Young Living Essential Oils Review

Those with experience in aromatherapy have usually heard of Young Living Essential Oils. Based in Utah and with farms and a reputation on almost every continent of the world, Young Living is one of the largest and most reputable sources for high-quality therapeutic grade essential oils.

Essential Oil Growing Standards and Distillation

Intended for internal as well as external use, Young Living oils are grown, harvested and extracted by the stringent standards required by the best aromatherapy suppliers.

Young Living may have been the first to use the term “therapeutic-grade” to distinguish their essential oils from the inferior, perfume-quality oils that don’t work medicinally. Other companies were quick to copy them and today the phrase is common in aromatherapy jargon.

Equally common are advertising tag-lines like, “our oils are as good as Young Living’s, but cheaper!”

Young Living: The Company

Begun in 1989 with 1/4 acre of land in Spokane, Washington, Young Living has become one of the foremost “relationship-marketing”* (multi-level) businesses in North America.

The biggest Young Living sites are the U.S. farms in Utah and Idaho, as well as farms in France and the newest under development in Ecuador. Specific local plants (including Ningxia wolfberries, frankincense, and myrrh) are grown under supervision in parts of China and Africa.

Young Living claims to be the largest supplier of essential oils in the world.* It is the only producer of essential oils in North America that has oils independently tested by the AFNOR standards group and certified for quality.

Gary Young

D. Gary Young, president and founder of Young Living, began to learn about alternative medicine after being crippled in a logging accident. Determined to walk again, he sought solutions for healing that eventually led him to the laboratories of the foremost aromatherapists in France.

When he was told that essential oils of the purity and potency he wanted to grow and produce simply weren’t possible, and that oils couldn’t be used internally to the extent he wanted to, he says, he defied the experts to do so anyways. The result was the first Young Living farm and a tiny company that grew... and grew.

His explorations in China, the Middle East, and South America of the longest-lived peoples worldwide led him to health secrets that inspired the essential-oil fortified foods, products and supplements sold by Young Living. He developed raindrop technique based on Lakota healing practices, and was one of the first to bring goji or Chinese wolfberry to the attention of consumers in North America, well before the berries hit shelves (and the wolfberries sold by Young Living are still of better quality than 95% or more of those sold by health food stores).

Gary Young has been the subject of slander and controversy aimed to discredit Young Living. Each of these slanders has been publicly refuted. What's more, they have little meaning to those who have met Young and know the degree of responsibility, personal involvement and integrity he brings to his work.

He is passionate about the state of health care worldwide and about educating people to make healthy choices. He continues to teach, study, and explore new medicinal plants and essential oils, at present living and instructing university students in Ecuador. His commitment to excellence and his drive to always be working on new challenges are responsible for much of Young Living’s success.

Contact the author for more information about oils to improve your health and well-being or with any questions regarding this article.

* Young Living Essential Oils corporate website as accessed June 15, 2007

Gary Young, founder of Young Living Essential Oils

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