AROMATHERAPY 2-23-18

AROMATHERAPY  2-23-18

I dismissed it for a long time like I did with Homeopathy. I thought of Aromatherapy as a sort of "Glade" Mood thing and as an air freshener or odor disguiser.

In Medical Lab we do not get involved much with inhalation therapy and do not think much about it.  One day I was having lunch with a Pathologist and a Respiratory Therapist and I was enlightened.  Some things I already knew and never thought about it before in this context.

I already knew people who smoked tobacco got nicotine in their blood and smoking Marijuana gave people a "buzz", and kids who sniffed paint or glue acted drunk and that it showed up in their blood chemistry. The pathologist pointed out , did i remember most anesthetics starting from ether to nitrous oxide in dentistry today are administered as a gas? So it stands to reason if a substance has medicinal value that it can be inhaled!  :O WOW Maybe Aromatherapy can be more than just mood changers!

Now many herbals cannot be inhaled in their natural state except as a mild fragrance. In the 1800s to 1900s people simmered potpourris of herbs in water over a flame to vaporize them. We put a candle under herbal oils to diffuse them for the room. NOW we can buy empty nasal inhalers and add oil blends to carry with you. People now carry them with Lavender Oil to ease their migraine headaches.

I NOW accept Aromatherapy as a valuable modality along with Homeopathy, but I had to be convinced. We will cover an overview of these things as well as some other non-herbal things as we go through the course.

Bach Flower remedies are more related to Homeopathy than Aromatherapy,but the plant essences behind them are similar. Bach "Rescue Remedy" appears to work better than many of his others and is used by many herbalists and some homeopaths. The remedies appear to be less efficacious than Homeopathy or Aromatherapy SO WE STRESS HERE IN THE GROUPS AND THE COURSE THE HEALING METHODS WHICH WORK BEST.

Bach flower remedies (BFRs) are solutions of brandy and water—the water containing extreme dilutions of flower material developed by Edward Bach, an English homeopath, in the 1930s. Bach claimed that dew found on flower petals retain imagined healing properties of that plant. Systematic reviews of clinical trials of Bach flower solutions have found no efficacy beyond a placebo effect.

The solutions, which contain a 50:50 mix of water and brandy, are called mother tincture. Stock remedies—the solutions sold in shops—are dilutions of mother tincture into other liquid. Most often the liquid used is alcohol, so that the alcohol level by volume in most stock Bach remedies is between 25 and 40% (50 to 80 proof). The solutions do not have a characteristic scent or taste of the plant because of dilution. It is claimed that the remedies contain energetic or vibrational nature of the flower and that this can be transmitted to the user. The solutions are described by some as vibrational medicines, which implies they rely on the pseudoscientific concept of water memory. They are often labeled as homeopathic because they are extremely diluted in water, but are not homeopathy as they do not follow other homeopathic ideas such as the law of similars.