The Secret Benefits of Aroma Therapy

Many of the techniques of alternative healing that have become popular today trace their origin to ancient systems of knowledge. Their scientific basis and relevance in modern life are only now being recognized and appreciated by medical research.

Aromatherapy is a method of treatment that involves using essential oils to promote physical and emotional well being. It is an ancient discipline that has withstood the test of time

This book captures the essence of aromatherapy and explains how certain oils can be effectively used to treat physical ailments. Aromatherapy is a safe and natural method which restores the balance of the body and promotes good health.

Sumeet Sharma is an engineer with a Master in Business management. He is a traditional Reiki Master and has done his advanced course in hypnotherapy and neurolinguistic programming. A pranic healer and the director of the Holistic healing center he holds workshops on the above therapies along with aromatherapy and his teaching methods include simple techniques which have benefited many executives and people under stress.

The word aromatherapy means treatment using scents. It refers to the use of essential oils in Holistic healing to improve health and emotional well being and in restoring balance to the body. Essential oils are aromatic essences extracted from plants, flowers, trees, fruit, bark, grasses and seeds. There are more than 150 types of oils that can be extracted. These oils have distinctive therapeutic, psychological and physiological properties that improve health and prevent illness. All essential oils have unique healing and valuable antiseptic properties. Some oils are anti-viral, anti-inflammatory pain-relieving, anti-depressant, stimulating, relaxing, expectorating, support digestion and have diuretic properties too.

Essential oils get absorbed into our body and exert an influence on it. The residue gets dispersed from the body naturally. They can also affect our mind and emotions. They enter the body in three ways by inhalation absorption and consumption.

From the chemist’s point of view essential oils are a mixture of organic compounds viz, ketones, terpenes, esters, alcohol, aldehyde and hundreds of others molecules which are extremely difficult to classify as they are small and complex. The essential oils molecules are small. They penetrate human skin easily and enter the blood stream directly and finally get flushed out through our elementary system.

A concentrate of essential oils is not greasy it is more like water in texture and evaporates quickly. Some of them are light liquid insoluble in water and evaporate instantly when exposed to air. It would take 100 kg. of lavender to yield three kg. of lavender oil one would need eight million jasmine flowers to yield barely one kg. of jasmine oil.

Some of these aroma oils are very expensive. They are extracted using maceration. The purification process called effleurage is employed and in some cases fat is used instead of oil. Then this process called effleurage is used for final purification.