Greg Voisen
Welcome back to Inside Personal Growth. This is Greg Voisen, the host of Inside Personal Growth. And joining me from Minneapolis, Minnesota, is Liza Docken. And she's the National Educator for pranarom.com, which is an aromatherapy company. And many of my listeners know Liza that I spend at least a full day every year at the natural products West Expo, which is out here on the West Coast, which happens in March. And that's where I met Liza. And I always pick up on oh, about five companies. We're doing one coming up. For a company that makes honey that is all natural that comes in from New Zealand. We picked up a couple of others that are making what I call organic products. And lies really seemed interesting to me. So, Liza, I'm going to tell the listeners a tad bit about you and your background so that they will know more about it. Liza Docken, she's a certified aroma therapist and the National Educator for Pranarom. She has been in the health and wellness industry for 25 years working in the health food stores, with clients as a yoga instructor and meditation guide. Her passion for natural world guides her to plant-based remedies, with a focus on organic and sustainable practices. She brings a lot of enthusiasm. I've already spoken with her once before, on a pre interview and joy and fun to the learning experience with is very inclusive and expansive approach. So for all of you who are interested, please go to pranarom, that's p-r-a-n-a-r-o-m, the science of essential oils. And that's pranarom.us. That's where you can find out more about their products. You can buy their products from there, and so on. So why don't we kick it off Liza with, you know, you know, you're the educational director here for North America. This is an international based company. It's not just here in North America. Give us a really brief history about the company, how it started, how you got involved in it, and why you believe that the products this company have because there's so many people that make products that are essential oils, and Aromatherapy is better than many of the others.

Liza Docken
Yeah, thanks, I. I'll start with the we're founded in Belgium. And our founders name is Dominique Badu, he both a pharmacist and an aroma therapist wanted to start something where he could support people's health and wellness using that constituent model though. So, in pharmaceuticals, obviously, we're often isolating or extracting constituents from plant. We're using that for medicine. He wanted to approach it more holistically, taking all of the essential oil all of those constituents and using those as a way to support health and wellness. So it started in Belgium, it has expanded that was in 1991. It has expanded throughout Europe. And now also here in Canada, United States, Mexico, lots of places. And what I find so wonderful about what he was doing is that he wanted to make aromatherapy more accessible to everyone. He was so passionate about education when he was working. He's retired now but his educational seminars were out of this world. And he really wanted to find ways to further his interest, I will say in the scientific side of aromatherapy. He did that by building relationships with not only the farmers and growers, but also the distillers. So that allowed him conversations with them around things like oh, well what if we tried harvesting at a different time of day or distilling at a different temperature. And what that does is effects the constituents that show up in the essential oils. So, it's a way to find a nice happy medium without having to isolate, extract, synthesize or do anything unnatural, if you will. And so having been in health food stores since the late 90s. I've worked with a lot of essential oils. And when I started working this was probably 10-15 years ago, I was working at a store and that was when I first came across this brand. And I was blown away. I had never seen a brand that was 100% certified organic. I had never seen essential oils that were based on constituents and what I mean by that is choosing essential oils for their constituents and then blending based on those constituents rather than just on the aromatics. And I remember I was working at the display, and I said,

Greg Voisen
It’s almost like a custom blending, isn't it? I mean, when you keep speaking constituents, I get that the products are up there. But that, you know, there are places and I know you don't custom blend, right. It's not this isn't what we're talking about here. But in essence, you've when the people go to the website, and they see the numbers of products that you have for the various things, I think they're just going to be blown away because t's truly amazing. And you know, one of the things I would like to address with you and make want to make sure that we have time. And this was one of my questions. What are the most common misconceptions about essential oils that you kind of encounter as an educator? And how does prana Roma address these through the education that you provide to both retailers to the end user in whatever capacity you're working?

