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Aromatherapy and Essential Oil Articles
The Art of Aromatherapy
- Uses and History
More than 6,000 years, The Greeks, Romans, and Ancient Egyptians have been using Essential oils for bathing, body massages, and for embalming their dead.
The modern era of aromatherapy started in 1930 when French chemist Rene Maurice Gattefosse used the term aromatherapy for the therapeutic use of essential oils. Fascinated by the benefits of Lavender oil, Gattefosse used it on his burned hand leaving it with no scars. Gattefosse then started studying other essential oils for their psychotherapeutic benefits. Later, during World War ll French army surgeon Dr. Jean Valnet used essential oils as antiseptics. Madame Marguerite Maury elevated aromatherapy as a holistic therapy. She started prescribing essential oils as a remedy for her patients. She also was credited with the modern use of essential oils in massage.
Essential Oils are aromatic essences extracted from plants, flowers, trees, fruits, bark, grasses and seeds with distinctive therapeutic, psychological, and physiological properties which improve health, promote healing and prevent illness. Today there are more than 300 essential oils. Most of these oils have antiseptic properties; antiviral, anti-inflammatory, pain-relieving, antidepressant and expectorant. Other aromatherapy uses are for their stimulation, relaxation, improving digestion and diuretic properties. To benefit from these oils they should be pure, natural made from raw materials. Synthetically made oils do not work.
Aromatherapy is one of the fastest growing fields in alternative medicine. Widely used in clinics, homes and hospitals for relief of pain and rehabilitation. Not only used for pain relief, Essential Oils also has a healing effect on mind and spirit. Once inhaled, Essential Oils can promote calmness, hormonal balance, stress relief, rejuvenation and much more.
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