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Lavender is simply an amazing remedy from every standpoint. It’s effective for so many things, being a topical antiseptic, wound healer and pain reliever. Its soothing qualities happen both on a local cellular level and on the grander scale of our overall body and mind. Its effective and its safe. Very safe, in fact — safe for everyone of every age. And it has a lot of scientific research to back it up; it may be the second most researched oil of all time, and the oil which actually began the modern aroma-medicine revolution. So what’s all the latest hub-bub about? Its the proven (meaning at least “very thoroughly tested”) anti-anxiety effects that are so potent as to match the most effective pharmaceutical drugs available. Here’s a quick look at the overall effects of Lavender, and the latest and greatest in science to back it up.

The sweet aroma of Lavender brings calm to almost everyone — it seems particularly effective for children, women and the elderly (some men may not appreciate the floral aroma, and might do better with soothing scents like Sandalwood or Bergamot). Lavender’s aroma has proven itself an effective stress reliever in many, many laboratory studies, addressing “stress” from virtually every possible way you can define it. It even relieves “stress” when applied directly to wounds, lessening the pain felt at nerve endings.

The wonderful aspect of the stress-relieving action of Lavender is that it’s so easy to make use of the oil this way. For personal use, you only need to inhale deeply from a bottle, or dab a couple drops on your wrists to get a little whiff of the scent now and then. For the home, family, or workplace, there are several styles of essential oil diffusers available which release aroma into the air. Any diffuser style will work for stress reduction; it just takes a hint of the aroma in the air to have its effect.

Some of the latest research reports on the oil are the most fascinating, discussing the anti-stress effects of ingesting a little Lavender. To the aromatherapy practitioner, this is somewhat unexpected, as the action of the oil has always been attributed to the activity within the olfactory sense, and then the emotional centers of the brain.

This latest research (abstracts of all research referenced in this article are available through pubmed.gov) was an evaluation of a new capsule containing 80mg of the essential oil (the equivalent of about 2 drops of oil). Study participants took one capsule daily for ten weeks, and came in every two weeks for an assessment of their mental, emotional and physical well-being. The primary focus was whether the Lavender capsule was effective at treating “non-syndromal” anxiety, which essentially means anxiety that isn’t so serious as to be all-consuming of one’s life. The results were impressive: under every evaluation technique or scale used in the study, the Lavender capsule outperformed the placebo. Participants were less stressed, slept deeper, and had better health and well-being overall.

To really be convincing, these same researchers also evaluated the Lavender capsule against a well-known, very potent anti-anxiety drug. The results were very impressive. The natural capsule was as effective as the pharmaceutical preparation in every way, with the researchers noting the important difference that the essential oil capsule had no potential for abuse. This was due to the fact that all the anti-anxiety properties came about without the additional feature of sedation; the Lavender oil pill could put you at ease without knocking you out!

Another interesting study exposed patients waiting to see the dentist to Lavender essential oil aroma. The oil was simply diffused in the waiting room for some, while other patients received no aroma. The result was that all patients still reported being nervous about seeing the dentist, but the group exposed to the Lavender aroma noted statistically significant lower anxiety while in the waiting room. So the essential oil’s scent didn’t change their personal idea of the experience of the dentist, but significantly affected the actual stress they felt just before their appointment. In a study very similar to this, the oil reduced pre-test taking anxiety of nursing students.

In other medical scenarios, 54 patients undergoing surgery receiving gastric bands (a device to assist dangerously obese individuals to reduce their caloric intake by making the entrance to their stomach smaller) were divided into groups to receive post operative exposure to either Lavender or unscented baby oil. During post-operative recovery, fewer patients receiving the flower’s aroma required analgesics, and those that did required significantly less to achieve a comfortable state.

So clearly Lavender essential oil can really be of help to folks that are stressed out, or sleep poorly, or both. And the great thing about the oil is that is so easy to use for this purpose. No need to figure out dilution ratios for topical application — just inhale it! Open a little bottle and inhale straight from that, or sprinkle a little on your carpet, or go so far as to use in in an aromatherapy diffuser. You can even ingest a couple of drops a day, either in a capsule, cup of water, or “neat” if you like. Lavender essential oil is such a versatile, safe and effective stress reliever, its worth a try by nearly everyone in these fast-paced times.

The author has made available much information about aromatherapy, such as using sage oil and other aromatherapy oils.

