Essential oils are powerful. Something you eat regularly can be much more powerful in its essential oil form.A couple years ago, I started using a blend of oils to help with high blood pressure. You can read all about that here. It worked. The blend, which I used several times a day for massage and in an inhaler, lowered my blood pressure and I was thrilled.
About six months into this regimen, I began to have severe itching on one toe. It was bad. The toe would peel, scab over, then start itching all over again. I went to urgent care and the doctor didn't have a clue, but he gave me a cream to use. It didn't help. Then, it spread....and spread....and spread. Over a period of a couple months, I was covered from head to toe with round, itchy spots which soon began to ooze and bleed. Some of them grew quite large.
At this point, I went to a dermatologist. She did a biopsy and confirmed I had nummular eczema. She gave me a steroid cream and it worked to a point. It cleared up all but some giant spots on my left leg, my middle finger on my right hand, and the bottoms of my feet. These areas became very stubborn and simply would not clear up. I battled this awful rash for a year and a half.
A few weeks ago, I felt a cold sore coming on, so I used frankincense oil, as I always do, to stop it from completely forming. It seemed to be working as no full cold sore formed. However, when I used my BP oil blend, within 5 minutes, my lips started tingling and itching on the inside. It was so bad I began to bite my lips to stop the itch. I thought it was related to my potential cold sore and it lessened in intensity throughout the day.
Later that night, I put my oil blend on the bottom of my feet and within 10 minutes, my lips were tingling again and began to swell slightly. Hmmm. That's when I realized it wasn't the cold sore. That's when I realized it was likely the cinnamon in the oil blend.
I had used all the other oils in that blend in other ways without having the tingling, but this was the only blend I used the cinnamon in. Since then, I have stopped using cinnamon essential oil and am not using ground cinnamon in my coffee for the time being. And the rash is hardly itching at all and actually starting to heal.
So, this is a warning. Essential oils are powerful so be aware of how they can affect you. I don't think I'm full-on allergic to cinnamon, but I do think cinnamon essential oil is too powerful for my sensitive skin, even when used with other oils and diluted with coconut oil.
This is phenomenal!
My new blend:
In a 10 ml roller bottle, I put the following blend:
10 drops frankincense
8 drops helicrysum
8 drops marjoram
10 drops ylang ylang
8 drops lavender
I topped it off with fractionated coconut oil.
I used the same blend in an inhaler tube which I can use throughout the day, if needed, to keep my blood pressure even.
Lesson learned. Use essential oils, but use them with care.
I know to avoid cinnamon essential oil
now.
~Tricia
