I was willing to use just about anything to help me get through chemo and radiation! So when my sister suggested I incorporate essential oils during cancer treatment to aid with side effects, I was all over it.
Caveat: Essential oils during cancer treatment can interact with some chemo drugs. While these interactions aren’t common, be sure to talk to your doctor or a certified aromatherapist about possible interactions with your specific chemo. I’ve written about my experiences, but I had also talked to aromatherapists, nurses, and my oncologist about safe uses. I have no certifications in essential oils to provide advice on an individual basis.
Which Essential Oil Brand?
Before we begin…. People tend to get rather defensive about their favorite essential oil brands, though the truth is that there are several high-quality, reputable brands available.
Plant Therapy
For those who are new to EOs or would like a recommendation, I personally prefer Plant Therapy. They’re less expensive than the popular MLM brands and their products are just as high quality. They also offer a rewards program and incentives for signing up, like a free 10ml bottle of lemon cupcake EO for your birthday! Yummy!
Plant Therapy emphasizes educational posts in their blog to help you use EOs safely. (Yes, there are unsafe ways to use your oils, and sadly you often see those ways spread all over the internet.) They also have an AMAZING customer service team if you have questions! By the way, Plant Therapy also has aromatherapists, so they can be a good resource if you have questions about using essential oils during cancer treatment.
Oh, and you get a free, cute sticker with your order. I mean seriously, y’all, bonus! By the way, use this link and get $10 off your order of $25 or more. You’re welcome. Anyway, that’s my plug for Plant Therapy.
Young Living and dōTERRA
If you prefer Young Living or dōTERRA, here’s a list comparing their synergy names with those of Plant Therapy, since I’ll be naming a few I use. A bunch of EOs can play similar roles – it’s all based on their chemical compositions as to what they’re best used for. Plant Therapy offers some great charts that make it easier to substitute oils or try a completely different oil if something doesn’t work for you:
On to the list of uses for essential oils during cancer treatment!
1) Sleep
I often use EOs for sleep, even months after chemo. Based on the popularity of its being searched, I’d argue sleep improvement is actually one of the most common uses for EOs, chemo or not.
But chemo can really affect your ability to sleep. Maybe you’re on steroids, uncomfortable, nauseated, in pain, or perhaps you’ve just been napping all day with chemo fatigue and you’d like a little extra help staying asleep through the night. And let’s not forget that a cancer diagnosis stirs up approximately 573.4 other stressors in your life, give or take, and maybe they all like to rear their ugly heads right before you want to go to sleep.
Good news, my weary friends! There are oil blends that can help calm the mind! Plant Therapy offers this list of different EOs to try for sleep. You can also do different pre-mixed blends, like Calming The Child, one of my favorites. My other favorite combo is a blend of equal parts (2 or 3 drops each) Vetiver, Marjoram Sweet, and Bergamot. Lavender is commonly used for sleep, and I’ll usually mix it with Cedarwood or Ho Wood.
2) Nausea
From homeopathic remedies to scientific studies, peppermint and ginger have been associated with helping relieve nausea. Ginger ale and ginger candies are often listed in articles about what to have on hand for chemo or what to include in a chemo care package. And I certainly don’t fault them. I rarely drink ginger ale, but by golly we had a 12-pack in the fridge while I was going through Adriamycin!
In addition to ginger and peppermint, this article lists a few other EOs to consider. Everyone is different, so what works for one person may not work for everyone. And yes, I know the article is about hangovers, but its focus is on nausea.
Diffusing these oils is an easy way to cover a room or two, puffing out a gentle scent so it’s not overpowering. Although truth be told, I didn’t want to move any more than I had to when on Adria, and sometimes even putting water in my diffuser seemed like a lot of effort. If that’s the case, consider making or purchasing a roll-on blend, or making an inhaler so you can place it near you. I like the different colors of inhalers so I can quickly grab which one I want rather than having to read the label if I’ve made a few.
Click here for more information on how I dealt with nausea during treatment.
Pro tip: Some oils, like Vetiver, are more viscous and take longer to get a drop out. Purchasing a set of glass droppers for oils like this can save time.