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I know what it is like, you need to buy someone a present and you need to do it quickly. You are researching on the internet looking for help. I want to help you so I am going to make a suggestion. Why don’t you buy an aromatherapy gift? Not convinced? Let me try and convince you then.

Aromatherapy has become more popular over recent years. It is a form of alternative medicine and can make a really positive impact on the person who is on the receiving end. There are a number of ways that it can help an individual.

But you want to know how an aromatherapy gift will specifically help someone don’t you? If they suffer from stress then the relaxing effect should improve the individual’s mood. It can be of help to people wit respiratory problems as well.

Aromatherapy works with essential oils. There are lots of oils that each have different effects. One or more of these oils could make up an aromatherapy gift. There is lots of choice and you could pick specific ones that will really help the person you are buying for.

If you are buying for someone who has never done aromatherapy before why not think about a book or a DVD? This will help them get the most out of it and actually put the oils to some use.

If you are buying essential oils as an aromatherapy gift then you need to be careful about making sure they have been diluted properly. If they are in concentrated form they can irritate the skin. Also, don’t buy them for pregnant women.

You should now have ideas about what you could buy as an aromatherapy gift. Depending on your budget you could stretch to paying for a treatment at a local spa. No matter what you get I’m sure they will love it.

If you are still thinking about buying an aromatherapy gift then go to Liz’s Blog. There you will find lots of information about this type of treatment and the best aromatherapy gift on the market.

By using essential oils for skin care, you’re not only using exceptionally potent therapeutic herbal extracts, you’re also able to precisely tailor your blends to your skin’s needs. When making these blends, the essential oils are mixed into seed or nut oils called “carrier oils”. The carrier oils provide macro- and micro-nutrients to the skin, and aid absorption of the essential oils. Some truly exotic carrier oils have come on the scene recently, having profoundly therapeutic action themselves. Mix up your blend with these and you’ll really have a super skin care formula. This is a quick review of these “new” carrier oils, and how you might use them.

Our first oil is probably the most familiar, though its really still pretty exotic: Rosehip seed oil. Rosehips are actually the fruit of the rose flower, which makes it an interesting component in beauty care — in that rose essential oil is though to be one of the most therapeutic skin care essential oils. The most common rosehip seed oil is pressed from the seeds of these fruits from rose plants growing in the mountains of Chile. Now under commercial cultivation, these roses originally grew wild in the region.

Rosehip seed oil offers its own unique combination of essential fatty acids and micro-nutrients that work together to stimulate cellular turnover. It’s like nature’s own “retin-A”, a pharmaceutical anti-wrinkle cream, without the drying effect. The oil has been the subject of several studies performed at the University of Santiago, with dramatic results. The oil alone resulted in significant reduction of appearance of wrinkles, fine lines and scars. The oil is typically used at about twenty percent of one’s overall formula, though it can be used at one-hundred percent if desired. For improving skin texture, it is an indispensable oil.

The most broadly therapeutic of the exotic skin care oils, and perhaps one of the most broadly therapeutic carrier oil for nearly every purpose, is Tamanu. This thick, grainy, green and pungent oil is pressed from aged tamanu nuts. These grow wild on the South Pacific island of Vanuatu, and throughout the region.

Tamanu is one of the few “fixed” oils discussed by Dr. Kurt Schnaubelt in Advanced Aromatherapy. He indicates it strikes a balance between a carrier oil and an essential oil, possibly due to its profound therapeutic action. The oil is thought to help nearly every conceivable skin care condition. From daily moisturizing, to preventing damage after sun exposure, to stimulating cellular turnover (and hence helping both wrinkles and scars), to helping the skin fight off fungal infections. The oil IS unique in appearance and smell, so you may want to blend it with other oils — though it can be used at 100% if so desired.

A new oil sweeping the high end skin care markets is Argan, also called Moroccan Oil — taking its name from the origin of the nut. The oil has been used for ages in the region for both cooking and cosmetics. It’s acceptance by users of natural beauty products have been a boon to the local economy, and resulted in positive steps to preserve this wonderful natural resource.

Argan nut oil is known for its relatively high amount of natural vitamin E, along with other polyphenol antioxidants. Polyphenols are highly effective antioxidants which generally have other important health effects as well. Consider that it’s the polyphenol “resveratrol” in red wine that has been found to extend the lifespan of many animals. Along with these micro-nutrients, argan is full of essential fatty acids — and the combination of these nutrients work together to create an oil with excellent anti-aging therapeutics.

