Aromatherapy – Helping Our Senior Citizens Get Through the Golden Years By Joe Cinova
Getting up in years doesn’t have to create a lot of anxiety if you’re a Senior, but it does. Have you given any thought about what Aromatherapy may be able to do for you? This article may just help you decide.
Aromatherapy means exactly what you might think. It is getting a therapeutic benefit from the aroma of essential oils created from 9 different categories of materials. They include citrus, floral, fruit, grasses and hays, herbs, menthols, mosses, resins and roots, spices, woods and barks.
These oils are created by well known processes and used widely around the world to help people overcome a number of ailments they may encounter in their daily lives.
Every day there is more scientific evidence from research performed on the effects of Aromatherapy on our bodies. The benefits to our physical, mental, emotional and psychological well being using these oils is proving to be significant. Although the Aromatherapy will make you feel better and create changes in your body, the effects have not been proven to heal the individual.
Since the major effect comes from a person smelling the aromas, it is important to understand why an oil, that one person might love another person might hate. It isn’t just the smell. It is a reaction to the fragrances’ complex makeup with your own chemistry that makes the difference.
This peculiar interaction of a scent with each different individual is what will produce the specific therapeutic effects each one is deemed to have. Heck, if everyone had the same response to a certain chemical like aspirin, there would only be one brand sold. The same thing goes for essential oils. We all react differently.
Growing Older
As we are too painfully aware of, as we get older our bodies don’t heal or react the same way to stimuli the way it used to when we were younger. Just like we need to force ourselves to exercise to lose that extra weight we burned off so easily in our younger years, we sometimes need help to get through those ailments that creep up on us in the golden years.
Almost every essential oil has properties that fight bacteria. Because of this they help the formation of white blood cells in the body thereby helping to prevent you from getting infections in the first place. As we age we tend to lose this ability and this gives us the ability to gain that edge back.
Essential oils have been shown to provide dramatic changes in a person’s health and well being. The inhalation of the aromas they produce provides the quickest means of access for the oils to enter our bodies. They quickly reach the brain which yields the most dramatic results.
Another common method for allowing these oils to interact and stimulate our bodies is by getting a aromatic massage or by using them in our bath water. A lot of the oils can be absorbed thru the skin or as we already have seen inhaling the aroma from the oils mixing with the warm bath water is a great therapy as well.
Besides relaxing in a nice warm bath and listening to our favorite music as we enjoy a pleasant odor, fond memories are normally triggered. Think of a time when you smelled something really great like a perfume or a certain food. You stop, close your eyes and breathe in slowly to savor the moment. This relaxing of our breathing pattern is no different than if we took medication to do so.
Even when taking a bath is not practical don’t give up hope. A shower is fine and there are numerous products including aromatherapy soaps or body wash gels available to use.
How it works
As we inhale these scents they immediately reach our olfactory sensors. These sensors are the only direct channel to our brain cells that the body has. This interaction in the brain, specifically an area called the limbic system works directly in conjunction with our circulatory, nervous, immune and respiratory systems. The essential oils are in immediate contact with our whole body.
By breathing these oils you can understand how it mixes with the oxygen in our lungs. By attaching to the oxygen cells the oils are carried directly thru the bloodstream into all areas of the body. Doing so causes the therapeutic reactions we are trying to achieve by using these essential oils. Infusing the oxygen cells with the oils help it to stimulate the body to improve itself, either emotionally, physically or mentally.
You should read up on the types of essential oils to use for a particular ailment. Remember these oils are very concentrated. Consult a doctor before using them just in case there are indications that certain ones should not be used for various reasons.
How about using Aromatherapy products during the normal part of the day? They have diffusers for your car and your house. A diffuser is a little water tank with spinning wheels in it. You fill it with water and add some essential oils. It then “diffuses” these particles into the air so we can breathe them. Candles are especially significant to use during the course of aromatherapy. They even have flameless candles available for those that are fearful of having lit candles around.
There are items for you back, neck and feet. Aromatic wipes with essential oils on them have been used to elicit responses from Alzheimer’s patients and treat other ailments as well.
Essential oils are for people of any age group from a newborn child to a person up in years. They have been shown to be beneficial for ailments ranging from cancer to diarrhea. Getting older is a fact of life but that shouldn’t stop us from using Aromatherapy to help us keep as strong and healthy a body as we possibly can when we need it the most.
Thanks for reading! See you again real soon.
Copyright Cinova LLC – 2009
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