Aromatherapy

Archive for November, 2006

Do you look at your skin and see it as a vital organ? It is. Your skin needs to be cleansed and nourished regularly to keep it beautiful and healthy. Your skin acts as a buffer to protect you from shock and damage as well as from infection and pollution. Skin also plays a part in your body’s waste removal system. You think for being so important people would treat it as such. But many people don’t give their skin the attention that it deserves.

There are many skincare products on the market that can have harmful effects on your skin and your health. The chemicals may be too harsh for your skin or you may have an allergic reaction to them. You may not feel comfortable with the fact that you are breathing in the chemicals from your skincare products. Essential oils are great for skincare because they are gentle on your skin and they don’t contain such harsh chemicals. They’ll be gentle on your skin and provide you with a number of benefits.

Besides their cleansing properties, essential oils also have natural healing properties that make them great for skin care. They absorb easily into your skin and are known to be useful for a wide variety of skin treatments. Remember you don’t have to stick with just one kind. Many people like to mix and match their essential oils. Be creative and see what you come up with.

To use essential oils as a part of your skin care regimen, first remember that skin needs care in three ways; it needs to be cleansed, toned and moisturized. You may not think that each of these steps is necessary in skin care but they are. Cleansing your skin removes dead skin cells and any dirt or pollutants. Toning your skin helps close your pores and keep skin tight. If your pores are left open then they are susceptible to letting in dirt and pollution, which causes breakouts and blemishes. Moisturizing helps to replenish the skin’s protective oils; moisturized skin tends to wrinkle less and later in life than dry skin. By taking care of your skin, you will look better and feel better about yourself.

What is your skin type? Is it oily, dry, acne prone? Just like with any other skin care treatment you need to find what will work best for your skin. There are so many essential oils for you to choose from; basically if you have skin, there’s one that will work for you.

After you’ve figured out what skin type you have, you can choose which oil would work best. Chamomile is a great essential oil to use for cleansing. If your skin tends to get oily tea tree, geranium, and lemon essential oils work to dissolve oil on the skin. For aging or dry skin an essential oil that soothes and lubricates the skin is what you should use. Ylang ylang and sandalwood are among the most popular. For acne prone skin lavender, tea tree, and lemon will help with breakouts.

Although essential oils are extremely useful for cleansing, toning and moisturizing purposes this is not the only type of skin care you can get from them. Adding essential oils to your bath is also a great way for your skin to benefit. Fill up your bath and add a few drops of the essential oil of your choice, depending on what is best for your skin, and soak for about fifteen minutes. Because essential oils are so concentrated, you only need to add a few drops to your bath.

Essential oils should not be used without being diluted; this can be harmful to your skin. There are several ways that you can dilute the essential oils before using them. If you’ll be massaging the oil into your skin use natural carrier oils. Among the most popular are sesame, jojoba, olive, peanut, grape seed, sweet almond and apricot.

Combining essential oils with a carrier lotion or skin cream is also a great way to dilute them. If you use a lotion or skin cream, make sure that it’s unscented and lanolin free. You can add a few drops of essential oils to create the perfect skin cream for yourself. Or if you’d like a personalized body scrub, mix Epsom salt with a little vegetable oil and a few drops of your favorite essential oil; voila you’re one step closer to smooth, silky skin. When using a salt scrub, remember never to use it on your face, it’s too harsh.

If you’re a spritzer kind of person, there’s something here for you too. Using a spritzer bottle you can add a few drops of your favorite essential oil or a blend of oils along with some water. If you’d rather use floral water go ahead; it’s purely personal preference. Mix together your concoction and you’ll have a nice fresh spritzer not only to cool you off but it will improve your skin and help with your emotional well-being.

Other skin care benefits of essential oils include uses such as an antifungal, antiseptic and antibacterial. Essential oils can be used for eczema, lice, dandruff, athlete’s foot, and ringworm. If you have a cut, scrape or burn, an essential oils soothing and healing properties are a safe alternative to other harsh medicines.

