guidetohealth.com

• Home
•  » Library
•  » Herbs for Health and Healing
•  » Aromatherapy for the Emotions

Aromatherapy for the Emotions

ANXIETY

Feeling panicked about an approaching job interview or a speech? Then eat an apple, says University of Arizona researcher Gary Schwartz, M.D.—and be sure to sniff it. Dr. Schwartz, who says he was inspired by the old saying "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," believes that our sense of smell directly affects the part of our brain that controls fear and anxiety. To put his theory to the test, he organized a study in which he asked a group of people questions such as "What kind of person makes you angry?" As expected, everyone tensed up. That is, until they sniffed an apple. When they inhaled that scent, they breathed easier, their blood pressure and heart rates dropped and their muscles even relaxed. They also felt less anxious and embarrassed, and reported that they suddenly felt much happier. When they sniffed a little clove and cinnamon with the apple scent, the results were even better.

In fact, a whole fruit bowl of fragrances may be able to help you overcome fear and anxiety. The researchers at International Fragrance and Flavor found that, for most people, smelling an orange reduces anxiety. They also found that the scent of peaches calms people experiencing panic attacks and combats the sleep disorder narcolepsy.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Paolo Rovesti, M.D., director of the Instituto Derivati Vegetali in Milan, Italy, turned to fragrance to help patients suffering from anxiety. He used scents that perfumers describe as "herbal" or "green," including Lavender, rose, marjoram, cypress and violet leaf. To ease migraine headaches caused by anxiety, the twelfth-century Muslim herbalist Al-Samarqandi suggested sniffing violets. Aromatherapists use these same fragrances to help someone who is feeling lonely or rejected, or undergoing a major life transition. The sixteenth- century herbalist John Gerard also suggested smelling marjoram, "for those given to much sighing," and said that it comforts some specific states of anxiety: grief, loneliness and rejection. In some Greek and Roman texts, it is stated that marjoram "strengthens" the brain and emotions.

A contemporary practitioner who successfully treats anxiety disorders with aromatherapy is J. J. King, M.D., a psychiatrist at the Smallwood Day Hospital in Redditch, Worcestershire, England. He uses pleasant, natural scents combined with relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, positive visualization, soothing music and heat treatments. Once patients learn to associate a particular fragrance with deep relaxation, they relax whenever they are given a sniff. Some of Dr. King's favorite anti-anxiety scents are Lavender, rose, Bergamot, Cypress and balsam fir.

One woman I know, Gail, could hardly leave her home for fear of an unsuspected anxiety attack. She felt as if the world were closing in on her. The attacks usually lasted less than an hour, but they were so bad, she said, that she wanted to die. The worst part is that she had no idea when one might occur. A single mom who had to work every day, she found that the condition was making her life unbearable. Gail tried a number of therapies to help her overcome the panic attacks, including psychotherapy and acupuncture, but she also turned to aromatherapy. She was given a combination of orange, marjoram and Lavender to carry around. To her amazement, she found that these oils relaxed and calmed her so much that she could begin to control and subdue her attacks. Just the knowledge that she had an instant tool to help increased Gail's confidence in her ability to go out into the world.

Aromatherapy can also help most people overcome episodes of grief and sadness. Most of the research on this subject comes from historical texts. The fragrances used historically correspond to modern ones suggested for anxiety. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks sniffed Hyssop, cypress and marjoram to ease grief. Hyssop was said to help clear the mind and help a person think more clearly during trying times. Several ancient cultures, such as Indian and Egyptian, used sandalwood to comfort mourners during funeral ceremonies. Europeans used Sage, clary Sage and rosemary to help them overcome grief. Rosemary was carried to funerals, then thrown into the grave.

I know several caregivers who work with dying patients, and they have found that fragrances are helpful not only for those who are dying, but also for the family and friends. These fragrances can even be used during an emotional or stressful transition in one's life, such as a job change or while ending a romantic relationship.

Anti-anxiety Fragrance

4 ounces sweet almond oil

10 drops each Lavender and orange essential oils

2 drops each marjoram and Cypress essential oils

Combine ingredients and it's done!

