Essential Oils Scam: NOT a Medical Treatment

Social media has been exploding over the last year with claims that essential oils have cured all sorts of diseases and illnesses. Obviously, this is a total scam. Even worse, essential oils are being pushed through multi-level marketing (also a scam) with companies such as doTERRA and Young Living.

What is the real story about essential oils and multi-level marketing? As our friend Lazy Man has said: No, Your MLM Health Product Doesn’t “Work.” (This most definitely includes Medifast, Herbalife, Xyngular, Isagenix, Usana, and any other MLM with a “health product.”) 

Essential oils are the oil of particular plants, and can come from the flowers, leaves, roots, bark, or peels of plants. They are called “essential” because they contain the “essence of” the plant’s fragrance, but not because they are essential for any health needs. Essential oils have been used for years in aromatherapy, household cleaning products, and some personal care products.  They smell good, which can be relaxing and can also enhance different cleaning processes. They may also help moisturize skin, assist in the treatment of conditions such as acne, and enhance the appearance of skin.

The controversy about essential oils relates to their supposed medicinal properties. Some claim they have antioxidants, antrimicrobials, and anti-inflammatories. I don’t doubt that essential oils may have some of these properties on a small scale. But essential oils most certainly do not heal broken bones. While the oils can help with minor burns, they definitely do not heal serious burns. They don’t cure autism, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, cancer, or any other potentially serious illnesses. Some of the advice being offered by pretend doctors and pretend scientists can be downright dangerous. (And essential oils shouldn’t be ingested EVER or used without diluting them first.)

Harriet Hall, MD, who we have quoted here before, takes doTerra to task for its unsupported claims about essential oils:

They say modern science is validating “the numerous health and wellness benefits of essential oils” but they don’t identify those benefits or offer any evidence. No clinical studies are cited, and there is no research section on their website.

The published evidence is sparse to nonexistent. There are clinical studies to support a few of the recommended uses, but they are generally poorly designed, uncontrolled, and unconvincing. Research is difficult, because patients can’t be blinded to the odors, and mental associations and relaxation could account for most of the observed effects.

And Dr. Hall points us to some really interesting information about D. Gary Young, the founder of Young Living. Be careful who you trust. Dr. Hall writes:

I first heard of essential oils years ago in connection with Gary Young, described on Quackwatch as “an uneducated huckster with a track record of arrests for health fraud.” Gary Young and his Essential Oils are still in business despite the devastating critique that has long been featured on Quackwatch. The record of misdeeds there makes for painful reading. Among other things, he practiced medicine without a license, was arrested repeatedly, did bogus lab tests, and contributed to the death of his own child by performing an underwater delivery and holding the newborn infant underwater for an hour. His judgment about medical matters is obviously not very trustworthy.

I did some very brief research on these claims, and found additional information on Mr. Young in this article and this article, both by Eva Briggs, MD.

Roy Benaroch, MD (yes, an actual doctor!) writes about essential oils:

Is there any reason to think there are broad health benefits from essential oils, as a group? Many of them smell good, and I imagine that used in a sort of aroma therapy they might be relaxing to people who like the smell of lemon, cedarwood, patchouli, or hyssop. But statements referring to essential oils collectively as having near-magical health benefits are just plain silly.

Some essential oils probably do offer health benefits, but many can be harmful if used incorrectly; and since selling these is intertwined with questionable business practices, it’s unlikely that Kayla is going to get reliable or balanced health information from local distributors. Don’t waste your money or endanger your health—stay away from the multilevel marketing of essential oils.

In order to make the products look legitimate (or look like they’re superior to other products out there), MLM companies are prone to lying, exaggeration, and misleading. One such example is doTERRA’s claim that their products are Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade. What does CPTG mean? Absolutely nothing. It’s a phrase that doTERRA made up and got a trademark on. In essence, doTERRA is saying “our essential oils are high quality because we say they are.”

It is common for the representatives of multi-level marketing companies to make all sorts of false claims about the healing properties of their products. These essential oil companies are no different, and the Food and Drug Administration has taken notice. Young Living received a warning letter from the FDA last year, telling the company that representatives are not permitted to make drug claims about the products.  doTERRA also received a warning letter from the FDA last year, pointing out that the essential oils “…are not generally recognized as safe and effective for use under the conditions prescribed, recommended, or suggested in their labeling.”

Both product lines were falsely pushed to cure or prevent ebola:

The website www.theoilessentials.com reportedly wrote “[T]he Ebola virus cannot survive in the presence of a therapeutic grade Cinnamon Bark and Oregano essential oil.” 

The website www.essentialsurvival.org wrote “Thieves [a proprietary Young Living blend] oil can be . . . applied topically on the skin to help the body fight off infection . . . If Ebola was going around in my area . . . I would apply it to my feet and armpits 2x/day or more and take it in capsules at least 2x/day for preventive purposes,” and “If I were exposed to Ebola or had reason to believe I could be sick with it, I would use some of these oils every 10 minutes for a few hours, then cut back to every hour for the rest of the first day. Then I would use them every 2 waking hours of the day for at least a week, or longer if it was known I was sick.”