The proper method of storing your essential oils to prolong the shelf life of the product is important to know. There are many simple tips that do not take up much time to accomplish, very little money used for and in the long run will make your aromatherapy experience far more enjoyable and effective. The first thing to remember about storing your essential oils is to keep them in an amber glass container, or other dark colored glass, away from direct sunlight and in a cool place. These small reminders, though seemingly insignificant, will ensure that your oils will last as long as they can.

The cool conditions of storing your essential oils can be anywhere you find the temperature to be lower than the rest of your home. In fact, some oils are recommended to be stored in your refrigerator. These are essential oils such as citrus and some of the more expensive oils. The cooler conditions of the fridge will prevent the oils from escaping by evaporation so that they will not be lost. If for the sake of taste, you do not want your food tasting like essential oils, make sure you get an airtight lid so that none of the aromas are transferred to your foods.

Another cool place that many people like to store their essential oils is in their bathrooms. This is fine, but there are a few things to remember if you want to do this. Obviously if any of the fragrances escape this will give your bathroom a nice fragrance. But, do not store it next to a windowsill. For one, sunlight will make the oils dissipate more quickly, and an open window will only allow the aromas to escape. As well, the temperatures in bathrooms fluctuate quite drastically, due to hot showers and windows being opened for refreshing. This is not always a good thing for the shelf life of your essential oils. This is not to say that a bathroom is a bad place to store them, just keep these facts in mind when putting them away. Perhaps a closet in the bathroom or some such place will do.

Some essential oils, such as absolutes, can solidify in cold weather. This is important to keep in mind, because it may make you reconsider where to store your essential oils due to what kind they are. Make sure you have some information about the physical nature of your oils before you decide where to store them. This could prevent you from ruining a perfectly good set of oils.

If you do have some absolute essential oils that happen to solidify while in storage, this can simply be undone by running the hardened oil under warm water to help it return to a liquid form. Do not do it too long or it will diffuse in the air and you will find yourself engaging in aromatherapy whether you wish to at the time or not.

Most essential oils have a shelf life of about two years, so pack rats beware! If you do not use them in a reasonable amount of time, then unfortunately you may lose them.

Some discoloration may occur in the process of storage. For instance, some species of chamomile, when young, are a dark, green/blue, but over time turn to a midnight blue. Do not be alarmed, as this is a natural evolution that occurs when they are stored for a certain amount of time. This does not mean that they have ‘gone bad’. This is merely a transformation in hue and aroma that it is subjected to. Lavender that is freshly distilled has often been cited as having an unpleasant aroma. The smell has often been referred to as herbaceous. But, this smell changes over time. So, a seasoned store of lavender, in the light of fears that it will ‘go bad’, actually enhances the aroma and causes it to have a more pleasing smell. This is not to compare lavender to something like wine. It indeed will lose its effectiveness and scented aroma over time. But, in contrast to freshly distilled lavender, it is better to have it sit for a short time, which it usually does in the case of retail stores’ shelves and the like. So, these are just a few storage tips for keeping your essential oils for aromatherapy.

The advantages of making your own massage oils are ones of personal preference as well as the ability to save money on prepared potions. It also means that you know that the ingredients that were used are fresh. To make your own massage oil you first need to choose which carrier oil to use as your base. This is very important and should be oil with no scent so you can bring out the fullness of what you create. It is recommended that for this purpose you use grape seed oil, sweet almond oil or safflower oil. All of these are relatively inexpensive and can easily be found at most grocery stores. You could also use olive oil, but it already has its own particular odor and so detracts from your creation.

The key to deciding what to use is what effect you are going after. If you are looking to prepare a massage oil that will be relaxing for the body than you will want to combine your carrier oil with the essential oils of rosemary, lavender and bergamot. For tired feet, add spearmint, wintergreen and rosemary essential oils to your carrier of choice. Or perhaps the oil you are preparing is to restore beauty. It is to help keep skin limber and silky smooth. This is better done with the essential oils of lavender, rosehip, palm rosa, and patchouli.

It’s very easy to combine essential oils to make a variety of mixes to serve a variety of purposes. Massage therapy has so many functions, can serve so many uses for your body, that you may want to make several different bottles of oils depending what you want to use them for.

