Essential Oils

[Ginevra]

So, it happened. I met with the person - I knew there would be a person somewhere along this journey - who would recommend Essential Oils for my breast cancer. And I am not a knee-jerk dismissive person, and I do always like the idea behind naturopathic healing. So, I decided to do some reading as the lady did give me several links and, to be fair, the essential oil one was the one she was most reserved in recommending. (She feels the money motive has overshadowed whatever good this guy was doing before he became a multi-millionaire off of EOs.) 

While there is zero part of me that would ever consider only using EOs and not availing myself of traditional medicine, I was considering the “use in tandem” concept. However, once I started to read on the site, I thought this could actually be harmful, if it does have any effect at all. The bunky-sounding things it says is Frankincense can affect the cell mechanism than turns off cell self-death (sorry I forget exactly how that works but I know it is malfunctioning in cancerous cells), which would promote the cells to “normalize”,thus shrinking the tumor. So, a) that seems very unlikely to me, but b) if it would really affect the cells, I would be afraid that the $3,000 diagnostic test to be done on the tumor once it is removed could be telling false tales about the tumor. Or Frankincense could just do nothing at all beyond smelling nice, in which case, it’s simply a waste of money and effort. 

Since the Hive is by far the best collection of very intelligent people I have access to easily, I thought I would ask here. Could using an EO - if it did any good at all - screw up the tumor testing? Is there any legitimate reason to believe that EOs in general could effectively heal an actual disease? 

I would actually ask my surgeon or oncolgist about this if I were meeting with either before surgery but I’m not. 

[maize]

Stick with treatments that have been validated by multiple scientific studies for treatment of your specific form of cancer.

I can guarantee you this frankincense treatment has not.

It is possible someone has studied the effect of frankincense oil on cancerous cells of some kind. If it were really proven to be an effective treatment for your type of cancer the doctors who treat cancer every day and who absolutely do not want to see patients die would be recommending it.

For natural support I think you could look to improving your nutrition as much as possible and getting plenty of rest and some exercise.

Edited October 22, 2018 by maize

[prairiewindmomma]

We read and discussed the frankincense studies back when dd had cancer. IMO, it’s a very expensive snake oil in that regard. I do use EOs as complementary medicine in other aspects of my health care, so I am not anti-EO.

The crazies will keep coming. We had a guy come to our door telling us that if we used Flor-Essence that our dd would survive her terminal diagnosis. Um, nope.

cancer.gov (The national cancer institute based out of Bethesda) has a number of good articles up on studies of complementary medicine. I would point you there. 

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

We read and discussed the frankincense studies back when dd had cancer. IMO, it’s a very expensive snake oil in that regard. I do use EOs as complementary medicine in other aspects of my health care, so I am not anti-EO.

The crazies will keep coming. We had a guy come to our door telling us that if we used Flor-Essence that our dd would survive her terminal diagnosis. Um, nope.

cancer.gov (The national cancer institute based out of Bethesda) has a number of good articles up on studies of complementary medicine. I would point you there. 

It is unbearable to me to think someone could try to sell you something like that for your child. ?

Thanks so much for the source! 

[Carol in Cal.]

Frankincense doesn't even smell good, at least not the oil.  Maybe if it's burned, but it's a resin and in the oil it just smells musty.  I don't know whether it is efficacious or harmful, but I do know that it smells bad.

[Carol in Cal.]

And shoot, Quill, this is awful.  I am so sorry you're going through this whole mess.

I have a friend who is a naturopath.  She sometimes give IV vitamin C to boost the immune system for cancer.  She tends to work in tandem with MDs, so I'm inclined to trust her.  You might ask your doctor and someone local about that.

 

[Farrar]

I'm a believer in alternative medicine. My step-father absolutely extended his life when he had cancer through a devotion to diet and other holistic approaches in tandem with traditional medical treatments. But EO's are mostly snake oil when it comes to cancer. It makes me angry when people start in on them. Mil has cancer now and a friend was talking about how she needed to not do chemo and just do these special EO and diet treatments that would make the cancer cells eat themselves. It ticked me off so much.

I think... if some of these moderate EO things help you feel better about your treatment, then it's obviously up to you. I know some of them do have limited benefits for mood and general well feeling, which... hey, that stuff can make a difference. And going through traditional cancer treatment sucks. If things that don't interfere with it help you feel better - even if it's mostly placebo effect or helps your overall mood and affect - then that's great. I just always get hesitant when people talk about this stuff with cancer because there's such a black hole of badness with people encouraging people not to finish the treatments that will save their lives.

