The Benefits Of Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy benefits people rather than illnesses. It is gentle enough to be used by people of all ages and states of health. Aromatherapy is not recommended as a cure for any disease. Its most potent effect is that it relaxes mind and body, relieves pain, and restores body systems to a state of balance in which healing can best take place. It is also most effective when used as a preventive or to alleviate subclinical symptoms before they escalate into disease. The therapy has been shown to be particularly effective in preventing and treating stress and anxietyrelated disorders, muscular and rheumatic pains, digestive problems, menstrual irregularities, menopausal complaints, insomnia, and depression.

Aromatic plant oils have been used therapeutically for thousands of years. The ancient Vedic literature of India, and historic Chinese and Arabic medical texts, document the importance of aromatic oils for health and spirituality. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates, the “father of medicine,” used fragrant fumigations to rid Athens of plague, and Roman soldiers kept up their strength by bathing in scented oil and having regular massages. However, the Egyptians were the most noted of the ancient aromatherapists. Physicians from all over the world are reputed to have traveled to Egypt to learn aromatic techniques.

Aromatherapy is believed to have come west at the time of the Crusades. Historical records show that essential oils were used during the plague in the 14th century. In the 16th and 17th centuries aromatherapy was popular among the great European herbalists. But it was not until the 18th and 19th centuries that scientists were able to identify many of the individual components of plant chemistry.

Research enabled scientists to extract the active components of medicinal plants. Ironically, this led to the development of pharmaceutical drugs and a rejection of plant medicine. However, in the 1920s the devotion of a French chemist, René Maurice Gattefossé, initiated a modest revival in plant oils. Gattefossé discovered that lavender oil quickly healed a burn on his hand, and went on to show that many essential oils were better antiseptics than their synthetic counterparts. He coined the term “aromatherapie” to encapsulate the healing effect of scented oils. Later, a French army surgeon, Dr. Jean Valnet, successfully used essential oils to treat soldiers wounded in battle and patients in a psychiatric hospital. In 1964 Valnet published Aromathérapie, still considered by many to be the bible of aromatherapy.

In the 1950s Marguérite Maury, an Austrian beauty therapist and biochemist, introduced the concept of using essential oils in massage, and established the first aromatherapy clinics in Britain, France, and Switzerland. From this varied history, aromatherapy has evolved to become one of the most valued of modern complementary therapies.