as a
fix for anything. You need to evaluate them on a case-by-case basis for every
use. An arbitrary essential oil is as likely to be a poison as a cure, but
they're all lumped together in the hype. And it's not like we didn't already
know that plants are a good source of medicines. /rant

~~~
pushrax
Totally. In fact, the fourth thing I think of - after aromatherapy, perfume,
and flavouring - is the use of safrole (from sassafras essential oil) in the
manufacture of MDMA...

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halfcat
My wife and her friends are into essential oils. I have mixed feelings. Some
of the oils do seem to be effective, but there are definite red flags as far
as the business behind the oils.

On the shady side, they have the ZYTO hand scanner, a device you place your
hand on for a few minutes, and then it tells you all of your deficiencies, and
all of the oils you need to buy to fix those deficiencies. My wife and all of
her friends swear by this scan, amazed at its accuracy. My scan was not
accurate at all. Before the scan, you have to enter your info (name, address,
email, etc), so I have always suspected they are using some online marketing
database to profile you. If you read about the scanner online, they claim that
the reason the scanner doesn't give reproducible results is because it "uses
quantum physics", which just screams scam to me.

As far as the oils product itself, I have used several on various skin
ailments such as skin tags and warts, and I have been quite impressed at how
effective they have been in consistently getting rid of them.

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DubiousPusher
Carl Sagan, in his book Demon Haunted World, described his bologna detection
kit, a set of principals and tests used to get a feel for the veracity of a
claim. Here is my Medical modality bologna detection kit.

1\. It is claimed the modality cures or treats a wide variety of otherwise
unconnected symptoms.

2\. Claims about the modality are unspecific. "It boosts the immune system."
"It removes toxins."

3\. It is claimed the modality is as effective as already substantiated
treatments but trials are not controlled.

4\. Purveyors of the treatment invoke any benefit besides its efficacy and
side effect profile. They emphasize its antiquity or how natural it is.

5\. Top researchers of the modality stand to profit from positive outcomes of
their research.

6\. There is no likely way for the treatment to work.

7\. Trials are not double blinded.

~~~
benten10
Slightly off-topic, but a Bologna detection kit wouldn't be that difficult to
construct: even standard CV software could detect standard Bologna in standard
shape.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_sausage](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_sausage)

On the other hand, I imagine Italian bologna is prepared with essential oils,
so a working Bologna detection kit would also positively identify essential
oils.

On the other hand, Sagan's kit would be quite a useful tool in detecting
baloney.

As a non-native speaker, I was particularly thrown off by that, and had to
look it up. :)

Do I agree with you! Apply the system to homeopathy, and most of it comes off
as baloney. The saddest part is, it is often the people who would benefit from
'actual' medicine the most (the sick and the poor) that also fall into the
homeopathy trap. At least in the neck of the woods I am from.

~~~
DubiousPusher
Ha, my mistake. Baloney is a word you hear frequently but don't see written
very often. I presumed the slang used the spelling of the sausage it was
derived from.

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Trisell
My wife is big into essential oils. She initially bought into the hype.
Interestingly the company she started to buy from, has soured her due to their
business practices. Among other things selling "pure" oils, that really are
not as pure as the claim.

I will say this when she first started with them, I thought it was all voodoo
and witchcraft, but after using various oils, I find that certain ones do give
relief of certain symptoms. Like we have a blend that "aides" digestion. And
when I have heartburn, I rub it on my stomach and within 15 minutes feel
better. Is it magic, I have no idea, but it seems to work.

But I also still believe in traditional medicine. If I have an ear infection
I'm not going to pour oil in my ear, I'm going to go see a Dr and get a
prescription to fix it. I think that there is a group of people out there who
are so turned off by the western medical system, that they are looking for
anything that they can hook on too, to hopefully provide them with a means to
not have to participate in the system.

~~~
codyb
That's a pragmatic approach drawing information from the sources available and
not drawing a hard line anywhere.

I've never been able to understand people's tendency to insist on extremes. If
you're Republican, everything Democrat is bad, and vice versa. If you are an
advocate for Eastern medicine all doctors are quacks. Yadda yadda yadda. These
may be extreme and a bit simplified but the tendency seems to run strong in
some point.

Although, to put it in another frame, perhaps the people more likely to
espouse their views are also the ones more likely to take a strong stance
which means as a result I tend not to hear from the more pragmatic among us.

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benten10
Just so no one is confused (like I was for a long time), essential oils are so
called because they are obtained using plant essences, not because they are
essential to us in any way (though they may now be!)

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
The other ones, the ones we need, are correctly called EFAs - Essential
Fatties Acids[1].

