People who use essential oils claim that there is an essential oil for everything. People who use essential oils will tell you that they have essential oils for sleep, essential oils for energy, essential oils for stress at their disposal, and after looking at the research, that claim actually doesn’t appear all that exaggerated. For years, I was under the impression that essential oils were this New Age, hippie nice smelling sort of thing, but really were insignificant as far as health is concerned. I’ve recently come to learn through exploring the science, that there actually is quite a lot of science on this subject.
This week, I speak with Dr. Eric Zielinski, who is a public health researcher, an aromatherapist, and essential oils guru. He has spent years researching and teaching about essential oils and their efficacy. Dr. Zielinski will teach you how to use essential oils the right way, and he’ll share the best essential oils for energy, sleep, and stress.
In this podcast, you’ll learn
(Note: Dr. Zielinski is also about to release a free Masterclass training on how to use essential oils. You can sign up to get free access HERE.)
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How to use essential oils, and the best essential oils for energy, sleep, and lowering stress – Transcript
Ari Whitten: Hey there, everyone. Welcome back to The Energy Blueprint Podcast. I’m Ari Whitten, and today I am here with Dr. Eric Zielinksi, who is a public health researcher, an aromatherapist, and essential oils, guru. This is an interesting topic to have on the show.
This is actually something that just a few years ago I probably would have thought I would never have on this show because I really didn’t know anything about essential oils at that time. I was under the impression that essential oils were kind of this new age sort of hippy, you know, smell nice, sort of thing, but really was insignificant as far as health. I’ve recently come to learn through exploring the science, that there actually is quite a lot of science on this subject.
So it’s a pleasure to finally have someone on the podcast, you, in particular, Dr. Zielinski, to talk about this subject, which is, I think, a very, very important subject. So welcome to the show, it’s a pleasure to have you.
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Ari, first off, thanks for having me. It’s been just crazy town USA here at my home, and I’m really glad that we were able to carve the time. These things are so important. It’s so important to connect and to talk. I love what you’re doing. You’re a super, super important person in our space.
So I just want to let you know, really the honor’s all mine, and I hope that your tribe and everyone listening really gets just a couple ”aha” and ”wow” moments because essential oils can literally change someone’s life if used the right way. So thanks for having me, man.
Ari Whitten: Yeah, absolutely. So you know, let’s go real basic to get this started off. Well, you know, actually before we even get into the technical specifics, I would love if you could just talk a bit about your background and how you got into essential oils, and how you came to be the essential oils guru that you are today.
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: I didn’t ask for it. I shouldn’t even be on this podcast. I shouldn’t even have a website. I mean, I invested … I went back, I was 26 years old, got married, a couple of years later my wife and I had a crazy idea of quitting our cushy corporate job and studying to become a chiropractor, to open up a health center, and that’s exactly what we did.
But being a researcher at heart and a writer, I fell into the research track at school, I got published in medical journals, I started going towards my Master’s of Public Health at Emory University. I just developed this interesting skillset, and I graduated school not even knowing how to adjust and take care of patients, I was like the go-to researcher in my profession. But funding fell through and I was like, “Whoa, what am I going to do?” You know?
So I started writing and blogging, and I started helping people as a ghostwriter. And one of my clients, this is why it’s important, because one of my clients commissioned me to write a series of public health reports on oils, and that’s when I had my ”aha” moment. Because my wife’s been using oils since we’ve been married, it’s been 11 years, and she has her thing, you know? I just thought, like you, they were smelly stuff, and I marginalized them as for my wife. Like again, I’m not going to go play beach volleyball or basketball with my buddies smelling like ylang-ylang. You know, they’ll take away my man card. So I never did them.
In fact, a few years ago I did try, actually several now, over a decade, I did try oregano for a blemish I had on my skin. Because I went typed up Dr. Google, and Dr. Google told me, like the first couple of posts on top of Google said, “Hey, apply straight neat oregano on your face for pimples.” And I did. And it burned bad. I’m like, “Okay, this stuff ain’t for me.” So fast forward 7, 8, 9, 10 years, and my client asked me to do that, I was wowed. As a researcher, like a trained public health researcher, we’ve been taught how to sift through junk research, real research, data analysis, biostatistics, and I’m like, “This is legit!”
So I realized quickly that 99.9% of the information online, and I hate to say this, for all my friends that are bloggers out there, it’s either inaccurate or everyone’s financially biased because they’re selling X, Y, Z company.
Ari Whitten: You’re speaking specifically on the subject of essential oils.
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Yes. So for all my friends out there and for all of our listeners and viewers, look, I love the fact that you’re trying to make your living selling essential oils, but it’s hard to educate people because you have a financial benefit. So I’m like, you know what, I’m going to do it. I’m going to educate people. Because these things can literally help change your life, and I started seeing story after story after story.
So that’s what we did. We launched an essential oils summit, interviewed experts around the globe, and that’s just catapulted this, you know, a book deal, masterclass coming out. It’s just crazy. It’s just crazy because no one is educating people about oils and not selling them. That’s been my little secret sauce, because look, I just want to help people.
