Don Gary Young N.D., President and Founder
Young Living Essential Oils
The Story of a Man and His Mission
Crippling Injury
On
February 8, 1973, Gary Young suffered a crippling injury from a logging accident
that changed his life forever. This accident -- which nearly cost him his
life -- transformed him both physically and emotionally and would eventually
impact the lives of countless people in ways he could have never imagined.
Gary
was raised in the central mountains of Idaho on a ranch with no indoor plumbing
or electricity. Learning at an early age to survive off the land, he left
home at age 17 to seek his fortune in the wilderness of Canada. He homesteaded
320 acres and began building a sizable ranching and logging operation. It
was here that he suffered a near-fatal logging accident.
After
three weeks in a coma and four months in intensive care, Gary found himself
paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for life, according to the doctors'
prognoses. Following two years of intense pain and depression and three suicide
attempts, he resolved to regain control of his life. 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. Later he embarked
on a worldwide investigation of natural medicine, from herbology and acupuncture
to nutrition and 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 Improvement
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 Gary Young was able
to run a half-marathon, finishing 60th out of 970 participants.
Worldwide Search for
Truth
After
receiving a master's degree in nutrition and a doctorate in naturopathy, Gary
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. 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. 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.
Building
on his clinical research in the mid-1980s, Gary traveled across three continents
and a half-dozen countries to investigate both traditional and modern uses
of essential oils, gaining insights on every facet of essential oil production,
from distillation and harvesting to seed selection and crop management.
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.
New Avenues Open Up
1993 - This
motivated Gary to develop his own organic herb farming and distillation operation
in 1993 under the name Young Living Essential Oils. Purchasing land in Utah
and Idaho, he began 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.
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 to Weber
State University on the antibacterial properties of essential oils.
Gary
has continued to probe the fundamental basis of human health on his recent
journey to Hunzaland in the Himalayan mountains of northern Pakistan -- home
to some of the longest-living people known in the world. By investigating
the Hunza people's dietary and lifestyle practices, 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 almost a decade ago to disseminate both traditional and
modern knowledge of different healing modalities has grown to encompass more
than 250,000 distributors in 20 foreign countries. "Essential oils have
already transformed the way we deal with illness and aging, and they are continuing
to revolutionize natural medicine," states Dr. Young.
Read more:
Young Living Farms
Gary Young, Young Living Founder's achievements
|