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Essential oils have recently become very popular because of their amazing healing effects.
They are a natural way, for example, to manage stress, relieve pain, improve mood, or suppress various types of infections.
Therapeutic essential oils are produced by distilling the bark, flowers, or leaves of plants.
As early as Hippocrates around 400 BC, who is today known as the father of modern medicine, mentioned that thyme has good effects in the treatment of respiratory diseases.
Health effects of thyme essential oil
Thyme essential oil is among the most powerful antioxidants known to mankind. It supports the immune, respiratory, nervous and other bodily systems.
It contains a large amount of the substance thymol.
Thymol belongs to the group of substances called “biocides”. These are substances that can kill large numbers of harmful organisms and pathogens.
Besides their general health effects, essential oils, including thyme oil, have an excellent ability to kill cancer cells.
Thyme essential oil neutralized up to 98% of breast cancer cells
Thyme originates from the Mediterranean region and was widely used by the ancient Greeks. Even today it is a large part of Mediterranean cuisine.
This may be one reason why Greek women have up to half the incidence of breast cancer compared to other nations.
Oncology researchers at Calalou Bayar University in Turkey undertook to carry out a study to determine what effects wild thyme has on the activity of breast cancer cells.
They published their findings in the journal Nutrition and Cancer. They discovered that thyme triggers cell death in breast cancer cells.
Specifically, it was shown that thyme oil killed 98% of human breast cancer cells (MCF-7) in a test tube at a concentration of only 0.05%.
Even at a concentration as small as 0.01% it still killed 40% of the cells.
With these results, thyme oil proved to be so far the most powerful known anti-cancer substance.
In other studies, the effects of thyme were also confirmed on oral cavity and ovarian cancer.
Use of thyme
In Ayurvedic medicine, thyme has long been used because of its strong antioxidant, antibacterial and antifungal properties.
It can be used, for example, to get rid of Candida and yeast infections.
Thyme can therefore be a very suitable supplement to a healthy diet focused on organic fruit, vegetables and unprocessed foods.
It is usually used as a spice when cooking. However, you can also very easily make tea from it.
Other health effects of thyme
In addition to the aforementioned, thyme also has the following additional health effects:
- reduces symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome
- regulates menstruation, relieves cramps
- increases blood circulation and raises blood pressure (people with high blood pressure should be careful)
- prevents cellulite
- helps with insomnia
- Furthermore, thyme can eliminate bad breath, treat pain from rheumatism and arthritis, stimulate digestion, strengthen the heart and
- has diuretic effects.
