What is Aromatherapy?

Aromatherapy is the systematic use of volatile plant oils known as essential oils for the treatment or prevention of disease. It is a form of complementary therapy designed to treat the whole person and not just the symptom or disease by assisting the body’s natural ability to balance, regulate, heal and maintain itself.

Essential oils consist of tiny aromatic molecules that are readily absorbed via the skin, and whilst breathing they enter the lungs. These therapeutic constituents next enter the bloodstream and are carried around the body where they can deliver their beneficial healing powers. Because they are highly concentrated, only a small quantity of essential oil is required to bring about results.

When using good quality essential oils correctly, the soothing combination of beautiful aromas, massage, aromatic baths and other treatments all work to regulate, balance, heal and maintain your entire being by working with nature, and not against it. A far cry from allopathic medicine, which tends to take a ’sledgehammer to crack a nut’ approach.

History

Aromatherapy has origins in antiquity with the use of infused aromatic oils, made by macerating dried plant material in fatty oil, heating and then filtering. Many such oils, and their healing properties, are described by Dioscorides in his De Materia Medica, written in the first century. Distilled essential oils have been employed as medicines since the invention of distillation in the eleventh century, when Avicenna isolated essential oils using steam distillation.

The concept of aromatherapy was first mooted by a small number of European scientists and doctors, in about 1907. In 1937, the word first appeared in print in a French book on the subject: Aromathérapie: Les Huiles Essentielles, Hormones Végétales by René-Maurice Gattefossé, a chemist. An English version was published in 1993. In 1910, Gattefossé burned a hand very badly in a laboratory explosion. The hand developed gas gangrene, which he successfully, and intentionally, treated with lavender oil. This helped greatly to fire an already existing interest in aromatherapy, though it was not the “lucky accident” that is sometimes recounted by others.

A French surgeon, Jean Valnet, pioneered the medicinal uses of essential oils, which he used as antiseptics in the treatment of wounded soldiers during World War II.

A holistic approach

Today, aromatherapy is one of the most popular of all complementary therapies, offering a wide range of highly effective treatments to both the acute and chronic stages of illness and disease. At the same time, regular use of aromatherapy treatments and home-use products can help to strengthen the immune system, thereby establishing a preventative approach to overall health.

One of the reasons that aromatherapy has been so hugely successful is because it uses a holistic approach, whereby the aromatherapist takes into account a persons medical history, emotional condition, general health and lifestyle before planning a course of treatment. The whole person is treated – not just the symptoms of an illness – and this is in direct opposition to the modern trend of just treating the presented condition.

Backache, irritable bowel syndrome or headaches, for example, are often the result of stress and not actually a physical problem. Therefore no amount of pill-popping is really going to provide a long term solution since it only masks the symptoms without addressing the problems. By looking at the causes of the stress and providing treatments to ease and manage it, the aromatherapist will alleviate the condition in a much more efficient manner.

How Aromatherapy works

When applied to the body, essential oils penetrate the skin via the hair follicles and sweat glands and are absorbed into the body fluids, where they not only help to kill bacteria and viruses but also stimulate the body’s immune system, thereby strengthening resistance to further attack.

Some essential oils increase the circulation and help with the efficient elimination of toxins, others promote new cell growth and encourage the body’s natural ability to heal itself. Each essential oil has its own character and aroma, exhibiting a varying number of properties and benefits which are unique to itself, since no two essential oils are quite the same.

The minute molecules of essential oils are readily absorbed into the bloodstream when they are inhaled and the lungs work to oxygenate the blood. This form of absorption is most efficient when inhaling essential oils from a tissue, diffusing them in a vaporizer, or adding them to your bathwater. The aroma sends a signal directly to the Limbic System in the brain which is the centre of emotions, memory and sexual arousal. This is why essential oils have such a powerful effect on our moods and general state of mind, as we will see later.

Magical combination

Massage is one of the best ways to enjoy aromatherapy because you not only receive the therapeutic properties of the essential oils, but you also get the wonderful benefits of the massage itself. The therapeutic action of the essential oils when brought together with the revitalising effects of massage stimulate all of the organs in the body, plus the skin, muscles, nerves and glands. The increased circulation of the blood and lymph flow also assists with the clearing away of body toxins.

Because essential oils can influence our emotions, aromatherapy can help to lift depression, soothe irritable nerves and generally encourage a better state of mind. It has been discovered that relaxing oils such as Lavender, Sweet Marjoram, Clary Sage, Sandalwood, Frankincense and Ylang Ylang work by stimulating a neuro-chemical called serotonin that is naturally produced by the body to help relaxation and induce sleep. It is this action that makes these oils so invaluable in helping long-term conditions such as insomnia, stress and tension.

Cycle of illness

Physical illness that has continued over a long period of time causes a negative emotional state, and this can eventually lead to a compromised immune system. This situation can be particularly devastating since the weakened immune system will now be more vulnerable to further infection, and another new infection can lead to even further emotional depression. A downward spiral of emotional and physical health can ensue, producing a vicious cycle of illness that can be very difficult to break without the correct treatment.

Scientists have proven that negative and positive emotions really can change the complex chemistry of our bodies, and these changes can have a negative or positive effect on the immune system. For example, some research has shown how prolonged stress can cause the body to over-produce cortisol and adrenalin which are hormones produced by the adrenal glands.

Fight or flight

These two hormones are normally secreted to produce a burst of energy as part of the ‘fight or flight’ response, and of course this response is an essential tool for survival. Prolonged periods of emotional and psychological pressures however, means that the over-production of these hormones can begin to weaken the integrity of the immune system because they reduce the level of T-helper cells, and inhibit the production of natural killer cells.

The research leading to this discovery supports the claims of aromatherapists who have always believed that the sense of well being produced after using essential oils in a treatment can help to boost the immune system, especially in cases of stress and depression where the immune system has become depleted. Regular treatments using essential oils and aromatherapy massage helps to break the cycle of depression which causes immunodeficiency, whilst at the same time helping to boost the depleted immune system.