3) Reducing the smell of stale air
One of the side effects of Adriamycin that I hadn’t anticipated was my sensitivity to smell. Smells typically don’t bother me. I can be with a group of friends who are simultaneously assaulted by a certain odor. Yet I walk through it with just the hint of a whiff, or altogether unscathed. But on Adriamycin, I smelled everything. And our house, closed up against the frigid Ohio winter, smelled unbearably stale to me. I used my essential oils during cancer treatment to brighten up the scent a bit against the offensive staleness. Since my EO collection was just starting, I generally used Germ Fighter or Immune-Aid, which pulled double duty by…
4) Preventing illness
As if you’re not already going through enough with the side effects of chemo, the drugs can also make you immunocompromised. This was one of my biggest concerns going through chemo in the dead of winter. The flu, colds, and general creep-n-crud seem to be in abundance wherever you go.
There are a number of things I did to help prevent this, including a daily multivitamin and zinc supplements, acupuncture, a flu shot, and avoiding people I knew were sick. (By the way, in case anyone gives you flack for doing so, that’s not being rude. That’s called self-care.) I potentially could’ve gotten a pneumonia shot as well, but I hadn’t thought about it till too late.
I also used my Germ Fighter and Immun-Aid EOs on the regular! (For the KidSafe versions, check out Germ Destroyer and Immune Boom.) I often diffused them during the day to simultaneously freshen the room’s scent and ward off any germs in the area. If I felt myself possibly getting sick, I diffused Immune-Aid at night and rubbed diluted Germ Fighter on my feet before bed.
Over the course of my five months on chemo, I only caught a very mild cold. Mild even compared to previous winters when I wasn’t immunocompromised. While I don’t think I can give full credit for that to any one preventative method I used, all combined I’d say they did a pretty fantastic job!
5) Alleviating pain
My legs would ache so bad for about three days after each Taxol treatment. Not so bad I couldn’t get around, but bad enough I was really restless and just downright uncomfortable. It was a deep aching, and nothing short of four ibuprofen at a time would touch it. Even that only took the edge off. Since it’s not exactly a good idea to pop 16 ibuprofen a day, I looked to my EOs for some relief.
Like most other uses for EOs, you have a few options as to which specific oil to use. This is not only great in case one scent doesn’t appeal to you, but also to try the effectiveness of different oils. For my legs, I liked a blend of 16 drops each Lemongrass, Marjoram, and Frankincense in one ounce of a carrier oil. (This makes a stronger dilution, but considering the pain level and that this was only for three-day spurts every two weeks, I figured I’m still within the realm of safe usage.) Copaiba is another option, which is not only known for having some pain-relieving properties, but also for amplifying those properties in other oils.
Another option is using Rapid Relief – that way you don’t have to worry about having several oils on hand. As with the ibuprofen, the oil blend didn’t eliminate my pain, but it definitely took the edge off. Considering it’s a chemical-induced pain that’s quite literally bone-deep, even taking the edge off was a big deal! I applied the blend three or four times a day. Unlike the ibuprofen, I could rest assured my kidneys would still be intact.
6) Easing restless legs
Anyone else in the room with Restless Leg Syndrome? Feeling like crap on chemo often meant not being able to get many steps in during the day, which often left my legs feeling restless at night. Even when I felt better on Taxol, the bone pain of the drug exacerbated my restless leg sensation. As if the pain wasn’t enough to fight when trying to get to sleep, now my legs refused to lie still!
While perusing the Plant Therapy blog for recipes for my EO binder, I had come across a recipe for restless legs. Like with the pain blend, this lotion didn’t completely eradicate my restless leg sensation, but it did take the edge off so I could sleep better. The lotion also did a much better job at leg relief once chemo was no longer a factor and the EOs weren’t fighting something drug-induced. I used the Laid Back Legs lotion frequently during chemo, especially while on Taxol. I’d apply the lotion about a half hour before bedtime, giving it a chance to soak in before I applied my pain blend.
Some of my favorite essential oils during cancer treatment. Of course, I love them after treatment too!