As you can see, these exotic carrier oils are all highly regarded for skin care, with significant potential to keep your skin looking smooth and healthy. For a truly therapeutic aromatherapy base formula, you can use all three together in equal parts. A fourth profoundly effective oil that’s no longer so exotic is coconut. While solid at room temperature, when blended with these other oils, it will remain liquid. Coconut, also being one of those skin care oils with a plethora of therapeutic activity, will blend exceptionally well with these three. To this formula, simply add 4 to 11 drops of one or more essential oils per ounce of carrier mixture. The essential oils can be selected precisely for your skin’s needs, creating perhaps the finest skin care preparation available to you.

The author is proponent of the varied and potent healing actions of aromatherapy essential oils. For more, see www.anandaapothecary.com.

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One of the great concerns of the aromatherapy practitioner is keeping their essential oils at their best. If one buys a good stock of oils, how should they be kept? The answer is a little complex, requiring diligence and knowledge about each type of oil, and the most protective means by which an oil can be stored. Let’s take a look at the range of possibilities, and how you can most easily care for your stock of precious therapeutic essential oils.

There really is a range of lifespans of therapeutic grade essential oils, the reason being is that some oils are highly susceptible to degradation by environmental factors, while others actually benefit from these factors — with a whole range in between. These factors are simply air, light and heat. So you can see that leaving a bottle open in the sunlight can be the fastest way to age it. Seal this bottle up with very little air in the top, put it in cool storage, and you’ll be aging that same oil very slowly. This “anti-aging” method will work for all oils, but is really only necessary for a very few.

One terms that’s often used, whose meaning is difficult to pin down is “shelf life”. This term is used by manufacturers to help guide consumers as to how long the oil will be “good” for if kept in the most common conditions: in a closed bottle on an open shelf somewhere in your house. For the advanced practitioner, this term has little meaning however, because with the right storage conditions, even very delicate oils can last a very long time.

It’s also important to consider that its not the end of the world if an essential oil’s aroma gets a little flat. It will still retain much of its therapeutic benefit — if you still like the aroma, wonderful! Inhale it! At the same time, some oils actually cause skin irritation to some people if they’ve gotten old. This has been proven for lavender and tea tree essential oils. Again, they many still impart their therapeutic benefits, but for some people (about 18% of the population) get skin reaction to these oils if they’ve aged too long. The bottom line here is that its still safe to enjoy the aroma of older oils that have theoretically short shelf lives, but its probably better to avoid using them in other ways unless they’ve been stored in a very protective manner.

Looking at the aging of individual oils and groups of oils, it is the cold-pressed citrus oils which oxidize most rapidly. You could even conceive of why this might be: these oils have been directly extracted from fresh fruit, whereas other oils have been steam distilled or solvent extracted. They are the most close to nature as you can come.

For reasons simply due to the natural chemical makeup of the oil, it is grapefruit essential oil that ages most quickly — often having a shelf life of around six months. This can be extended many, many times by storing the oil in a dark bottle, sealed, with very little air at the top, in the refrigerator. You can see this puts a stop to the potential actions of air, light and heat. The best practice of all is, if you will be using the oil frequently, leave some out in a bottle you will work from, bringing the bottle you’ve got in “cold storage” out as infrequently as possible. This creates a condition where the oil is disturbed the very least over its lifespan.

The floral essential oils have a great range of natural shelf lives. Neroli, the delicate anti-stress, anti-anxiety oil has a shelf life similar to those of the cold pressed citrus oils. At the other end of the spectrum are Jasmine and Rose, which naturally retain their wonderful properties for many years after their extraction. Between these are lavender and ylang ylang, which should be considered for cold storage if not being used in the first few months after purchase.

The essential oils distilled from herbs, grasses and evergreens also have a relatively long shelf life, on the order of one to two years. The spice oils, somewhat overlapping this group, have a shorter life when considering their effervescence. The loss of this very top note of “spicy-ness” will not have a huge effect on certain therapeutic properties; ginger, for example, will still have a strong anti-inflammatory action even if this top note is lost. It’s also important to note that many of these oils are available as “CO2″ distillations, which, according to their manufacturer, have a significantly longer shelf life when compared to the steam distilled varieties.

