MRSA - Aromatherapy essential oils an adjunct or alternative treatment for superbugs?

I have been studying and using essential oils for over 5 years. The problem of superbugs such as MRSA is growing. Adequate infection control and prevention are a must. In my opinion, therapeutic essential oils may have something important to offer medicine when it comes to preventing, suppressing or eradicating infections due to resistant microorganisms (Superbugs) including MRSA.

Essential oils (aromatherapy) are considered a complementary therapy.They have been used for centuries by doctors and laypeople alike to treat symptoms. According to Dr Jane Buckle, they are the fastest growing complementary therapy today. There is already a wealth of research that suggests the effectiveness of therapeutic essential oils against superbugs resistant to all antibiotics. We need more controlled clinical studies on effectiveness and safety before oils can be accepted widely for use in medicine, because we need to use research evidence-based treatments whenever possible. Standards are good to have. However, the most recent surveys show that we now use evidence-based treatment only about 30% of the time in conventional medicine, even if there is research evidence available.

As a physician, one concern I have about using essential oils is the lack of standards and quality control in the US. The purity and quality is very important to their effectiveness and safety. This is one of the reasons I use Young Living oils - because I know they use strict quality control and meet AFNOR and ISO standards used in Europe. Most physicians in America don't know much if anything about therapeutic essential oils. Doctors can't recommend a treatment we do not know about. We need to follow the standard of care, and if we have a treatment that’s known to be effective, we must use it, unless the informed patient refuses it. When there is no effective treatment, as can happen with superbugs, when the standard of care does not work, complementary adjunctive treatments may be used if there is justification to do so. Why would we not want to use an available alternative treatment if nothing else works and the alternative offers a relatively safe and possibly effective option?

Essential oils appear to have a long track record of safety. They are inexpensive, and they have been shown to be effective against a number of superbugs in the laboratory, in animals and in some patients. One patient with chronic osteomyelitis who failed all the antibiotic treatments was successfully treated with essential oils and avoided an amputation that had been considered. (Sherry et al, BMC Surgery, 2001, 1:1) There is evidence supporting their use for prevention, such as for hand cleansing, cleaning surfaces and equipment, purifying air, decreasing the indiscriminate use of antibiotics, and for treating drug-resistant infections. They appear to be effective against MRSA (methicillin resistant staph aureus infections), herpes, anthrax, drug resistant TB, toxic mold and more. It has been reported that so far no resistant organism tested has been able to survive exposure to some combination of pure good quality essential oils.

Drs need to learn about essential oils, since drug-resistant infections are sky-rocketing, we are having difficulty preventing, and we cannot now effectively treat some drug-resistant infections with antibiotics. Good quality essential oils used early and appropriately may have the potential to save lives.


Joan Barice MD, MPH
jbaricemd@gmail.com
www.youngliving.org/ejoanbaricemd