How To Protect Yourself and Your Family With Essential Oils, with Pranarōm National Educator Terra Johnson
While the popularity of essential oils (EO) continues to surge, customers often forget just how potent these oils can actually be. Add to that the widespread plague of adulterated products (99% of all EO in the world are created with the use of chemicals or grown with pesticides), it quickly becomes obvious how important it is to source a quality oil and use it safely. With so many resources and companies touting that they have the most pure, best, clean, and safe products, it’s difficult to decipher who you can actually trust.
Meet Terra:
We’re excited to help bring a little clarity to the subject this week as we talk with Pranarōm’s (formerly Veriditas) National Educator, Terra Johnson. Terra is passionate about the world of EOs and has been with the company from the beginning. Pranarōm is a transparent EO manufacturer that offers complete traceability from the dirt the plant is grown in to the finished product in the bottle. On this episode we talk with Terra about what makes Pranarōm unique as an EO brand, how to properly and safely use many of the popular oils, and why a clean product is so vital to your health.
Some Topics We Discuss:
What are some of the primary issues with most essential oils on the market today? (4:14)
What does it mean for Pranarom essential oils to be labeled as prescriptions in France? (10:03)
What is Thieves Oil and does Pranarom have an alternative? (13:58)
How do you know if you’re taking a good essential oil product? (20:20)
Some Key Takeaways from this Episode:
More than 99% of the essential oils that are produced in the world are actually produced either with chemicals or grown with pesticides. (5:19)
The Eco-Cert certification is the highest organic certification in the world. Most American certifications would not be accepted in other countries because the standards aren’t high enough. (11:40)
Choosing high quality essential oils is key to getting the benefits you want and avoiding the things you don’t want. (15:50)
People are over diffusing essential oils. Less is more! (17:08)
Products + Resources:
Get Social with Terra:
Facebook @veriditasnationaleducator
Website: pranarom.us
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT
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Welcome back everyone to the Holistic Navigator Podcast where we talk about all things holistic health and believe in the body's capacity for self healing if given the proper nutrients and care. For any new listeners we just want to take a moment to say welcome and we're excited that you found the show. My name is [00:01:00] Brian Strickland. I'm the producer and I'm joined in the studio as always by our host Ed Jones. And on today's episode we're talking about the often misunderstood subject of essential oils and speaking with Pranarom’s National Educator Terra Johnson. Pranarom is one of the best essential oil lines we've encountered yet and we'll talk more about what makes them special in just a moment. But for now, let me go ahead and hand it over to our host, Mr. Ed Jones.
Ed Jones: Well, thank you so much Brian. And today we have a podcast info that I've been waiting on for many many months because I've found it of such value in these different categories of natural, holistic, toolbox building of options for our health, especially our health as we are getting older because father time can be cruel. But actually and I know I can also be cruel with my words but accessing the conventional medical system can be cruel at times when it's inappropriate. [00:02:00] You know, they're over treating they're using they don't use many of the things that nature offers us and it can be very frustrating. The only reason I guess I'm saying that because I did go to the emergency room with a friend of mine on Wednesday and I got to witness again the good parts of the medicine field and also witnessed the other parts, which is we won't talk about too much. But today we have Terra who's a national educator from one of the to me the finest essential oil company and pieces of information that you can learn from of any company in 41 years I have ever dealt with. Terra, welcome to the Holistic Navigator.
Terra Johnson: Oh, thank you for having me. What a wonderful intro.
