Saturday, June 13, 2009

What is Aromatherapy?


Aromatherapy is the practice of healing through scent using plant essences, also known as essential oils. Essential oils don’t just work with your sense of smell, but when applied to the skin in a blend, they can also work transdermally.

Aromatherapy works in a number of ways. The first and most obvious way being through the sense of smell, or the olfactory sense. Scent directly affects the limbic system in the brain which controls things like emotion, behavior, long term memory and the olfactory sense. It is the primary reason why the sense of smell can trigger a memory more acutely than any other.

Aromatherapy can also be used transdermally, or through the skin. Essential oils can be blended together carefully by a qualified aromatherapist, and then applied to the skin in the form of a lotion, cream or massage oil. The essential oils are then absorbed through the skin and into the blood stream. An example of how the process works would be the nicotine patch or the birth control patch. They are treated with a specific medication and then applied to the skin. Since our skin is our largest and most sensitive organ, everything around us is absorbed through our skin and it’s up to our bodies to filter out the substances that we don’t need.

There are several ways to get the benefits of essential oils, including the use of essential oils blended into lotions, creams and carrier oils, through oil vaporizers, and essential oil scented candles and incense sticks. Be sure that the products that you choose are pure essentials, as the US currently has no regulation about the labeling of essential oils. It is possible that you could be getting a synthetic product, which is not suitable for aromatherapy. Look for oils labeled therapeutic grade, this is the highest level of purity.
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