Tea Tree Oil Products

Tea tree oil products are no surprise given the oil's scientifically established properties as an antibacterial and antifungal agent, and its status as a natural compound isolated from an Australian plant Melaleuca. The diversity of products is quite surprising though. Most of these are general health or beauty tea tree oil products, such as soaps, shampoos, toothpastes. But are as specific as anti-dandruff conditioner, mouth wash, lip balm and pet shampoos.

In some of these tea tree oil products, the oil additive is used to fight certain fungal infections (known as tinea) which can cause ring worm, jock itch or athlete's foot. While tinea itself is not life threatening, infections do cause discomfort. And infection is easy, transmittable by direct touch or by touching surfaces that have had contact with those who are infected by the fungus. Examples of these surfaces? The shower room at the gym where there are a lot of strangers stepping, which is usually wet and a perfect breeding ground for fungi. Not only inanimate surfaces, but also pet-to-human contact can cause tinea.

Because the infection by tinea is a local effect, for example isolated to the feet or isolated to the arms, the symptoms can vary depending on which part of the body is affected. For example, interestingly enough, a manifestation of tinea is a red rash on the skin that is like a ring. The ring spreads out from the site of infection, as the body's immune system kills the fungus it migrates outward, forming the rings. Another example is "scalp ringworm", which is a manifestation of the same on the scalp under the hair. Unfortunately, on the scalp an effect of tinea is loss of hair leaving bald spots. Children are unusually susceptible to this type of ring worm. A very common example of tinea is athlete's foot, which can happen on the skin between one's toes, or within the nail of the toe. For nail fungal infections, the most effective treatment is oral antifungal medication, followed by topical treatment. Topical treatments such as tea tree oil products have low efficacy in comparison, but can be used as initial treatment before embarking on difficult oral medication which can have deleterious effects on the liver and lasts many months. Finally, tinea also manifests as "jock itch", which is an itchy rash in the groin area.

There are OTC topical treatments that will kill tinea infection. There are also stronger treatments which require a prescription from a physician.

If you go to a physician for this condition, it'll be necessary to diagnose this disease by eliminating competing theories such as psoriasis, which may show symptoms similar to tinea. To do so, the physician will ask questions about possible sources of contact to verify or eliminate possibilities. Finally, a physician may take samples of the skin using scraping to send to the pathologist and confirm the presence of fungi. This can be confirmed by visual inspection, but also by a method called "fungal culture". Essentially, a small amount of the skin scraping is placed on a culturing medium that can grow fungus. After a few days, the fungus if present show up very visibly, magnified by growth on the culturing medium. This will confirm the tinea infection to prepare for treatment. Given this information, one should know the caveat that tea tree oil products have not been evaluated by the FDA for efficacy in eliminating tinea, so a consumer is using these products at his or her own risk.

Tea Tree Oil Acne

There is some talk of using Melaleuca oil to treat acne on the face and other parts of the body.
But this talk needs to be tempered with the knowledge that tea tree oil is actually harsh on the skin at high concentrations. It can cause blisters and irritation. Especially for people with sensitive skin, washing blithely with tea tree oil for acne may be a mistake. The key to harness tea tree oil is to use a very dilute concentration either by purchasing mild formulations or to make your own mixtures for a facial wash.

Acne is caused by keratinization and bacteria growths underneath the skin which irritate the skin causing it to redden and become inflamed. When the bacteria die, they form pockets of dead cells which stay beneath the acne. Popping the acne leads to breaks in the skin which can unfortunately become scarred when they heal over. The statistic is that almost everyone gets acne at some point in his or her life and most likely during the adolescent time. The etiology of the condition is not known exactly, but the progression likely starts with keratinization (hardening of the skin) at the acne site, accumulation of sebum (oil), and growth of bacteria that are natural to the local cell environment. Interestingly enough, even though everyone gets acne and a few don't, we have very little understanding of why certain people get it and others don't. Because its such a common condition, there's ironically a lot of research into it that looks at common associations between acne severity and things like diet. Scientists have looked at how milk, chocolate, or carbohydrates influence or moderate the severity of the acne. In each, there is a weak association or no association found, but such diet studies are usually not well controlled due to the heterogeneity of the population.