Ed Jones: Well your reputation precedes you. I know that you have been involved in this company from day one. You were like the first employee and you spent a really big chunk of your life focused on the power of something that we do call essential oils. And [00:03:00] the thing is everybody knows what that term is and very few understand the details of that. And I want to go back on a personal level. I remember all very well sitting in Florida in a condo during the summer and I was on my one-week vacation with my family and I was watching either 2020 or 60 Minutes and I think it was Connie Chung whichever one she worked for they came out and were like: New Revelation. There's an herb that is as equal or better than Prozac and I could you know, I've been in the industry for that point 20-25 years. I was all over it. Well, I turned it up. And of course it is St. John's Wort. We and the those days did not have computers. So I remember having those legal yellow pads and we filled one pad after another, after another because of course we sold out within two hours. Well, you know what the validity of those studies was very sound. The problem was all most of the stuff we ended up getting in [00:04:00] was adulterated. It was contaminated. It was weakened. So everybody decided well, it's really not that good. You know what? It was fantastic, but the problem is, you know, greed cuts into these things and I think that applies exactly to the field of essential oils. Because I see so many who have that have been altered and the thing is and I'm gonna let you talk in a second here because you're here for the information but you know essential oils also are the blood of a plant. It's really profoundly potent. But only if you get the correct act one that has not been contaminated, or weakened, or diluted, blank, blank, blank. And the thing is because essential oils have a smell most people judge it by the smell and that is the probable least way to judge a quality. So welcome Terra to the Holistic Navigator tell me am I wrong in any of that?
Terra Johnson: You know that you are going exactly where I would love to go. I'm chomping at the bit [00:05:00] to contribute with you. It is such a difficult thing to navigate for the average person because they walk into a store and they see an essential oil and they think it's come it comes from a plant if it says lavender must be lavender and the truth is there's nothing in that bottle that resembles a plant usually. More than 99% of the essential oils in the world. Not just in America where the problems are vast and it usually is a monetized situation that has nothing to do with plant therapies. But in our world 99% more than 99% actually of the Essential oils that are produced in the world are actually produced either with chemicals, so made synthetically made in a lab, so to speak or grown with pesticides. And as you mentioned that the lifeblood of the plant is the essential oil. The immune system of the plant is the essential oils. So just like our immune systems ward off disease and infection and inflammation and keep us healthy. That's what it does for the plant. [00:06:00] So if you spray with pesticides, which most of these companies will do to produce a fast product, they actually lose all value of the essential oil and then they have to go into a lab and adulterate it synthetically and put that in the bottle as well. So most times if you were to evaluate exactly what's in that bottle you'd find a lot of pesticides. I always say we've been selling essential oils in the health food market for over 60 years in America and most of them have been the most toxic thing on our shelves because they are adulterated grown with pesticides are made synthetically so they will not react in the body the way a plant will so I love that that was your first statement because the immune system of the plant is the essential oil. We are borrowing that immune system for our bodies when we talk about Pranarom when we talk about French medical aromatherapy and actually like you mentioned I don't know of another company in our country that actually uses unadulterated, completely pure, a hundred percent organic, traceable plants. If we find one I think there's room for all of us because we [00:07:00] all want to find those pure products like you talked about what the St. John's Wort problems. This is what's happening in essential oils. There's so many problems. So Pranarom has complete traceability with our high organic standard and it's something I'm very proud to share with practitioners and staff of the health food stores and consumers and really get that information out there so they can choose with their own education and their own knowledge that they learn.
Ed Jones: Wow, what a handful of wise information because I can assure you that 99% of the people listening do not know any of this including, as you said, even those of us in this industry. We downplayed it. We look the other way. We hoped it wasn't true. But the fact is this isn't quite like maybe having a soap that you're washing. It's not good stuff to have toxic chemicals anywhere, but the fact that these plants have as you said their own immune system is in the blood of the plant and their antibacterial [00:08:00] effects, and their anti-parasitic, antiviral. All these things are in the blood of the plant. And so when you put it on it's going to go deep. It's going to if you breathe it if you apply it as I do on the bottom of my feet or on my wrist when I can do it with the proper oils. It is potent medicine. And you know for people listening right now or like well, I don't really, you know, I don't think I need the essential oils so I don't need to To keep learning. This is one of the few massively effective for so many health issues. We're not talking smelling better people. We're talking about being therapeutic. Now, we can't label things as say, you know, you should do this all for this medical reason because again, we're you know, that's against the law and I actually agree with that up to a point. I really do and secondly and I always try to do this. I don't every time but you know, not here to treat your diseases. We're here to educate you. So you have a better [00:09:00] understanding and a bigger toolbox to pull from. And Pranarom has escalated itself in my personal life and personal mind unlike any other oil. In fact, all of the parts of the business complexity of the wellness center that we have encompassed a lot of oils. Well guess what? Every single brand we had is gone except to and Pranarom is one and our private label is too because we know the sources of that and you know, I'm just I'm just continue to be carried away with the effectiveness. But only if you have the right product, I remember being in the 60s being going to Sears department store and you go in the tool section. It always have three different categories. They had good, better, and best. Well in essential oils I would go back. I can say there's best, there's an average, and worthless [00:10:00] and worthless seems to fill at least a big chunk of this category. So Pranarom, is it prescription in France or how does that work?
