0:00:00.0 Speaker 1: The advice and informational content does not necessarily represent the views of Mother's Market and Kitchen. Mother's recommends consulting your health professional for your personal medical condition.

0:00:10.9 Kimberly King: Hello, I'm Kimberly King, and welcome to the Mother's Market podcast, a show dedicated to the truth, beauty and goodness of the human condition. On today's episode, we dive into the world of aromatherapy and discuss why it's important that you choose organic when it comes to essential oils. Aromatherapy can be used to ease your stress and create a nice calming atmosphere, no matter where you are. So listen close. But first up, Amy Pereira is a national educator for Pranarom and a certified holistic nutrition consultant. For nearly three decades. She's served numerous roles within the natural products industry. She has a degree in Environmental Science, and she's passionately committed to environmental and human health education, and we welcome Amy to the Mother's Market podcast. How are you?

0:00:57.7 Amy Pereira: I'm doing well, Kim. Thank you, thanks for having me.

0:01:01.0 KK: Thanks for being here. Why don't you fill our audience in a little bit on your mission and your work before we get to today's show topic.

0:01:07.7 AP: So personally, I have been passionate about human health and nutrition and wellness for as long as I can remember. My degree's in Environmental Science, and I am also a holistic nutrition consultant, a yoga instructor. I am a meditation instructor as well, and a new realtor, and one of my biggest goals and the reason I even went into pursuing my Realty license is to find some property for a little sweet slice of land on which to build a retreat on there. So that's my ultimate goal, but I have long been interested in human health and supporting well-being.

0:01:44.5 KK: Excellent. Good for you.

0:01:46.8 AP: Thank you.

0:01:47.6 KK: Oh, I see, go-getter written all over you. Well, congratulations. That's exciting. I wanna talk to you first of all, who and what is Pranarom?

0:01:56.0 AP: Pranarom is a company that was founded in Belgium in 1991 by Dominique Baudoux, and he's a pharmacist, an aromatherapist, an author, an educator, who for 30 years now has traveled the world educating and sharing scientific aromatherapy education. He is also very instrumental in delivering essential oils to the general public. So he has forged relationships with farmers and distillers so that we can all gain from not only his expertise, but these amazing, organic... Which we'll probably talk about, I'm sure... Essential oils and scientific aromatherapy items. So Pranarom is, as I mentioned, in Belgium, but the home offices here in the US are in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There are 10,000 pharmacies throughout Europe that carry Pranarom, and here in the US, Pranarom's the number one selling organic scientific aromatherapy and essential oil line. So that's a bit about who Pranarom is.

0:03:07.9 KK: Wow, that's wonderful. And I think you said you've been there for about four years or so, so definitely, you're passionate and we can see that coming through. Now that we've introduced Pranarom, and of course, how to pronounce Pranarom, what does the word mean?

0:03:23.4 AP: That's a great question. It's a combination of two words. So, prana, if you've ever gone to yoga class, is the Sanskrit Eastern Indian word for energy or life force. So it's likened to chi, the Chinese medicine term for the same energy that courses throughout all of us. And arom represents the aromatic, fragrant plants from which essential oils come. And putting those two words together, pranarom, really just embodies the essence that these plants and their life force and spirit can be harnessed by humans for our life force, our well-being, and our spirits as well.

0:04:02.8 KK: Very nice, thank you for putting those words together. Before proceeding to the importance of using organic scientific aromatherapy, can you first address what scientific aromatherapy is for listeners who may be wondering if it's the same as aromatherapy.

0:04:16.3 AP: Right, absolutely. So aromatherapy and scientific aromatherapy are essentially the same. However, when you see the word scientific in front of aromatherapy, it really just represents the fact that this is not about fragrance alone, these are not beautiful-smelling candles, etcetera. We're using and harnessing the scientifically-validated properties of essential oils. So well-studied, understood chemical constituents within the essential oils are then used for scientifically-validated purposes. So scientific aromatherapy is just taking it to the next level in understanding that these are validated, research-backed products that have documented clinical effects.

