HOLISTIC HEALTH CARE & BEAUTY

What is Aromatherapy?

The word aromatherapy means "treatment using scents".  It refers to the use of essential oils in holistic treatments to improve health and emotional well-being and to restore balance to the body.  Essential oils are aromatic essences from plants, trees, barks, flowers, grasses and seeds with distinctive therapeutic, psychological and physiological properties, which improve and prevent illness.

A Brief History of Aromatherapy

Essential oils have been used for many centuries in many cultures to treat illness and promote well-being and beauty.  In ancient Egypt they were used to embalm the dead, and in the Bible Moses made an anointing oil from calamus, cinnamon and cassia. Nearly 6,000 years ago the Egyptian physician Imbotep, who became the god of medicine and healing recommended fragrant oils for bathing and massage.  Hipprocrates, the Greek father of medicine, recommended regular aromatherapy baths and scented massage an placed such store by the power of scent that he used aromatic fumigations to rid Athens of the plague. In England, essential oils were used to ward off the plague long before drugs and synthetic perfumes took their place.

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 Pictures can be found on the walls, in the tombs, in Eygypt.

In 1910, Rene-Maurice Gattefosse, a French chemist accidentally burnt his hand, he applied neat lavender oil to the burn, which healed quite quickly and with no scaring.  This prompted him to study the therapeutic actions of plant oils.  His work was taken up by Dr Jean Valnet who found the essences remarkable, regenerative and antiseptic properties effective for healing the wounds of World War II soldiers.  But it was Madame Marguerite Maury a biochemist and beautician, who developed the idea as a holistic therapy.

Aromatherapy can help relax, uplift, revitalise or restore the body and spirit depending on the oil used and is a natural aid in maintaining the body's own sense of balance and well-being, at the same time working on mood enhancement and ambience. It's hard to imagine a more enjoyable health treatment than a deep, relaxing massage accompanied by the aura of sweet-smelling oils.

How Does Aromatherapy Work?

Leading aromatherapist Valerie Worwood describes essential oils as "the little keys that can unlock our physical and mental mechanisms".  This seems to be what they do. Scientific research has identified numerous chemical components in essential oils that can exert specific effects on the mind and body. Essential oils are produced by tiny glands in the many plants.  In nature they are relaesed slowly but when crushed or heated, these oil glands burst releasing the aroma more strongly.  These essential oils are extracted by various methods to leave a pure essential oil and fall into four categories:

1. Stimulating
2. Sedative
3. Regualting
4. Euphoric

These can be used in any of the following ways:

• Massage - Absorption through the skin - Essential oil molecules are so small that that

              they can be absorbed through the skin

• Inhalation - Help clear the head, again working on the brain
• Adding to baths - Working at two levels by inhalation and by absorption through the  

              skin

Skin products - Compresses, creams etc .. Oils are blended for the client's needs, depending on the nature of the problem and can treat several conditions at the same time.  Or they can be used for pure relaxation and pampering.

• WARNING:  Aromatherapy oils are freely available but please take great care

                                   If in doubt, don't take the risk. 

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