Does Aromatherapy Really Provide Health Benefits?

Mind is All

Is there really anything to aromatherapy? Are there any tangible health benefits to using aromatherapy? The answer is yes: there have been studies on aromatherapy, with exciting conclusions.

Aromatherapy is when you use smells to improve your body and mental state. It's possible to stimulate specific physical reactions by using scents. The sense of smell is a physical and chemical sense; you smell things and react without even thinking much about it. That’s why you feel nostalgic when you smell your mother’s perfume (even in a different location, on a different person) or freshly cut grass.

One of the most trusted of the aromatherapy studies shows that lavender has a very powerful affect on you physically. The physical effect of lavender is to slow your heart rate and actually lower your blood pressure. You can request for lavender essential oil to be added to your massage oil, which is something professional massage therapists often do. Many geriactric units are starting to use lavender to calm and soothe dementia patients. You can also use geranium essential oil, which is similar in effect.

When studying aromatherapy, scientists have discovered yet another powerful aromatherapy tool: peppermint. It has been determined that peppermint enhances your ability to focus, increasing your alertness and mental clarity. One study evaluated kids who chewed gum while testing; the kids who chewed peppermint gum outscored the kids who chewed other flavors.

A lot of people use grapefruit essential oil because it is supposed to work as an appetite suppressant. Another fun thing about grapefruit essential oils was discovered in a study evaluating men, scent, and age--apparantly men think women who smell like grapefruit are younger than those who wear other scents.

However, not all aromatherapy is equal. Your body won't have the same response to a synthetic product as an essential oil. And you'll want to choose high grade essential oils off the knock off low grade oils. You can buy the expensive high grade essential oil and then use just a teensy bit in a base oil like almond oil or in a lotion.