Health Hotline Magazine | November 2024

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It Just Makes Scents Aromatherapy… By Liz Mueller

Have you ever noticed that your sense of smell has the ability to directly take you back to a certain time and place, to unlock memories from childhood, perhaps even more than looking at old photos? Did you know that a smell can evoke a feeling of calmness, alertness, and wellbeing? Our olfactory sense is the ability to perceive smells; it is the only sense that is processed in the amygdala and hippocampus located in the temporal lobes of the brain—areas that are most strongly linked to emotions, learning, and memory. With this powerful sense, we can use scents directly in the form of aromatherapy to fight anxiety and depression, alleviate sleep disturbances, boost mood, and mitigate memory problems. It’s a safe and pleasant-to use complementary therapy that’s a no-brainer to address many common health issues, naturally and effectively. Aromatherapy just makes scents for our health!

Aromatherapy Hits the Right Notes Aromatherapy is the inhalation of an essential oil (EO) made from the stems, leaves, flowers, roots, and/or fruits of various plants; inhalation can be direct or oils can be added to a diffuser. Essential oils can also be used topically (when mixed with a neutral carrier oil, such as almond oil) through direct contact such as a massage or bathing. And research is continually showing that these oils do far more than just smell good. Fight Anxiety + Stress Rose geranium Rose geranium is an EO derived from plants in the geranium family and has a scent resembling roses. A randomized clinical trial sought to study the effects of inhaling rose geranium EO in women in labor for the first time, a highly anxious group by default, and found that those in the control group had significantly reduced anxiety scores and a significant decrease in diastolic blood pressure compared to the placebo group. The researchers wrote that rose geranium EO “has anti inflammatory, antidepressant, sedative, anxiety-reducing, and muscle-relaxing properties.” They concluded, “Aroma of essential oil of geraniums can effectively reduce anxiety during labor and can be recommended as a non-invasive anti-anxiety aid during childbirth.” Taking a deeper dive, two main components within geranium EO, citronellol and geraniol, seem to hold the key to their effectiveness. In a study on mice behaviors, researchers found that these two constituents of rose geranium were significantly effective at reducing stress, promoting relaxation, and alleviating a depressed mood compared to the control group. Lavender Depression and anxiety are often accompanied by high levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Aromatherapy using lavender EO has been observed to downregulate the release of stress hormones and decrease salivary and serum cortisol levels. Roman Chamomile Roman chamomile is another helpful EO used in aromatherapy. In a study of patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS), with a mean age of 58, experiencing high anxiety and at risk for a poor quality of life, results showed chamomile EO significantly lowered anxiety scores, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and heart rate compared to the placebo group when it was inhaled before bed for just two consecutive nights. Roman Chamomile + Lavender Another study—this time on the effects of both lavender and chamomile EOs as inhalation aromatherapy on markers of anxiety, stress and depression in 183 older community-dwelling adults—found that there was a significant improvement after inhaling just three drops of lavender and chamomile EOs continuously for 30 nights compared to the control group.

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