0:05:08.1 KK: Excellent. That's great. To define essential oils so we're all clear as to what they are, what are essential oils and what are they made of, and how?

0:05:17.9 AP: Yeah, so essential oils are... And we think of them as oils, but they're really not oils, they're carbon-based molecules and liquids. So our carbon-based liquids, these are highly concentrated substances that the plants make to support their survival and well-being. So plants make essential oils to fight viruses, bacteria, fungi, and even animals like herbivores from ingesting them, so it's their life force defense mechanism. They don't have little feet that they can run away from a predator, they don't have any other way to draw in pollinators to ensure their survival. So essential oils and the hundreds of naturally occurring chemicals within are made by plants to ensure their survival and well-being. So as mentioned before, we can really harness these plants' powerful chemicals for our well-being also.

0:06:17.3 S1: And most of the times, they are made through steam distillations. In many cases, there will be carbon dioxide super critical extraction or cold pressing, but by and large, on the whole, the essential oils are extracted from plants through steam distillation, which is a really fascinating process as well that involves packing plant material into the distillation chamber and then boiling water so that the steam travels up through the plant material, and just kind of like we maybe perspire on a hot day, that steam helps to release the essential oil chemicals that are volatile and that evaporate into that steam, which is then condensed back into a liquid state by cooling that steam and those essential oil gases, and then we're left with a liquid that rises to the top with another liquid below that. So just like oil and water, maybe, or oil and vinegar in a salad dressing, the essential oils float. They're then pulled off from that vat and then the water that sinks is heavier, more dense. That's the hydrosol. So you get two products through steam distillation: Essential oils and hydrosols, also known as hydrolats, more so in Europe.

0:07:36.3 KK: That is a fascinating process. I'd love to see how that works some day. We talked about organic and what EOS... And is it OS, EOS? How are they made, and let's talk about the importance of that.

0:07:50.1 AP: Oh yeah, so essential oils, that's how they're made. We discussed that. But why organic is so important is because the plants, when, as I mentioned, they naturally express these essential oil chemicals to support their survival and well-being, but if we're spraying the plants with pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, products that are synthetic that in a sense do the job for the plant, then the plant may down regulate its production of those vital chemicals that we want to harness as humans for our well-being. So if they're sprayed with chemicals that sort of do the job for them, they may not produce the same quantity and quality of essential oils that they would if they were grown organically. So that can be an issue. We want to gain the benefits of the whole plant in its nice synergistic way with all of the naturally occurring chemicals.

0:08:50.9 AP: Another reason why organic is so vital is that when the plants are sprayed with pesticides, and there may be a period or a window where they're sprayed before they can be harvested, but nevertheless, even if there are trace amounts of chemicals still remaining on the plants, when the plants are put into the distillation equipment, it is a significant amount of plant material reduced to a relatively, very small amount of end product. So it can be something like 6000 pounds of lavender that yield just a few gallons of an essential oil, so you're talking tons of plant material reduced down to just a few pounds, and if you think about a small trace amount of synthetic pesticide on that plant may not seem like a big deal, but when it's condensed in that condensed form, it can really be an issue for those who are sensitive.

0:09:48.3 AP: So if someone ever says, "I used lavender on my skin and I broke out in a rash," it may not be that lavender was the cause of that reaction, that dermatitis. It may be that there were trace concentrates of synthetics that were the issue. So organic is really key in that respect, as if you want to get a feel for having the most pure product, you would want to choose something that has no synthetic pesticides, chemicals that are acceptable in the process, and also the organic really has a lot to do with no GMOs as well. So that's very, very important to so many individuals as well.

0:10:39.9 KK: Absolutely. You talked a little bit about this, but if you can really dive into therapeutic grade, certified therapeutic grade, natural, pure, are these all a good measure of quality or value?