Edited October 23, 2018 by Farrar

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Farrar said:

I'm a believer in alternative medicine. My step-father absolutely extended his life when he had cancer through a devotion to diet and other holistic approaches in tandem with traditional medical treatments. But EO's are mostly snake oil when it comes to cancer. It makes me angry when people start in on them. Mil has cancer now and a friend was talking about how she needed to not do chemo and just do these special EO and diet treatments that would make the cancer cells eat themselves. It ticked me off so much.

I think... if some of these moderate EO things help you feel better about your treatment, then it's obviously up to you. I know some of them do have limited benefits for mood and general well feeling, which... hey, that stuff can make a difference. And going through traditional cancer treatment sucks. If things that don't interfere with it help you feel better - even if it's mostly placebo effect - then that's great. I just always get hesitant when people talk about this stuff with cancer because there's such a black hole of badness with people encouraging people not to finish the treatments that will save their lives.

Agreed. And well-put. There is definitely a black hole of badness. 

I just got a book from Amazon -What to Eat When You Have Cancer - and I do look forward to reading that and seeing how I can best support my health through this journey. I do already have a pretty healthy diet, though, so I’m not sure how much difference I could make. 

[Liz CA]

2 hours ago, Carol in Cal. said:

Frankincense doesn't even smell good, at least not the oil.  Maybe if it's burned, but it's a resin and in the oil it just smells musty.  I don't know whether it is efficacious or harmful, but I do know that it smells bad.

 

No, it does not smell good. 

Are they talking about cell apoptosis? As in various EOs can trigger cancer cell apoptosis (=programmed cell death) ?

EO can be useful as calming agents - thinking of Lavender here. It was used at a psych facility. I agree to be rather careful with this. Some people are not ashamed to cheat others out of money when they are desperate or at a low point. There have been other substances examined and studied for cell apoptosis. Perhaps research the term specific to your cancer and see what pops up. I would suggest peer reviewed literature on the subject.

 

Edited October 23, 2018 by Liz CA

[prairiewindmomma]

On a cautionary note, Quill, a number of EOs have estrogenic properties. One of them in lavender. If you are serious about wanting to do EOs, I would consult with a qualified aromatherapist. Tisserand and a number of other published and well respected aromatherapists have guidelines that are in medical aromatherapy textbooks. There have been studies done, and I’d be way more inclined to head in that direction than do what Jane who sells Young Living or DoTerra on the side for Disney vacation money tells me to do.

[Pen]

I tend to be pro alternative healing modalities. (Herbs for example) But in general, not essential oils. Certainly not for cancer.  A number of essential oils are either toxic in general or toxic in concentration. I have no known about your specific questions about frankincense. But I cannot be in churches that use it as incense so probably would feel ill from it as an EO.  Otoh, I have sometimes used Boswellia as an herb  .

 

Out of curiosity: Did Frankincense eO selectively kill off cancer cells leaving normal cells unharmed?  Or does it generally kill cells?

Edited October 23, 2018 by Pen

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Liz CA said:

 

No, it does not smell good. 

Are they talking about cell apoptosis? As in various EOs can trigger cancer cell apoptosis (=programmed cell death) ?

EO can be useful as calming agents - thinking of Lavender here. It was used at a psych facility. I agree to be rather careful with this. Some people are not ashamed to cheat others out of money when they are desperate or at a low point. There have been other substances examined and studied for cell apoptosis. Perhaps research the term specific to your cancer and see what pops up. I would suggest peer reviewed literature on the subject.

 

Yes, that’s it, cell apoptosis. 

I have used lavender (just the scent) for calming. 

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Pen said:

I tend to be pro alternative healing modalities. (Herbs for example) But in general, not essential oils. Certainly not for cancer.  A number of essential oils are either toxic in general or toxic in concentration. I have no known about your specific questions about frankincense. But I cannot be in churches that use it as incense so probably would feel ill from it as an EO.  Otoh, I have sometimes used Boswellia as an herb  .

 

Out of curiosity: Did Frankincense eO selectively kill off cancer cells leaving normal cells unharmed?  Or does it generally kill cells?

What I read was that it had been tested in vitro, not, in vivo, and I think it supposedly turned on cell apoptosis so the cells self-destruct. I don’t know if it supposedly only does this to cancer cells. 

[Guest]

8 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

On a cautionary note, Quill, a number of EOs have estrogenic properties. One of them in lavender. If you are serious about wanting to do EOs, I would consult with a qualified aromatherapist. Tisserand and a number of other published and well respected aromatherapists have guidelines that are in medical aromatherapy textbooks. There have been studies done, and I’d be way more inclined to head in that direction than do what Jane who sells Young Living or DoTerra on the side for Disney vacation money tells me to do.

Thank you for that warning! 