1\.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_fatty_acid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_fatty_acid)

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click170
It's interesting to hear about the different impacts of essential oils, though
when you consider manuka honey also has healing properties as well, it stands
to reason that other natural plant extracts could have similar properties.

~~~
hcarvalhoalves
> it stands to reason that other natural plant extracts could have similar
> properties.

That's as old as time.

\- Lemon skin for stomach flu (Salmonella)

\- Garlic for ulcer (H. pylori).

\- Onion for food intoxication (E. coli and S. aureus).

\- Eucalyptus for general respiratory tract infections.

\- Tamarind and cranberry for bladder infection.

\- Coconut oil for intestinal parasites.

\- Honey (any, not just manuka) as a general anti bactericide.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
And more recently we've learned things like:

Cinnamon for stomach ulcer due to inhibitory affect on H. pylori

Cinnamon for blood sugar regulation

Cinnamon for Parkinson's disease

And that's just one of the 214 herbs I've studied intensively.

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ben_pr
I have used essential oils for nearly everything including internal
consumption, external issues, cleaning everything(alternative to bleach, etc),
veterinary and can say they work. However, there are a lot of claims out there
regarding essential oils that aren't true, so make sure you check a reliable
source before you proceed.

Quality is very important, all essential oils are not the same.

It takes a lot of self education to take care of your own health but well
worth it in the end.

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Mz
This is so cool:

 _Other research, from a 2011 issue of BMC Proceedings, showed that adding a
combination of plant extracts—from oregano, cinnamon, and chili
peppers—actually changed the gene expression of treated chickens, resulting in
weight gain as well as protection against an injected intestinal infection._

I have used all three of those as part of my treatment for my health issues,
rooted in a genetic disorder. This is just so, so cool.

~~~
refurb
Changing gene expression happens all the time due to everyday things like:
sunlight exposure, amount of fat you eat, how much sleep you get, etc, etc,
etc.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
So true. "change in gene expression" is one of those three-word-slogans. A
change in gene expression occurs ever time we eat as our liver and pancreas
ramp up production of various enzymes.

It's probably true that every activity we participate in cause a change in
gene expression as the underlying physical manifestation of a change in
biochemistry.

~~~
Mz
Yes, but it excites me because my focus has been figuring out how to change
the gene expression using diet and lifestyle. I have gotten a lot of flack off
of people. I am excited to see language like this in an article about this
kind of "natural" approach.

I know what I am doing. I just don't know how to talk about it with other
people and it's been very frustrating. So I find stuff like this interesting.

Thanks for your various comments throughout this discussion.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Shoot me an email, let's have a conversation. I've been studying this sort of
thing for over a decade now.

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SeanDav
It would help hugely if we all become Vegans or at least vastly reduced our
meat/fish consumption. Producing meat and animal products is very inefficient
in terms of land and resources and encourages the use of antibiotics.

Of course this is a pipe dream and barring a world extinction threat, is never
going to happen.

~~~
bpodgursky
It's far more complex than this. A lot of meat --free-range cattle and sheep
particularly--is raised on land which is not arable for traditional crops.
Farmed fish too, when farmed responsibly, can provide a lot of food on "land"
which could not have produced other food.

~~~
hedning
But we aren't lacking land to grow food. We have so much of it actually that
we use a third of the arable land world wide to grow feed for livestock,
(which accounts for 40% all grains grown)[1]. If we just ate this grain
instead we could feed 3.5 billions people extra[2].

Cattle (and sheep) are extremely inefficient. We use 60% of all farmland to
produce beef, but it only provides us with 2% of all calories (5% of
protein)[1]. So, the majority of all pastureland plus a big chunk of the
arable land is used to produce 2% of all calories. That's not really much of a
resource.

So yes, if we raised cattle purely on pasture (which we don't overall) we
could actually get some net production of food. But it would still be an
insignificant part of our diet.

[1] Grade A Choice? Solutions for Deforestation-free Meat. Union of Concerned
Scientists, 2012:
[http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/global_warming/Soluti...](http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/global_warming/Solutions-
for-Deforestation-Free-Meat.pdf)

[2] Meat and Animal Feed: [http://www.globalagriculture.org/report-
topics/meat-and-anim...](http://www.globalagriculture.org/report-topics/meat-
and-animal-feed.html)

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
One issue is that arable land isn't, along with other resources, evenly
distributed over the plant, nor do the people have equal access to technology
maximise production output.

This is why we need trade, which is arguably better than one form or another
of centralised government controlled redistribution.

So the issue isn't, and probably never will be, limits to resources, but
limits to human resourcefulness - of which there are none.

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drallison
The operative word here is "might". Be sure to read Ioannidis, John PA. "Why
most published research findings are false." PLoS medicine 2.8 (2005): e124.

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apalmer
Ehhh... I mean its all malarky till enough experiments have been done to move
it into the realm of likelihood.

~~~
benbreen
Naturally this is just a single experiment, but it does offer some
statistically significant results for combinations of antibiotics and
lavender, peppermint, and cinnamon oils:

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23537749](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23537749)

~~~
thanatosmin
Full text here: [http://goo.gl/i6ooUC](http://goo.gl/i6ooUC)

The lowest oil concentration they see synergy is 0.078% v/v. Assuming that's
roughly the same as w/w%, that's 53 grams of oil that would have to be
distributed throughout the body of a 68 kg person.

