In this newsletter we will try to help you further your knowledge and use of essential oils.

Physical Ailments

Bronchitis

Oh, how I wish I had known about essential oils 30 years ago when we were raising our children. And I'm sure Alan's Mom would have welcomed it too over 50 years ago when he was an infant and young boy.

Al and our sons all had several bouts of bronchitis as infants and young children. In fact, it was due to Al's constant bronchitis as a child, that prompted his parents to move from England to the USA. They were told to get him out of the cold damp humid climate or Al might not be here today. Of course I'm very glad they moved here.

Any way, bronchitis was always at the end of every cold or upper respiratory infection especially with two of our sons.

One would develop bronchitis as a result of his allergies, the other when ever he got a cold!

It was so frustrating, listening to the coughing and congestion. They never really felt that sick, but you hear the coughing. They would of course, be worn down by the lack of rest. And they themselves got tired of it all!

As many people, we always tried natural remedies for treating bronchitis and chest colds.

Back then, we used a lot of a product called Medicated Ointment. A salve that had a lot of eucalyptus and camphor in it. It did the trick, but the ointment was so messy and rubbing it on their chests, back and neck was not fun when you had to be careful not to get it into eyes etc.

Now, we could use essential oils mixed with a little carrier oil. It would have been so much easier. Or better yet we could have just diffused it in their bedrooms. And if we had been using essential oils back then, our children would not have gotten sick as often and if they did it wouldn't have been as severe. Lessons learned.

Bronchitis is caused by congestion and inflammation of the bronchial passage ways in the lungs. It can be caused by a viral infection or allergens or sometimes something even unknown.

It can make it difficult to breath. Especially, if the mucous is thick and sticky. It becomes very difficult to cough it up and get it out of your chest.

It can be caused by allergens and/or infections. It can be an acute attack - sudden onset, as seen with colds and upper respiratory or it can be chronic - which could be due to a lingering bacterial infection or due to irritations from environmental exposure to dust and other pollutants.

There are several essential oils that can help with bronchitis. There are many essential oils that can help loosen the mucous and make the cough more productive. And to prevent it in the first place there are several essential oils to help build the immune system.

You can use essential oils in a bowl of warm to fairly hot water, drape a towel over your head and breathe in deeply for 10-15 minutes. Or you can use several of the oils in the bath or shower. In the shower an easy way to diffuse them is to place several drops on a terra cotta passive type diffuser and let the warm water hit the diffuser while it sits on the shower stall floor. Of course, be careful not to step on the small disk. Using the essential oils in a bath or shower will give you some quick relief.

You can diffuse the oils in your bedroom all night using a fan diffuser.

Or you can mix a little with a carrier oil and apply to your chest, neck, and the bottom of your feet. When you apply the oils mixed with a little carrier or massage oil, your body will absorb and be able to use the oils at the cellular level to help heal and repair damage done to the lung tissues.

The essential oils that appear to give the most relief for those suffering from bronchitis include: Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus radiata , Lavender, Peppermint and Frankincense are most commonly used to help lung congestion. Other oils include Rosemary, Rosemary Verbenone, Niaouli, Marjoram, Pine needle , Cedarwood, Myrtle, Ravensara, Thyme linalool

Bronchitis chest rub
Eucalyptus - 12 drops
Peppermint - 5 drops
Thyme - 5 drops
1 ounce of Sunflower oil

Mix well and gently rub on your chest and throat several times a day.

Another blend to use for Bronchitis
Thyme linalool - 10 drops
Eucalyptus radiata - 10 drops
Niaouli - 10 drops
Myrtle - 25 drops

Blend well and use one of these ways - Put in about 10 drops in a bowl of steaming hot water and let the steam fill the air
Place several drops on a tissue or use in a personal inhaler.
Put 3-5 drops in a carrier oil and massage over the chest and back.

This blend is great for children.

This recipe is adapted from Aromatherapy for the Healthy child by Valerie Ann Worwood.

Remember that essential oils all have antibacterial and antiviral properties and the essential oils that are used in treating bronchitis symptoms are especially good for treating these type of germs.

Special note:
If you have chronic bronchitis and you are a smoker, there is probably no essential oil that will help to get rid of your cough or congestion. You will need to stop smoking so the irritating substances will no longer be present in your airways.

You might want to check out our page on Asthma by clicking on this link in case your bronchitis is also related to your asthma. Asthma information using essential oils.

Emotional Concerns

FOOD CRAVINGS

Everyone has food cravings at one time or another. It can sabotage your weight loss program in no time at all.

If you overeat due to depression, then you will feel even worse after you have indulged.

Doing research for food cravings and cravings in general was not an easy task. Either the aroma therapists in the past do not want to write about it or are keeping it to themselves as a secret.

What I did find is they don't call it Cravings. Not at all. Most of the time it is under the headings of obsessive - compulsive behavior, or over eating or over indulging.

In any case, I did find several essential oils to help. Also, we have a new blend we created for one of our customers and hope this blend will give anyone suffering from any type of craving.

