Wahls Protocol Seminar Sponsor and Certified Wahls Health Practitioner Alene Brennan shares her expert perspective on using essential oils in her wellness routine. (Transcript is listed below)
Essential oils are plant-based, easy-to-use natural solutions to managing the symptoms of chronic disease – fatigue, brain fog, sleep, mood, energy, etc.
The emotional support of essential oils is especially helpful for those living with Multiple Sclerosis.
It’s believed that 50% of us will experience depression.
If left unmanaged, chronic stress and unprocessed emotions can have a negative effect on the body. Yet because emotional struggles are not visible like physical symptoms they easily get overlooked or dismissed.
Fortunately, essential oils can support you in quickly and effectively managing the range of emotions you may experience on a daily basis.
Holiday Bonus Offer:
Give or receive the gift of health through a starter kit of therapeutic grade essential oils.
If you’re experienced with the power of essential oils and you’re ready bring them into your home, you can shop at
If you’re brand new to essential oils and would like some customized support on selecting the best oils for you, email [email protected] to schedule a free consultation.
If you purchase an essential oil kit through Alene Brennan (via online or through a consultation) before December 15, you’ll receive:
- An online yoga class lead by Certified Yoga Instructor & Wahls Warrior Alene Brennan
- Online education series on how to use essential oils for chronic illness
- A copy of Alene’s essential oil daily rituals for chronic illness
- An exclusive Wahls Warrior™ welcome kit
- Access to a private Facebook page
- LIVE monthly education calls
- Wholesale pricing for 1 year
Interview Transcript:
Dr. Terry Wahls:
Welcome, Alene, I am so glad to have you today. I know we’ll be very excited to chat a little bit about essential oils. You have your own very interesting recovery story?
Alene:
Absolutely. Yeah. I was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS in July of 2016. And then, of course, I attended the Wahls seminar that August, less than a month after my diagnosis. Started on the protocol, and by the next round or MRIs, which was in 6 months, the lesions that I had on my brain shrunk and went inactive. So I have taken the Wahls Protocol®, essential oils, I’ve used a lot of elements to really support my overall health and manage MS.
Dr. Terry Wahls:
That is wonderful. Can you give us an overview of how, then, you’ve used essential oils in your recovery, then?
Alene:
Yeah. I have used them primarily to help manage the symptoms of MS. For me, it’s a lot of the fatigue, brain fog. I don’t deal with too much pains. It’s very occasional. But heat sensitivity, certainly, is another area, and then emotions. So helping to manage emotions through it all. And, of course, with essential oils, we can use them in one of three ways: aromatically, diffusing them in the air, topically, putting them on our body, or, depending upon the quality of oils you’re taking, you can take some internally.
I have used a lot of essential oils to help manage those symptoms, and they have been really helpful, primarily because I use them consistently. So just as we can’t follow the Wahls Protocol® for one day and expect a dramatic turn-around, same thing with essential oils. We want to use them consistently, and they also are a part … they’re one piece of the overall picture. You can’t have essential oils override an unhealthy diet or an unhealthy lifestyle. But when you have all of those areas in place, they really are a nice tool to have to naturally support the body physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Dr. Terry Wahls:
Now, if someone is adding the essential oils, then, typically how long would it take for them to see an impact?
Alene:
It depends upon how long the individual has been experiencing that ailment, or whatever it is that they’re looking to have a desired outcome from. You can open up a bottle of essential oil, and if you’re looking to manage emotions, you may feel an immediate sense of relief. You may open up a bottle of lavender, and immediately feel a sense of calm, especially if you have an association to that smell, like experiencing lavender from a previous massage. Or, if you are using peppermint to help [inaudible 00:03:25] something that’s more energizing, you can experience a more immediate relief.
