Aromatherapy - More Than A Nice Smell?

[Nocturnal Submission]

I was sorting through some files the other day and found a booklet about aromatherapy that must have come with a candle or oil burner gift in the distant past. Leafing through it I was quite intrigued by some of the claims made, from psychic and spiritual links (myrrh is useful for "crystal gazing, seances, consecration of talismans, past lives, rebirth, development of spiritual growth" whereas poor old sandalwood just gets "meditation") to the treating of common ailments.

Any OTF enthusiasts of the potent pong?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Meditation and relaxation do have proven medical benefits, I understand. Any aids to those, well, why not. I find it meditative watching golf, or test cricket. Actually claiming that it's lighting a candle in itself that can cure you of those boils ... careful now, I say.

[hobbes]

Smell has a profound effect on us psychologically - just think of how the smell of bread can make you feel comfortable - so much so they use it in supermarkets and in house viewings to make you spend more/buy the house etc.
Smells are evocative and can transport you to a feeling or a mood you've experienced before. So if you can associate say the smell of bergamot with a.feeling of relaxation and meditation, over time you can build a psychological connection so the aroma itself can put you into a more relaxed state.
But it doesn't have to be aromatherapy oils, you could sniff a lemon or whatever. So the concept of aromatherapy is just trying to monetise an existing brain function.

[Patrick Thistle]

Anything claiming psychic or spiritual benefits of the kind listed in the OP is bogus. As hobbes said, there is a scientific reason why smells might change a persons emotional state (and may even have a psychosomatic impact on physical state) but any claims of magic powers are lies.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Back up your claims with proper, peer-reviewd science or GRTF.

It may surprise you to learn that aromatherapy does not interest / affect me in the slightest.

[Balderdasha]

My sister was really into aromatherapy as a teenager. The main thing I remember was that the tiny bottles of the different oils are eye wateringly expensive. So there were a couple of Christmases were I (five years younger) would have a big sack of cheap and cheerful Christmas gifts (books, puzzles, socks, chocolate, etc) and my sister would have a tiny parcel with maybe ten different aromatherapy oils that she'd been coveting. We were both convinced that we got by far the better end of the stick.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Smell has a profound effect on us psychologically - just think of how the smell of bread can make you feel comfortable - so much so they use it in supermarkets and in house viewings to make you spend more/buy the house etc.
Smells are evocative and can transport you to a feeling or a mood you've experienced before. So if you can associate say the smell of bergamot with a.feeling of relaxation and meditation, over time you can build a psychological connection so the aroma itself can put you into a more relaxed state.
But it doesn't have to be aromatherapy oils, you could sniff a lemon or whatever. So the concept of aromatherapy is just trying to monetise an existing brain function.

This. Aromatherapy works for you if you are into it, but not because of aromatherapy, but because of operant conditioning and our lizard brains.

[ad hoc]

Can I just point out here that meditation and relaxation are very different things. That point has nothing to do with aromatherapy it's just one of those places where words get thrown together as if they are to all intents and purposes synonymous and, if I weren't so chilled out as a result of my daily meditation practice, I might get vaguely annoyed

[Stumpy Pepys]

If it doesn't smell of Gwyneth Paltrow's vagina, I'm not interested.

[Femme Folle]

You have to be careful about using essential oils if you have pets, especially cats. They're very sensitive and certain ones are like poison to their systems. I ditched my diffuser when a friend told me about the danger to the cats. I wasn't using it for any spiritual anything, I just liked the smell of spearmint and eucalyptus combined.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

You have to be careful about using essential oils if you have pets, especially cats. They're very sensitive and certain ones are like poison to their systems. I ditched my diffuser when a friend told me about the danger to the cats. I wasn't using it for any spiritual anything, I just liked the smell of spearmint and eucalyptus combined.

Never mind cats, you can do yourself fairly serious kidney damage if you fuck up handling them, or wind up consuming them somehow. A very tiny amount goes a very long way

Meditation is another one of these things that is highly beneficial because of the underlying thing you are doing. Not because it is spiritual, or whatever it is that gets people into it. My sister does it without much of a spiritual interest and she finds it great.