Is your skin dry or oily? Do you have classically sensitive skin that is easily irritated by new things or maybe you suffer from acne? You can still have a luxurious massage anytime by mixing up the right combination of carrier oil and essential oils. Remember that which you may combine for cosmetic use does not work for massage. You want oils that will assist with movement along the body as well as allow the oils to be absorbed into the skin.

Once you have chosen the essential oils you want to use be sure to store them in bottles made of dark glass. This protects the oils and prevents the light getting to them and causing the oils to degrade. As well vitamin E added to your mixes helps to preserve them.

The most common essential oils to use for mixing your own massage oils are lavender, eucalyptus, sage, white birch, sandalwood, and bergamot. These help with the aches and pains of muscle sprains, aid with relaxation, alleviate muscle fatigue, and act as a natural decongestant. Then there is chamomile and tea tree that tend to assist with more mundane problems like athletes foot and earaches.

Massage oils are so easy to make. There are many websites on the Internet that will tell you what ingredients to purchase depending on what results you are hoping for. You can find sites with recipes, choose your desired outcome then go to your local grocery or health supply store. Another important factor when preparing your own massage oils is that you only require a few drops of each essential oil in your carrier base. You always want to keep your oils as fresh as possible and it is really better to make them just before you are ready to use them.

Massage oils can also be used in your bath and will have the same effects of relaxing, pain relief or give you that general feeling of well-being. You can even use your massage oils, blended with a little distilled water, to make sprays to act as a room disinfectant.

You must be certain that you have no contraindications before using these mixes as some can affect persons with high blood pressure or cause an interaction with medications you are taking causing them not to work properly. But overall these massage oils are not only safe to use but fun to combine to get the best results for your body and soothe your soul while not emptying your wallet.

Certification is not needed in the United States to be an Aromatherapist. It is often required in the European countries, but not necessary here. The basic idea of the practice of aromatherapy is to strengthen self-healing and stimulating our immune system.

Aromatherapy dates from before written history. There are early documents that tell of the uses of aromatherapy in Ancient Egypt. The Egyptians were known to use oils from plants and flowers for massage oils, embalming preparations, perfumes and cosmetics, and skin care products. The oldest surviving medical book in China contains information on more than 300 different plants and what they were used for. The book is called “Chinese Yellow Emperor Book of Internal Medicine†and was thought to be writing around 2697 BC! The Greek and Roman civilizations adopted the use of essential oils for both cosmetic and medicinal purposes. Many of these same cures are still used today were found in a book written more than 2000 years ago by a Greek doctor.

The popularity of this alternative or complementary therapy is growing faster by the year. Right now, the practice of alternative medicine such as aromatherapy is making more than one billion dollars a year. Many European countries have insurance companies that will repay mainstream doctors who practice aromatherapy with regular medical procedures.

Is there a career field for you in aromatherapy? If so, how do you get started? First, we should note the different types of aromatherapy.

Cosmetic aromatherapy uses essential oils in all natural products for the face, body, and hair.

Massage aromatherapy combines the scent of the healing essential oils with the healing touch of massage.

Olfactory aromatherapy is scents released into the environment around you and is effective because you are not only smelling the scents, but also inhaling its valuable ingredients. Diffusion in breaking the oils into micro droplets and allows for easier inhalation. Diffusers can range from candle diffusers; lamp rings made from ceramic or brass and even a tissue with a few drops of oil and kept near you will work.

Careers in aromatherapy can be anything from therapeutic counseling, oil storage management, production and manufacturing of essential oils and learning to custom blend different oils for specific patients. Aromatherapy can be used to strengthen an already set up medical practice or used with massage therapy.

There are many openings in this booming business of aromatherapy. Aromatherapy certificates can be earned in several different ways. Most programs are either night or weekend seminars and are open to anyone to attend. Some are designed especially for massage therapists to medical doctors. You don’t have to have a prerequisite to study in an aromatherapy program. The cost is about $500 but can be more or less in different areas of the country. It is interesting to note that financial aid is available for those wanting to study aromatherapy through the Sallie Mae Foundation and TERI. These may be available only at certain schools, so it is important for you to check the school to see if these aids are available through that school.