The clinical way to treat acne depends on the severity of the acne. For very light acne, a face wash coupled with OTC benzoyl peroxide may be sufficient for a full-course treatment. Benzoyl peroxide is a chemical that comes in either gel or liquid form which when applied to the skin has two fold effects. One of them is a direct antimicrobial effect by killing bacteria at or near the surface of the skin. The other is to dry out and promote peeling of the skin which helps smooth out mild scarring caused by the acne bacteria. For moderate acne, a topical antimicrobial (stronger benzoyl peroxide), or oral antibiotics may be indicated. Here, tea tree oil fits into the profile as a topical antimicrobial. Those with very severe acne should consult a dermatologist. Because even benzoyl peroxide can irritate the skin (as all topical acne medication likely would do), it's not surprising that tea tree oil for acne can also irritate the skin. And since tea tree oil is not an FDA approved treatment for acne, its usage is really up to the individual who must be aware of averse side effects that come from its irritating properties.

Tea Tree Oil Soap

Tea tree oil is extracted from a genus of plants known as Melaleuca. The oil has been shown to exhibit antiseptic and antifungal properties, heralding its use as a staphylococcus aureus killer. One thing that tea tree oil is used for is as an additive for shampoo, in order to reduce dandruff caused by microorganisms amongst other effects. If tea tree oil can be used to clean hair and scalp, what's to stop it from being used as tea tree oil soap to cleanse the skin all over other than the scalp? In fact, tea tree oil soap is sold in many beauty and health goods stores, being touted for its ability to kill bacteria and fungus. Furthermore, tea tree oil is occasionally touted as something that is extremely effective at killing acne bacteria through topic application.

However, the truth may be far more complicated because of tea tree oil's harshness on skin. In high concentrations, tea tree oil has moderate to severe ability to irritate, blister, causes itches and redden the skin. If used as a face wash, the user has to beware that this oil can be very damaging to sensitive faces. Topic treatments for acne have never had a good track record as the bacteria that reside and give rise to the acne are buried deep inside the skin. Only a solvent capable of penetrating the skin can potentially hold the oil in sufficient quantities to kill acne bacteria. As such, it's wisest to stay away from using tea tree oil in a soap-like manner.

One area where tea tree oil soap may actually be helpful is for treating athlete's foot. The foot is not a very sensitive area of the body, so can bear being the target of harsh chemicals such as high concentration tea tree oil. Clinical trials have shown that control and treated suffers of athlete's foot exhibit different recovery rates. Those treated with oil have much lower report of fungus infection. However, in this clinical trial, it was found that several of those treated with tea tree withdrew from the study citing inflammation and irritation to the skin. Upon discontinuing treatment, the inflammation and irritation went away. This only points out how irritating tea tree oil can be for the skin.

Tea Tree Oil Shampoo

One problem that affects a large number of people is small loose flakes of skin from the scalp that dot the hair and shoulders. This condition, known as dandruff, is common, but can be exacerbated by fungi such as P. ovale. When the fungi grow on the skin, they tend to dry the hair follicle cells and cause an immune or allergic reaction which irritates the skin. As a result, the skin cells flake and fall off which worsens any preexisting dandruff condition. Other reasons for why skin flakes from the scalp include nutrition, other types of microbial infection. While circulation has been cited as a problem, this has never been prove. To combat microbial origins of dandruff, a shampoo with microcidal properties would be incredibly useful. No doubt there are medical shampoos for these purposes, but an alternative to the chemical formulations is to use a natural additive that has antibacterial properties: tea tree oil shampoo. At natural health stores one may find the product on the shelves, but one can also find it at pharmacies which stock high grade tea tree oil infused shampoos, which are specially formulated to combat microbe growth on the scalp.