Terra Johnson: Yes. So one of the biggest differences about what we've been able to share with the public is that we are French medical aromatherapy. And when it comes down to it, I haven't seen any other companies really working in the French. medical field because of the American issues with how we State their uses. So in France, in Belgium, in Germany, in Austria, in parts of Spain, and Australia, you actually cannot buy our essential oils right off the shelf, you have to go to your natural pharmacist or to your medical doctor. So it's actually included in medical school and it has been since the 20s, since the essential oils were used as an adjunct and as a replacement to antibiotics when they were running out of antibiotics during the war. So it's been included. It's been used just like homeopathics and just [00:11:00] like allopathic medicine. It has been used alongside all of those types of treatments. And so we gain this knowledge through all these countries that are actually using the plants in their pure form, in their organic growing and organic form, and using them for medicine. So even though we don't have a system that allows us to give them as prescription here, we have accessed by the retail market. Which is the good in the bad of it, right? So it means everyone else who's selling who might say the same thing, you have to look at the sourcing and really trace that product to make sure that it's pure and we will give you that tracing. But it creates a little bit of confusion in the marketplace. But yes, we are French medical aromatherapy. We are sold only by prescription around the world and the purity has to be there. So it's really part of what sets us apart is that we are Eco certified. It's the highest organic standard in the world and many of our organic standards in America would not be received or accepted in those countries when it comes to [00:12:00] medicinal use of plants because it's not a high enough standard we test for over 110 pesticides we test for heavy metals. We make sure that every molecule is tested, every single molecule in every single bottle is traceable back to the seed so we know where, when and how it was grown harvested, distilled, shipped, stored, even sent to the stores that traceability is on every invoice with our partners so we know exactly where it came from. So if there ever was an issue, which I've never seen one in all the years, I've worked with Pranarom there's never been a problem with a plan. But if there was we have that traceability all the way back to that farmer and so Eco Cert is that highest standard in the world there is only for organic standards and certification companies in the world that actually are a hundred percent organic which is really hard to do.
Ed Jones: Wow. It actually gives me cold chills because I love transparency. I love getting to the root, bottom level of most things, not [00:13:00] everything but with my foods I do I'd love to know their history and have confidence because we are living in a world that is very very fear-based. And we have to have teams, we have to have products that actually we can rely on that we don't think are going to be contaminated, or unsafe, or whatever. My after you and I finish speaking today. There will be a five-minute add-on with Cady Kuhlman who works with me on this whole wellness issue and she has used the Pranarom oils for her young child at this point based on proper instruction not just doing it because again, you got to know what you're doing. These are very potent oils, but she's going to do her take on the benefit that she has seen with her son on a little discomfort levels, on the teething on the sleep. So we're going to have Cady Kuhlman on after you and I finished but I got to ask one. I got asked a couple questions. Is that I'm not sure really sure how you want to answer but in the world [00:14:00] of us getting questions, tell us about thieves oil and what does Pranarom? Are there options for that? Because I know it's kind of a trademark name I think but you can tell the listeners.
