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Inhalation of essential oils is one of the fastest, direct and most effective ways to shift your health.

Research on Therapeutic Effects and Mechanisms of Essential Oils found that “Inhalation is the fastest and most effective way to induce responses in the central nervous system within a few seconds, altering blood flow in the body by controlling circulation through the autonomous nervous system.”

Your sense of smell, which is part of the olfactory system, is one of the most powerful channels into the body.  In fact, your olfactory system is unique among the sensory systems for having direct anatomical and functional access into the limbic lobe of the brain which is physically located near the olfactory bulb.

This allows inhaled essential oils to easily access areas of the brain that help shift your physical health and your mood.

And it happens quickly!

Research shows that the entire process from the initial inhalation of an essential oil to a corresponding response in the body can happen in a matter of seconds. your sense of smell is thought to be 10,000 times more acute than your other senses. Once registered, scent stimuli travel more quickly to the brain than do either sight or sound.

This is because your sense of smell is key to survival!

Smell is often the first warning of safety or danger.  You smell food and water.  You smell predator odor and fire.

Research elaborates that “intact sense of smell is critical for evaluating the safety of ingestible substances, assessing impending danger, and recognizing social relationships.”

What’s more, your sense of smell bypasses absorption in the gut, where there are usually many roadblocks due to modern terrain issues like inflammation and leaky gut.  Similarly, research reveals that the digestive channel chemically alters the chemical constituents of essential oils, which undergo significant biotransformation after being absorbed in the digestive system which alters bioavailability and has been observed to alter their effects on health.

How Inhalation Allows Access to the Brain

One of the challenges of healing is getting the right remedy into the right area of the body.  For example, it is really hard to get remedies into the brain because the blood brain barrier acts as a highly selective, protective shield that surrounds and protects your brain from potentially dangerous agents that could disturb brain function. The tight gaps between the cells of your blood-brain barrier, known as tight junctions, allow only super small, nano-sized molecules, fat-soluble molecules, and some gases to pass freely through the capillary wall and into brain tissue.

Essential oils are naturally the ideal chemical composition to pass through the blood-brain barrier, as the molecular components that make up essential oils are so small that they’re known as volatile and aromatic. Essential oil molecules are so small – approximately 40 million-trillion molecules in one drop – that they literally circulate in the air where our noses detect them as smell.

When inhaled through the nose, essential oils efficiently pass through the blood brain barrier in the area surrounding the olfactory nerve. A true blood-brain barrier is 8 cells in thickness. The number of cells which constitute the layer around the olfactory nerve is only 4 to 5 cells thick. Hence, it is very easy for the oils to pass straight through to the brain when breathed in through the nose.

Essential oils are also lipophilic (fat-friendly), allowing them to access and bind to cell membranes, which are also comprised primarily of fat.   Research confirms that “the soluble molecules present in essential oil vapor carried with the inhaled air can cross the air–blood barrier. A majority of the essential oil components are lipophilic and hydrophobic in nature (lipid soluble terpene family). Lipophilic EO components can cross the blood–brain barrier and transport healing remedies to the nervous system.”

Your cellular membranes serve as a semi permeable, protective barrier, regulating what enters and leaves your cell.  Surface receptors that line the outside of your cell membranes allow your cells to receive chemical signals from your brain and your body.  When the appropriate chemical messenger binds with these receptors, it initiates a cascade of chemical changes inside your cellular membrane, triggering modifications in the function of the cell.

The selectively permeable nature of your cellular membrane relies on specialized transport mechanisms to help permeate your cell membrane and move into the cell without being limited by the cell’s transport machinery.   This process is known as passive diffusion and only a few substances – including gases like oxygen, nutrients, alcohol, some drugs (like anesthetics) and essential oils — are capable of moving in this way.   For example, the cells of your blood-brain barrier actively transport metabolic products such as glucose across the barrier in response to signals on their receptor sites.

Research demonstrates that when essential oils can interact with the receptor sites on your cellular membranes, influencing the excitatory and inhibitory effects on your brain’s chemical messengers.  It is believed that the compatibility of chemical composition allows essential oils to bind to and modulate cell receptors and transporters. This is because, like your brain cells, your cellular membranes are composed of lipids. Essential oils are lipid soluble and small, allowing them to directly traverse your cellular membrane.

This is one reason that short chain fatty acids help heal inflammation – the fatty acids are composed of lipids so they can actually access the cell membrane.  Essential oils have the same chemical composition and work in the same way! They support the normal electrical functioning of your brain and nervous system.

This makes essential oils especially helpful when your cells are compromised in their ability to efficiently pass substances across its membrane. Your cells can’t repair without the proper exchange of nutrients, but they cannot get the proper nutrients to repair and heal because membrane transport mechanisms are suboptimal. Essential oils have the ability to influence cells even when there is physiologic compromise such as during times of poor nutrition or environmental threats.

When inhaled, essential oils have been found to “stimulate the olfactory, respiratory, and gastrointestinal systems, and release endorphins to initiate a feeling of well-being and an analgesic effect”, according to research on Clinical Aromatherapy.

The Physical Process of Inhalation (Olfaction)

The process of olfaction involves the conversion of a chemical stimulus, an odorant, into an electrical signal sent to the brain for interpretation.

I have been trying to unpack the exact physical process and areas of the brain involved in smell to help explain how, when inhaled, essential oils travel through the nasal passageways into the brain.

Research on the Therapeutic Effect and Mechanisms of Essential Oils in Mood Disorders: Interaction between the Nervous and Respiratory Systems found three potential mechanisms of actions that enable essential oils to travel to the brain and influence brain functioning:

1) Nasal olfactory chemoreceptors (receptor cells found within the nasal cavity) are activated, setting off a cascade of olfactory signals within your brain.  Aromatic molecules contained within essential oils “travel through the interior of the nasal passage where the endothelium in the inner lining is thin and located close to the brain, allowing essential oil molecules to readily enter the local circulation and the brain.

A particular odorant can activate sensors in your nasal cavity, known as olfactory receptor cells, which have specialized cilia extensions. The cilia trap odor molecules as they pass across the epithelial surface. Information about the molecules is then transmitted via electrophysical signals which then stimulate the target regions in the brain.  Each receptor expresses a specific type of odorant reception which is how different odors can be identified and differentiated, according to research on The physiology of taste and smell: how and why we sense flavors.

Here’s how it works:

• The volatile molecules in EOs enter your olfactory system through the nasal cavity which leads to the olfactory lobe located close to the brain. The olfactory lobe is connected to several brain areas, including the amygdala (which processes the emotional response and the controls scent intensity), hypothalamus (which secretes hormones in responds to incoming sensory information) and hippocampus (which plays a role in odor memory formation).
• When you breathe in essential oils, Odorant molecules within the nasal passages signal receptors on the primary cilia of olfactory sensory neurons. Each neuron expresses a single type of protein receptor on these dendritic extensions.
• This activates the sensory neurons present in the olfactory mucosa, which deliver the signals to the limbic system and central nervous system.
• These signals help to modulate specific physiological responses involving mood and behavioral actions (emotion and cognition), hormone production, regulation of body temperature, digestive reactions, memory, stress responses, sedation, sex stimulation, blood pressure, and heart rate.

2) Direct penetration of EO molecules via the olfactory nerve into connected brain areas either by extracellular or by intracellular transport mechanisms. 

• Intracellular mechanism: When essential oils directly pass through the neuronal pathway in the olfactory lobe and are transmitted to the brain. The molecules bind with the olfactory receptor surface of the neurons and initiate receptor-mediated endocytosis (cells take in substances present outside the cell body by engulfing them in a vesicle which reopens inside the cell and the substance becomes a part of the cytoplasm).
• Extracellular transport mechanism: When essential oil molecules pass through the paracellular cleft between the olfactory sensory neuron and supporting cells and enter the connective tissue through fluid and fascia movement.  From the connective tissue, the essential oils are further transported through the blood–brain barrier and blood–cerebrospinal fluid barrier to spread into different regions in the brain where they interact with the neurotransmitter receptors – including GABA, serotonin and dopamine –  and produce anxiolytic and antidepressant effects, according the research on the Therapeutic Effect and Mechanisms of Essential Oils in Mood Disorders: Interaction between the Nervous and Respiratory Systems

3) Absorption into alveolar blood circulation: Post inhalation, essential oils can travel through the respiratory system involving gaseous exchange via diffusion into the blood circulation in the alveoli, also known as the air-containing compartments of the lungs.  Inhaled essential oils travel through the respiratory tract, enter the lungs, and reach the alveolar sacs where the gaseous exchange (of oxygen and carbon dioxide) takes place between the cells of the alveoli and blood cells in the capillaries.  Oxygen passively flows from the air inside the alveoli into the blood in the alveolar capillaries, carrying inhaled essential oils molecules with it, while carbon dioxide passively flows in the opposite direction.  Simultaneously, some essential oil molecules are also absorbed by the inner mucous linings of the respiratory tract, bronchi, and bronchioles.  Deep breathing tends to increase the quantity of any essential oil components absorbed into the body by this route. 

My Favorite Essential Oils to Improve Brain Function

As noted above, inhalation of essential oils can enhance blood flow, including blood flow to the brain with helps support a heathy flow of oxygen to the brain and enhance brain function.

Inhaling Circulation™ blend helps support healthy circulation to deliver oxygen and nutrient rich blood to the body and the brain. The brain is the most vertical tissue in the body with the smallest blood vessels that are furthest from the heart. It is consistently dealing with the forces of gravity due to its vertical position.

Inhalation or topical application of Circulation™ blend may help to increase circulation and blood flow to the brain.

Essential oils may help improve circulation by relaxing the smooth muscles that line the blood vessels and improving the health of the blood vessels.  This helps more blood circulate through them, improving your circulation and increasing brain oxygen levels in the process.

Plant compounds, including the highly concentrated essence of plants found in essential oils,  have been shown to help the veins contract, stimulating blood flow and enhance “brain microcirculation,” which is the flow of blood through the body’s smallest vessels.  

Circulation™ blend in particular contains Black Pepper essential oil, which has been found to enhance circulation, increasing blood flow to your digestive system which helps boost nutrient absorption, so much so that it is often added supplement formulations to enhance the effectiveness of the supplement. 

Apply 2- 3 drops on the sides or back of the neck, over the left clavicle, on the wrists or ankles to promote circulation and greatly accelerate the healing process.

