Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

A doTerra rep sold me this book for $20 at a marketing meeting. I have three major issues with this publication. 1. The research cited in this book is very misleading. The studies included about essential oils are sound studies; however, they DO NOT support the therapeutic claims made by the publisher, Aroma Tools. For example, frankincense oil (Boswellia frereana) is said to be "anticancer." The questionable part here is that the author cites studies that use Boswellia sacra, NOT Boswellia frereana (both are species of frankincense.) One isn't necessarily inferior to the other. They are just different. I called doTerra directly yesterday at 2:51pm and spoke with a very sweet representative, "Andi." She informed me that doTerra has no affiliation with Aroma Tools and doesn't stand behind anything they have written. She went on to say that "a doTerra rep compiled that information [for the book] and used the doTerra product pictures. There's nothing we [doTerra] can do if someone wants to print things like that." Do a google search with "doTerra" and "Aroma Tools" and you'll see how egregiously incorrect this is. 2. The chemical constutients list for each essential oil is incomplete at best. These lists are also written such that they may be concealing duplicitous manufacturing/distilling procedures. The unfortunate part is that doTerra itself (at least its customer service agents) can't speak to this. For example, the lavender species sold by doTerra is Lavandula angustifolia. In its purest form, Lavandula angustifolia has less than .5% camphor. Camphor, by the way, is caustic. In order to produce lavender more cheaply, many companies mix in lavindin (which has a higher concentration of camphor.) In Modern Essentials, the specific camphor amount isn't listed, so we have no way of knowing exactly what type of lavender is being reviewed here. 3. WARNING ON INGESTING ESSENTIAL OILS AND APPLYING THEM DIRECTLY TO THE SKIN. Please do your homework. Find an unbiased source on essential oils before following recommendations in Modern Essentials. Ingesting EOs as directed in this book can bring about adverse reactions, including diarrhea, vomiting, blurred vision, nausea, dizziness, and more. Yes, the FDA has its GRAS list for EOs, but it is not necessarily intended to mean ingestion of undiluted oils. This has NOTHING to do with the purity of the oil itself, rather that EOs are highly concentrated and thus very powerful. The same holds true for applying EOs "neat" (undiluted) to the skin. For example, peer reviewed, objective, double blind studies show that Cananga odorata (ylang ylang) can cause hyperpigmentation. Modern Essentials advises applying ylang ylang undiluted, directly to the skin, and fails to mention this potential adverse reaction. I am very concerned that the claims in this book may be harmful to people. Please be careful. This book is not written by an unbiased writer. In fact, it isn't even written by an expert in the field. I question the ethical nature of the therapeutic claims made (even doTerra won't stand behind them), and the usage recommendations are grounds for concern. On a much different note (but most irritating to me as a reader) are the gross misspellings and typos in this published work. How can we not question the quality of the information provided when the writer can't take the time to correct his spelling or learn how to use "it's" and "its" properly? Seriously, why is that hard? All this said, I am still a proponent of EOs in general, and there are most likely effective doTerra products on the market. I fully support moving away from pharmaceutical medication as much as possible, but it is important not to fall prey to unsubstantiated therapeutic claims and suggestions for use. This book gets a one-star rating for distracting seekers of sound information from that aim. Update: Two or three people have indicated that this review wasn't helpful, but they didn't leave any response as to why. I value your feedback and would love to hear why this review wasn't helpful to you. Is it because I didn't suggest what to buy instead? Or maybe you're a doTerra IPC and this post might hurt business? (I get it-- you've got to make money.) Perhaps it's because folks (myself included) WANT this book to be what it claims to be. It's hard taking time to sift through all the information out there in order to make informed decisions. At any rate, if you thought this review wasn't helpful, please take a moment and let us (all the readers here) know why. It'll help everyone in the long run.