By Martin Watt

I have not written anything on this issue for a long time because I thought my
older articles on Young Living covered it. However, due to an increase in the
number of people asking me about companies promoting distributorship - I
have decided to try and help with a bit of advice.

They have fancy web and social media sites, they may have experts in
marketing, they have doctors and scientists as advisors, and various other
supposed experts to make themselves look trustworthy.

Beware of essential oils and health products companies that have marketing
experts on their board. The fact that their primary experience is in marketing
should sound alarm bells. It can indicate a company whose primary objective is
sales at any cost. That is not a good ethical position in alternative health care.

Beware of those companies who make a lot about their connections with
marketingconsultancies. You have to ask "are they just in it for the money,
or do they really want to help peoples health"? I know what I think!!

Beware of people on these boards who claim to be doctors, they may be,
but they may also be people who have purchased a naturopath or other online
certificate. In addition, the fact someone is a medical doctor does not mean
they know anything about essential oils. Some of the "doctors" who popped up
on the old newsgroups were clearly brainwashed by the marketing hype of
their instructors. They are also paid to validate products.

Beware of certain supposed scientific advisors. Some of these people have
published research of no relevance to aromatherapy which is then twisted by
the company to suit their marketing strategy. Also, as long as the cash is
flowing, some of these advisers do not care about ethics.

These companies often operate via their distributors giving very convincing
presentations. In many cases they ensnare people into cult-like ways of
thinking. Their sales people rarely have any training in medical matters and
their only training is often lousy in-company courses where cult-like activity is
rife.

Do not be mislead into the belief that getting on the essential oils bandwagon
is a good thing. That was something people did years ago and the market is
saturated. Here in the UK many aromatherapy suppliers have gone bust or
packed up. In the USA things are also now not so good. So use essential oils
by all means, but buy them from people who know what they are talking
about.

As a distributor the companies advise you to build a team on which you get
paid bonuses. This is multi level marketing at its worst. That long lived scam
has over the years left thousands badly out of pocket and ruined many
families, yet people still fall for it.

As a distributor you are paid a commission on sales made via your recruits.
Sounds fine in practice, but read the small print carefully, and look at their
options for not paying you.

Some companies offer you to be an Independent Product Consultant for a
small fee. In such cases you are expected to advise people on the use of
essential oils, and other products, yet you may have no sound training to be
able to give health advice. If you do this you are on your own if someone
decides to sue you for causing damage to their health due to incorrect advice.
The company will not stand behind you because they will claim you are
not their employee but are “independent”.

Beware of facebook and similar blog sites. These can be set up by anyone
and made to look very convincing. They are now being exploited by con artists
to sell products at inflated prices. They are also used to give health advice by
people who have no training in what they advise, or are used by well meaning
people who have picked up incorrect information from numerous sources. I
have been horrified at some of the information sent to me.

Frankincense oil can cure cancers. This is probably the worst kind of health
scam out there. The marketers who make such claims should be in jail for
health fraud.

1a. The tests conducted on this oil have mainly been done in lab conditions,
such results cannot then be assumed to be replicated in humans via
consumption of the oil as advocated by the marketing scammers. There are
thousands of pieces of research on various extracts from plants which have
indicated anti cancer activity, but few have been validated with human trials.

1b. When the research is investigated, it is often found that testing has been
on an individual chemical extracted from the oil such as boswellic acid. It may
also be that the crude gum has been tested with an entirely different range of
phytochemicals compared to the distilled oil. These results are then twisted
by the marketing scammers into the whole oil is what has been tested.

2 .With Frankincense, as someone who has gathered huge volumes of research
on this oil, there are several issues which you need to consider.

2a. The biggest issue is that as Frankincense trees still grow wild, thus there is
little consistency between the chemical profiles of their oils. The resins are
gathered by tribes people and sold to traders at the main ports. These resins
are then mixed together for resale to the West. Boswellia frereana is a generic
name for the oils sold by the marketing scammers. Yet it is impossible to
produce an essential oil just from that variety because the trees differ widely
and giving them exact botanical names is almost impossible.

2b. The fact that a particular sample of the oil has proven anti cancer
properties in-vitro cannot then be taken to mean that all samples will have the
same activity.

2c. Another issue is traditional use, in some parts of Arabia the gum was
chewed as a reputed cure for mouth and stomach cancer. However, that would
be gums extracted from trees in the local area, trees a few miles away may not
have any such properties.

Summary on Frankincense: Beware of all claims you will see over this and
other oils being proven to have anti cancer activity. If someone has cancer and
normal medical treatments are failing they will be desperate to try anything. It
is that awful situation that the quack medicine marketing people will play on.

Most of these distributor operations make the claim that all their oils are "Pure
Therapeutic Grade". This claim is false, there is no such distinction within the
International essential oil trade. A distilled essential oil is either genuine or not.
This therapeutic grade concept is just a marketing scam. See other
articles.

Many of the multi level web sites say: "The Egyptians were some of the
first people to use aromatic essential oils extensively". That term should
sound the alarm bells over the depth of knowledge of the people running the
business as it is not correct. The Ancient Egyptians used crude aromatic
extracts, not distilled oils, but these marketing people twist this to fool you by
saying "aromatic essential oils".

Another incorrect statement you will see is "the powerful healing
properties of essential oils were rediscovered in 1937 by a French
chemist Rene-Maurice Gattefosse". Not true, essential oils were listed in
the Pharmacopoeias of the UK and USA in the preceding Century. What the
chemist Gattefosse did was to increase our knowledge of the properties of
essential oils.

Beware of pseudo science pushed by these companies. For example, they
make a lot about the 'antioxidant' properties of certain essential oils. They then
give you references to validate their claims. Upon checking, you will find the
research often has no relevance to the way they use the essential oil in their
products. They also try to give the impression that the research is 'new'. In
reality the properties observed by a new piece of research have often been
known about for many years and reported on by other scientists. The other
thing you will often find is that the researchers have not used the essential
oil at all, but often one of the main constituent chemicals. They do not tell you
how much is required to have any effect. They do not tell you that the best
form of natural antioxidants is in your daily food and drink. Most fruits and
vegetables contain anti oxidants. So why pay the inflated price for these
products when you would do better buying a bunch of red grapes or a carton of
red grape juice, or eating a carrot, or having a cup of tea?

On some of the companies blog sites you will find recommended ways of using
essential oils for health. The commonest blunder is advising that they are
added to water. The fundamental blunder indicating their lack of knowledge is
that water and oil do not mix. If you add an essential oil to water it will lay
on the surface, that is exactly the way the oils are extracted via distillation in
the first place. If you add an oil to water and it doesmix then the oil has
probably been modified in some way.

Citrus oils: are claimed to be Anti-fungal among many other claims. Well
consider this, if you leave an orange exposed to the air for a week or so, does
fungus start growing on it? Citrus fruits go rotten the same as all fruits, yet
these marketers mislead you into thinking the peel oils are so special. When
citrus oils are tested in the lab using freshly extracted oils they may well
display an anti fungal action. However, when those same oils are a few weeks
old they will do nothing.

Aromatherapy Jewellery: On one blog I was horrified to see someone
advising putting essential oils onto clay pendants. If that is in constant direct
contact with the skin the chances of a skin reaction are very high. Despite this
high risk there were no warnings.

Lastly, do not invest anything in these schemes. Chances are very high
you will not get enough customers and will end up seriously out of
pocket.


 

Source and Copyright: aromamedical.org