Aromatherapy

What is aromatherapy?
The concentrated essential oils aromatherapists use to treat conditions are aromatic and volatile (ie which evaporate easily) elements from plants. The oils are not concentrated from whole plant parts – unlike herbal medicines – but are extracted, generally by steam distillation, from flowers, leaves, roots, grasses, peel, resin or bark.

A French chemist called René-Maurice Gattefossé coined the term aromatherapy to describe the process of using plant oils therapeutically. The story goes that, while working in a perfume factory in the early 20th century, he burnt his hand and instinctively grabbed some lavender oil and poured it onto the burn. He was so impressed by how quickly and cleanly the burn healed, he began studying the healing powers of plant oils.
However, people have been treated with plant oils for thousands of years – records go back to the times of ancient Egypt, China and India.

How can aromatherapy help?
Aromatherapy is now used to treat a whole range of conditions and is believed to work on people both physically and psychologically. The first part of the theory is that when you smell an essential oil, it triggers your limbic system – the part of the brain that controls emotions and stores and retrieves learned memories – and relaxes you. The other part of the theory is that the essential oils are absorbed through the skin, and have medicinal properties which act on the cause of the problem.

Just some of the conditions aromatherapy is used to treat are:

anxiety, stress or insomnia
muscular aches and pains
headaches
asthma
eczema
digestive problems
menstrual or menopausal problems

Resources:
http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/aromatherapy.html