Ari Whitten: Yeah, on that point of other bloggers talking about essential oils, kind of having not such trustable information, I want to point out for you, since I already know this about you, that you have put yourself into a position where you’re not financially tied to any specific essential oil manufacturer, and you’re basically saying, “I want to educate people about oils without any sort of vested interest in convincing them to buy oils from any particular company.”
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Yeah, and that’s been, I say it’s been my secret sauce, because if someone does sell the oil, now they have FDA compliance that’s going to regulate what they say. I can say legally, “Frankincense can kill cancer cells.” Why? Because I have research to prove it. If I sell an oil, now there’s a drug claim.
So at the end of the day, you have millions and millions of people using oils that sell them, that can’t freely speak. The major companies have cracked down on compliance language. So people come to me because they’re like, “Just tell me the truth.”
I mean, when you start talking, we’ll talk about this of course regarding energy, but when you talk about peppermint helping respiratory function, like, what does that mean? But that’s all they’re allowed to say. So my heart goes out to y’all. You know who you are. You know, you distributors and bloggers out there, you know, you’re just stuck, you’re restricted, but I’m not. And I’ve just got to say, supply and demand. I didn’t ask for this, I didn’t want this, but literally, 5 million people come to my website every year, and a lot of them want to learn about essential oils. I’m like, okay, I just have to help.
So I’ve studied now aromatherapy, I went to aromatherapy school, I got the background, I got the knowledge, and I’m just really, really excited to put some myths to bed and explain just safe ways of using it. Because again, we’ve seen literal lives transform. Because medicine oftentimes just doesn’t do it. Or people need more of an integrative approach because dealing with symptoms is such a big issue with people regarding healing. So anyway, there’s a lot we can talk about for sure.
What essential oils are
Ari Whitten: Yeah, so with that said, let’s get right into it. So first of all, I think to start on a basic level for people who were maybe in my shoes a few years ago when I knew nothing about this stuff, and I just thought it was a bunch of hippy-dippy new age nonsense, what the heck are essential oils?
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Essential oils are volatile organic compounds. So what does that mean? Volatile means they evaporate easily, they evaporate readily. Best analogy I can come up with for folks who’ve never heard of it before is, get out if you have, press pause, go to your fridge or wherever you’ve got your fruit, get a lemon, an orange, a grapefruit, get whatever, get a citrus fruit and cut it, cut it in half with a knife. You should smell a citrus aroma.
Well, that is because when you’re cutting the rind, what’s being emitted are literally the volatile organic compounds that are evaporating into the air, and those compounds are physical, you can’t see them, you can’t touch them really, you can’t taste them really, but once they interact with your nasal mucosa, the nerve cells say, “Hey, something’s in the air.” Triggers a response to your brain’s limbic system, and that’s really essentially the power of smell. Those are the volatile organic compounds. They’re everywhere.
So you walk in the arts and crafts store, like Michaels or Jo-Ann Fabrics, and you get hit in the face with that smell of just cinnamon. Well, that’s because there are millions of particles of cinnamon in the air. So what we do is we extract them. The best way to extract them is through steam distillation. So you have a number of different ways that we could do it. So that’s really essentially what they are.
Why essential oils are becoming more and more popular
Ari Whitten: Got you. I feel like in the last, I don’t know, 5, 10 years, there’s been sort of an explosion of popularity of essential oils, and just so many more people talking about them and using them. Why do you think that’s been happening?
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: A couple of reasons. First, we’re getting sicker, and medicine isn’t working. I mean, the conventional medical approach, this symptom-based managed approach isn’t helping people. So yeah, people’s lives are longer on paper, but the quality of life has actually decreased, and that’s proven. So people are looking for solutions, they’re looking for quote “natural” solutions, alternative therapies, and herbs are always one of them that come up.
Whenever you think of herbs you think of oils because oils are in leaves, roots, they’re in, again, the citrus rinds, they’re in tree bark, they’re in so many different aspects of plants. So if you want to extract pure plant medicine, that’s what essential oils are. So they come up over and over and over again.
We have a 6,000-year history of tribal cultures using aromatherapy for incense, ritual purposes. They didn’t even know what they were doing, but they were using oils to get into like transcendental meditative states and things like that. Because again, you burn frankincense resin and it helps you focus, right?
That was the underlying black eyeliner from a lot of Egyptian cultures. So when you go and you see the Pharaohs with the black eyeliner, well, that was charred frankincense. Why? Because it helps produce enlightenment, anti-aging. So we’re basically tapping into this power.
Plus, like I mentioned earlier, you know, we’ve got to give a big prop to the multi-level marketing people. Because about 20-some years ago, a very large multi-level marketing company came out and started selling oils, and they just went crazy, like, unbelievable. Where now it’s a billion dollar industry. And it was Grass Roots. So we are here today because of Grass Roots multi-level marketing. Now you’ve got big box stores like Walmart private labeling oils. Like, when did that happen? Within this last year. So it’s an interesting phenomenon.
How essential oils are made
Ari Whitten: Very, very interesting. So when I met you for the first time, I think six months ago, one of the things that came up was that a lot of people are using these things the wrong way. So I would love if you could talk a bit about the right ways and the wrong ways to use them since it seems to be fairly prevalent that some people are just using these in ways that are dangerous and potentially harmful.
