Why I Make My Own Toothpaste

Following up with my last post about the homemade toothpaste and how it saved the day after Harlee's fire ant attack, I said I'd share why I started making my own toothpaste.

There are several different factors, but mainly, conventional toothpaste has a lot of crap in it.  Fluoride being the main one.  It's not good for you, people.  But there is a lot of other junk in toothpaste too that really shouldn't be put in our mouths.  If you don't want to make your own toothpaste, there are several natural options on the market.  Here are a few ingredients to avoid when shopping for toothpaste or any other body care or personal hygiene products:

Fluoride

Fluoride is highly toxic.  It used to be used in rat poison as it is slightly more toxic than lead and slightly less toxic than arsenic.  The FDA requires fluoride toothpaste manufacturers to include a warning on their labels to contact poison control if more than what is required for brushing is swallowed.

A lot of health concerns and problems can arise from too much fluoride consumption, including but not limited to arthritis, bone/skeletal issues and disorders, thyroid problems, endocrine problems, fertility problems, gastrointestinal issues, and neurological issues.  Fluoride has also been discovered to be a mutagen, which means it can cause genetic damage.  Genetic damage can lead to the growth of cancers.  Fluoride is most linked to osteosarcoma, or bone cancer, which develops during the teenage years.  Fluoride has also been found to accumulate in the pineal gland in the brain, which can have many adverse affects including sleep disturbances and early onset of puberty in females.

So why is this stuff added to our drinking water??  And why is it also added to our toothpaste??  Well, some research has shown that fluoride helps prevent cavities and tooth decay.  This may or may not be true, but adding fluoride to water for this reason started back in the 1940s.  It's since been discovered that swallowing fluoride doesn't have any affect on dental health, yet the practice of adding fluoride to drinking water hasn't  really stopped since then.

Even if fluoride does help prevent tooth decay when applied topically, I'd still prefer to avoid it, knowing how toxic it is and seeing how many health problems can arise from too much of it.  I'm definitely not taking chances on my kids, who invariably swallow their toothpaste instead of spitting it out.

Triclosan

"Triclosan is an ingredient added to many consumer products to reduce or prevent bacterial contamination."  Studies have shown that triclosan is a hormone disrupter, which can effect the thyroid, cause learning disabilities, and can lead to infertility or breast/prostate cancer.  As if that's not bad enough, triclosan can also create antibiotic resistant bacteria, meaning if you come down with an infection and take antibiotics for it, the antibiotics won't be effective in killing off the bacteria.  Antibiotic-resistant bacteria has been the cause of over 60,000 deaths each year.

It's not just in toothpaste, either.  It's in antibacterial hand sanitizers and soaps, many body care products, cosmetics, even clothing, furniture, and toys!

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate

This is a cleansing agent and detergent that can damage eyes and irritate skin.  It can stay in the body for up to five days and accumulate in the heart, liver, lungs, and brain.  It can even be carcinogenic (cancer-causing) when combined with other chemicals.

Propylene Glycol

This stuff is everywhere.  It's the active ingredient in antifreeze.  Interestingly enough, the EPA won't allow its workers to handle it without wearing protective gear, yet it's perfectly acceptable to slather it on our bodies in soaps or scrub it into our gums (and how many of you brush your tongues too?).  It's in lotions, sprays and colognes, cosmetics, even personal lubricants.  It can be rapidly absorbed into the skin and can cause some big problems for the brain, liver, kidneys, and other organs.

Polyethelene Microbeads

Plastic.  Tiny little plastic microbeads that are intended to be a mild abrasive to help whiten teeth.  Instead they get embedded into your gums and between your teeth and cause more harm than good.  They're also in scrubs and body washes as an exfoliant.  But it's not just your gums it's harming, it's the environment too, as they slip through water treatment plants and spill into our waterways, lakes and oceans.  Fish eat the microbeads and the pollutants in them, and then in turn they work their way up the food chain back to humans.

