<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote><i>Originally posted by: <b>anonymous</b></i>
Sean:
I have found conflicting info on using h2 orega while preganant. I am still early in pregnancy so i did not sign in. What do you think about it? I recently stopped it and now i have a cold. Have you seen any info that may help me to make a decision on it? My docs do not know anything about the substance so they could not give me a yes or no on it. I saw this sheet online that had a list of herbs to avoid and oregano was on it. I never know what to think of some sights. I am just not sure if it is better to continue with it or to leave off it until later on. It was helping me out with my lungs and my sinuses were doing better too. Now, I have stopped it for about 3 days now and have a cold. Any ideas. I know it would just be an opinion you would offer...and that would be appreciated.</end quote></div>
Well here is what I think on the matter. Oregano has been noted by some herbalists as having "abortive properties", and the reason for that, is due to it's slight blood thinning properties. It's blood thinning properties has been compared to aspirin, in a typical "normal" dose (i'm assuming the doseage on the bottle, which I believe is 5 or more drops daily). I'm not a gyno or an obstetrician, so my knowledge of the female reproductive system is on a highschool and collegiate level, but from what I understand, having the uterus and placenta with a strong antiplatelet aspect present (blood thinner, could be anything) in the early stages of carrying a fetus, could theorhetically bring force a chance of miscarriage. As I said before, if this is possible due to blood thining, it could also happen with anything else that is commonly consumed that is known to thin blood, like aspirin, ibuprofen, etc etc. I'm not sure if the opposite is also true, which is fairly heavy doses of vitamin K (coagulant), if that might influence the chance of miscarriage or not.
That all being said, from the research I have looked through, I haven't noticed any strong reason to believe that responsible use of the oil in the female body would heavily influence abortive actions within the body. You could use google to get a ton of information, I just googled oregano oil and the word "abortive" and got some good results.
Here is some research that I found as one of the first hits (PDF format):
<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.biomed.cas.cz/physiolres/pdf/prepress/929.pdf
">http://www.biomed.cas.cz/physi.../pdf/prepress/929.pdf
</a>
You will note in that research that several different plant essential oils were studied, all with varying results. Another aspect to note when it comes to essential oil administration to vivo models (animals, mostly always rats) is the massive levels that they administer to them. Considering their size, they give them rediculously high levels of the substance. I have no idea what you could compare it to in a human model, but it would be a tremendous amount. An amount you would never put into your body in months or years. Another aspect to look at, is that these are rats. Rats are generally omnivores, and of course mammals, and that is about all they have in common with us. Pigs would be better models for any essential oil research, and some have been used in essential oil research, with more favorable results.
I just glanced through the research that I linked, but their general findings is that oregano, and less so thyme essential oils, didn't have any apparent negative impacts upon rat embryos (the main ingredient in oregano oil is carvacrol). Here is some information on Carvacrol: <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carvacrol
">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carvacrol
</a>
Here is a section that I copied from the research conclusion I linked:
The principal components of oregano and thyme EOs are thymol and carvacrol. In oregano EO they represent around 78-82 % of the total oil (Botsoglou et al. 2002). Besides the known mostly antioxidative properties of both plant species, oregano is also used as a natural feed additive supporting growth and reproductive performance. Oregano has been reported to increase the farrowing rate and decrease the stillbirth rate in sows (Allan and Bilkei 2005). However with our experimental design we found no significant changes due to oregano or thyme EOs in preimplantation development.
In conclusion, our results show that no one of the examined essential oils positively influenced mouse preimplantation embryo growth and development after their addition to the maternal diet. Some of them negatively influenced embryonal growth and viability. One of the possible reasons for this could be the relatively high concentration of administered EOs, but in any case the used concentrations correspond well with the generally recommended doses for prophylaxis in animal husbandry. On the other hand the positive effects of essential oils might be better evident in stressful conditions such as infection or oxidative stress.
All that being said, while they found no obvious threat with oregano oil on rats with regards to their embryos, what I said before can be said conversely: We aren't rats. I would be willing to bet a large amount of money on that you and your child would be fine, just given the data provided and what we know about the oil. But to be on the safe side, if it were me, I would probably put off the oregano oil untill your child is well anchored in your system (4-5 months?), where anything that has an antiplatelet property (oregano oil, aspirin, ibuprofen, etc etc), or even a coagulant property (vitamin K, etc) couldn't possibly influence your pregnancy.
The problem is, you will probably have the regular chronic sickies associated with CF, and being off of oregano oil. Oregano oil is absolutely amazing with it's antiinflamatory, antioxidative, and antimicrobial properties. All of that is well documented with research. The problem is, regarding pregnancy, because it is such a touchy thing and you could even miscarry for no apparent reason at all, you want to limit anything other than light exercise and a healthy diet to make sure your baby is well anchored in your system. To play devils advocate, you can say the same thing for many medicines and substances, including common CF drugs.
Collistin alone states it has not been tested to see if it has any carcinogenic or mutative properties. So if you are early term pregnant and doing collistin, you could possibly be harming your child. I would personally get rid of any substances medication or supplement wise during the very critical months of gestation for your fetus. Then look into using oregano oil. I seriously don't think it could cause you any real problems, but it's better to be safe than sorry.
BTW, I have been able to keep this sickness at bay with the aggressive use of the vest and oregano oil. It started in my sinuses, then started to settle in my lungs. I've gotten a good deal of stuff up due to it being thinned and light in color mostly. My nose is now generally clear, and I only have slight amounts of congestion left. I can guarantee you that if it wasn't for me using the oil neb wise and sublingually, I would have been VERY sick and more than likely hospital bound...Right when I accepted a new job. All the relunctant people can keep looking for negative aspects regarding the oil, but i'm still living proof of it's abilities to greatly help us with our CF symptoms.