Liza Docken
I think one of the biggest misconceptions around aromatherapy and plant medicine in general is that it is all the same meaning flower essences are the same as herbal tinctures are the same as essential oils. And that is, couldn't be further from the truth. Really, essential oils are incredibly concentrated. And they need to be used safely, properly, most often in dilution. And definitely in the right delivery system. Depending on how we're using those essential oils. There's a lot of misinformation in the market, there's not a there's not a lot of regulation around essential oils, the things that people are able to claim about their essential oils. And there isn't enough oversight on how people are educating in terms of what they're saying is safe use of essential oils. So fortunately, a lot of brands offer education to promote sales more so than where I'm focusing is education for safety. What,

Greg Voisen
what are the differences between this Therapeutic Grade and aromatic grade essential oils? And why is the distinction so important for consumers out there because I don't, there's probably a lot of consumers that are really just not quite aware of the therapeutic grade. So, I think it's, you know, educate us on that as well.

Liza Docken
Let's just talk about what those are briefly to help us understand why constituent-based Aromatherapy is so important. And plants produce essential oils inside of their internal structures. As a way it's called the secondary metabolite as a way to protect themselves. These essential oils act as anti-microbials. Anti past, they work toward off invasive species. There are all kinds of ways in which these essential oils work to promote the life of the plant. Those constituents are the therapeutic function of the essential oil. So every essential oil has a, you know, a list of constituents that exist within it. And those are what you might call the active ingredients. And then we're using our blending techniques by choosing oils based on their constituents because it is the therapeutic function of the essential oil. So when we put a blend together, we're choosing oils based on those therapeutic ingredients. And then using that blend for therapeutic purposes rather than a new aromatic experience, which is a beautiful way to blend. We do that with diffusion blends, choosing oils based on their aroma, putting them together to create a new aroma. That's a wonderful practice. But we're really focusing in that scientific it's also called French medical therapy. And that is different than any other brand you'll find in this market.

Greg Voisen
So, you know your company is very innovative and what are the most innovative products or blends. That prawn aroma has developed recently. And what makes those products so unique because when, again, when my listeners go to your website, they're going to see I'm just going to call it a pro flatiron and comparison to most essential oil places that you would go to like look for essential oils. And these are all around many of them around wellness right? In other words, it's a focus on How can these be used to improve my wellness? And there's all kinds of things that you, I'm not gonna call that you treat, because maybe that's the wrong word. But there are things that these can be used for, to create a huge difference in your life.

Liza Docken
Right? Yeah, I would say one of the most innovative things that we offer are our prana caps. They come in, I have a box here, it's just these internal use essential oil capsules that are in a base of carrier oil. In order to ensure safety, they're safely encapsulated. But what's so fascinating about this is that they're formulated scientifically, with safety in mind, so that you can take essential oils internally in a way to support the respiratory health, your immunity, health, your digestive health, your stress or sleep needs, or memory and focus. And

Greg Voisen
have there been any, pardon me for asking, but I always get this with, especially when we go to alternative treatments, because we get so much of this from doctors. Is there been any NIH studies or things that have been published by the NIH around these essential oils? And the use of those tablets? And if so, where might our listeners go? To learn more about that? If they're looking kind of like, okay, we see your website, or there is a resource guide for them to take a look at? Yes,

Liza Docken
I would say that there are endless number of studies done on essential oils, in as individual oils and as blends. And those can be incredibly helpful when you're looking for something to really help treat something, which obviously, we're not claiming here, but it is where we're headed, right? We we want to think about symptomatic relief. But we also want to think about how can we prevent the situation where symptoms arise? And how do we keep ourselves in our health and wellness imbalance? That's really what aromatherapy does. And so whether that's through the olfactory system and emotions, or through the internal structures of the body by taking them internally, they can absolutely go online and search I love PubMed and Google Scholar, as outlets for you know, typing in essential oil or typing a few essential oils in you'll easily find results on studies that have been done, showing the effectiveness, sometimes it gets into the specifics of those constituents within those essential oils to