Terra Johnson: Great. Well, you know, we do have a comparable product to thieves in the way of a hundred percent organic blend and when it comes to French medical aromatherapy, it is very valuable to blend the oils together. They potentiate each other. So if one plant is highly anti-infectious or antibacterial and another plant is anti-fungal more with its medicinal constituents bringing them together will not just be naturally valuable to have the antifungal and antibacterial come together. But you actually potentiate each other they make each other work harder with in the blend. That's what happens naturally with the plants when we apply them to our bodies or we take them internally or we use them in a diffuser. And so the thieves blend with cinnamon, clove, eucalyptus, Rosemary, lemon, those specific oils are highly anti-infectious. [00:15:00] Those plants actually ward off a lot of pests bacterial viruses. So that's what the essential oil does in those plants. So we have that opportunity to borrow that immune system for our bodies and use it in that blend and we have one called Good Samaritan. We did a little play on words because the thieves blend was patented or trademarked and so we did a gas chromatography match which means that we actually measured the medicinal constituents and each plant by gas chromatography testing. So this is scientific testing of what's active in those molecules. So we did that scientific testing. We matched it through gas chromatography and developed our own blend. So it's a hundred percent organic, Eco certified blend called Good Samaritan. So you can use it in all the ways that you've learned to use thieves. I would say that we aire on the side of caution and safety though as a company and I find that a lot of information gets passed down through people who might not be fully qualified to share that information [00:16:00] in the essential oil world, and there are problems and there are safety concerns that people should have with essential oils. Using plants can be a beneficial way to benefit our health and raise our immune system and modulate our immune system. But if you're using the wrong plants inappropriately in too large of quantities, it can be our poison. Right? Any medicine can be our poisoned. Food can be our poison. Water can be our poison. So we want to make sure we're using food, water, plants, in a proper way so that they can be of benefit to our bodies and healthy for our bodies. And so when using Good Samaritan there are cautions that I would take. I wouldn't use it internally with children under 12. I would either apply it to their feet or just use it in defusing and just like you talked about earlier about how the essential oils enter the body. We need to be mindful. When you apply essential oils that are appropriate and safe for the skin 60% absorbed into the bloodstream. It has to travel through the capillaries through the bloodstream and we expel it through the liver and kidneys [00:17:00] anywhere from 1 to 24 hours. That's me. That's a child, that's a baby. That's a pet. They're all taking those essential oils in the fastest way to get essential oils into the bloodstream, to let that antibacterial antifungal antiviral action. Go to work in your bloodstream is through breathing it in. So diffusers are very effective and people are also over diffusing. Remember when you diffuse something or apply a direct inhalation, which is putting it on your hands and breathing it in. It's getting immediately into that bloodstream and it has to again travel through the capillaries, but a lot of people are using oils that are too strong for the lungs and they're attaching to lung tissue and actually damaging lung tissue. So Good Samaritan is safe to diffuse in small amounts. It's not necessary to diffuse in large amounts. It's actually more effective if you just use less drops. There's definitely a maximum dermal application and a maximum breathing application. So if you use more it doesn't work better. It actually works [00:18:00] better when you use each molecule one drop at a time. And so the good the Good Samaritan which is similar to the thieves will be most effective in defusing and there's many other ways to use it and I'm sure people have experienced that with their thieves. If you're thinking about what could be safe. Just remember these are very strong essential oils they’re antifungal, they're antibacterial in nature, they're antiviral. They can kill mold on contact or in the air or in your lungs. So use a small amount at a time. I I love that you brought that one up because I can use this as a great example. I had a mother who had gotten information to give her children the Good Samaritan internally a few drops a day on their tongue. Well, we look at essential oils as an oil as a fat. And they are teeny tiny little lipophilic molecules. But the molecule is the size of a carbon 10 or carbon 20 molecule, which behaves more like a gas. So they're actually drying by nature and they enter the bloodstream immediately through breathing them enter through the [00:19:00] skin. And so they have a drying and gas like nature the way they behave. And so I actually shared with this mother. I took her over to the display at a store and I had her try what she was giving to her children and she realized that she was giving too much. So we have to be mindful. There's no reason to take Good Samaritan internally for a five-year-old and I want to make that very clear but using it in a diffuser for that five-year-old would be very effective in the room and in their lungs and for their immune system and ours. So err on the side of caution when you think about how to use essential oils be mindful of your own personal instincts because sometimes we just believe that information and it and we have this reductionist theory in America where we reduce it all down to one sentence or one statement or one use and that is not how plants work. Plants have a synergistic ability with our bodies and with each other those plants with each other and we want to be mindful of how strong those plants are. And if you don't know then lavender is your key.[00:20:00] You go back to lavender lavender could be used for babies and pets and diffusing and topical and internal and in every way, in the bath. And so if you're not sure always err on the side of caution and go to a gentle or plant and learn about them one at a time because they can be very effective but they also can be very harmful if they're used inappropriately.
