I thought everyone would be interested in the following scientific news article. The July 1 issue of Science News carried an article about the newly-discovered feminizing effects of lavender and tea tree oil in young boys, and appear to be responsible for a rise in breast development to a size seen in girls of the same age in pre-pubescent boys. The article is on the Science News website, but is available only to subscribers of the print magazine, so I'll summarize the findings here.

The story: Ever since 1990, Dr. Clifford Bloch, an endocrinologist in the Denver area, had been seeing a number of cases of gynecomastia in pre-pubescent boys. Gynecomastia, or breast development in boys, is unusual, and when it occurs it's usually the result of some hormonal problem. However, testing the boys for sex hormones showed a normal ratio of the various sex hormones, so it wasn't a hormone production problem. After a great deal of laborious detective work, trying to find out what these boys all had in common, the doctor traced down two possible culprits: lavender essence and tea tree oil. All the boys had been using soaps, hair gel, shampoo, and similar topical products with these two herbal ingredients. In some cases, boys had been putting pure lavender oil on their skin. When Bloch suggested they stop using these products, the condition disappeared within a few months.

But a simple correlation doesn't prove a cause, so the doctor contacted a health sciences research lab in North Carolina, and asked them to investigate. The researchers carried out an in-vitro experiment, treating human breast tissue cultures with lavender or tea tree oil. In both cases, the oils caused the cells to turn on estrogen-regulated genes and turn off androgen-regulated genes. In other words, both act as estrogen mimics, turning on genes normally controlled by estrogen, such as genes that stimulate breast tissue growth. It also turns off genes controlled by male hormones.

xoxo
Janine

Jan: Thank you for the interesting atricle. I was wondering if anyone else here may have tried lavender oil ? ANd did they have any effect on their breast size?
Thanks, Jackie...

The test was done on young boys whose testosterone levels would have been very low. If our T levels were similar we would not need lavender or tea tree oil to further our feminization

The test was done on young boys whose testosterone levels would have been very low. If our T levels were similar we would not need lavender or tea tree oil to further our feminization

There's a part of me that doesn't quite buy this.

It is sort of similar to rubbing motor oil on your skin to become a car....

Luv 'n hugs anyway,

Dr. Mina Sakura

I studied Aromatherapy in France under a world famous Doctor, before that Lavender study was done. There are many oils that do a wide variety of hormone mimicing. I don't think any will actually increase breast size in an adult, although in *some* cases it might in young males.

The doctor I studied under showed me what one oil would do. It was MQV, or Melaleuca Quinquinerva Viridiflora, more commonly known as Niaouli - it's part of the Tea Tree family. He put several drops on my forearm in the soft area just above the wrist. It just sat there and did next to nothing. Next he put the same amount in the same spot on another student in the class (Mary Jenifer Mitchell, who was one of the actresses in the famous Oh! Calcutta! play from the late 1960's, and she's post-menopausal) and the oil soaked in like water on a sponge. It was truly amazing. His explanation was that the body will more readily absorb what it needs - she needed estrogen and I didn't. MQV has estrogen-like properties, and her body sensed that and absorbed it quickly. Within seconds any oil you put on your skin or into your mouth or stomach will travel throughout your entire body, and in some cases cross the brain barrier.

A year later I attended a world gathering of aromatherapists and heard about research done on Vitex agnus-castus, more commonly known as Monk's Pepper. Used for centuries by monks in the mediterranean region, the dried berry is put in pepper grinders and used on meals the monks would eat. It renders males temporarily impotent - something the American priests could really use! But on the other hand, distilled as an oil it is wonderful for balancing female hormones, greatly reducing PMS effects when used properly synchronized with their cycle.

That's just a tiny sample of oils used for hormonal work. There are many more. I am not a fan of Lavender, although I do very much like the extremely rare high quality oils that come from the high alpine areas above Nice. Those are much higher in Linalyl Acetate due the altitude, which makes the oil very sweet and light. Most lavenders you smell at the store are the junk ones from the low valleys (300m altutude). I prefer the ones from 1,500m-1,800m.