Intermittent Fasting

A great thing has happened in my life!  I saw a commercial for Dell where you can buy a laptop and get a free TV, so Justin and I decided to just go for it, let's get a new laptop.  The old one works okay-ish, it's just super slow and frustrating when I try to use it for photo editing and whatnot.  So the new laptop came, the old one moved to my office, and now during my freetime at work I can finally BLOG again!!  I'm so happy!  I've missed this so much, but at home there are things higher on my priority list than sitting at the computer typing my thoughts about healthy lifestyles.  For instance, actually living the healthy lifestyle I talk about is important.  Instilling that in my kids, teaching them about good food and natural healing, staying healthy and what to do to take care of your body when you do get sick.  I grew up with a natural healing mindset, and that's why I have a broad spectrum of knowledge on it today.  I want that same thing for my kids.

Anyway!  Gosh, so much has happened since I last blogged... We took a family vacation to Myrtle Beach, we went camping, Justin and I ran our first official 5k in two years, and in the meantime I've been really encouraging Harlee's interest in cooking, too, as my Facebook friends have probably noticed with all the "Chef Harlee" videos ^_^.  I've tried and invented new recipes, learned new bits of information, discovered new remedies, so it's hard to narrow down my list of things to share on this blog and choose just one for this post.  I figured I'd just follow up with my last post, in which I mentioned intermittent fasting.  Then I'll go from there!

Intermittent Fasting

I've been giving the intermittent fasting thing a try, and I must say I'm sold.  There is a lot of information out there to back up why it's so effective, and according to my results, I'd say it's working.  I wanted to be sure to share this information with you and tell you about my experience.  Because, guess what?  It's a super easy way to lose weight!  Who doesn't want that??  But there are more important things to it than just losing weight, which makes it even better.

Here's the article from The Paleo Mom that I shared in my last post (I may have talked about Sarah, "The Paleo Mom" before, but I'll just briefly mention that I love her articles, she takes a very unbiased, scientific approach to things, backing her work with tons of research, and she's got an impressive educational background to support it).  I'll share a few tidbits from that article in this post.

What Is It?

Intermittent fasting is a way of scheduling your eating, rather than a diet.  You can still consume your normal amount of calories, just in a different time span, and you'd fast the rest of the time.  This doesn't have to be done daily, but you can.  The most beneficial amount of time to go on a fast is between 16 and 24 hours.  It takes anywhere from 6-12 hours for your body to completely deplete its glycogen, or stored sugar.  So if you eat three meals a day, your body never depletes its glycogen, and you're constantly burning that as your fuel rather than being able to switch to your body to burning fat as fuel.  Of course there are a lot of other elements to this, such as what you eat as well as when you eat (like restricting your carb and sugar intake to switch into fat burning mode).  But I'm finding that IF-ing is a super easy way to switch your body into burning fat for fuel.

For most people, the easiest way to fast is to simply skip breakfast.  For example, you finish eating dinner at 8pm, and you don't eat again until noon the next day, which would be 16 hours later (nearly twice as long as it takes you to deplete your glycogen).  If you want to go the full 24 hours, you won't eat again until 8pm the next day.  Or you can skip dinner, and stop eating after lunch at noon and start eating again at noon the next day.  You can tailor it to your lifestyle, which is one of the many nice things about IF-ing!

Now, if 16 hours is plenty to get your body to burn energy from your fat stores, why would you go a full 24 hours?  Well, there are a ton more benefits than just weight loss and fat burning.

How Does it Work?

Let's get all sciency!  What's going on in the body when we eat?  So as I already explained, it can take 6-12 hours for your body to metabolize your glycogen stores and burn it up before it can start burning fat.  So your body will burn energy from your blood stream - aka the food you just ate - before it'll burn your fat.  If you ate a lot of carbs/sugar, it'll burn that up first.  That's why it's hard to lose weight if you consume a lot of carbs/sugar.  And if you keep replenishing your glycogen by eating frequently, it's harder for your body to burn your fat as fuel.

However, if you're fasting, your body doesn't have any food to burn energy from, so it automatically burns from your fat stores.  Yay!

If you want to look at this on a cellular level, you'll see a process called "autophagy", which is when a starving cell breaks down its own components (including damaged elements of the cell) to fuel more important cell processes.  Autophagy has many benefits such as destroying viruses and bacteria, or helping the cell identify a viral infection, or even preventing cells from becoming cancerous!  I think I like that even better then the weight loss!