Then there are the oils that actually improve with age. This includes many of the very earthy aromatics: sandalwood, patchouli, vetiver, frankincense and myrrh. Their fresh, top notes when first distilled are considered harsh, and not necessary for their therapeutic activity. Rather, the aromas become smoother and more beneficial with age. These oils of course require no special storage considerations.

As you can see, there is truly a very diverse range of natural “durability” of essential oils. Without specific data on each oil, you can go by this rule of thumb: the more lively or fresh and oil is in its optimal state, the more likely it should be carefully stored if you do not intend to use it fairly quickly (within 3 months). The safest long-term storage is in the refrigerator, in a dark glass bottle with as little air in the bottle as possible — and leaving this bottle undisturbed; in a cool, dark cabinet is nearly as effective. Clearly there are many factors involved in keeping your oils at their maximum therapeutic potential, but with a little know-how and understanding, it’s really easy — and rewarding — to do.

More on the healing effects of essential oils can be found at http://www.anandaapothecary.com.

Sandalwood is one of the most treasured aromatics by aromatherapy practitioners, and perhaps one of the most treasured by human civilization as well. Recorded use of the wood and its products date back over four millennium, more than any other aromatic plant. Yet while most practitioners make use of the oil for its unequaled scent, few are aware of some of its important science-proven medicinal effects.

The exotic oil comes from the heartwood of trees native to certain tropical regions of the world. Curiously, the sandalwood tree is only found growing on, or intertwined with, other trees; it’s considered, in fact, a parasite. Further, the trees are quite slow growing, and demand a certain amount of age before being mature enough to distill a significant volume of high-quality oil. This makes for a unique challenge in growing the wood and distilling the precious essential oil.

The wood considered the world’s finest is the Santalum album species of India. The trees have been so over-harvested however that they are now endangered. In India and Nepal, it has been decreed that the governments of these nations are now the owners of all the sandalwood trees in these nations. Sandalwood oil has essentially come to a stop in these countries, and the only “legal”oil left is several years old, produced before the ban went into effect. On a very positive note, the acclaimed Indian species of the tree is under large-scale cultivation in Australia (a producer of a very pleasant wildcrafted essential oil as well), though these have not reached maturity in numbers for commercial availability of the essential oil.

Obviously there must be something to this oil for it to be so prized! While the oil and the wood have been closely tied to spiritual practices for thousands of years, research laboratories are only just now uncovering some profound medicinal properties. A paste made of the wood has historically been used as medicine for the skin, and now it’s been discovered the essential oil alone can actually prevent the formation of skin cancers. When skin is pre-treated with the oil, then exposed to potentially damaging quantities of ultra-violet radiation, the formation of cancerous tumors is significantly reduced.

Researchers at South Dakota State University, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, noted “alpha-santalol, a major component of sandalwood oil, is effective in preventing skin cancer in…UVB-induced skin cancer development.” Researchers at the University of Colorado, Denver, noted that the oil caused apoptosis (normal cell death) of cells that were on their way to becoming cancerous. Clearly the essential oil makes an important therapeutic contribution to skin care formulations for those spending a lot of time in the sun.

The aroma is highly regarded for its calming, centering qualities, without being sedating. Researchers in Vienna, Austria published research indicating study participants were positively affected in the areas of alertness, attentiveness, calmness, mood, relaxation and vigor. This correlates to its long-time use as the first choice aromatic in aiding meditation. It is reputed to quiet mental chatter, again while bringing the awareness to a singular focus.

Interestingly, while the oil heightens awareness, it actually supports deeper, more restful sleep. Research on the inhalation of the aroma showed that study participants usually challenged to get a good rest spent much less time awake, and the total time spent in “rapid eye movement” sleep was also increased. The affect was attributed to the oil’s action in the bloodstream after inhalation, not on the sensing of the aroma. So a gentle massage with the oil may be just as effective as using a diffuser for improved sleep with the oil.

This is just a brief look at some wonderful therapeutic actions available using sandalwood. Its skin care properties go far beyond sun protection; these include care for dry skin, mature skin and acne-prone skin as well. The oil is very safe, and well-tolerated by nearly everyone. When you find yourself looking for a source of sandalwood, you’ll find several varieties available. Research has shown them to be fairly equivalent in many respects therapeutically — for skin care, the lower-cost Australian is an excellent choice. For aromatic uses, find one that you enjoy the most! And know that a little goes a long way — start with a small amount, and enjoy its subtle, uplifting nature.