Anti-sorrow Fragrance

4 ounces sweet almond oil

10 drops marjoram essential oil

5 drops each clary Sage and cypress or rosemary essential oils

1 drop Hyssop essential oil (expensive, so it's optional)

1 drop melissa (or lemon) essential oil

Combine ingredients.

Bath Oil

To make a bath oil from either of these recipes, follow the same formula but use 2 ounces of almond oil instead of 4.

DEPRESSION

Pulling yourself out of the dumps may be as easy as taking a shower—if you use a shampoo containing orange, Tangerine and peach that is made by the Japanese cosmetic firm Shinsen and is designed to "lift the spirits." Perhaps someday you will literally be able to wash depression "right out of your hair." Aromatherapy may eventually be accepted by medical doctors as a drugless alternative for depression. According to the latest research by biochemist George H. Dodd, Ph.D., and psychologist Steve van Toller, Ph.D., at the Warwick Olfaction Research Group in England, the effect of fragrance on the brain is similar to that of some antidepressant drugs. This means that certain scents, such as orange, alter brain chemistry that causes depression, anxiety and probably other mood changes.

If Drs. Dodd and van Toller's dream comes true, you will someday be able to get an aromatherapy prescription to treat depression. This is already happening at an experimental convalescent clinic in Baku, Azerbaijan. A prescription from a doctor at this clinic typically recommends spending ten minutes twice a week in a special sunroom sniffing certain live plants. One of the fragrances that they use to overcome general neurosis, headaches and insomnia caused by worry and depression is rose geranium.

Mood swings are a normal part of life, and temporary states of depression are quite normal, but ongoing depression is a complex problem that limits the quality of life for more than 30 million Americans. Statistics show that depression has been steadily increasing in North America since the beginning of the twentieth century. It affects general health by suppressing your immune system and can lead to insomnia and other seemingly unrelated problems by causing changes in the brain's chemistry. Professional psychiatric care is often necessary, but aromatherapy can also play a role (in conjunction with therapy). In fact, many professional therapists are beginning to incorporate aromatherapy into their practices.

When it comes to herbal antidepressants, I find citrus scents to be particularly effective. orange essential oil, which is produced from orange peel, is easy to find and quite inexpensive. Even smelling an orange as you peel it helps—when you tear the skin, minute amounts of essential oils are propelled into the air to cheer you up. However, this whiff of scent may not be sufficient for someone who is severely depressed. In that case, try the refined scent of the orange blossom, called neroli by aromatherapists, or the less expensive petitgrain, which comes from the stem behind the flower.

Although I did not care for petitgrain when I first sniffed it years ago, I learned to love it after using it in my bath to counter a bout of depression. I figured that money was no object in my pursuit of health, but if a less expensive oil worked, why not use it? It blends nicely with Lavender, which is also used as an antidepressant.

Science has not yet investigated the use of aromatherapy to counter compulsive behavior that is associated with depression, including eating disorders. Aromatherapists, experimenting with various oils, have discovered that the fragrance of another citrus, Bergamot, along with Grapefruit often does the trick. (Do not confuse this with the herb garden plant called Bergamot, which is in the mint family.) Children who are depressed usually prefer either Grapefruit or Tangerine.

Dr. Paolo Rovesti, already mentioned here for his work with anxiety, has helped pull many people out of serious depression using the citrus scents of orange, Bergamot, lemon and lemon verbena. He also found that Jasmine, sandalwood and ylang-ylang alleviated depression. Here is how Dr. Rovesti described the effect of these aromas: "Patients felt as if transported by the perfume of the essential oil into a different, more agreeable and acceptable world, so that many of their reactive instincts are curbed and they gradually return towards normality."

In sixteenth- and seventeenth- century European herbals, clary Sage and lemon balm were suggested to counter depression and to help with paranoia, mental fatigue and nervous disorders associated with depression (though, of course, these disorders were not known then by these names). Modern aroma-therapists concur. Writing in the sixteenth century, John Gerard said that sniffing lemon balm, called melissa by aromatherapists, would "gladden the heart" and recommended Basil to "taketh away sorrowfullness... and maketh a man merry and glad." Indians traditionally use Basil in a similar fashion to prevent agitation and nightmares.