0:10:54.1 AP: Yeah, that's a great question. So, the word therapeutic is very valuable. It means that it's going to impart a wellness response in the body. So the word therapeutic is great. When it's coupled with therapeutic grade, or certified therapeutic grade, pure, etcetera, those are just marketing terms. So they're not legally defined by any governmental agency, any protective agency, so they are descriptive, but they may be used in a deceptive way, and just because it says therapeutic grade, that may indicate that it will support your well-being, but it doesn't guarantee that there's no GMOs, there's no synthetic pesticides, there's no chemicals used in the agriculture. It does not mean that there will be nothing added along the way. So really, when you're looking at products, just simply seeing therapeutic or pure or even natural... You've heard this story before, something could say natural, a box of cereal, but then when you flip it around, corn's the number one ingredient, and that's one of the top genetically modified products, or I should say crops in the United States. So pure, natural, therapeutic, they are really just descriptive adjectives. If you want to know that your product has none of those synthetic chemicals or GMOs, then you need to look for USDA organic or Ecocert Organic. So those would be excellent alternatives to just the words pure or natural.

0:12:36.4 KK: So is it fair to ask then how we look for essential oils, if we have the [0:12:42.9] ____, are clean and pure to that USDA or how else? Are there any other clues to find out if they're clean and pure?

0:12:51.0 AP: Yeah, so you can definitely look for the Ecocert, and the USDA Organic seals. They'll be on every label of a product that is... Has gone through that certification process, and there are many checkpoints in place, so those are excellent, excellent places to start, and far superior to something that says just pure or therapeutic. Also, when looking for those products that are clean and pure, you can always reach out to the manufacturer and just ask for a complete ingredient list. It should always be on the product. Now, if it's a single note essential oil, like just a lavender essential oil or just an orange essential oil and so on that's not a combination of different lavenders, you can obtain a GCMS report from the manufacturer. So any company worth their salt is going to maintain those records and have those records so that they can share with you what the chemical constituents are in that batch, so that's vital. Pranarom always maintains GCMS reports. There's multiple testing that's done, not only on the chemical analysis, but also physical analysis. What's the color? What's the density? So all of those things are going to be additional ways that you can discover the purity of your product.

0:14:19.7 KK: Well, that's great advice. Thank you for letting us know. Well, this is great information. Thank you so much, Amy. And right now, we need to take a quick break. Don't go anywhere. We'll be back in just a moment.

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0:14:30.4 KK: Welcome back to the Mother's Market podcast. And we wanna remind you that if you missed any portion of today's show, you can find us on iTunes by searching Mother's Market or download the show from our website, www.mothersmarket.com, click the link for podcast and listen to past shows. Plus download our healthy recipes and money savings coupons, all available at www.mothersmarket.com.

0:14:52.2 KK: And now back to our interview with Pranarom's national educator, Amy Pereira, and we're talking about why organic matters when it comes to aromatherapy. And so, Amy, is the cost of organic scientific aromatherapy items like essential oils much greater than conventional, non-organic counterparts?

0:15:10.8 AP: Sometimes, yes, but it's actually a common misconception that organic always costs so much more. Pranarom has carefully cultivated and maintained direct relationships with farmers, harvesters and distillers, like I was mentioning before, from whom we obtain our essential or our organic, sustainably-sourced plant materials and essential oils. So while Pranarom does not own every farm from which all the plants hail, we are happy and honored to support farmers who are committed to organic agriculture, and also skilled artisans who beautifully merge the art and science of distillation to bring us the finest essential oils that are again, organic and Ecocert, but it's through this direct relationships that the cost is kept so low.

0:16:05.1 AP: So if you're purchasing essential oils as maybe a side suite of products of your line, then you may have to obtain them from a broker, and that third party, that middleman, middlewoman, middle company, etcetera, drives the price up. Because we have these direct, long-standing relationships with our farmers and with our distillers, we can offer these organic essential oils at amazing prices. So, not always the case. You may find something like Good Samaritan is far less costly than something like Thieves, for instance, or maybe even very comparable, just as an example.

0:16:46.2 KK: Okay, well, that's interesting to know. Thank you. Is organic agriculture really that much different than conventional?

