The actual term “essential oils” comes from the shortening
of the words, “Quintessential oil.” This term comes from the belief that matter
is composed of four elements, which include fire, air, water, and earth.
Quintessence is considered to be the fifth element, being the spirit and life
force. In order to remove spirit from a plant, distillation and evaporation
needs to occur. Dr. Brian Lawrence states that, “for an essential oil to be a
true essential oil, it must be isolated by physical means only. The physical
means used are distillation (steam, steam/water and water) or expression (also
known as cold pressing)…”
According
to the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy, Aromatherapy is defined
as, “…the art and science of utilizing naturally extracted aromatic essences
from plants to balance, harmonize and promote the health of body, mind and
spirit. It seeks to unify physiological, psychological and spiritual processes
to enhance an individual’s innate healing process.” In 1910, the French chemist
Rene-Maurice Gattefosse discovered the benefits of lavender essential oil.
After burning his hand while conducting an experiment in a perfumery plant, he
dunked his hand into the closest bucket of liquid, which happened to be
lavender essential oil and had positive healing results.
So, what is
the problem with nice smelling stuff? The problem with essential oils is claims
that are made by aromatherapy practitioners. Claims are often confusing,
ambiguous, and unsupported by evidence. Some broad claims include: “Smell is
the most direct route to the brain,” but, in reality, smell has no faster
access to the brain than any other sense. “Essential oils can help your memory,” oils
can serve as context clues, but so could other things, such as colors or
chewing gum. Could this be an example of subliminal self- help? Can essential
oils really help with wrinkles, sprains, memory, fear, asthma, depression,
insomnia, and stress?
After being
apart of the yoga community for a while now, there is a common belief that
essential oils can fix anything that needs to be fixed in the body. I
personally have my own collection of essential oils and use them everyday for
different things. I use lemon essential oil in my water for detox, peppermint for
headaches and any muscle aches, and lavender to help me fall asleep. After
learning about how the benefits of essential oils could be apart of my own
subliminal self-help and psychological beliefs, I really started to question my
use of them. Essential oils are not cheap and all though I swear by them, I started
to realize that my belief in them is solely based off of what I have learned
and heard from other people in my yoga community.
Posts
This is an interesting post and it is even more interesting to me that they say these oils can help with sleep or relaxation but what if the person has no sense of smell does it have the same effect? I brought this point up because I have no sense of smell. Great topic and post!
ReplyDeleteI guess i'm a sucker as well when it comes to this kind of stuff. Bath and Body Works has those little hand sanitizers and one of them is labeled stress relief. it's actually my favorite scent. I can only assume its like a placebo effect, in that i think the scent is relieving stress, but in actuality it could just be a mental thing. nice post!
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