Head? meet Wall! now it's MYRRH

Banging my head against the wall.  A rant coming... read at your own risk.

For a long time every REPUTABLE source I know has been trying to tell people that, no, Frankincense Essential Oil will not cure cancer, it will not prevent cancer, it will not help and may do harm.

The Multi Level Marketing companies, and some well known Chiropractors with NO training in clinical aromatherapy or essential oil chemistry, but much expertise in marketing, have touted Frankincense Oil as "the cure for cancer."

Yesterday I received the following email from a "friend of a friend""

Myrrh Resin

>... [details of earlier battle with cancer deleted]...Three weeks ago I found a lump under my left arm
>which upon excision was found and thought to be a rogue cancer cell from the original cancer
>tumor that was not captured at the time and so it laid dormant until it could attach itself to
>3 lymph nodes, now removed and I'm scheduled to have radiation treatments very soon.

>Several "random" people have mentioned the use of myrrh: 6 drops under my tongue and/or as a
>paste, topically to the site .... [a friend] suggested I contact you .... here's hoping we can come up with a plan ...

And I wanted to cry.  This woman is a sister/friend of a dear friend. but I hadn't heard of MYRRH to treat cancer.  So I googled.  And the names of the same untrained chiropractors, making money off people's fear and grief and pain, showed up, now recommending MYRRH oil, as well as Frankincense oil.

This is what I responded to my friend's friend.

No.. please no.

First of all... I am amazed to hear Myrrh being suggested. For several years the major Multi
level marketing companies have been recommending Frankincense oil... usually by ingestion... Today Dr. Xxx and some other chiropractors, with little or no true training in essentail oils or in essential oil chemistry have jumped on the EO bandwagon and are making a fortune touting whatever lines they represent.

Please do NOT do this.. There is proof that one component of the Frankincense RESIN can have an
effect on some cancer cells, in a petri dish in the lab... but that component, Boswellic Acid,
does NOT occur in the essential oil.. only in the resin.

There is research published about the use of myrrh oil, *in a petri dish* may have an effect
on specific strains of cancer cells. but the leap from the petri dish to ingesting and having
the myrrh find the cells is... huge..

And the ingestion of Frankincense and/or Myrrh oil may actually protect the cancer cells. Robert Tisserand is one of the most highly respected "experts" in the world of professional aromatherapy... he has over 40 years experience studying, researching and writing.. he says this, about Frankincense, but it also applies to Myrrh Oil:

>This, from Robert Tisserand:
>
>"Many essential oils have protective & antioxidant effects on our cells, and there is a reasonable >chance that they will do the same for cancer cells – protect them from the chemotherapy – which of >course would not be a good thing. This opinion is shared by many. It probably sounds odd – you’re >thinking that frankincense oil should kill cancer cells and not protect them – but the only evidence >for killing cancer cells (apart from one skin cancer report) comes from a few lab tests when high >concentrations were used.

>Moderate amounts of EO will not kill cancer cells, but could protect them. And taking large
>amounts of essential oil could very well interfere with the chemotherapy itself, by increasing or >decreasing the concentration of drug-metabolizing enzymes in the liver. By causing a chemo drug to >be metabolized more quickly, you reduce the duration of its effect. On the other hand if you inhibit >its metabolism you reduce the efficacy of the drug. Neither of these is desirable, and chemo drugs >are very carefully dosed for each patient.

so... no.. please do not do that. For Millenia, in Africa and Asia, people have been reaping the
benefits of myrrh and frankincense by putting a bead (or pearl) of the resin in a glass of water
or wine, letting it stand over night, and drinking the water/wine in the morning. Repeat
until you can no longer taste the resin in the water, then start with a new pearl... If I had
reason to think ingesting either of these resins was appropriate... this is how I do it...

And... I would make money by telling people "that's right... buy ours!"

MWM: CANKER Help? (or Roadkill with Mustard)

Monday was our biggest Mondays with Marge so far with a wide range of questions posed, including EO chemistry, pet care, hormones, teenage body odor, and much more.

Tiffany wondered what might help heal canker sores.  

Tiffany:  I'm hoping this question falls into the healthy lifestyle category and not medical :) ... I have a tendency to get canker sores from accidentally biting wrong, especially if I get rundown. Would you have any recommendation for something to soothe and help heal? Seems I've found plant oils to help me with just about everything but this is one I haven't figured out. Many thanks and I hope I'm sending my question ahead correctly.

Marge: This is...this is where I share my guilty secret... Because, for all my talk, and all my warnings about using the oils undiluted; what I have done for YEARS for any sort of sore inside the mouth,

Myrrh Resin, before harvesting

including canker sores, inflamed gums, or any 'soft tissue' sore, is put a dab of neat Myrrh Oil on the sore. In most cases it's better by morning. Now, I KNOW our Myrrh oil. It is from a distiller who has been distilling Frankincense, Myrrh, Cistus, and other resins for decades. I hear rumors of some "maybe-not-just Myrrh" essential oil floating around and I am cautious. But this has worked for me. (Wondering if the Myrrh CO2 might not be even more effective…)

My CCAP instructor suggested diluting the Myrrh in some Calophyllum inophyllum (Tamanu) rather than using it undiluted. Myrrh, all by itself, tastes extraordinarily bitter. Combined with Calophyllum, it is even worse tasting—but—it's not using undiluted EO, and, it works.   

Also, we recently got in an oil that is recommended specifically for oral infections: Javanese Turmeric CO2 (sometimes called Javanese Ginger). I had a "Thing" coming out of my lower gum. It was hard and pointy... (oversharing???) and felt like a shard of a tooth might have been left after an extraction and was trying to work its way out, possibly! It had been there for a few days and was getting irritated. It hurt.

So I mixed some of the Javanese Turmeric CO2 into some Calophyllum inophyllum. And, Tiffany, I am here to tell you, NOTHING I have ever tasted in my entire LIFE tasted as bad as that... NOTHING. Think week-old Roadkill, with mustard! Think distilled skunk! Think of the worst possible taste you can imagine. BUT the next morning, that hard, pointy sore that had been there for perhaps 2 weeks or so, was gone. POOF. Vanished. And has not come back. I have no idea what it was. But it was irritating enough and painful enough that I was actually contemplating calling my dentist to say, "What IS this?"  Whatever it was, gone, poof, overnight.

So for canker sores, first Myrrh and possibly Javanese Turmeric CO2.  Just remember to be fore-warned that both taste terribly bitter.

Hope this helps. (and don't tell anyone that for years I have put neat Myrrh oil on canker sores.)

Tiffany: Thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Marge! I was thinking Myrrh and possibly your new Javanese Tumeric :) and Calophyllum taking care of your umm little monster sounds like one of those things that makes one in awe of the power of plant oils!! (Reminds me of the huge lump and horrible colors I was expecting after walking into the lid of a wood box that hit me smack in the shin and hard. POOF, overnight, nothing the next day, not even a little discoloration!) But roadkill with mustard, ahem, well, that sounds like something to look forward ;) I laughed so hard my husband thought I'd flipped. In any case, the little sores are so irritating, I'd look forward to the roadkill with mustard!

Tiffany: And I won't tell anyone about that neat thing that you do ... shhhhhhhhhh ;)

Need an aromatherapy question answered? Mondays with Marge resumes on the Summer’s Solstice, Monday, June 20, 2016, 8:00 p.m. CDT.