{"id":26661,"date":"2017-04-11T03:10:45","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T07:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/living-well\/?p=26661"},"modified":"2022-10-10T09:48:13","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T13:48:13","slug":"why-essential-oils-high-in-this-constituent-may-be-bad-news-what-to-do-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/living-well\/2017\/04\/why-essential-oils-high-in-this-constituent-may-be-bad-news-what-to-do-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Essential Oils High in This Constituent May Be Bad News & What to Do About It"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I am currently working on a doozy of an article for Natural Path<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>It provides a more comprehensive overview on the topic of allergies and essential oils and is a continuation of my original two-part article on this subject<\/a>. This series details the various factors that sets one up to have an allergic response <\/em>to begin with and specifically in regards to essential oils. I’m excited about it and hope it will be another resource to guide people in the safe use of essential oils. It should be released in the summer months, so stay tuned for my announcement!<\/p>\n

In this blog, I will discuss an important reaction to essential oils that could be confused with an allergy. It is related to a negative response to a class of compounds, phenols, found in various essential oils. It results from a metabolic block in a certain enzyme, PST, making it different from an immune hypersensitivity reaction. Here’s the details below.<\/p>\n

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The Power of PST <\/strong><\/p>\n

PST stands for phenol sulfur-transferase. It is responsible for breaking down phenols for their use in the body. It is also an important enzyme for detoxifying harmful substances. Some people may respond negatively to phenols because they have an inadequate supply of available sulfate in order to \u201cfuel\u201d this pathway.<\/p>\n

The result of an inability effectively process this class of compounds could create many unwanted effects due to their buildup in the system. Phenols are present in foods naturally, and those who tend to have a more toxic burden and have this “metabolic block”, may have more adverse effects when exposed to phenols in essential oils.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, a solution is available. It is to help the body rid of some of the toxins that have built up in the system and then provide it with a substrate to assist with the pathway.<\/p>\n

Dr. Mercola states<\/a>,:<\/p>\n

As mentioned earlier, sulfur plays an important role in detoxification, and people who struggle with toxicity will often have a deficiency in the sulfation pathway. As explained in Enzyme Stuff:<\/a>13<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

“\u2026 [M]ost people with autism conditions have a deficiency in a key detoxification pathway. The pathway involves using sulfur in the form of sulfate (known as sulfation). The enzyme involved is phenol sulfur-transferase (PST), but the problem is thought to hinge on an inadequate supply of usable sulfate ions, not the metabolic enzyme itself.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. [Rosemary] Waring found that most children on the autism spectrum are very low in sulfate and may be as low as 15 percent of the amount in neurologically typical people. People with low or no ability to convert compounds to sulfate have problems handling environmental chemicals, some medications, and even some chemicals produced within the body. <\/em><\/p>\n

Furthermore, the article continues:<\/p>\n

There is a cumulative effect. When the phenols start backing up in the system, it can cause a myriad of negative reactions. Symptoms of phenol intolerance include night waking, night sweats, irritability, eczema and other skin conditions. The symptoms of phenol intolerance and yeast may be very similar because they both involve the body trying to deal with toxins.”<\/em><\/p>\n

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What\u2019s a Potential Solution?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If someone is sensitive to phenols and has an unwanted response to them, I usually implement the following plan in sequential order.<\/p>\n

1. I\u00a0 suggest initially backing off the use of oils high in phenols. Here\u2019s a list of some phenol-containing oils from yleo-oils.com (http:\/\/www.yleo-oils.com\/chemical.htm):<\/p>\n