Featured Oil:

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Your body stores toxic emotions along with physical toxins – like metals, mold and pathogens.  When you mobilize physical toxins, it is common to mobilize emotional toxins as well.  If you are unable to process and release emotional toxins, it can impede the progress of your physical detox.

Research on the Health-promoting and health-damaging effects of emotions found that unprocessed negative emotions “appear to be associated and/or promote disease and ill-health.”  “The health-deleterious impact of negative emotion” – like anger, fear, sadness, grief, anxiety, and depression – were “implicated in a full panorama of diseases ranging from heart disease and cancer, to arthritis, and diabetes and the common cold.”

This likely has to do with the fact that emotions activate your “fight or flight” stress response and unprocessed emotions are always running in the background keeping your sympathetic nervous system on high alert even when no physical danger is present.

The word emotion is derived from the Latin word exmovere, which means to move out, agitate or excite.  The English word “motion” is also derived when this word.  When emotions get stirred up, they trigger movement or readiness for action which, in turn, activates stress hormones and alters brain activity.  

Left unprocessed, these negative emotions influence your thoughts and your behavior and ultimately your health.

What is an Emotional Detox?

When you begin to release toxins from your tissues, you may release both physical toxins, like mold, metals and biological waste, along with emotional toxins, including emotions that you may not have been able to process during periods of intense trauma, like anger, fear, grief and sadness.

You may not realize that your emotions produce physical energy and when you release them you may feel physical detoxification symptoms (like nausea, fatigue, flu-like symptoms, headache, joint and muscle pain) along with emotional symptoms (like sadness or anger), in addition to possibly unleashing memories surrounding the original unprocessed trauma.

These stuck emotions are similar to physical toxins in that they can contribute to stagnation and compromise the function of your cells, tissues and organs.

Certain organ systems are thought to have a greater affinity for certain emotions.  According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) trapped emotions vibrate at specific frequencies that correlate with and impact the function of specific organs.  For example. anger is believed to correlate with your liver, fear with your kidneys and grief with your lungs.

What Role Do Emotions Play?

Emotions are in fact energy that prompt and organize you for action.  This energy resonates at specific vibrational frequencies and serves as a warning system to alert you to danger.  

When a particular emotion is triggered, your whole body goes on a sort of alert to be ready for action related to that emotion.  For example, anger can organize you mentally and physiologically to become aggressive.  Fear helps you prepare to flee by triggering fear-based thoughts to prime your body for safety.

According to the book, Don’t Let Your Emotions Run Your Life, emotions can also:

• Prompt and organize you for action
• Provide important information about what’s going on in a situation (especially social situations)
• Motivate you (anger in particular is very motivating)
• Help you with communication with others
• Can help you become adaptive.

Essential oils can help you move emotion through the body to prevent and reverse disease.

shift to more positive emotions and release emotions that may be stored or trapped in your body.

What is Really Happening When You Detoxify Emotions?

Detoxifying emotions is really just helping to transmute and release the emotions that you either do not want to feel or don’t know how to process so you suppress them.

When you don’t transmute or work through your emotions, your body continues experiencing those emotions even when you’re not thinking about them.  Your body is so good at protecting you that you may even dissociate from these painful emotions (so you don’t actively experience but they still run on repeat in the background, contributing the fight or flight response). 

Just like a physical detoxification, and emotional detoxification is a multi-step process:

Phase one: In physical detox, phase one neutralizes toxins so they can then be excreted or easily removed from the body.  For an emotional detox, you similarly need to neutralize the intensity and toxicity of the emotion through the practice of nervous system regulation and heart coherence.

Phase two:   In physical detoxification, phase 2 is where the liver attaches another molecule to the “intermediate toxin” to render is less harmful. Toxic emotions can get wired into your organs and your nervous system.  Essential oils can be used to help you release the specific unprocessed energy from the emotional toxicity from your organs and tissues.

Essential Oils for Emotional Detox

Essential oils can help you mobilize, process, transmute and integrate stuck emotional energy and re-create nervous system and heart coherence within your body.  

The key to releasing negative emotions is love, compassion and empathy, both for yourself and for others involved in the situation.   If someone hurt or betrayed you, you may stay stuck in a place of anger at that person or fear of future interactions.  These emotions dysregulate your nervous system, throwing you into a sympathetic dominant state, and take you out of heart coherence.  

Essential oils are powerful tools to help you embrace positive emotions and sort through more challenging emotions.  Sadly, positive thinking alone cannot override your fight or flight nervous system.  

But your sense of smell (used to inhale essential oils) has direct access to the emotional center of your brain that controls your hormones and influences your emotions and your mood, known as your limbic system.  

On a physical level, only two synapses separate your amygdala from your olfactory nerve.  No other sensory system has this kind of direct and intense contact with the neural substrates of your brain’s emotional control center.  Your other four senses, including sound, sight, taste and touch must travel to other regions of the brain first, before reaching your limbic system.

You can use this direct physiological access to rewire your physiology and detoxify emotions.

The inhalation and topical application of essential oils work with your natural physiology to support an emotional detox!

Essential Oils for Phase One of Emotional Detox

The following essential oil blends can be used to help support nervous system regulation and heart coherence to neutralize the intensity and toxicity and help to transmute the emotion for easier detoxification.

Parasympathetic™ 

Your Parasympathetic branch of the nervous system allows you to feel safe and less reactive to intense or toxic emotions.

Topically applying the Parasympathetic™ blend behind your earlobe on your mastoid bone helps to shift you out of emotional reactivity, allowing you to transmute and detoxify intense emotions with less difficulty and intensity.

Activating your parasympathetic nervous system may help to neutralize the emotional charge that keeps the toxic emotion stuck in your body. Acknowledging your emotions from a mindful state allows you to observe your experience from a more detached, less emotional place which makes it easier to process, transmute and release.   You might physically feel the discharge or release.  For example, some clients report that they shiver or physically shake off emotions during this process.

Heart™

Your heart integrates and balances your physical, emotional, and mental body.

More specifically, your emotions are reflected in your heart rhythm patterns. When you are in a state of fear or anger, your heartbeat reflects that negative energy through a chaotic heart rhythm known as an “incoherent heart rhythm pattern.”

Your heart then sends signals to your brain that influence the release of hormones that impact your mental and emotional experience. Incoherent heart rhythms inhibit higher cognitive functions such as attention, perception, memory and problem-solving that help support emotional detoxification.

Conversely, when you’re experiencing positive emotions like love, joy, gratitude and compassion, you creating a state of heart coherence or “coherent heart rhythm patterns” that look smooth, ordered and stable. Coherent heart patterns help your body’s systems synchronize and work better, enhancing your ability to think clearly, learn, remember, reason and make healthy, thoughtful decisions – and detoxify emotions.

Heart™ blend helps you activate heart coherence by energetically aligning your heart into coherence to help you focus on positive, peaceful, loving and harmonious thoughts and emotions.

Your heart plays host to 40,000 sensory neurons through which it communicates to the brain and the body, producing and releasing hormones into the blood stream.

Heart™ blend was designed to harmonize these chemical and electrical signals to help support an optimal state of heart coherence that allows you to detoxify and transmute intense emotions.  To use it, simply apply 2-3 drops over the front of the heart (left side of chest).

During times of intense sadness, use as often as is needed (every 20 -30 minutes).  During times of normal stress, use 2-3 times daily to support heart coherence and emotional detox.

Fascia Release™

The issues are in the tissues, and before you can begin to unpack your blocked or stuck heart energy, you need to open up the space around your physical heart with fascia blend.

Releasing fascia constriction in the back of the body – specifically between the shoulder blades at the back on the heart – helps to physically release fascial constrictions and adhesions around the heart that may help open the heart for the healthy flow of emotional energy.

When you experience stress or heartbreak, part of you is resistance, which triggers you to physically contract, constrict, or pull away from a physical danger, a negative thought or an emotional aversion.  In the process, you constrict and physically guard your heart in preparation for attack.  When you do this, you internalize the fear without release or recovery.  In short, energy doesn’t flow and your body constricts – which locks the stress in your body.

Fascia Release™ may help “unwind” your fascia and emotionally signal your body that you’re “safe” and physically remove restrictions and physical tension in your muscles and connective tissue known as a protective layer or “armoring”,  which will not release physically or emotionally until you know that you are safe.

Topically applying Fascia Release™ over the physical heart – with focused application and both above on the clavicle bones in sweeping outward motions and in a gentle vertical caress from your throat and the sides of your neck down over and below the heart– opens the space to allow energy and emotions to flow down and out of your system.  You can also apply over the back of your heart.  This allows the fascia and muscles surrounding the heart to help release toxic emotions, like anger and sadness.

Essential Oils for Phase Two of Emotional Detox

The following essential oil blends can be used to calm the intensity of emotionally toxic energies – including anger, fear, sadness and grief – to allow you to micro-dose emotional release and detoxification from your internal organs.

In Chinese medicine different emotions ‘gravitate’ to and are related with different organs. For example, the emotions relating to the liver are anger and frustration. When you start to physically detoxify your liver, it will often start to self-clear emotionally.  If you are unable to process the intensity of the emotions, it can impede your physical detoxification.

Essential oils and the sense of smell allow you to activate and release intense emotions and sensations over brief durations – providing a small amount of stimulus to engage your body in releasing the pain without flooding and shutting down your system or keeping you stuck in a state of emotional denial or suppression.  

Once you have calmed your nervous system, you can then begin to release specific emotions in small doses  – think eye dropper, not fire hose.  Intense feelings can be painful to release, so try to be compassionate and patient with yourself.  The only way out is through, but there is no rush to get there.

On a positive note, essential oils help you control the duration of challenging emotions, releasing just a small amount of the intensity at a time, much like you would slowly and carefully unscrew the top of a carbonated beverage to gently release excess carbonation and avoid an explosion.

I recommend inhaling essential oils and gently releasing intense emotions with your exhale.  Just place the bottle under your nose and breathe deeply, fully inhaling the oil for 3 – 7 breaths. It helps you breathe into and work through the emotion.  Try to extend the exhale and really allow yourself to release the painful emotion and any associated pain and intensity.

Liver Support™ for Anger

Anger can take many forms – from rage, to blame, frustration, hostility or irritation.

Anger that we don’t process and release can get stored in your liver, according to Chinese medicine.  Any stagnation, congestion or compromise in the healthy function of your liver allows toxic chemicals to build up and accumulate in your body.  Frustration, rage, and anger tend to build up when toxins build up.