Ed Jones: What a great little piece of wisdom for those people and many people think oh it’s natural so it can't be harmful and that's simply not true. But at this point the person listening I mean they may be with a computer. Is there a source for them to go and get some of the facts, not just facts about your quality but facts about how I choose the proper essential oil? Is there any recommendation that you have or a book or or maybe just come into you know establishments that do have experienced employees, which is not super common these days but it's still there.
Terra Johnson Yes. So what I would say is, [00:21:00] you know, I sit down with certified aromatherapists. I sit down with health food store owners every single day across the country and they all say the same thing. Wow, I didn't realize this information. So just like you said early on in our conversation, this has been a lost product where we just didn't look at it. We just didn't think about what was in the bottle. We just sold essential oils or bought essential oils or use them thinking it must be plants and we didn't do our due diligence and now we have to because we know adulterations of all things are out there in abundance and because usually regulation is kind of about monetization of something and so we have to use our instincts. We have to use our knowledge of what we're learning about and really ask those questions. If you can't source it, if you can't find the source, if you can't see where it comes from and the company can't give you that information, they're probably buying it from brokers. Over 90% of the essential oil companies actually buy from brokers and this is where adulteration occurs. This is where they can add anything to the product [00:22:00] that they want to. Not that companies are being malicious or doing that on purpose. It's just the standard of how things were sold and bought and used. So finding that information from any company you have on your shelf. If you can get to the bottom of that transparency, traceability, what is actually in that bottle, you'll be better off. And that's with our supplements are herbs are essential oils are food just like you mentioned and so it's important to find that. But what I have found is that even those responsible companies do not have that traceability. Or even the proper information. I see everyday websites that mean to be responsible. They're not doing this maliciously to hurt anyone but they mean to be responsible. They're putting the wrong plant name on their website. They're using too strong of plants and diffusing. I've seen diffuser companies give away for free in the diffuser box plants essential oils that are not safe for diffusing. They actually damaged lung tissue irreversibly. Yes, it's pretty [00:23:00] crazy. So it's really important that we start with gentle plants and learn about how they enter the body and what they do for us personally. And so one of the sources that I love is an author and an aromatherapist, he's a French medical aromatherapist Kurt Schnaubelt. He's actually the teacher of our previous founder of Veritas. Our name used to be Veritas and we started here in America and Kurt Schnaubelt is really one of the only authors that I've seen out there that is sharing the truth about French medical aromatherapy. Many books and websites and sources will give you a little crossover between English and Australian and French medical aromatherapy, but to really get to the source of where the plants are grown and how we're using them, there's a lot of missing information. I find that there's so much missing it's hard for me to really give good information for people to go [00:24:00] to but I want you and all your listeners to really make that effort to have that traceability. When it comes to Pranarom I always tell people to don't just believe me do your due diligence look at the certifications that are on every bottle. Look at what that certification does? How organic is that certification that they're using and if the company is responsible, they will give you a complete traceability and isn't that what we want from our organics. We want to know exactly where and when and how. We don't want to have any questions about where it comes from because we know that's where adulteration occurs, so it's important that we look for that sourcing, we look for that traceability, and that we look at each plant's constituent profile. Here's another example, we know that where, when, and how it's grown, the altitude, the wind, the rain, the moisture and the soil all of these things play a role in which medicinal constituents come through in any given plant. So if a company is not harvesting at the right time, it's not growing in the right season and is not