The term “aromatherapy” gets a laugh from many people, and of course many physicians. They hear the word and think “nice smelly things that make me feel good — right”. What they don’t know is that for many years, scientists around the globe have been at work researching the medical effects of essential oils. Interestingly, it is the “aroma” part of aromatherapy that’s somewhat lacking in data. There’s a few studies showing stress reduction in animals, but really very little noting that “aroma” therapy works in humans — and just as importantly, how it works (medical science needs a mechanism before it considers a therapy valid in most cases). As a result, the medical establishment has a hard time accepting the use of essential oils for really any therapeutic application.
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.
Scientists in Italy have elucidated the way bergamot oil lowers stress-induced anxiety, and affects mild depression. They note that there is a firing of brain cells in such a way that the essential oil “is able to interfere with normal synaptic plasticity”. This process occurs in the area of long-term memory formation. That means that the inhalation of the oil interferes with the process of making a neural connection stronger when repeatedly expose to stress.
If you think about the way stress works, its not a one time thing. It’s the same thing happening again and again — the feeling of stress builds over time because the circuit in your brain is getting stronger. Consider an experience you find stressful; it could be a noise like, like a jackhammer for example. Hearing it once is no big deal, hearing it all day every day could drive you…well, make you very stressed. Inhaling bergamot essential oil interferes this building up process (and has an immediately uplifting affect at the same time — quite a bonus).
This may elucidate the stress-reducing effect found in an earlier Korean study. In this study, adolescents wore an amulet emitting the aroma of either bergamot or a placebo. Those wearing the amulet with bergamot reported significantly lower stress levels during the study’s duration.
In the conclusion, the Italian researchers state that now the anti-stress mechanism of the oil’s aroma is understood, there is a rational basis for the practical use of bergamot in complementary medicine. Complementary medicine is really alternative medicine that’s been accepted as valid by the medical community.
Making the statement about the oil’s value in complementary medicine gets one thinking about the rest of aromatherapy. Anytime on is using an oil’s aroma for a desired emotional or psychological response is probably eliciting some measurable change in the neurochemistry.
With all the published research that’s available, and this new elucidation of the mechanism of the aromatic aspect of aromatherapy, natural medicine practitioners hope we’ll see more recommendations for “complementary” status. A great place to have a look at all the available data is pubmed.gov — just search for “essential oils” and start scrolling through the pages. You’ll see tons of papers regarding the antimicrobial actions of so many oils on so many microbes. There’s research that shows immune system function being boosted at the same time. Then there’s the very promising anti cancer research that’s just getting underway. As aromatherapy in all its forms can no longer reasonably be laughed at, it may not be long for essential oils to finally be used for the wonderful medicines they are.
The author is the owner of Ananda Aromatherapy, a source for world-class lavender essential oil, and tools like an aromatherapy diffuser.
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