The Science of Aromatherapy’s Stress Reducing Effects
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A great many people have a very skewed perception of aromatherapy, so many in-fact that a weak critique of the practice currently shows up on the first page of search results for the term. Somehow aromatherapy got labeled as some “new age” foolishness, and that view pervades much of the Western world. Working in the background, scientists have been validating the use of essential oils for quite some time, for many medical applications. However, the data showing the effects of just aromas is somewhat limited — and this data is really what’s needed to change the way people think about essential oils.
Fortunately, a very interesting study validating aromatherapy’s aroma-therapeutic action has recently been published. It gets directly to the heart of the matter: the brain. It is within the brain that a response first occurs from smelling an scent. Our smell sense is the only one of the five with the direct connection to the brain; all the others have their signal first travel through another physiological structure to get there. And the smell sense is wired right to our most primitive centers, the ones that control emotions and unconscious activity.
Italian researchers published a study shedding light on the neurological process that occurs when inhaling bergamot essential oil. By using brain wave data, behavioral response data and changes in messenger chemicals, they were able to deduce that the stress-reduction action is a result of blocking the strengthening of certain neural connections. This blocking prevents the sense of stress from building up over time.
It’s an interesting thing about stress, particularly when put in terms of neurons. Over time, the connections between neurons in your memory centers associated with a certain stress are strengthened. The first exposure to this stress may not have been so bad, but after repeated exposure one really doesn’t want to deal with the event again. This research indicates the essential oil short circuits the process of subconsciously remembering the stress as more stressful than it was the first time.
This may shed light on the mechanism for stress reduction in one of the very few other placebo-controlled published studies examining aromatherapy. Teenagers wore a necklaces for the duration of the study, some of which released the scent of bergamot (obviously a popular stress relieving oil)! Study participants receiving the bergamot aroma noted significantly lower stress levels — which may be a direct result from this blockage of strengthening response to stresses in their lives.
Along with bergamot essential oil’s use for it’s stress-reducing effects, and an action with potential significant medical applications: it’s ability to lessen the perceived intensity of pain. In their conclusion, the researchers note that because the mechanism is understood, bergamot it should be used in complementary medicine, alongside conventional medical techniques. (Knowing “why” something works is important for its integration in modern medical practices — on reason being to ensure it does not interfere with other therapies). This is very promising, as reducing the needs for pharmaceutical drugs not only can save significant health care dollars, it is often very beneficial for the health of the patient.
This leads to much bigger implications for aromatherapy. Many oils are used aromatically for various purposes: stress reduction, relaxation, mental stimulation and the like. These oils are also more than likely eliciting measurable effects in the brain. For example, several essential oils have been shown to prevent the breakdown of acetylcholine in the laboratory, an effect that is likely happening within the body as well when these oils are inhaled.
There’s so much data published on the great many medicinal actions of essential oils that they’re likely catching the eye of some in the conventional medical community. It’s not a reach at all for much of aromatherapy’s more researched oils and actions to be given the same stamp of approval as bergamot. A search of the database of the National Institute of Health for “essential oils” yields pages and pages of results. Now with the affirmation that even the “aroma” part of aromatherapy has valid therapeutic actions, perhaps the use of essential oils will be more quickly embraced.
The author is a great fan of Ananda Aromatherapy, a source for world-class bulgarian rose oil, and educational tools like an essential oil use chart are available on this site.
categories: aromatherapy,essential oils,stress,anxiety,disease,illness,alternative medicine,natural medicine,natural health,science
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