7) Oil pulling
Before chemo I’d often oil pull with plain coconut oil. There are a dozen benefits to oil pulling, if not more, and I’ve noticed my mouth feels cleaner when I do it regularly.
One of the side effects of chemo, especially Adriamycin, is mouth sores. (I’m tellin’ ya, the fun of chemo side effects is never-ending!) Oil pulling in the morning and using Biotene a couple times throughout the day definitely helped reduce my likelihood of mouth sores. I only started to get a couple sores when I got lax in my mouth rinsing regimen.
I diluted Clove EO in my coconut oil for the added benefits that cloves have on oral health. To do this, I spooned coconut oil into a measuring cup, then melted it in a hot water bath. This may take a few minutes, but stirring the oil occasionally will help break up any solid chunks. Once melted, I added a few drops of Clove EO to make a 1% mixture. Then I stirred it thoroughly and poured it into a glass Mason jar. Coconut oil retains heat, so don’t be surprised if it takes a while to solidify. I just set the jar aside and it was mostly solid, if not completely so, by the next morning.
In the morning before eating anything, swish about a tablespoon full of the clove and coconut oil mixture in your mouth for 15-20 minutes. (You can oil pull at any time of day, but first thing in the morning is considered to have the best results.) For an added bonus, you can start with tongue scraping to get rid of that morning film that’s collected on your tongue.
8) Soothing radiated skin
Lavender EO is generally known for its calming properties in aromatherapy. It can be used in a similar manner for irritated skin.
Just as I melted coconut oil for the oil pulling mentioned above, I melted coconut oil in a hot water bath. Then I added some lavender EO to make a 1% dilution. Once it solidifies, you can rub it over the radiated area to help moisturize and calm the skin. I only used coconut oil with lavender EO on my chest during radiation. As such, I don’t know how much of a difference the lavender makes vs coconut oil alone. But I do know the coconut/lavender mixture was my favorite part of my regimen. And it played a HUGE role in keeping my skin moisturized!!
Plant Therapy also makes a lavender oil-enriched aloe jelly that sounds cool if you’d rather skip mixing it with coconut oil.
9) Relieving neuropathy
The use of EOs with neuropathy is perhaps less familiar than that of EOs with nausea, or at least it was a surprise to me. But more studies are being conducted, like this one from Turkey. (For those whose eyes roll back in their heads at scientific studies, you can find the summary in layman’s terms here.)
There are several oils that can aid in the symptoms of neuropathy. I used Geranium Egyptian since that’s the one that seemed most favorable to me. Admittedly, I didn’t have too much trouble with neuropathy, whether by pure luck or because I was also using Vitamin B complex and acupuncture to help prevent it. But I did mix the geranium with a carrier oil and rubbed it on my hands when I started feeling that antsy, tingling feeling.
Click here to read more about how I managed neuropathy during Taxol.
10) Scalp care
During my hair loss, my scalp was irritated and pained when my tiny little hairs were touched. Also, my skin also had a minor breakout.
Another survivor had recommended Paul Mitchell’s Tea Tree Special Shampoo, which I highly recommend! It combines the healing properties of tea tree with the soothing sensation of menthol. I bought the shampoo because I was an absolute novice to EOs at the time.
As such, I don’t have a recipe I’ve tried and can vouch for. And I don’t want to post any recipes or products I haven’t tried myself. However, I mention this here for you DIY-ers who prefer to make all your own blends and concoctions and are more familiar with the world of EOs. A bit of Tea Tree or Peppermint EO could make a huge difference for you! On that note, Rosemary EO is rumored to be beneficial in hair regrowth. You know, for when you’re on the other end of chemo treatment. (Woot woot!)
Have a favorite DIY shampoo recipe? Or maybe you had another favorite way to use your oils during chemo? Let me know in the comments!
Final Thoughts on Essential Oils During Cancer Treatment
Were there any on this list that surprised you? I have to admit, I was amazed how many uses I could find for my essential oils during cancer treatment!
Have other ideas as to how to use oils during cancer treatment? Let me know in the comments below!
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