The author is a natural health professional utilizing aromatherapy and essential oil blends.

categories: aromatherapy,massage,yoga,alternative health,natural health,cancer,sleep,supplements,disease,illness,fitness,health

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Oh the mysterious Frankincense — it really holds a special status in the world of natural medicine. What other plant extract has been valued as highly as gold, sought after by kings, and been one of the world’s most recognized birthday presents? There must be something to it too, as university’s around the world have found it important enough to spend significant sums investigating its medicinal effects. What follows is a summary of the great benefits of this nearly magical oil, and how you can make use of it.

The Olibanum tree from which Frankincense is extracted, is upon first glance may seem rather unremarkable. It appears as a giant shrub, with many knurled branches topped with abundant slender leaves and occasionally, small white flowers. A native to northern Africa, it even looks like it belongs in the desert, growing in some of the world’s harshest conditions. When the tree’s bark is pierced with a ‘mingaf’ knife, a milky-white resin is exuded and collected; thought the tree is not harmed. The resin forms droplets known as tears or pearls, which harden in to the orange-brown gum known itself as Frankincense.

The most medicinally efficacious essential oil is possibly the “super-critical carbon dioxide” distillation of Boswellia carteri — this fancy new distillation method makes a more complex, thicker, and possibly more healing oil than the classic steam distillation. One of the advantages is that the plant material is not heated nearly as much as it would be if processed with steam, the result being a product closer to the original in chemical formulation. Some prominent aromatherapists who didn’t particularly care for this extraction method with other plants have given it the “thumb’s up” when used with Frankincense.

One of the simplest therapeutic applications is that of skin care. Frankincense is noted in many texts as one of the premier oils for care of mature skin. An extract of the resin had been the subject of scientific investigation to improve skin texture and appearance — and that it did. For study participants, the half of their face receiving Frankincense was smoother, and the fine lines were significantly less noticeable. To easily add this to your routine, you can just add a few drops to any lotion, cream or oil you’re already using: anywhere 4 to 12 drops per fluid ounce of your product is about the right concentration. Want to mix up something special? Here’s an extra fine formula: 12 drops Boswellia carteri, 6 drops Neroli, 4 drops Rose Otto and 8 drops Sandalwood in a base of 20% Rosehip Seed, 20% Evening Primrose, 20% virgin Coconut and 40% Jojoba. Your skin will be smooth as silk!

Boswellia extracts (like the CO2 distillation) have found their way into many common over-the-counter pain relieving and anti-inflammatory preparations for joint and muscular pain. Natural chemicals in the oils inhibit the action of pro-inflammatory enzymes. Frankincense essential oil in combination with other anti-inflammatory and analgesic oils can be of great support for arthritis, fibromyalgia, and other painful conditions. A blend to consider for these needs: in each ounce of carrier oil (sweet almond is fine), add 40 drops Frankincense, 40 drops Ginger CO2, 40 drops Sweet Marjoram and 40 drops Plai. Not only is the pain likely to be significantly reduced, but you’re knees will smell wonderful as well!

One of the most fascinating therapeutic potentials of the CO2 extraction is the much-researched anticancer and anti-tumoral activity of the oil. The resin and the oil have been the subject of University studies which have concluded that Frankincense may be a viable treatment for cancer. It has shown the ability to destroy cancerous cells at concentrations which leave healthy cells unharmed. Some aromatherapy practitioners have started to using the essential oil as a preventative measure, topically applying, or in some cases even ingesting small amounts. The oil is considered very safe — non-toxic and non-sensitizing, so that consumption of a couple of drops daily should not pose any health risk. If this is something which interests you, find a natural health care practitioner to consult with to determine the best protocol for your personal condition.

The traditional “aromatherapy” uses of the essential oil focus on its antidepressant and grounding nature. Battaglia in “The Complete Guide to Aromatherapy” notes that it “has the ability to deepen the breath — that is, to slow down the rate of breathing, and increase the amplitude of breathing…an ideal choice for someone with an asthmatic condition associated with nervousness”. This is a very interesting feature considering, that some esoteric physicians believe the lifespan is governed by a total number of breaths, not heartbeats as is more commonly believed.

It’s plain to see Frankincense is a very worthwhile aromatic in the therapist’s toolkit. With anti-aging, anticancer, antidepressant and anti-stress activity, it’s likely that the essential oil can easily find a way into your overall wellness program. You’ll likely be happier and healthier for it, and will have another valuable natural medicine to enjoy and share.

