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Why Tea Tree essential Oil Needs To Be In Your Medicine Cabinet

benefits of tea tree oil

Why Tea Tree essential Oil Needs To Be In Your Medicine Cabinet

Another must-have essential oil in my house is TEA TREE essential oil! This essential oil is pretty handy right now since school just started and that means nasty critters like lice are hanging around. If you don’t know, tea tree oil is the BOMB (literally) for repelling those suckers away and killing them. Not only is tea tree beneficial for lice prevention, but acne, fungus, bacteria, and more! Yeah, stick around if you want to hear what is so glorious about tea tree!

So….where does tea tree essential oil come from?

Tea tree essential oil comes from a tree in Australia called Melaleuca Alternifolia. It’s been used for hundreds of years to help with various problems. When tea tree oil is tested, it shows powerful chemical components that could be beneficial, but also toxic if ingested, which we will talk about later.

What does tea tree essential oil help with?

Okay, so back to the lice. If you’ve ever had to deal with lice, you know it’s NOT fun. While there are tons of chemical shampoos that you can buy, a study compared some natural substances on lice and it’s eggs. The results showed that 100 % mortality of lice and eggs within 30 minutes at a 1% concentration. Amazing! To help with prevention, aim for a tea tree oil shampoo or just add a drop into your current shampoo when you wash you and your children’s hair! Oh and did I mention that it helps with dandruff too? Killing two birds with one stone.

For acne, a 12-week study showed how tea tree oil helped mild to moderate acne. A drug benzoyl peroxide  was compared to tea tree oil in a study and while it showed both of them helping with acne, the people that used tea tree oil has less side effects. So, natural works the same as drug, but with less side effects. I’ll definitely take it! I love using a face scrub that incorporates this essential oil. There is a study  that supported the use of tea tree oil to reduce skin inflammation in general due to tea tree’s anti-inflammatory properties.

Does the thought of MRSA scare you? A randomized controlled study compared the conventional treatments of MRSA to tea tree oil. The conventional treatment to treat MRSA in the nose was more effective, but topically tea tree oil beat the conventional treatments on skin lesions to clear the MRSA colonization. There are research studies that show how tea tree oil can be an alternative to antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Tea tree oil is a huge essential oil for basically anything fungus. Truly a go-to essential oil for ringworm, athlete’s foot, and you know…..all those yummy fungus. Blech. Tea tree oil has been studied up against various yeast and fungi & it was found to treat the fungal isolates.

How to use it?

This is one of the most important parts because how we use essential oils can make us or break us. As always, proper dilution is recommended with a  carrier oil, like coconut oil. For most adults a 2% dilution is fine, which is 2 drops per 1 teaspoon. Diffusing or sniffing straight from the bottle can also be helpful if you are trying to spread it around your house or any environment. It’s never recommended to ingest tea tree essential oil. I never recommend ingesting ANY essential oil, unless under the direct supervision of your health care provider and a licensed aromatherapist.

Are you getting tea tree in your house? What would you use it for?

Avatar for Lahana Vigliano
Lahana Vigliano
lahana@nuvitruwellness.com

Lahana Vigliano is a Certified Clinical Nutritionist and CEO of Nuvitru Wellness. She has her Bachelor's Degree in Nutrition Science and Masters Degree in Nutrition Science and Functional Medicine. She is currently pursuing her doctorate degree in Clinical Nutrition. Lahana and her team help support women who struggle with weight loss, hormonal imbalances, digestive issues, chronic fatigue, and many other lingering issues that leaves women not feeling their best. She uses food as medicine, as well as herbs and supplements when needed, to support her clients. She looks at the whole body holistically making sure women are understanding how nutrition, sleep, stress, and their environment impact their health. Connect with her on Facebook + Instagram (@nuvitruwellness).