Transcription:
Essential Oils for Boosting your Immune System

Deborah Howell (Host): Welcome Stoughton Health Talk. I'm Deborah Howell, and I invite you to listen as we get introduced to essential oils and discover how we might use them to boost our immune systems and stay healthy through the seasons. This podcast is for education purposes only and does not serve as an endorsement. Joining me is Valerie Howard, a certified Essential Oils specialist. Valerie's been practicing holistic health for herself and her family for 12 years. Essential oils are her favorite, favorite tool for supporting health. Valerie, such a pleasure to have you on with us today.

Valerie Howard: Thank you. I'm excited to be here.

Deborah Howell (Host): All right. Can you give us, in a nutshell, what are essential oils?

Valerie Howard: Sure. So essential oils are compounds extracted, from plants. We get them from all parts of the plants and it's basically the plant's immune system. So they work with our body to address any issues, health issues, emotional issues, and they can get to the root cause on a cellular level.

Deborah Howell (Host): So it's what they use to pump up their own immune systems and then they share that with us, luckily and happily in a small bottle.

Valerie Howard: Exactly. Yep.

Deborah Howell (Host): Okay, so what are the forms? Are there bottles, rollers? Can you tell us?

Valerie Howard: Right. So there's the concentrated version that come in little glass bottles and you just use one drop per use. And then rollers and rollers have a roller top, and those ones are diluted with a carrier oil, usually coconut oil or something like that.

Deborah Howell (Host): Okay. Who's a good candidate to start using essential oils?

Valerie Howard: Everybody. So essential oils can support everybody in one way or another. You can use them from babies, I'd say four weeks and older, all the way up to the elderly. and we also use them on animals.

Deborah Howell (Host): Really? What kind of animals?

Valerie Howard: Most common is dogs and cats. Most people have them as pets, but I have a friend who uses them on her pet snake, we use them on our Guinea pegs. We have farmers who use them on their farm animals. Basically almost any type of animal.

Deborah Howell (Host): could You'd be used say to calm a horse down?

Valerie Howard: Yes.

Deborah Howell (Host): Incredible. How have essential oils improved life for you and your family?

Valerie Howard: We use them for pretty much everything, so they're definitely a big part of our life. We've been able to, eliminate toxins and chemicals from the home because we use them for cleaning. We have replaced non-natural remedies, for my family, which equates to less doctor visits and just overall health, and our first big experience was using him on my son when he was a toddler just to support his emotions.

Deborah Howell (Host): How did that go for you?

Valerie Howard: That was like our big eye opener to using essential oils, they supported him. It went really, really well. And until this day, he uses a roller, uses it before school, and he's now 11 and a half. We've changed up the blend a little bit, but he loves to use them for calming.

Deborah Howell (Host): And he can apply it himself now?

Valerie Howard: Yes.

Deborah Howell (Host): Wow, that's great. Can you use more than one essential oil blend at a time, like one for respiratory symptoms and one for immune boosting Concurrently?

Valerie Howard: You can, so you could use multiple essential oils I'm always lathered in tons of oils. And you can, separate them, part them out, every 10 minutes if you feel like you're using too many at once. But I just put them all on at one time and that's totally fine.

Deborah Howell (Host): And that for someone like me who's allergic to perfume and fragrance, when you approach me and you're wearing all these oils, is it going to affect me?

Valerie Howard: No, and that's because they don't contain any fragrance, which most people are allergic or sensitive to the fragrances, the artificial fragrances or synthetic fragrances. and essential as if it's a good quality, essential, it's just from the plant. There shouldn't be any additive, synthetics, chemicals added into it.

Deborah Howell (Host): Okay, perfect. Because I think that's what steered me away from them. When I originally thought about it. I thought, oh, they're gonna be so perfuming that I won't be able to wear them. But you've set me straight on that, so thank you very much. There are four seasons in the year. I'm guessing that the holiday season might be one of the more stressful seasons in any year. What kinds of oils do you suggest for this particular time of year?

Valerie Howard: So they can definitely help to calm, especially, stress. We have a few different blends. That are my favorite. Serenity is our calming blend, and that's a really good one to go to. Balance is our grounding blend and pretty much does exactly what it says. It balances out the emotions and grounds you. And adaptive is my third favorite. Adaptive is also another calming blend. So those are the blends. And if you were to use a single. So a blend is, a few different essential oils all mixed together in one bottle. And then single oils is just one plant. So single oils, lavender, many people are familiar with lavender being very calming. Frankincense, rose and Copiva are also really good oils to use.

Deborah Howell (Host): Okay. That's awesome to know. Okay, what about spring time?

Valerie Howard: Spring time. So you're trying to freshen up the air, maybe deodorize the house, cheerful. You want something uplifting. So citruses are all very uplifting and fresh. so I like to diffuse citruses, combined with a flower essential oil. Something just to uplift your spirits.

Deborah Howell (Host): And summer?

Valerie Howard: I would say the same thing. we use them for bug repellants is a really popular one in the summer. There's some that will deter the pests. Yeah, that's probably my favorite.

Deborah Howell (Host): Yeah, that's incredible. And finally, Fall?

Valerie Howard: Fall we're going into, the season where we need to support our immune system the most. And so getting out the essential oils that are gonna boost your immune system, and then using those daily, proactively.

Deborah Howell (Host): Now can you take us through an appointment with you if someone were to come to you for the first time?

Valerie Howard: Sure. So first we would go over what essential oils are, how to use them. So there are three different ways you can use essential oils, which is topically on the skin aromatically, which is bringing them in. And some oils you can internalize so internally. So we'd go over how to safely and effectively do that. And then we would go over all the different types and qualities of essential oils, which ones are best for each family, and then create a protocol for that person and their family on which oils would best support them.

Deborah Howell (Host): And then would you see them again in a month or two or how do you follow up?

Valerie Howard: We have great support, so there's lots of resources. I have a Facebook group where I post lots of education in there. I do weekly online classes with different topics, so it's ongoing support, and just teaching the people.

Deborah Howell (Host): Sure. I love it. I love it. Do you need to alter your diet at all when you use essential oils?

Valerie Howard: You do not. With anything, it's overall health. So of course that is going to, improve the use of them, but it's not necessary.

Deborah Howell (Host): Okay. So how can people get in touch with you?

Valerie Howard: So I'm on Instagram. My Instagram handle is Wellness by Valerie, and then my email is wellness@valeriehoward.org.

Deborah Howell (Host): Beautiful. And you mentioned a Facebook group. What's that called?

Valerie Howard: Happy oiling, customer support

Deborah Howell (Host): Happy oiling, customer support. Okay. Very. All right. Well thank you so much. It's been wonderful having you. I learned a lot. I'm excited to dive in. Thank you for joining us today.

Valerie Howard: Thank you.

Deborah Howell (Host): And for more information you can head on over to our website, stoughtonhealth.com. And that concludes this episode of Stoughton Health Talk. Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other Stoughton Hospital podcasts. I'm Deborah Howell, have yourself a wonderful day.