More Benefits  

Now that you know how it works on a basic level and a scientific level, let's list some of the benefits of intermittent fasting (copied from the Paleo Mom article):

1. Increase lifespan. 
2. Increase insulin sensitivity, which can result in an increase in insulin signaling in the brain which is thought to be how fasting/calorie restriction works to increase lifespan.
3. Lower blood lipids, triglycerides and other markers of metabolic syndrome.
4. Fight/prevent cancer.  There is also some evidence that fasting before chemotherapy treatments can help reduce the negative side effects. 
5. Increase growth hormone secretion (which builds muscle and burns fat).
6. Normalize expression of the hunger hormone ghrelin, thereby reducing appetite.
7. Promote brain and peripheral nervous system health which can result in boosting the mood, memory, and mental clarity.
8. Increase dopamine production, meaning we get more enjoyment from less food. 
9. Increase energy through regulating metabolic hormones.

And one of my favorites: Intermittent Fasting is a little like hitting a reset button.  It can help curb sugar cravings, restore energy, and even promote deeper sleep.

Guess what?  I've experienced a lot of these benefits.  My hunger and appetite have been curbed and I'm less interested in food, I've been sleeping amazingly well and I feel so refreshed in the morning, I'm less and less interested in sweets the more I try fasting, and I've been feeling overall GOOD.  Plus, I've been losing weight without losing strength.

Another thing I like about it is that it's an easy way to restrict calories in a day.  Calorie restriction has been proven to have TONS of benefits, but it's next to impossible to stick with as hunger is a basic human function that's hard to override, when you cut your meals down to smaller sizes, that'll probably drive most of you crazy.  With intermittent fasting, you eat normal-sized meals, but in smaller windows of time (such as skipping breakfast as mentioned above). Here's a little more information about all that.

Why It Makes Sense to Me

Since discovering Paleo, I feel like I've compared everything to "the caveman days".  Not that I know exactly what those days were like - for instance they probably ate bugs, and I'm not real keen on that idea, and they very well could have eaten grains, which the modern Paleo diet says they didn't.  Another example is that if I were a cavewoman, and I found a peanut, I'd eat the peanut.  Modern Paleo is against peanuts.  There's a lot of gray area, and I just kind of hang out in that gray area rather than go full-blown strict with it.  But there are a lot of elements that make sense, like eating what's available to us through nature, because that's what our bodies were designed to consume from day one.  That, to me, is the focal point of Paleo.  Intermittent fasting fits very will with the Paleo lifestyle, because I'm sure our primal ancestors didn't schedule specific mealtimes and eat around the clock.  They ate depending on what was available to them, and that may have meant going without eating for spans of time depending on the success of their hunt or what they gathered or foraged.  Our bodies would have had to be able to still function in a fasting state - we'd have been in big trouble if it was necessary to our health to eat constantly throughout the day.

Where I'm At on my IF Journey

So far, I've loved my experience with IF-ing.  It took a little bit of growth and self-awareness to get to a good place with it, though.  One of my pain issues has been junk food.  I have definitely noticed that I don't crave sweets nearly as much, if at all, when I'm fasting, but that craving isn't gone permanently.  During my research to learn more about the health benefits of IF, I came across this article, which was full of good information but also a bad statement:

It’s with an intermittent fasting protocol that I feel you really can have your cake and eat it too. You need to be strict with the timing aspect, but besides that I’ve found you can eat a lot more of the foods you love but “should” abstain from on a daily basis.

Yes. Daily. (I’m not saying you should go and eat McDonalds every day, but treats can certainly be included).

I latched onto that and started using IF as a crutch.  I'm human, and I'm not going to hold back the negative details from you!  I started learning about IF around spring/early summer.  We had lots of picnics and parties and holidays and therefore lots of bad food.  I got excited when I read the article I just mentioned because it basically said it was okay to eat that stuff, I'd just have to fast before or after doing it to deflect the negative consequences.