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Yeah, and go back to our citrus analogy. So you have your orange or your grapefruit or lemon in your hand, your lime. That right there, that rind has roughly, if it’s a lemon, for example, that’s roughly two to three, maybe four drops of essential oil in that rind. But how are you going to extract it? So you have to think, you have to extract it in a way where you get a pure essential oil from it and it’s highly concentrated. What you have in your hand is the rind where there’s fiber, there are other chemicals involved, it’s just not straight essential oils.
So you’re not going to walk into a lemon grove and see a pool of lemon. So yeah, they’re natural, but they’re highly manufactured. So the reality is, I don’t believe our bodies were designed to have contact with these oils straight undiluted, just because you can’t find it in nature. So with that said, we need to respect that.
Because people are developing what’s known as sensitization, which is a form of contact dermatitis by applying them right on their skin. Now, it doesn’t happen to everyone. I get this all the time, “Oh, I’ve been using oils for 25 years and I haven’t gotten hurt.” It’s the same thing as hearing some old guy saying, “I’ve been smoking Marlboro since I was 10.” And he’s 100 years old and no cancer. I don’t care, you don’t want to be that person.
So I will show you report after report after report of people hurting themselves. Because, again, they’re super concentrated. It takes 40 lemons just to get a bottle of lemon; 30 pounds of lavender. Think of it, 30 pounds of lavender, think of it! 30 pounds of lavender flowers to get an itty-bitty 15-milliliter bottle of lavender. That’s a lot! So you think about that.
So I want to instill it in everyone just to respect, to recognize, likewise, you’re not going to go to Walgreens or your pharmacy and get an over-the-counter drug and then just take a handful because you want to. You need to look at the instruction manual and you need to kind of understand how to use these things.
Ari Whitten: So applying the oils directly to the skin, not a good idea.
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Not unless they’re diluted, no; no, no, no.
How to use essential oils the right way
Ari Whitten: Okay, so the options for how to use them are, you can apply them to the skin or maybe to the hair, to other parts of the body, but in a diluted form with other oils, and then there are options for diffusing them into the air. Are those pretty much the two methods of delivery? Is there anything else?
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Yeah, there are three primarily: internal use, very controlled internal use is a great way not only enhance the flavor of your food and get a minor medicinal dose in your culinary preparations but to use capsules. There’s a number of things that you could do. But yeah, a lot of folks that we’ve worked with and helped, they’re getting off their blood pressure meds and things just because using … It’s great for inflammation for people with fibromyalgia or autoimmune disorders that have chronic inflammation. We know inflammation is the buzzword for everyone in our space. But they can help.
So there’s topical, internal, and then inhalation through a number of ways. There are a ton, there are inhalers, there are spritzers, there are diffusers. You know, like being a kid again, Vic’s vapor rub and a hot bowl and putting a tent over your head and breathing that. You could do that with eucalyptus. So there’s a number of things. But yeah, when it comes to topical use, topical in my opinion is the best way of using them because studies have shown that the volatile organic compounds in essential oils are so light, they actually are permeable transdermal, they permeate the skin into the bloodstream.
So if you were to apply, let’s say lavender oil, which is the formal study back in 1991 I believe it was, a 1.5%, and I’ll explain this in just a minute what that means, but a 1.5% dilution over a male patient’s abdomen. They applied that and massaged it into his stomach, over this stomach, just again, an ointment, just like you’re going to the massage therapist.
They tested this guy’s blood for linalyl and linalyl acetate, which are the two chemicals that really make you calm and they’re the sedative properties that we love and appreciate about lavender. They found within five minutes that they could detect the chemicals in the guy’s blood. Within 20 minutes the full concentration was there. Here’s the kicker, after an hour and a half, they’re gone. Which means the body completely metabolized these compounds, these plant-based compounds.
So what do we do? I like to apply it topically because, a, we know it penetrates to the cellular level, but also you get the inhalation benefit. It’s a two for one deal, it really is. Another aspect of it, you save your money, like literally, because they’re volatile they evaporate, so you can apply a drop right on your skin and they start to evaporate out, you’re literally throwing your money away.
The best carrier oils for essential oils
So when you dilute it with a carrier oil, it could be coconut oil, jojoba, almond oil, olive oil, it doesn’t matter, any oil to kind of just, again, dilute it, that helps prevent evaporation, creates more of a seal, opens up the pores so the pores will absorb it better, and it also makes it so you’re not putting the straight concentration on your skin, because you could burn yourself, I’ve done it. Again, my oregano example.
So yeah, just safe and effective use. There are max dermal usages, there are safety guidelines for all that stuff. But for the average user, you know, six drops per tablespoon is a good way to start. I mean, six drops per tablespoon is just about a 2% dilution and that’s safe for most people, most ages.
If you’re going below two years old, then I would only do two or three drops per tablespoon, because a baby, 1% max is usually what we recommend, because the baby’s skin is so sensitive and they’re like sponges anyway. You know, you have a boy. So I just want to be careful. But at the end of the day, yeah, I mean, the sky’s the limit.
Ari Whitten: By the way, I’ve burned myself too. You know, I first started to encounter the research on this stuff and then I was like, “Oh, I’m just going to start using it and putting it on my skin.” You know, I had no idea of any of the stuff that you needed to dilute it, that these were potentially harmful if directly applied, and so on. They’re powerful stuff, and you do have to be careful with it.