I know of many aromatherapists who have suggested an essential oil for a physical problem, knowing that the fragrance also works as an antidepressant. Only later did their clients confide that they had suffered from terrible depression and were surprised to find their depression lifting with the help of their aromatherapy oil! A good example is Margaret, who was being treated for menstrual disorders with Bergamot, clary Sage, lemon balm and Lavender. The six days of gloom that she always associated with premenstrual syndrome were so dramatically reduced that she was caught by surprise when menstruation occurred without the depression she had come to take for granted.

Antidepressant Fragrance

4 ounces sweet almond oil

10 drops each Bergamot and petitgrain essential oils

3 drops rose geranium essential oil

1 drop neroli essential oil (expensive, so it's optional)

Combine ingredients. For children, replace petitgrain with Grapefruit or Tangerine.

Bath Oil

To make a bath oil using this recipe, follow the same formula but use 2 ounces of almond oil instead of 4.

Antidepressant Smelling Salts

6 drops Antidepressant Fragrance, without almond oil (see above)

1 heaping teaspoon rock salt

Drop the essential oil onto the salt. The salt will quickly absorb the oil. Carry smelling salts in a small container with a tight lid.

FATIGUE: PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL

Aroma is already assisting people whose jobs and the safety of others depend upon their staying alert, such as long-distance truck drivers. The cosmetics firm Charles of the Ritz markets a fragrance to keep car and truck drivers alert while driving, and there is talk of extending this concept to air-traffic controllers and others who must keep alert while performing monotonous but important tasks. Train conductors in Japan and Russia rely on an "odorphone" developed by Russian professor of biology and odorologist V. Krasnov. Depending on your preference, his little machine spews out hot whiffs of Pine, cedar, rose or even seaweed or mushroom.

Air New Zealand and Virgin Atlantic airlines developed kits of floral-scented bath oils to reduce jet lag. These oils, one called Awake and another Asleep, are also sold at Heathrow Airport's International Terminal in London. England's Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana reportedly used them regularly in their jaunts around the world.

Workers at Tokyo's Kajima and Shimizu architectural and construction companies also benefit from aromatherapy firsthand. Throughout the workday, fragrances are circulated through the air- conditioning system to keep employees attentive. At Kajima, lemon is the morning wake-up call, followed by rose to inspire contented work; after lunch, workers are greeted with an invigorating cypress. Shimizu disperses Peppermint into their offices and conference rooms to increase work efficiency, dispel drowsiness and lessen mental fatigue (Lavender is also used to help set a positive mood). The company even claims that the scented rooms reduce employees' urges to smoke. cypress fragrance is sent into the display areas and public relations rooms to promote constructive work. Even the Tokyo Stock Exchange has begun to invigorate the afternoon air with Peppermint. Kajima has teamed up with the Shiseido cosmetics company and Shimizu with Toho University to develop environmental fragrancing for businesses.

But aromatherapy does not have to stop at work. During lunch hour, workers in Tokyo can try a Peppermint refresher at Club Harry's. Subjects lie on couches in rooms that are filled with aromas. On the way home, they can stop off at one of several atomizer-equipped phone booths to escape from the stress of commuter traffic with a mist of a relaxing scents.

One American paint company is bringing this idea into the American home. City Surplus and Paint in Denver offers more than a wide selection of colors with its West O' Scent Paint. The paint comes in more than a dozen mood-altering scents, including stimulating fragrances such as Jasmine, Pine and eucalyptus . Sleeping in too late? A Hattori Seiko alarm clock from Japan puffs Pine and eucalyptus to rouse you seconds before your alarm goes off.

Some of the first investigation into fragrant stimulants was done in the 1920s by Italian psychiatrists Giovanni Gatti and Renato Cayola. They found that the scents of Clove, ylang-ylang, Cinnamon, lemon, cardamom, fennel and Angelica were stimulating. American studies through IFF also found Peppermint and eucalyptus to be stimulating. Later, when brain waves were recorded by researcher Shizuo Torii, Ph.D., of the Toho University School of Medicine in Tokyo, they showed that some of these fragrances and numerous others—Clove, Basil, ylang-ylang, Jasmine, black pepper, Cinnamon and, to a lesser degree, rose, patchouli, lemon grass and Sage—acted as stimulants.

