What are We Allowed to Say?

By Jeff Kaplan, RN, LMT, with preface by Dr. David Stewart, PhD

Preface

Young Living distributors are often confused about what they can legally say or not say about essential oils. Basically, what you can't do is to tell someone what specific oils to use and how to use them for their specific complaints. That would be "prescribing," which only licensed health care providers can legally do. Another thing you cannot do is to state that a certain oil can cure such in such or produce certain definite results. That would be "making a medical claim," which only doctors and drug companies can do.

We are also not supposed to use certain words or prefixes that the drug companies have obtained exclusive rights to use. The prefix, "anti-" is supposed to be reserved only for pharmaceuticals, but the word, "antiseptic" is okay for anyone to use and can be freely applied to oils that have that property (which is most of them). Some distributors are afraid they have to memorize a long list of dos and don'ts and words to avoid, and still fear they will slip up and say something forbidden.

In general, what we are allowed to do is to teach, share our personal experiences, read from published sources, and provide information in general. We can be vague and indirect, and still make our point, and be okay with the law.

The following is an answer to the question of "What can I legally say?" that was recently posted on the GreaterJoy chatline by Jeff Kaplan. I enjoyed what he expressed there and especially his style of expressing things. I wanted to share it with you. I like the way he has simplified things, cut to the chase, wasted no words, was blunt with the truth, and avoids having to think about every word he speaks to stay on the right side of the FDA.

Jeff Kaplan is the son of a physician, a registered nurse, and a licensed massage therapist. His website is www.admiralmassage.com

David Stewart

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I am allowed to tell people what their drugs can do, or are doing to them. I read the side effects right out of this Lippincott Nursing Drug Guide, or I let them read it themselves.

I tell people that many medications/drugs are anti-health. I can use the "anti-" word when it comes to drugs, right?

I have a person I massage 3 times weekly, who has brain cancer. One of his doctors has him on a high dose of prednisone, ostensibly to keep down the swelling in his brain. Apparently, his brain was swelling because the tumor was growing. Hello?

Prednisone, for a cancer patient???? !#$%&%! Of course, we can think of several oils that do a better job of reducing inflammation. Notice I didn't say the anti word here. To name a few: Wintergreen, Peppermint, Lavender, and the new one, Copal (also known as Copaiba), an ingredient in the new roll-on, Deep Relief.

If you want your patient to get better, the last thing you would want is to shut down his immune system with steroids. Oh well!

Cancer patients will often eat a lot of sugar from milk shakes, if they can get them down without upchucking-just so long as they can eat something, esp to keep the weight on, or gain weight. The doctors usually don't say anything about eating a lot of sugar which feeds the cancer. Why should that situation be any different when it comes to prescribing steroids?

You see, getting this patient well and cancer free is not the goal in modern medicine. The goal is palliative care only. "Minimize his suffering" while he is still alive since he is going to die anyway. I highly question the "minimize his suffering" part. I think its the other way around.

I asked his wife if he was still taking prednisone? "Yes," she said, "and they upped his dose."

"WHY???" I asked.

She said, "Six and a half, and a dozen of the other" or something like that.. (I never could quite got a handle on that phrase)

Basically, she has gotten programmed by the doctors that "the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks".

No they don't.

I could tell he was taking a steroid before I even asked her, because his poor skin gave him away. This guy's skin is blotchy, and ecchymotic (bruised all over the place), with scabs, and skin tears. His skin is the texture of toast. That's what happens when people are on steroids for an extended period-their skin gets fried. Prednisone screws up everything in your body. He has literally no immune system left.

I am massaging him three times a week, putting on Frankincense, Lemon, Myrrh, Tangerine, Lavender, Oregano, Thieves, and any thing else I can think of, to keep this guy going. It gets me perturbed, at how some people like this dear sweet man, or his wife, can blindly accept this treatment from his doctor.

So as far as words are concerned, I don't mince them when it comes to the drugs some people are taking. I have no need of exaggerating when I tell people drug side effects. I have never had anybody tell me, I KNEW ALL THAT!

Usually,they say, "Oh really? I didn't know that! Why does the doctor have him, or her, or me on this drug anyway?"

Before I came along, 98 times out of a 100, they didn't have a clue about drug side effects, and precautions, due to possible liver and kidney damage, not to mention all of the other lovely things that happen over time as the toxins build up in the liver, and other body systems. Some people have been taking some of their drugs for YEARS.

I have a thought. How is it stepping out of bounds with the words we use, when you read the information, including the side effects, nursing considerations, and precautions right out of a drug book? You may not understand all the Latin words in there, but you will understand enough.

If you have to, get a medical dictionary. That will really open things up to you. You might even catch yourself thinking, MAN ALIVE, THIS DRUG IS PURE POISON! HOW COULD ANY DOCTOR PRESCRIBE THIS, AND HOW IN THE WORLD COULD ANYBODY TAKE IT??

Not knowing what some of those words mean keeps us in the dark. What about the person taking the drug? Even if they read the side effects, do you think they know what any of those words mean? I don't think so. I still have to look a lot of them up myself.

Let me explain something: Those sheets that come home with people from the pharmacy that tell of side effects are pretty lame. They don't tell half the story. Get yourself a good drug book, like the Physicians Desk Reference (The PDR). Quote it, or let them read for themselves.

We are in the people business, and I think we are also in the education business. I want to help people, and the first priority in my mind, is to help them understand the meds/drugs/poisons they are taking-and understand exactly why they are taking them.

I also like to give the good news after I give them the bad: You know, there are a few things that you can do, which aren't as expensive, that might help you a lot.

Oh really? Like what?

This would be a good time to pull out the EODR, and look up an oil, or condition in the back. Well, lets take a look in this book...I have done that with a few people, and enrolled them.

By the way, I don't tell people to stop their drugs cold turkey. I don't want to get in trouble, and I don't want Young Living to get in trouble. I also don't want someone stopping a drug that they need to wean off.

Statins-yes, get the blank off of them. You have to read the info in the drug book though to know! Some drugs are so bad though, you shouldn't really wait until the patient's body goes to pot, and they die, before you say anything. I have found that MOST of the time, the person is deteriorating, not because of the disease they were diagnosed with-its the drugs they are on that's wrecking their health.

If we are going to quote from the Desk Reference, and I agree on that, lets turn the tables around and quote from drug books. If not, why not? The FDA can't shut down Young Living, because of YL distributors reading about drug side effects to people from the same drug books which are found in hospital nursing stations.

Some doctors may not like it, but that's too bad. My Dad, a D.O., thinks that drugs are waaaaay overprescribed! He used to take away some of his patients' drugs, because he often told me that most patients he saw, were on way too many medications. He called it the "pink pills for pale people" syndrome.

Some people get blue pills for this disease, and others, red pills for that disease, and still others, green pills for still another disease. This may be a slight exaggeration but not much! Certain diseases get the same pills almost like clockwork. Not in every case, but more often than not, this is true. It also depends on the latest drug(s) that are out, which are being pushed/promoted by the drug reps.

I am anti-pills. If this guy I am seeing tomorrow wasn't on that steroid, he would be SOOOO MUCH BETTER. Sigh!

I have used up most of my oils on him. They aren't anti-life like the drug(s) he is taking. The oils are pro-life, and pro-health. Our oils in fact, make it possible for us to be pro-active with our health. These are the words I am allowing myself to use.

Reprinted from The Raindrop Messenger, a free eline newsletter, with permission from Dr. David Stewart. To subscribe or download back issues, visit www.RaindropTraining.com.