Liver Support™ helps support the release of anger, including frequent irritation, impatience, resentment or frustration, being critical of yourself or others, control issues, an inability to express your feelings, feelings of not feeling heard, not feeling loved, not being recognized or appreciated.

Just place the bottle under your nose and breathe deeply, fully inhaling the oil for 3 – 7 breaths.  It helps you breathe into and work through the emotion.  You can also apply it around the ankles as this is often an area where we hold resistance to moving forward in life and block the ability to receive joy and pleasure.  Start at the back of the ankle and apply under the ankle bone around to the front and back under the other ankle bone, all while allowing yourself to release challenging emotions. 

Kidney Support™ for Fear

Fear is the emotional response to an immediate threat.  It’s defined as an unpleasant feeling that stems from perceived danger or threat. It plays an important role in survival as it alerts you to the presence of danger and allows assess our ability to deal with situations that are perceived as threatening.  It often triggers a fight or flight response to help ensure that you are prepared to effectively deal with threats in your environment.

Fear can also be triggered by anticipated threats or even our thoughts about potential dangers. When over-activated, it can feel like anxiety, nervousness, compulsiveness.

The goal isn’t to “overcome your fear” or turn it off. It’s to feel it, embrace it and learn from it.

In addition to the Parasympathetic™ blend, which helps to calm the fight or flight response, Kidney Support™, when applied over your kidneys (one inch up and out from belly button), back of neck, or around the outside of earlobes, can help dispel fear, and assist you in feeling safe.

Fear is often associated with your kidneys, two bean-shaped organs that sit on top of your adrenal glands and regulate the balance and flow of fluids in your body, by selectively filtering out or retaining various minerals and electrolytes.  In Chinese medicine, fear is associated with the water element, as water is symbolic of your unconscious, or that which you do not understand and therefore might fear.  These feelings of fear and paranoia can be held in your kidneys impairing function. Topically applying Kidney Support™ over your kidneys 2-3 times daily may help calm your fear response.

Lung Support™ for Sadness and Grief

Sadness is an emotional state characterized by feelings of disappointment, grief, hopelessness, disinterest, and dampened mood.  Sadness allows you to become aware of and release anything that no longer belongs to you or hurts you.

According to Chinese medicine, feelings of grief and loss are stored in your lungs where they can obstruct ability of your lungs to accept and relinquish, impeding their function of “taking in” and “letting go” of oxygen and feelings. Grief that remains unresolved can become chronic and create disharmony in the lungs, weakening the lung’s function of circulating oxygen around the body. Lung Support™ can help release these feelings of loss and support your ability to transport oxygen from the atmosphere into the capillaries so they can oxygenate blood – and eliminate carbon dioxide from the bloodstream into the atmosphere. Apply 2- 3 drops over the lungs, allowing yourself to deeply exhale any grief as you apply the blend.

Featured Oils:

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Restless legs syndrome (RLS) – a movement condition that causes a strong urge to move your legs when you’re resting – may be correlated to poor fluid flow.  

Essential oils that support healthy fluid flow – including healthy circulation, lymphatic drainage, and fascia release – may help prevent the stagnation of fluid that can contribute to crawling, tingling, or itching sensations in your legs at night that are often alleviated by movement which helps support fluid flow. 

While there is no known cause of Restless legs syndrome, common treatment options for RLS symptoms all seem to support healthy fluid flow, including vibration therapy, essential oils, compression devices, stretching exercises, and massages.

That fact, coupled with the overlap between symptoms of RLS and poor circulation – including symptoms of tingling, numbness, pins, and needles,  led me to research questioning Is restless legs syndrome an entirely neurological disorder? Which notes that “the occurrence of unpleasant sensations in the legs at night should be the change of blood flow dynamics. Acceleration of blood flow in the legs when lying down should stimulate nerve fibers that are closely located in the blood vessels. This hypothesis can explain many aspects of RLS, including symptoms as well as epidemiological findings. It is easy to explain why unpleasant sensations occur while lying down, and why relief is achieved by walking.

More specifically, lying down affects the regulation of blood flow dynamics in the extremities, especially the lower legs. Acceleration of blood flow in vessels would increase the pressure of blood on the vessel walls, and subtle changes in vessel tension or shape might stimulate nerve fibers that are in anatomical proximity to the vessels.

It should also be noted that RLS is correlated with an iron deficiency – which is related to blood flow as blood carries iron – and varicose veins, which are also associated with poor circulation. 

Varicose veins and chronic venous insufficiency are both associated with circulation problems in your legs. Both develop when tiny valves inside your veins stop working the way they’re supposed to, allowing blood to “pool up” or slow down. Over time, these tiny malfunctioning valves lead to vein problems and related symptoms, including RLS.  What’s more, a 1995 study published in Dermatologic Surgery found that 98 percent of RLS patients treated with a common therapy for varicose veins reported a reduction in RLS symptoms. 

What is restless legs syndrome?

Restless legs syndrome has been deemed a brain, nerve, and sleep condition that causes a strong, nearly irresistible urge to move your legs when you lie down or relax that can be relieved by movement. The urge to constantly move can interfere with your ability to relax or fall asleep.

Rest seems to trigger the onset of symptoms, with uncomfortable leg sensations starting or becoming worse when you’re sitting, lying down, or trying to relax.  Symptoms seem to improve with movement, such as walking or moving your legs which supports fluid flow.

Symptoms of Restless Legs Syndrome

Symptoms of restless legs syndrome include 

• Leg discomfort combined with constant urge to move legs to relieve pain and feelings of tingling.
• Repetitive cramping, twitching, jerking or kicking, or other involuntary leg movements during sleep.
• Uncomfortable sensations deep within the legs that may include:
  • Twitching
  • Tingling
  • “Creepy-crawly” sensations of bugs crawling under your skin 
  • Sensations of “pulling” or “tugging.” 
  • Crawling.
  • Itching.
  • Aching.
  • Burning.
  • Throbbing.
  • Prickling electrical-current sensations

RLS sensations worsen at night contributing to sleep disturbances and contributing to other problems like:

• Fatigue
• Daytime drowsiness
• Irritability and moodiness
• Difficulty concentrating and focusing
• Depression

Poor sleep can even cause weight gain, which can make underlying circulation problems worse. 

Blood Flow Restriction

Movement and gravity help to facilitate the flow of fluids in the body.   Therefore when you are lying flat or still, fluids – like blood and lymph – are not flowing.  Poor blood flow means poor oxygen delivery/nutrients into a cell and poor waste removal away from an injury and out of the body. This contributes to chronic pain and inflammation.

Cells need blood flow to function and heal. If they can’t get adequate blood flow they cannot heal. Tightness, tension, and poor circulation can create blood flow ‘chokepoints’. Poor blood flow points in larger arteries and veins block the flow in smaller ones causing symptoms, like the pain and inflammation experienced with RLS.  

Solutions that support fluid movement – such as physical movement and essential oil application – may help relieve the uncomfortable symptoms of restless legs syndrome by treating the underlying circulation problems that may lead to RLS. 

Essential Oils for Restless Legs Syndrome

Essential oils help keep plants healthy by moving vital fluids and energy. They transport water from the roots to the leaves and perform similar functions in your body, helping to move energy, flush toxins like viruses and heavy metals, and prevent stagnation.

They perform similar functions in your body, helping to move energy and prevent stagnation.  For example, essential oils help to vasodilate and open circulation pathways like those in your lymphatic and circulatory systems 

Natural compounds, like essential oils, have been shown to increase circulation and blood flow.  For example, essential oils can help relax and improve the health of your blood vessels.  This helps more blood circulate through them, improving your circulation and increasing brain oxygen levels in the process.

When the diameter of a vessel decreases by half, its resistance to flow becomes 16 times greater, contributing to stagnation and pain.  Helping to dilate the blood vessels helps to improve flow and calm pain and inflammation.

Research demonstrates that essential oils, like peppermint and lavender, can be beneficial for offering some relief from restless legs. Peppermint is known to help relieve muscular pain and spasms because it has a cooling effect along with its antispasmodic and analgesic properties.

Many essential oils have been found to have anesthetic properties, which helps explain their value in supporting circulation pathways. Science magazine reported that certain types of anesthetics, or substances that reduce sensitivity to pain, dramatically increase the space between your cells so fluid can flow more easily to help alleviate stagnation and inflammation. Studies have verified the sedative and anesthetic properties of essential oils like clove, eucalyptus, lavender, fennel, black pepper, and peppermint. For example, the administration of clove oil, which is high in the constituent eugenol, dramatically decreased the time required for the induction of anesthesia. Similarly, both fenchone, a constituent of fennel essential oil, and linalool, a naturally occurring constituent in lavender oil, have acute local analgesic effects.

Lavender has been known to slow down blood pressure and heart rate, while putting you in a relaxed state, both physically and mentally. 

A randomized 2014 clinical trial study on The Effect of Massage With Lavender Oil on Restless Legs Syndrome randomly assigned RLS patients to receive either massage using lavender oil or routine care for three weeks.  The RLS patients who received massage with lavender oil showed a “significant decrease” in RLS symptoms, leading to the conclusion that “Lavender oil massage was effective in improving RLS. It has no adverse effects and is practical and cost-effective. It is suggested to be used along with routine treatment of RLS.”

4 Essential Oils for Restless Legs Syndrome

Essential oils can help support healthy cellular function, regulating your body’s fluid levels and supporting cellular hydration, nerve impulses, blood pressure, and muscle contraction. More specifically, topically applying essential oils to specific points on your skin can activate fluid flow directly and quickly.

Circulation™ to Improve Blood Flow

Your circulatory system helps move fluid through your body.  Poor circulation can cause the veins in your legs to become swollen and painful.  Circulation™ blend is formulated to support healthy circulation to deliver oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the body and the brain, while simultaneously carrying toxins and waste to the kidney and liver to be eliminated. Circulation™ blend contains Black Pepper essential oil, which has been found to enhance circulation, increasing blood flow to your digestive system which helps boost nutrient absorption, so much so that it is often added to supplement formulations to enhance the effectiveness of the supplement. Apply 2- 3 drops on the sides or back of the neck, over the left clavicle, and on the wrists or ankles to promote circulation and greatly accelerate the healing process.

Lymph™: to Support Lymphatic Circulation 

Your lymphatic system permeates every part of the body, serving as a complementary system to our circulatory system.  It draws fluid from the cells and carries it through a series of lymphatic ducts and nodes back to the circulatory system, establishing the link between the smallest blood vessels – the capillaries – and the cells.