So, one distinction I want to make, and we’ve already alluded to it a bit, but I just want to make this clear is, I think a lot of people often think of essential oils as something in the air, something that you smell, and kind of it’s a scent.
But these are things that are actually getting into our bodies, getting into our bloodstream, and having effects, much like a food, much like herbal medicines that you would take orally. What kinds of effects are these having? I know that’s a really big question because it’s diverse and totally different depending on which oil we’re talking about. But can you give people an idea of different kinds of effects these types of oils are having once they enter the body and enter the bloodstream?
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Yeah, you know, I think this is a good time to step back just a minute, I should have mentioned this earlier, most medicine that we have today is based off of the chemical compounds of what we find in plants. It’s not like a chemist.
My father-in-law’s an agro-scientist, like a Ph.D. chemist, like it’s not like they just invent chemical structures. What they do is like, “Oh, look at the birch tree, the birch tree has some really good analgesic properties. Why don’t we hack into that and create a white pill and let’s call it aspirin.” That’s essentially what happens. Again, I’m sorry, that’s a dumbed down version.
I don’t mean to offend my chemist friends out there. But essentially, every drug on the market is based off of a chemical compound that we find in the plant. What are those chemical compounds? They’re the essential oils.
So when you think of it that way, every single physiological measure on the body be traced back to a plant-based compound, and if we can extract that plant-based compound, that’s what we try to do in my world. So anything, I mean, pain-killing, inflammation, cancer-fighting, mood-boosting, appetite suppression, energy.
I mean, the sky’s the limit. Because again, we can find for virtually every ailment on the planet, we could find some sort of, I’m not saying antidote, but we have some sort of natural approach through plants, that’s the bottom line, it’s just plant medicine.
What science really says about essential oils
Ari Whitten: Yeah. So there’s obviously a lot of claims online about, so and so oil is good for this, good for that. What in your opinion are, and again understanding that this is a big question and you’re going to do a very condensed answer here, but what in your opinion are the most well-established kind of research findings about the actual effects of certain oils?
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Yeah, so, you know, let’s step back for a moment when it comes to the effects, this is a conundrum in research anyway, are the mechanism. So I mean, research has shown, and cancer’s a good example, they are apoptotic, they will cause cancer to kill itself, like apoptosis, programmed cell death. They’re anti-angiogenic, which means they’ll actually cause cancer cell blood vessels to shrink. Why? No one knows. But the same thing could be said for a lot of medicine.
So at the end of the day, when it comes to the mechanism, I don’t know, I almost think that’s kind of like the mystery of God, like we’re not here to figure out every aspect of everything, but we have done clinical trials, so when it comes down to it, the research that we have, especially in the last 20 years, centers a lot about the brain, a lot about mood, a lot about sleep, anxiety, stress.
We’re seeing more and more when it comes to other more advanced topics, and I don’t want to say advanced, but they weren’t as common maybe 20, 30 years ago. Like now everyone has diabetes or is pre-diabetic, or everyone’s now overweight or will be overweight. Now one in two people has cancer.
So as chronic disease skyrockets in industrial countries, we’re seeing more research supporting those types of things, if that makes sense? So tons of research on lavender, and we just know, by and large, it’s this very calm, very sedative, actually, helps the brain, helps the body just relax, you sleep better. But there are so many different things. I mean, we could oil and oil to oil. But at the end of the day, there’s a slogan in the multi-level marketing world, it kind of irks me, but it’s there for a reason, it says, “There’s an oil for that.” Like that’s the mindset.
You know what, you challenge me, I could find research to support one way or another almost anything that’s most common. I guess we have really esoteric diseases, and I get this all the time, like someone says, “Yeah, I got this, you know, this very rare melanoma. What do I do?” I don’t know, but here’s what the research does say about skin cancer. Or here’s what the research does say about the athletic performance. So at the end of the day, we cover all the major bases with plant-based medicine and essential oils just go along with it.
The best essential oils for energy, essential oils for sleep, and essential oils for stress
Ari Whitten: So let’s talk about, you know, for my audience, people generally suffering from fatigue issues and looking to increase their energy levels, there are obviously a number of different ways we could go at that and kind of examine things that might be helpful to those people, I mean, sleep enhancing essential oils are definitely a big one a lot of people with chronic fatigue have sleep issues, direct sort of brain boosting, mood boosting things, things that have stimulant properties and help you perform better cognitively or physically.
But you know, I guess, you take it from here. What do you think might be, let’s say three or four really nice oils for people dealing with fatigue looking to improve their sleep, improve their mood, improve their energy levels?
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Cool. Let me answer this quick and then I have a question for you that I think will be a really good exercise for people to kind of see where my mindset is, how to really customize this. So, quick off the cuff, mood: citrus oils, proven by far, they’re antidepressants by and large; citrus, orange, lime, lemon, grapefruit, bergamot, they’re awesome. Sleep, we got it, vetiver, we have lavender, we have just really nice calming chamomile, awesome. Peppermint, spearmint, wintergreen, oils that have been shown to boost athletic performance because they increase the airways, you get deeper breaths, increase your blood flow, so that’s good just as a large. So just want to throw that out there for people, just want to spit that out.
