(Un)Well (2020) s01e01 Episode Script
Essential Oils
1
Essential oils used to be pretty fringe.
Over the past decade,
you start seeing them in magazines,
and Target, and Walmart, and yoga studios.
Now, they're
a multi-billion-dollar industry.
Essential oils are extracts from plants.
They can be sedative, relaxing,
antibacterial.
They can help with our mood.
People talk about aromatherapy
as if it's got some, sort of,
mystical property.
It's touted as an alternative
to mainstream medicine.
I've had people tell me,
"Medicine has failed me."
They had cancer. They used essential oils.
Now they don't have cancer.
It is who I am.
It is a lifestyle for me.
It's like a cult.
They prey on housewives and mothers.
I do think
there's this pervasive feeling,
at least among women we've spoken to,
that they got tricked.
We allege that this is a pyramid scheme.
They say it is non-toxic.
Well, it can be toxic.
There's no evidence
as to what levels are safe over time.
We are swimming in the unknown waters,
you know.
Don't know what's out there.
Might be sharks.
Wellness. A global industry
worth trillions of dollars.
Does it bring health and healing?
Or are we falling victim
to false promises?
Are we really getting well?
Western medicine,
as good as it is,
really has its limitations.
- Hey, there. Hi, Andy.
- Yo.
I'm Amy, from integrative therapies.
- Hi, Amy.
- How're you doing?
I'm doing fine.
Good, good, good.
I understand you just had surgery.
I did.
My name is Amy Quarberg.
And I am the integrative nurse clinician
for M Health Fairview Systems.
What kind of surgery did you have?
I had a, uh, lumbar fusion.
Ah, okay.
So, part of what our department
can offer you
is things to help you relax,
or help with pain.
Anxiety is my problem right now.
I'm supposed to get up
and walk and move
- Uh-huh.
- and I don't want to. I'm thinking,
jeepers, they just took
and fused my back and
- Right.
- I'm not too crazy about walking.
I've got some essential oils we can offer,
that can be specifically helpful
for not only anxiety, but pain.
I didn't know a lot
about essential oils
coming into this role.
I needed more understanding, because
patients and staff were asking
about different oils,
and I didn't know how to answer.
So, I decided to get certified
in clinical aromatherapy.
The program that I did
was over a year's coursework of study
and 250 clinical contact hours
for nursing.
It was fairly in-depth.
Aromatic oils have been around
for over 5,000 years.
I'm gonna let you smell a couple.
Tell me which ones you like the best.
This isn't new.
It's just new to be using it
in a clinical setting.
First one is better.
First one. All right.
And that would've been my first choice.
And you know which one it is?
It's called orthopedic oil,
and this one is made specifically
for orthopedic issues
like musculoskeletal aches and pains.
- Look, it's the one you chose.
- Go figure!
- The body doesn't lie, right?
- No.
It tells you what you need.
We have essential oils
offered in a variety of ways,
uh primarily through inhalation,
putting a couple drops on a cotton ball.
We also can use it for massage in lotions.
And then we also have oshibori,
which is really a hot washcloth,
and so it's made to make you feel better
without any needles involved.
One of the things we see often
in the hospital
is a pain and anxiety relationship,
or a loop.
As pain goes higher,
anxiety goes and rises with it.
Breathing it in.
So, as we can bring the anxiety down,
that often relaxes the body enough
that they can bring the pain level down.
Would you say it shifted at all,
some of your anxiety
from when we first walked in the room?
I feel more relaxed.
Right. Yeah.
It actually changed a little pain level
in my back slightly too.
We've got such an opioid epidemic
and dependence on pharmaceuticals
to fix all our problems.
And I don't want to say
that essential oils alone
is gonna treat that pain
that you're having.
But an essential oil in a combination
with perhaps something
pharmaceutical,
that's not as strong as an opioid,
together can enhance each other
and improve the effectiveness
of a medication.
How did that feel actually?
It's really good, yeah.
We're gonna get you through this.
Yes. You and me and God.
- That's right.
- And frankincense.
And frankincense!
If it was good enough for Jesus,
it's good enough for me.
That's right. I love that.
I don't know if it's the attention,
or if it's the oil.
- But it had such a It was relaxing.
- Yes.
Some of it's placebo effect.
It totally could be.
But so is medication.
And we've done a lot of trials on that.
Ready, are you going to try and walk?
- We're gonna give it a try.
- We're gonna give it a try.
A little stiff.
Yes, to be expected,
but you'll feel better after this.
The pain is
very low.
Okay.
I don't see this going away.
I only see it getting bigger.
I'm kind of excited.
This afternoon, I'm gonna talk to someone
about aromatherapy
for my daughter, Sarah.
I don't really have much knowledge
or experience about essential oils.
What I do know is they're plant-based.
I like that.
My name is Julie Marshall,
and I'm a mom to Sarah, who's 15,
and Jazzy, who's 12.
Being a mom has changed me,
especially being a special-needs mom.
I'm much more patient.
I don't worry so much
about the little things.
My neighbor says, "My daughter
won a trophy in gymnastics."
I'm like, "My daughter used the toilet,
and she's 15."
It's just a completely different way
of looking at things.
So, yeah.
Sarah was born
Our pediatrician said she was floppy.
It kind of ruined
my first baby wellness visit.
I was really excited, I had my camera,
and then the pediatrician, who was
really a good pediatrician in hindsight,
he just said, "I'm really concerned.
She's floppy.
You need to go get more tests
at children's hospital."
She missed all her milestones,
and didn't get a diagnosis
till she was four.
A lot of it is, I think,
because she's a girl
'cause it's more likely
that boys have autism.
And she loved looking at her face
in the mirror
and connecting with people
through their eyes.
So, that was atypical for autism.
So, I think that's why it took so long
to get a diagnosis.
Sarah, I gotta open the door, sweetie,
we're gonna
You mad? We're gonna go visit
our friend, Lora.
Wait, what's she doing?
She's not wanting
to get out of the car.
What? Oh.
Do you need more time?
Say "time."
- Time.
- Okay.
We'll give you one minute, okay?
Even though she's 15,
cognitively she's younger
and delayed, so she requires
my help with everything.
Oh.
Dressing, brushing her teeth,
getting ready,
I can't just say, "Go get dressed!"
or, "Get a shirt on," even.
So it takes a little more time.
Okay, Sarah, it's time to go.
I know
I know. It's been a long
It's been a long day. Say "I'm mad."
- Say "mad." Mad?
- Mad.
Yeah, I know. I understand, it's been
a long day, but you can bring
She gets frustrated. She'll
They call it self-injurious behaviors.
She'll hit her head. And we just
don't want that to increase.
One thing about being
a special-needs parent,
especially with autism,
is you're constantly looking
for something that will help.
We've done OTPT, speech therapy.
We have done horse therapy.
What else
Behavioral therapy. ABA, it's called.
We have done so many different therapies.
She did it!
She did it.
I had never even considered
using essential oils
as a therapy for autism,
until I met Lora
in a parent support group
for families like mine.
Come on in. Come on in.
Sarah had a hard time
getting out of the car.
We got some head-hitting.
But she's had a long day at camp.
- Sure I'm sure it can be exhausting.
- Yeah.
Come on in.
My name is Lora Cantele.
I've been a clinical aromatherapist
since 2003.
So, essential oils
are derived from plants.
The ones that we see most often
are found in the leaf.
We also get them from the seed.
We get them from fruit.
Essential oils can be distilled
with steam,
or they can, in the case of
something harder like cinnamon,
they would be hydrodistilled,
which is where they're put in water,
and the water is boiled.
And what happens then is,
as the steam rises,
it comes through the still,
it goes through a cooling coil,
and then when it comes out,
the resulting liquid starts to separate.
And the oil generally sits on top,
and then they siphon off the oil,
and we use that for therapeutics.
You could put them in roll-ons.
You could put them in little inhalers
or in diffusers.
But there are very few scenarios
that I can name
where it would be beneficial
to ingest an essential oil.
They can burn your mucous membranes
over time,
and they could cause internal damage.
So, on the whole,
there really isn't any reason
why somebody would really need to ingest
an essential oil.
Lately, Sarah's been stealing
my lotions, my shampoos.
She likes to hold them and smell them.
Why not use this and see
if there's a scent she likes
that can help her when she's distressed
to calm her body down.
I have a specialty in working
with children with special needs.
You know, my son is autistic,
and I used essential oils with him
to help calm him
when he would have these episodes of rage
and was inconsolable.
And it was very beneficial for his sleep.
And I thought,
"Wow, this is the best-kept secret ever.
I need to tell everybody."
So, I got certified,
and then I became
a registered aromatherapist.
I know what the oils are capable of.
And it's just finding
that right blend for your client.
Okay, missy. You can hang out here.
We're gonna talk.
Okay, kiss.
We get to smell stuff today.
You get to smell stuff.
This is war!
Hey, come on! Not too crazy.
Stop, stop.
Close your eyes.
That smells like peppermint.
It's peppermint and clove.
I crushed it.
Hey, kisses.
Kisses.
We use essential oils
throughout the day.
It's just happiness in a bottle.
And so, it's become a culture
that we've created here.
I never wanted to be a blogger.
But our blog reaches
more than 5 million people a year.
All right, we're good?
Essential oil masterclass, take one.
- Aww. I love you, baby.
- Love you.