The lymphatic system needs to be functioning optimally to support healthy circulation.  The lymphatic system is critical for moving metabolic waste, toxins, and infections out of the cells via the lymphatic fluid.  The lymphatic system also helps carry nutrients, oxygen, hormones, and other healing substances into every cell. 

To enhance lymphatic flow and drainage, generously apply Lymph™ around the sides of the neck, under the armpits, and along the bikini line.

Fascia Release™  to alleviate restrictions in connective tissue

Fascia promotes the movement of vital fluids such as blood, lymphatic, and interstitial fluid. By transporting nutrients, oxygen molecules, and waste products throughout the body, this supportive function allows for optimal tissue health along with respiration and nourishment of all cells of the body. Tightness or denseness of the fascia in the legs can create a structural obstruction to healthy fluid flow.  

In fact, patients suffering from RLS often demonstrate fascial restrictions in their feet and pelvic regions, trapping the legs in the middle of a connective tissue tug of war.  Helping to release fascia constrictions and densifications in the soft tissues of the body and legs may help diminish RLS symptoms.

Your fascia is connective tissue that surrounds your muscles, skin, organs, and bones, holding your entire body together.   Fascial densifications can form in the soft tissue of the legs and other areas of the body.

Very often, patients suffering from RLS demonstrate fascial restrictions in the feet and pelvic regions, which makes sense if you consider that the legs are then caught in the middle of a connective tissue tug-of-war. 

The Fascia Release™ blend helps to increase circulation and lymph flow which helps to move fluid out of the tissues of the legs and consequently, decrease swelling and relieve painful symptoms.

As you may know, fascia lies just below the skin so topically applying essential oils onto the skin allows for easy and immediate access to the fascia.  The skin is your largest organ and is relatively permeable to fat-soluble substances like essential oils.

Topical supplements play an important role in supporting fascia health and recovery from inflammation. For example, essential oils easily penetrate layers of restricted fascia, creating warmth to break up congestion, increasing circulation, lymphatic drainage unraveling constrictions, adhesions, and any fascial restriction that impede the movement of fluid in your tissues.

Essential oils soften the myofascial tissue, allowing the deep and constrained tissue to stretch and move as it is designed to function.  They also have an analgesic effect, relaxing the muscles and reducing pain.

Essential oils can be used to revitalize and de-stress the fascia and muscles, working quickly to break down inflamed, fibrous tissue, and removing toxins from the painful area.

The essential oils in the Fascia Release™ blend are uniquely formulated with penetrating essential oils, such as the combination of Angelica Root, Black Pepper, Cypress, Elemi, Frankincense, Lavender, Rose, Geranium, Vetiver, Litsea Cubeba, Rosemary and Ylang Ylang work synergistically to create warmth to break up congestion while relaxing tissues and releasing constriction and congestion and improving blood and lymphatic circulation.

Parasympathetic™ to Balance the Nervous System and Blood Pressure

An imbalance of the autonomic nervous system, known as Sympathetic dominance, can spike blood pressure and systemic inflammation which may contribute to RLS.  Parasympathetic ™ blend may help to activate the vagus nerve to trigger the Parasympathetic rest and digest state of the autonomic nervous system.  The vagus nerve travels down both sides of the neck and is most accessible behind the ear lobe on the mastoid bone.  Topically applying the Parasympathetic ™ blend on the vagus nerve behind the neck can help reset the autonomic nervous system for optimal function, allowing muscles to relax and setting the stage for the optimal detoxification state.

Anti-Inflammatory™ to Relieve Contraction and Inflammation of the connective tissue and fascia

To help relieve contraction and inflammation of the connective tissue and fascia, Anti-Inflammatory™ can be topically applied to the legs, bottoms of the feet, abdomen, and other areas of the body where tissue feels tight and contracted.  This blend contains several essential oils known for their anti-inflammatory properties.  It is designed to reduce inflammation and encourage regeneration of damaged or stressed cells and tissues that have been chronically inflamed or acutely inflamed.

Featured Oils:

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References:

Early in my grief process, people would commend me for how well I seemed to be coping, alluding to the fact that I was able to continue to function or not dissolve into a puddle when talking about Max.  

At the time, I took it as a compliment, but I have come to realize that it might not actually be a positive trait, but my strong ability to disassociate and not feel my painful feelings helped me cope.

This ability to emotionally numb and check out enabled me to survive stressful and difficult situations in my childhood and avoid intense negative emotions and traumatic memories.

While this ability to shut down emotions, thoughts, feelings, and memories has helped me survive difficult and intense situations, it has also kept my nervous system locked in a state of hyperarousal.

In other words, an adaptive behavior that was helpful in the past was now keeping me stuck and unable to feel and release the trauma to heal.  Everything about myself that I want to change is connected to a part of me that is disassociating – perhaps in an effort to protect myself. 

What is Dissociation?

Dissociation is an adaptive response to threat and is a form of “freezing” and disconnecting from your senses, thoughts, feelings, emotions, or memories.  You shut down to remove yourself from a situation, in your own mind, when physical escape is not possible.

When faced with danger, your sympathetic nervous system kicks into gear, allocating resources to fight or flee.  When you are unable to fight or flee, you freeze – your body remains internally prepared for fight or flight, while externally holding still, waiting for an opportunity.  For example, an animal under attack may initially stay very still until it sees an opportunity to flee. Escape would not be possible without having the mobilization response at the ready.

The dissociative freeze response keeps you stuck in the sympathetic branch of the nervous system – revved and ready to fight or flight but also paralyzed by immobility.  This is how I experience overwhelm – feeling the need to act and emotionally shut down at the same time.  My brain cannot process an overload of stimuli, so I dissociate and shut down.

In nature, animals physically shake to discharge the stress.  Sadly, humans do not discharge or mobilize the energy of the freeze response.  Instead, it stays locked in your body contributing to chronic and prolonged stress and over-activation of the sympathetic nervous system as you oscillate between being hyper-aroused (fight or flight) and dissociating (freeze). Both experiences stem from the same part of the brain (limbic system) that is not settled and perceives current experiences through a distorted lens of past trauma.

When you are able to discharge that energy, you can release posttraumatic stress symptoms.  

But in order to release your emotions, you need to feel your emotions – which requires you to stop dissociating and actually feel your feelings.

By freezing, you avoid both the physical sensations and the emotional effects that might have been so uncomfortable at the time of the trauma that it was too difficult to process.

Symptoms of Dissociation

As with all of the stress responses, the freeze response – also known as numbing and disassociation – is trying to keep us safe and avoid feeling painful emotions that we may not be able to tolerate. 

Dissociating is something that many of us do without realizing. It can happen when you go into autopilot – worrying, daydreaming, getting engrossed in a book or film so much so that you are not aware of your surroundings anymore, zoning out while you drive a familiar route and arrive at your destination without any memory of how you got there or other situations where you might “lose time”.

Symptoms and signs of dissociation may include:

• Problems handling intense emotions
• Sudden and unexpected shifts in mood – like feeling very sad for no reason
• Depression or anxiety 
• Memory lapses such as forgetting important personal information
• Spacing out, staring
• Minimizing (“It’s not a big deal”)
• Difficulty concentrating 
• Unexplained vision challenges
• Forgetting events or periods of time
• Daydreaming
• Feeling disconnected from your body
• High tolerance for pain
• Inability to name or describe your emotions
• Feeling detached from yourself or others
• Derealization (denial) 
• Feeling compelled to behave in a certain way
• Feeling detached from your life, thoughts, and feelings. 
• Changing yourself depending on the situation or people, like a chameleon
• Feeling disconnected
• Dulled senses
• Gaps in memory where you can’t remember certain events
• Feeling ‘spacey’ or out of control. 
• Time may slow down.
• Engage in prolonged bouts of sleep, daydreaming, wishing, and right brain-dominant activities like TV, computer, and video games. 
• Change the internal channel whenever the inner experience becomes uncomfortable. 

When an Adaptive Response becomes a Maladaptive Response: Dissociation and Sympathetic Dominance

Dissociation and the freeze response can be a healthy way to navigate physically or emotionally dangerous situations – including trauma, abuse, death or abandonment, neglect, bullying, fights in the home, or any kind of physical or emotional violence – when too much stress overwhelms your nervous system.

Physical or emotional danger activates the sympathetic “fight or flight” branch of your nervous system.  However, if you can neither defeat a dangerous opponent or situation nor safely flee from it, your body drops into the self-paralyzing freeze response, also known as dissociation.

In these situations, your body does not release the hormones to help you fight or flee, but instead causes you to “freeze up” or “numb out”.   Your body releases chemicals that function as an analgesic, dulling the intensity and the pain of any mental, physical, or emotional injury.  This allows you to survive the enormity of what’s happening to you and survive the trauma.  If you can’t make a dangerous individual or situation disappear, you’re much better off “disappearing” yourself, by blocking out what’s much too scary to take in.

In other words, your sense of safety requires you to mentally check out of stressful situations.  It’s almost like a shield going up – your brain protects you from experiencing negative feelings, trauma, and traumatic experiences.”

While a dissociative response may enable you to survive difficult situations, you may end up over-using that coping mechanism chronically – out of habit and without awareness. 

This adaptive measure can create maladaptive problems, especially when avoiding dealing with and releasing the underlying trauma.

Activation of the sympathetic nervous system – which drives the fight, flight, and freeze response – requires your nervous system to shift into a highly energized state.  The acts of fighting and fleeing allow your nervous system to discharge this energy and move back into a state of normal function.

The freeze state does not allow us to naturally discharge this energy and that trapped energy, along with the corresponding thoughts and emotions of fear or panic, can stay trapped in your body, contributing to a perpetual state of high alert in the brain and nervous system.

In nature, animals often shake or experience rhythmic waves of muscle contractions when they come out of a freeze response.    As humans, we often override or avoid the trembling or shaking that would help drain off the energy of the freeze response, leading to ongoing activation of the sympathetic nervous system.  When your body is stuck in the freeze response, it can present “paralyzing” symptoms like panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, avoidance behaviors or other phobias, spaciness, numbing out, and other anxiety states.

Maladaptive Dissociation Response

In the context of severe chronic abuse, the reliance on disassociation is adaptive, as it succeeds as an avoidance or coping strategy to help reduce unbearable distress and ward off the threat of psychological annihilation.

