Aromatherapy can be used as a form of treatment or prevention for some diseases and can be extremely useful for reducing levels of stress. The essential oils that are released through aromatherapy have a significant influence on the aroma center of the brain, specifically in the limbic system. While no specific medical studies have proven aromatherapy to have positive effects on the body currently, many preliminary clinical studies show a synergy between the body’s healing processes and aromatic oils. These aromatic oils are often released as gas or vapor during aromatherapy, as the oils are often burned.
Throughout the English-speaking world, aromatherapy is used on a day-to-day basis, even if you are not aware of it. Many people in the Western civilizations may not necessarily recognize it as aromatherapy, but are likely to see it in their day-to-day lives through perfumes, massage oils, and scented lotions. This is one reason why many practitioners tend to emphasize their use of aromatherapy through massage oils and incense. It is only in America and other English speaking countries that aromatherapy is regarded as such a complementary method.
Have you ever used a perfume to get a desired scent? Have you ever used lotions that, for some reason, just feel so soothing to you? Have you ever burned incense with names such as “Tranquility”, found that the incense was quite soothing, and helped you to relax? Have you ever used bath soap or other bath lotion that was designed to help soothe and calm?
These are all aspects of aromatherapy in its complementary sense. All of these are methods through which people use scents, smells, and other natural aspects to help create a soothing, warm, and welcoming environment.
In France, where it was originally discovered, aromatherapy is a part of their national mainstream medicine. Throughout France, there is an emphasis on the use of the many properties of essential oils such as the antiseptic, antiviral, antifungal, and antibacterial properties. They may also find these properties to be in other distilled plant material and use these properties in order to control the spread of infections. This is quite different from the methods familiar to many English-speaking countries. In France and its neighboring countries, it is not uncommon for a patient to be prescribed essential oils that are then administrated by a physician.
Can you imagine what that would be like in the United States? Imagine if you were going to a physician who prescribed you an aromatherapy
treatment for your stress, rather than synthetic medication. This would truly be different from what we are accustomed to in Western civilizations. Yet, so many other countries use aromatherapy treatments in order to prevent illnesses and treat existing illnesses or conditions.
Although there has been many breakthroughs throughout the aromatherapy medicine field, present day aromatherapy is a form of a valid science branch that has not been validated in the United States, Russia, Germany, or Japan. It is very common for physicians in these countries to neglect to recognize the usefulness of aromatherapy treatments. Yet, other countries throughout the world are still using aromatherapy in order to treat illnesses and diseases and to prevent further infection of illnesses or diseases. Despite the obvious usefulness of aromatherapy and reducing stress levels, most physicians in Western civilizations do not like to use aromatherapy in treating stress.