0:16:55.6 AP: Yeah, it really is. The conventional agriculture permits the use of hundreds of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and other chemicals, so literally hundreds of chemicals that are not acceptable in organic agriculture. So that's one key reason genetically modified organisms are not tolerated in organic agriculture as well, whereas conventional agriculture actually cooperates with biotech companies to promote GMOs like Roundup Ready seeds and things like that, that are engineered to let the crops tolerate and survive particular chemicals. So that's something that you don't have to worry about with organic agriculture.

0:17:37.0 AP: And again, it takes a massive amount of plant material to make just a small amount of essential oil, so even if there were just little traces, they may be condensed into the final end product. It takes something like 1.3 million roses to make a cup of essential oil, so if you're talking about dozens of roses to make a drop, and those just have synthetic pesticides on them, you may condense them and have greater exposure, whether you're inhaling it or even ingesting it. Some of these... About 150 different essential oils are acceptable for internal use, and you'll see them on the generally regarded as safe list, which is the FDA's publication.

0:18:23.0 AP: So these are things that we're ingesting. They're in foods and flavorings, and organic really does make a difference, and remembering too that the plants use the essential oils to fight viruses, to fight bacteria and to ensure their survival. If they're sprayed, the quality and the percentages of different chemicals that make up that essential oil naturally, maybe altered, so it really is vital that if you're using essential oils and scientific aromatherapy for well-being, that organic is at the forefront of what's important.

0:19:01.7 KK: Wow, that's fascinating. You just had me when you named the number of roses it takes. I just automatically thought of a rose bowl pourri, 'cause that's the last time I heard about millions of roses, but that organic part of it that makes sure that it's clean and but just [0:19:19.4] ____ being aware of that is simply fascinating.

0:19:25.0 AP: Yeah. The rose bowl might make a half a cup or something. [chuckle]

0:19:26.4 KK: That's crazy.

0:19:28.9 AP: And I don't know actually how many roses...

0:19:30.5 KK: Wow, that's really... Wow, that just...

0:19:36.3 AP: Yeah, and I don't know how many roses are in the Rose Bowl...

0:19:37.0 KK: That's the last time I've heard of that many.

0:19:39.4 AP: Yeah, you might also appreciate the fact that the roses like in our Rose Otto, those petals need to be steam-distilled basically right after harvest, so there is no time for those petals to be all... Or those rose buds to just be packed into a truck and shipped somewhere. It's a very... It wilts very quickly and it could compromise the essential oil quality, so steam-mobile distillation units actually are brought to the farm, and they're picked in the early morning and distilled in no time, so that we gain the highest quality Rose Otto essential oil. So that's another very interesting fact, I think.

0:20:20.5 KK: Wow. Wow. My olfact now is going off. I'm like, "Oh, I wanna smell roses."

[laughter]

0:20:29.7 KK: That's an interesting process, and thank you for walking us through that. I know when we first started talking, I was like, "I bet you your home and your office and your place smells absolutely incredible."

0:20:40.2 AP: Yes, and I'm glad that you're smelling just fine, 'cause a lot of individuals are going through the scent olfactory disruption now, so that's a whole other ball of wax, but essential oils can be used for scent training too. You may hear more about that in days to come.

0:20:57.0 KK: Oh? So, stay tuned, right?

0:21:02.1 AP: Right.

0:21:02.4 KK: We're gonna have to have you back on to talk about that. Let's talk about even if the essential oil is labeled USDA and Ecocert Organic, how do we know what is in it since there are no ingredients listed other than essential oil or lavender? How do we know that it contains nothing other than naturally-occurring chemicals and substances?