Unlike active avoidance or the flight option in the fight-or-flight response, there is no release of stress. The mind simply pulls away in order to avoid feelings of fear, anxiety, or pain.  But the issues stay in the tissues and contribute to mental and physical health concerns, including:

Emotional Disconnection: The longer you disconnect from your feelings and your emotions to separate you from your pain, the harder it is to actually experience them.

Sympathetic Dominance:  The freeze reaction to a threat coincides with a blunted autonomic response, which constitutes the dissociative subtype of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),” according to research on Trauma-related dissociation and the autonomic nervous system. The unresolved activation of your sympathetic nervous system keeps that fight or flight system running in the background and draining your energy.

Cognitive Decline: Dissociation is one way the mind copes with too much stress.  It helps relieve the pain of hyperarousal but compromises the effective use of your executive functions, such as emotional regulation and socialization. Research found that emotional processing is reduced in those presenting with dissociation and an increase in amygdala activity, where anxiety and fear responses persist.

Maladaptive emotional response: Dissociation indicates that you are too overwhelmed to tolerate new learning can occur.  Elements that would normally be connected as thoughts, feelings, sensations, memories, and beliefs become disconnected.

Pain and Inflammation: Dissociation from the body can also lead to chronic pain and inflammation in the areas you feel cut off from. 

Essential Oils for Dissociation

Dissociation pulls you out of your body and shuts down your access to your physical senses, including your sense of smell.

That said, accessing your sense of smell through the inhalation of essential oils is one of the easiest ways to help “ground” your body and bring awareness back to your body. 

When you are “grounded” you are present in the world here and now when you feel out of control or disconnected from your surroundings, your mind, your body, or all three.  Smelling or diffusing essential oils can help to “shock” your senses to help you come back when you dissociate. 

Your sense of smell is also linked to survival and is the most sensitive of the senses. People can remember smells with 65% accuracy after a year, while visual recall is about 50% after three months.  It is interesting to note that a  woman’s sense of smell is much stronger than a man’s and is heightened even more during the first half of the menstrual cycle and pregnancy.

Your sense of smell also connects directly to the part of your brain that regulates the release of hormones that impact your mood and emotional state. 

Essential oils travel through the nasal passageways to the brain where they bind to olfactory receptors. From there they reach the emotional center of the brain – known as the limbic system – where they can stimulate the release of neurotransmitters, like serotonin, which can influence your neurochemistry, helping to enhance mood and reduce anxiety. 

Research validates this, noting that “inhalation of essential oils can communicate signals to the olfactory system and stimulate the brain to exert neurotransmitters (e.g. serotonin and dopamine) thereby further regulating mood.”  Additional research shows that essential oils can significantly impact the brain, calming emotional states and decreasing blood pressure, heart rate, and skin temperature, which indicates a decrease in autonomic arousal.

 4 Essential Oils for Dissociation

Some of my favorite essential oils to help me shift out of dissociation and into my body include”

1.  Attention™ for Grounding

Grounding helps you shift your focus and awareness back to your immediate surroundings and pull them out of whatever mental state has caused a disconnection so you can stay in the present moment and better connect with your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, so you are able to rely less on dissociation.

Grounding is a technique that helps you connect to the healing energy of nature and the Earth.  Grounding brings us into a state of balance, both mentally and physically. It is in this balanced state that our body can rest, repair, and heal on the physical, emotional, and spiritual levels.

When you connect with the Earth or plants that have grown from the Earth, you allow your bodies to align with the natural rhythm of the planet. When we lose this connection to nature, it interferes with our internal rhythm and balance, impeding our ability to return to balance so we can relax, sleep, detoxify, digest, repair, and heal.  When we ground ourselves, these natural processes flow easily without interference.

Essential oils, especially those derived from grounded plants like trees are intrinsically grounded through their root structure into the Earth.  Essential oils comprised of barks, roots, grasses, needles, and resin of plants also help you pull your energy centers down into the Earth.

Plants that grow under the earth are entrained with the earth’s energies.  This is why stones, root vegetables, or essential oils from root plants that share space with the Earth, match the frequency of the Earth and can be used for grounding.  Rock, crystals, and minerals, in particular, are able to hold a solid vibration so when you hold one in your hand or place it near your body, you have to change your frequency to match that of the rock or mineral. This is one reason that crystals are so popular for grounding.

Attention™ blend was designed to support children with ADD/ADHD and it works because it helps ground these kids into their bodies and when they are grounded, they are less distracted, impulsive, and more focused.   Attention™ contains Vetiver, a perennial bunchgrass with very deep roots that help ground it to the Earth.  Vetiver essential oil is extracted from these deep roots and is known to ground you mentally, physically, and emotionally, often helping you explore the root of your emotional issues.  Attention™ also contains Frankincense™ – a resin extracted from trees that grow in the challenging climates of northeastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.  These challenging climates make Frankincense™ uniquely resilient and supportive to help with grounding.  Apply 2- 3 drops of Attention™ on the bottom of the feet and back of the neck to help with grounding.

2. Parasympathetic™ to Calm the Nervous System

Parasympathetic™ calms your nervous system and helps you be present in the moment, to both your own body and to your mental, emotional, and physical needs.

This blend of clove and lime essential oils helps energize your physical body and mental capacity, helping to support the brain to embrace optimism and hope.

Your sympathetic “fight or flight” state turns on when survival and safety are threatened.  When you are stuck in a cycle of sympathetic dominance – and not activating your parasympathetic nervous system –  your body’s alert mechanism for survival remains on high and you can become trapped in a perception that you are not safe, which lays the groundwork for pessimism and negative thinking.

The parasympathetic system restores a sense of safety and balance which calms the brain and the body by activating your parasympathetic nervous system to help you identify and support your own needs.  The research found that – when stimulated, your vagus nerve releases anti-anxiety chemicals that help you focus on positive emotions, decrease mental distress, and improve mental well-being. 

Apply Parasympathetic™ over the vagus nerve (behind the earlobe on the mastoid bone) to activate the vagus nerve.  This helps discharge energy and shift out of the frozen state into the healing parasympathetic.

As you restore the integration between the body and the brain following chronic and traumatic stress, your nervous system becomes more flexible and adaptable, further retraining your system to stay in the body and not revert to old habits of dissociation.

3. Fascia Release™ to Release Trauma from Your Tissues

Your issues are in your tissues. Releasing dissociation requires you to feel your feelings, not only in your mind but in your heart and body as well.

Your emotional experiences and memories are stored in the tissues of your body.  When you experience stress, part of you is resistant, which triggers you to physically contract,  constrict, or pull away from physical danger, a negative thought, or an emotional aversion.  

This triggers your fight or flight response where you constrict and restrict your breath and your energy in preparation for attack.  When you feel you can’t flee or fight your way out of a bad situation, you hold your breath or breathe minimally and freeze, hoping the threat will pass you unscathed. Instead, you internalize the fear without release or recovery.

In short, energy doesn’t flow and your body constricts – which locks the stress in your body.

After stress passes, the emotions should be discharged and released.

Animals in the wild will pant and then breathe more slowly to recover the oxygen it lost from fast breathing and reset their metabolism. Animals intuitively know it is dangerous to face another threat before it has recovered from the last one and it takes time to replenish and rebalance its body. This entire sequence—fight or flight plus recovery—serves to maximize an animal’s chances for healthy survival.

Sadly, most of us (myself included) do not take the time to rest and recover from stressful experiences. We get accustomed to the fearful contraction and it stays locked into our tissues.

Our hard-wired defenses are meant to protect us from harm, but when we don’t allow the cycle to complete itself by letting go of the energy and resting, we wind up accumulating the stress in our bodies and they begin to break down because of it.

We release the issues in the tissues through the fascia – a system of connective tissue beneath the skin that surrounds and encases your body’s tissues and binds them together, providing shape for organs, muscles, tendons, bones, and joints.

Your fascia system is the tissue in the body that your emotions – or energy in motion –travel through and are released. When your fascia is tight and constricted, emotions do not flow and are not released, but instead become trapped in your tissue.

To release the trapped energy in the tissue and negative emotions, you need to release the fascia.  Essential oils offer a safe and simple way to release negative emotions from the tissue and create an ease of flow for healthy fascia.

The essential oils in the Fascia Release™ blend are uniquely formulated to unravel deeply held tensions, constrictions, and energetic blockages in your tissues to reduce pain, improve blood and lymphatic circulation, and release fear, repressed emotions, and tension held in the body (organs, muscles, tendons, bones, and joints) or the mind.

Featured Oils:

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References:

I was told that I had periodontal disease and that there was nothing I could do about it expect get a skin graph for my gums.

Both my parents had this procedure when I was a kid and I remember it being exceptional painful for them and that they actually sewed their mouth shut to heal.  My mom would drink those little protein shakes through a straw for months. 

While I have been told that the surgery has made some advancements in the last decade, it was not something I was looking forward to. 

So I upped my cleanings to 4 times per year.

But the crime scene bleeding and inflammatory damage continued.

I started using laughing gas during the appointments to help me deal with the pain.  I could still taste the blood and  feel the intense pain of the dental tools, so I just did my best to tolerate it.

Because I was told there was nothing I could do to reverse gum disease and inflammation in the mouth.

Except it turns out that was not true.

Yesterday, I had my best teeth cleaning in decades.

• Reduced inflammation of the Gums.

What was I doing differently the dentist and the hygienist asked me.

The only dramatic change I had made in the last year was an obsessive focus on lymphatic drainage, especially around the neck to support healthy toxin drainage from the brain, as your neck is the highway in and out of your brain.   

Lymph Drainage to Reverse Gum Disease

It turns that one small change had a dramatic impact to the point of naturally reversing gum disease.

Here’s Why:

Toxins and waste in the mouth which trigger the immune system and cause inflammation in the mouth are supposed to drain down the neck via your lymphatic system.  

Each of your teeth drains waste and toxins that can contribute to inflammation from your mouth via your lymphatic system.  Your head and neck have an extensive network of lymphatic vessels which help drain the teeth and the gums and maintain a healthy mouth through:

• Fluid Balance: Lymph retrieves excess fluid and proteins from tissues that can’t be returned through the blood vessels. It collects fluids and waste products from the spaces between cells, then filters and cleanses them, reducing inflammation.
• Immunity: Your lymphatic system helps defend the body against diseases. Lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell in the lymph, counter foreign substances and infectious microorganisms.

Your lymphatic system helps to keep your mouth healthy by clearing the things your body has no use for, including pathogens like bacteria, metals, or fungi that can cause infections and your teeth, tongue, and mouth.

