| Alternative therapies are rapidly increasing in popularity. Being a form of alternative medicine, aromatherapy uses volatile plant materials, known as essential oils, and similar aromatic compounds from plants to improve one's mood and wellness. It is a holistic healing that is grounded on the belief that the entire body must be treated with fragrant oils, such as lemon, peppermint, eucalyptus, rosemary. Essential oils can be added to the bath or massaged into the skin, respired directly or dispersed around a room. Aromatherapy is widely used to ease pain, to take care of skin, relieve strain and tiredness and invigorate the entire body. Essential oils can also favorably impact on the mood, alleviate fatigue, reduce anxiety and contribute to relaxation. When respired, they work on the brain and nervous system by stimulating the olfactory nerves. Essential oils stimulate the powerful sense of smell. Patients who have lost olfaction are assumed to suffer from mental problems - such as strain and depression - more often than other people.
Essential oils are fragrant essences extracted from plants, flowers, trees, bark, grasses and seeds with distinctive curative, psychological, and physiological characteristics which improve and forestall diseases. There are about 150 essential oils. Most of these oils have antiseptic properties; some are anti-inflammatory, antiviral, pain-reducing, expectorant and antidepressant. Other characteristics of the essential oils which are paid attention to in aromatherapy are their digestion improvement. To get the maximum benefit from these pleasant smelling oils, they should be extracted from raw materials. Synthetically made oils do not produce the expected effects.
Aromatherapy is one of the quickest increasing holistic treatment in alternative medicine. It is widely used at home, clinics and hospitals for various applications: as a pain killer for women in labor pain, for cancer patients after chemotherapy, and for rehabilitation of coronary patients.
Aromatherapy is already slowly getting into the mainstream. Thus, in Japan engineers are incorporating purpose-built aroma systems into new buildings. The pleasant smell of lavender and rosemary is known to be pumped into the client area to calm down waiting clients, while lemon and eucalyptus are used in the bank teller counters to keep clerks alert. |
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