Friday, May 23, 2014

What are Aromatherapy Health Benefits?

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Is there really anything to aromatherapy? Are there any tangible health benefits to using aromatherapy? Once you find out what aromatherapy can do for you, you’ll be checking out all the cool scents out there.

Aromatherapy is when you use smells to improve your body and mental state. You can actually evoke very specific physical and emotional reactions with scent. The sense of smell is a physical and chemical sense; you smell things and react without even thinking much about it. That’s why you feel nostalgic when you smell your mother’s perfume (even in a different location, on a different person) or freshly cut grass.

One of the most trusted of the aromatherapy studies shows that lavender has a very powerful affect on you physically. Lavender actually calms you physically by lowering your blood pressure and slowing your heart rate. This why massage therapists put lavender in their massage oils--to help your body relax. Many adult-care (senior) facilities use lavender oils and lotions to calm their dementia patients. Another option is geranium esential oil, since that also slows heart rate and lowers blood pressure.

When studying aromatherapy, scientists have discovered yet another powerful aromatherapy tool: peppermint. Peppermint jolts you into a state of alertness, helping you focus and remain on task. One particular study allowed kids to chew gum while answering questions on a test, and discovered that when kids chew peppermint gum, they score better.

A lot of people use grapefruit essential oil because it is supposed to work as an appetite suppressant. Another fun thing about grapefruit essential oils was discovered in a study evaluating men, scent, and age--apparantly men think women who smell like grapefruit are younger than those who wear other scents.

However, not all aromatherapy products work the same. Synthetic scents do not have the same effect as essential oils. And you'll want to choose high grade essential oils off the knock off low grade oils. Buy an all-natural essential oil and then use to diffuse in your home and to add to almond oil or lotion base.

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