In fact, the lymphatic system is correlated with every tooth and different parts of the tongue to help flush toxins out of mouth and the body. It also carries immune cells throughout the body to help defend against infections. 

Your periodontal tissues that support the teeth – including the gums – also contain lymphatic vessels. These lymphatic vessels play an essential role in maintaining oral health by assisting in removing bacterial toxins, dead cells, and other waste products from the periodontal tissues, aiding in preventing periodontal disease and other oral health issues.

Research also reveals that lymphatic-like system may exist within the dental pulp, the innermost layer of a tooth. This system could contribute to fluid balance and tissue homeostasis within the dental pulp, functioning similarly to the general lymphatic system.  Studies have found that “tooth movement during chewing acts as an additional external stimulator of lymph flow in lymphatic vessels” of the teeth and gums.

If your lymphatic system is congested around the neck, lymphatic circulation slows or stagnates.  This means that the toxins do not drain, but instead linger in your mouth contributing the inflammation and immune cells won’t be delivered to the areas of the body where they’re needed.  This contributes to swelling and inflammation of the gums.

What is Gum Disease?

Gum disease  is characterized by tissue destruction and bone loss mainly due to inflammatory responses in the soft tissue around teeth, known as your gums.  The gums supply nutrients to the bone via the circulatory system and the lymphatic system which also serves to drain interstitial fluid and transport immune cells to the mouth.

There are two main types of gum disease: gingivitis and periodontitis. 

Gingivitis is when your gums become inflamed and possibly infected. This is believed to happen as a result of a buildup of plaque and tartar on your teeth, which allows bacteria to thrive on your teeth and gums. It may also result from certain viruses, bacteria, fungi, and genetic factors.

Periodontitis: Over time, if you allow bacteria in the mouth to feed on the plaque and tartar on your teeth, their population can grow exponentially, contributing to inflammation in the gums which can destroy your gums and your teeth.  For example, your gums can start to recede, meaning that your gum tissue pulls away from your teeth, exposing more of the tooth and the roots underneath.  Left untreated, gum recession can lead to other serious oral health problems, such as bone loss, tooth mobility or feeling “wiggly” or even tooth loss.  This is because gum health is directly linked to our tooth health.

Symptoms of Gum Disease

Healthy gums are light pink in color and fit firmly and snugly around teeth. Symptoms of unhealthy gums may include:

• Gums that bleed easily.
• Swollen or puffy gums.
• Gums that feel tender when touched.
• Gum recession that makes your teeth look longer (because gums that pull away from your teeth)
• Spitting out blood when brushing or flossing your teeth.
• Loose teeth or loss of teeth.
• Painful chewing.
• Tenderness when chewing
• Change in your bite
• Bad taste in your mouth or bad breath
• Pain or discomfort near your gum line.
• Sensitivity to heat, cold and sweets.
• Sensitivity when brushing and flossing your teeth.
• Sensitivity during dental cleanings.

How Does Lymphatic Drainage Heal Gum Disease?

Inspired by my personal experience, I began researching how lymphatic drainage may protect against and heal gum disease.

Lymphatic drainage is believed to protect against gum disease by clearing bacteria and bacterial products and by promoting a healthy immune response with calms inflammation.  Research on Lymphatic function and responses in periodontal disease note that “lymphatic vessels (of the gums) drain interstitial fluid and transport immune cells to lymph nodes”.  The study found a correlation between periodontal disease and “reduced lymphatic flow, meaning the invasive bacteria is not being cleared out as it should” contributing to the conclusion that “patients with periodontal disease have an impaired lymphatic function exaggerating the disease progress”. Another study found that mice lacking gum lymphatics experienced greater bone loss in periodontitis than mice with functional lymphatic systems.”

A similar study on Lymphatic function and responses in periodontal disease found that “lack of gingival lymphatics (lymph drainage within the gums) has been shown to increase the interstitial fluid pressure and fluid volume, thus showing that lymphatics are important for fluid drainage also in this tissue. 

How Lymphatic Drainage Can Reverse Gum Disease

Your lymphatic system carries toxins out of the mouth down the neck channel. If there is congestion in the lymphatic system in the neck or downstream in the body, it will impair drainage from the mouth, teeth and gums. If you think of the body like a hydraulics system where congested tissue downstream prevents optimal flow upstream, congested lymphatic vessels in the neck will impede drainage of toxins from the brain.

As you may know, your lymphatic system permeates every part of the body, serving as a complementary system to our circulatory system. It draws fluid from the cells and carries it through a series of lymphatic ducts and nodes back to the circulatory system, establishing the link between the smallest blood vessels – the capillaries – and the cells. As such, it helps remove toxins and infections and other waste from every cell in your body. It works as the body’s septic system, removing the by-products and wastes created from metabolizing our nutrients. Just like the drains in your home, the lymphatic system can get congested and stagnant and toxins can build up.

Your lymphatic system relies on our body’s movement by the muscles and fascia to squeeze the lymphatic vessels and push the lymph through the system like a low-pressure hose.  Improving lymph flow helps the body move fluid and release toxins. 

Essential Oils for Lymphatic Drainage

Essential oils can help move lymph and alleviate congestion and stagnation.  Essential oils possess stimulatory and anti-inflammatory properties that can help support healthy circulation and lymphatic drainage.

Lymphatic drainage can be enhanced with the application of stimulatory essential oils that can be topically applied to congested lymph nodes around the face and neck. If you think of the body like a hydraulics system where congested tissue downstream prevents optimal flow upstream, congested lymphatic vessels in the neck will impede drainage of toxins from the gums, teeth, mouth and jaw.

To enhance lymphatic flow and drainage, generously apply Lymph™ around the sides of the neck to relieve congestion, improve drainage and reduce brain inflammation.

Large groups of lymph nodes can be found under your jaw or neck.  You can help decongest these lymph nodes and move any unwanted toxins towards these lymph nodes through a series of gentle and rhythmical movements that help clear congested fluid and support drainage from the mouth and face.  Specifically, the following three main lymph nodes in the face and neck benefit from gentle massage:

Subauricular gland lymph nodes: Located behind the earlobe, this is considered the lymphatic outlet of the face. The lymph nodes in the subauricular glands connect the chin and neck. By massaging the chin to the position behind the ear, it can help alleviate lymph congestion from the mouth and gums.

Neck lymph nodes: As a lymphatic channel, it is located in the neck and is the most important lymphatic system connecting the head and body. Through massage, it can drain the dental lymph waste fluid downward. Massage the lymph in the neck frequently to return the facial skin to normal metabolic state.

Clavicle lymph nodes: Located on the slightly depressed area above the collarbone.  Near the left clavicle is where the veins are connected. Eventually all the lymph is collected here, and then flows from the veins to the kidneys and is excreted from the body. Since lymph follows gravity, it’s important to open up the lymph nodes along the neck and collarbone first before the lymph in the face can properly drain.

How To Drain Lymph

Facial lymphatic drainage is done manually, using very gentle massage (with hands or tools like a gua sha) and essential oils or moisturizer to reduce friction and pulling of the skin.

Most of the lymph nodes in the face and neck are located directly under the skin, so gently and lightly massaging specific points can help drain fluid and calm inflammation in that area.

Your lymph moves slowly. The valves in lymph vessels open and close about six to twelve times per minute moving that fluid. We want to be slow, light, and intentional. Not hard and fast. Lymph strokes use the palm of your hands as much as possible—or the soft pads of your fingers. This is how you’ll achieve the nurturing and comforting response associated with lymph massage. You want to massage the fluid in one direction: toward the lymph nodes, not in circles.

When it comes to the face in particular, everything connects to lymph nodes around the ears and then flushes down the neck. That means: always start lymph drainage by opening up along the collarbones and neck first.

Step 1: Apply essential oils like Fascia Release™ blend and Lymph™ blend on your neck and clavicle area to help enhance circulation and promote the movement of lymph fluid. Essential oils in carrier oil, like Vibrant Blue Oils blends, give your skin a little bit of slip so that your hands can glide more easily.

Step 2: Place the flats of your index and middle fingertips on top of the clavicle bone on either side of your neck just above your collarbone and let your fingers fall into the ridge. Keep your hands soft and relaxed. Use a light pressure on your skin – just enough to gently stretch the skin. Begin lightly pumping downward in gentle butterfly like strokes toward your collarbone. This motion helps lymph fluid drain back to your heart. You can massage one side at a time or both sides at the same time. You may find it easier to cross your hands if you are doing both at the same time.

Step 3: Start to massage sternocleidomastoid muscle, located on the area of your neck that is close to your shoulder where your clavicle bone connects with the sides of your neck.  Begin gently massaging with strokes that look like 2 letter “J”s facing one another. This massage helps stimulate (pump) the vessels  at the side of your neck.  Once you’ve stimulated the lymph nodes, you can start to clear the fluid by  gently massaging the neck in a downward motion.

Step 4: Place the tips of your index and middle fingers on one side of your neck behind the ear lobes (on the mastoid bone), right below your jawline, and move downward toward your collarbone while making small backward J motions (toward the center of your neck). These rhythmic, smooth and circular movements help activate the lymphatic circulatory system and support healthy drainage.

Facial lymphatic drainage begins from the neck, because the submaxillary and internal jugular chain nodes are located there. Also in the neck are the jugular veins that receive the lymph so that it is drained through the deep cervical lymph nodes; in conjunction with the submental lymph nodes, anterior cervical lymph nodes and superficial cervical lymph nodes.

Repeat on the other side of your neck. This helps open lymphatic pathways and drive the fluid toward the lymph nodes so that it can better drain.

Step 5: Glide the same two fingers sideways along your jaw, moving outward along your jawline toward your hairline, then down your neck toward your collarbone. Repeat the same motion (sideways, then downward) as you move up your face, gliding your hands along your cheek. Continue this until you reach your forehead. Repeat on the other side.

One final note, laser dentistry is believed to help preserve your gum tissue and help build your bone back through the stimulation of the stem cells there. I am looking into this and will share more if helpful.

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La rama parasimpática de su sistema nervioso que “descansa y digiere” promueve la salud intestinal y se ha descubierto que reduce la permeabilidad intestinal o la permeabilidad intestinal.

Específicamente, su nervio vago, el componente principal de su sistema nervioso parasimpático, detecta su microbioma intestinal y responde suprimiendo la inflamación, lo que reduce la permeabilidad intestinal (es decir, intestino permeable), según una investigación sobre el nervio vago en la interfaz de la microbiota (intestino). Eje cerebral.