But I have a question for you because, Ari, what I try to do is like, “Okay, why are you fatigued?” So when I get down to it, like, okay yeah, I just gave you literally, I think, 10 oils to help with these different things. But why aren’t you sleeping well? Why are you depressed? So let me ask you this, because if you’re listening right now and if you do deal with chronic fatigue, what is the root cause? My suggestion would be, let’s use a nutrition, exercise, essential oils based approach to managing the root cause.
In the meantime, I get it, symptoms suck. No one wants to be in pain, no one wants to be depressed, no one wants low libido. So yeah, we could use … This is where I really think essential oils are the best thing on the market for symptom-based management. We don’t talk a lot about symptoms in the functional space, right? Everyone doesn’t want to talk about that. Everyone’s root cause, I get that. But at the end of the day, I’d rather you used an essential oil versus an over-the-counter just deal with symptoms.
Ari Whitten: 100%.
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Yeah, so we’ll talk about symptoms. But let me ask you, what do you think? I guess that’s so hard, but what’s the number one cause of fatigue?
Ari Whitten: You know, I wouldn’t say there is a number one cause. I would say that there are lots of different potential triggers. So there can be nutritional deficiencies and toxicities that are triggers, circadian rhythm and sleep issues that are triggers, toxicity issues that are triggers. You know, I just had a woman email me this morning saying that she was the victim of an environmental accident, I think back in the 1980s in the UK, where there was a huge incident of aluminum poisoning into the public water supply.
I mean, things like that can be, by themselves even, irrespective of any other lifestyle factor, can be a cause of chronic fatigue syndrome for some people.
Obviously psychological stress, trauma can be issues. Lack of hormesis, lack of things that are metabolic stimulators and mitochondria builders. I kind of break things down into a number of those issues, also gut issues, dysbiosis, leaky gut, things like that. So there are lots of potential triggers and certain people may have more, one or two of those that I just mentioned, and other people may have different ones. The way I teach things, they all kind of coalesce into mitochondrial dysfunction of some sort. So that’s kind of my general paradigm of the root causes of chronic fatigue.
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: So let’s approach the poor lady who suffered that biochemical accident in the ’80s, right? So she’s convinced of some sort of toxic overload. She needs maybe help detoxing or some sort to facilitate that. I would argue, and I know that’s kind of a buzzword too, what does detoxing really mean?
But at the end of the day, we are inundated, we’re inundated by toxic chemicals. So one thing, I think, everyone needs to recognize is, your skin literally is a sponge and your skin will absorb chemicals. We’ve seen, the Environmental Working Group has done baby cord blood studies, like umbilical cord studies, and they’ve found hundreds, like literally over 200 chemicals in the cord blood.
How to use essential oils for detoxing
Like, how did that get there? Because mom is putting on … Again, mom’s not a crack addict. Mom’s not smoking here. We’re talking an average mom who’s just living an average life, and she’s applying chemicals on her skin from her Bath and Body Works lotion and potions, and things like that, and she’s eating foods with pesticides or genetically modified organisms, and she’s breathing air.
So when it comes down to it for anyone, especially when it comes to it, I think everyone that has an energy issue could benefit from minimizing the environmental toxins that they have control of, and that first is meaning you have to start to do it yourself as much as you possibly can. Now yeah, you go to my home, and it’s a little overwhelming for the novice to see what my wife and I have developed over the last 11 years, and you’re like, “Wow, we make all these different things!” But yeah, it’s taken us over a decade to do.
But you know, making your own hand sanitizer is a good first step. I mean, if I have a public enemy number one, it’s hand sanitizer, which still has triclosan, which has been a registered pesticide since 1969 in it, dries up your skin, absolutely annihilates your skin microbiome, which is your first layer of your immune system.
So if there’s anything someone can do now is stop using hand sanitizer, make your own, super easy to do, and start to go one by one by one. Start making your own products, start buying essential oil based products that will minimize the toxicity that you’re putting in your body.
Then you can go one step further, do a detox bath. You know, a little bit of Epsom salts, a little bit of carrier oil, a couple of drops of lavender and lemon. That right there just stimulates the lymphatic flow, helps your body actually purge itself of just some chemicals.
You’ll be surprised to see what’s actually in the water after you leave. You know, there’s a lot of things you can do. Some oils are actually iron chelators, so if you know you have heavy metal poisoning, clove is a good one.
Clove is just one that really sticks out a lot because it’s high in antioxidants. So there’s a lot that you could do when it comes to literal detoxing. But to me, it’s stopping, stop the bleeding, right? Put on the band-aid, and then going forward. Everyone can benefit from that, you know?
Ari Whitten: Yeah, absolutely. So I think that’s a brilliant first step in this. So start making your own hand sanitizers. I mean, actually before that, stop the bleeding, as you said, stop putting on toxic stuff onto your body and try to become more conscious of limiting exposures to various toxins in our environment. Understanding that it’s going to be impossible to completely eliminate everything, but you can greatly minimize that.
Then I love what you said, just start making simple things start making some of your own products, like hand sanitizer, that are non-toxic.
So what else? How can we build on that? What other steps can people take to start integrating essential oils into their life?
The difference between pure essential oils and synthetic oils
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: You know, now’s a really good time to keep in mind and to remember, if you’ve never heard this before, essential oils are everywhere. So anything you smell, anything you taste, it’s all over the place. Your peppermint mint patties, your lemon bars that you get at the store, your Glade plugins. Here’s the difference, and this is why I just want to put this out, because people don’t even realize, Ari, how exposed they are, anything that has a synthetic smell or anything that has a fragrance to it, if it’s not a pure essential oil, it’s a synthetic knockoff, which has been linked to neurocognitive disorders, which has been linked to cancer, and a slew of other health problems. So first it’s just recognizing that.
Ari Whitten: Yeah, on that note, you know, it’s funny because I’ve been a health conscious person for so long and I’ve also been someone that’s very sensitive to synthetic chemical smells. Like, when I walk by somebody using convention perfumes, I mean, for me it’s like this overwhelming, like, how does somebody walk around with that on their body all the time? It kind of blows my mind.
But one of the other things that I encounter sometimes when I go to people’s houses or I stay in Airbnbs and things like that when I’m traveling, is these Glade plugins that you mentioned.
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Yep, they’re all over.
Ari Whitten: It is insane to me that people can have these in their house and be inhaling these fumes of chemicals, which have known toxicity, and not even be aware of it. There’s this real disconnect that I think a lot of people have, which is, we think of smells as just like, they’re just smells, they’re these things that we smell but we don’t realize that if you’re smelling something in the air, that’s a chemical that’s now getting into your lungs and into your blood and is being absorbed into your body, and you now have small amounts of those chemicals actually in your bloodstream being delivered to your cells. But yeah, I mean, it’s just crazy that people have exposures to things like that all the time and they’re totally unaware of it.
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: To me it’s a testimony to the miraculous adaptive ability that our bodies have. Same thing, and I know you’re an advocate of not having people consume sugar. And as people stop, just simple, stop white sugar, stop your ketchup, stop your junk, your taste-buds will literally change. I can’t go back to that stuff. I remember Armani, I remember my Glade plug ins, I remember Febreze. That was part of my life. Once I stopped it, it took a little while to adapt, but then my body kind of got back to being a baby again and being pure again, and my taste-buds are back how they should be, my skin is back. I can’t go to the store, I’ll get itches. I’ll either get rashes or itches or other things. It’s not like my skin is bad, it’s just my skin has gotten to the point where it’s lost its adaptive ability because I’ve been feeding it good stuff.
The same way, if you want a good example of a pure human as much as possible, a baby, an actual infant. My friend who developed a non-toxic laundry solution because his son developed eczema all over his body right after he was born, and they found out it was because of the toxic chemicals in the soap that they were using in the laundry detergent. So once they stopped the laundry detergent, this baby got quote “miraculously better”. Nothing helped, nothing helped, all the creams, all the drugs that the doctors were giving the baby. So it was just that little switch.
But yeah, just recognizing, folks, it’s really important. Not to get freaked out. I mean, again, I’m careful, but when we go to the mall I’m staying away from certain stores because I know I’ll get a headache, I know I’ll get a headache.
But here’s the thing, you become more cognizant, more aware of your body, like you mentioned disconnect, once you’re connected to yourself better you understand how you’re more responsive to maybe how do I approach deeper issues like mood imbalance or trauma or disease, dare I say? Because we’re so disconnected. But once you do get connected … And it’s just simple stuff like that, you know, create a pure environment where you’re not getting all that fake stuff. Because at the end of the day, just trust me, folks, synthetic essential oils are everywhere.
What do you think your Coca-Cola is flavored with? It’s a proprietary blend of essential oils, right? But it’s synthetic, it’s not good for you.
So at the end of the day, that’s it. To me, it’s awareness, first step, and then start to go slowly. You know, you’ll start to really enjoy food better, you start to smell better, your skin gets healthier, your energy levels just … Here’s a cool thing, especially for you, Ari, this is your wheelhouse, your energy naturally increases as you minimize your toxic burden. You don’t even have to do anything besides all this other stuff. You don’t have to focus. Then once you start focusing on your blueprint and on your best practices, it’s like you become Mr. and Mrs. America. It’s just like, boom! You can do it.
So anyway, that’s a really good practical step is, throw away, literally, if you’re listening right now you are part of the 1% of the world who care about themselves, who are educating themselves and following a great man, educated man through Ari and his work, throw away every synthetic aerosol, Glade plug in, or whatever. Don’t give them away, throw them away, please.
Ari Whitten: So you know, I love that you said that, and I will also mention that in my Energy Blueprint program actually the first foundational step that I take people through is stopping the bleeding, as you call it, which is minimizing, eliminating this toxic load.
In hindsight, I think, I don’t even know if I mentioned the Glade plug ins. I know I mentioned perfumes and some of the other things that people put on their body. But I mean, these air fresheners and things that people use, the aerosols in their house are really problematic.
One point that I’m interested if you know more details about, you know, you mentioned synthetic essential oils and things like that in Coca-Cola and Glade plug ins and a lot of these other things. Do you know of any research on those chemicals? What kinds of chemicals they’re actually using and if there’s research showing toxicity of those?
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Oh yeah, oh yeah. They are synthetic, I mean, they’re very similar, almost identical to the actual plant structure, but they’re synthetic versions of them. Like I said, literally, cancer, neurotoxicity like Alzheimer’s, dementia, they’ve been linked to that.
