Employing Emu Oil in the Doctor's Office

On an ordinary day, Dr. Dan Dean will use an emu oil product on an average of a dozen patients in his private practice in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.

Pure emu oil is employed by the physician mainly on clients suffering from various burns and abrasions. "In addition to abrasions and burns I also use pure emu oil on scars and wounds," says Dean, who has spent the past 30 years in private family practice. "I do a lot of in-office skin surgeries, and anytime the patient walks out of the office they have the oil to use on the wound because emu oil enhances wound healing." The patients are told to apply the emu oil or to remoisten the bandage three times daily, usually until their next appointment.

During allergy season emu oil is employed often by the doctor, who has developed a nasal spray product, one of several emu oil products from his product line The Dean's List. He relates that he's interested in making pure emu oil as well as medicinal emu oil products available to his patients.

One product that he uses perhaps the most often during allergy season is Emusol nasal spray (98% pure emu oil).

"I've probably had well over 500 people use my nasal spray with very good success," says Dean. "The nasal spray has been practically a miracle drug -- it does such a fantastic job. These people say they can now breathe. I also use it for kids with bloody noses. It moistens the nasal mucosa and brings it back to its normal function."

Utilizing Emu Oil With Conventional Drugs

In addition to pure emu oil, Dean relates that he also employs emu oil in conjunction with some conventional drugs including antifungal medications.

"I think the oil has an inherent anti-fungal property itself," remarks the physician. "When I mix it or combine it with a known topical antifungal or a known topical anticeritic drug for psoriasis, I see a benefit from using that as compared to using just the topical medications by themselves. I have seen the difference and I use the oil combination quite often. We're seeing the fungus under the nails healing much faster. People are saying, 'I've had this for years and now it's healed.' By using the oil we've corrected the problem much more quickly."

The doctor remarks that he also uses the oil in conjunction with a topical antibiotic.

Pain Reduction

Another benefit of emu oil as noted by the doctor's findings is that emu oil lessens pain in patients with bums and in patients with abrasions.

"When we use the pure oil on the wounds, they're not using as much pain medication," comments Dean. "For example, we gave an 8-year-old boy with burns a liquid codeine, and when he returned I asked how much he had left and he said, 'Most of it, because I didn't need it.' Recently I used pure emu oil on post-radiation burn on two ladies. They've related that the burning sensation subsides and they don't need as much of their pain medication. In addition, another patient's wife said her husband didn't complain as much of the pain (typical burning pain associated with that particular ailment) just a few days after applying emu oil."

Emu oil is great for sunburns as well. "It stops the pain therefore we don't need as much pain killers," says Dean. "I see most of your college students with sunburns from tanning beds and that pain is eased remarkably with just the oil."

Reducing Time of Healing

Of great interest is Dean's findings with emu oil in relation to quicker wound healing. He relates, "I have noticed that with a typical third degree burn and with various abrasions where it normally takes six weeks to heal, we're seeing healing much quicker, in almost half the time. Also when we remove skin lesions in the office, these wound incisions heal quicker when emu oil is applied."

Lack of Complications Using Emu Oil

Naturally patients not familiar with emu oil question the doctor as to what type of side effects they might experience with emu oil.

"Since it's a natural product, the answer is, technically none," says Dean. "But although many individuals feel that taking aspirin is safe -- some people react to aspirin. I'm sure that there's somebody out there somewhere that may get a reaction from emu oil, but I've not experienced it."

When applying emu oil to fresh burns or wounds the first day, Dean maintains that his patients haven't experienced any negative reaction. "Emu oil is a natural product and we would be less apt to expect any type of an allergic or contact type reaction when using it," he says.

Don't Self-Diagnose -- Work With a Physician

While much good has been reported about emu oil, Dean cautions individuals not to take treatment into their own hands, especially when it comes to serious injuries or illnesses.

"It is very, very important that people don't think this is such a miracle that they can go home and start treating third degree bums," advises Dr. Dean. "They need to see their physician have the conventional care before they start using emu oil. Because what can happen is that they may take a second degree burn and drive it to a third degree burn if it is not taken care of properly. And a burn may not heal even when applying pure emu oil because there may be extenuating circumstances involved such as lack of circulation, or it may be a different type burn such as a chemical burn that may require special care, or a burn that has already gotten bacteria into it. And a lot of people don't know when their last tetanus shot was, so if they were to treat their burns at home without the aid of their physician, they may run into serious problems."

If a physician is not familiar with the benefits of emu oil, Dean says that the patient should go ahead and see their physician and bring up the benefits of the oil and suggest that it be used, or ask them to call Dr. Dean himself and let him explain what he's done with it. And then once the ailment is treated and when the patient feels comfortable about applying the oil to the wound, then Dean feels they can go ahead and start applying it.

Just the Beginning

While the Australian aborigines have employed emu fat [emu oil is rendered and refined emu fat] for medicinal and cosmetic purposes for centuries, it wasn't until the late 1980's that emu oil began being researched in seriously for its beneficial properties. Additional public awareness and the findings of physicians like Dean and others, no doubt will spur on additional research.

"Some work is currently being done with emu oil -- adding additional compounds to enhance its healing process or the oil enhancing conventional therapy," relates Dean. "So there is a great deal more that we're going to find out about the oil. But it would be much easier and much better if we could get emu oil into a wound care center or university for example for additional experimentation by itself and with conventional drugs. I think what we've done with the oil so far is gotten our toe in the door. Now we need to get more of the medical field involved to confirm what I and others have started to do in a more scientific and technical mariner."

Dean has been employing emu oil in his practices for the past several years and feels confident he's working with a winner. "It seems we have a fantastic product here," says the doctor.

[NOTATION]
Photo captions accompanying the article :

6 photos of elbow of a woman with sun poisoning. (We are showing the first and last photos here, click to enlarge) She had large blisters. We used emu oil on it and within a couple of weeks it was healed completely.

2 photos of face: lady with herpes zoster (shingles). Patient visited Dr. Dean after the condition started to heal. She had been attended by another physician prior to Dr. Dean, but without good results. With emu oil applications it healed with a week or so.

 

 

 

3 photos of abrasion on arm: 16 year old male with abrasion on arm. Normally it would take about six weeks to heal and this abrasion took about three weeks with the application of pure emu oil.

Reproduced with permission from Emu Today and Tomorrow, October, 1999