distilling [00:25:00] at the right time, they actually have no idea which medicinal constituents come through. So a lavender could even be harmful because it has too much campfer or too much cineole and it's no longer used in the way of French medical aromatherapy or even English aromatherapy. It's no longer gentle. So we have all this traceability of which constituents come through in every single plant and that's what we want to see other companies do. Another problem with that though is if you see that report of the gas chromatography of which medicinal constituents are present, sometimes they're made in a lab. Sometimes they come from a plant when it comes to other companies that I've noticed and so that doesn't give you everything either. You have to have a high organic standard. This is the way to trace a plant. If the company is testing the DNA of the plant is actually testing every molecule for pesticides to make sure there's no residual pesticide from migration from other Farms from the growing of that plant. So one of the things that I'm most proud of is that most of the regions we grow in there's never [00:26:00] been a GMO or a pesticide or an Herbicide. We test every molecule for pesticides but we also are founder Dominique Budo is the author of chemotyping which is identifying which medicinal constituents are present in every single plants and every molecule and so we are the author of that. Our company is actually at the forefront and the first to say, these are the things we need to look for for French medical aromatherapy to use them medicinally in Pharmacy across the world. And so it's important that we have that distinction of which medicinal constituents are present in any given lavender or tea tree or eucalyptus or rosemary and so on. it has to be identified for us to know if it's safe and how to use it the same rosemary grown into different regions produces two different plant profiles and is used completely differently one can be used on the skin and the other one needs a little more care and if we don't know those things we can't use them properly and safely.
Ed Jones: Man. Oh man. [00:27:00] I didn't realize the depth of it. That is so impressive and so really the bullet point of all that is I mean people are so busy. They don't want to do homework. So if you've already done it for them, I mean Pranarom I have full confidence. As I said, we were replaced everything we had with that brand after we really dealt in and saw the transparency. And I will say a personal story a couple years ago. I was flown up to Canada by company Natural Factors, and I so remember we're walking the fields where they grow so many foods that they put in their green drink and some of their products and the guy was a foreign strong accent. I can't remember where he was from but like the smartest man I've ever heard on life as far as growing foods. And he was talking about that the week before that they have monitoring and testing for the profound molecules of plants that are ones that nourish and heal [00:28:00] the most which is exactly like essential oils. Well, they have monitoring and they know within a 3 hour time frame that this will be the peak of this plant with exactly the right balance. So they actually had their crew come out at 3 a.m. in the morning the week before to harvest a certain green that was going in the product. I mean common sense says to you how many big corporations who just are going for the next quarter financial report are going to do this? Because the consumer At No 1 on the label. You can't tell it you have to have history you have to have what we're talking about right now. And you know it's and when it comes to like I've got 40 plus years experience in the nutrition industry. You know, I tell people that walk and get ask me questions like, you know, what about the vitamins that you know Costco are they good? And I'll be honest with him. I'll say you know what there's some good basic things that it won't really matter where you get it vitamin C's one.[00:29:00] The chances are it's going to be just about about what you're going to get most places with not as much purity, but at least the the active molecule that's not the truth with essential oil people. You're going from something that you're not getting 80% less potency. You're actually getting possibly harmful things, all those chemicals, and even if it didn't have all that you're not getting the active ingredients to produce the profound results that we want. So this is not even a maybe I'll do better know, you know, you have to know what you're getting because if you don't you're not Eating anything probably that will be beneficial and potentially harmful. So I had to get on my little rant there about that.