Greg Voisen
well, you know, again, your company has taking it taking it to a whole new level, versus somebody who just might go out to Amazon and look for essential oils to dump into an aromatherapy device that kind of spews it out into the room, you guys have gone just lightyears ahead of that. And so I want to talk about the purity of the essential oils, and its its impact on effectiveness. What standards does prawn aroma use to define and ensure kind of the purity of these products? Because, you know, many of these are diluted? They're they're not 100% fear when I say that there are reports out there of this happening through these essential oil distributors, right? Because it's a huge business. It's a gigantic business. So how do you guys ensure the purity of all of this in

Liza Docken
a number of ways so prana room offers only certified organic essential oils. That is one of the only ways you can really ensure the quality of an essential oil, there aren't really any regulatory systems in place for labels like pure natural, and so forth. So having a brand that is 100% certified organic, obviously ensures that it is 100% natural. But on top of that what we offer our customers at any time is a certificate of analysis, which means every single batch of all the oils that we get in, we have run through a number of tests so that we can ensure that those constituent levels are where we want them to be. Based on the study that we understand in terms of how constituents can support our health. They can call anytime and ask for a certificate of analysis on an essential oil or on a number of essential oils if they're working with a blend. And so those are some of the most important ways because when you have organic certification, what that means is that the plants are left to grow naturally organically right and then the That is why they produce the secondary metabolite that creates these wonderful anti microbial, anti pest and so forth essential oils, if we were to spray them, we would be doing their work for them. So when you buy a product that is not certified organic, they have a less robust profile, and aren't as intense in terms of what they can offer us in our house because we've sprayed them and they don't need to do the work. So primer only offers the organic essential oils, and we're never adding diluting, synthesizing or adulterating any of our essential oils. So

Greg Voisen
does prana Rome grow most of these plants themselves? Or you outsourcing this Liza, from other people who are growing it but are growing it organically with the certification? And then in your factories? You're then creating the essential oils and packaging them is that would that be the correct assumption?

Liza Docken
So we have a mix, we have a number of places, particularly Madagascar, where we have sole sourcing on a lot of the farms there. So all of those oils really come only to pronto. That includes some oils that you won't even find other companies offering. But then we do have to work with other growers. So we work with a lot of collectives, Europe is a perfect example. There's a lot of growing collectives in Europe, because that gives them a little bit more power and in the market. But we do have to source from all over the world because we have oils that require much like a varying degree of growing environments. I often get asked if we grow everything in Minnesota, and our growing season is very short. So no, unfortunately, that would not be sustainable or responsible. But some is sole sourcing, yes. And then some were sourcing from other people who have gotten the certification already. Well,

Greg Voisen
look, there's probably a lot of listeners out there who have used aromatherapy and essential oils. And I find that it's one of those things that many people don't stay consistent with, you know, they'll start it, they'll stop it, they'll do those kind of things, with the surge in popularity of integrative medicine and functional medicine physicians, which we have many on the show. What are some of the favorite essential oil blends? And how do you personally incorporate these essential oils kind of your just lies as mainstream wellness routines? Because I think people are looking for, okay, what am I going to do to to do this, I know even myself, I started it, I had a little machine. You know, I used to let it pump out all the stuff in my room here. And I stopped it. And I what I really want to do is start it again, but sustain it. And that is I think a lot of listeners out there. It's like okay, so why should I sustain this? What's this doing for me? How do I make this part of my routine? And you as the educator could be the best person to help us with that. Yeah,

Liza Docken
I would say that the easiest and most consistent method of aromatherapy uses through a diffuser like you're describing. diffusers offer the ability to disperse atmospheric ly essential oils in the space where we are giving us that aromatic experience. But what's happening is that when we breathe in, we're breathing in scent molecules through the olfactory system, which eventually end up in the limbic system of the brain, which is where the hippocampus and the hypothalamus and the amygdala are which, in fact control things like our emotions and memories and hormone balance so

Greg Voisen
well in stress. I think. I think a key is for many people, you know, it's like okay, I go to yoga get the essential oils, like come back. I don't have essential oils running. But it is a great stress reliever, isn't it?

