What is Aromatherapy? What are Essential Oils ?

Aroma therapy is the study of pure essential oils as a therapeutic aid to achieving and maintaining health and beauty and is designed to enhance the holistic healing of a person.

Essential oils are non-fatty secretions produced by oil glands found in aromatic plants. These can be found in the flowers, leaves bark or roots. Essential oils are a major component of the plant’s immune system and play an active role in the reproduction cycle of plants as well as being the plant’s stress management tools. Essential oils effect all body systems e.g. the circulatory, the endocrine, respiratory, digestive, urinary, muscular and skeletal, reproductive, immune and nervous.

Essential oils are pure, concentrated plant extracts obtained specifically for their fragrance and therapeutic value. The chemical composition of these oils is exceedingly complex - often tens or hundreds of constituent parts. It is now thought that all of these parts play a vital role in the effectiveness of essential oils and thus the chemical synthesis of these oils has proved remarkably tricky.

Examples of common essential oils include lavender oil, rose oil and peppermint oil.

History of Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy, while relatively new to the Western World, goes back a long way. Although the term essential oil is a recent one, civilisations have been using incense, perfumes and cosmetics for thousands of years. Herbs and spices have been used in cooking for a long time, but their use has often been linked to both religious and medicinal purposes. Indian literature, dating from around 2000BC mentions the use of cinnamon, ginger, myrrh, coriander and sandalwood. The Chinese have a long tradition of alternative medicine. Aromatherapy is just one of a number of treatments which include acupuncture, reflexology and herbal remedies. The Egyptians were renowned for their herbal potions and ointments. Temples were filled with incense. Corpses were embalmed in oils of cedar and myrrh. Egyptian women wore perfume. Greece and Rome were introduced to the riches of the far-away places. Camphor from China, Cinnamon from India, Gums from Arabia.

Much of the knowledge gained by earlier civilisations was lost to Europe during the Dark Ages. The Arabs excelled in the manufacture of perfumes during the thirteenth century. During the Middle Ages, infectious diseases such as the plague were fought off with aromatic plants strewn across floors. Lavender water was available in the sixteenth century at the local apothecary. It was a time of alchemists embarking on mystical quests to turn base metals into gold, and for others to distil the quintessence from aromatic materials. Not until the end of the seventeenth century was the distinction between perfumes and aromatics made clear, with alchemy giving way to chemistry as more and more became understood about the nature of matter. The scientific revolution of the early nineteenth century saw the birth of the modern drug industry. During the twentieth century, essential oils were moved away from therapeutic use into perfumes, cosmetics and foodstuffs.

Modern Day Aromatherapy

Massage
Massage, together with aroma therapy provide the following benefits:

• Induces deep relaxation, relieving both physical and mental fatigue.
• Improves circulation to the muscles, thereby reducing inflammation and pain.
• Releases neck and shoulder tension and backache.
• Relieves neuralgic, arthritic and rheumatic conditions.
• Helps sprains, fractures, breaks and dislocations heal more readily.
• Promotes correct posture and helps improve mobility.
• Improves the function of every internal organ.
• Improves digestion, assimilation and elimination and reduces constipation.
• Increases the ability of the kidneys to function efficiently.
• Flushes the lymphatic system by the mechanical elimination of harmful substances including toxins from bacteria and waste matter.
• Reduces high blood pressure.
• Helps disperse headaches or migraines.
• As a form of passive exercise, partially compensates for lack of active exercise.
• Stimulates mind and body without negative side effects.
• Helps release suppressed feelings.
• Stimulates the immune system.
• Triggers the release of mood altering chemicals such as encephalin and endorphin which reduce pain and cause a sense of well being.
• Encourages deep breathing.

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