Traditional aromatherapists believe that certain odors can help cure everything from headaches to heartburn and PMS to pimples. Essential oils are not really oils at all, but concentrated extracts of flowers, roots, fruits, woods, herbs and spices. When mixed with vegetable or almond oil or diluted with water, they can be rubbed on the skin, sprayed in the air or used as a compress. Practitioners believe the volatile chemicals in the essential oils can stimulate the brain and affect the internal organs when inhaled or absorbed by the skin.
Essential oils are very druglike.
Although traditional aromatherapy has a whiff of New Age about it, it' s really not new. Ancient cultures, including the Chinese, East Indians, Greeks and Egyptians, documented the use of aromatic essential oils to treat physical disorders, fight infection and heal wounds. In this century, aromatherapy has been taught in medical schools in Europe, and in France it' s recognized as a medical specialty, like dermatology. But in the United States, where it' s only been popular in the last 20 years, it' s still met with lots of skepticism.