Hi, my name is Dr. Eric Zielinski.
You might know me online as Dr. Z.
My wife and I run a website
known as NaturalLivingFamily.com,
and we specialize in helping people
use essential oils safely and effectively.
If you could give me
just 15 to 20 minutes a day,
I promise you that you'll know
all that you need to know
to start using essential oils
in just ten days.
All right, I'm gonna get the makeup.
Touch you up.
In my world, I'm one of the more
successful bloggers in the industry.
We're blessed to be able to help people
through buying
our master classes and books.
And we've reached multiple seven figures
in our business.
- Mama!
- Kissy?
You got sweet kisses.
Uh-oh! You have makeup on you.
You got lipstick on her nose.
- Occupational hazard.
- Occupational hazard?
My family is made
of my beautiful wife, Sabrina
I need you to run the swivel sweeper.
I don't like bananas.
our daughter Esther, who's 11
Isaiah, who is eight
Elijah, who is six
Yeah, let's go.
and baby Bella, who is three.
My daddy!
- You want your Elsa tea?
- Yes!
Okay.
So, a day in the life of the Z's
and how we use essential oils
on a daily basis is,
it starts at the very beginning,
when we get the kids ready.
We have diffusers
running throughout the house
depending on the kind of mood.
The hand soap or lotion
that we're using, it's
They're everywhere, and we make
a lot of our own products.
We use them as we want to
in our culinary purposes.
Let's get two drops of peppermint.
Wanna help?
Many aromatherapists claim
you should not ingest essential oils.
I'll argue this
till I'm blue in the face.
Keep it. Do it again. Okay.
I mean, what do you think flavors
your favorite soda pop and ice cream?
So many things that are naturally flavored
are essential oil-based.
That's there on the Food and Drug
Administration website.
Look it up.
- Elsa tea!
- Elsa tea.
Go back! Go back! Go back! Go back!
There's a lot of evidence
to suggest that essential oils can help
in a variety of ways.
Mmm. Try it!
Yummy? Knuckles.
No, not kiss, knuckles!
Aww.
One of the reasons
why I'm so passionate about what I do
is because I really know
what it's like to be sick.
So, when you look at my childhood,
I just was chronically unwell.
When I was a teenager, I started
to develop significant depression,
like clinical depression.
I started self-medicating.
Alcohol, started smoking
a pack of cigarettes a day,
cocaine, ecstasy, narcotics, street drugs.
And I hit my proverbial rock bottom
when I was 22 years old.
Okay, guys, we're gonna say a quick prayer
before y'all go, okay?
Close your eyes.
Heavenly father, God,
we thank you for this beautiful day.
So, when I was just about 23 years old,
I had a spiritual revelation.
I was blind, and then I could see.
I became a Christian, and within a moment,
the addiction, the depression,
the anxiety,
the suicidal thoughts, all went away.
I can't explain it
other than it was a miracle.
I'm a living miracle.
And, Lord, we just know people's lives
are going to be transformed.
The suffering
that they're experiencing will be eased.
But some things didn't go away.
Like my gut issues. Like the acne.
Like sleeping issues.
And when you look at the Bible,
when you look at the references to gold,
frankincense and myrrh, to Mary,
the prostitute, anointing Jesus' feet.
What do you think that was?
It was an essential oil-based extract.
When I started looking at research
and seeing the direct impact
that essential oils
have on the limbic system,
where your mood, your memory,
your emotions lie,
balancing blood pressure,
helping with the symptoms related
to a number of diseases, including cancer,
I was astounded.
- Amen.
- Amen.
All right, bring it in. Whoa, team Z!
All right. Let's go.
Yay.
I know the secret to how to do something.
I wanna share that with somebody else.
So while we're doing this,
Sabrina's gonna be doing
three different scenes or segments.
Yeah, I'm gonna get it printed out.
You'll get the notes.
Working together, it's actually been
the best thing for our marriage.
If a woman is married and has kids,
her dreams aren't done yet,
and there's still so much
that she can accomplish.
I competed from the time I was 17 to 24
in the Miss America competition.
I just I loved it.
I loved the development.
I loved what it did for my career.
And then, a few years
and three children later,
I thought, you know,
I might not be done competing.
Look at me.
One thing I didn't expect
was that
all that speaking I was doing,
I didn't know it was also preparing me
for what I would do with my husband.
We're using what God has given us
to help benefit other people.
That's what we signed up for.
That's what we committed to.
All right, here we are in the kitchen
with Mama Z.
Yes.
We're gonna talk all about
the essential oil supplies
and everything that you need
in order to make your own products.
I gotta say, my wife and I,
we're just as real as anyone else is.
And I think that, out of everything,
is the reason why our online popularity
has soared,
because people can relate to us.
We've had a couple hockey puck muffins
that came out of the oven.
And that's it. We're not trying to pretend
we're something that we're not.
Absolutely.
Cool.
Okay, all right, we'll set up for that.
You know, we keep our prices
so affordable.
I mean, our most expensive master class
is $77 for digital access.
Like, anyone can afford that,
even if you're on food stamps,
government assistance.
Hey, stop drinking Starbucks
for two weeks in a row,
and there's 75 bucks, right?
That's our master class.
And I want you to join me on this journey.
I believe God has a solution for you.
I actually consider Natural Living Family
a for-profit ministry.
And the stories that we get are amazing.
People, medical failures,
that are just suffering
with anxiety, and depression,
and panic, and cancer, and they're like,
"I stumbled. I stumbled."
I heard that many times,
"I've stumbled upon your stuff."
No, you didn't stumble,
God directed you to my stuff.
God knew what you needed,
and he showed you.
All right, ready for church?
Many people ask,
"Can essential oils cure cancer?"
I'll get crucified for this.
I've seen documentation.
I've seen the reports.
They had cancer, used essential oils.
Now they don't have cancer.
How am I going to say
that's not possible?
Essential oils can help
people with cancer.
But what the Food and Drug Administration
has done in the United States
has made it illegal, actually illegal,
to make any sort of medical claims
associated with essential oils
if you're selling an essential oil.
And so, that's one reason
why we don't sell essential oils.
The system has been designed to keep away
this message.
But we have the freedom of speech
to share what we do.
Really, by God's grace we're protected.
And we've been able to help millions.
You get quite a lot of
serious claims being made, you know,
essential oils can cure x, y, and zed.
They can cure cancer, blah, blah, blah.
There's not the clinical evidence.
There just is not.
My name is Dr. Joy Boyles.
I'm a researcher, an educator,
and an author.
And the title of my best-known book
is The Chemistry of Aromatherapeutic Oils.
Essential oils are not regulated
as medicines.
There are strict guidelines on how
they can be used in the flavor industry,
like recommended dosages
for candies and drinks.
The trouble comes about
when people are making claims
which they don't have
substantiated evidence for.
People say, "There's lots of studies."
I used to think that was impressive, too.
But just because bacteria, rats, cells,
respond to the essential oils,
it doesn't actually correlate necessarily
with the human experience.
So, the evidence base that we have
for the clinical effects of essential oils
in humans,
it's pretty scanty.
They've done three or four
good quality human experiments.
For example, lavender oil.
They did a clinical trial.
They had one group of people
taking the lavender preparation,
and another group taking the drug
called lorazepam for anxiety.
So, both groups didn't know whether they
were getting lavender or lorazepam.
And at the end of the trial,
both groups reduced their anxiety equally.
So, lavender oil is as good as lorazepam.
That's the kind of level
of clinical evidence that we have.
Using essential oils to help people
cope with their pain,
helping them cope with their anxiety,
helping them cope with their insomnia.
And notice I use the words
"help them cope with," not "cure."
Proper aromatherapy
isn't claiming to cure anybody.
Sarah, I got music for you.
So, I put together a couple of blends.
This is for sleep.
Oh, that's good.
This blend has vetiver, sandalwood,
there's some ylang-ylang,
and just a little bit of rose.
Sarah's always moving around constantly.
I heard a teenager who has autism
once explain
the reason he flaps his hands so much
is 'cause he can't feel his body.
And so he's trying to get the input
to feel his body.
So, I'm thinking that's why
she always needs to move.
A lot of times, she's just wired.
So it's just hard for her to get to sleep.
still having a hard time
falling asleep. So wait
So, we're always looking
for ways to calm her down before bed.
And then when she's ready to go to bed,
and you open the door,
she'll have the scent in the room.
So, this one oh.
Did she run away?
Sarah Marshall!
Did she run away?
Sarah's, like, super happy
on your daughter's bed.
We could take these upstairs.
If Sarah's happy up there,
we want her to stay happy up there.
I'll take my shoes off.
Sarah, just make yourself at home, missy!
We don't get a lot of sleep.
So, I tell people
Sarah parties in her room.
'Cause she's not upset,
but we hear a lot of banging,
a lot of noises.
And I don't really
wanna give her melatonin,
'cause she can't verbalize
how it makes her feel.
So that's kind of why
I'm looking for alternatives.
Okay.
So, these are both for sleep.
I kind of want to get a preference.
Both for sleep? Okay.
As an authentic aromatherapist,
I'm going to choose oils,
and I'm going to blend them together
in such a way
that they could be beneficial
for what my client has come to see me for.
This is something I would put
in a diffuser in her room.
What works for one person
might not work for another.
And the best way I can explain that is,
for some children, they need to be
stimulated to calm down,
and other children need calming oils
to calm down.