Como sabrás, tu cuerpo prioriza la supervivencia. Esto significa que cuando percibe cualquier tipo de amenaza mental, física o emocional, la rama simpática de «lucha o huida» de su sistema nervioso autónomo, que controla todas las funciones automáticas de su cuerpo, incluida la digestión, asigna recursos para la supervivencia: el flujo sanguíneo. se dirige lejos de los órganos digestivos y hacia las extremidades y músculos para que puedas escapar rápidamente del peligro.

No puede mantener adecuadamente la motilidad ni absorber los nutrientes cuando el flujo sanguíneo se dirige fuera del sistema digestivo. Cuando la motilidad y asimilación de nutrientes se ven comprometidas, las uniones estrechas del revestimiento epitelial intestinal pierden su integridad. Esto permite que los patógenos, las toxinas, los alimentos no digeridos y las bacterias se muevan a través del torrente sanguíneo, activando el sistema inmunológico y provocando una respuesta inflamatoria (es decir, intestino permeable).

Un estudio similar sobre la estimulación del nervio vago que protege contra la disfunción de la barrera intestinal inducida por el estrés encontró que la activación del sistema nervioso parasimpático implica la capacidad de digerir, absorber y digerir los nutrientes y «reduce permanentemente la permeabilidad paracelular del intestino delgado».

En otras palabras, se ha descubierto que activar el sistema nervioso parasimpático mejora la función de la barrera intestinal (es decir, reduce la permeabilidad intestinal) y reduce la inflamación al aumentar la expresión de proteínas de unión estrecha en la membrana celular de las células intestinales.

Cómo el sistema nervioso parasimpático apoya la salud intestinal

El nervio vago, o nervio craneal n.º 10, es la principal línea de comunicación entre el cerebro y el intestino, también conocido como eje intestino-cerebro. También es el interruptor entre las ramas simpática y parasimpática del sistema nervioso.

Su nervio vago es lo que ayuda a su cerebro a comunicarse con su intestino, y su intestino se comunica con su cerebro, enviando señales en ambos sentidos para ayudar a su cuerpo a realizar acciones involuntarias como digerir los alimentos.

En relación con la salud intestinal, el nervio vago reconoce los cambios en el microbioma intestinal y envía este mensaje al cerebro. Cuando su sistema nervioso parasimpático está activo, su nervio vago puede concentrarse en la reparación y el mantenimiento, lo que permite que el cerebro responda inmediatamente con una señal digestiva adecuada. Esto se conoce como «vía antiinflamatoria colinérgica», que recorre las fibras del nervio vago y es «capaz de amortiguar la inflamación periférica y reducir la permeabilidad intestinal, modulando así muy probablemente la composición de la microbiota». Por ejemplo, si comes un alimento inflamatorio como gluten o lácteos, tu nervio vago reconoce esa inflamación y alerta a tu cerebro. Luego, su cerebro alerta a su sistema inmunológico para facilitar una respuesta inflamatoria.

Si su vago prioriza la supervivencia (atascado en el dominio simpático), la señal no tiene prioridad y el cerebro puede perder información importante, lo que permite que la inflamación se vuelva crónica, lo que contribuye al intestino permeable y a enfermedades autoinmunes.

El nervio vago desencadena la digestión.

Las señales del cerebro enviadas a través del nervio vago ayudan a regular diversas funciones digestivas, incluida la motilidad gástrica, la secreción de ácido y la actividad de los esfínteres.

Para absorber adecuadamente los nutrientes, es necesario comer en un estado parasimpático de «descansar, digerir y curar». Estimular su nervio vago con aceite Parasympathetic™ desencadena su respuesta parasimpática, que incluye su proceso digestivo:

Estimula la secreción de saliva.: El nervio vago inerva las glándulas salivales de la boca y estimula la liberación de enzimas salivales que ayudan a descomponer los alimentos antes de que ingresen al esófago.

Libera ácido del estómago: El nervio vago regula y mantiene una producción y secreción óptimas de fluidos gástricos, como el ácido clorhídrico (HCL) y la pepsina, que ayudan a descomponer las partículas complejas de los alimentos que ingiere, especialmente las proteínas, en formas más simples que pueden absorberse en las últimas etapas. de la digestión.

Motilidad del estómago: Su estómago funciona a través de una serie de eventos coordinados conocidos como motilidad y secreción gástrica. Cuando tragas alimentos, tu estómago inicia procesos mecánicos y químicos para facilitar la digestión. Las paredes del estómago contienen capas de músculo liso que se contraen y relajan de forma coordinada, descomponiendo los alimentos y mezclándolos con los jugos digestivos. El nervio vago estimula los músculos lisos de la pared del estómago. Esta estimulación es fundamental para iniciar ondas peristálticas, que son contracciones y relajaciones rítmicas de los músculos. La peristalsis mueve los alimentos parcialmente digeridos, conocidos como quimo, a la parte inferior del estómago y, finalmente, al intestino delgado.

Estimula la liberación de enzimas digestivas.: El páncreas produce y libera enzimas digestivas en el tracto digestivo a través de un conducto en el duodeno para ayudar en la absorción de nutrientes y ayudar a neutralizar los ácidos del estómago. Estas enzimas pancreáticas trabajan en conjunto con la bilis de la vesícula biliar para ayudar a descomponer los alimentos para una digestión y absorción adecuadas. Las enzimas producidas por el páncreas para la digestión incluyen:

• lipasa para digerir la grasa
• Amilasa para digerir carbohidratos
• quimotripsina y tripsina para la digestión de proteínas

Estimula la secreción de bilis.: La vesícula biliar almacena y concentra la bilis, un líquido de color verde amarillento que se produce en el hígado. Cuando ingiere alimentos que contienen grasa, la vesícula biliar libera bilis para ayudar a emulsionar la grasa para la digestión.

Motilidad intestinal y absorción de nutrientes: La motilidad intestinal, o las contracciones rítmicas de su sistema digestivo, es facilitada por el nervio vago, que orquesta la estimulación de las contracciones del músculo liso en el tracto gastrointestinal, facilitando el movimiento de los alimentos ingeridos al abrir y cerrar los esfínteres, incluido el esfínter pilórico, que regula el movimiento de los alimentos parcialmente digeridos desde el estómago al intestino delgado, permitiendo que los nutrientes y los desechos se muevan a través del sistema digestivo y se absorban o eliminen adecuadamente. El nervio vago crea una acción ondulatoria en el intestino delgado para ayudar a que los alimentos lleguen al intestino grueso. Este efecto estimulante está mediado por la liberación de acetilcolina, un neurotransmisor que provoca contracciones musculares vitales para una digestión eficiente.

Densidad de intersección: El nervio vago sirve como conducto sensorial y transmite información sobre el estado del intestino al cerebro mediante el seguimiento de las condiciones en los órganos digestivos. Proporciona al cerebro información esencial sobre el estado del tracto digestivo y la salud de los microbios intestinales, lo que permite cambios adaptativos para mantener la integridad o la permeabilidad normal de la mucosa intestinal. Esto asegura que la interfaz intestinal esté herméticamente sellada y que solo los nutrientes entren a la sangre, mientras que las sustancias inflamatorias y los insectos se mantienen alejados. Cuando el sistema nervioso simpático está más activo, el intestino se vuelve más permeable, lo que permite que sustancias inflamatorias entren al torrente sanguíneo.

Cuando intentas comer bajo estrés, en un estado simpático, comprometes tu capacidad de absorber tus nutrientes y eliminar los desechos. Para mantener una función cerebral óptima y mejorar la digestión, aplique Parasimpático™ detrás de la aurícula en el hueso mastoideo antes de alimentar. Al aplicarlo, respire profundamente varias veces, exhalando más tiempo que inhalando, para relajarse por completo y activar la digestión antes de comer.

Aceite recomendado:

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Hace tiempo que me doy cuenta (y lo he experimentado personalmente) de que cuando estoy estresado, ansioso o abrumado, literalmente no puedo conectarme de manera centrada en el corazón, resolver problemas o pensar con claridad.

Sólo veo los problemas o amenazas y no veo opciones de solución ni veo la perspectiva de los demás.

Así que ni siquiera lo intento.

En cambio, me concentro en activar mi sistema nervioso parasimpático.

En el momento en que calmo mi impulso de luchar o huir y empiezo a sentirme seguro, puedo calmarme y resolver el problema de manera efectiva.

He pasado años tratando de encontrar la ciencia que explique lo que experimento personalmente y finalmente creo que la encontré, justo a tiempo para el Día de San Valentín, la máxima celebración del amor, la compasión y la conexión.

Cómo luchar o huir bloquea la conexión

Tu capacidad para conectarte con los demás, mostrar compasión y practicar la empatía está vinculada a tu sistema nervioso parasimpático.

Cuando siente peligro o teme que su seguridad esté en riesgo, su sistema nervioso entra en modo de supervivencia de lucha o huida (rama simpática del sistema nervioso), que asigna recursos para sobrevivir.

Esto significa que su cuerpo se está preparando para la acción inmediata: su ritmo cardíaco y su respiración aumentan, el flujo sanguíneo se dirige a sus extremidades para ayudarlo a defenderse o huir, sus músculos se tensan y su visión se estrecha, lo que le permite limitar su enfoque y prestar atención. atención a las señales de peligro en el mundo físico externo. Sus pupilas se dilatan y su visión periférica se estrecha para centrarse únicamente en la amenaza potencial.

Esta respuesta de visión de túnel bloquea tu capacidad de concentrarte en cualquier cosa que no sea necesaria para resolver el problema en cuestión, incluidas las relaciones íntimas, la empatía y la compasión por ti mismo y los demás.

Así como el sistema nervioso simpático desactiva todas las funciones que no son críticas para la supervivencia, incluida la capacidad de digerir los alimentos, también desactiva la capacidad de acceder a habilidades de relación y resolución de problemas al desactivar la capacidad de concentrarse en algo fuera de lo inminente. peligro para que no te abrume con opciones y comprometa tu capacidad para concentrarte, hiperconcentrarte y luchar o huir del peligro.

En una situación peligrosa, esta visión de túnel puede ayudarle a concentrarse y sobrevivir a una amenaza percibida. Sin embargo, cuando el peligro sólo se percibe pero no está realmente presente, esta visión de túnel le impide gastar tiempo o energía en cualquier cosa que no sea crítica para la supervivencia inmediata, incluido el amor, la conexión y las relaciones.

