To tell you how Young Living came to be, you would first have to learn more about the man behind it, Gary Young.
Gary Young started his life in the central mountains of Idaho on a ranch with no indoor plumbing or electricity. He learned to survive off the land at an early age.
"I grew up on a ranch in the wilderness of northern Idaho where my father taught us to live from the earth - hunting, fishing and eating the fruit of the trees and the herbs of the field. Sometimes I long to return to my ranch and ride off into the majestic and peaceful mountains I loved as a boy."
Gary and his father often collected herbs from the fields and streambeds of the Idaho Mountains and dried them in their barn. The herbs were then used for the health needs of their family.
At 17, he left home to seek his fortune in the wilderness of Canada. There, he homesteaded 320 acres and began building a sizable ranching and logging operation. It was there that he suffered a near-fatal logging accident.
Gary Young's Crippling Injury
On February 8, 1973, a massive tree fell on Gary and nearly cost him his life.
After three weeks in a coma and four months in intensive care, Gary found himself paralyzed and, according to the doctor's prognoses, confined to a wheelchair for life. The intense pain and immobilization brought this once strong and vibrant man to his limit. Although now he jokes about his cracked skull, at the time, he felt life was no longer worth living, and even attempted suicide.
But then he came to a resolution:
"I found myself paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for life with no hope for recovery, according to the medical doctors. After two years of depression and hopelessness, I decided to take control of my own fate. I was determined to either get out of the wheelchair or end my life. I began searching for natural ways to heal my body and discovered a whole new world that has set me on the path I walk today."
He fasted on juice and water for almost a year and finally regained sensation in his toes, marking the beginning of his long and painful road toward recovery.
From his hospital bed, he began exploring alternative ways of healing. His search let him into a deep exploration of the ancient and modern sciences of natural medicine. Later, he embarked upon a worldwide investigation of natural medicine, from herbology and acupuncture to nutrition and naturopathy.
As a young boy and young man, Gary had little interest in formal education, but now, he had a strong desire to learn and study. Between the years of 1983-85, he received a master's degree in nutrition and a doctorate in naturopathy.
This relentless research coupled with an iron determination enabled him to eventually regain his mobility and ability to walk, although not without pain.
Dramatic Recovery
It was this pain that eventually led him to discover the potential of a powerful but little-known form of natural medicine - essential oils. Within a very short time, Gary cast off the persistent pain that he had borne for almost 13 years as he began tapping the power of essential oils. By 1986, he was able to run a half-marathon, finishing 60th out of 970 participants!
Armed with his degrees and an intense desire to help others, he opened a family practice in Chula Vista, California, and a research clinic in La Mesa, Mexico, where he conducted cutting-edge research in many areas of natural healing. It was here that he began investigating the effects that essential oils have on the blood as well as their ability to magnify the effects of other healing modalities, such as herbal medicine and acupuncture.
In 1985, he conducted the first essential oil research examining blood oxygen and cell pH changes.
His work was of such magnitude that in 1985, he received the Humanitarian Award from the State Medical Examiner's Office of Baja, California (one of only six ever awarded), for his research and successful treatment of degenerative disease. This research eventually led him to combine essential oils with herbal formulas.
Quest for Essential Oil Knowledge
Gary traveled across three continents and a half-dozen countries to investigate both traditional and modern uses of essential oils. At the University of Cairo in Egypt, he studied essential oil chemistry and its effects on immune-related diseases with the noted expert Radwan Farag, Ph.D. From 1985-89, he studied the effects of essential oils on respiratory diseases with J.C. Lapraz, M.D., a highly regarded essential oil researcher.
In southern France, he studied essential oil distillation from 1990-94. He found time to gather research on ancient essential oil history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. And to study oil chemistry, absolute extraction, and gas chromatography at Anadolu University in Eskisehir, Turkey. In 1999, he traveled to Hunzaland in the Himalayan Mountains of northern Pakistan to research some of the world's oldest living people. In 2000, he traveled to China to research the Chinese Ningxia wolfberry and the long-lived people who consume it.
In the meantime, Dr. Young presented and/or published several important papers and research publications on topics ranging from the antimicrobial and antibacterial properties of essential oils to the effects of essential oil on blood oxygen.
Despite the enormous power of essential oils, Gary was unable to fully harness their potential due to the highly varying quality of oils available at the time. While pure essential oils had the ability to produce spectacular results, Gary found that chemically altered or adulterated oils were often ineffective and even harmful.
