A healthy spleen is crucial for fighting infections and regulating immune responses. It functions as a surveillance hub, initiating immune responses to threats in the bloodstream.
More specifically, your spleen supports your immune health by acting as a blood filter, removing pathogens and old cells, and by storing and deploying specialized white blood cells that create antibodies to attack invaders like bacteria and viruses and create resistance to infection, molds & parasites.
Essential oils can help tonify and strengthen the Spleen, promoting a healthy immune system. Topically applied essential oils may help stimulate lymphatic flow, remove congestion, and support your spleen in filtering out cellular waste and damaged blood cells, while also encouraging the production of white blood cells.
Essential oils serve as a complementary remedy, primarily through their anti-inflammatory, circulation-boosting, and diuretic properties, and can enhance the effectiveness of techniques such as lymphatic drainage massage.
What Does Your Spleen Do?
Your spleen is wildly underappreciated—often misunderstood—and is a vital organ that is part of your lymphatic system.
Like your liver, your spleen is one of the “filters” in your body. It is the largest organ in your lymphatic system and helps regulate the flow of lymph and blood, cleansing the blood of cellular waste, damaged red blood cells, and platelets.
Your spleen, which sits in the upper left part of your abdomen behind your ribs, is a crucial organ for peripheral immune tolerance – it’s the only organ in the body capable of mounting an appropriate immune response to many types of bacteria, including bacterial meningitis and pneumonia.
Blood literally slows down as it passes through your spleen, giving your immune system time to recognize and make white blood cells and antibodies that help you fight infection. As blood filters through the spleen, it’s cleaned, and harmful microbes are engulfed and removed. Without the spleen working correctly, you can’t maintain the red and white blood cells you need for ongoing energy, warmth, and vitality, which provides physical energy for immune function.
And, the spleen is the site where your mast cells are induced — Study
As a specialized immune organ, your spleen plays a significant role in innate and adaptive (or “learned”) immunity—the mechanisms that identify and target specific antigens. It is home to your specialized innate immune cells, like B cells, natural killer (NK) cells, and macrophages – all of which populate within the spleen. The Spleen is also associated with the maturation of myelocytes (cells in the bone marrow). Myeloid cells are a diverse group of innate leukocytes that are crucial for mounting effective immune responses against viruses.
How Spleen Health Boosts Immunity
A healthy spleen boosts immunity by filtering pathogens and old blood cells from your bloodstream, storing and deploying infection-fighting white blood cells (like lymphocytes and monocytes), and initiating immune responses by producing antibodies, acting as a critical surveillance organ for blood-borne threats like bacteria and viruses, and helping to coordinate the body’s defense against invaders. More specifically, your spleen:
- Filters Blood: Your spleen constantly monitors and filters blood, identifying and removing old/damaged red blood cells, cellular waste, and harmful microorganisms (germs, bacteria, viruses) to prevent them from circulating and contributing to infection.
- Cellular Recycling: Beyond just filtering, your spleen breaks down cellular debris, a key part of maintaining overall immune health.
- White Blood Cell Reservoir: Your spleen stores large numbers of lymphocytes and macrophages (types of white blood cells that support immune function) and releases them rapidly into the blood when an infection is detected, creating an “army” to fight invaders.
- Antibody Production: Lymphocytes in the spleen produce antibodies, crucial proteins that target and neutralize bacteria, viruses, and toxins, stopping infections from spreading.
- Rapid Deployment: When infection is detected, these stored cells are released into the bloodstream to fight the disease.
Symptoms of Poor Spleen Health
Fatigue: When the spleen isn’t working well, it may not filter blood or recycle red blood cells efficiently. If you can’t maintain the red and white blood cells you need for ongoing energy, you may experience low energy or a feeling of being “worn out” all the time. Anemia – or low red blood cells – can also contribute to fatigue.
Frequent Infections: The spleen helps your body store and activate immune cells that fight bacteria and other pathogens. When the spleen isn’t filtering blood properly, you may notice that you get sick more often or take longer to recover from minor infections.
Pain/Discomfort: In the upper left abdomen, behind the ribs, sometimes radiating to the left shoulder.
Early Fullness: Feeling full after eating only a small amount because the spleen presses on the stomach.
Bloating and Gas: Digestive discomfort—like bloating, gas, or a heavy feeling after meals—can sometimes show up when the organs in the upper abdomen (including the spleen, stomach, and nearby structures) aren’t happy.
Easy Bleeding/Bruising: If the spleen removes too many platelets.
Weak Limbs: A general feeling of weakness in the arms or legs can show up when your body isn’t moving blood, nutrients, or oxygen effectively. Some traditional frameworks associate “spleen Qi” with the strength of the limbs.
