Scentual healing: Perfume is medicine in aromatherapy

Scentual healing: Perfume is medicine in aromatherapy
By Susanna Gaertner
Sentinel correspondent

Aromatherapy is shrouded in mists of misconception as powerful as the fragrances that accompany it.

It is more than merely a sniffing session where beautiful scents waft past your nostrils from oils emanating from an incense burner — sometimes placed on the floor beneath your head for inhalation during the session — and more than a Swedish or remedial massage during healing modality that uses essential oils to stimulate the immune system and relieve stress.

Even the ancient Chinese recognized that "every perfume is a medicine," that essential oils work on a dynamic and profound level, affecting our circulatory, respiratory, digestive, and nervous systems, thereby influencing our very attitudes and outlook.

"When administered correctly," says Elizabeth Jones, director of the College of Botanical Healing Arts here in Santa Cruz, "essential oils are known to relieve symptoms such as stress, anxiety and mood disorders, bringing you into a state of relaxed alertness."

So, while aromatherapy may be focused on the application of aromatic oils into the skin, these must also please the nose, for it is through the olfactory system that the plant essences have their effect on the limbic brain, seat of our most primal drives and appetites.

Clinical trials at Sloan-Kettering have shown that aromatherapy helps support the immune surveillance function of the lymphatic system. According to Dr. Bruce Eisendorf, the human body has two circulatory systems blood and lymph, but only one pump our heart. Alternating contraction and relaxation of the muscles as they move — that squeezing action on the lymphatic vessels and on the veins — is what moves the lymph along. A really good aromatherapist can actually feel lymphatic blockages or "crystals" similar to the "crystals" a reflexologist finds in your feet.

Essential oils make their way into the blood stream via the tiny blood vessels at the base of the hair follicles that cover 90 percent of our body. Actually, essential "oils" is a misnomer, according to local practitioner Ahna-Kristen Backstrom.

"They're not oils but chemical constituents produced by plants and isolated through distillation into a liquid that is added to a carrier oil," she said.

Since they diffuse directly into the blood supply, the oils work very quickly, unlike a substance that is ingested and has to go through your digestive tract before it is absorbed. Backstrom agrees with well-known Australian aromatherapist Hilary Marks, who says "its nature is actually changed by the different secretions of the digestive tract. By the time it lands in the blood, it's not the same substance anymore. Whereas if you put it in through the skin, it is. So this is an effective way of getting those complex plant chemicals to their destination quickly."

Because aromatherapy addresses the lymphatic system, the mechanics of its application are different from what you have been used to in a "regular" massage: using long, slow, gentle strokes, the aromatherapist massages the specially prepared oils into the skin, just hard enough for them to penetrate, but not hard enough to work on the muscles and ligaments. This takes some getting used to, as many of us are more accustomed to the deep kneading and vigorous circular movements aimed at loosening tight muscles. It helps to know this before you get on the table.

Properly trained aromatherapists will hold a certification in this speciality. About 40 percent also hold massage certificates, though you can call yourself an aromatherapist without one.

Aromatherapists generally have more thorough training in biochemistry, anatomy and physiology than regular massage therapists, since they must study the effects of essential oils on both the physical and subtle electrical energy body, Backstrom said. As with any discipline, expertise comes with experience.

"Ultimately, I choose the oils intuitively," says Syndey, Australia-based-based verteran aromatherapist Morva Belot. And it's because of this latitude that you want to find a veteran: someone with practical experience as well as education.

Since more than one oil can be used for any given complaint, the aromatherapist must also be guided by the client's olfactory responses. To give a personal example: frankincense, precious as gold in days gone by, is now often used for for what is seen as a calming, regulating effect on the mind and emotions, helping to dispel fear and anxiety. For many, it fortifies the spirit; to others, it smells like turpentine.

Fortunately, there are several other oils with similar properties. The experienced aromatherapist will know not only which oils are best suited to soothe and heal her client, but also that client's preferences, and then decide which oils will work synergistically and where to apply them.

Old medicine

Aromatherapy is one of the most ancient medicinal modalities: the use of essential oils is documented on Babylonian clay tablets and Egyptian tomb paintings, and in ancient Chinese and Indian Ayurvedic practice.

Aromatic oils preserved the pharaohs, their body tissue intact after centuries, thanks to the anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal properties of plant essences.

In fact, hieroglyphics depict individual pharaohs with their own essential oils in alabaster jars that were entombed with them when they died.

The ancient Romans practiced aromatherapy, using herbs and resins imported from conquered nations, research reveals. In Europe, lavender was distilled in southern France in the 16th century the city of Grasse, in Provence, still holds an annual festival around the lavender harvest, and it is this oil that was responsible for the reawakening of interest in essential oils at the beginning of the 20th century: Upon badly burning his hand in laboratory accident, a French professor named Gattefossé plunged the affected appendage into a receptacle of pure lavender oil: in a remarkably short time, the redness was gone and the hand had healed completely. Naturally, this caused him to investigate the properties of other oils and, voila! aromathérapie was born.

Australian Aborigines have a long tradition of using eucalyptus leaves, camel bush, the oily kernels of the desert walnut and the leaves of the parrot pea plant. Tea-tree oil, a relatively recent oil produced only in Australia, is now used around the world for antiseptic properties and to boost the immune system.

Says Santa Cruz aromatherapist Elizabeth Jones, "It should be in everyone's medicine chest."

Another oil unique to Australia, boronia, is reputed to help with obsessive behavior caused by emotional injury or sadness. It was also used by the early colonists in their horses' food to control worms.

Again, it's important to remember that ingesting plant substances, whether fresh or in dried form as herbs, has no bearing on their effectiveness or potency as oils: Essential oils reportedly are 70 times stronger than fresh herbs.

So, if you're feeling sluggish or blue, anxious or depressed, treat yourself to one of history's oldest forms of hands-on therapy. Mind, body, and soul will thank you.

Contact Susanna Gaertnerat svreeken@santacruzsentinel.com.

What to look for in a good aromatherapist

A good aromatherapist begins by taking a thorough history of a client: any physical complaints, as well as desires and disappointments, past illnesses, state of mind and mood, not to mention an actual state of health (for example, blood pressure), habits and medications. The aromatherapist then concocts preparations specifically for that client, mixing drops of essential oil into a carrier oil such as almond, jojoba, grapeseed or apricot.

There is no state licensing for aromatherapists, so anyone can legally call themselves an aromatherapist; often, acupuncturists, naturopaths and other holistic medical practitioners will incorporate essential oils into their therapeutic arsenal but look for someone who has completed the program certified by the California Board of Post-Secondary Vocational Education, and is now a Certified Essential Oil Therapist.

In Santa Cruz, the College of Botanical Healing Arts offers a 390-hour certification course that imparts the knowledge of botany, chemistry, physiology and clinical ethics that you want your aromatherapist to have. Some, but not all aromatherapists are also certified massage therapists, who will at least have the malpractice insurance to ensure a certain level of seriousness.

All pure, natural, essential oils are labeled in Latin, so a quick scan of the aromatherapist's arsenal will quickly confirm whether you are getting the real thing.