Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is a type of health and beauty care in which aromatic essential oils of all kinds are used as active ingredients in various treatments.
The essential oils can be used
- as basic ingredients in a massage cream or oil (great for a body or facial massage), or
- to vaporize the skin as a fine mist or steam, or even
- to prepare a whirlpool bath or hot tub (in this case you just pour the essential oils into your bath)
There are really two functions in aromatherapy:
- the function of the aromatic principals of the oil as absorbed into the body through the olfactory membrane and cells and
- the calming or stimulating effects of the aromatic oils.
The first aromatherapists were very early physicians who employed aromatic oils in their practice; for example, during the 12th dynasty in Egypt when the use of scented unguents was popular. The early Greeks and Romans used essential oils in their steaming baths and aromatherapy massages.
Today, when you have a cold or clogged nose, and you put a medicated inhaler to your nose and draw the vapors into the olfactory cells, you are utilizing a modern application of aromatherapy. Certain essential oils are contained in the inhaler that give relief to the swollen membranes. The same is true when you use a home vaporizer to help congestion and a sore throat. The old herbal remedy of a chest rub is a form of aromatherapy at work as is the mustard plaster popular in early America.
From biblical references we are aware that aromatherapy was prevalent in ancient times. In the Aquarian Gospel (74:3), the healing of the sick was brought by Jesus not only with the ‘laying on of hands,’ but with healing pools (bath) and annointing with oil. “Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment” (John 12:3)
We at Body Naturals, Ltd offer Aromatherapy Services. Please contact us at +1 631-351-6166 to learn more.