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Aromatherapy
Stress Management through Aromatherapy
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According to Julia Lawless in her book, Encyclopedia of Essential Oils, there are distinct effects of EO on the human body:
- Pharmacological effect – scent will cause chemical reaction within the body, organs, muscles, tissues, glands when EO enters the bloodstream. For example, Lavender is excellent for burns, Helichrysum for bruises, Eucalyptus is always recommended for colds and sinuses and for aches and pains, Sweet Marjoram will top my list.
- Physiological effect – scent will affect body system causing it to experience, relaxing, sedating, energizing or balancing sensations. Stress buster and a relaxing favorite is of course, Lavender. Peppermint, on the other hand, is the perfect wake me up scent.
- Psychological effect – scent will stimulate a person’s response. This is when a scent will take you to a past experience or reminds you of a certain person, place, etc. Cedarwood for me is my Papa - masculine and strong and it also takes me back to his closet which was my favorite hiding place. Ylang-Ylang which was grown wildly in our backyard will always be my childhood, home and comfort scent.
During the Psychology of Perfumery Conference in 1991, it was agreed that “while pharmacological effects may be very similar from one person to another, psychological and physiological effects are bound to be different. The effects of a particular scent vary from one person to another depending on various factors such as past associations with the odor, age, sex, personality type, environment and inability to smell.”
Most of us are so accustomed to synthetic fragrances that natural scents of EOs could be daunting and to some offending. I suggest you start with more familiar scents like citrusy and flowery before you try herbaceous and medicinal scents.
The ancient and rich culture of Egypt has paintings and papyrus manuscripts documenting the use of essential oils in their cosmetics, rituals, baths, temples and most notably in the embalming process that enabled them to preserve mummies for centuries. The Assyrians, Babylonians, Hebrews, Arabs, Romans and Greeks soon adopted the Egyptian aromatic medicine and the latter in fact mastered the art of aromatics that made Greece known as the bathing capital of the World. Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine (circa 460-377 BC) recommends daily baths and regular massages with infusions of various herbs and essential oils.
It is ironic to think that essential oils opened the door to the evolution of synthetic fragrances and today’s modern drugs in mid 1800. The credibility and inconsistencies of the essential oils slowly limited its use in the perfume, cosmetic and food industries. And overtime, essential oils disappeared in history.
In 1910 the word aromatherapie was first coined by French chemist, René-Maurice Gattefossé, who while working in his laboratory, accidentally burned his hand. He immediately submerged his burned hand in a bucket of lavender oil. To his surprise, his hand healed without blisters and almost without a scar. He then reclaimed the therapeutic benefits of essential oils; thus, the rebirth of Aromatherapy in the 20th century.
Today though, it is a marketing hype that any product that has a scent is considered aromatherapy. What makes essential oils different from synthetic fragrances or perfume oils are the chemical composition present in plants that offers therapeutic benefits.
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