4 Essential Oil Blends to Help Ease Inflammation

by Tequia Burt

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Try these essential oil blends to help soothe everyday inflammatory conditions like sprained wrists, sinus congestion, heartburn, and eczema.

Essential oils like lavender are commonly used to help us sleep and to alleviate stress, but did you know that they can also be used to ease many types of inflammation in the body?

According to clinical aromatherapist Dorene Petersen, essential oils can be used to soothe inflammatory skin conditions such as eczema; respiratory illnesses like sinus, cough, cold, and flus; pain from sprains, strains, and pulls; and even some gut issues.

“Essential oils are most helpful when the body has an inflammatory response in the skin, joints, and respiratory system. They can also be used for digestive issues, like colitis, bowel disorders, and heartburn,” says Petersen, who is president of the Portland, Oregon-based American College of Healthcare Sciences, which offers one of the few accredited programs in integrative health and wellness available in the U.S.

She says that essential oils can be a powerful tool in your overall wellness toolkit but emphasizes that they must be just one prong of a multilayered plan that aims to identify the root causes of inflammation.

Acute inflammation is related to injury or infection. Additionally, “inflammatory response has to do with diet, it has to do with stress, it has to do with lifestyle,” Petersen explains. “Essential oils are not a magic bullet. But they can help ease inflammation and keep it at a low level in the body; they are a great addition to a larger, wider holistic wellness protocol.”

How to Use Essential Oils for Inflammation

Petersen recommends using blends of certified organic essential oils, which allows you to take advantage of the properties of a variety of oils in a single dose. Never apply essential oils directly to skin; mix with a carrier oil like sweet almond or olive oil to dilute.

“I like using a carrier oil that is quickly absorbed by the skin, like grapeseed,” she says. “Camellia sinensis oil is also quite lovely.”

Petersen also warns to be sure that you are using essential oils in the right way with the right dosage. And to always check with your doctor to make sure the ones you’d like to try won’t interfere with prescription drugs you might already be taking.

“Don’t take 50 drops when you should only be taking five,” she says. “That’s dangerous because sometimes people don’t really realize how potent some essential oils are.”

Petersen provided the following recipes for custom blends to help us figure out which essential oils we should be taking—and how much we should be taking—to help ease specific inflammatory conditions.