A doTerra distributor wrote “Many Essential Oils are highly Anti-viral. I list here a few of them those (sic) oils that could help prevent your contracting the Ebola virus . . ..” on a Twitter account credited to “MrsSkinnyMedic.”

There were also claims that doTERRA and Young Living essential oils cured all sorts of other illnesses, such as “…Parkinson’s disease, autism, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, insomnia, heart disease, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), dementia, and multiple sclerosis,” according to the FDA letter.

Here’s the bottom line: Essential oils do not cure illnesses or medical conditions. They possibly make people feel better, and may have a minimal effect on very minor skin conditions. But that’s it. Essential oils won’t heal your cancer, broken bones, migraines, dimentia, fybromyalgia, autism or anything else. And if used incorrectly, essential oils can be dangerous.

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Young Living Farms Wacky Somalian Adventures

Sultan Yusuf Ahmed Salah of Somalia recently posted a YouTube video in which he claims that Young Essential Oils Founder Gary Young visited Somalia to test resins from their rare frankincense trees and write about his journey. According to Salah, Young promised to provide donations to establish health clinics and money to train teachers.

Young Living Farms legal department then contacted YouTube to request the video be removed because it contained copyrighted materials and false information to defame Young’s character. YouTube then removed the video. After the video was removed Utah Stories was contacted by two independent essential oils specialists telling us that Young Living Farms is trying to silence the truth of what Gary Young did when he visited Somalia.

Was Sultan Yusuf Ahmed Salah indeed mislead and lied to by Gary Young? Or is Salah himself an extortionist, as Young Living Farms claims?

Con Artist of Healer? D Gary Young – Founder of Young Essential Oils

Salah says that Young claimed to be a medical doctor and philanthropist, and that he wanted to donate money to help them build clinics and train teachers. According to Salah, the money was never sent, but instead Salah’s photos were used in highly fictionalized account of the events which occurred in Young Living Farms newsletter called Essential Edge to promote Young’s successful very dangerous frankincense collection trip to Somalia.

The photos, used in a four-part series on Young’s Somalia trip, depict Salah as a friend and protector of Young. Young writes in his newsletter that Sultan Yusuf Ahmed Salah showed up to the airport to ensure his safety. According to Salah, Young came to his village without proper notice began asking for photos and misleading him and his people with promises. Salah said he was most offended by how Gary Young used his men to pose for photos demonstrating the “danger” of his journey by posing with their guns.

Certainly this story has a great deal more detail than what we are able to present. Later in the day,Young Essential Oils Marketing and Legal Team spoke to Utah Stories off the record.

Utah Stories was scheduled to meet with Young Living PR and legal team at their Lehi headquarters yesterday morning, but they cancelled the meeting because we were unable to provide all questions beforehand. Utah Stories requested prior to the meeting electronic copies of the newsletters which have Young’s account of the story, before we attempted to provide detailed questions. They have not provided the materials.

We are simply seeking Young’s side of the story. Young has a history of a the very least stretching the truth. Young has consistently made claims that his oils can cure illnesses and diseases they are unproven to cure including infertility. Young has been convicted of practicing medicine without a license.

Still Utah Stories supports the essential oils Young Living promotes for helping with stress relief , anxiety and muscle pain. The Utah-based Young Living Farms is a world-wide businesses with seven farms. They employ 1,000 people. But the facts of Young Living Farms success do not forgive lies or misleading practices.

Utah Stories was able to find Young Livings Essential Edge stories online and have provided Young Living Farms our questions. But they have not responded to our e-mails except to make the following statement:

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The day Young Living broke my heart

The day Young Living broke my heart…

As I explain my story below, I urge you to keep an open mind and look at all the facts and ask questions. If someone tells you to pay no attention to this and just move on…ask yourself why they are doing this and what they have to gain from keeping you in the dark.
Thursday February 25th 2016 was the day this all started. As an Aromatherapy student, I spend a lot of time in various aromatherapy/essential oil Facebook groups. It was late afternoon this particular Thursday that I came across a post in one of the groups that contained GC/MS test results of a Cinnamon Bark essential oil sample. The sample was found be adulterated with synthetics. This bit of info did not surprise me, as Essential Oil adulteration runs rampant in the fragrance industry. What did surprise me, was the very strong insinuation that this particular sample was of Young Living’s cinnamon bark, followed later by pictures of the actual bottle clearly showing the Young Living label. Immediately I sent a copy of the test report, screenshot of the post and pictures of the unopened bottle to Young Living’s product support as I simply refused to believe any possibility that this could be true. 

