Tea Tree Oil - Good or Bad?

[chainlink]

Feb 9, 2012 22:38:40 GMT @raycoolj said:

I have been learning about essential oils for the past year. Melaleuca or Tea tree oil is perhaps one of my favorite oils. I put some on a fairly severe burn and it stopped hurting within 15 minutes and healed very rapidly without a scar. Melaleuca is great for many skin ailments: acne, athletes foot, burns and bug bites (Lavender is great for anti-itching as well as soothing insect bites) As with any product, it is good to research the manufacturer and avoid those that are synthetically made as this may be the real cause of an allergic reaction. (There are those that have allergies to specific essential oils but more than likely it is the synthetic additives). I personally would not ingest this oil and if used sparingly on the skin, it is a great alternative to pharmaceuticals.

No such thing as "Synthetic" Lavender oil, yes you can get Lavender fragrance but that's an entirely differnt animal.
"Synthetic" materials (and I use the term "Synthetic" with caution as it does not really mean anything) are no more hazrdous than "Natural" ones and at least when its "Synthetic" you know whats in it whereas "Natural" oils have a much greater degree of variability due to growing coditions experienced before harvesting.
I've sourced various Honeys for projects and I can assure you that I'd much rather use generic honey than a locally sourced from only one area grade as this potentially concentrates "nasty" things that the bees might have been feeding on. Look up honey en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey#Toxic_honey if you're interested.

[gandoron]

One of the primary issues with generic honey from the store is that it's heat process and extremely filtered. That takes a lot of the good stuff out. Normally you can get honey based on the type of flower it's coming from, I believe honey toxication is extremely rare (particularly in the US). Not to mention that local honey tends to help much more with allergies due to using the same flowers that are causing you problems.

The problem with synthesizing many natural occurring remedies, is that many times they can only focus on certain receptors and parts of the molecule, missing the important stuff that can make it work or other included molecules that have a synergistic effect. The movie Medicine Man is a slightly hyperbolic example of that. For instance, anything but natural Aloe Vera is next to useless.

-G

[chainlink]

Unfiltered, non heat treated honey contains amongst other things, bits of bees, bee venom, flower pollen all of which people are known to have allergies to! Trust me I'm a scientist.