For more on therapeutic grade essential oils visit www.synergyessentialoils.com.

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As aromatherapy practitioners (or aromatherapy beginners), we have so many far-out oils available to us, getting the most exotic oils in the world shipped to us in days via internet shopping. All these fancy sounding oils easily lure our attention, and we sometime forget the gems available in simple oils like Lemon. Cold pressed lemon essential oil is inexpensive, readily available, and has an amazing array of truly therapeutic uses, with science to back them up. Here’s a wrap up of this wonderful oil, and how you can easily make use of it.

The most common use of Lemon oil, and how many people get introduced to it (and to aromatherapy in general) is adding it to drinking water. Folks have been adding the oil to tap water just to add some flavor for a long time, before the idea of purifying your water was a big deal. With a little more understanding of what the oil does, however, now we know we’re NOT just making it taste better, but we’re purifying the water AND ourselves.

In terms of making the water cleaner, Lemon essential oil is noted to kill Diphtheria bacteria at a 0.2% concentration. This converts to 10 drops in about 8 ounces of water. This is a little bit strong — a very lemony flavor — and 5 drops at any one time is a more common amount to consume (unless you feel your water is really in need of purification). The oil is also thought to be an excellent detoxifyer for the liver and the lymph system. For this, add 5 drops to a cup of water and drink on an empty stomach. This can be done first thing in the morning, an excellent time for purification of the body. So you can see, adding a little Lemon to your water is a great idea just for taste, for purification of the water itself, and for personal detoxification — easy to do and very worthwhile!

Lemon has excellent antiseptic properties, which means it kills bacteria on our skin’s surface. For this reason, it can be used for acne-prone skin — because of its photo-toxicity however, this should not be done if the skin is to be exposed to direct sunlight in the following 48 hours. Yet you CAN still use the oil to remove warts — putting one drop on location 1 to 3 times per day can dissolve warts effectively. Want to use this antiseptic quality, but don’t want to use it on your skin? Do the same thing on your kitchen counter tops! For a super eco-friendly cleaner, mix 2 cups water with 2 cups white vinegar, then add 20 to 30 drops of your essential oil. You can use this to clean nearly everything, with a really appealing fresh scent when you’re done.

How about a great mood lifter? Lemon oil is a perfect choice — being the oil that is considered the highest note, the brightness has a direct brightening on our moods. It’s really the perfect choice for those mid-afternoon doldrums, where our minds and bodies really seem to get stuck in slow gear. This is the time to break out the diffuser and get a little lemon oil going! Its ability to lighten up has been backed-up by scientists noting its stress reducing and anxiety relieving action by working with our dopamine and serotonin systems.

It’s not just an emotional pick-me-up Lemon offers, but one to our calculating brains as well. Research in Japan showed office workers reducing their errors by nearly one-half when inhaling the aroma. The essential oil has been the focus of university research which clearly indicated chemical changes in our gray matter: Lemon essential oil reduces the rate at which acetylcholine is broken down, making more available for use. Acetylcholine is the primary information-processing neurotransmitter — so whether its from putting a smile on our faces or making more neurotransmitters available, simple lemon oil is a great choice for students when studying, the office environment, or anytime a little mental clarity is called for.

As you can see, there’s a lot more to lemon essential oil than we usually give it credit for. We can ingest it for detoxification, purify our water with it, clean with it, and inhale it for mental and emotional stimulation. Who would have thought!

The author has made available much information about aromatherapy, such as using geranium and other therapeutic essential oils.

A lot of people have heard about essential oils, and have their own concept of “aromatherapy”, though it’s often the case the truth about these amazing healing agents is still mostly unknown. Did you know essential oil have been shown to eradicate cancer cells in laboratory experiments? Or that they’ve been found effective in treating infections as varied as herpes simplex and MRSA? This incredible research (freely available on the web at www.pubmed.gov) almost instantly opens ones eyes to the potential of essential oils. Here’s a look at the very wide spectrum of applications of these “aromatherapy oils”, and how you might get started using them to improve your health and wellness.

