Do you know what aromatherapy is?

This is the 4945th article of Da Yi Xiao Hu

Spring is here, flowers are in full bloom, and the air is filled with the fragrance of various flowers and plants, giving people a refreshing and refreshing feeling. Did you know that there is a treatment method that uses the special fragrance of plants to heal the human body, which is aromatherapy.

The definition of aromatherapy is that it uses essential oils, aromatic substances produced and extracted from plants, as a medium to relieve physical and mental discomfort, prevent and maintain health through massage, bathing, sniffing, etc.

The origins of aromatherapy

Aromatherapy originated in ancient Egypt and became popular in Europe in modern times. In 1350 BC, the ancient Egyptians used rose water and rose petals as sedatives and medicines for treating headaches. At the end of the 18th century, essential oils made from natural spices and spice extracts were widely used in the medical community. After the rise of a large number of synthetic drugs during the Renaissance, they were gradually forgotten. It was not until the 20th century that aromatherapy was once again paid attention to by the medical community because many synthetic chemical drugs had many side effects and more and more people responded to the trend of "returning to nature". In 1937, aromatherapy was proposed as a proper noun by French scientist Rene Maurice Gattefosse, which was derived from the two nouns Aroma (fragrance) and Therapy (therapy) in French.

Although there is no concept of aromatherapy in traditional Chinese medicine, aromatherapy in traditional Chinese medicine has a longer history in my country. The use of aromatherapy can be traced back to thousands of years BC. Our ancestors used aromatic herbs in religious ceremonies, corpse preservation, therapeutic baths and massages. According to oracle bone inscriptions, the ancients had therapies such as steaming and fumigation in the Shang Dynasty. The custom of wearing sachets and bathing in orchid soup has been spread since the Zhou Dynasty. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Shennong's Classic of Herbs elaborated on the medicinal properties of aromatic Chinese medicines in detail; in the Ming Dynasty, with the development of prescription medicine, Puji Fang comprehensively summarized the experience of aromatherapy since the 15th century, and Compendium of Materia Medica recorded more than 90 kinds of "fragrant grass" and "fragrant wood" more extensively, and at the same time historically introduced the methods of medication such as coating, compressing, pudding, blowing, gargling, and bathing, laying the foundation for the innovation of aromatherapy in later generations.

How does aromatherapy work?

Aromatherapy can affect the central nervous system and endocrine system of the human body through aroma, and then achieve the purpose of affecting emotions, mentality and personal behavior; secondly, the aroma can affect the body through conscious cognition, emotional learning, etc. The human body responds to the aroma through emotional experience, and emotional experience can affect physiological state, behavioral cognition, etc. Aromatherapy has a certain role in assisting the treatment of diseases and belongs to the external treatment method of traditional Chinese medicine.

How to Use Aromatherapy

There are many different ways to use aromatherapy, which can be divided into three categories according to the site of action: olfactory, tactile and oral. In clinical applications, the three treatment methods are often combined to form a more effective treatment method. Inhalation, aromatherapy, scented candles, scented bottles, dried scented flowers and other methods all act on the human body through smell.

Massage, bathing, showering, compresses, lotions and creams act on the body through touch. Essential oils can also be taken orally, but taking them internally can cause them to react with prescription drugs in the body and must be used with caution.

Aromatherapy can also be combined with a variety of traditional Chinese medicine techniques for joint application, such as acupuncture, massage therapy, ear acupoint pressure beans and other traditional Chinese medicine techniques.

What diseases is aromatherapy suitable for?

1. Treating Sleep Disorders

Through the analysis of the application of aromatherapy included in the existing database, it is found that aromatherapy has a good effect in treating primary insomnia and improving the sleep quality of postoperative patients.

2. Treat cognitive dysfunction

Aromatherapy can improve cognitive functions such as learning and memory through the olfactory pathway. However, domestic research on the role of aromatherapy in improving cognitive function is still in the animal experiment stage, and there is a lack of relevant clinical experimental research.

3. Treating Mood Disorders

Aromatherapy can relieve anxiety, fear and other negative emotional states after trauma, allowing patients to achieve good improvements both mentally and physically.

4. Relieve postoperative nausea and vomiting symptoms

Aromatherapy has the effects of relieving spasms, promoting digestion, promoting bile secretion and protecting the liver in the digestive system. However, based on relevant clinical experiments, aromatherapy in the digestive system is mainly used to relieve vomiting after anesthesia.

5. Improve blood circulation

Improve blood circulation to the brain and replanted limbs after trauma and promote healthy recovery.

6. Treat cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases

As early as the 20th century, some scholars used the rabbit hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis model to propose that garlic essential oil has obvious anti-atherosclerotic effects. In recent years, more and more clinical experiments have shown that the application of aromatherapy can lower blood pressure on the one hand, and relieve the mental and physical tension of hypertensive patients on the other.

In recent years, the number of searches for aromatherapy and aromatherapy on the Internet has continued to rise, and people's attention to health has also continued to increase. Chinese medicine aromatherapy has been well integrated into medical care and even life in the future because it combines Chinese medicine health care and meets modern high-quality health care needs. With the advancement of science and technology and people's continuous pursuit of natural therapies, aromatherapy, a painless therapy, will have broader development prospects.

References:

[1] Luo Kaili, Jiang Shuqin, Gao Zhijuan, et al. Meta-analysis of the effect of lavender aromatherapy on acute postoperative pain[J]. Medical Information, 2023, 36(5): 108-114.

[2] Hu Chunyan, Dong Xuting, Zhao Mei. Application of aromatherapy in clinical nursing work[J]. Nursing Research, 2013, 27(18): 1793-1796.

[3] Ding Tao, Xu Yulin, Tu Mengting, et al. Research progress in the clinical application of aromatherapy[J]. Asia-Pacific Traditional Medicine, 2023, 19(7): 226-230.

[4] Lin Xiangyun. The past and present of aromatherapy[J]. China Cosmetics, 2019, 27(2):82-87.

[5]Ozkaraman A, Dugum O, Ozen Y, et al. Aromatherapy: the effect of lavender on anxiety and sleep quality in patients treated with chemotherapy[J]. Clin J Oncol Nurs, 2018, 22(2):203-210.

[6] Keyhanmehr AS, Kolouri S, Heydarirad GAromatherapy for the management of cancer complications a narrative review [J]. Complementary therapies in clinical practice, 2018, 31: 175-180.

[7] Wang Jiajun, Li Mengyao. Modern research on aromatherapy in traditional Chinese medicine[J]. New Chinese Medicine, 2019, 51(3):38-41.

[8] Du Jian. Origin and development of aromatherapy[J]. Chinese Journal of Medicine, 2003, 18(8):454-456, 512.

[9]Lin HG, Ding C. The mechanism of action of aromatherapy[J]. Journal of Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 2007(1):26-27.

Author: Emergency Trauma Treatment Center, Shanghai Tongji Hospital

Cai Shuhui and Ju Yufeng