0:21:21.3 AP: Yes, so again, if it does have that USDA or Ecocert Organic seal, you're gonna avoid all of those synthetics. And then the GCMS report is really the best way, and if the company that you're purchasing your essential oils from, like Pranarom, has a website, you'll see on the pranarom.us website that under each essential oil single note, there's a short list of the chemical constituents that are within that product, so if you look at lavender or peppermint, you'll see the percentage of menthol or the percentage of linalyl acetate, so that you get a feel for what's in it. But for the full-blown GCMS report, we keep all of them. Most people fortunately don't ask for them 'cause that could be a time-consuming venture to send this out to folks, but they're always in place and they will tell you everything that is in the product. And just another great thing to know is that Pranarom essential oils are also tested for over 100 different synthetic chemicals, so although those aren't used in organic agriculture, maybe a neighboring farm has sprayed their plants and there's some cross-drift in the breeze, etcetera. So, testing for those synthetic chemicals allows us to know if there's any presence of those, and if there are... Which there typically isn't... Those oils would not be labeled and sold as organic. That's not acceptable. So thank you for asking that. That's great.

0:23:00.3 AP: Able or a few, I should say, can be used in an undiluted fashion straight from the bottle, and this is referred to as neatly. Some examples would be lavender, you could use neatly. Frankincense, people put right on their skin. Tea tree, some people feel like you need to dilute it, but a lot of individuals use tea tree directly, topically, neatly, undiluted on the skin without any challenge, but there are more essential oils that absolutely require dilution. So yes, some maybe used straight from the bottle, others surely require dilution, and before you ever just open it up and go ahead and swipe it on your wrist, you want to consult a publication that will give you information on dilution guidelines. So like Pranarom has a guide book to chemotyped essential oils that's complimentary to our accounts to share with customers, and it will list the single note essential oils and what the dilution percentages are. So something like oregano should never be put directly on the skin. That would be suggested to dilute that about 1%, maybe a half a percent, or maybe up to two, depending upon the situation.

0:24:18.9 AP: And for an example of what that looks like, a 1% dilution would be one drop of oregano in 100 drops of a carrier, like olive oil or sunflower oil or almond oil, or you could even use lavender as a carrier, if you've used an organic lavender on your skin and it agrees with your constitution. To expand on that question, one more point is that certain essential oils are photo-sensitizing, so they can increase your risk of a sunburn and they absolutely need to be diluted as well, and sometimes in even higher dilutions than others. So like lemon or bergamot, if it's not steam-distilled and it's cold-pressed, like many citrus are... They take the rind and they just manually express them by pressing, like you would make an olive oil through a pressing device... Those may, when put on the skin, cause your skin to absorb more UV rays and that's going to increase your risk of sunburn and potentially sun damage, if you have light skin and a propensity for burning. So, yes, great question. They may not all be used in an undiluted form, and you should definitely do your homework before you start dousing yourself with essential oils.

0:25:45.6 KK: That's really interesting as well, and just to kind of go behind the scenes, I know is another way to use it in the soaps, and you make your own soaps with those, is that right?

0:25:56.1 AP: Yes, exactly. So when you're using essential oils in soaps, that's still something to consider. Like cinnamon is highly anti-microbial, which is great, and that might be a benefit that you're looking for in your diffuser to stay well during this particularly challenging past year that we've had, but when you do put those essential oils, even in a product like soap, you may run the risk if you have too heavy of a hand of having your soap just being a little irritating. So it is really vital to consider those dilution guidelines, no matter what application you're using essential oils in.

0:26:32.0 KK: So you may have already touched on this, but are all organic lavenders or all organic chamomiles the same?

0:26:39.9 AP: So yeah, we didn't talk about that, and that's a great question. When you're talking about lavender, like a true French lavender, lavandula angustifolia or officinalis... It's the same plant... That is a different genus and species than spike lavender. So those are two different species and they will have a highly different profile. So what you need to look for is the scientific or Latin name on your bottles, if you've been directed to use a product. And you don't need to wait until someone says, "Oh, choose lavandula angustifolia." If someone says "Which lavender?" you can say, "Any particular species?" if you're trying to really get a little bit more information out of it, and increase your knowledge and awareness. Or another great question is, "What are you using it for?" So if someone says, "Try lavender." "For what use?" is another thing. So if you're using an essential oil for respiratory health, lavandula angustifolia is not... It's gonna be very calming, very soothing. It has been seen in research to lower cortisol that may help with belly fat, and surely helps with stress in many individuals, but when you are talking about respiratory health, helping to support expectoration, bringing up mucus, deep breathing, something like spike lavender would be great and very different, in that it has some cineole in it and it has some camphor in it.