- Smells like chamomile tea.
- There's a little chamomile in there.
In working with special-needs kids,
I try to do my best at recognizing
the cues from the child.
I think you really might like this one.
You wanna hold it and smell it? Oh, wow.
No?
No, that's Yeah. Ooh.
That one's kinda nice, isn't it?
- We got a smile out of that.
- That was good, yeah.
Thanks, Sarah, thanks for smelling.
- Yeah. That's a definite yes.
- Okay.
You did a great job.
Yeah. - She was awesome.
Yeah, I'm really surprised
that she smiled.
I mean, I guess I'm just, kind of,
optimistic.
Car. Time.
Thank you.
- You're welcome.
- Bye.
All right, bye, girls.
Success for Sarah would be
something that could help her
in her sleep.
You know, they always talk about
how important sleep is for growing brains
and mood and development.
Then you've got a kid like Sarah
who is developmentally delayed.
Good night, sweetie. Kiss?
So, sleep is so important.
I fully credit
the essential oils for saving my life.
My name is Allison Huish.
I'm from Mesa, Arizona.
I am a wellness advocate with doTERRA.
The way for me to grow my business
is by sharing these products
with my network,
with people at church, or family,
or friends.
I invite people to a doTERRA class.
I'm always very upfront, and I say,
"I would love for you to come."
Come on in, everyone.
There is no obligation to purchase.
It's so good to see you.
I believe in the phrase,
"Serve more to sell more."
These are three of my favorite oils
that I love to put in water.
Lemon, lime, orange.
So, I'm gonna pass around the first oil
that I was introduced to.
This is wild orange oil.
Take a drop,
and then rub your hands together,
and you can pass it around.
So, I assume that you're here today
because you are looking for solutions
for a health concern
that's going on in your life.
Let me tell you my story,
how I got into oils.
When I was 12 years old,
I was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
This was three weeks
after junior high started,
and I went into almost like
a state of shock.
My tumor was about the size of an egg.
The morning of my surgery,
my neurosurgeon said,
"We can't make any guarantees."
And so, for eight hours,
he slowly picked away at that tumor.
But part of it was considered inoperable.
My neurosurgeon said, "Enough is enough,"
closed me up, and said,
"We'll figure out what to do
with the rest later."
For my tumor
chemotherapy was not an option.
And radiation, as a 13-year-old,
to your brain stem
just sounds pretty, pretty scary.
A family friend heard about my story.
He said, you know, "Are you open
to natural solutions?"
I took frankincense and clove oils,
which have anti-cancer,
antioxidant properties.
And then also oils like oregano
or tea tree,
help fight viruses and bacteria.
If you go to a typical doctor,
they're going to give you
a pill for one thing.
Every couple of hours,
I was taking some form of essential oil
internally or topically.
With every MRI, my doctor would just say,
"Keep doing what you're doing,
and we'll see you in six months."
My mom was very careful
that she never brought up
that we were using essential oils.
If she had told my neurosurgeon that,
he could have easily called
Child Protective Services and said,
"This mom is trying to avoid radiation."
It was this big secret that we were
hiding throughout the whole process.
Those are your only hospital pictures.
Yeah, the only hospital photos.
- I didn't want photos taken.
- You didn't.
I never did chemotherapy.
I never did radiation.
And ever since that day,
I've continued to use oils.
My husband has diabetes.
So, I'm interested in things
that might help his pancreas.
And I'm having lymph issues,
so like, adrenal, kidney,
things like that.
One of the most common questions
I get, people ask with doTERRA,
is they say,
"Hey, is there an oil for this?"
I would say 99.9% of the time,
the answer is yes.
I love citrus oils,
because they make you happy.
Peppermint oil helps with headaches.
Frankincense is really good for cancers,
cuts, scrapes, emotional issues.
Essential oils help clean out the blood
in the outside part of the cell.
But we're not supposed to say that
essential oils cured this disease.
That is due to the FDA.
Our healthcare system
doesn't really like essential oils.
It takes away from our Big Pharma,
and all of those sales.
A 50-milliliter bottle like this
has 250 drops in it.
So, it may look like, wow,
I'm spending $20 for that?
But if you think about it
in drops per cent,
most oils are about
five to seven cents a drop.
They're really a very inexpensive way
to take care of our health.
And so ask yourself for a second,
are you and your family any healthier
because of traditional medical care?
With oils, I believe they are safer,
they are cheaper,
and they are more effective.
I see miracle story
after miracle story happen
with so many people.
And that's why I wanted
to do this business.
This is the form to fill out for those
who have oils or are wanting to purchase.
The last section is put down
where you would like it to be charged to.
You guys are wonderful.
Have a great rest of your day.
Thanks so much.
- Thank you.
- Thanks, Allison.
Yeah, so great to learn this today.
I started noticing
essential oils being everywhere.
It was something that was happening
really suddenly.
There were multiple people
selling these things
that I had never heard of before.
And then when I started to look into it,
I saw that there was a whole
controversial industry behind them.
And so that seemed like something
worth digging into.
The two major companies that are selling
the majority of the essential oils
for sale in the United States today are
two multi-level marketing companies.
There's Young Living and doTERRA.
Multi-level marketing companies,
you make money by selling products,
but also by recruiting other people
to sell the product.
Many people are familiar
with companies like Amway, or Mary Kay,
but now multi-level marketing companies
have really taken on a new life.
With the doTERRA business,
I have definitely been very blessed.
I have reached the rank of diamond
with doTERRA.
So, diamond is one of the top ranks.
My paychecks now are over $20,000
every single month.
I became a six-figure income with doTERRA.
- Hello?
- Hey, Cindy, how's your day going?
So far, so good. How about you?
I love it, congrats
The larger someone's team is,
the more lives you've touched.
That's where the paycheck
really starts to grow.
My doTERRA team is over 16,000 people
right now.
I love that I can support
all those people.
I have been working really hard
and the team enrollments,
because it's just me,
I am just not capable
of doing 14 enrollments a month yet.
Maybe eventually,
but I am just not there yet.
DoTERRA isn't something
that people come on board
and within a couple of months
win a free car,
hit a couple of bonuses, and tap out.
It's not like a get-rich-quick thing.
I know the builders will definitely come,
for sure.
Yeah, it's just time.
They'll show up when God wants them to.
This is the best career on the planet.
I just need to get it profitable.
Definitely, no, I completely agree.
It is an amazing company,
amazing career to have, so
What's problematic
with the multi-level marketing companies
is that they're actually proposing
this aromatic lifestyle.
You've gotta have the essential oils
in your laundry detergent,
you've gotta have it in your cooking,
you've gotta have it in your air,
you've gotta vaporize it, you've gotta
put it in your cleaning products,
and the cumulative amount
there's no evidence of that being safe
for humans.
What they're actually doing,
unbeknownst to them perhaps, even,
is running the biggest experiment
on human use of essential oils
that we've ever seen, planetwide.
When I went
to the Young Living convention,
one thing that was really striking to me
was that
what was for sale
was not just essential oils
but this whole idea of an essential oil
culture and essential oil lifestyle.
The way women described themselves was
not just "I'm a person who sells oils,"
but "I am an oil person."
Everything at the Young Living
convention is over-the-top.
You see just the enormous crowds.
This entire stadium is just packed.
There's the pyrotechnics,
making the thing feel
like an enormous spectacle.
And when you're talking about this world,
there is a key figure.
And that's Gary Young.
Folks coming to convention
is very much like that.
If you don't come to convention,
you're going to miss
some of the most fundamental elements
that could be important
in building your success.
Gary Young is the founder
of Young Living Essential Oils.
And he was a real showman.
At the Young Living convention,
he always made a dramatic entrance.
One year,
he was pulled by a team of huskies.
Gary Young was this
larger-than-life figure.
And he really helped create
the billion-dollar essential oil industry
we have today.
Gary Young's origin story
is a key part of Young Living lore.
He was born in Idaho,
and grew up very poor.
In his twenties,
he was in a terrible logging accident.
His spinal column was ruptured,
and he's told by doctors
that he's never going to walk again.
But, as the story goes,
Gary Young decides to subsist
on nothing but lemon juice and water
for over 200 days.
And after 253 days,
he can twitch his toes again.
This recovery spurred his interest
in alternative medicine.
Gary Young doesn't have a medical license.
He has a degree in naturopathy
from an unaccredited university.
So, in the early 1980s,
he opened a health facility,
and he offers birthing services.
One of the babies that he attempts
to deliver in an underwater birth
is his own daughter,
and, really tragically, she died
after spending an hour underwater
during a water birth.
The death is ultimately ruled an accident.
In the early 1990s,
Gary Young became fascinated
with the medicinal properties
of essential oils,
and started Young Living Essential Oils
in 1993.
We know, without question,
that we produce the finest quality oil
in the world.
That's why Young Living
is the world leader of essential oils
and always will be.
He opened a clinic in Utah,
but a patient sued him
claiming that a treatment
including the infusion of vitamin C
had almost killed her.
He closes the clinic in Utah,
and opens one in Ecuador
where he gave essential oils
intravenously to patients,
and even apparently performed gallbladder
surgery without a medical license.
His persona was that of a cowboy.
Somebody going against the rules,
breaking the rules.
He promoted this idea that essential oils
could have these miraculous
healing properties.