It took a few times of feeling like absolute crap after eating junk (tired, fatigued, run-down, foggy brain, etc.), regardless of the fasting, to remember that I'm on a health journey here.  I'm in this for the long haul.  I want to keep my body healthy, and not only look good but feel good.  Paleo has become a lifestyle for me, and I want to keep it that way.  I think it's okay to indulge on treats every great once in awhile, but not make it a habit, and definitely not make excuses for it by fasting around it.

So now, at this point in my journey, I'm being careful with it.  Yes, if we wind up going out and I overindulge on not-so-healthy food, I will fast afterward to help my body along.  But I'm careful with my mindset - it's not an excuse to eat junk, and I'm not going to make a habit of it.  However I am human, and sometimes I just want to taste junk food.  Otherwise, I fast when it's convenient.  I don't do it daily, but usually 2-3 times a week.  Sometimes I'm rushed in the morning and it's just easier if I don't have to think about my own breakfast, then I wind up waiting until lunch to eat.  I've been continuing to lose weight, inches, and body fat, so whatever I'm doing is working for me.

Is This For You?

Intermittent fasting is not for everyone!  If you have a health concern, like diabetes or hypertension or whatnot, you should probably talk with a health care professional first (preferably someone with an open, holistic mindset!).  Especially if you have a blood sugar-related disease, IF-ing isn't for you.  Of course if you're pregnant or nursing, you should hold off on trying it as well.  Also, if you're happy with where you're at in life, your current diet and exercise plan is working great for you, and your body and health is right where you want it, then you probably don't need to mess with IF.  Though according to the research, a good 24-hour fast a few times a year may not be a bad idea!

Also, I came across a couple articles about how IF-ing may not be the best thing for women.  I haven't found any issues while trying it, but it's worth mentioning too.

Here's a very good article about possible health concerns regarding women and IF-ing:  http://paleoforwomen.com/shattering-the-myth-of-fasting-for-women-a-review-of-female-specific-responses-to-fasting-in-the-literature/

And here's a very interesting story about one woman's demise with IF-ing: http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/reviews/how-intermittent-fasting-saved-mewhile-slowly-killing-me/

I'm sharing that with you because it's not a perfect approach.  Yes, it can be "too good to be true", especially if used incorrectly.  I could have wound up where Kaleigh, the author of the last article I just shared, wound up.  Luckily I had a wake-up call before it got out of control.

Be Smart

Don't obsess over it.  LISTEN TO YOUR BODY.  That's the number one important thing!  Nourish your body with healthy foods found in nature, not processed junk from factories.  Fasting can have wonderful health benefits, if you're doing it with the right intentions and the right goals.

I'm going to stick with this IF lifestyle, I'm really liking it!  Especially now that I feel that I'm doing it for the right reason - to obtain the health benefits from it, not six-pack abs.  I'm not fasting every day, but rather at the most convenient times throughout the week, between 1-3 times a week for 16 hours at a time, or a full 24 hours if I really feel I need a recharge (but that's only maybe once a month).  I break fast with clean, Paleo or mostly-Paleo foods, I don't binge on gigantic platefuls of food when I break fast, and I stick with clean foods throughout the days between fasting.  I try to focus on eating when I'm hungry, and stopping when I'm full.  Plain and simple.  And IF has actually helped with my stress levels too, as when I fast it usually involves skipping breakfast, which allows me more time in the morning to get the boys' breakfasts made and while they're eating I can prepare lunches for the day or get caught up on some cleaning or whatever - who doesn't like extra free time in the morning??

So I'm happy with where I am right now.  If you decide to try it, let me know what you experience!  But most of all BE SMART and BE SAFE about it.  Obsessing over it or using it as an excuse to eat poorly can ruin everything.  Make your health your priority, and find what works for you!

For more information about IF, check out this article on NerdFitnes.com, it's a good one!

Remember That Post About Essential Oils I Had to Take Down?

I guess I left you guys hanging, didn't I?  I had to take down my post about essential oil safety and the fact that I switched companies because I got in trouble for writing it.  I think I said I'd repost it *soon*, but obviously that never happened, as that was months ago.