Alene:
If you’re looking to manage something that has been pretty well ingrained, or a health issue that has been in existence for a little while, it of course will take a little bit longer, then, to really unwind and to heal the body in that way. But consistency is the main thing. And what I typically recommend is to … for people who are using them for an acute issue … they have a headache, they have an ache or pain, I usually recommend starting off with one or two drops, and then wait about 20 minutes. If after 20 minutes you got your desired outcome, amazing! You only needed one to two drops. If you didn’t get it after 20 minutes, reapply every 20 minutes until you get that desired outcome. Or if it’s a chronic issue, I personally like to use them about twice a day in my daily routine, and know that over a time they’re working their way through their body to create that healing effect.
Dr. Terry Wahls:
You know, I particularly … I use essential oils. I use them in the evening. I particularly like the Serenity blend. [inaudible 00:04:42] massage that, and I like to inhale that as a sleep aid. It’s a lovely part of my evening routine. Do you have any particular strategies that you like for your evening routine, or to help with sleep?
Alene:
Yes. Actually, Serenity is the one that first got me hooked on doTERRA Essential Oils, because that was the one that I had my first true oil experience with. I placed it on the bottoms of my feet. The bottoms of your feet are a great place to apply them topically, because the bottoms of your feet are the most porous, but least sensitive, part of your skin. So your body will be able to absorb them. And of course they don’t just stay in your feet. They’re going to circulate throughout your body, so your whole body gets the benefits. But applying them on the soles of your feet is a really nice way to do it topically. I will often, because I especially like the aroma of Serenity, I often diffuse that in my bedroom.
Alene:
And then, for the topical one, I will often use Vetiver. Vetiver is a very grounding oil, so that’s one that I’ll put on the soles of my feet. Also, a little trick, if you don’t love the aroma of a particular oil … because we love some. We don’t always love all of them. Again, putting them on the soles of your feet, you tuck your feet under the covers and you don’t have to worry about the aroma then. But diffusing and topically is a really nice way to do it before you go to bed.
Dr. Terry Wahls:
Excellent. Excellent. Do you happen to have a bottle there with you that you can show us?
Alene:
I do, absolutely. This right here is a bottle of lavender. This is a 15 ml bottle. It has about 250 drops in it. So this is where a lot of individuals can realize how much you can get out of just one bottle. An easy way to use essential oils is to take a drop or two, put it in the palm of your hands, and then rub your hands together, cup them over your nose, and take a deep breath in. Mm. So taking about three to five breaths in is one that is really going to allow the essential oils to travel in through your nose. They reach the olfactory system in your brain there, which is connected to the limbic system.
Alene:
Not to get too much into science, but the bottom line is that these essential oils travel in through the brain and they allow your body to experience a lot of emotional relief, and they can help from … aromatic use is one of the best ways to support your body emotionally through essential oils. But with this, as you saw, you’re just using a bottle, and you don’t need anything other than your hands. A diffuser is wonderful, but carrying this with throughout your day, cupping it over your mouth and nose, taking a deep breath in, is a really nice, easy way to use them.
Dr. Terry Wahls:
Another strategy that I’ve used is I just open up the bottle, hold it up to my nostril, and inhale deeply. That’s another very easy way to take advantage of those essential oils.
Alene:
Yeah. And I think … oh, go ahead.
Dr. Terry Wahls:
I love inhaling my Serenity. Also inhale rosemary oil just before going to bed. It’s a lovely part of my evening rituals.
Alene:
Yeah. I think that’s one of the most important aspects in speaking in the context of using essential oils with the MS and autoimmune community. It is a lot … it can be a lot, managing a chronic illness, but yet essential oils can be so simple to use. So it allows you to have a tool that can be easily integrated into your daily routine that can really support your body. As you’re saying, maybe you just have the Serenity on your nightstand, and you take a couple deep breaths in of the bottle that’s right by your bed. That will really support you in calming the body, calming the mind, and getting a better quality of sleep. And of course, we know how many benefits we get from improved sleep. So it’s not just about a beautiful aroma. We love that. But it’s allowing us to have a deep quality of sleep. And then, during sleep, our body goes through so much detoxification and repair, and that’s the … those are the side benefits that you get from essential oils. So there’s really a ripple effect that you get.