0:28:14.5 AP: So the species is going to be indicative of what essential oil is going to be good for. And same thing with chamomile. There's blue chamomile, which is blue tansy. It's not even really a true chamomile. There is German chamomile, there's Roman chamomile. So these are distinct and different plants. The only way, again, that you're gonna know what one you have is to look for the genus and species that will be listed on most all scientific aromatherapy product labels, surely on all Pranarom's labels, you'll see the different species. So when it's about the same plant, sometimes one plant, when it grows in two different regions will express different chemicals. So a lavender that's grown in a higher altitude may have a little bit less camphor, and just be a little bit more gentle for baby than a lavender that's grown at a lower altitude. Or a rosemary plant that's grown in Spain may have a very different chemical make-up than one that's grown in Vermont. So just looking for a chemo type if it's listed on your bottle, like Rosemary Cineole versus Rosemary Verbenone, that chemo type, if it's known, will be listed, and again, any scientific aromatherapy company that's producing oils for physiological benefits in the body will mostly, most likely... Pranarom does list the chemo types so that you have that information to be able to use that essential oil for the job that you're looking for it to do.

0:29:55.1 KK: That's really great information, and the fact that your environmental science degree is showing when you're talking about these different regions. I didn't even think about that, but how important that is as well, so yeah, thank you for explaining that.

0:30:07.4 AP: It's just fascinating.

0:30:11.3 KK: It is. Can scientific aromatherapy essential oils be used on children or in a baby's bath, for instance?

0:30:20.7 AP: Yeah, so there are essential oils in many products on the market, OTC, even conventional products. You're gonna see lavender in everything now, all the time. Often chamomile will also be in babies' products. There are not too many that I would suggest using on little ones, and we're talking babies, not like a toddler where you have a little bit more liberty and wiggle room as the child ages... But for very little ones, like maybe three months old and up, it's best to use just those ones that are generally suggested for children, like lavender or chamomile, but to be sure to properly dilute. With children a half a percent or 1% is very appropriate and often more than enough for little ones. So I had mentioned one drop in 100 drops of carrier would be a 1% dilution, so that might just be one drop of lavender in 100 drops of something like calendula oil that you then have as your master mix, and then you just use a few drops of that deluded lavender in baby's bath or on baby's skin. So I would never just shake a few drops on my hand and rub it on baby. Diluting is very suggested, and in many cases, because babies are so sensitive, a little goes a long way in all of us, but even more so in young ones.

0:32:02.7 KK: Yeah. I guess what are your favorite uses of scientific aromatherapy essential oils?

0:32:10.8 AP: Yeah, so as we had already talked about, soap making, that's one of my loves. I love using essential oils, not fragrance oils, but true essential oils, in soap. Another really, just in the diffuser... It sounds like a cop out on the answer, but it's such a great way to harness the microbial powers of essential oils, just simply putting them in the diffuser. Research recently has shown that one's like clove and cinnamon, and even rose geranium, and lavender and lemon grass in the diffuser, tea tree, definitely affect microbes in the home, so putting them in the diffuser, it's not going to replace cleaning a layer of dust and the dust mites that might live within off of your shelves, but it does have the ability to... Just simply having those vapors and those molecules in the air mitigate challenges, and some research even shows that just having the vapors in the proximity of H1N1 can affect the virus's ability to infect you. So putting them in the diffuser is just a fantastic way to use them.

