Doctors turning to aromatherapy for help

Friday, Dec. 8, 2006


Doctors turning to aromatherapy for help


By EMIKO HAYASHI
Kyodo News
More doctors are beginning to look into the medical properties of aromatherapy in the treatment of diseases.

Kazunaga Kawabata, who heads a clinic in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, became interested in aromatherapy about 10 years ago. He was looking for an alternative medical treatment for people with poor blood circulation and several other conditions.

At the time, some aromatherapy salons were claiming the therapy could cure disease.

Aromatherapy is the massaging into the body of essential oils extracted from flowers, leaves and fruit. There are more than 200 oils, which are often used in combination to treat different problems, including headaches and insomnia.

"There was no scientific evidence apart from the oil's fragrance making people feel better," Kawabata said. "As I am a doctor, I wanted to clarify the effects."

He asked 10 people sensitive to the cold to inhale lemon oil. Ten minutes later, he found their skin temperatures had risen by 2 degrees on average. He also found traces of limonene, the oil's fragrant substance, in their blood.

"I have found through a series of experiments that the fragrant substance is absorbed through the lungs and skin into blood vessels, causing various pharmacological reactions," the doctor said. "Therefore, the oil should not be treated as general merchandise, but its use should be studied."

In July 2004, the Kawashima Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward opened an aromatherapy outpatient department. An aromatherapist, who is also a midwife, massages patients with a combination of several oils to improve their condition, and works with Mihoko Ikoma, the hospital's vice director, to provide treatment.

"We're asking patients to go to salons for healing and come here to improve symptoms" like numbness and dizziness, Ikoma said.

At first, the hospital expected most of its patients to be pregnant women, but they found many women in their 40s and 50s going through menopause and people with chronic fatigue also wanted to be treated.

Nobumasa Shiba, director of orthopedic surgery at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Hospital, became interested in aromatherapy as an alternative treatment for osteoarthritis in knee joints, which occurs when the cartilage in the joint wears away. About 1 million people in Japan have the degenerative condition.

To test the effectiveness and safety of aromatherapy for patients, Shiba carried out an experiment on those aged 40 or older who had had physical symptoms for more than three months.

The 36 patients massage lavender oil, effective for pain, and rosemary camphor oil, to improve circulation, into their knees in the morning and evening for two weeks.

Most of them said their symptoms, including pain, had lessened.

"It still needs to be clarified what was effective and how, but I had not expected such a good result," Shiba said.

The Japan Times
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