Essential Oils For Multiple Sclerosis

Disclaimer: I personally use essential oils to help support my body in healing and supporting my immune system. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration or Health Canada. My comments are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. I simply use essential oils as a tool to assist my body in natural healing processes. As always, please consult with your health care team when incorporating new products into your treatment. 

Ok since we’ve got that fancy disclaimer out of the way, I wanted to share how I, an MS Warrior (I like to call myself an MS Thriver nowadays) use essential oils. I’ve been asked in countless DMs and tagged in countless FB groups about how I personally use essential oils for multiple sclerosis, my health sidekick. So here is how I personally have incorporated essential oils for MS and support my body as it lives with confused T cells.

I believe in taking care of myself through the 6 pillars of health: nutrition, supplementation, movement, sleep, stress management, and reducing toxic load. This is how I use essential oils in each of these pillars of health:

Nutrition

I have chosen to follow the autoimmune paleo protocol. Here is a blog post I’ve written on my autoimmunethriving.com website about what it is and more. I use essential oils in my cooking and baking. I substitute essential oils for herbs like basil in stews, lime essential oil for fresh lime or lime juice in things like guacamole, and Madagascar vanilla for vanilla extract in decaf coffee or baking.

Supplementation

Once I figured out nutrition, I worked and currently work with a naturopath to figure out a supplementation plan based on deficiencies that I can’t get from nutrition. I get regular bloodwork done to figure out what vitamins and minerals I’m deficient in. I take the dōTERRA Lifelong Vitality supplements as a baseline all-around multivitamin and then supplement additionally where needed. I also take the Copaiba Softgels and Tumeric Duo Capsules.

Movement

I’m just a happier version of myself when I work out or move my body daily. Movement for me could be anything from a weight workout, to cardio, to a simple walk after dinner. I use Deep Blue on sore muscles, I take Deep Blue Polyphenols if I’m extra sore (a heavy leg workout usually brings on 3 days of soreness), and I bring AromaTouch when I go to see my RMT for a monthly massage.

Sleep

I believe that we can support our immune system simply by getting quality and an appropriate amount of sleep. Every night, I try different “concoctions” in our bedroom diffuser to improve our sleep. I love just Lavender or Serenity and then if I’m craving something not so floral I’ll put Cedarwood in the diffuser. If I’m struggling to fall asleep I’ll also take a Serenity Softgel complex before bed.

Stress Management

I believe our body’s reaction to stress is so detrimental to our health. I’m the type of person that really doesn’t do well with emotional stress and I’m still figuring that out on a daily basis. I love using oils in my home office to the kitchen to diffuse oils based on emotional aromatherapy. I use citrus oils to uplift my mood to grounding ones when I feel a whole bunch of crazy coming on. I love our calming blend Adaptiv and I also take the capsules if I need extra support feeling my feelings.

Reducing Toxic Load

I love that I have been able to slowly transition toxic products from cleaners to laundry detergent to a more DIY cleaner ingredient-based. I love making up my own DIY cleaning sprays with water, vinegar, and lemon essential oil and using dōTERRA laundry detergent or my own concoction. dōTERRA also launched the new abode line this year

In addition, to supporting myself through the 6 pillars of health I am also specifically focused on reducing inflammation in my body which is a common theme for those living with autoimmune disease.

Reducing Inflammation

I believe that by reducing inflammation in my body I support my cells so that they don’t get confused. I do this by nutrition (eating an AIP-based meal plan), using spices like turmeric powder in cooking and drinking juice like tart cherry juice. These are just a few things I do to reduce inflammation (above and beyond removing gluten, dairy, and nightshade veggies from my diet). I also ensure I take rest days after hard workouts, ice baths after streneous physical exercise and I love to take nightly Epsom salt baths. I love adding Lavender or Frankincense to the bath and I will apply Turmeric or Copaiba topically to areas of concern.

Immune System Support

Last but not least, this school of thought can be very polarizing in the MS community. Since MS is an auto-immune disease and has to do with our immune system attacking itself many believe that “boosting” our immune system will boost the T cells that attack our myelin sheath. I’m very careful with words and actually never use the words boosting an immune system.

I personally am of the school of thought that if I can keep my immune system optimized and strong I simply need to make sure that my T cells won’t have a chance to become confused by toxins or sickness and attack my body. I very rarely get colds now that I take care of myself differently. Since I have chosen to not take a DMD / DMT (MS drugs) I don’t worry about how supporting my immune system will affect me. For those on DMD’s which suppress the immune system, I can understand why there is a fear in “boosting” the immune system which could cause it to increase its attack on the body. This choice will be so personal for everyone in how they choose to support their body in healing.

I support my immune system by diffusing OnGuard and Breathe (called Easy Air in Canada) in our bedroom diffuser if I feel a cold coming on. I’ll make garlic tea with Oregano essential oil, suck on OnGuard lozenges, I’ll apply OnGuard directly to the bottoms of my feet (for easy absorption), I’ll drink lots of water and tea and get adequate and ample sleep!

dōTERRA Starter Kits

If you’re interested in getting started with dōTERRA, I would recommend starting a shopping account with one of these starter kits. They come with the top ten essential oils (mentioned above) and then we can work together to plan out which essential oils or supplements you might want to add to a future order together. I love guiding my personal customers to make health action plans and achieve them.

Ps. These starter kits include the wholesale membership fee ($35 USD, $42 CAD) which allows you to purchase products whenever you like at 25% off retail prices.

If you’re reading this and you have MS. My heart goes out to you and whatever emotions you’re dealing with, with the diagnosis. Just know that you are so empowered in today’s day and age to take care of yourself. If you’ve been living with MS for a while and are still searching for answers, hopefully, something I’ve said has sparked a light bulb and you’re going to dive into more research and knowledge for yourself.

Thriving is so much better than Surviving.