According to Dr. Torii, these fragrances affect us much differently from the way adrenal stimulants such as caffeine do. They counter the typical adrenal rush caused by caffeine, as well as physiological stress, strain or boredom, reducing drowsiness, irritability and headaches. Dr. Torii has found that stimulating fragrances prevent you from experiencing the sharp drop of sustained attention that typically occurs after 30 minutes of work by arousing the autonomic nervous system, which controls breathing and blood pressure.

To test the effects of such fragrances on alertness, researchers William N. Dember, Ph.D., and Joel S. Warm, Ph.D., gave people at the University of Cincinnati a stressful 40-minute task identifying patterns on a computer. Those working in rooms scented with Peppermint had many more correct answers than people working in unscented rooms. In addition, their performance levels didn't decline as rapidly. In a study conducted by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, clerical workers set higher goals for themselves and were more efficient when their offices were pleasantly scented. The fragrance worked even when those taking the test did not think that the scent was influencing them.

I travel with a selection of aromatic atomizers to spray into the air or on my face during long drives or airplane flights. Once, while I was flying across the country, a businessman sat down next to me. He introduced himself as Greg, said he could not stay awake on these long flights and proceeded to fall asleep as soon as the plane left the runway. About every 20 minutes, I reached into my bag and gave my face a gentle rose spray. It was making my trip more enjoyable but I was concerned that I might be bothering Greg. Every time I used the spray, the scent would float across to his seat and he would stir, often waking up to ask if we were there yet. Hours later, we finally arrived in Boston. As the plane landed, he perked right up and told me that it had been the most refreshing and least tiring flight he had taken. He could not imagine why, then looked at me and said, "It must have been you!" (I did not tell him my secret.)

Stimulant for Fatigue

4 ounces sweet almond oil

15 drops lemon essential oil

4 drops eucalyptus essential oil

1 drop each Cinnamon, Peppermint and benzoin (if available) essential oils

Combine ingredients.

Bath Oil

To make a bath oil using this recipe, follow the same formula but use 2 ounces of almond oil instead of 4.

Some of the fragrances mentioned in this section—including ylang-ylang, rose, patchouli, sandalwood and Jasmine—are both relaxants and stimulants. Although it might seem as if these effects would cancel out each other, they actually combine to produce a very enjoyable mood. Indeed, all these scents also have age-old reputations as aphrodisiac scents.

We know from clinical research, such as the study on vanilla and musk described earlier, that aphrodisiacs stimulate brain waves. The state of being completely relaxed yet at the same time stimulated offers the perfect combination for an aphrodisiac, since stress and tension are strong deterrents to passion. Other aphrodisiacs include the stimulants Cinnamon and coriander (which was used in the famous story The Arabian Nights). Aphrodisiacs are especially useful as part of a program to help overcome sexual dysfunctions. For more information, see "Impotence" in chapter 75.

Aphrodisiac

4 ounces sweet almond oil

10 drops each Lavender and sandalwood essential oils

2 drops each ylang-ylang and vanilla essential oils

1 drop each Cinnamon and Jasmine essential oils

Combine ingredients. Lavender is not an aphrodisiac, but is added to make the fragrance more mellow. It can be a relaxing and emotionally uplifting scent. If you love the fragrance of patchouli, try using it in place of ylang-ylang.

MEMORY

You've probably noticed how a whiff of a certain fragrance that you haven't smelled for years can send you back in time, bringing to mind many images and feelings associated with a particular event. Trygg Engen, Ph.D., a researcher at Brown University and the author of Perception of Odor, is interested in harnessing that power. Dr. Engen has found that memory recall more than doubles if a past event is associated with smell instead of being something we experienced only visually.