Although we don’t have any official form of accreditation in the United States for Aromatherapist, several associations govern it. These include Educational Standards in Aromatherapy Association, Natural Oils Research Association, The American alliance of Aromatherapy and the Association for Holistic Aromatherapy. These associations set educational goals and ensure compliance with ethical standards set by the industry.

Since there is no accreditation, the length of the course in learning aromatherapy can vary from a few dozen hours to a several hundred hours to receive an accreditation from a school. Because the use of essential oils can be dangerous if not used correctly, the more knowledge you have of the subject the more effective you will be. It’s important to learn the safety issues of essential oils, the chemistry of the oils and how each oil affects both the mind and the body.

It’s important to have a good course of study before beginning your own aromatherapy practice, both for safety and liability reasons. To design specially formatted oil for addressing muscle pain, or releasing tension requires knowledge and awareness of the oils properties and uses. Consider training with an extensively trained professional before stepping out on your own.

Aromatherapy works by spreading the scent of essential oils throughout our environment.

Scientists say we breathe around 22,000 times a day. That means we are inhaling 400 cubic feet of air each day. Most of us spend 80% of our day indoors. A surprising fact is the air inside might be as bad for us as the air outside! A diffuser is used to spread the scents and therapeutic benefits throughout a room. It’s an effective method and unlike methods that involves heating, doesn’t change the fragrance of the oil or destroy the therapeutic ingredients. Essential oils diffused throughout a room will give you a heightened feeling of harmony and happiness. It helps to revive your body, mind, and spirit.

Our sense of smell is one of our five senses that is our most primitive. It may be thousands of times more sensitive than our other senses. People, who have hearing problems or are legally blind, report that their sense of smell is improved and helps compensate for loss of sight or hearing. Smell has the power to trigger our brain immediately influencing our moods, memories, and emotions. What do you think of when you smell lilacs in the air, the smell of wood smoke from a neighbors fireplace, or the wonderful scent of the perfume or aftershave your loved one wears? This sense of smell can trigger unpleasant memories and anxiety attacks. We often associate different experiences with what we smelled at the time. The scent of warm vanilla can trigger a memory of a wonderful time baking sugar cookies in grandma’s kitchen, and cigar smoke can make you think of how uncomfortable you felt when your uncle came to visit.

A fan diffuser reduces the oils to tiny droplets that become a part of the air you breathe. It not only is helping with the soothing scent that goes directly to the brain, it also helps the respiration as we breathe the tiny droplets into the lungs. This gives us a quick pick-me-up and is a great over-all benefit to our feelings.

Another interesting fact is a fan diffuser using an interval timer. It is used to awaken our brain by catching our smelling function napping. It then allows us to receive the full benefit of aromatherapy and improves our performance. You also may buy a diffuser that has an adjustable control that allows you to release the fragrance you want in your room. If the scent is overpowering or if it isn’t enough, it can be adjusted with a simple turn of the control.

A diffuser can also work as an air purifier. It can scrub the air and some diffusers have these intake filters built in. These filters will trap pollen, dust, bacteria, dander, and some viruses. Pure air means better health, better immune systems, and a better oxygen supply to the cells of your body. Oxygen is an essential part of our health. Our cells need oxygen and the purer the better. If we are spending 80% of our time indoors, we are still breathing in impure air. If you have pets, or a smoker in the house, you are breathing in polluted air. Some diffusers will come with built in air filters and some will even have disposable filters that will work more than a year when used normally.

How is a fan diffuser used? It’s simple, and often can be run either by battery or with a power adapter to plug into a wall outlet. Simply by placing a few drops of whatever essential oil, you want in your air on a cloth pad and then turn on the fan. The fan is normally not noisy or distracting, and the fan spreads the scent throughout the room. You will want to choose your fan diffuser with the dimensions of your room in mind. It should be large enough to dispense the scent throughout the room you are going to put it in.

Diffusers can also be used to treat germs. That’s right, a simple recipe can help sooth sore throats, antibacterial, and is good for bronchitis and throat or sinus infections.

Put five drops of lemon and five drops of eucalyptus on the pad and then turn on your diffuser fan. As you breathe in you will notice a soothing of the symptoms. All natural ingredients with a little help from a diffuser!