lavender candles and toilet handles

Today was one of those wonderful days. It was sunny and gorgeous outside, I got a ton done at work, and I had one of those rare but oh-so-satisfying, single-girl, “I just fixed something that broke without having to ask for help” moments when I installed a new handle/lever arm in my broken toilet. Small victories, people.

I wish you could smell
through the internet.

The best part of my day was undoubtedly receiving a care package (from my soul-twin, of course) that was full of goodies like herbal tea, cozy socks, fancy office supplies, facial masks, and chocolate. Nestled in this little box of heaven was this lavender and eucalyptus aromatherapy candle (left).

Lavender has been used in a medicinal capacity for millennia.  It helps aid relaxation, can ease dermal irritations, alleviates pain, and acts as an antiseptic. It’s easy to grow at home, and smells absolutely divine.

Once upon a time, doctors noticed something fishy going on with young boys and lavender oil. Several pre-pubescent boys were experiencing gynocomastia, clinically known as “boob development.” The onset of this breast development coincided with all of the patients’ use of a topical ointment with a principal ingredient of lavender oil. Was lavender oil inducing estrogen production in these kids?

Lavender in bloom (sloatgardens.com)

Yes, come to find out. A study by Henley and Korach (2010) confirmed that several essential oils, the most common of which being lavender and tea tree oil, routinely cause “endocrine distrupting activity”- aka they mess with your hormones. Specifically, your sex hormone estrogen. They considered both estrogen production and the different estrogen receptors in mice to see at what level the lavender was acting. They found that lavender exposure actually enhances expression of estrogen-producing genes. This means that lavender actually causes your cells to read the DNA blueprint for estrogen at a greater rate, flooding the system with excess estrogen.

Men have estrogen too, just as women have testosterone. They just have them in different proportions. So, both genders are vulnerable to the estrogen-spike that lavender exposure can initiate. Naturally, it is more noticeable in the sex with lesser estrogen. Luckily for those poor kids in the study, the gynocomastia subsided with decreased lavender exposure. Phewph. So if you are a guy, don't go shooting up with lavender oil unless you want to start wearing a bra.

Here’s to fixing stuff on your own, having wonderful friends who take care of you from 3,000 miles away, and hoping that my new candle will induce gynocomastia to help a sista’ out if ya’ know what I mean.

Or at the very least, that it will induce some aromatherapeutic relaxation while I soak in my tub wearing a facemask and listen to Enya, all the while admiring my new toilet handle out of the corner of my eye.