Well, a lot has happened and a lot has changed since that last post.  I did switch essential oils companies.  And then I switched again.  I haven't posted this story yet mostly because I didn't want to offend the people I left in the company I had switched to.  But I have to speak my mind and get my voice heard.  I feel this information is important and needs to be circulated, and I can't hide it from you in fear of possibly upsetting some people.

I wasn't going to name any names, but since I am no longer affiliated with anyone, I guess I can't get in trouble for naming names.  So as most of you know, I started out with Young Living Essential Oils.  I was told they were 100% safe.  I was told to ONLY use Young Living because they're the ONLY true Therapeutic Grade essential oils.  And that means they're 100% pure, undiluted, unadulterated, additive-free, and therefore safe to put anywhere and everywhere on anyone anytime - even internally.  Drink up!  There were very few cautions and limitations, and since they're 100% natural, YL followers and customers are led to believe they're 100% safe.


Before I get too much farther, here's a really good article about what essential oils actually are, how and why they work, and why there needs to be more awareness on safety:  http://essentialoilblogging.com/2014/01/14/can-essential-oils-be-ingested/

If you don't want to read the whole article, here's what I found to be the important stuff:

Essential oils are composed of dozens of naturally-occurring chemical constituents. Each oil has a unique mix of constituents, although some constituents occur in many essential oils. Linalool, for example, is one of the major constituents of lavender oil and coriander oil, but it is a minor constituent of about 200 other essential oils.

Essential oils have one, two or occasionally three major constituents (about 20-90% of the oil), a few minor constituents (1-19%,) and many, many trace constituents (less than 1%). Sometimes minor or trace constituents still can have a significant effect on the body but most of the effects of an essential oil are attributed to its major constituents. These effects are now being revealed by published scientific research. Some plants of the same species can have major differences in constituents. These are called ‘chemotypes’ and are named after the largest constituent in the plant. Rosemary oil, for example, may be a pinene chemotype, a cineole chemotype, or a camphor chemotype. The majority of commercially available essential oils don’t have these variations however, most of the effects of an essential oil are attributed to its major constituents. ...

... There are some constituents in essential oils that can be toxic, irritating and sensitizing if the essential oil is used in large enough doses. Just because an essential oil is 100% pure and natural, does not mean that it cannot harm you. Harm from an essential oil is not always due to impurities or adulterations; more often it’s simply about the constituents it contains. This is not about purity; it’s about safety.

Another concern is the possible interaction between certain essential oils and certain medications (drug interactions). ... One of the known interactions is between essential oils containing methyl salicylate (Wintergreen & Sweet Birch) and blood-thinning medications. This combination can cause the blood to thin too much, leading to internal bleeding and bruising. This is one of the concerns [had] when recommending the ingestion of essential oils.

Hopefully this explains some of the importance of understanding essential oil safety.

Well, I'm pretty ashamed of myself for falling into the YL marketing hype head-first without doing any research.  I ALWAYS research before jumping into something.  Why was this any different?  Probably because their marketing scheme is pretty powerful.  In fact, I guarantee you that if you're with YL right now, you're probably getting upset, and you may close this blog and never read any further or ever open it again.  If you even made it this far at all.  That's fine.  I just hope you don't get hurt from misuse and blind faith.

I was sucked in.  And that scares me because I'm not one to get sucked into things that quickly.  I have to make sure it makes sense and all the angles line up first.  But, you live and you learn.  I had my incidents with them that finally led me to learn that it's not safe to use them anywhere and everywhere, and I wrote this post about essential oil safety to warn others from making the same mistakes.  I had learned about goDesana essential oils and was happy with their company because they promoted safe use.  They don't want people to use them internally because it's not safe and the oils are so concentrated that they can cause toxicity in the liver and other organs.  GoDesana's oils were just as pure as the others, only they don't try to coin their own terms like Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade or Therapeutic Grade Essential Oil (which the FDA doesn't even regulate, those are actually terms made up by their respective companies and they don't mean anything - "therapeutic grade" isn't a real term).  They're just USDA Organic or wild-harvested, plain and simple.  I was happy, they seemed to work great, signing up was free, so I went ahead and joined.

