What Are The Health Benefits of Aromatherapy?
As with herbs, the active components within essential oils produce pharmacological effects such as analgesia, relaxation or an increased sense of wellbeing. Aromatherapy has both strong physical and psychological benefits. Aromatic oils enter the bloodstream via the avleoli in the lungs. Direct action on the bloodstream as it is simultaneously being re-oxygenated through inhalation causes the distribution of the active plant ingredients to be dispersed via the arterial system, and to reach deep into the tissues. During the Great Plague in London in 1666, an essential oil formula known as the Four Thieves was even used to protect people from infection and a form of this is still available today as an immune tonic (1). Essential oils also directly communicate with the brain via the olfactory bulb, which can be seen in red in the picture above. This organ decodes molecules at smell receptors and sends the messages on to our limbic sytem, which is the central portion of the brain housing o