[Nefertiti2]

also the nose is a perfectly good delivery system to administer chemicals to the complex human system.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Probably worth pointing out that the booklet wasn't all about matters woo-woo. A lot of it was to do with using essential oils to treat ailments, such as muscular ailments and skin conditions.

[Patrick Thistle]

Yeah that's bollocks, and possibly dangerous as TAB pointed out.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Yeah that's bollocks, and possibly dangerous as TAB pointed out.

OK.

I'm anxious not to be seen as promoting this. I don't have a dog in the fight. But some of the suggestions are fairly mainstream and there must be quite a few people who have burned a lavender-scented candle in their time or drunk some camomile tea.

[caja-dglh]

Appreciating a scent is different than buying into quackery.

Unless of course you are faulty nose Gymshorts, who gets rather angry about FOMO.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Appreciating a scent is different than buying into quackery.

Unless of course you are faulty nose Gymshorts, who gets rather angry about FOMO.

In terms of the more everyday usage it's more than appreciating a scent though, isn't it. It's infusions and drops in the bath or on the pillow and that sort of stuff.

I suppose I'm wondering if anyone on OTF has seen a benefit, in any aspect of their life, from using essential oils, other than concluding that the flat smelled a bit nicer afterwards.

[San Bernardhinault]

The only benefit I’ve found from agreeing to try essential oils is that they make woo-heavy masseuses shut up about the benefits of essential oils.

[MsD]

Yes, although I prefer naked herbs.

Some herbs relax and some stimulate. You’ve just reminded me to use my pillow spray.

[caja-dglh]

In terms of the more everyday usage it's more than appreciating a scent though, isn't it. It's infusions and drops in the bath or on the pillow and that sort of stuff.

I suppose I'm wondering if anyone on OTF has seen a benefit, in any aspect of their life, from using essential oils, other than concluding that the flat smelled a bit nicer afterwards.

Mrs dglh very much appreciates the sleep related sprays for pillows. She also recognizes we have a white noise machine, an air filter fan and a whole assortment of things that she finds helpful for getting to sleep. So it helps for its purpose but it is also completely nothing.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Appreciating a scent is different than buying into quackery.

Unless of course you are faulty nose Gymshorts, who gets rather angry about FOMO.

In honesty, there is genuinely no FOMO happening. I've not had a sense of smell since the age of 8, and I'm at the stage where I really don't miss it at all. Trust me when I tell you that there are times I consider it a positive boon (think Central Line in summer, that kind of thing). Let's put it this way - of all the senses I could lose, smell is the one I can get by without easiest.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Apart from that time I got home a bit pissed, put a pizza in the oven and promptly fell asleep. TLMG came home an hour later to a kitchen full of black smoke which I'd blissfully slept through, being unable to detect it. Whoops.

[Balderdasha]

I learned a couple of years ago that lack of smell is known as "anosmia". I went on a national trust working holiday, scything in Sussex, and one of the other attendees had anosmia. He said that his main complaint with it was how it affected his taste and he could only sense certain strong flavours like very sweet, or lemon. We made a lot of lemon meringue pie type desserts that week.

[Toby Gymshorts]

I don't think I'm truly, fully anosmic - on occasion I'm convinced I can smell things and then it goes away again. I always liken it to the ends of two wires touching: the circuit is briefly completed and the light comes on, then they separate again and it's back to fumbling around in the dark (oo-er missus).

Essentially - from what I remember around conversations held in hospital at the time - I have very minor brain damage. I'm sure lots of people in my life would tell you there's nothing minor about it, but anyway...

[MsD]

caja-dglh it’s not “absolutely nothing”; herbs have an effect. See how cats react to catnip if you want to rule out a placebo effect. Valium is related to valerian. I’m not a chemist, but one of my mates and her husband are, she was 30 years at Amgen. They use herbal remedies for some things.

Critics of herbal medicine, aromatherapy etc. often insist on approaching it as though it was being touted as an alternative to surgery or pharma, generally it isn’t. We grow lavender in our gardens and we know it induces feelings of relaxation. Again, it was my cat’s bush for choice for a relaxing nap. Some herbs can induce early abortion; not as efficiently as the surgical method but with less trauma.

Of course one can argue about problems with dosage etc. but then, as someone sensitive to many substances, I tend to cut tablets in half. Outside of a hospital, you can’t control the conditions of taking meds e.g on full or empty stomach.