Liza Docken
Absolutely. It's one of the best ways to change the environment, the atmosphere, the mood in a room. And you can do that too. Like I said, uplift a mood Energize. But you can also do it to calm and relax. But then one of the things I love the most about diffusers especially during cold and flu season is that we have certain blends that work to purify the air. So whatever might be floating around wherever you might be if you're bringing things home if you have lots of people at home. It's a really nice way to maintain health that way. But then what's wonderful about prana Rome is that we offer a number of products that are pre formulated so if you want to do hair oil if you want to do facial care if you want to do a body oil, we have options for all of these uses and applications already formulated to make it that much easier for people who are in wanting to go beyond the diffusion and really branch out because one of my favorite uses is skincare. I use essential oils on my face my whole body in the bath. I mean, I'm using them all day every day, you just look

Greg Voisen
like it. You actually You look great. And and I want to ask that question because, you know, there are a lot of listeners out there that have dermatological conditions. Everything from psoriasis, to breakouts to whatever. Can you say that the essential oils could make a difference? I know we can't make any claims or impacts here. But I do know that dermatologists frequently will recommend creams but they're not essential oils, right? They'll say Well, here's this cream, or here's this one or that one. And the reason I say this because like I'm somebody who has pretty sensitive skin, I ride a bike a lot, I've had melanoma removed. I've had screaming cells, and all kinds of other skin cancers like six or seven of them removed from my skin. And I'm I know that I believe that this alternative therapy could make a huge difference in the tonality of my skin and how I feel everything. Yeah,

Liza Docken
yes, absolutely. So one of the products that we offer are what we call virgin plant oils, and other people call them carrier oils. These are the more fatty oils. These are the oils that we use to dilute our essential oils, but they have their own abilities as plant medicine as well. So when it comes to sensitive skin, or easily irritated skin barrage, and calendula and Evening Primrose all of these oils work wonders in terms of really nourishing the skin, but doing so in a very delicate way so that the skin and isn't more reddened and often is less threatened by using these oils. But also hydrosols are a really important component to be aware of when it comes to aromatherapy. So when we distill for an essential oil, the CO product of distillation is hydrosol. It's water that moved through plant material as steam to extract the central oils from the plant material. But the essential oils are hydrophobic, so they float to the top. And then we're left with this vat of botanical water that moves through plant material. It's got the water soluble constituents, but it's not concentrated. And it offers wonderful therapeutics for the skin. So for someone who's regularly out in the sun, every time you get home from a bike ride, I would say get your Helichrysum hydrosol I have some right here and spray that on your face every time you get home. Use an oil on your skin before you head out just as efficient as

Greg Voisen
a moisturizer. Because it's carry is carrying these properties with inside the steam that turns into water, which now has these byproducts in it, which ultimately are going to be a good moisturizer for your skin is that.

Liza Docken
Yeah, on its own, it's very refreshing and will add moisture to the skin. But then in order to maintain that moisture that you've just sprayed onto the skin, you're gonna want to use one of the Virgin plant oils to hold that moisture in. You don't have to use a lot and there are definitely great options if you want, you know more of an oily finish less of an oily finish, it just depends on what you're looking for. But all of these exists. So rose hip is a perfect example of a dry oil so that when you're applying it to the skin, it absorbs and dries really nicely without an oily finish. But that hydrosol piece is important because your skin needs water, not just the oil. But it needs to have that before the oil goes on so that it can get into layers of the skin and then that oil can go on top of it and hold it in place. But then the hydrosol helps draw the oil into the layers of the skin as well. So you have this really great balance for skin because the skin is made up of oil and water. That's the protective barrier.

Greg Voisen
So look, you're in the educational side, and you do a wonderful job. Thank you this morning, you've spoken with my listeners and myself about ways to use it. What are some of the insights that pronoun research and development process does? And how do you decide which new products to really kind of develop?