As his empire grew, he really contributed
to the spread of these ideas widely.
Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to the Young Living
International Grand Convention.
By the time Gary Young died in 2018
the industry he helped create was booming.
I want to remain anonymous
because I'm not doing this for notoriety.
But I feel like my story needs to be told
because people don't talk about it,
because they're afraid.
When I decided to do this business,
I was a stay-at-home mom.
I ran into a friend from high school,
and she introduced me to Young Living.
They're like, "You can work around your
schedule of your kids, and it's easy.
All you have to do is talk about the oils,
and people will buy."
It's the dream job for stay-at-home moms.
When I do stuff, I try to go all-in.
So I bought books that they recommended.
I bought all their promo material.
I bought oils for samples.
You know, I ended up spending
a few thousand dollars.
It seemed like a
good business opportunity, and it wasn't.
I'm one of probably
hundreds of thousands of women
who have been taken advantage of
by Young Living.
Someone needs to stand up to them.
It came across my news feed.
I just saw "class action lawsuit,"
and I'm like, what's this about?
When I read the complaint,
I was like, this is me.
And if it's the same thing
for me and for her,
then how many other women
are there out there?
Almost as soon as that story hit,
my phone started ringing.
"I read the complaint.
I feel like I'm the Julie of Arkansas."
"I'm calling you from Louisiana.
I read her story, and that is my story."
My name is Austin Tighe.
I'm an attorney with Nix Patterson
and I'm co-lead counsel
on a class action against Young Living
having to do with their
multi-level marketing scheme.
We allege in this lawsuit
that Young Living
is an illegal pyramid scheme.
- G'morning.
- Good morning. How're you?
Good. I'm Austin Tighe.
Welcome to Nix Patterson.
- Nice to meet you.
- You as well.
There are more people like you
than not like you.
I suspect that there are thousands
of our class members
who are afraid to come forward.
So, thank you for coming in
and talking with me.
I thought multi-level marketing companies
are more like Avon or Cutco.
More like door-to-door sales.
I didn't understand that they were
this whole other thing.
The way that their business model works,
you don't make your money
off of selling the oils.
It's not like I can just have a party
and sell oils.
People have to sign up
and become a distributor.
In addition to that,
in order to earn commissions,
they require that you enroll in,
it's called essential rewards,
where you have to purchase
at least $100 worth of product
a month yourself
to be able to collect commissions
from the people below you.
So, if I didn't do that essential rewards,
I wouldn't get any commission.
What you just described
is exactly a pyramid scheme.
Pyramid schemes operate
by building downlines.
It's the lifeblood of a pyramid scheme.
If you're a member,
and you go out and get someone
to join Young Living,
they become part of your downline.
Revenue generated by them,
you get to share in them.
But that's not the real crux of the money.
Here's the real crux of the money.
Once you're in the pyramid,
you have to, every month,
fulfill your personal volume.
It was $100 per month on inventory.
Whether you ever
sell those products or not,
that hundred dollar monthly
feeds the upline until you get
to the very top of the pyramid,
which is not just where
most of the money is made,
it's really the only place
the money's made.
I tried to sell Young Living products
by holding classes
but then I felt like that was lacking.
And then they're like, "Just create
an Instagram for your business."
So I did that, didn't get anybody.
They tell you to get
your best friends involved,
get your family involved,
look up people from high school,
people you haven't talked to in years,
tell him about the oils, they'll love 'em.
And I could not get anyone
to do it as a business.
I'll say the area's flooded,
and they'll say,
"No, you're not hustling,"
that "There's always more people to join."
My Royal Crown Diamond,
she reiterates all the time,
"Anybody can do this.
Anybody can accomplish this goal."
Royal Crown Diamond
is the top, top level of the pyramid.
Now, if you reach that level,
boy, is it a great company.
$1.8 million a year average income.
It's fantastic.
Unfortunately,
there's only been 46 of those
in the history of the company.
Out of millions,
millions of members.
That's .0015% of members.
And it gets worse. In 2016,
94% of members made an average
of one dollar per month.
What's particularly insidious about this
particular pyramid scheme,
is that once you become a member,
who do you go and try to recruit?
You call your friends,
you call your neighbors.
You call your niece.
So, if my premise is correct,
and if this pyramid
is built on a house of cards,
when it tumbles,
your neighbor's tumbling,
your daughter's tumbling,
your aunt's tumbling,
your friend from college is tumbling.
That's going to be the collateral damage
of these types of pyramid schemes.
I'm embarrassed
that I fell for this.
It made me feel kind of stupid.
I lost money,
and then I also have numerous
family and friends
that are still using the products.
I mean, how do you tell them
you don't want to use them anymore
when you've pulled them in?
I want other women to understand
that what they do is predatory,
that you're not going to make money
off of it,
that you're going to lose money.
It's not what they make it sound like.
I was brainwashed.
I drank the Kool-Aid.
I trusted the teachings that I was getting
from this multi-level marketing company.
I've chosen not to name the brand
or the company,
because it really doesn't matter
what brand of essential oils you're using,
'cause this can happen
with any essential oil.
I've never been part of a multi-level
marketing company before,
but my friend,
she's done a ton of research
on the company, and the oils,
and she told me that they were
of the highest quality that you could get.
And that you could take them internally.
I've never known that you can take
essential oils internally,
but it was so pure that you could.
And I thought, wow,
this is a game changer.
The company said you could use them
three, four, five, six, seven times a day.
I started drinking lemon in my water
every day.
My favorite was the lavender,
it was so calming and soothing and
I was using them every way.
Internally, topically, all day long,
every day.
The first sign of reaction was,
I noticed this little bit of a rash
on my forearm.
I thought, oh, that's interesting.
I'm not sure where that came from.
So, I put tea tree oil on it.
The next day, it was even worse.
So, where do you turn to
but the Facebook groups of your peers
who you believe are educated,
but they're not.
The answers were always,
"No, it can't be the oils.
You cannot have a reaction to them.
It's a good thing that you have a rash,
your body is just detoxing,
keep taking the oils."
I wasn't going to the doctor initially.
I was believing the jargon.
So, on top of what I was already doing,
I'm now taking,
you know, extra essential oils
to help detox my body.
So, that's when it went really bad.
The rash spread to the back of my neck,
my leg,
and my stomach.
My body had swollen up so bad
that I couldn't even bend my limbs.
It felt like someone
had locked me in a room
with fire ants, mosquitoes, and wasps,
and then poured molten lava on my body.
The first time the rash had ever
went to my face,
my face really swelled up,
and it was oozing fluid,
and that was when I stopped
all of the oils.
When I got the allergy test back,
it showed allergies for ylang-ylang
and tea tree oil.
So, I'd inundated my body
with these chemical constituents
that are in the essential oils,
which became toxic to my body.
My body was still having rashes and
reactions up until March of this year.
So, that was over a five-year period.
If something is natural and organic,
everybody wants to jump on board with it.
However, there are things
in mass quantities
that are not good for us
even though they're natural.
And the damage has been so severe,
that I'm now allergic
to these essential oils.
And then I became angry.
Why did this happen to me?
Has it happened to anybody else?
I wanted somebody
who could answer that for me.
And I figured the medical officer of this
company would have the answers.
Every time I asked if my information
was sent to the chief medical officer,
I got a, "Yes, it was sent to him.
He's out of town."
And I said, "I can't believe
that somebody would see these photos
and not get back to me."
I never received a response
from the chief medical officer.
When I first went public with my story,
there were so many people contacting me,
saying,
"Oh, my gosh,
this is what I was going through."
There are databases
where they collect this data.
So many people have had reactions
to essential oils.
But now I know.
I fell hook, line, and sinker.
So, that is where I'll
take my responsibility.
The responsibility that I'm putting on
the MLM company
is the poor training that they provided,
the lack of safety information,
and the fact that their bottom line
is the bottom line.
The more essential oils you use,
the more products you're going to sell,
the more money that they're going to make.
Essential oils are powerful.
Why are they so readily available
without any regulation or training?
Did you have some good sleep last night?
I'm gonna get your medicine.
Do you want TV?
The first night, we followed the protocol,
and we used Sarah's sleep blend
with her diffuser.
It was successful.
You're all done with the medicine.
She wants more.
You look really well-rested this morning.
She seems, like, better.
You know how sometimes
she's completely groggy and out of it?
She looks like she's better.
I don't think I'm reading into it, do you?
No, she slept pretty soundly last night.
Since we started about three months ago,
for Sarah, the diffuser has been working
really well for sleep.
She's getting good, long, restful sleep,
and I think not waking up as much
during the night,
and we feel like we're in a much more
calm, peaceful routine.
Ready, set
Go.
She's more attentive at school.
Everyone's noticing it.
The fussiness has, like, dialed down.
Fast, fast, fast.
Fast? Oh, I heard fast. Okay.
The other day she woke up really happy,
and she said, "Dora and milk,"
and she has never used the word "and"
in a sentence, ever.
Like, oh, my God, this is huge.
So, I do attribute that to good sleep.
The essential oils,
I mean, they couldn't be
the be-all, end-all for us
but I'm feeling like it is a really good,
important tool.
I've learned so much.
It's not one-size-fits-all.
You don't just pick up any old bottle
off the shelf at the store.
You have to find the right things
for your family needs.
Oh, my gosh, she's so happy.
Having the essential oils has really
I guess "empowering"
is a good word for it.