Personalmente, experimento esto como si me sintiera tan ansioso en ciertos momentos que no me doy cuenta de cómo estoy interactuando o estoy tan concentrado en el peligro potencial que no puedo relajarme en el momento y concentrarme en el ser amado. uno.

Esto tiene que ver con el hecho de que estás constantemente bombardeado con información sensorial. Si centras tu atención en todo lo que sucede a tu alrededor, sufrirás una sobrecarga sensorial y no podrás mantener tu atención en la seguridad.

Desafortunadamente, cuando el estado comprensivo te encierra en un estado de escaneo constante de amenazas, cierra tu capacidad de sentir compasión, empatía o conectarte con los demás, lo que puede distraerte y sentirte como una amenaza a tu seguridad.

El estrés supera la empatía

La empatía, o la capacidad de comprender y compartir los sentimientos de los demás, le ayuda a fomentar y mantener conexiones sociales y emocionales.

Sin embargo, su respuesta empática se ve afectada por su concentración. En situaciones de estrés, se asignan recursos para lidiar con los factores estresantes, lo que resulta en una reducción de la atención, en la que uno se concentra en los peligros potenciales en su entorno en lugar de en los sentimientos o experiencias de los demás.

Investigación de La relación entre el estrés agudo y la empatía descubrió que el estrés agudo puede bloquear la empatía afectiva/el contagio emocional.

“Además de esta reducción de la atención, se cree que el estrés agudo induce un cambio desde un procesamiento de información más exigente desde el punto de vista cognitivo hacia patrones de respuesta más habituales. Este cambio debería permitir un procesamiento de información más rápido y, por lo tanto, puede ser útil para afrontar factores estresantes (y, en última instancia, para sobrevivir), especialmente cuando se necesitan decisiones rápidas. Sin embargo, este cambio también puede tener un precio, ya que la flexibilidad mental se reduce. Este cambio puede tener implicaciones importantes para el procesamiento de la información social en general y la empatía en particular.

El parasimpático activa la seguridad para apoyar la empatía y la conexión.

Activar la rama parasimpática de tu sistema nervioso puede ayudarte a mejorar tu relación.

Cuando su sistema nervioso simpático está activo, libera sustancias químicas del estrés como el cortisol y la adrenalina que reducen su concentración y disminuyen la conexión para mantenerlo en alerta máxima y listo para una actividad física intensa.

Su sistema nervioso parasimpático hace lo contrario: lo ayuda a sentirse seguro e incluye su capacidad de pensar racionalmente, razonar y conectarse con empatía.

El estado parasimpático te ayuda a sentirte seguro, permitiéndote activar las conexiones neuronales necesarias para una regulación cognitiva y emocional saludable. Cuando eres capaz de salir del estado de alerta máxima a un espacio mental y emocional de seguridad, tu mente puede relajarse, lo que te permite calmar tu estado emocional, expandir tu enfoque y conectarte desde un lugar de amor y compasión.

De hecho, una investigación de la Universidad de Oregon encontró que «una mayor actividad parasimpática es un marcador de mayor atención selectiva y función neurocognitiva».

En otras palabras, puedes aumentar tu atención selectiva y tu capacidad para comprender y compartir los sentimientos de tus seres queridos activando tu estado parasimpático. Tu sistema nervioso parasimpático activa un estado físico y mental relajado que te permite considerar e integrar nuevas ideas.

En el estado parasimpático, el nervio vago libera el neurotransmisor acetilcolina para ayudar a mejorar la atención y el aprendizaje. En su cerebro, la acetilcolina activa e inhibe la comunicación entre diferentes áreas del cerebro para almacenar información adecuadamente acelerando o desacelerando las señales nerviosas. En su cerebro, la acetilcolina es principalmente excitadora, lo que permite que sus neuronas se comuniquen para que pueda pensar con claridad, aprender nueva información y conectarse con sus seres queridos.

Es extremadamente importante salir de la rama simpática, del modo de supervivencia, de su sistema nervioso, ya que no favorece la creación de conexiones reflexivas, centradas en el corazón y empáticas. La forma más sencilla de hacerlo es, literalmente, obligarse a detenerse nerviosamente y activar su sistema parasimpático. Inhalación o aplicación tópica. Parasimpático™ Detrás del pabellón auricular del hueso mastoideo, donde el nervio vago está más cerca de la superficie de su cuerpo, ayuda a estimular su nervio vago para activar el estado parasimpático y calmar su respuesta de lucha o huida para mejorar el amor y la conexión.

Aceite recomendado:

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Solía ​​tener infecciones de oído todo el tiempo cuando era niño: infecciones de oído dolorosas y penetrantes que afectaban todos los aspectos de mi vida diaria.

Sufrí este malestar durante años hasta que finalmente me extirparon las amígdalas, lo que pareció detener el ciclo.

Hasta ese día.

Me palpitaba el oido derecho

Y los ganglios linfáticos del lado derecho de mi cuello me dolían.

Decidí hacer un experimento.

Apliqué generosamente aceite linfático tópico en el lado derecho de mi cuello, luego me recosté con la oreja izquierda sobre la almohada durante unos minutos para permitir que drenara el lado derecho.

Cuando me levanto, el dolor ha desaparecido.

¿Qué es una infección de oído?

Una infección de oído es una infección dentro o alrededor del oído.

Con mayor frecuencia, las infecciones de oído ocurren en el oído medio, el espacio vacío y lleno de aire detrás del tímpano que contiene los pequeños «huesecillos» vibrantes que transmiten las vibraciones del sonido al oído interno.

Síntomas de infección de oído

• dolor de oído
• Obstruido o difícil de abrir
• Sensación de que se escapa líquido del oído.
• problema de audición
• Palpitaciones o latidos en los oídos.
• Picazón en el oído
• Dolor que se irradia alrededor de la oreja o hacia el cuello.
• exceso de cera
• Vértigo
• mareo
• Enrojecimiento cerca de la oreja u otros signos de inflamación.

Cómo el drenaje linfático alivia el dolor de oído

La sensación de dolor en el oído puede ser el resultado de una acumulación de presión de líquido que no puede drenar del canal auditivo. Verá, el líquido del oído medio drena hacia la garganta y baja por el cuello a través de tubos estrechos que van desde el oído medio hasta un área en la parte posterior de la garganta conocida como trompa de Eustaquio.

Los virus, las bacterias, el resfriado, la gripe, las infecciones o las alergias pueden causar inflamación, congestión e hinchazón que bloquea la trompa de Eustaquio, lo que contribuye a la acumulación de líquido, moco y presión que luego se experimenta como dolor de oído. El líquido estancado y la mucosidad también pueden infectarse, inflamando aún más el oído medio e interno y afectando los nervios que conectan el oído interno con el cerebro.

Luego, la hinchazón puede bloquear el canal auditivo, impidiendo que el líquido drene adecuadamente, provocando dolor y afectando la salud inmunológica.

Ayudar al drenaje del líquido linfático cerca del oído puede aliviar la inflamación, la presión y el dolor causado por la acumulación de líquido en el oído.

Aceites esenciales para las infecciones de oído.

Los aceites esenciales ofrecen propiedades antiinflamatorias, antimicrobianas, antibacterianas, antivirales y antiparasitarias que pueden ayudar a aliviar los gérmenes que pueden causar infección, inflamación y dolor en el oído.

Si bien NO recomiendo poner aceites esenciales en el canal auditivo, he descubierto que los aceites esenciales se pueden aplicar tópicamente en la piel detrás de la oreja y en el cuello para ayudar al drenaje, reducir la inflamación y aliviar naturalmente el dolor de oído.

De hecho, algunos estudios han encontrado que el aceite de árbol de té, el aceite de ajo y el aceite de albahaca pueden actuar contra las bacterias que causan infecciones de oído. Cuando mis hijos eran pequeños, les aplicaba una solución de ajo prensado y aceite de oliva en los oídos para aliviar el dolor de oído. Parece funcionar, y las investigaciones lo respaldan, al identificar dos derivados específicos del ajo, la alicina y la s-alil cisteína (SAC), que son prometedores contra los microorganismos que causan infecciones en el oído medio y el canal auditivo.

Los aceites esenciales aplicados tópicamente pueden ayudar a mantener un drenaje saludable del oído y, con él, de los órganos que se encuentran por encima del cuello (incluidos los oídos, la nariz, la garganta, la boca, la mandíbula, las encías, las amígdalas y el hueso mastoideo) y todos los órganos que se encuentran debajo.

Aceites esenciales sugeridos para reducir el dolor de las infecciones de oído.

Linfa™

Los ganglios linfáticos se agrupan detrás de la oreja y en el cuello para drenar el líquido del oído. Los ganglios del cuello y detrás de la oreja están cerca de la piel, lo que los hace fácilmente accesibles para los medicamentos con aceites esenciales aplicados tópicamente.

La congestión o inflamación de cualquier parte del cuello (incluidas las venas, el tejido linfático o el nervio vago) puede comprometer el drenaje del oído. Su sistema linfático no tiene bomba y el líquido linfático puede acumularse y estancarse.

Para mejorar el flujo y drenaje linfático, aplicar generosamente 2-3 gotas de Linfa™ en la piel detrás de la oreja y alrededor del cuello a los lados para mejorar el drenaje del oído y aliviar la congestión. Linfa™ la mezcla está destinada a un uso liberal. También puedes aplicar Parasimpático™ del nervio vago y Circulación en el cuello para apoyar el nervio vago y la salud vascular.

Recuperación nerviosa™

Cuando mis hijos eran pequeños, apliqué Nerve Repair™ en la piel detrás de sus orejas para el dolor de oídos y durante los vuelos en avión. Nerve Repair™ está formulado para aliviar el dolor, combatir infecciones, estimular la circulación, aliviar la inflamación y la hinchazón. Nerve Repair™ contiene una mezcla de aceites esenciales de albahaca, menta, helicriso y mejorana.

Las investigaciones muestran que el aceite de albahaca tiene propiedades curativas que pueden ser útiles en el tratamiento de infecciones de oído. El aceite de albahaca tiene un alto contenido de propiedades antiinflamatorias, antioxidantes y antibacterianas, incluidos los compuestos metileugenol y metilchavicol, que son importantes para combatir infecciones, incluidas las de oído.

Para aliviar el dolor de oído, aplique tópicamente 2 o 3 gotas detrás de la oreja y bajando por el cuello.

Aceites destacados:

Referencias: