Today I present the fifth in an on-going series of misconceptions that can literally kill you. Today's misconception focuses on the myth of the cancer curing properties of essential oils. Before getting into the details, let me be very clear that essential oils have ZERO cancer curing properties. They do nothing of the sort.
As described on Wikipedia "an essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants." In other words, it's a liquid that smells. Maybe it's a pleasant smell or maybe it isn't. This depends on the user. If you want to purchase them to make your room smell nice, feel free to do that. However, there are probably far cheaper ways to make your room smell nice than essential oils. Essential oils tend to have a higher price tag due to their "healing properties". Again, essential oils have no healing properties. The problem with essential oils is too many argue essential oils can heal pretty much any ailment known to humans, including cancer. This is where the danger comes in.
If someone decides on an alternative treatment to cure cancer, this is a problem. Essential oils provide almost no help to any ailment, let alone cancer, other than often smelling pleasant. Western medicine is ALWAYS the better option. Cancer treatments can be expensive and too often cancer patients are duped into spending money on essential oil treatments that do nothing. If they are receiving traditional chemotherapy and radiation at the same time, the chances of any harm by essential oils is limited. But if patients forego chemotherapy and radiation in favor of essential oils, the essential oils will literally kill them via medical inaction.
The harm is not a direct result of essential oil use, but the indirect result of skipping known medical treatments that work in favor of some more "holistic healing". If the word "holistic" is in the treatment plan, run away. Run far away! It's possible essential oils may have a direct negative effect on an individual. If you do a search for essential oil harm, there are all sorts of stories of skin burns and other serious injuries and possible deaths. None of these sites is what I would consider a reputable, evidence based research site, so I'm not sure what, if any, direct harm there is from essential oils. What I will say, again, is that essential oils do harm as a result of people using them in place of known medicine. This is why the misconception of essential oils having healing powers can literally kill.
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