Prolonged Headache: Long-lasting or recurring headaches can be related to circulation and blood quality, which the spleen helps manage.
Dizziness: Dizziness, lightheadedness, or feeling like you might faint can occur when the brain isn’t getting enough oxygenated blood, or when blood pressure or blood counts are off. Since the spleen helps regulate blood cell production, certain spleen-related conditions might contribute to dizziness.
Tired Eyes: Your spleen helps move fluid around your body. If it is underperforming, the body fluid gets stuck and can create puffiness, including eye puffiness or dark circles under the eyes.
Pain in the Upper Left Abdomen. The spleen sits in the upper left side of your abdomen, tucked under the ribcage. Discomfort, pressure, or pain in this area—especially if the spleen is enlarged—can sometimes be felt as a dull ache or fullness under the left ribs.
Feeling Full Without Eating: If the spleen becomes enlarged, it can press against the stomach, which sits nearby. That pressure can make you feel full very quickly, even after starting a meal or eating only tiny amounts.
Pain or Discomfort in the Left Shoulder: Referred pain from the spleen can be felt as pain at the tip of the left shoulder.
Learn more about Spleen Health
Essential Oils for the Spleen
Your spleen responds well to botanical remedies, like essential oils. Essential oils can help tonify and strengthen the Spleen, supporting energy and vitality.
Spleen Qi is the vital life force that flows through the body’s meridians and sustains life. Essential oils are thought to interact with and support Qi by influencing the Flow of Qi along Meridians. Similar to acupuncture, essential oils can be applied to specific acupuncture points to stimulate meridians and promote the harmonious flow of Qi.
Spleen Qi™ helps support the Spleen’s Vitality and Energy to promote healthy blood cells, bringing vibrancy to your energy and increasing the flow of Qi in your body and brain.
More specifically, Spleen Qi™ contains citrus oils, such as Mandarin, that have been shown to support the spleen’s function. Mandarin peel—from which essential oils are derived—has traditionally been believed to “regulate qi,” “dry dampness,” and “strengthen the spleen”. Citrus fruits like Mandarin contain plant compounds known as flavonoids, which have been shown to improve blood flow to the brain and reduce inflammation. Mandarin essential oil contains limonene, which may support the spleen’s health by strengthening it, and also helps clear phlegm and dampness from the spleen.
Similarly, Fennel is traditionally used as a tonic, believed to tone and strengthen the spleen. It is considered a depurative (blood cleanser) that aids in removing toxins, which indirectly supports the spleen’s role in filtering blood and producing immune cells. As a Spleen Qi supporting essential oil, fennel seed helps tonify the Spleen and stimulate the flow of physical Qi. Research demonstrates that the medicinal component trans-anethole found in Fennel calms inflammation by regulating cytokine expression in the spleen tissue.
Spleen Qi™ also contains celery Seed, which is known to strengthen spleen function by improving blood strength. Celery seed oil contains natural diuretic constituents and anti-inflammatory properties that may help regulate fluid metabolism and promote smooth energy flow, supporting healthy spleen function. Helichrysum promotes circulation and frees blocked energy, particularly from old injuries or stagnation in the spleen. Helichrysum may boost circulation, potentially benefiting the spleen’s role in blood filtration and red blood cell production.
What’s more, Oregano essential oil is a powerful antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory that can relieve swelling and pain associated with the spleen. Oregano can affect the spleen’s health, particularly during immune responses and infections. The spleen plays a crucial role in the immune response, and oregano extract has shown promise in mitigating the adverse effects of E. coli infection on the spleen in animal models. The changes observed in the spleen tissue, such as reduced depletion and improved white pulp, indicate that oregano extract may help the spleen’s immune cells function more effectively in combating the infection.
How to Apply Spleen Qi™
Apply 2-3 drops of Spleen Qi™ over the spleen (left side of the body, under the breast) or over the Spleen 6-point (inside of the leg just above the highest peak of your ankle), four finger widths up from, apply deep pressure slightly behind the tibia bone.
You can also topically apply Spleen Qi™ over a powerful spleen acupuncture point—Spleen 6, located inside the leg just above the highest peak of your ankle (four finger widths up from, apply deep pressure slightly behind the tibia bone). You can read more here.
You can also apply specific blends over the organ systems they are designed to balance. To alleviate anxiety or fatigue, which is often a reflection of underlying adrenal imbalances, you might apply indicated essential oils on the lower back over the adrenal glands. Applying essential oils to pulse points, like the wrists, temples, and back of the neck, where blood vessels are closest to the skin, allows for quicker absorption and helps them get to work faster.
Featured Oils:
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References:
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313508350
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2775888/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6072219/
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/200711/the-hidden-force-fragrance
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19370942/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5094457/