Liza Docken
We look at a number of factors of course we're going to look at market trends to see what's what's happening for people, what are people looking for, but I would say that again, one of the really wonderful pieces about a company like prana Rome is that we can offer internal use of essential oils in a way that is safe and effective. Too many times I see people taking essential oils in ways that are not safe to be ingesting water is probably my least favorite delivery system for essential oils, and unfortunately seems to be one of the most popular. So it's important to understand why that's not a good delivery system, why a good delivery system is important. But being able to put across

Greg Voisen
what is what is a good delivery system of fat, you

Liza Docken
want to fit into oil, and you want to encapsulate it, ideally, because you want it to get all the way in so that your body then distributes it as needed. When you're taking something like for, well, any of the topics that I mentioned earlier digestive health, immune health, and so forth. Do

Greg Voisen
you have things for do you have things for inflammation and arthritis that our customers might be interested in? Are there? I mean, look, I know a lot of people today will, you know, they'll get an inflammation and they'll use a CBD cream? Well, CBD cream is not the same as your aromatherapy or your essential oils. But are there particular essential oils that my listeners who are hearing this now could use for inflammation and or arthritic conditions,

Liza Docken
we actually have a whole line of products. It's called our Romel genomic line. And these are all indicated for active people, people with stiffness, people with inflammation, people with aches and pains to address those issues as best possible. So we have gel creams, we have sprays, we have roller balls that have an essential oil blend in them. Because in my opinion, yes, you can go at it with a single note, meaning one specific essential oil, but blends tend to do the best. Because essential oils are fascinating in that they have their own function, but when working together, they often then have this umbrella of a greater function on top of those individual functions. So that when you have a situation where you might want save some peppermint for its analgesic effects, but then perhaps also closed for its analgesic effects. You're then also thinking about, Okay, well, now I want to incorporate things that are more specific to supporting the body's inflammatory response. So you're going to put something like lavender or Helichrysum in and those four essential oils make up what we call just plain relief. And this is a very concentrated, very powerful and effective roll on that works great for you know, I've been in the garden too long. My, you know, I get digital arthritis pain at the base of my thumb and my pointer. And that blend is probably the a number one thing to help support that if you're talking about a blend, and in that way, so very,

Greg Voisen
very, very good way to approach and again, I'm going to tell my listeners that they want to go to prana rome.us. And it's P r a n A R o m.us. That's where you want to go. Now, has your company collaborated with other organizations or researchers to advance the study or application of essential oils? And if so, can you share any notable outcomes, or future plans that you might have? So in other words, this is an area which has been around for years and years and years and years, not as recognized as it has become today, it is certainly so much more at the forefront of people's I'm going to call overall lifestyle changes, and health changes and wellness. And obviously, everybody likes to know, well, what really are these doing? Or are they just kind of more? And in your case? We know they're not. But you can't really say it, they're not just benign, they just don't make the air smell good or make your skin smell good. Within the reasonable length. What can you tell us that might be going on with relation of research or advancements in studies?

Liza Docken
Well, our our work in that area is fairly grassroots. And what I mean by that is that, for example, the Madagascar example I gave earlier in terms of our sole sourcing, that's where we'll work with the community there. And we engage with them in ways. I mean, obviously, we have to work with them because they're going on the plants, and then they're distilling the plants, but how are their communities using that plant medicine? And how can we then learn from that as a way to support the health and wellness of people everywhere? So our collaborations really come at that level. And then we bring everything to the research and development, which is all happening in Belgium. And in those areas. Yes, we're working a lot of times with pharmacists and biochemist in that way because what we're trying to understand is more and more about how the constituent and function, what they're doing in terms of supporting us and then how we can then either formulate or at least educate more on those elements. So that is really, I think one of the bedrock tenets of prana. Romans is learning as much as we can about essential oils and then how we can make that most accessible to everyone else. Well,