I mean, we're definitely
in a better place.
Essential oils used to be pretty fringe.
Over the past decade,
you start seeing them in magazines,
and Target, and Walmart, and yoga studios.
Now, they're
a multi-billion-dollar industry.
Essential oils are extracts from plants.
They can be sedative, relaxing,
antibacterial.
They can help with our mood.
People talk about aromatherapy
as if it's got some, sort of,
mystical property.
It's touted as an alternative
to mainstream medicine.
I've had people tell me,
"Medicine has failed me."
They had cancer. They used essential oils.
Now they don't have cancer.
It is who I am.
It is a lifestyle for me.
It's like a cult.
They prey on housewives and mothers.
I do think
there's this pervasive feeling,
at least among women we've spoken to,
that they got tricked.
We allege that this is a pyramid scheme.
They say it is non-toxic.
Well, it can be toxic.
There's no evidence
as to what levels are safe over time.
We are swimming in the unknown waters,
you know.
Don't know what's out there.
Might be sharks.
Wellness. A global industry
worth trillions of dollars.
Does it bring health and healing?
Or are we falling victim
to false promises?
Are we really getting well?
Western medicine,
as good as it is,
really has its limitations.
- Hey, there. Hi, Andy.
- Yo.
I'm Amy, from integrative therapies.
- Hi, Amy.
- How're you doing?
I'm doing fine.
Good, good, good.
I understand you just had surgery.
I did.
My name is Amy Quarberg.
And I am the integrative nurse clinician
for M Health Fairview Systems.
What kind of surgery did you have?
I had a, uh, lumbar fusion.
Ah, okay.
So, part of what our department
can offer you
is things to help you relax,
or help with pain.
Anxiety is my problem right now.
I'm supposed to get up
and walk and move
- Uh-huh.
- and I don't want to. I'm thinking,
jeepers, they just took
and fused my back and
- Right.
- I'm not too crazy about walking.
I've got some essential oils we can offer,
that can be specifically helpful
for not only anxiety, but pain.
I didn't know a lot
about essential oils
coming into this role.
I needed more understanding, because
patients and staff were asking
about different oils,
and I didn't know how to answer.
So, I decided to get certified
in clinical aromatherapy.
The program that I did
was over a year's coursework of study
and 250 clinical contact hours
for nursing.
It was fairly in-depth.
Aromatic oils have been around
for over 5,000 years.
I'm gonna let you smell a couple.
Tell me which ones you like the best.
This isn't new.
It's just new to be using it
in a clinical setting.
First one is better.
First one. All right.
And that would've been my first choice.
And you know which one it is?
It's called orthopedic oil,
and this one is made specifically
for orthopedic issues
like musculoskeletal aches and pains.
- Look, it's the one you chose.
- Go figure!
- The body doesn't lie, right?
- No.
It tells you what you need.
We have essential oils
offered in a variety of ways,
uh primarily through inhalation,
putting a couple drops on a cotton ball.
We also can use it for massage in lotions.
And then we also have oshibori,
which is really a hot washcloth,
and so it's made to make you feel better
without any needles involved.
One of the things we see often
in the hospital
is a pain and anxiety relationship,
or a loop.
As pain goes higher,
anxiety goes and rises with it.
Breathing it in.
So, as we can bring the anxiety down,
that often relaxes the body enough
that they can bring the pain level down.
Would you say it shifted at all,
some of your anxiety
from when we first walked in the room?
I feel more relaxed.
Right. Yeah.
It actually changed a little pain level
in my back slightly too.
We've got such an opioid epidemic
and dependence on pharmaceuticals
to fix all our problems.
And I don't want to say
that essential oils alone
is gonna treat that pain
that you're having.
But an essential oil in a combination
with perhaps something
pharmaceutical,
that's not as strong as an opioid,
together can enhance each other
and improve the effectiveness
of a medication.
How did that feel actually?
It's really good, yeah.
We're gonna get you through this.
Yes. You and me and God.
- That's right.
- And frankincense.
And frankincense!
If it was good enough for Jesus,
it's good enough for me.
That's right. I love that.
I don't know if it's the attention,
or if it's the oil.
- But it had such a It was relaxing.
- Yes.
Some of it's placebo effect.
It totally could be.
But so is medication.
And we've done a lot of trials on that.
Ready, are you going to try and walk?
- We're gonna give it a try.
- We're gonna give it a try.
A little stiff.
Yes, to be expected,
but you'll feel better after this.
The pain is
very low.
Okay.
I don't see this going away.
I only see it getting bigger.
I'm kind of excited.
This afternoon, I'm gonna talk to someone
about aromatherapy
for my daughter, Sarah.
I don't really have much knowledge
or experience about essential oils.
What I do know is they're plant-based.
I like that.
My name is Julie Marshall,
and I'm a mom to Sarah, who's 15,
and Jazzy, who's 12.
Being a mom has changed me,
especially being a special-needs mom.
I'm much more patient.
I don't worry so much
about the little things.
My neighbor says, "My daughter
won a trophy in gymnastics."
I'm like, "My daughter used the toilet,
and she's 15."
It's just a completely different way
of looking at things.
So, yeah.
Sarah was born
Our pediatrician said she was floppy.
It kind of ruined
my first baby wellness visit.
I was really excited, I had my camera,
and then the pediatrician, who was
really a good pediatrician in hindsight,
he just said, "I'm really concerned.
She's floppy.
You need to go get more tests
at children's hospital."
She missed all her milestones,
and didn't get a diagnosis
till she was four.
A lot of it is, I think,
because she's a girl
'cause it's more likely
that boys have autism.
And she loved looking at her face
in the mirror
and connecting with people
through their eyes.
So, that was atypical for autism.
So, I think that's why it took so long
to get a diagnosis.
Sarah, I gotta open the door, sweetie,
we're gonna
You mad? We're gonna go visit
our friend, Lora.
Wait, what's she doing?
She's not wanting
to get out of the car.
What? Oh.
Do you need more time?
Say "time."
- Time.
- Okay.
We'll give you one minute, okay?
Even though she's 15,
cognitively she's younger
and delayed, so she requires
my help with everything.
Oh.
Dressing, brushing her teeth,
getting ready,
I can't just say, "Go get dressed!"
or, "Get a shirt on," even.
So it takes a little more time.
Okay, Sarah, it's time to go.
I know
I know. It's been a long
It's been a long day. Say "I'm mad."
- Say "mad." Mad?
- Mad.
Yeah, I know. I understand, it's been
a long day, but you can bring
She gets frustrated. She'll
They call it self-injurious behaviors.
She'll hit her head. And we just
don't want that to increase.
One thing about being
a special-needs parent,
especially with autism,
is you're constantly looking
for something that will help.
We've done OTPT, speech therapy.
We have done horse therapy.
What else
Behavioral therapy. ABA, it's called.
We have done so many different therapies.
She did it!
She did it.
I had never even considered
using essential oils
as a therapy for autism,
until I met Lora
in a parent support group
for families like mine.
Come on in. Come on in.
Sarah had a hard time
getting out of the car.
We got some head-hitting.
But she's had a long day at camp.
- Sure I'm sure it can be exhausting.
- Yeah.
Come on in.
My name is Lora Cantele.
I've been a clinical aromatherapist
since 2003.
So, essential oils
are derived from plants.
The ones that we see most often
are found in the leaf.
We also get them from the seed.
We get them from fruit.
Essential oils can be distilled
with steam,
or they can, in the case of
something harder like cinnamon,
they would be hydrodistilled,
which is where they're put in water,
and the water is boiled.
And what happens then is,
as the steam rises,
it comes through the still,
it goes through a cooling coil,
and then when it comes out,
the resulting liquid starts to separate.
And the oil generally sits on top,
and then they siphon off the oil,
and we use that for therapeutics.
You could put them in roll-ons.
You could put them in little inhalers
or in diffusers.
But there are very few scenarios
that I can name
where it would be beneficial
to ingest an essential oil.
They can burn your mucous membranes
over time,
and they could cause internal damage.
So, on the whole,
there really isn't any reason
why somebody would really need to ingest
an essential oil.
Lately, Sarah's been stealing
my lotions, my shampoos.
She likes to hold them and smell them.
Why not use this and see
if there's a scent she likes
that can help her when she's distressed
to calm her body down.
I have a specialty in working
with children with special needs.
You know, my son is autistic,
and I used essential oils with him
to help calm him
when he would have these episodes of rage
and was inconsolable.
And it was very beneficial for his sleep.
And I thought,
"Wow, this is the best-kept secret ever.
I need to tell everybody."
So, I got certified,
and then I became
a registered aromatherapist.
I know what the oils are capable of.
And it's just finding
that right blend for your client.
Okay, missy. You can hang out here.
We're gonna talk.
Okay, kiss.
We get to smell stuff today.
You get to smell stuff.
This is war!
Hey, come on! Not too crazy.
Stop, stop.
Close your eyes.
That smells like peppermint.
It's peppermint and clove.
I crushed it.
Hey, kisses.
Kisses.
We use essential oils
throughout the day.
It's just happiness in a bottle.
And so, it's become a culture
that we've created here.
I never wanted to be a blogger.
But our blog reaches
more than 5 million people a year.
All right, we're good?
Essential oil masterclass, take one.
- Aww. I love you, baby.
- Love you.
Hi, my name is Dr. Eric Zielinski.
