If you have ever used a vapor rub for a cough then you have tried aromatherapy, although not in its purest form. As a matter of fact, you probably have been using aromatherapy on yourself and your family for many years without realizing it through vapor rubs or electric vaporizers.
Vicks or other brands of vapor rub use eucalyptus or menthol to clear out stuffy chests and noses. Imagine if you used the undiluted essential oil of eucalyptus how clear your lungs would feel.
Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils from plants for healing. Although the word “aroma” makes it sound as if the oils would be inhaled, they can also be massaged into the skin or -- rarely -- taken by mouth. Essential oils should never be taken by mouth without specific instruction from a trained and qualified specialist. Whether inhaled or applied on the skin, essential oils are gaining new attention as an alternative treatment for infections, stress, and other health problems. However, in most cases scientific evidence is still lacking.
Aromatherapy’s beauty is in more than just its lovely scents. Aromatic essential oils extracted from trees, flowers, grasses, herbs, fruits, leaves, roots, and shrubs have the power to alleviate disease, promote vibrant health, and soothe stress. Essential oils used in aromatherapy can be more effective than their modern-day chemical counterparts. Can your favorite commercial perfume also cut a cold short, boost your brainpower, or brighten your complexion? The essential oils used in aromatherapy do all this and more. It just so happens that they also smell wonderful.
Aromatherapy unlocks the therapeutic power of nature, and small doses of essential oils extracted from a variety of plants worldwide are incredibly effective and pleasant ways to promote health without polluting our bodies, homes, or planet with synthetic substances.
Using aromatherapy for pleasure and for health is a truly holistic approach to well-being. Presently, there are about three hundred essential oils used in aromatherapy worldwide to cure common problems like stress, insomnia, emotional issues, and migraines. People have been using these oils for generations, and they have started appearing more frequently in commercial products, too, including medicine, food and drink, fragrances, and cosmetics.
A single essential oil can have dozens of uses. Peppermint, for instance, is marketed by the pharmaceutical industry as Colpermin and sold for its soothing effect on the digestive system. Commercially, it appears in everything from candy to aftershave. In private homes, it’s often used to alleviate headaches or to deter ants and mice. There is no single use for any essential oil, and many work wonders for a variety of common ailments, which makes aromatherapy so versatile.
Essential oils are a plant’s lifeblood: like your own blood, they contain hundreds of beneficial elements in even the tiniest droplet. When we extract essential oils from a plant, we extract its most potent medicinal properties. These oils form the basis of aromatherapy. Just as you benefit from the peace and tranquility of standing in a field full of lavender, you benefit similarly from just a single drop of lavender essential oil added to a steaming bath or dabbed onto a pillowcase at bedtime.
We obtain essential oils used in aromatherapy from different parts of a plant, including roots, leaves, stalks, seeds, resin, fruit peels, tree bark, or pine needles and twigs. For instance, bay oil comes from bay leaves, cumin oil from the seeds, lemon oil from the peel, and cinnamon oil from tree bark.
Extracting these delicate oils to produce just a few drops is an art form. Unlike perfumes, which can be created in a laboratory at very low cost, essential oils need to be extracted under very particular conditions. For instance, to produce just one ounce of pure rose oil, you need sixty thousand rose blossoms. Jasmine blossoms, which produce one of the most prized and expensive aromatherapy oils on the market, must be picked by hand on the first day they burst open – and before the sun destroys their precious oil forever. And sandalwood cannot be extracted from any tree that is not at least thirty years old and thirty feet high.
But the effort invested in producing these essential oils for aromatherapy use seems a bargain when compared to the endless benefits these oils provide. Whether you use them as part of an indulgent bath or massage, inhale them via incense smoke or steam, add them to your beauty concoctions or simply let their essence waft from a lit candle, you are not only enjoying a pleasant scent. You’re enjoying the spoils of the most comprehensive medicine cabinet on Earth: nature’s!
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