Terra Johnson: I love it. I love Natural Factors and that is such a great example and it's it's important that all growers understand the land in the way that they do and if there's such leaders in that. It's one other really important thing is supporting the pollinators. We know that there's lots of problems with that right now and we are seeing America be one [00:30:00] of the biggest offenders and all a essential oil plants are most of them are pollinating plants. And so if people are growing with pesticides, there's more land mass being contributed to the bee collapse with essential oil companies that are using pesticides than almost any other product out there because it takes 67 full roses to make one drop of rose oil. It takes five point five million full roses to make one liter of Rosato essential oil. Imagine if they were spraying with pesticides. So it's this is the conversation it always has been. It's just finally making it to people's consciousness because they're looking at their families and their health and their well-being in a new way. I think more lately because this conversation was lost on people 10 years ago. I couldn't get anyone to listen to the pollinating story and the purity story, you know, it was few and far between and now people are finally feeling responsible. So working with companies that are responsible to the earth. You know, I always say we are what we eat eats. [00:31:00] And so if there's depletion of the oil if there's pesticides in the essential oils and pesticides in our food we there is no value to that. And we're also killing the bees and we know we can't live, we can't live after the bees are gone. And we really need to be thinking about those pollinating plants and how to create that nourishment and to the bees and support them and it's been a big problem. So thank your local beekeepers or become one.
Ed Jones: They are heroes no doubt. And I do want to leave everybody with the idea again that Pranarom you have you can tell now you could have 100% confidence. If you don't have a good local vendor, then I recommend the nutritionw.com site and they carry all of those oils that are very good value and are shipped out very quickly. I have been so thrilled with our conversation. I know that people are going to walk away in a better place with more options than they certainly did before on this tremendous power house of healing. It is not [00:32:00] something to be ignored. We're in a very scary world with pathogens, there's no doubt. And the thing is a lot of these pathogens don't have a clue about essential oils because they've not been treated with it. They don't have resistance. And so we you know, we have a big tool kit that is just available but most people aren't aware but that's why we're here is to make people aware. So I want to thank you Terra. Anything else you'd like to leave listeners with?
Terra Johnson: I just thank them for listening because it's really important that we all get the word out and we all talk about how to really source pure essential oils. It's such an exciting product for a lot of people but they look at those little bottles and they forget where it comes from. They don't think about how much plant material goes into it. So the more that we can buy organics, the more we can support organics, the more that we can clean up our world and really be healthy for each other and healthy in our soil and our plants. So I thank you for having me on this is exactly the conversation I [00:33:00] love having and people can go to our Website as well. It's pranarom.com. We'll have some more information and like you mentioned at the beginning it's hard for us in America to share the true medicinal value and uses of plants because it's not legal and so you will find missing information and it's hard to find the truth online. So when you're looking for it, that's why because people would be fined or be cited for saying what we know to be true about plants because it's not what It's not what our country really is up to. But to find that real information we can always give you referrals of great books and we'd love for you to come to personal, public events too so those are sometimes listed on our social media and on our website. So I would love to see everyone.
Ed Jones: Alright, super duper. You are my hero of essential oils Terra.
Terra Johnson: Thank you Ed. It was a wonderful conversation.
Ed Jones: [00:34:00] As I mentioned before we're going to have a one more quick quick interview with someone who has a vast amount of personal experience and also professional education on the use of how she uses essential oils for herself, her family and also educates and advises clients. So Cady Kuhlman, welcome to The Holistic Navigator.
Cady Kuhlman: Thank you so much for having me.
Ed Jones: And as Terra had talked about one point. I keep remembering. Which is, you know, we have a lot of people including in our industry who think everything we sell is totally 100% safe and it's simply not. If used with wisdom it's extremely safe, safer than anything else that humans have ever encountered for personal health Improvement or treatment of issues. But essential oils, you know, even us those of us in the industry tend to diminish the fact that if you have the wrong oil, it could be very bad because of pesticides and everything else. But really she talked about using too much oil in the diffuser [00:35:01] and it could actually cause some irritation and harmfulness in some people's lungs and it could be older older people or very young so tell us like what do you do with your essential oils?