You might know me online as Dr. Z.
My wife and I run a website
known as NaturalLivingFamily.com,
and we specialize in helping people
use essential oils safely and effectively.
If you could give me
just 15 to 20 minutes a day,
I promise you that you'll know
all that you need to know
to start using essential oils
in just ten days.
All right, I'm gonna get the makeup.
Touch you up.
In my world, I'm one of the more
successful bloggers in the industry.
We're blessed to be able to help people
through buying
our master classes and books.
And we've reached multiple seven figures
in our business.
- Mama!
- Kissy?
You got sweet kisses.
Uh-oh! You have makeup on you.
You got lipstick on her nose.
- Occupational hazard.
- Occupational hazard?
My family is made
of my beautiful wife, Sabrina
I need you to run the swivel sweeper.
I don't like bananas.
our daughter Esther, who's 11
Isaiah, who is eight
Elijah, who is six
Yeah, let's go.
and baby Bella, who is three.
My daddy!
- You want your Elsa tea?
- Yes!
Okay.
So, a day in the life of the Z's
and how we use essential oils
on a daily basis is,
it starts at the very beginning,
when we get the kids ready.
We have diffusers
running throughout the house
depending on the kind of mood.
The hand soap or lotion
that we're using, it's
They're everywhere, and we make
a lot of our own products.
We use them as we want to
in our culinary purposes.
Let's get two drops of peppermint.
Wanna help?
Many aromatherapists claim
you should not ingest essential oils.
I'll argue this
till I'm blue in the face.
Keep it. Do it again. Okay.
I mean, what do you think flavors
your favorite soda pop and ice cream?
So many things that are naturally flavored
are essential oil-based.
That's there on the Food and Drug
Administration website.
Look it up.
- Elsa tea!
- Elsa tea.
Go back! Go back! Go back! Go back!
There's a lot of evidence
to suggest that essential oils can help
in a variety of ways.
Mmm. Try it!
Yummy? Knuckles.
No, not kiss, knuckles!
Aww.
One of the reasons
why I'm so passionate about what I do
is because I really know
what it's like to be sick.
So, when you look at my childhood,
I just was chronically unwell.
When I was a teenager, I started
to develop significant depression,
like clinical depression.
I started self-medicating.
Alcohol, started smoking
a pack of cigarettes a day,
cocaine, ecstasy, narcotics, street drugs.
And I hit my proverbial rock bottom
when I was 22 years old.
Okay, guys, we're gonna say a quick prayer
before y'all go, okay?
Close your eyes.
Heavenly father, God,
we thank you for this beautiful day.
So, when I was just about 23 years old,
I had a spiritual revelation.
I was blind, and then I could see.
I became a Christian, and within a moment,
the addiction, the depression,
the anxiety,
the suicidal thoughts, all went away.
I can't explain it
other than it was a miracle.
I'm a living miracle.
And, Lord, we just know people's lives
are going to be transformed.
The suffering
that they're experiencing will be eased.
But some things didn't go away.
Like my gut issues. Like the acne.
Like sleeping issues.
And when you look at the Bible,
when you look at the references to gold,
frankincense and myrrh, to Mary,
the prostitute, anointing Jesus' feet.
What do you think that was?
It was an essential oil-based extract.
When I started looking at research
and seeing the direct impact
that essential oils
have on the limbic system,
where your mood, your memory,
your emotions lie,
balancing blood pressure,
helping with the symptoms related
to a number of diseases, including cancer,
I was astounded.
- Amen.
- Amen.
All right, bring it in. Whoa, team Z!
All right. Let's go.
Yay.
I know the secret to how to do something.
I wanna share that with somebody else.
So while we're doing this,
Sabrina's gonna be doing
three different scenes or segments.
Yeah, I'm gonna get it printed out.
You'll get the notes.
Working together, it's actually been
the best thing for our marriage.
If a woman is married and has kids,
her dreams aren't done yet,
and there's still so much
that she can accomplish.
I competed from the time I was 17 to 24
in the Miss America competition.
I just I loved it.
I loved the development.
I loved what it did for my career.
And then, a few years
and three children later,
I thought, you know,
I might not be done competing.
Look at me.
One thing I didn't expect
was that
all that speaking I was doing,
I didn't know it was also preparing me
for what I would do with my husband.
We're using what God has given us
to help benefit other people.
That's what we signed up for.
That's what we committed to.
All right, here we are in the kitchen
with Mama Z.
Yes.
We're gonna talk all about
the essential oil supplies
and everything that you need
in order to make your own products.
I gotta say, my wife and I,
we're just as real as anyone else is.
And I think that, out of everything,
is the reason why our online popularity
has soared,
because people can relate to us.
We've had a couple hockey puck muffins
that came out of the oven.
And that's it. We're not trying to pretend
we're something that we're not.
Absolutely.
Cool.
Okay, all right, we'll set up for that.
You know, we keep our prices
so affordable.
I mean, our most expensive master class
is $77 for digital access.
Like, anyone can afford that,
even if you're on food stamps,
government assistance.
Hey, stop drinking Starbucks
for two weeks in a row,
and there's 75 bucks, right?
That's our master class.
And I want you to join me on this journey.
I believe God has a solution for you.
I actually consider Natural Living Family
a for-profit ministry.
And the stories that we get are amazing.
People, medical failures,
that are just suffering
with anxiety, and depression,
and panic, and cancer, and they're like,
"I stumbled. I stumbled."
I heard that many times,
"I've stumbled upon your stuff."
No, you didn't stumble,
God directed you to my stuff.
God knew what you needed,
and he showed you.
All right, ready for church?
Many people ask,
"Can essential oils cure cancer?"
I'll get crucified for this.
I've seen documentation.
I've seen the reports.
They had cancer, used essential oils.
Now they don't have cancer.
How am I going to say
that's not possible?
Essential oils can help
people with cancer.
But what the Food and Drug Administration
has done in the United States
has made it illegal, actually illegal,
to make any sort of medical claims
associated with essential oils
if you're selling an essential oil.
And so, that's one reason
why we don't sell essential oils.
The system has been designed to keep away
this message.
But we have the freedom of speech
to share what we do.
Really, by God's grace we're protected.
And we've been able to help millions.
You get quite a lot of
serious claims being made, you know,
essential oils can cure x, y, and zed.
They can cure cancer, blah, blah, blah.
There's not the clinical evidence.
There just is not.
My name is Dr. Joy Boyles.
I'm a researcher, an educator,
and an author.
And the title of my best-known book
is The Chemistry of Aromatherapeutic Oils.
Essential oils are not regulated
as medicines.
There are strict guidelines on how
they can be used in the flavor industry,
like recommended dosages
for candies and drinks.
The trouble comes about
when people are making claims
which they don't have
substantiated evidence for.
People say, "There's lots of studies."
I used to think that was impressive, too.
But just because bacteria, rats, cells,
respond to the essential oils,
it doesn't actually correlate necessarily
with the human experience.
So, the evidence base that we have
for the clinical effects of essential oils
in humans,
it's pretty scanty.
They've done three or four
good quality human experiments.
For example, lavender oil.
They did a clinical trial.
They had one group of people
taking the lavender preparation,
and another group taking the drug
called lorazepam for anxiety.
So, both groups didn't know whether they
were getting lavender or lorazepam.
And at the end of the trial,
both groups reduced their anxiety equally.
So, lavender oil is as good as lorazepam.
That's the kind of level
of clinical evidence that we have.
Using essential oils to help people
cope with their pain,
helping them cope with their anxiety,
helping them cope with their insomnia.
And notice I use the words
"help them cope with," not "cure."
Proper aromatherapy
isn't claiming to cure anybody.
Sarah, I got music for you.
So, I put together a couple of blends.
This is for sleep.
Oh, that's good.
This blend has vetiver, sandalwood,
there's some ylang-ylang,
and just a little bit of rose.
Sarah's always moving around constantly.
I heard a teenager who has autism
once explain
the reason he flaps his hands so much
is 'cause he can't feel his body.
And so he's trying to get the input
to feel his body.
So, I'm thinking that's why
she always needs to move.
A lot of times, she's just wired.
So it's just hard for her to get to sleep.
still having a hard time
falling asleep. So wait
So, we're always looking
for ways to calm her down before bed.
And then when she's ready to go to bed,
and you open the door,
she'll have the scent in the room.
So, this one oh.
Did she run away?
Sarah Marshall!
Did she run away?
Sarah's, like, super happy
on your daughter's bed.
We could take these upstairs.
If Sarah's happy up there,
we want her to stay happy up there.
I'll take my shoes off.
Sarah, just make yourself at home, missy!
We don't get a lot of sleep.
So, I tell people
Sarah parties in her room.
'Cause she's not upset,
but we hear a lot of banging,
a lot of noises.
And I don't really
wanna give her melatonin,
'cause she can't verbalize
how it makes her feel.
So that's kind of why
I'm looking for alternatives.
Okay.
So, these are both for sleep.
I kind of want to get a preference.
Both for sleep? Okay.
As an authentic aromatherapist,
I'm going to choose oils,
and I'm going to blend them together
in such a way
that they could be beneficial
for what my client has come to see me for.
This is something I would put
in a diffuser in her room.
What works for one person
might not work for another.
And the best way I can explain that is,
for some children, they need to be
stimulated to calm down,
and other children need calming oils
to calm down.