I wrote a post about having switched companies and why, and within an hour or so of posting it I got a call from Young Living headquarters in Utah.  Yeah.  I didn't answer (I don't answer unknown numbers, especially out of state), and they left a message saying they needed to discuss my recent post and that they'd follow this message up with an email.  I waited for the email, and sure enough they were upset with me for "defaming" the Young Living name and for violating their non-competition policy (you can't be part of YL and another company at the same time - they're pretty hard core about their loyalty).  For the record, I don't think I "defamed" them - I actually said I feel they have good products, and I'll still say that, despite all that happened.  What I said was that I was disappointed in their lack of safety information, and had they been more clear and made sure their representatives had all the correct information, I could have avoided a lot of illness in my family.  What's wrong with that?  Anyway, their email said I needed to take down my blog post within a certain amount of time or they would take legal action.  So of course I went ahead and took the post down.  I did email them back and apologized, saying I was only trying to help prevent others from getting hurt due to lack of safety information, and that maybe they should be a little more clear about safety on their website and in their seminars.  The only response I got was "they'd look into it".  Yeah.  Anyway, I didn't leave goDesana, so they terminated my account with YL, and I am no longer affiliated with them.  I would have shut my account down anyway on my own but oh well.  I now have no qualms about telling you exactly what happened and naming names and all that jazz.  You can draw your own conclusions from all that.  (And if you want some more information, check out the links at the bottom of this post.)

So I was now only a GD customer and representative.  I will say, the whole time something didn't feel quite right, but I joined anyway since it was free to create an account (you have to spend $150 to join YL and get their starter kit).  I'd give it a try and see what came of it.

Well, I got caught up in spending the required BV in products every month to stay on the rewards program, and I was encouraged to build my downline so I could make commissions.  I wanted to take it slow, though.  But it was getting expensive, and taking it slow meant not making any money, only spending it.  And that's the second thing I'm ashamed of.  Getting caught in the money.  Luckily it wasn't so bad that I was trying to force these products on people, and I don't think I really did that while I was with YL (I hope not anyway).  I just believed in the product and wanted to be able to purchase them at "wholesale" and offer them to my clients at my office.  But I did get caught up in the excitement that I could possibly build a secondary income off of this.

Meanwhile, I got to talking to a friend of mine who doesn't want to deal with the Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) essential oil companies and buys her essential oils from a direct company.  She's used them for years with great results, and sees no difference in quality between them and the leading MLM companies.  Fortunately I was open-minded to the possibilities at this point, after my incident with YL.

The company she told me about is Plant Therapy.

I looked into them and first of all was BLOWN. AWAY. by the price difference.  Now, if I were still with YL, I would have scoffed at the prices and said, "Oh, they're certainly not pure with prices like that, the true therapeutic grade oils are more expensive - you get what you pay for!" And I would have stopped looking.

No, they're that inexpensive because they're not a multi-level marketing company.  They don't have commissions to pay out.  And they don't have anyone in their upline to send on a free cruise or win a free iPad.  When a company doesn't have to mess with that, they can shave quite a bit off the cost for consumers.  I can't believe I was blind to that before.

Do you realize that "wholesale" in a MLM company is actually still a 300-500% markup from the actual "wholesale" the company pays for?  I was throwing my money away while I was with MLM companies.  Well, no, I take that back.  Someone got to go on a free cruise.  I hope you enjoyed your cruise, whoever you are.

Anyway.  Aside from the price difference, it seemed like Plant Therapy had a pure, high quality oil, they consult with Robert Tisserand who has spent the majority of his life working to advance aromatherapy and using essential oils the best and safest ways possible and is highly respected in the aromatherapy world, they are very clear about the oils' origins and extraction methods, they have easy-to-understand information regarding safety, they have fantastic customer service with aromatherapists on call to answer your questions (aromatherapists who were actually trained by broad-spectrum aromatherapy schooling, not just trained by their company, like I know YL does), all the while not being a MLM company so you don't have to "sign up" and hand over your first born every month to remain a member.

This whole non-MLM thing was really resonating with me.  I mentioned before that something still didn't sit quite right with me when I joined goDesana - I believe that's it.  I didn't like spending my own money, or charging the public money, that only goes toward paying the commissions to the people in an upline.

