Aromatherapy Symptoms Causes Diagnosis Treatment Guide
In this age of dominance of allopathy form of medicine, there is slow emergence of alternative forms of medicine. One such form of medicine is aromatherapy. This therapy makes use of the healing abilities of essential oils to cure diseases. The essential oils in combination with other herbal oils proved to be effective in pain redressal, hypertension and Alzheimer’s. Aromatherapy is administered in mainly three forms:
Aromatherapy Treatment
1) Aerial Spray, where oils are sprayed into the air to disinfect the surrounding’s and fragrance.
2) Vapour inhalation, where the aromatic oils are inhaled in vapour form for respiratory disorders, decongestion and for other psychological relaxations
3) External applications, where the infected parts are massaged with oils. For instance, sprains, skin infections, beauty enhancement. This also involves taking bath with oil mixed in the water.
There are six main types of oils used in aromatherapy. Namely:
1. Essential oils: Eucalypts oil, grapefruit oil etc. These are mainly fragrant oils extracted from plants through various processes
2. Absolutes: These are mainly flower extracts. Sometimes they are also taken from tender plant tissues.
3. Phytoncides : These are terpene and sulfuric based organic compounds taken from plants. These are not much popular because of their potential side effects.
4. Herbal oils: These are basically aqueous oils primarily distilled from herbs. The most common ones are rose, lemon balm and chamomile.
5. Infusions: Water based extracts from different plant material (e.g. rose infusion)
6. Carrier oils: These are the essential oils diluted by plant base materials
However, many of these aromatic oils are also being manufactured by various industries in their synthetic substitutes. These synthetic substitutes are not advisable for use. Best rely would be natural extracts. These natural extracts also cost much because of their efficient healing powers than the synthetic substitutes. The commonly used aromatic oils are Basil (effective in increasing sexual power, depression related disorders), Black Pepper (for stimulating blood circulation, muscular pains), Eucalyptus oil (for common colds and flu) and so on. The effectiveness of aromatherapy is yet to be conclusively proved based on scientific investigation, its healing power in diseases like stress and strain, mental disorders and psychological related disorders in beyond doubt. However, care should be taken in view of some side effects due to high concentration of oils and also due to adulteration.