Cady Kuhlman: Yes, definitely. So I'm a new mom and being kind of that new mom and mentality where it's my firstborn child. So I kind of overanalyze and I'm overcautious with everything even though I so believe and trust in the safety of a essential oils, I realize the concentration and the potency of them is something to not mess around with. So what I mean by that is we know that these oils actually do cross the blood-brain barrier. So they're literally entering into our body, into our bloodstream. They're entering in through our skin through our olfactory system. So yes, they have a wonderful smell but they're actually being used as you know medicinal medicine. I mean, they're really really potent. And so [00:36:01] when my son who's now 7 months old was born, I felt really really comfortable with Pranarom because they had educated me and I educated myself to know that you cannot just blast oils in a diffuser with a young baby around. You cannot rub them all over your baby and expect them to be safe. aAnd you really really really need to know what you're doing. So in that Pranarom actually three essential oils that I feel so comfortable using for my child. They are in their literature in their readings. They are deemed safe for above four months and older. So like I said, my seven-month-old now at nighttime, we use the Sleep blend and the Sleep blend has four or five different oils in it: vetiver and lavender and a couple other ones to really kind of help relax and calm the baby in the mind. So I simply put two drops on his little side of his crib. We have a little mobile [00:37:01] that hangs off one side and because he doesn't need to see the mobile while he's sleeping. So it's pointed like off of the crib. I put one drop on each little bear that hangs from it. So that's two drops at night time. Another favorite of mine is their Purify blend. So right now for us it's kind of the sick season and nonetheless, we always have some environmental toxins and things that we could purify from our air. So I use the purify blend. Again part of their kids line for four months and older I use three to four drops that is all in my diffuser and diffuse that as soon as I get home from work and as soon as baby and I are in the house.
Ed Jones: That is such valid and practical advice for people who are listening. I want everyone to know that Cady has one of the most enlightening, passionate Facebook groups called Earth Conscious Mama and what she's doing is going on fire with educating people on how to reduce toxicities in our everyday life and the things I am learning [00:38:01] like the razor blades that women use. I did not realize they had a host of chemicals many of which are outlawed in other countries. And so if you go to Facebook look up Earth Conscious Mama and just sign up and you'll get some of the most amazing little written articles and videos on this topic. And as much as I've spent my whole life focused on holistic Natural health, the world continues to change is very complex and we don't have the time to overanalyze or even really analyze so much so let someone like Cady Kuhlman do that at least for your household goods your Cosmetics your soaps everything of that area.
Cady Kuhlman: And then one point I'd like to make and then use companies like Pranarom that you can trust so you don't have to go and do all the research because I know you know, it was talked about earlier on here, but Pranarom, all organic Eco certified pharmacist backed, really really scientific based essential oils. [00:39:01] So in knowing about this company, you already know you're a step ahead of the game. You're not having to sit there and decipher which company should I use which one is not safe and there's so much literature behind Pranarom. That's why as a first-time mom I can feel confident in my choices of using the essential oils.
Ed Jones: Wonderful. Wonderful, and I know you've been on one other podcast of theHolistic Navigator and it had to do with pregnancy and all of the things that revolve around that. Cady has a master's degree in nutrition and a vast amount of experience. Well, thank you very much Cady, very enlightening and I thank everyone for listening. And again, as I always say I separate the world into two classes Learners and non-learners and I want to give everyone to thumbs up who are listening because you are a learner and that's the only way to stay healthy in this very complex profit-driven world that is not always telling the truth. Thank you, everyone.
Brian Strickland: The information on this podcast in the topics discussed have not been evaluated by the FDA or any one of the medical profession and is not aimed to replace any advice you may receive from your medical practitioner. The Holistic Navigator assumes no responsibility or liability whatsoever on behalf of any purchaser or listener of these materials. The Holistic Navigator is not a doctor or doesn't claim to be please consult your physician before beginning any health regimen.