Aromatherapy With Important Oils: Fiction vs. Details –

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Have you ever had a recommendation to either inhale essential oils or massage them onto your skin to treat depression, anxiety, or long-term sleep deprivation due to stress or other medical conditions? These treatment options are known as aromatherapy.

The real question here is how effective are these agents? Are they even scientifically supported or just hocus-pocus? Many have questioned the benefits and effectiveness of these treatments, calling them sham or pseudoscience. But is there any real science behind it, or are the naysayers actually right?

The use of vegetable oils for medicinal purposes has been well documented since the times of ancient civilizations in China, Greece, and Egypt. Nowadays, the oils extracted from certain types of plants with their unique scent or “essence” are widely used as solutions to various medical problems.

These oils are known as “essential” oils. They come from plants like chamomile, lavender, bergamot, and many others. They are either inhaled or sometimes applied to the skin in massage therapy, and it is believed that the medicinal properties are then absorbed into the body where the therapeutic effects are felt. But how exactly does aromatherapy work?

The fiction

The general consensus within the medical community is that aromatherapy is largely, if not entirely, a placebo. The placebo effect is a medical term that explains how a non-potent substance can cause healing, or healing, or perhaps the illusion of it.

Many studies have been conducted to obtain scientific evidence to support aromatherapy, but most of the time it has been described as pseudoscience. It’s a catch-22 situation indeed, because if we say the therapy is ineffective simply because it has no reproducible evidence and its placebo nature still gives some positive results, then it’s not essentially up to effective at some point?

The placebo effects of aromatherapy are actually recorded – that much is true. But for this alternative treatment to outperform the realms of speculation in actual science, it would have to do more than just a placebo.

Regardless of how far manufacturing companies have gone with their emphatic inscriptions on these products, science says aromatherapy may bring little or no benefit. On the other hand, a statement in support of the use of aromatherapy was offered.

The facts

It is known that sleep patterns and emotions are largely controlled by the brain. Therefore, if a chemical substance can trigger the right centers in the brain to perform certain functions, the desired effects can be achieved.

While there is still much to be proven, some experts have suggested that essential oils trigger the brain’s limbic system, which is responsible for emotions, and specifically the hypothalamus, which regulates emotions and sleep. Through this mechanism, depression, anxiety, and insomnia could possibly be improved or treated with the help of some aromatic essential oils.

But there is also strong evidence that the popularity of essential oils, as well as claims about their health benefits, is largely due to the hype of manufacturing companies and their limitless pursuit of profit, and nothing more.

Aromatherapy is still on the verge of acceptance in science-based medicine. The results are encouraging, according to Ying Zhang, a researcher at the Institute of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins University. In his study, cumin, garlic, and thyme essential oils were shown to have bactericidal effects on the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. However, this research is still in the early stages and so far not much evidence seems to support the claim that aromatherapy or essential oils in general work. Hopefully there will be one in the future.