Episode 117: Promoting Digestive Health and a Special Look at Tea Tree

doTERRA: Your gut and digestion have the ability to impact many parts of your health. So it stands to reason that you should keep them happy and healthy. But how exactly do you go about doing that? That's what we'll talk about today, and we'll give you all the best tips.

Welcome back to Essential Oil Solutions with doTERRA, the podcast where you'll hear exciting, useful, and simple everyday uses for essential oils from experts in the field. If you like what you hear today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. We always appreciate hearing from you.

Today, we're excited to talk to Pepper Seegmiller, a member of the doTERRA product marketing team, about supporting your digestive system. Pepper, thank you so much for coming and sitting down with us today.

Pepper Seegmiller: Yeah, no problem! Glad to be here.

doTERRA: So what I want to talk to you about is a really big topic right now, and that's gut health. So could you tell us a little bit about why it's such a big topic? Why is it so important?

Pepper: Yeah, gut health is a new topic. Lots of new studies going on with gut health. A lot of people think, well, gut health is digestive health, but it's so much more than that. Gut health can also affect your immunity. It can affect heart health. It can affect brain health. It can affect weight management. There's so many things that it touches that it's very important for us.

doTERRA: And that's crazy that just this one little piece of our body and a piece of our digestive system can affect so many different things and cause us a lot of unhappiness if we don't take care of it.

Pepper: Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, we want to take care of our digestive health. We want to make sure that everything's moving in the right direction. But then, like you said, it affects so many other things, and we can get into that a little bit more. But it affects our brain so much, and it affects our heart and affects so many things that function within our other systems that it's very important.

doTERRA: So can you tell us a few signs, what we can look for to tell if our gut is unhappy?

Pepper: Yeah, first off, I want to just say, if we feel like something's not right, you should go talk to a doctor. There's so many things that could be wrong and so many things that might not be wrong that I’d hate for people to self-diagnose and then find out that they did it wrong. So if you if you feel like something's off, please go see a doctor.

But there's a lot of different things. I mean, obviously, you can feel gas and you can feel bloating and you can feel abdominal pains. But there are other things, like if you feel like there are pains that aren't going away or if there are symptoms that aren't going away, definitely go see a doctor.

doTERRA: Absolutely. And I think that's great advice. So in the everyday support of our gut, you know, when things maybe aren't wrong, we're just trying to give it extra support to make sure that things continue to go along normally, what are some products that doctor has that we can utilize?

DigestZen^®

Pepper: doTERRA has a lot of digestive health products, and they've been proven over the years for a lot of different people, for a lot of different reasons. And so, first off, we have our DigestZen Blend, which is a blend of a lot of different essential oils, all of which have benefits in and of themselves for digestive health. And so that's a great one to start with.

DigestZen^® Softgels

And we've also put that in a softgel for convenience’s sake. So obviously, if you if you feel like something's off in your stomach or you feel like, “Hey, I'm going over to Aunt Maddie’s for dinner, and it's going to be a huge dinner, hey, let's take some digestion along with us, just in case.” And so you have your softgels for convenience’s sake as well.

DigestZen TerraZyme^®

We also have TerraZyme, which is a digestive enzyme. Our stomach has to break down food, and our intestines have to break down food. And there's all different kinds of foods. Most of us have enough digestive enzymes to be able to help us with this. But some of us need a little extra help sometimes. And so there are enzymes to break down proteins, enzymes to break down fats, enzymes to break down carbohydrates. And so you need all of those to help, and digestive enzymes has all of those, all in one package. So it's great if you, again, if you're planning on a heavy meal or a heavy protein meal or something like that, it's nice to have digestive enzymes with you, which is our TerraZyme.

DigestTab^®

We also have the DigestTab, which has the DigestZen blend in a calcium carbonate tablet, which is very handy as well because the calcium carbonate tablet in and of itself has very powerful antacid properties. And then with the DigestZen in with it, you got double the power. So it's a great product, and it's one of my favorites.

Ginger Drops

We also have a Ginger Drop that we just launched earlier this year. Everybody knows that Ginger is great to help with an upset stomach or a sour stomach. And so these taste really great for those of you who love Ginger. And it's in a really tasty drop. And so they're really handy as well.