Greg Voisen
and I want to let my listeners know that at your website, there is a tab there that says your needs and if you do the pull down on the tab, it's going to come up with joints and muscles, baby maternity circulatory system, digestive immunity, wellbeing, memory, focus, outdoor defense bites, respiratory concerns, oral health, skincare haircare, sleep and relaxation. That's just to name a few. And again, I think, for most people, they don't think of essential oils in this way. This is so unique, Liza. And I just want to thank you for sharing your education and knowledge as aroma therapist and with kind of a wrap up question. What advice would you give our listeners who maybe are just now starting to explore the use of essential oils? And where might they kind of, I mean, I know you've got an education tab that people can pull down as well. If you want to learn more on all these, where might they go to learn more?

Liza Docken
My number one favorite place is books. So books on aromatherapy are absolutely the best source of information. Our founder wrote a great one called contemporary French aromatherapy. But I think

Greg Voisen
if we're gonna go into the healing intelligence of essential oils, do you read by Kurt, as it should not spelt pH? Great, then you got another one by Kathy Cavell ke VI, le aromatherapy, a complete guide to the healing kit. Those books are at the website, by the way, folks, and I want them to know that because you've actually listed three great resources. And I'm sure if you went to Amazon, you're going to find a million more. But the reality is, are these these are ones that you guys endorse, yeah, we

Liza Docken
love them. Yep, we use them regularly. We referenced them regularly. But I wanted to say that in terms of that grassroots idea, I really encourage people to let your knowledge of aromatherapy come from use. And so what I mean is, you know, what is great about prana room display that they all have testers. So find a store, if you can nearby, there's a store locator on the website, get to know essential oils by smelling them. And then once you've decided on one, two, or three to start with, take those home and get to know them, let yourself get to know an oil by putting a drop in the palms, rubbing the palms together, breathe that in, notice where you feel it in your body. And that's really going to be one of the best ways to learn about aromatherapy and how it supports you and how it makes you feel. Just starting on that outer layer. And then you can then find books and other ways to dive in and get deeper with your experience and knowledge. Well,

Greg Voisen
and the cool thing is when you go to the where you buy at your website, you can actually zoom in on the map and then zoom out. And I want my listeners to know that it gives you the locations. I happen to reside in San Diego County and North San Diego County. And just by within the last two seconds, it shows me that it's a Jumbos, naturally, that it's at lazy acres that it's at these stores. So you can actually get these at many places, you certainly can't get the full array of all of the products. So if you really want to look deeper, because there just isn't enough shelf space for everything that they've got. You want to go to prom piano room.com. And again, we'll have that in a link to our blog, as well as a link to a few of these pages as well. Liza in wrapping up everything, is there anything you'd like to leave our listeners with as far as how they might start using this where they would go and as far as your product is insecure, as as far as your product is concerned, kind of the purity and organic nature of your product?

Liza Docken
Well, I think when it comes to using essential oil safety is the first step. So you always want to ensure that you're sourcing of high quality essential oil, something that is certified organic is ideal. And then it's about again, it has to be personal so you got to find things that appeal to you and then start with the diffuser. diffusers are really easy. You can get them at a whole range of price. says but a really great way to incorporate that into your every day. And I would say that, you know, when it comes to aromatherapy, remember that the plants made these oils for all of these various reasons, and that we get to use those oils for our own health in the same ways. So researching in that way can be a really great way to understand how essential oils and aromatherapy in general can support you.

Greg Voisen
Well, I want to thank you for being on inside personal growth, taking a moment to talk about the wellness elements associated with essential oils and aromatherapy and being such a great expert added as well. I really appreciate that. And again, for my listeners, go to the website and look under the education look for the books if you really want to dig deeper. Certainly these are available at your local retailers for everybody's listening across the United States. Certainly you can check it out that way. Or you can just go to their website again, I'll repeat P r a n A R O M pronto. rome.us To look for everything from diffusers to the tablets. It's all there. Thanks so much for being on inside personal growth was it was pleasure having you on and giving us some kind of education.

Liza Docken
I appreciate the time, thank you.