- Smells like chamomile tea.
- There's a little chamomile in there.
In working with special-needs kids,
I try to do my best at recognizing
the cues from the child.
I think you really might like this one.
You wanna hold it and smell it? Oh, wow.
No?
No, that's Yeah. Ooh.
That one's kinda nice, isn't it?
- We got a smile out of that.
- That was good, yeah.
Thanks, Sarah, thanks for smelling.
- Yeah. That's a definite yes.
- Okay.
You did a great job.
Yeah. - She was awesome.
Yeah, I'm really surprised
that she smiled.
I mean, I guess I'm just, kind of,
optimistic.
Car. Time.
Thank you.
- You're welcome.
- Bye.
All right, bye, girls.
Success for Sarah would be
something that could help her
in her sleep.
You know, they always talk about
how important sleep is for growing brains
and mood and development.
Then you've got a kid like Sarah
who is developmentally delayed.
Good night, sweetie. Kiss?
So, sleep is so important.
I fully credit
the essential oils for saving my life.
My name is Allison Huish.
I'm from Mesa, Arizona.
I am a wellness advocate with doTERRA.
The way for me to grow my business
is by sharing these products
with my network,
with people at church, or family,
or friends.
I invite people to a doTERRA class.
I'm always very upfront, and I say,
"I would love for you to come."
Come on in, everyone.
There is no obligation to purchase.
It's so good to see you.
I believe in the phrase,
"Serve more to sell more."
These are three of my favorite oils
that I love to put in water.
Lemon, lime, orange.
So, I'm gonna pass around the first oil
that I was introduced to.
This is wild orange oil.
Take a drop,
and then rub your hands together,
and you can pass it around.
So, I assume that you're here today
because you are looking for solutions
for a health concern
that's going on in your life.
Let me tell you my story,
how I got into oils.
When I was 12 years old,
I was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
This was three weeks
after junior high started,
and I went into almost like
a state of shock.
My tumor was about the size of an egg.
The morning of my surgery,
my neurosurgeon said,
"We can't make any guarantees."
And so, for eight hours,
he slowly picked away at that tumor.
But part of it was considered inoperable.
My neurosurgeon said, "Enough is enough,"
closed me up, and said,
"We'll figure out what to do
with the rest later."
For my tumor
chemotherapy was not an option.
And radiation, as a 13-year-old,
to your brain stem
just sounds pretty, pretty scary.
A family friend heard about my story.
He said, you know, "Are you open
to natural solutions?"
I took frankincense and clove oils,
which have anti-cancer,
antioxidant properties.
And then also oils like oregano
or tea tree,
help fight viruses and bacteria.
If you go to a typical doctor,
they're going to give you
a pill for one thing.
Every couple of hours,
I was taking some form of essential oil
internally or topically.
With every MRI, my doctor would just say,
"Keep doing what you're doing,
and we'll see you in six months."
My mom was very careful
that she never brought up
that we were using essential oils.
If she had told my neurosurgeon that,
he could have easily called
Child Protective Services and said,
"This mom is trying to avoid radiation."
It was this big secret that we were
hiding throughout the whole process.
Those are your only hospital pictures.
Yeah, the only hospital photos.
- I didn't want photos taken.
- You didn't.
I never did chemotherapy.
I never did radiation.
And ever since that day,
I've continued to use oils.
My husband has diabetes.
So, I'm interested in things
that might help his pancreas.
And I'm having lymph issues,
so like, adrenal, kidney,
things like that.
One of the most common questions
I get, people ask with doTERRA,
is they say,
"Hey, is there an oil for this?"
I would say 99.9% of the time,
the answer is yes.
I love citrus oils,
because they make you happy.
Peppermint oil helps with headaches.
Frankincense is really good for cancers,
cuts, scrapes, emotional issues.
Essential oils help clean out the blood
in the outside part of the cell.
But we're not supposed to say that
essential oils cured this disease.
That is due to the FDA.
Our healthcare system
doesn't really like essential oils.
It takes away from our Big Pharma,
and all of those sales.
A 50-milliliter bottle like this
has 250 drops in it.
So, it may look like, wow,
I'm spending $20 for that?
But if you think about it
in drops per cent,
most oils are about
five to seven cents a drop.
They're really a very inexpensive way
to take care of our health.
And so ask yourself for a second,
are you and your family any healthier
because of traditional medical care?
With oils, I believe they are safer,
they are cheaper,
and they are more effective.
I see miracle story
after miracle story happen
with so many people.
And that's why I wanted
to do this business.
This is the form to fill out for those
who have oils or are wanting to purchase.
The last section is put down
where you would like it to be charged to.
You guys are wonderful.
Have a great rest of your day.
Thanks so much.
- Thank you.
- Thanks, Allison.
Yeah, so great to learn this today.
I started noticing
essential oils being everywhere.
It was something that was happening
really suddenly.
There were multiple people
selling these things
that I had never heard of before.
And then when I started to look into it,
I saw that there was a whole
controversial industry behind them.
And so that seemed like something
worth digging into.
The two major companies that are selling
the majority of the essential oils
for sale in the United States today are
two multi-level marketing companies.
There's Young Living and doTERRA.
Multi-level marketing companies,
you make money by selling products,
but also by recruiting other people
to sell the product.
Many people are familiar
with companies like Amway, or Mary Kay,
but now multi-level marketing companies
have really taken on a new life.
With the doTERRA business,
I have definitely been very blessed.
I have reached the rank of diamond
with doTERRA.
So, diamond is one of the top ranks.
My paychecks now are over $20,000
every single month.
I became a six-figure income with doTERRA.
- Hello?
- Hey, Cindy, how's your day going?
So far, so good. How about you?
I love it, congrats
The larger someone's team is,
the more lives you've touched.
That's where the paycheck
really starts to grow.
My doTERRA team is over 16,000 people
right now.
I love that I can support
all those people.
I have been working really hard
and the team enrollments,
because it's just me,
I am just not capable
of doing 14 enrollments a month yet.
Maybe eventually,
but I am just not there yet.
DoTERRA isn't something
that people come on board
and within a couple of months
win a free car,
hit a couple of bonuses, and tap out.
It's not like a get-rich-quick thing.
I know the builders will definitely come,
for sure.
Yeah, it's just time.
They'll show up when God wants them to.
This is the best career on the planet.
I just need to get it profitable.
Definitely, no, I completely agree.
It is an amazing company,
amazing career to have, so
What's problematic
with the multi-level marketing companies
is that they're actually proposing
this aromatic lifestyle.
You've gotta have the essential oils
in your laundry detergent,
you've gotta have it in your cooking,
you've gotta have it in your air,
you've gotta vaporize it, you've gotta
put it in your cleaning products,
and the cumulative amount
there's no evidence of that being safe
for humans.
What they're actually doing,
unbeknownst to them perhaps, even,
is running the biggest experiment
on human use of essential oils
that we've ever seen, planetwide.
When I went
to the Young Living convention,
one thing that was really striking to me
was that
what was for sale
was not just essential oils
but this whole idea of an essential oil
culture and essential oil lifestyle.
The way women described themselves was
not just "I'm a person who sells oils,"
but "I am an oil person."
Everything at the Young Living
convention is over-the-top.
You see just the enormous crowds.
This entire stadium is just packed.
There's the pyrotechnics,
making the thing feel
like an enormous spectacle.
And when you're talking about this world,
there is a key figure.
And that's Gary Young.
Folks coming to convention
is very much like that.
If you don't come to convention,
you're going to miss
some of the most fundamental elements
that could be important
in building your success.
Gary Young is the founder
of Young Living Essential Oils.
And he was a real showman.
At the Young Living convention,
he always made a dramatic entrance.
One year,
he was pulled by a team of huskies.
Gary Young was this
larger-than-life figure.
And he really helped create
the billion-dollar essential oil industry
we have today.
Gary Young's origin story
is a key part of Young Living lore.
He was born in Idaho,
and grew up very poor.
In his twenties,
he was in a terrible logging accident.
His spinal column was ruptured,
and he's told by doctors
that he's never going to walk again.
But, as the story goes,
Gary Young decides to subsist
on nothing but lemon juice and water
for over 200 days.
And after 253 days,
he can twitch his toes again.
This recovery spurred his interest
in alternative medicine.
Gary Young doesn't have a medical license.
He has a degree in naturopathy
from an unaccredited university.
So, in the early 1980s,
he opened a health facility,
and he offers birthing services.
One of the babies that he attempts
to deliver in an underwater birth
is his own daughter,
and, really tragically, she died
after spending an hour underwater
during a water birth.
The death is ultimately ruled an accident.
In the early 1990s,
Gary Young became fascinated
with the medicinal properties
of essential oils,
and started Young Living Essential Oils
in 1993.
We know, without question,
that we produce the finest quality oil
in the world.
That's why Young Living
is the world leader of essential oils
and always will be.
He opened a clinic in Utah,
but a patient sued him
claiming that a treatment
including the infusion of vitamin C
had almost killed her.
He closes the clinic in Utah,
and opens one in Ecuador
where he gave essential oils
intravenously to patients,
and even apparently performed gallbladder
surgery without a medical license.
His persona was that of a cowboy.
Somebody going against the rules,
breaking the rules.
He promoted this idea that essential oils
could have these miraculous
healing properties.
As his empire grew, he really contributed
to the spread of these ideas widely.
Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to the Young Living
International Grand Convention.
By the time Gary Young died in 2018
the industry he helped create was booming.
I want to remain anonymous
because I'm not doing this for notoriety.
But I feel like my story needs to be told
because people don't talk about it,
because they're afraid.
When I decided to do this business,
I was a stay-at-home mom.
I ran into a friend from high school,
and she introduced me to Young Living.
They're like, "You can work around your
schedule of your kids, and it's easy.
All you have to do is talk about the oils,
and people will buy."
It's the dream job for stay-at-home moms.
When I do stuff, I try to go all-in.
So I bought books that they recommended.
I bought all their promo material.
I bought oils for samples.
You know, I ended up spending
a few thousand dollars.
It seemed like a
good business opportunity, and it wasn't.
I'm one of probably
hundreds of thousands of women
who have been taken advantage of
by Young Living.
Someone needs to stand up to them.
It came across my news feed.
I just saw "class action lawsuit,"
and I'm like, what's this about?
When I read the complaint,
I was like, this is me.
And if it's the same thing
for me and for her,
then how many other women
are there out there?
Almost as soon as that story hit,
my phone started ringing.
"I read the complaint.
I feel like I'm the Julie of Arkansas."
"I'm calling you from Louisiana.
I read her story, and that is my story."
My name is Austin Tighe.
I'm an attorney with Nix Patterson
and I'm co-lead counsel
on a class action against Young Living
having to do with their
multi-level marketing scheme.
We allege in this lawsuit
that Young Living
is an illegal pyramid scheme.
- G'morning.
- Good morning. How're you?
Good. I'm Austin Tighe.
Welcome to Nix Patterson.
- Nice to meet you.
- You as well.
There are more people like you
than not like you.
I suspect that there are thousands
of our class members
who are afraid to come forward.
So, thank you for coming in
and talking with me.
I thought multi-level marketing companies
are more like Avon or Cutco.
More like door-to-door sales.
I didn't understand that they were
this whole other thing.
The way that their business model works,
you don't make your money
off of selling the oils.
It's not like I can just have a party
and sell oils.
People have to sign up
and become a distributor.
In addition to that,
in order to earn commissions,
they require that you enroll in,
it's called essential rewards,
where you have to purchase
at least $100 worth of product
a month yourself
to be able to collect commissions
from the people below you.
So, if I didn't do that essential rewards,
I wouldn't get any commission.
What you just described
is exactly a pyramid scheme.
Pyramid schemes operate
by building downlines.
It's the lifeblood of a pyramid scheme.
If you're a member,
and you go out and get someone
to join Young Living,
they become part of your downline.
Revenue generated by them,
you get to share in them.
But that's not the real crux of the money.
Here's the real crux of the money.
Once you're in the pyramid,
you have to, every month,
fulfill your personal volume.
It was $100 per month on inventory.
Whether you ever
sell those products or not,
that hundred dollar monthly
feeds the upline until you get
to the very top of the pyramid,
which is not just where
most of the money is made,
it's really the only place
the money's made.
I tried to sell Young Living products
by holding classes
but then I felt like that was lacking.
And then they're like, "Just create
an Instagram for your business."
So I did that, didn't get anybody.
They tell you to get
your best friends involved,
get your family involved,
look up people from high school,
people you haven't talked to in years,
tell him about the oils, they'll love 'em.
And I could not get anyone
to do it as a business.
I'll say the area's flooded,
and they'll say,
"No, you're not hustling,"
that "There's always more people to join."
My Royal Crown Diamond,
she reiterates all the time,
"Anybody can do this.
Anybody can accomplish this goal."
Royal Crown Diamond
is the top, top level of the pyramid.
Now, if you reach that level,
boy, is it a great company.
$1.8 million a year average income.
It's fantastic.
Unfortunately,
there's only been 46 of those
in the history of the company.
Out of millions,
millions of members.
That's .0015% of members.
And it gets worse. In 2016,
94% of members made an average
of one dollar per month.
What's particularly insidious about this
particular pyramid scheme,
is that once you become a member,
who do you go and try to recruit?
You call your friends,
you call your neighbors.
You call your niece.
So, if my premise is correct,
and if this pyramid
is built on a house of cards,
when it tumbles,
your neighbor's tumbling,
your daughter's tumbling,
your aunt's tumbling,
your friend from college is tumbling.
That's going to be the collateral damage
of these types of pyramid schemes.
I'm embarrassed
that I fell for this.
It made me feel kind of stupid.
I lost money,
and then I also have numerous
family and friends
that are still using the products.
I mean, how do you tell them
you don't want to use them anymore
when you've pulled them in?
I want other women to understand
that what they do is predatory,
that you're not going to make money
off of it,
that you're going to lose money.
It's not what they make it sound like.
I was brainwashed.
I drank the Kool-Aid.
I trusted the teachings that I was getting
from this multi-level marketing company.
I've chosen not to name the brand
or the company,
because it really doesn't matter
what brand of essential oils you're using,
'cause this can happen
with any essential oil.
I've never been part of a multi-level
marketing company before,
but my friend,
she's done a ton of research
on the company, and the oils,
and she told me that they were
of the highest quality that you could get.
And that you could take them internally.
I've never known that you can take
essential oils internally,
but it was so pure that you could.
And I thought, wow,
this is a game changer.
The company said you could use them
three, four, five, six, seven times a day.
I started drinking lemon in my water
every day.
My favorite was the lavender,
it was so calming and soothing and
I was using them every way.
Internally, topically, all day long,
every day.
The first sign of reaction was,
I noticed this little bit of a rash
on my forearm.
I thought, oh, that's interesting.
I'm not sure where that came from.
So, I put tea tree oil on it.
The next day, it was even worse.
So, where do you turn to
but the Facebook groups of your peers
who you believe are educated,
but they're not.
The answers were always,
"No, it can't be the oils.
You cannot have a reaction to them.
It's a good thing that you have a rash,
your body is just detoxing,
keep taking the oils."
I wasn't going to the doctor initially.
I was believing the jargon.
So, on top of what I was already doing,
I'm now taking,
you know, extra essential oils
to help detox my body.
So, that's when it went really bad.
The rash spread to the back of my neck,
my leg,
and my stomach.
My body had swollen up so bad
that I couldn't even bend my limbs.
It felt like someone
had locked me in a room
with fire ants, mosquitoes, and wasps,
and then poured molten lava on my body.
The first time the rash had ever
went to my face,
my face really swelled up,
and it was oozing fluid,
and that was when I stopped
all of the oils.
When I got the allergy test back,
it showed allergies for ylang-ylang
and tea tree oil.
So, I'd inundated my body
with these chemical constituents
that are in the essential oils,
which became toxic to my body.
My body was still having rashes and
reactions up until March of this year.
So, that was over a five-year period.
If something is natural and organic,
everybody wants to jump on board with it.
However, there are things
in mass quantities
that are not good for us
even though they're natural.
And the damage has been so severe,
that I'm now allergic
to these essential oils.
And then I became angry.
Why did this happen to me?
Has it happened to anybody else?
I wanted somebody
who could answer that for me.
And I figured the medical officer of this
company would have the answers.
Every time I asked if my information
was sent to the chief medical officer,
I got a, "Yes, it was sent to him.
He's out of town."
And I said, "I can't believe
that somebody would see these photos
and not get back to me."
I never received a response
from the chief medical officer.
When I first went public with my story,
there were so many people contacting me,
saying,
"Oh, my gosh,
this is what I was going through."
There are databases
where they collect this data.
So many people have had reactions
to essential oils.
But now I know.
I fell hook, line, and sinker.
So, that is where I'll
take my responsibility.
The responsibility that I'm putting on
the MLM company
is the poor training that they provided,
the lack of safety information,
and the fact that their bottom line
is the bottom line.
The more essential oils you use,
the more products you're going to sell,
the more money that they're going to make.
Essential oils are powerful.
Why are they so readily available
without any regulation or training?
Did you have some good sleep last night?
I'm gonna get your medicine.
Do you want TV?
The first night, we followed the protocol,
and we used Sarah's sleep blend
with her diffuser.
It was successful.
You're all done with the medicine.
She wants more.
You look really well-rested this morning.
She seems, like, better.
You know how sometimes
she's completely groggy and out of it?
She looks like she's better.
I don't think I'm reading into it, do you?
No, she slept pretty soundly last night.
Since we started about three months ago,
for Sarah, the diffuser has been working
really well for sleep.
She's getting good, long, restful sleep,
and I think not waking up as much
during the night,
and we feel like we're in a much more
calm, peaceful routine.
Ready, set
Go.
She's more attentive at school.
Everyone's noticing it.
The fussiness has, like, dialed down.
Fast, fast, fast.
Fast? Oh, I heard fast. Okay.
The other day she woke up really happy,
and she said, "Dora and milk,"
and she has never used the word "and"
in a sentence, ever.
Like, oh, my God, this is huge.
So, I do attribute that to good sleep.
The essential oils,
I mean, they couldn't be
the be-all, end-all for us
but I'm feeling like it is a really good,
important tool.
I've learned so much.
It's not one-size-fits-all.
You don't just pick up any old bottle
off the shelf at the store.
You have to find the right things
for your family needs.
Oh, my gosh, she's so happy.
Having the essential oils has really
I guess "empowering"
is a good word for it.
I mean, we're definitely
in a better place.