Peppermint Softgels

But we launched something new last year, which is Peppermint Softgel. And there's a lot of studies on Peppermint and how it can help with lower intestinal issues. And so it's great to have this in an enteric coated softgel because you need it to survive the stomach. It needs to get through the stomach and get into the intestines, where it can do its job. And so that's why it's enterically coated. And here's what that Peppermint Softgel does. The Peppermint oil helps to relax the smooth muscles in the lining of the intestines and the stomach. But you don't want that to happen up too high, because if it happens in your esophagus or in your in your throat, then gas gets too high and that's when you get heartburn. And so when it's enterically coated, those gases aren't released, and so it keeps them down low, where they can't do any damage.

doTERRA: Oh, wow!

Pepper: So that being enterically coated is so important for softgel, and that's and that's why that's such a great product. I want more people to know about that because it's a great product with a lot of science behind it. There's so many different studies. There's even some that have been done on children. But I want people to be careful when they give it to their children. But there are some studies that show that Peppermint oil can help with children and lower intestinal issues. So if you haven't checked that out, check the Peppermint Softgel PIP that's online. It's available for everyone to download and take a look at. But—all the studies.

doTERRA: That's great. And so people can go online, they can look at these studies for themselves and dig into the research behind that, if that's something they're interested in.

Pepper: Absolutely.

doTERRA: That's so great. Well, Pepper, thank you so much for explaining to us a little bit more about how the gut works, why it's important, and these incredible products that doTERRA has available for people to help support their gut.

Pepper: You're welcome!

doTERRA: In the warm regions of Australia lives a beloved tree. It’s an adaptable plant, with different species that can endure a variety of tough conditions, from boggy swamps to sandy soils. It provides food and nourishment for different birds, mammals, and insects. In the right regions, some people enjoy planting it in their gardens for its beautiful and fresh aroma. This tree is known as honey-myrtle, paperbark, Melaleuca alternifolia, and—more commonly—tea tree.

Now, tea tree is a special plant. It’s considered both a shrub and a tree because it can grow between 52 and 115 feet high. Its trunk peels into light brown layers of paper-thin bark, which is why it’s sometimes called paperbark. During the spring and early summer, the tea tree grows cream-colored flowers that look like clusters of small spikes. These pale clusters give the tree a soft, almost fluffy appearance. Additionally, oil glands dot its rich, green leaves, creating a refreshing scent.

History of Tea Tree

This incredible tree has been used by the native people of Australia in many ways for centuries, such as in traditional herbal medicine. Indigenous Australians would also inhale the oil from crushed leaves or apply the leaves to their skin.

The tea tree came to the attention of the Western world when Captain James Cook visited Australia. While he was there, he saw the indigenous people using its leaves to create tea. Because of this, Captain Cook called the plant tea tree. Though pure Tea Tree essential oil shouldn’t be consumed, sailors at the time also used tea tree leaves to brew beer.

As time went on, tea tree oil became a household remedy in many Australian homes. In World War II, it was even included in Australian soldiers’ kits.

During the 1920s, an entrepreneur named Arthur Penfold saw the potential, and he created the commercial tea tree industry. As time progressed, production increased, and in the 1970s and 1980s commercial plantations began to produce large quantities of tea tree oil. Since then, it’s become a world-renowned essential oil for its incredible properties. In 2017, the global tea tree market was valued at $38.8 million, and it’s projected to be worth $59.5 million by 2025.

Some have called tea tree “the protector.” In Ayurvedic medicine, it’s known as “the knight in shining armor.” Additionally, Ayurveda teaches that tea tree soothes the body and balances all the three doshas: vata, pitta, and kapha.

Tea Tree has an incredible history, and today it’s an essential oil staple. Many have come to rely on its wonderful properties. If you haven’t tried it yet, we hope that you’ll love it as much as we do.

Thanks for joining us and congratulations on living a healthier lifestyle with essential oils. If you liked what you heard today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. Also, if you want to try any of the products you learned about, go to doterra.com or find a Wellness Advocate near you to place an order today.