Have you ever found yourself trying to grasp a scent as it pulls you back to some past event or long-gone emotion? I know that whenever I smell roses, I am again a little girl sniffing my grandmother's potpourri jar. Lavender recalls the soothing scent of her linens when she tucked me into bed. Psychologists call this experience the Marcel Proust phenomenon, after the famous French writer. One day, when the novelist dipped a biscuit in his tea, the aroma brought back many memories from his childhood; these memories became the basis of his famous multivolume Remembrance of Things Past. André Virel, a French psychologist, is a firm believer in the technique—he has clients sniff vanilla to help them recall childhood memories

Rosemary has a long history of increasing memory, concentration and even creativity. Shakespeare, in the last act of Hamlet, has the mad Ophelia declare, "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance." In the seventeenth century, herbalist Nicholas Culpeper wrote that rosemary "helps a weak memory, and quickens the senses." Modern research conducted in Japan confirms that rosemary is indeed a brain stimulant. Workers in Tokyo can now visit Club Harry's for a 30-minute morning aroma session of rosemary and lemon designed to improve their concentration.

Other herbal mental stimulants include Sage, Basil and bay leaf. Bay leaves were used as a brain tonic by both the Romans and Native Americans (who used the North American species). You should know, though, that sniffing too much bay leaf can bring on a headache. During the Renaissance, graduating European students were adorned with bay leaf crowns, and we still give graduates a baccalaureate, or "bay laurel," though without a wreath! Of Sage, Gerard said it is good for the head and brain and "it quicketh the senses and memory." William Turner wrote in his 1568 Herbal that clary Sage "helps the memory [and] quickens the senses."

Want to help yourself retain something you are reading? Try sniffing one of these aromas as you read. Next time you need help remembering those facts, sniff the same aroma again and it will trigger your memory. I keep a rosemary plant next to my computer, so that whenever I am at a loss for words I can reach over and rub a leaf between my fingers. The air immediately fills with a wonderful aroma, and I am able to find the words to continue. In aromatherapy classes, I pass around a vial of rosemary essential oil for everyone to dab on their notebooks to help them remember.

Memory Stimulant

4 ounces sweet almond oil

10 drops each Lavender and lemon essential oils

5 drops rosemary essential oil

1 drop Cinnamon essential oil

Combine ingredients.

STRESS AND INSOMNIA

When stress begins to weigh upon your shoulders, try inhaling an essential oil. Dab it on your bedsheets to promote sleep, or better yet, unwind in a relaxing scented bath. An evening massage will soothe anyone plagued with insomnia that is caused by stress. If you do not have time for that, just sniffing the oil will often work. This method is ideal for cranky children who need to settle down before going to sleep. Sound too good to be true? Not according to research by Susan Schiffman, M.D., professor of medical psychology at North Carolina's Duke University. Dr. Schiffman notes that sedative drugs like Valium and Librium affect a newly discovered group of smell receptors in the brain. She reasons that if smell receptors help to sedate us, the fragrance itself should perform similarly.

To test her theory, Dr. Schiffman has even taken aromatherapy to the New York City subway system. She sprayed spicy scents into subway cars to see if that relaxed the passengers enough to improve their dispositions. After comparing the number of pushes, shoves and nasty comments in scented cars to those in unscented cars, she found that certain fragrances appeared to cut aggressive acts almost in half. Scents piped through the heating and air-conditioning systems at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City are already lowering the stress levels of patients, staff and families. Vanilla is used to relax patients who must stay perfectly still while undergoing MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans inside a large cylinder, a situation that often makes them nervous. Psychologist Sharon Manne, Ph.D., who initiated the therapy, hopes that aromatherapy will also be used to relax cancer patients during CAT scans and radiation therapy.

Fragrances can also lower your pulse and breathing rate. In the 1920s, the Italian psychiatrists Gatti and Cayola concluded that "the sense of smell has... an enormous influence on the function of the central nervous system." They found that for their patients, the essential oils with the greatest sedating effects were citrus scents such as melissa (lemon balm), neroli (orange blossom) and petitgrain, as well as the fragrances of traditional herbal relaxants—chamomile, valerian and opopanax, which is similar to myrrh. IFF researchers have found that neroli measurably lowers stress and blood pressure. In fact, they found a blend of neroli, valerian and nutmeg so effective in helping release tension that IFF has patented i