Dr. Terry Wahls:
I’m sure people have heard me mention, the goal is to have 200 different plant species in the year, and that’s to give us the biologic benefits of these molecules interacting with our system. I’ve not really considered essential oils as part of that 200 plant species, but it certainly could. If you’re inhaling it, it’s coming in through your olfactory nerve, interacting with your limbic system. If you’re putting it on topically, you’re absorbing it through your skin. So this would be another way to increase that exposure to, again, the goal of 200 different plants.
Some people will see that … the variety of places to get essential oils. My advice is, ideally you want to have organic essential oils. It’s also helpful to have someone who has experience using the essential oils, and can talk with you about your current symptoms, your current goals, and give you some feedback on how to consider adding them and incorporating them into your daily activities of daily life. Give us a quick comment as to what the experience of last year’s seminar was like, because you’ve been there several years now, Alene.
Alene:
I have, yes. My first one was in 2016. Once I went for the first time, I’m hooked, I’m going to keep coming back as long as you have them. Last year’s seminar … one of the things that I have grown to love about it and just truly appreciate is the sense of community that is there at the seminar. It really feels like it’s almost a homecoming, because you get an opportunity to see fellow Wahls Warriors who are on all different levels of their journey. It’s really a supportive environment. We recognize that everybody is coming at different stages, and it is all about supporting and lifting each other up.
And then it’s exciting to know who we’re going to get to meet for the first time, who hasn’t been there before that we get to meet for the first time. And all of the knowledge that you share, and all of the speakers, I feel like I really get refreshed, with a whole new download of energy. And then, of course, all the fellow vendors that are around, and really allow participants to be able to experience some of the products that you’re speaking about. I have a whole table of essential oils, and welcome people to come up and experience them. The seminar, overall, is something that I look forward to every year, truly, and I’m looking forward to it again this year.
Dr. Terry Wahls:
Last year, I invited everyone to come to your table, inhale deeply, so they could connect some of these lovely essential oil aromas to the deep emotional bonding that was occurring there. And so hopefully they’ll all be coming back to, once again, deepen that memory, because olfaction is a very deep way to connect into our limbic system and into our memories. So yeah. That was lots of fun, that you had your essential oils, and we could help people deepen their emotional experience.
Alene:
Yeah. I used frankincense in particular, as you were encouraging everyone to come up and use an essential oil to really anchor in everything that we were learning and feeling in that moment. And I can truly say there have been times throughout the year since that seminar that I pull out my bottle of frankincense, and I take a deep breath in, and I think of that community, that feel that I had there, all the information that I was learning. So yes, absolutely. I get the emotional connection with it, but then you also get the physical benefits of the essential oil in the process, too.
Dr. Terry Wahls:
Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to chat. I’m so glad you’re going to be there. And again, I encourage people to check out the essential oils. They’re a wonderful way to add to your healing experience, and it’s a wonderful part of the seminar. Thanks, Alene.
Alene:
Thank you.
doTERRA Essential Oils
When it comes to using essential oils therapeutically, quality matters. Store-bought oils are often poorly sourced and often hold virtually no therapeutic benefits.
doTERRA essential oils are Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade (CPTG) which means that there are no added fillers, synthetic ingredients or harmful contaminants in their oils. It also means that every bottle has been tested for potency – ensuring its therapeutic properties.
Wahls Certified Health Practitioner, Alene Brennan
Wahls Certified Health Practitioner, Alene Brennan, supports and educates the MS and autoimmune community to learn how to use the oils safely and effectively. Alene also guides clients through the process of creating a personalized self-care protocol.
If you’re new to essential oils or would like personalized support in customizing an oil kit for your personal needs, connect with Alene at [email protected].
