Laboratory Research Describes Changes In Brain Inhaling Bergamot Essential Oil
The term "aromatherapy" usually conjures up pleasant smelling day spa treatments, or often some seemingly frivolous aromatic application. While it's...
The term “aromatherapy” usually conjures up pleasant smelling day spa treatments, or often some seemingly frivolous aromatic application. While it’s been the case for some time that researchers have been investigating many medical uses of essential oils: anti-viral, anticancer etc, there are very few studies that look at the effects of inhaling essential oils. There’s a few showing lowered aggression and less stress in mice and rats, yet almost no research performed with human subjects. From the scientific research, it is clear that essential oils are real medicine, with real medical applications, but does their inhalation for the effect of the scent have valid scientific backing?
The study discussed here is in fact about “aroma-therapy” the way many people understand it. Researchers are getting into the brain to check out what’s going on while inhaling aromas. It is widely known that our olfactory sense is the only one of the five senses that is directly wired to the brain. In fact, some of the receptors in the olfactory bulb are actually considered brain cells. Inputs from other senses are created, then have their signals travel along neurons to the brain, and do not affect us quite so immediately. The olfactory bulb is also thought to be an extension of the limbic system, the center of our emotions, motivation and memory, having little or nothing to do with conscious thought or will.
Researchers in the Department of Pharmacobiology at the University of Calabria, Italy, have described the mechanism of action of bergamot essential oil’s stress reducing effects. Bergamot is considered one of the premier anti-depressant, emotionally-uplifting essential oils used in aromatherapy. The researchers discovered that when mammals smell bergamot, there is a release of neurotransmitters in the hippocampus (a part of the limbic system) — specifically the area associated with the creation of long-term memories. This release of neurotransmitters interferes with the strengthening of neural pathways that cause stress to build up.
If you think about the way stress works, its not a one time thing. It’s the same thing happening again and again — the feeling of stress builds over time because the circuit in your brain is getting stronger. Consider an experience you find stressful; it could be a noise like, like a jackhammer for example. Hearing it once is no big deal, hearing it all day every day could drive you…well, make you very stressed. Inhaling bergamot essential oil interferes this building up process (and has an immediately uplifting affect at the same time — quite a bonus).
This may shed light on the mechanism for stress reduction in one of the very few other placebo-controlled published studies examining aromatherapy. Teenagers wore a necklaces for the duration of the study, some of which released the scent of bergamot (obviously a popular stress relieving oil)! Study participants receiving the bergamot aroma noted significantly lower stress levels — which may be a direct result from this blockage of strengthening response to stresses in their lives.
The Italian researchers note that the essential oil is considered to have a variety of potentially important effects: it is mood lifting, stress-reducing, and actually helps people bear physical pain. At the end of their research abstract, they state that because they now know how it works, bergamot essential oil has a place in doctors offices as a complementary medicine.
This leads to much bigger implications for aromatherapy. Many oils are used aromatically for various purposes: stress reduction, relaxation, mental stimulation and the like. These oils are also more than likely eliciting measurable effects in the brain. For example, several essential oils have been shown to prevent the breakdown of acetylcholine in the laboratory, an effect that is likely happening within the body as well when these oils are inhaled.
It seems a relatively simple leap to then validate a wider scope of aromatherapy practices — one of the biggest hurdles of the use of essential oils alongside conventional medicine is the simple perception of “aromatherapy”. The body of research showing antibacterial effects is huge, as is that showing antiviral effects, and the body showing anticancer effects is growing. The point being that the use of essential oils has stumbled on the false perception that aromatherapy was not a valid practice, somewhat “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”. Now that even the aromatic use of essential oils has validation, its really time for modern medicine to reconsider using oils in all cases where their application may be the most appropriate choice for a patient’s healing.
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