0:33:24.6 AP: Hand sanitizer is very appropriate these days. Just make sure you're using enough alcohol as well, because essential oils, if you're labeling it as a hand sanitizer or sharing it, even if it's just for friends and family, you do want that 60-70% alcohol percentage for that. Oh, I also like to use them in cleaning products. There's lots of ways to... Lotion bars, those are probably some of my favorite ways. But my go-tos these days would be like cardamom. I really love having cardamom, and rose, or with black pepper maybe in the diffuser. A lot of folks don't love lavender. If you don't love lavender, just... I think it could have to do with a trauma, or an experience that you've associated with that essential oil, or it just could be that you've been overly inundated with the use of lavender in so many dryer sheets and plugins and things like that. So cardamom and even...

0:34:30.4 KK: That's funny. [chuckle]

0:34:31.1 AP: Or cardamom, clary sage, those are also great essential oils to use in place of lavender. Research says clary sage has great stress-busting properties. And then with the cardamom and clary sage, they also have the same chemical constituent that lavender has in it, an [0:34:51.8] ____ ester cognizable acetate, so that's what's responsible for a lot of the calming, soothing properties. You don't have to only do work on something like lavender if that's not one of your favorites. And then I guess as a yoga teacher, I love to use frankincense in the studio, anything that's kind of uplifting and soothing, so that when students come in, they just instantly feel uplifted, alert, ready for class. The citrus are always elevating but calming at the same time. So those are great. So are the citrus, like Valencia Calabria blends that Pranarom has. Those are part of their New Destination series, so I like to put them in the diffuser too, to just feel like I'm transported to the Mediterranean, even though it's snowy and slippery outside.

0:35:47.9 KK: We gotta do what we have to do, right?

0:35:49.5 AP: Yeah.

0:35:49.9 KK: Are there different types of diffusers? What are your favorite kinds of diffusers?

0:35:54.5 AP: Yeah, so that's a really great question. Thanks for asking that. So there are diffusers that use heat, but the top-selling diffusers that are trending now, and are projected to be the highest amount of market share, are the ultrasonic diffusers. So again, the heat diffusers are just putting some essential oil maybe in a crock pot or a pan of boiling water. It does allow the fragrance to be released throughout the home, but it may compromise the chemical structure and make up of the essential oils, and when you change that structure, when you bring these essential oil molecules into your lungs, it could be irritating, it could be potentially a challenge.

0:36:39.2 AP: So the ultrasonic diffusers just agitate the water with radio frequency. So just like if you have a drum and you're beating it, and there's maybe a little glass of water right next to it, and you can see the action of the vibrations from the drum on the water near by it, and that whole shape of water was based on some of this, but the essential oils are dispersed throughout the air due to the high pitched noise that we humans and pets cannot hear that the diffuser makes, that just agitates the water enough to send the essential oil molecules into the air. So I would go with an ultrasonic diffuser. The prices are so low now. You can get them for $20 plus, and it depends upon how much square feet [0:37:29.1] ____ we're just trying to cover. Pranarom's got a bunch on their website. Lulu, Pilou, which is a cute little gnome-like creature that's wooden with non-breakable materials for baby's room, since we talked about babies. Yeah, those would be my top suggestions for diffusers.

0:37:48.6 KK: That's great.

0:37:51.2 AP: Yeah, good question, thanks for asking.

0:37:52.7 KK: Perfect. Thank you so much. Amy, this has been such... Yeah, no, it's been great information and you've really just opened up the olfactory, like I mentioned, so now I can't wait to deep dive even further. Thank you for your advice and your time and your knowledge, and in the meantime, you can get more information on the website pranarom.us, and we look forward to your next visit.

0:38:17.0 AP: Thanks, Kim.

0:38:22.6 KK: Thank you.

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0:38:26.7 KK: If you wanna learn more health information, check out www.mothersmarket.com. Get delicious recipes and health guidelines to keep your body in great shape. Thanks for listening to the Mother's Market podcast, and for shopping at Mother's Market.

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0:38:41.9 S1: The advice and informational content does not necessarily represent the views of Mother's Market and Kitchen. Mother's recommends consulting your health professional for your personal medical conditions.

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