Unfortunately, here’s a problem, you don’t have a lot of industry-based studies, we don’t have a lot of money behind us. So we have several studies overseas and a few studies in-house in America that are actually willing to do this kind of research. But we’ve got to remember they’re everywhere, and I mean, this is really kind of stepping on some governmental big brother, big sister toes here, because 50% of all the oils that are manufactured are used by the food and flavor industry.
I mean, just think about that. For all of our aromatherapy lovers and all of our multi-level marketing distributors, you’re only consuming 2% of the oils on the market as a whole. Where are the other oils coming from? Cosmetics, the other oils, industrial cleaners, and other things, because they’re so potent, they’re great for cleaning. You know, your Goo Gone or whatever it is, your orange sprays, I mean these are just again synthetic versions.
The problem is the body can’t metabolize them. Going back to that study I shared in 1991, that male patient, his body completely metabolized those oils, they couldn’t detect the linalyl and the linalyl acetate. So there are knockoff versions of each of the chemicals that we like. You know, there are knockoff versions of them that you’ll find.
To throw this out there, I don’t want to scare people, but we need to be educated and realize that it’s really easy to adulterate and create synthetic essential oils via chemist, and 75% plus of the oils that you will find on the market, at the shelves of the stores that you shop at, are fake. So that’s been proven as well. That’s tough to swallow because you can’t trust the quote “pure label” that it says. It might say pure, it might say whatever it is. You can’t trust an organic label. We could talk later about how to choose the right company, but you’ve got to just recognize that it’s really easy and it’s cost-effective to create these fake versions, these synthetics. There’s so much more, there’s a lot with immune compromise. We have just scratched the surface of what these chemicals can really do for us.
How the body is able to detect whether you are exposed to an essential oil or a synthetic oil
Ari Whitten: Now let me play devil’s advocate for just a moment here. If you’re saying these are … And I know that probably certain skeptics in the audience are thinking this right now if you’re saying these oils are essentially chemically very similar to the natural essential oils, and they’re fake essential oils. I mean, let me put it this way, if they are identical chemical molecules, why are they actually acting differently in our bodies? Or are they identical chemical molecules?
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Yeah, I mean, in theory, they are identical. This is where I’m not even going to make up an answer because this is beyond my ability to understand. Talking to the chemists and interviewing them for my book and my summits, you can make near-exact duplicates, but a synthetic molecule, the body has this innate understanding, this innate ability to detect what’s natural and what’s not. I can’t describe it. I can’t.
Ari Whitten: It’s got to be like cis-trans isomers and like alpha-lipoic acid, if you use the wrong isomer the body doesn’t recognize it in the right way, but they’re essentially identical but sort of mirror images, and if they’re organized in just the wrong way the body doesn’t recognize it the right way. I mean, that’s the only explanation I could think of if the molecules are essentially identical but not having the same effects.
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, we see this in so many other industries of people, mass creating chemicals that just don’t respond in the way that they do in nature in a number of other ways as well. So yeah, it’s profound, if you think of it. To me, some things I like a mystery. I don’t know. I think something … I know that’s kind of where you and I differ in that standpoint. I like the mystery of it. I’m like, you know what, I don’t get it, it’s the way God created me, I think it’s cool, let’s figure out the application of it. But yeah, it is profound. Chemicals just don’t work. People will never be able to do what we have out there out in the field.
So with that said, forgive the dumbed down explanation of it, but there are literally, and I’m almost ashamed to say this, there are literally just a handful or two people that could even answer that question. I mean, essential oil chemistry is such a niche field. Not many people do it, not many people understand it. Like, when it comes down to it, there are very few essential oil experts in the world too, because you really need to understand chemistry at a deep level, and there’s only a few, I know them and there’s like a handful of them. So with that said, it’s a very fascinating field.
The first step to learning about essential oils
Ari Whitten: Yeah. So you know, just to recap some of the most important takeaways for people, you mentioned a number of oils that are good for practical uses for sleep, for performance enhancement, for cognitive enhancement, mood enhancement and so on. We talked about minimizing toxic load and starting to replace some of those products with natural essential oil-based products. Is there anything else you want to add as an important first step that people might take?
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: You know, I would encourage people to get your hands on, I have them on my website if you want it or we could share a link I’m sure, is get a good chart that explains the dilutions, what to use, how to use it, and age groups. Just get the foundation down, get the basics down. Comb on my website, kind of check out a couple different posts and articles, get your aromatherapy 101 down pat. It doesn’t take a lot of time.
I want to put the onus on people a little bit because we got lazy and we just want people to tell us what to do, and we want to go to the doctor and we want the doctor to prescribe a pill, and that’s also something that’s very profound and proven. The number of patients is sheer astounding of who demand an antibiotic for something that they are not even necessitated to get an antibiotic for. So as a culture we’re demanding that doctors tell us what to do and give us a solution.
I want to say you could figure this out, you know, you can do this. I really want to see more people start to educate themselves. Before you dive in, do a little homework, do a little homework, because at the end of the day, the government, our healthcare provider, our insurance, our family members, no one’s responsible for our health but us. So there is a little bit of legwork involved. There is a little bit of trial and error.