The following day (Friday February 26th 2016) I received what appeared to be a fairly standard/generic form response from YL Product Support more or less telling me not to worry and called the whole ordeal a smear campaign by a competitor. Speculation and accusations began running rampant in the Facebook groups and Young Living’s name continued to be dragged through the “mud” so to speak. Wanting to provide some kind of proof to my family, clients, and friends that Young Living products were pure, I decided to have an oil tested, at my expense. Why you ask? Well back in 2015 I had e-mailed YL Product Support asking why they do not release or provide GC/MS testing reports. In their reply, they advised me that if I wanted documentation on the purity of the oils, I was welcome to submit them for testing through an independent lab of my choice. 

I contacted a testing laboratory located in Quebec, Canada that specialized in essential oils and natural health products called Phytochemia to obtain pricing and shipping information. To avoid any claims of tampering or sabotage, I logged into my Young Living Virtual Office and placed an order for a bottle of Cinnamon Bark. I had the shipping information changed to the laboratory in Quebec so that Young Living would ship the oil directly to them from the warehouse and there could be no claims of tampering with bottle caps, etc. On March 3rd 2016, I received notice from the Lab that they received my sample of Cinnamon Bark that I had Young Living send to them [receipt acknowledgement is available below] and was advised that I would have the results within 2 weeks’ time.
March 18th, I received an email from the lab again containing the GC/MS report from my sample I had tested. Nervously, I opened the attachment and scrolled to the bottom “conclusion” section….” The sample has been adulterated with synthetic cinnamaldehyde, indicated by the presence of phenylpentadienal isomers. Synthetic linalool may also have been added.” Tears filled my eyes as the reality of the situation began to sink in. My close family used Cinnamon Bark internally, not to mention the sheer volume of Thieves products that contained Cinnamon. I attempted some conversations with my “uplines” about the issue but merely got “don’t worry” and “I’ve used the products for years and I’m fine!”. Quickly realizing that I would not get the answers I wanted from them and not knowing where else to turn, I sent an e-mail to Young Living’s Chief Operating Officer, Jared Turner and included a copy of the test report. Hope and faith briefly returned when I received a reply from Jared, thanking me for bringing the issue to his attention and promising me a reply. He even Cc’d the entire analytical team and asked them to answer my questions I had. 

In the midst of ordering my sample to be sent to the lab for testing, I was contacted by a group of three other Young Living distributors unrelated to my sponsorship line. They were greatly concerned with the possible adulteration and lack of answers/information they were receiving from their uplines as well. One of them had an unopened bottle of Cinnamon Bark with the same lot # originally tested and posted about back on February 25th. They knew I was having a sample tested and wanted to know how they could go about getting their bottle tested, as well as another bottle of a different lot #, and a bottle of Thieves blend. They sent their samples off to the lab and roughly 2 weeks later received their results. All three bottles were adulterated.

Because they did not have Young Living send the order direct to the lab, they were immediately chastised by fellow YL distributors making claims they had tampered with the bottles themselves, however the fact remained that my test had a clean chain of custody and YL still was not addressing the results. Over the course of the next several weeks, YL issued several “statements” denying the adulteration and referring to it as a smear campaign. 

My pleas to Jared and YL corporate continued to be ignored. At this point in time I decided to collaborate with the group of three other distributors that had their samples sent in, and together we created a change.org petition demanding that YL address our questions, specifically the ones we had following their last statement. At almost 1300 signatures, the distributor that created the petition account (Betty), was contacted via phone from Jared Turner. I was not on the call so I won’t speak for what happened as it would merely be hearsay, but they did request that Betty take down the petition because they were going to be issuing another statement. 

After waiting for their statement, we were left with continued unanswered questions and determined the petition could not be taken down until they were addressed. Jared sent Betty a text message saying he noticed the petition was still up. When Betty replied that there were continued unanswered questions and that it might be best for the 4 of us to connect via a group e-mail, the friendly “we’re here to help” attitude immediately changed.  We contacted Andrea Neipp as requested- twice. To this date (April 28th), we have not received any reply from Andrea.

It has become quite clear from the actions of Young Living corporate and Diamond and above level “leaders” that this issue will not be further addressed. As a low-ranking distributor, I am not valuable in their eyes and if I stop ordering Young Living products, it’s no “skin off their backs” as the saying goes. As an advocate for health and high-quality products, a consumer, and a Young Living member, I refused to sit down and sweep this all under the rug. I share my story in hopes that others will spread the word and that Young Living will be held accountable to their “seed to seal” promise and guarantee. Had they handled this in a more professional manner, followed-up, etc. I may have been able to overlook this as a quality control issue that “slipped through the cracks”, but the despicable behavior demonstrated by fellow distributors and corporate means I simply cannot. 

Please share this story so that others may learn the truth and so they can make informed decisions for them and their families going forward. I will continue to update this page if/when new developments arise. I welcome your questions and comments and will try and answer as many as I can. 

It is with a very heavy heart and great sadness that I write this post. My decision to share my story with you has not come lightly. It comes after much research, soul searching, and great personal and financial sacrifice. You see, I had nothing to lose and everything to gain by keeping quiet about this and continuing to grow my team and build my business, but as the saying goes “A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right and evil doesn’t become good, just because it is accepted by a majority.”

-Yours in health,
Miles