The most important essential oil to ward off cravings is Fennel . Fennel has been used to stave off hunger pains for centuries. The Romans and Greeks fed it to the men in their armies to not only allay hunger but also to give them a burst of energy. Women in history ate it to prevent weight gain. When people fasted for religious reasons, Fennel was the only permitted herb.

Fennel is a great essential oil at detoxifying and also can be used as a diuretic to help rid the body of excess fluids.

Other oils that appear to help include dill, Bergamot, Cardamom, Coriander, Cypress, Fennel, Geranium, Ginger, Grapefruit, Juniper, Lemon, Mandarin, Patchouli, Peppermint Rosemary and Spearmint.

A simple yet effective appetite suppressing blend for inhalation is equal portions of Bergamot and Fennel. Blend well, then add a few drops to a personal inhaler and take a sniff or two when ever you feel hungry.

Remember this is to be used at time when it is not meal time. You still need to eat to live, but this should help you get control the excessive eating that is keeping you from losing your desired weight.

Beauty and Skin Care

Cellulite'

Those unsightly little 'orange-peel skin' fatty deposits that women get.

Cellulite is a very common complaint of women around the world. It's causes can vary from being overweight, to hormonal or other endocrine system imbalance, to water retention, lack of oxygen, poor nutrition and food allergies, and having poor circulation, not only in the blood, but also your lymphatic systems. It is possible even having a poor elimination system may contribute. A big question is this all related to a toxicity problem in the body.

Most women (and a few men) just want to try to improve the appearance of the skin and supportive tissues underneath.

First you should not only look at what you can do using essential oils, but you should also look at your over all health picture.

Do you exercise regularly, daily? Do you eat plenty of fresh foods? Eliminating refined foods helps your body eliminate allot of toxins. Make sure you drink plenty of FRESH Water! Look at your posture, are your standing and sitting properly? If not you probably are not breathing properly either.

Okay, on with the information about using essential oils.

Helping to improve your cellulite problem will not happen overnight. It is a long process and just at it took years to develop it will take several weeks to months to see improvement too.

Essential oils that may help include: Basil , Cedarwood, Clary Sage, Cypress, Fennel, Grapefruit, Juniper, Lemon, Orange, Patchouli, Rosemary and Thyme.

Using essential oils will help counteract cellulite by improving circulation both blood and lymphatic systems, encouraging your body to eliminate waste, eliminate excessive body fluids, help with your hormonal balancing, and brighten your spirits emotionally.

In review, to help you and your body to improve your cellulite problem you should try the following:
1) Get plenty of exercise. This will help you improve your blood circulation and your increase your oxygen levels. As breathing deeply as you work out will increase your oxygen levels. Getting exercise will help your posture too.
2) Get plenty of water to help flush the toxins out. The increase in circulation will increase the need to eliminate those.
3)Use essential oils to help eliminate toxins by baths and massages. Also use them to help control your cravings, increase your energy and brighten your day.
4) Eat more fresh foods, eliminate refined foods.
5) Massage and or Dry brush you skin daily.
6) Do not forget to relax each day to help you mentally.

For eliminating toxins take a bath in a mixture of Epsom salts and other salt such as dead sea salt. Add to this bath 8-10 drops the following blend of essential oils
Oregano - 6 drops
Juniper - 6 drops
Lemon - 10 drops
Grapefruit - 10 drops
Basil - 8 drops
Blend these in an amber colored bottle. Add only about 8 drops to the bath. While in the tub, massage (towards your heart - from toes to hips) the affected areas. This will help your body to eliminate toxins. Also be sure to drink plenty of water, before and after your bath. Don't forget to sit and soak for a few minutes before leaving the tub.

Follow your bath with a few drops of body oil to the affected areas Use this recipe for a your anti -cellulite campaign
Sweet almond - 1 ounce
Jojoba - 1/4 teaspoon
Carrotseed 5 drops
Fennel - 8 drops
Lemon 10 drops
Grapefruit - 12 drops
Blend well and massage a few drops into the affected areas.

Another helpful technique to increase lymphatic circulation is to do a dry brush. Using a natural bristle brush, stroke your skin lightly always moving upwards or towards the heart. This is a great way to help your body detoxify if you are not able to soak in a tub. You should dry brush every day. And do your entire body, not just the cellulite' areas.

Be patient and stick to your regiment and soon you will see some very nice results!

Around the House and Garden

Hand washed Clothing

When washing your 'hand wash only' clothing remember you can always add a little essential oils to your wash and/or rinse water.

Most fabrics can handle a little essential oil in this manner. With the exception of some fine silks. Silk fabric is little bit particular and the strong constituents in some essential oils will damage silk. If your silk says it can be machine washed and you are like me and still feel that all silks should be hand washed then you should be able to add the essential oils to your wash or rinse water.

If in doubt do not use any essential oils around your fine washables.

Try a few drops of any one of the following essential oils Palmarosa, Petitgrain, Lemongrass, Rosemary, Neroli or Bergamot to give your hand washables a new fresh scent.

Remember hand washables are usually laid out to dry.

Adding essential oils to the rinse water is especially helpful when getting ready to store your woolen items for the summer months. Cedarwood will help prevent the moths from wanting to eat your wool fabrics.