In France they use essential oils for therapeutic uses far beyond what they allow or teach in the USA. I have oils that will kill pain. I have those that will reduce inflammation. I have one that with one drop will empty your nose when it's completely plugged up. I have another that will lower your blood pressure, and yet another that will raise it. I have those that will stop a cold dead in it's tracks (if caught early enough). I have another oil that will knock you out for hours and when you wake there's no hung-over feeling. One of the finest and most expensive is the oil of the Damascus Rose, which when one full-strength drop is applied between the big toe and second toe will trigger a glandular response that is much like drinking a triple espresso and last a whole day, and it smells wonderful.

Many drugs are based on dirivatives from essential oils. Listerine mouthwash is made up almost entirely of 4 essential oils, for example, and the chemical constituents of those oils are what's listed on the label, not the actual oil used. Aspirin came orignally from White Willow bark. Vitex can be purchased at most farm supply stores for equine veterinary use.

Essential oils have highly complex chemicals within them that can do wonderful things when used correctly. But, they have to be very carefully used. One oil I have has an LD50 of only 10 drops or so (LD50 means Lethal Dose for 50% of people that take the amount specified.) Other oils, like Peppermint, can kill children under 18 months, as it causes the throat to spasm in people of all ages, and at 18 months their throats are so tiny at that young age it cuts off the airway - older people don't notice it. Hence for legal reasons therapeutic aromatherpy is not taught in the USA, and is also highly restricted in the UK. Some countries ban certain oils as if they were like drugs. One episode of CSI featured death by overdose of an essential oil, and they carefully did not mention the exact name, wisely so as it's very easy to obtain and very cheap, but I knew what it was from their chemical descriptions of it.

The bottom line is that it's real what oils can do, but they have to be carefully used. There are plenty of charlatans out there over-selling them, claiming far more than they can really do. So, be careful and just stick to what your doctor prescribes for breast development!

Ann, that was an excellent post on oils. Let me correct one minor thing and that is "LD50". LD50 is the lethal dose for 50% of the test animals, usually rodents, not humans. I'm not sure you could get enough volunteers for an accurate test if you told them you were trying to find out the dose that would kill half of them.

Something many natural remedy chasers don't realize is yes most medicines originate from natural oils and what have you, but what the pharmaceutical companies do is isolate the various molecules that actually cause the intended reaction and duplicate those molecules. They do not use the entire substance. It is quite possible for say oil as a whole to be lethal, yet a given molecule making up the oil can be life saving. And of course there is finding the proper dose which can vary significantly. Usually what a pharmaceutical company does is try and figure out the lowest effective dose. That accomplishes two things, a safety buffer and also greater effieciency with a higher profit. It seems like a lot of people don't like the pharmaceutical companies simply because they make a profit, but to get to the profit takes years of research and testing that I feel they should be compensated for. Of course there will always be exceptions where pharmaceutical companies try and push questionable products on the market. But the bottomline is a prescription drug is likely to cause the desired effect it was intended to have. Sure one molecule in a natural substance might cause some development in your breast tissue, but what are all the other molecules making up that substance causing?

Hugs,
Marsha

I heard lavendar oil is also really good for warts and unblocking drains, and the best bit is it makes ya drains smell really nice too!

What a very interesting articale. Such a pity it's not that simple for those of us past puberty though.

I'm curious to see how it may affect someone transitioning however.

Lavender oil Stops the moths eating your bra's tho and nesting in your cleavage.

on the other hand the homeopathic medicine followers claim that sips of the most dilute vegetable essences do have major effects on various physical symptoms...so may be the lavender oil does work with some cells in some people...just so hard to know the truth of these reports...but if the researcher is genuine maybe we should all be using lavender toiletries...ooops I do use lavender bubble bath LOL