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A great many people have a very skewed perception of aromatherapy, so many in-fact that a weak critique of the practice currently shows up on the first page of search results for the term. Somehow aromatherapy got labeled as some “new age” foolishness, and that view pervades much of the Western world. Working in the background, scientists have been validating the use of essential oils for quite some time, for many medical applications. However, the data showing the effects of just aromas is somewhat limited — and this data is really what’s needed to change the way people think about essential oils.
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.
For example, think about feeling a familiar stress over and over. Like a sound that you particularly dislike: a lawnmower running, a dog barking, something like that. Here it only once or twice, or for not an extended duration, that’s fine. But hearing it over and over, or continuously for hours, that’s different. It doesn’t get easier to take, in-fact that stress becomes unbearable. That’s because the neural-pathway has been made stronger and stronger, so the same stress seems more intense. Bergamot essential oil makes it so that strengthening of the pathway doesn’t occur, or is lessened anyway.
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.
With all the published research that’s available, and this new elucidation of the mechanism of the aromatic aspect of aromatherapy, natural medicine practitioners hope we’ll see more recommendations for “complementary” status. A great place to have a look at all the available data is pubmed.gov — just search for “essential oils” and start scrolling through the pages. You’ll see tons of papers regarding the antimicrobial actions of so many oils on so many microbes. There’s research that shows immune system function being boosted at the same time. Then there’s the very promising anti cancer research that’s just getting underway. As aromatherapy in all its forms can no longer reasonably be laughed at, it may not be long for essential oils to finally be used for the wonderful medicines they are.
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