Clinical aromatherapy is the therapeutic use of essential oils, or steam distillates obtained from aromatic plants, for the improvement of physical and emotional well-being. While this may seem like a new-age phenomenon, essential oils have been used for thousands of years for a multiplicity of conditions ranging from insomnia and depression to poor skin integrity, slow-healing wounds, and infections. In aromatherapy, essential oils are inhaled or diluted and applied topically to the skin, depending on the symptoms, with various other oils used as diluting oils.
The applications of aromatherapy highlight how the sense of smell plays such an important role in our survival and in our quality of life. Each day we inhale about 23,000 times and move around 438 cubic feet of air. Various odours serve to warn us of the threat of fire, or of the need to eat, or of long-forgotten memories from the past. Babies find their mother’s breast through scent, and smell is usually one of the last senses to fade as we age. Many of our actions, both conscious and subconscious, depend on it.
The use of scent and essential oils as medical treatments have a long history that dates back to the time of Hippocrates, when skin problems were treated with aromatic baths. But aromatherapy began its more recent renaissance in France during the 1940s when three individuals in the medical field began to experiment with aromatherapy to treat gangrene and as a substitute for antibiotics on the battlefield.
These experiments did not start out pleasantly. Rene Maurice Gattefosse, a French chemist, probably never wanted to face the situation that led him to resort to the practice after he had burnt his hand and arm so badly that gas gangrene set in. At that time, the only treatment for this condition was amputation, but he tried applying lavender and his wounds healed rapidly. He was so impressed by lavender’s healing properties he dedicated his life to the study and use of essential oils for skin problems.
Dr Jean Valnet, a physician, was another French pioneer in the field, using essential oils to treat soldiers’ wounds on the battlefield. Margarite Maury, an Austrian surgical assistant, carried out research on how essential oils helped skin elasticity and helped to treat wounds during the Second World War, writing a book about her findings that would be translated into English in 1980, two decades after her death.
During the past 10 years, nurses have picked up where Drs Gattefosse and Valnet and Madame Maury left off, using aromatherapy as an enhancement to care in Australia, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, the UK and, most recently, in the United States. In fact, the British may claim that the modern rise of aromatherapy predated its French origins in the 20th century, as Florence Nightingale was famous for anointing the foreheads of her wounded soldiers with lavender oil during the Crimean War.
But just how do these oils treat injuries? When we inhale a scent, the chemical components within it travel via the nostrils to the olfactory centre (where smells are processed) and then to the limbic part of the brain, which is one of the most primitive, complex and least understood areas in the nervous system. The limbic system includes a ring of structures deep within the brain that include the amygdala and the hippocampus. The amygdala governs our emotional response to an aroma while the memory and recognition of smell takes place in the hippocampus and it is here where chemicals in an aroma can trigger a unique repository of learned memories, eliciting such a potent emotional response.
The effectiveness of essential oils may also be attributed to their lipotropic character, meaning that they are fat-soluble. The principal barrier stopping drugs that are applied at the skin from doing their job is a hardened layer of keratin cells in the upper epithelial layer of the skin. These cells are embedded in multiple layers of fat and work to protect the body from foreign agents that may cause sickness and infection. But research has shown that essential oils increase permeation into their intended target when paired with other topical treatments, an indication that essential oils are absorbed more thoroughly through the skin than other topical treatments.
However, there is still little evidence for exactly why lavender has been found in studies to treat insomnia and help improve a person’s mood or why jasmine has been found to have potent psychologically stimulating effects. Other examples of effective aromatherapies include lemon, lemon grass, peppermint and basil, which all have stimulant properties, and bergamot, camomile and sandalwood, which are calming.
While studies have refuted the suggestion that essential oils can cure diabetes, they have been found to reduce infections that often take longer to heal in diabetics.
Perhaps the most typical use for aromatherapy has been in stress reduction, and aromatics have been used in many cultures for this purpose. The essential oils found to be most effective for relieving stress in diabetes patients include neroli, geranium, mandarin, rose and sweet marjoram.
Perhaps the most promising clinical finding involving the benefits of aromatherapy has been its ability to reduce depression and help with sleep for those undergoing cancer treatment. A four-week study of 42 people with advanced cancer showed a significant reduction in insomnia in those receiving aromatherapy, and patients with a high level of psychological stress were the prime beneficiaries of the treatment.
In the hectic modern world, many of us can be described as undergoing high levels of stress and qualify as candidates for aromatherapy, either by itself or in conjunction with other medical treatments for chronic conditions.
The smell of hospitals may be enough to cause anxiety in many patients and if you are unfortunate to suffer from a chronic, long-term condition that requires frequent hospital visits, aromatherapy at least may make the treatments more bearable.
Dr Usama Alalami is an associate professor in the department of Natural Sciences and Public Health at Zayed University.
Source: TheNational
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