Actions of Essential Oils on Mind/Body Systems
To Prevent Viral Infections
By Elizabeth Jones
The human immune system is struggling today to cope with an onslaught of viral
infections. New viral strains are appearing all over the globe. Since Western medicine has very
few successful anti-viral agents, most viral infections are private battles fought between the virus
and the immune system. The time has come to let the world know about the effectiveness of
essential oils in fighting viruses.
At my College of Essential Oil Therapy in Santa Cruz, we examine both scientifically
and energetically how oils, herbs, and nutrition create holistic health. Let us look at essential oils
as anti-viral agents, but from another perspective, their ability to create harmony within our
body/mind/spirit systems, which diminishes the infectious power of viruses.
Like the 'terrain' of a plant, there is a 'terrain' of our unique personal situation. Viruses
can obtain a stronghold in the body when the physical and emotional terrain is out of balance. The
science of psychoneuroimmunology, which was pioneered by Candace Pert in Molecules of
Emotion, first states that there is no distinction between our mind and body because they are
interconnected, and that the flow of peptides, or chains of amino acids, in our bodies that bind to
cell receptor sites and create an intelligent network between the central nervous system, the
endocrine system, and the immune system to form the Mobile Brain. Pert found in her research
that emotions, if repressed, could block the free flow of peptides which can cause diseases from
viral infections to cancer. It is important to be in touch with all emotions, not just peace and joy,
but anger and fear, emotions we don’t want to inflict onto other people but need to acknowledge to
ourselves.
At the cellular level, viruses use the same receptors as neuropeptides to enter into a cell.
Depending on how much of a peptide is present and how well your emotions are flowing, makes it
easier or harder for a virus to get into a cell. For example, "when you're happy, the rheovirus can't
enter the cell because norepinephrine, a neuropeptide, blocks all the potential virus receptors".
(Candace Pert, 1999. Molecules of Emotion)
In Pierre Franchomme's studies (L'Aromatherapie Exactement) with essential oils, he has
found that they travel in the blood stream and find the appropriate sites on cells just as viruses and
peptides do. We do know that certain essential oils have a direct action on eliminating viruses,
which will be looked at briefly in this talk and stated by others more completely in this
conference.
An example was a clinical study performed in 1999 with essential oils and their
components in vitro and in vivo against Herpes Simplex virus type two showed two oils high in
eugenol, Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) and Clovebud (Syzgium aromaticum). They
gave the most protection against the herpes virus. (Bourne KZ et al 1999 Antiviral Research
Journal)
In a study by Hold et al. 2000, a ketone, alpha-thujone in Sage (Salvia officinalis) binds
to the same receptors in the brain as GABA type A, a neurotransmitter, does. When alpha-thujone
binds, it blocks the brains ability to turn down the volume and leads to over stimulation.
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