You need to do skin patch tests and you need to kind of test your body first before you just, again, go right into it. But at the end of the day, just recognize that the effort is far worth it because you’ll start seeing yourself going to the doctors less, figuring out, now this is where it gets really cool when you start figuring stuff out on your own.
Because it’s like, my wife calls it her Betty Crocker kitchen, like she’s just testing stuff out, or her Betty Crocker test kitchen, like when we make recipes, it’s kind of what you have to do with your health.
You have people like Ari and me to give you guidance, but at the end of the day, we really, really, really don’t know exactly what you need to do, and only your body knows, because we’re biochemically individual and we’re unique.
So with that said, I’m telling you, that’s why I put together my masterclass and my book, just to give people just the principles. Once you get that down, you’ll be in so much of a better position to communicate with your healthcare provider to handle your family’s health. That to me, Ari, is empowerment.
I never felt more empowered than being able to take care of my kid’s fever, than rushing them to the ER. That’s when you become self-sustaining, and that’s when you start thinking about, “Oh, I could grow my own food. I could make my own stuff.” It’s like, “Whoa, look how powerful I am as a person!”
That’s kind of where we don’t talk a lot about the woo-woo aspect of just positive thinking and empowerment, but we have the unbelievable ability to do anything that we want to do. That’s the kicker. At the end of the day, I don’t see any substance that’s so easy to get, so easy to access like essential oils, that could put you in a place that you’re in control. You’re in control of your health, you’re in control of your emotions, you’re in control of your love life, you’re in control of these things.
How? Let’s figure it out. So that’s where I just want to encourage people, because that to me is the true healing power of essential oils, and all that you recommend, all your advice, all your blueprint, that’s what happens to people, is that their lives change. So when I say essential oils can change your life, I’m not being facetious. They could change your life.
Ari Whitten: Beautifully said. So I love that. So we’re going to put the links in the show notes for this page, which is going to be at theenergyblueprint.com/essential-oils. Then we’re going to have the link to the dilution chart that you just talked about. Also, I think you have some important stuff around which brands to choose, and I know that there’s a lot of brands out there that are not producing high-quality oils. So really important if somebody’s going to start to dabble in essential oils, to get trusted, high-quality brands.
Then the last thing is your upcoming free training and your book that’s about to come out. So where can people get a hold of those? We’re going to have links on the show notes page. But just talk a bit about what you have going on because I know you have some big stuff that’s coming right around the corner here.
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Yeah, thanks. We have a book, The Healing Power Of Essential Oils is actually available anywhere books are sold. We cover all the basics, all the detail, and we actually go into advanced strategies for conditions like autoimmune disorders, so many things. Actually, I have a whole chapter for athletes. So I imagine a lot of your patients or a lot of your clients are athletes or want to be athletes, so they’ll get a lot from there.
So the book for sure, but I have a masterclass. It’s a 10 part video masterclass that we literally walk people through every step of the process, like how to use oils internally, how to properly create those preparations, how to cook with them, how to make your DIY stuff, how to use them for advanced protocols and strategies like cancer and other things. So that’s coming up. When’s this going to air? When’s this interview going to air?
Ari Whitten: This is going to air right before your book launch and your masterclass, or maybe just after it starts so that we should be able to put links on the page to both of those things.
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Cool.
Ari Whitten: I’ll also be sending emails out to everyone on my email list about your free masterclass training and your book.
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Yeah, take advantage of it. It’s absolutely completely free. Just do it. Just do it and learn and learn. Spend the time, the videos are short, 20 minutes a pop times 10 is 200 minutes. Give me 200 minutes and you’ll know all that you need to know. I’m telling you it’ll be the best 200 minutes that you’ve spent in a long time because you’re going to learn a lot more about other things than just essential oils. So thanks, man, thanks for having me, I really appreciate it.
Ari Whitten: Yeah, it’s been a pleasure. This discussion was a lot of fun. I know a lot of people in the audience are going to find this extremely fascinating and really beneficial. So dig deeper, everyone listening, dig deeper. Go grab the book, sign up for the free masterclass training. You’ll be getting emails from me on this stuff. You can go to the show notes page: theenergyblueprint.com/essential-oils. All the links will be there. Dr. Zielinski, thank you so much for your time and sharing your wisdom and brilliance with my audience. I really, really appreciate it, and it’s been so fun having you on.
Dr. Eric Zielinzki: Awesome, Ari. You’re welcome, and pleasure’s mine, my friend. God bless.
Ari Whitten: Yeah, take care, brother. All right.
Dr. Zielinski’s New Free Essential Oils Masterclass Training.
You can sign up HERE.
How to use essential oils, and the best essential oils for energy, sleep, and lowering stress – Show Notes
How companies are controlling what we can say about essential oils (5:00)
What essential oils are (7:04)
Why essential oils are becoming more and more popular (8:38)
How essential oils are made (10:46)
How to use essential oils the right way (13:20)
The best carrier oils for essential oils (16:02)
What science really says about essential oils (27:02)
The difference between pure essential oils and synthetic oils (30:13)
How the body is able to detect whether you are exposed to an essential oil or a synthetic oil (39:10)
The first step to learning about essential oils (42:01)
