Aromatherapy: Aromatherapy For Healing
07/10/22 00:03 Filed in:
AromatherapyThe art of aromatherapy practiced for thousands of years and in many ancient traditions. Though aromatic oils were used to treat and cure various ailments and conditions into antiquity, the formal study on their therapeutic properties only started in 1928.
In its simplest form, aromatherapy is the use of essential plant oils for therapeutic purposes. Normally employed to relieve a person from stress and a variety of stress-related conditions, they also promote an individual’s general well being, invigorating the body and the psyche.
Aromatherapy works by flooding the olfactory nerve cells with aromatic oils, which then carries the message out to the limbic system, and into the brain. The limbic system is the part of the brain responsible for controlling memory and emotions.
Aromatherapy concerns itself in the workings of both the physical and emotional aspects. Physically, aromatherapy helps relieve specific conditions acting to stimulate the nervous, immune and circulatory systems. Emotionally they work to evoke pleasant memories and uplifted moods.
Although the medical community may not always agree whether aromatherapy in itself is instrumental to healing various medical conditions, the idea of recovery through aromatherapy is widely accepted.
Essential oils derived from the distillation of the elements of a plant like the leaves, roots, flowers, stems and bark, hold high concentrations of the essence from which they originally came. Though termed as oil, essential oils normally do not have the real properties of oil. Some essential oils are yellow like that of the lemongrass and orange and many are clear.
Oils are used in a variety of methods: through inhalation, adding them in the bathwater and applying diluted oils on the body. The use of oil in aromatherapy is only restricted to those with unadulterated qualities. The purest of the essential oils have the greatest therapeutic value.
The following is a list of the common essential oils used in aromatherapy. Some of which are used as carrier oils (also known as vegetable oils or base oils):
– Almond, Sweet
– Apricot Kernel
– Avocado
– Borage
– Calendula
– Cocoa Butter
– Evening Primrose
– Grapeseed
– Hazelnut
– Jojoba
– Kukui
– Macadamia Nut
– Olive
– Peanut
– Pecan
– Rose Hip
– Sesame
– Shea Butter
– Sunflower
Here is the list of essential oils that are not advisable to use in aromatherapy, especially if not supervised by a professional aromatherapy practitioner.
– Ajowan
– Almond, Bitter
– Arnica
– Birch, Sweet
– Boldo Leaf
– Broom, Spanish
– Calamus
– Camphor
– Cinnamon
– Deer Tongue
– Garlic
– Horseradish
– Jaborandi
– Melilotus
– Mugwort
– Mustard
– Onion
– Pennyroyal
– Rue
– Sassafras
– Thuja
– Wintergreen
– Wormseed
– Wormwood
Aromatherapists put into practice the workings of aromatherapy in a spectrum of work environments including:
– private practice
– mobile visiting practice
– natural health clinics
– beauty therapy clinics
– health clubs
– hospitals
– hospices and
– nursing homes.
In spite of the lack of formal research on aromatherapy, therapists and European physicians often prescribing certain aromatic oils for a range of complaints including colds and flu, insomnia, sinusitis, migraines, digestive problems and muscle pains. It should be understood though that aromatic oils must never be taken orally and should be first skin tested to determine the degree of sensitivity and reactivity one has to the oils.
