Not all people know the relevance of essential oils in our body nor the benefits of essential oils especially on its relaxing power. Generally, essential oil are distilled liquid by water or steam from different flowers, leaves, bark, stems, roots and all other elements of plants. A lot of people would mistakenly think that essential oils are oily when in fact, it’s not, most of them are clear.

Our body and essential oils interact in numerous ways. First, it gets to our skin where it is being absorbed. It breaks into our epithelial tissues which includes our skin, nasal passages, bronchioles, lungs and gastro-intestinal tract.
Second stage would be about penetration of these essential oils to internal tissues of our body which is 400 times more rapidly than that of water. Once it gets absorbed, the essential oils rapidly enter into our lymphatic and blood capillary systems which start the general circulation. We must bear in mind that nothing really stays in the body very long. Since aromatherapy oils are volatile, it often leaves our body in about 48 hours.
Third stage is the elimination procedure. Some essential oils are relaeased by the surface of the lungs as vapors. The components of these essential oils are excreted by the liver, stored briefly in our gall bladder, and then dumped into our intestinal tract.

When we smell these essential oils, its vapor stimulates small hair-like extensions of our olfactory nerve and such nerve is the unique one in the human body which is in contact with the external environment that goes straight to our brain. The rest of our senses has several nerves and synaptic junctions even before these impulses reach our brain. This is very crucial in the processing of our reactions to different emotions, appetites, desires as well as memories. It is by this very reason why aroma oils or essential oils have such deep impact, not just on our moods and reactions, but on our overall “being” that with even a light dose is enough to create such sensations.

Most people especially those who have so much stress in their life has heard about aromatherapy because of its soothing and relaxing effect. What is aromatherapy and where did it originate? How exactly does aromatherapy work? Aromatherapy is a type of an alternative medicine which has volatile liquid plant as its materials labeled as essential oils. It strongly affects the health and mood of the person who uses it and it has been proven that it helps out eliminating certain health issues. The Essential oil has a  unique chemical composition which is different from the other herbal products since its distillation process only picks up the lighter phytomolecules thereby, it is high in sesquiterpenes and monoterpenes and  other VOC substances like, many aromatic compounds, non-terpene hydrocarbons, esters and  some organic sulfides .

Basically, aromatherapy  means treatments using the scents from oils which involves taking great care of one’s body through the help of  botanical oils like rose, lavender, lemon and peppermint. Such essential oils could either be added to our bath or massaged in our skin. It could also be directly inhaled or even diffused too give that therapeutic scent in an entire room. Aside from that, aromatherapy is a pain reliever, it also helps our skin, alleviate fatigue and tension and lastly, it invigorates our whole body.

Essential oils arouse one’s sense of smell. For doctors who conducted studies about patients who lost their sense of smell, it has been found out that it can lead to possible psychiatric problems like depression and anxiety. Science dictates that humans are capable of distinguishing 10,000 different smells. The smells will penetrate through the cilia and then to our limbic system: that part of our brain that is responsible for our moods, memory, emotions and learning.
Studies would show that lavender scent increases alpha waves found in the back of our head that promotes relaxation. The aroma of Jasmine, on the other hand, increases beta waves in the front of our head, which promotes being in an attentive mood or state. Essential oils truly has chemical components which can exert specific effects on our mind and body and although the chemistry may be quite a complex but it includes alcohols, esters, ketones, aldehydes, and terpenes.

Aromatherapy is becoming a mainstream and in fact, in Japan, engineers are incorporating aroma systems into new buildings – the scent of lavender and rosemary is pumped into the customer area to calm down the waiting customers who would become irate eventually, while the perfumes from lemon and eucalyptus are used in the bank teller counters to keep the staff alert.