Uses and Benefits of Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is a holistic procedure for healing that encourages wellness and well-being by using natural plant extracts. It's called essential oil therapy sometimes. Aromatherapy is a form of medicine that uses aromatic essential oils to improve the health of the body, mind, and spirit. It increases both physical and mental well-being.
How does treatment with aromatherapy function?
Aromatherapy works by using products such as these through the sense of smell and skin absorption:
- Diffusers
- Aromatic spritzers
- Inhalers
- Bathing salts
- Body oils, creams, or lotions for massage or topical application
- Facial steamers
- Hot and cold compresses
- Clay masks
You can use these alone or in any combination.
Close to one hundred varieties of essential oils are available.
An array of specific healing properties, uses, and effects are available for each essential oil. The benefits of mixing essential oils to create a synergistic combination are multiplied.
Aromatherapy advantages
Aromatherapy has many advantages. It is said to mean:
- Manage pain
- Improve sleep quality
- Reduce stress, agitation, and anxiety
- Soothe sore joints
- Treat headaches and migraines
- Alleviate side effects of chemotherapy
- Ease discomforts of labor
- Fight bacteria, virus, or fungus
- Improve digestion
- Improve hospice and palliative care
- Boost immunity
Benefits of Aromatherapy Massage
It is said that each essential oil used in aromatherapy has various properties. Others are soothing and stimulating, while others are energising, uplifting, and decongesting.
Since the techniques of aromatherapy massage are mostly the same as those used in Swedish massage (the most common form of massage in the US), people often get it to relieve tension or for sore back, neck, and/or shoulder muscles.
For the following conditions, the use of therapeutic essential oils in massage is being explored:
- Anxiety
- Dementia symptoms
- Depression
- Insomnia
- Menstrual pain
- Supportive care for people with conditions such as cancer