[Katy]

If you remove the cancer cells from your body, figure out how to successfully culture them in a petri dish, and then add essential oils to the dish, it's absolutely possible that some EO's will help.  In your body it's more likely you'll give yourself liver failure first.  If you want to look into the science and experiment on yourself, here's a summary of the  research: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4070586/

If you want to embrace a natural therapy while continuing conventional medicine, try diet.  I've followed the medical doctor behind Nutrition Facts on YouTube for a long time. His page on breast cancer has more information, but the most important is this:

Quote

Consuming less meat and more fruits, vegetables, and fiber, as well as flaxseeds, soy foods, and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli sprouts may reduce breast cancer risk and improve survival chances.

 

[SamanthaCarter]

I would totally do aromatherapy (and other practices) for my mental and emotional health if going through such a diagnosis. Because improving those could improve outcomes. But I would never think that EOs could treat the cancer. As for effecting test results, I would not have thought of that- I don’t know! 

[Lady Florida.]

Please, please, please stick with science based treatments. Some EOs smell nice. Some are dangerous  Many are dangerous to pets. All are snake oil as cancer treatments or cures. 

[itsheresomewhere]

If your cancer center offers it, see if they have an alternative medicine area.  They work with your MDs and are great.  One friend uses this while doing chemo and they have really helped her.  Thanks to them, she has very little nausea and has more energy than I have ever seen. Her does use EOs in a diffuser but not to cure.  

My SIL’s late mother used one during the end and honestly, I think they gave her more peace than I saw during all her treatment.  She was very reluctant to do so in the being as she thought they would use woohoo magic( her words).  

[Guest]

See, here’s a bit from a website that has a vested interest in selling EOs:

Quote

The research out there has been scrutinized because of its industry-bias, and some claim that there are no chemical compounds in frankincense oil that can kill cancer. With that said, just do a search on the Internet and healing stories abound. It is hard to dispute with the thousands of people who state their cancer was cured after using frankincense.

I cannot tell you how much this statement bothers me. Yeah, just Google! That’s a sure way to find the thousands of people who have been cured of cancer using EOs! I mean, nobody ever lies about that. No sir! ? (I don’t know if I’m supposed to put the link in for proper credit or if that would be provocation because I’m not saying something favorable. If I’m supposed to link, I will.) 

There is another link I have looked at, which the lady gave me, but this one bothers me much more because he is actively recommending refusing chemo and radiation. I would never do this! I want to live a long time, y’all. I can readily testify to people in my life today who are there because of chemo and/or radiation, including my mother, my MIL, my SIL and several good friends. 

[scholastica]

My local hospital has an integrative medicine department that works closely with oncology. I would look into something like that in your area. Avoid the EO salespeople like the plague.

[BeachGal]

I know nothing about frankincense but for breast cancer here are some ideas to consider:

Valter Longo's human studies on doing a short fast or two before chemo, or eating a fasting mimicking diet which you can buy called Prolon. You'd want the one for cancer. Fasting leads to autophagy which is a process of cellular clean up. Without fasting, cellular parts linger about causing inflammation. Fasting recycles or disposes of these bits and pieces. Of course, you'd want to be careful with fasting because of electrolyte loss. The goal is to have a ratio of blood glucose to blood ketones of less than one (ratio is called the Glucose Ketone Index). You can buy meters that will measure blood glucose and blood ketones. Ketones tend to be high late afternoon. That's a good time to measure.

Intake of protein -- around 0.35 grams per pound of ideal weight until you reach 65 when you'd increase protein intake. Excess protein leads to changes in biochemical pathways that can cause certain kinds of cancer. Ideally mostly from vegetarian sources. Limit red meat.

Satchin Panda at the Salk Institute's Panda Lab recommends chemo in the late afternoon or early evening if at all possible because cancer cells are less robust about that time and through the evening so you kill more of them with less chemo. Also, when possible, try to stop eating after 5 pm. Eating later leads to excess inflammation. This is also Panda's work.

Exercise. Aerobic, anaerobic, weight lifting, stretching help to gobble up excess estrogen. Stretching for some weird reason is helpful after chemo. I'll have to go dig for that info cuz I can't recall it offhand.

Going to sleep in a pitch black room because darkness helps your body to produce more melatonin, a cancer fighter. Then in the morning, exposure to bright sun light as soon as possible. If it's dark outisde, you can sit in front of a 10,000 lux therapy light to help turn off melatonin and turn on serotonin.

A wide variety of fibery vegetables, especially cruciferous ones, to help remove certain toxins. Green and black tea throughout the day.

Sauna is very beneficial for many health problems.

Meditation for about 10-15 minutes helps preserve telomere length. Exercise does, too.

Whatever you decide, good luck!

 

Edited October 24, 2018 by BeachGal