The term “aromatherapy” is very misleading. It implies “aroma” is always involved in the “therapy”. But this is true only in the minority of the time! Aromatherapy is actually the entire branch of botanical and herbal medicine that utilizes the volatile natural chemical compounds extracted from plants for therapeutic use. And is so happens that these volatile aromatic compounds, the “essential oils”, are very diverse in their makeup. Some are made up of hundreds of individual molecules — and these molecules are very compatible with our own physiology. They are easily absorbed by our bodies, and remarkably have an incredible array of healing actions, just “solid” herbs and plant medicines would — just in a very concentrated form.

Many leading aromatherapists believe the greatest health benefits from essential oils come from their anti-infectious nature. Their ability to prevent and cure infectious illness such as colds and flu caused by bacteria and viruses. This potential is supported by a very large body of data from the scientific community, with research noting efficacy against herpes simplex, the SARS virus, the MRSA “superbug”, candida fungus, and a variety of infectious bacteria.

It’s a simple thing just to use essential oils as a preventative measure. In laboratory research, oils have been shown not only to directly eradicate infectious microbes, but actually increase the ability of our immune system to fend off these invaders. Just by evaporating oils into your space, by use of a specially designed aromatherapy diffuser, on can gain these benefits in two ways: essential oil vapors have been shown to eradicate microbes on contact, and the vapors themselves provide protection to the respiratory system when inhaled. Other means of using oils for immune system support include massaging them into the feet — which happen to be a particularly receptive part of the body for this practice — or into the sternum and/or lymph nodes.

Along these lines are the antiseptic applications in aromatherapy. “Antiseptic” simply means an “antimicrobial” used on the skin’s surface. The most simple application is the use of Tea Tree in place of products like Neosporin, alone or in a 50/50 blend with Lavender (this is choice for use with children). Tea Tree is a very broad spectrum antiseptic, and has a wide variety of uses. It’s excellent for acne, used in a 5% concentration based either in a carrier oil like Grapeseed or Hazelnut, or aloe vera gel. Tea Tree is excellent for athlete’s foot and other mild skin infections, as are Palmarosa, Geranium and many other essential oils. All these make great smelling, healthier choices than pharmaceutical preparations.

High end natural skin care products nearly always contain essential oils. Many, many oils have very therapeutic effects on the skin, and personal formulas can be made for practically every skin condition. Itchy, irritated skin? Go for Chamomile and Lavender. Mature skin? Sea Buckthorn, Carrot Seed and Rose Otto in Rosehip Seed carrier. Dry Skin? Try Lavender or Sandalwood in a base of Apricot Kernel. The combinations of custom formulas here are endless, and for that reason, very exciting. Finally its possible to combine “active ingredients” that precisely match your needs, and all are completely natural, healthy, and effective.

Many people are looking of alternatives to either over-the-counter or prescribed pain relievers. Aromatherapy oils again offer an array of effective solutions. Wintergreen oil is the old stand by, being the natural chemical equivalent of “liquid aspirin” (and should be used cautiously for this same reason!). Ginger and Black Pepper oils have both gentle warming actions, as well as COX inhibitors which have been shown to be potent inflammation reducers in laboratory research. Sweet Marjoram is also an excellent analgesic oil included in many arthritis and sports massage formulas. And at the pinnacle of pain relief is Helichrysum, also known as Immortelle or Everlasting. Distilled from a tiny yellow flower native to the Mediterranean, this essential oil manages to relieve pain, reduce inflammation, and stimulate cellular regeneration all at the same time. Users swear it is the most effective topical pain reliever they have ever used.

The most advanced therapeutic activity is now being elucidated in laboratories around the world. A few essential oils with a long history of medicinal use are being researched for their anticancer activity, with very positive results. Frankincense has been shown to directly eradicate cancerous cells, while leaving healthy cells of the same type unaffected. The oil has been tested with human cell lines from different organs, all showing the same positive results. Lemongrass, also with a long history of medicinal use, is also being examined. This area of research is so exciting, as the “fight against cancer” is not making leaps and bounds in the world of conventional medicine, and the world really needs readily available, effective alternatives that essential oils appear to have the potential to deliver.

This is just a cursory review of the many medicinal applications essential oils are being used for by practitioners around the world. This is in addition to their stress-relieving, invigorating, and/or mind sharpening aromas — the “classic” idea of aromatherapy. Maybe one or more of these uses will give you reason to venture into the world of natural medicine by way of essential oils. They truly have a wonderful array of healing potentials for you and everyone in your family.

Healing flower essences made with love and intention are known to support one’s wellness naturally.