So I talked to my friend some more about that whole topic, and she made some VERY good points that, honestly, I'm embarrassed to say I hadn't thought of myself.  First off, let me be clear: I am not opposed to MLM - I have lots of Thirty-One products and love them, I use Pampered Chef and love them, I bought Lia Sophia jewelry before their company closed up and still wear and enjoy their products, I can't get enough Norwex - and I don't mind spending the money to get a good item and know that I'm helping someone make a go of a "small business" opportunity.  Plus, I'll admit, I kinda like going to the parties (getting out of the house, seeing friends, eating food, drinking wine, who doesn't like that?).  However.  Those are all personal and home-use items.  The essential oils?  Those are healthcare.  They help ward off illnesses.  They help us recover from illnesses.  They boost the immune system, strengthen our emotional health, enhance the brain's function, disinfect wounds, heal burns, the list goes on and on.  And if not used properly, they can be very dangerous.  And yet here we have MLM companies selling them.  And the whole point of an MLM company is to sell sell sell to reach a broader spectrum of people, build downlines, and make more money.  I was irritated with YL for becoming too consumed by marketing and not the healthcare that the oils are - so, why should goDesana be any different?  I'm not saying it is (this is where I was afraid I'd offend someone - so I will say that honestly at this point in time I don't feel they are just out to get your money, however, it is a very young company), but that's what MLM is.  And that's the funny feeling I was getting.  And the point my friend made was: aren't these MLM essential oil companies doing the exact same thing the pharmaceutical industry is doing?  Pushing and selling healthcare products on the public to make more money?

And I knew at that moment my questions were answered.  That's why I felt funny about all those companies.  And contrarily what ignited my excitement about Plant Therapy.  But let me reiterate: at this point in time, goDesana is a great company!  And I was under some people who genuinely care about your health and safety about using the oils, and I don't believe making money off of them is their primary concern.  I can't speak for everyone in the company, but I feel confident that's the case for at least them.

So I had ordered some oils from Plant Therapy (and did not have to hand over my first born to do it), and they've been great!  Their Thieves equivalent "Germ Fighter" knocked out a fever blister right off the bat, lavender has soothed allergies, eucalyptus relieved sinus pressure, and tea tree oil has effectively cleaned wounds.  I was really pleased to see "Kid Safe" marked on some of the bottles, indicating that, when diluted, they're okay to use on kids.  Some oils are NOT okay to use on kids - please be aware of that!!  Don't put your child at risk simply because a representative from the oil company you are using said it's okay!  Anyway.  I was happy with my oils, happy with what I read about them, happy with the testimonials from my friend, and I got in touch with the company to get permission to sell them at my office.  They asked for a copy of my business license and that was that!  I now have Plant Therapy essential oils on my shelf at my office, and I feel great about it.  Their prices are VERY affordable (the Germ Fighter I mentioned is $7 for a 10mL bottle - Thieves is $35 "wholesale" for 15mL and has the exact same ingredients), and you get them for the same price at my office as you would if you ordered online.  And shipping is always free!  So I'm perfectly happy to supply you with good quality essential oils, or you're more than welcome to buy them from the website - nobody's getting any kickbacks, and nobody's going on a cruise.

Meanwhile, I'm sure I'll try out other oils - I'm not going to ONLY use Plant Therapy now.  I'm not going to allow myself to be that close-minded ever again.  But I'm happy with their oils and their team and their prices, so that's what I'm offering on my shelves.

And that's my story.  I'm glad I got away from the MLM thing before it sucked me in again.  I feel cleaner, lighter, and just overall better about this decision - I am able to use a good quality essential oil from a good quality company who isn't trying to focus on building teams and monopolizing the industry, and now I'm able to offer those same oils to my clients for amazingly affordable prices so that I can do what's most important to me - guide them on their natural healthcare journey safely and effectively.


Oh yeah, here's that link I mentioned earlier, if you can stomach it... it's pretty disturbing:  http://www.kidnurse.org/why-the-founder-of-one-of-the-largest-essential-oil-companies-should-go-back-to-jail/