The Beginning of Young Living Essential Oils
This motivated Gary to develop his own organic herb farming and distillation operation in 1993 under the name, Young Living Essential Oils. Gary was fortunate to find land untouched by chemicals in Utah and Idaho. He began by cultivating lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), peppermint, melissa (lemon balm), clary sage, and many other herbs. He designed and built the largest, most technologically advanced distillery for the production of essential oils in North America, developing a proprietary distillation process that preserves the integrity of essential oils.
In 1995, Gary was invited to Anadolu University in Eskisehir, Turkey, by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization to present his research on plant germination and organic farming, as well as his research at Weber State University on the antibacterial properties of essential oils.
The Quest Goes On
Gary continued to probe the fundamental basis of human health on his recent journey to Hunzaland in the Himalayan Mountains - home to some of the longest-living people known in the world. By investigating the Hunza people's diet and lifestyle, Gary obtained important new insights on not only extending life but also avoiding disease.
Over the years, Gary's knowledge of natural medicine and essential oils has become enormously valuable to countless people throughout the world. The company that Gary founded a decade ago to disseminate both traditional and modern knowledge of different healing modalities has grown to encompass more than 250,000 members in over 20 countries.
Young Life Research Clinic
D. Gary Young and Young Living Essential Oils are proud to announce the opening of the Young Life Research Clinic: Institute of Natural Medicine in Springville, Utah in November, 2000. Advanced natural therapies and research are the focus of the clinic, where many state-of-the-art health services are offered.
The clinic specializes in spinal rehabilitation using the latest innovative technology, including the VAX-D a non-surgical procedure for disc and sciatic nerve treatment. The staff includes licensed physicians, chiropractors, Oriental medicine practitioners and acupuncturists, physical therapists and massage therapists.
|
"Young Living has the best researched
products I have seen in the alternative
health industry. Their MSM formula is
a mainstay in my medical practice."
Ronald Lawrence, M.D., Ph.D.,
Associate Professor at UCLA,
Author of The Miracle of MSM:
The Natural Solution For Pain.
|
What Makes Young Living Different?
Being one of the world's leaders in the cultivation, distillation and production of organically grown, guaranteed pure essential oils means Young Living can offer you the biggest selection of the highest quality oils.
When you buy a Young Living oil, you can be assured that you are getting all of nature's goodness and mastery.
The reason is because Young Living:
- Plants, harvests, and distills on their own farms. Young Living believes the best defense against adulteration is to control the entire process of herb cultivation and distillation. That's why Young Living grows over 15 different herbs and botanicals, including organic peppermint, spearmint, basil, clary sage, lavender, rosemary, thyme, melissa, German chamomile, Roman chamomile, Idaho tansy and wolfberry.
- Uses state-of-the-art chemical analysis to check every batch of essential oils. Young Living quarantines, inspects, and tests each lot of essential oils five ways for purity and quality.
- Visits and inspects the farms and distillation facilities of their essential oil suppliers to ensure that stringent quality specifications are met.
- Conducts ongoing university research on the anti-bacterial, antiviral, and antifungal attributes of essential oils. Some of this research has been published in such scientific journals as the Journal of Essential Oil Research.
- Uses a proprietary low-pressure, low-temperature stainless steel steam distillation system designed by Gary Young to preserve the high quality of essential oils.
- Owns more than 1,800 acres of organic farmland in Utah and Idaho, with over 70,000 square feet of greenhouse space.
- Annually harvests and distills over 2,000 acres of wild herbs and vegetation.
- Is the largest importer of the Ningxia variety of Chinese wolfberry, a superfood studied in China for its immune-supporting and anti-aging benefits.
- Is the first company to combine guaranteed therapeutic-grade essential oils with vitamins and dietary supplements.
- Sells products in over 20 different foreign markets, including Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, and Russia, with offices in Japan and Australia.
- Had sales growth of over 4,000 percent during the past five years. Sales have nearly doubled each year since 1995!
These exacting standards of quality are setting new standards of excellence in therapeutic-grade essential oils!
|
The Young Living Mission:
We are committed to uniting ancient traditions and modern science to promote health and longevity. Through extensive research and commitment to quality, we are dedicated to growing, distilling, manufacturing, and marketing the highest-quality organic essential oils and oil-enhanced products in the world.
|
To learn more about life on the Young Living farm... Click Here
Back to top of page.