There's another reasons why one would shampoo with tea tree oil additive. Every fall, when kids return to crowded schools and mingle with other kids, epidemics of head lice start up because lice thrive in crowded conditions where transmittance of the organism is easy. The lice are caught during health exams designed for this purposes, and usually the child is removed from class for some duration to prevent contamination. But what do parents do when the child comes home with head lice? A home-treatment option should be swiftly enacted to prevent the spread of the lice to other members of the family. The answer lies in shampoos that kill lice. At a pharmacy you can find chemical-based ones that will do the job after a few washes. The natural alternative is tea tree oil shampoo, whose natural antibacterial properties extends to smothering and killing the lice. These shampoos can be found a natural health stores, but if you can't find them, they can be made easily by addition of a few drops of oil into the shampoo.

As discussed in an earlier post, overly concentrated tea tree oil shampoo can be damaging to the scalp. So whether the shampoo is made at home or purchased from a store, ensure that it is sufficiently dilute. In a similar vein, keep in mind that although tea tree oil is natural, that doesn't automatically make it safe. It can cause skin rashes in those prone to allergies, and it can be toxic if ingested. You'll want to keep it out of your children's reach, use it in reasonable quantities, and use your judgment as to whether it will be a good choice for your child. However, if your child's particular special needs make some of the pesticide shampoos a dangerous choice, tea tree oil shampoo may be a better option, and one that can help the whole family.

Tea Tree Oil

Since 1920, medical properties of tea tree oil has been established in assays against both bacteria and fungi. When applied to cultures of bacteria and fungi, the oil was shown to kill both, establishing its antiseptic and antifungal activities. By itself, this doesn't establish that its a strong antimicrobial, because high doses of many chemicals can have damaging effects on all life such as bacterial. But a key discovery is that a comparison of the oil against other antimicrobials such as phenol showed that it is over 10 times more active. Meaning, a bit of conventional antimicrobials such as phenol is as effective as a tenth of same amount of the oil. Moreover, its thought to be an excellent additive for cosmetics, moisturizing and enhancing elasticity of the skin. In any Supermarket or natural goods store, we can usually find shampoos, moisturizers and even toothpastes containing tea tree oil. When used in consumer products, tea tree oil is always diluted to low concentration for the reason that higher concentrations have been shown to irritate the skin and other tissues.

Tea tree oil is also known as melaleuca oil. Its physical appearance is clear, but shading can vary and pale yellow is not an uncommon color. The odor is striking, with a camphor-like smell which is strong, aromatic, and reminiscent of moth repellent or turpentine. The purer the oil the more strong it will smell. The oil itself is extracted via crushing and distillation of the liquids from leaves of a plant known as Melaleuca alternifolia. This plant is found along the sea edge of the state New South Wales of Australia. The Melaleuca genus is a wide group of plants that is endemic to Australia, but has since then been introduced to other continents and countries for varoius reasons. In Hawaii and Florida Everglades, members of the genus were introduced to promote draining of low-lying swamp land. Apparently its roots help increase the porosity of the soil which assists in drainage of surface water. But besides human-assisted transplantation of the genus, most Melaleuca plants are only found in Australia.

A serious problem in hospitals is that of MRSA, or Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. Methicillin is a common antibiotic used in hospital settings. When overused, as is common in modern hospital settings, bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus can develop resistance via mutations that defend it against the bactericidal properties of methicillin. These bacteria pose an extreme threat to patients because the array of antibiotics directed against these bacteria is highly limited (for example, last resort antibiotics such as vancomycin have to be used). Miraculously, tea tree oil has been found to exert a killing effect even against MRSA, more so than a close chemical analog phenol. Of course, prolonged exposure or overuse of tea tree oil can give rise to the same kind of resistance seen in Staphylococcus aureus toward methicillin and other antibiotics.

True to its reputation as a natural healing antibiotic, natives of Australia have throughout history used the tea trees itself as a source of traditional medicines. The oils available to the natives of course was not in purified form as it is today. Natives used the leaves and ground them by hand to produce trace amounts of oil which was then breathed in to soothe throats and lungs during bouts with the common cold. The oils have also been reportedly used on open cuts in the skin, a use that may indicate its antibacterial properties. The spread of tea tree oil beyond its native borders of Australia did not happen until much much later when an Australia chemist named Arthur de Ramon Penfold. Penfold was an industrial chemist employed by a Technological Museum. In 1920, Penfold showed that the purified oil had substantial antimicrobial properties.