Adding Peppermint to the final rinse before storing winter clothing away will help keep other crawling critters away.

Product Review

Allergy Tamer

Before you know it, Spring will be here and with it will come the new spring and summer allergy season.

We had a request for an allergy blend that could be used for not just seasonal allergies but for any kind of airborne allergy.
Well, again after doing some extensive research in the use of essential oils that are commonly used for allergies we were able to make a blend using several of them. These very same oils also help to build the immune system.

The blend is made of German and Roman Chamomile, Helichrysum, Lavender and Niaouli. They work synergistically. These particular oils have all been used for allergy and allergy symptoms. They help make breathing easier also.

It is simple to use but needs to be used twice daily for about 2 weeks then once a day thereafter during allergy season.

Simply place several drops in a personal inhaler and take in several deep breaths. Do this morning and night for about 2 weeks, after that you should be able to just use once a day.

Alternately, you can mix 30 drops in one ounce of carrier oil and apply a few drops to your pulse points (wrists, the little "v" of your neck, in your elbows crease or behind your ears) or on the bottom of your feet. Some people may not like the smell of this blend and may prefer to use on the bottom of the feet. Your body will still get the benefits of the essential oils as they are easily absorbed through the skin.

Recipes to try

BIRCH HILL HAPPENINGS NEWS

Hello Everyone,

We have been busy this past month. We had several requests for some new essential oils and also for some new blends.

So we got our books out, did a bit of research and with the suggestions from a few of our customers we have created a few new blends.

The first blend is for Allergy relief, we call it Allergy Tamer blend .It was featured above in our Product Review this month.

Our next blend is to help curb all those food cravings. Of course we had to be a little silly naming it - just because we want you to remember to use it, so we call it "No More Grazing!" blend This blend has the most commonly recommended essential oils to help keep you from "grazing" in the kitchen and looking for something to eat.

Having difficulty concentrating on the task at hand? Another of our new blends is Concentration blend . It is a lovely blend of three essential oils that help you concentrate, be more alert and can focus. You may want to diffuse this blend in your car on your long commutes. Especially on days when you are a little tired and your mind appears to be wandering.

Our last blend is called Aphrodesia blend . Again, upon doing some reading about all the different essential oils that can be used for the different types of aphrodisiac responses we created this blend. An aphrodisiac blend may be for calming and soothing to help create desire by reducing anxieties, others may be used for a direct stimulant (these are often ones that have oils in them that will create heat or tingling skin sensations) and then there are others that work on your hormonal responses. This blend was created using oils from each category. Aphrodesia is to be used mainly as an inhalation type blend, but can be used to make a nice romantic massage oil. This blend smells very wonderful.

We hope that one of these new blends will help several of you. The "No more Grazing"! blend may help you with food cravings, that in turn will help you with weight loss, and then will help with the Cellulite'. See how that works!!

Our newest essential oils are French Lavender High Altitude, German Chamomile, Bay Leaf (rum) and Angelica seed
These are oils you have requested. The French Lavender has been a big hit. Just click on the links to take you to the order page for each oil.

Don't forget our clearance sale is still going on. In order to make room for a new line of tealight and electric oil warming diffusers we are having a CLEARANCE SALE on several of our tealight diffusers. We are selling them at a discount. So, if you would like a new diffuser, or want to give one as a gift to a beginner, now is the time to take advantage of the reduced prices. Please see the line of discounted diffusers on the following pages. Ceramic Tealight diffusers, Soapstone Diffusers, Metal Tealight diffusers.

We hope to be able to have enough room with in this next month to get a few of the new diffusers. Watch our site or sign up to be notified when we have new products.

As always, if we can help you with any aromatherapy question please send us an E-mail at bhhinfo@birchhillhappenings.com and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

‘til next month,

Yours in Aromatherapy,
Alan and Penny

E-mail us at bhhinfo@birchhillhappenings.com

**Resources for information in this newsletter (including recipes) and others were obtained from the following sources:
"Aromatherapy A Lifetime Guide to Healing with Essential Oils" by Valerie Gennari Cooksley
"500 Formulas for Aromatherapy" by Schiller and Schiller
"The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Aromatherapy" by Schiller and Schiller
""The Fragrant Veil" by Elisabeth Millar
"The Fragrant Mind Aromatherapy for Personality, Mind, Mood, and Emotion" by Valerie Ann Worwood
"Aromatherapy An A-Z" by Patricia Davis
"Aromatherapy for Vibrant Health and Beauty" by Roberta Wilson
"Aromatherapy through the Seasons" by Judith Fitzsimmons and Paula M Bousquet
"Advanced Aromatherapy The Science of Essential Oil Therapy" by Kurt Schnaubelt, Ph.D.
"Aromatherapy Companion" by Victoria H Edwards
"We have a large reference library and confer with many books while answering questions on Aromatherapy.
"Practical Aromatherapy for Home and Garden Decoder"
"Aromatherapy Decoder"
"Advanced Aromatherapy Decoder"
The Decoders are available from Birch Hill Happenings