Do a search for the term 'aromatherapy', and what do you find? In amongst several respectable and useful websites is a smattering of scathing reviews of aromatherapy's therapeutic value. It seems, once again, the baby has gone out with the bathwater (if you're too old to know what this means, look it up :-) Though to the uninitiated reader, these reviews from physicians trained specifically in Western conventional medicine seem authoritative, and may even sway a few folks to believe their 'dubious' claims about the 'dubiousness' of aromatherapy. But as natural medicines in general are gaining significantly in popular opinion, those in the know about the true value of essential oils are demanding a new assessment of these important medicines. Let's look into what the word aromatherapy really means, and how we can bridge the gap between the popular concept of aromatherapy and its true medical potential.

We can start by conceding that there is a soft-science side to a portion of aromatherapy's practices. Really pinning-down whether inhaling lavender makes a statistically-significant difference in people's emotional status seems pretty tricky anyway. How about we just leave this part up to the people that are into it? If lavender makes you feel good, whose to tell you differently? Aromatherapists are not out to convince the world inhaling plant scents will make you feel better -- they're just offering it as a possibility. Maybe it'll work for you and maybe it won't. Do try another aroma before you give up, but hey, maybe it won't work for you, no big deal. AT THE SAME TIME, there are A GREAT MANY VALID SCIENTIFIC STUDIES showing statistically significant results regarding the psycho-emotional effects of lavender (and other essential oils). Along with those are even more studies testing essential oils on a wide variety of serious illnesses. Here's a peek into the hard-science aspect of aromatherapy, and why the debunker's of this medicine should really have another look.

The image problem of aromatherapy has everything to do with the prevailing idea that the practice is all about 'smelling things', whereas the science really about 'things that smell'. Smelling things is very subjective, and may have little medical effect at all (though we'll see that it MAY as well). Aromatherapy is defined as the complete practice of the branch of natural medicine using the volatile liquids distilled from plants. Authors of the hard-science aromatherapy texts available today, professionally-trained aromatherapists (one with a PhD in Chemistry) note that the future of aroma medicine is with the treatment of serious infectious illnesses and cancer treatment. You don't even have to smell them for them to work! Other effects of essential oils also being successfully investigated include speeding wound healing, reducing inflammation, and acting as analgesics.

A quick look at the research available on Pub Med, a database of thousands of peer-reviewed life-science and medical journals freely available on-line reveals thousands of citations of research performed using essential oils. Yes, there are in fact some studies that did not result in convincing evidence that hand massages with lavender cream didn't make people feel better than hand massages with unscented lotion. But there is studies that show people sleep better after lavender inhalation. And there's a study that show stress makers of the immune system remained unchanged after inhaling linalool (an isolated constituent of Lavender), but there's also 15 studies (upon last count) showing positive significant results if one searches for 'lavender' and 'axiolytic' (the technical term for stress reducer). The results for 'acetaminophen' and 'pain' MAY be as strong; those for 'minoxidil' and 'hair' are almost certainly not.

Many practitioners of conventional medicine have decided that natural medicines in general are ineffective at best, and at worst they are considered a cruel hoax. What seems to be the challenge is the availability of well educated natural therapists -- our medical system is not set up to give these practitioners the respect (and payment) they deserve. So most folks go at it themselves, valiantly attempting self-diagnosis and treatment., while FDA demands the instructions for these treatments be in the most vague form possible! The result is comments like "It (aromatherapy) is a mixture of folklore, trial and error, anecdote, testimonial, New Age spiritualism and fantasy" (Stephen Barrett, M.D. of Quackwatch). Another popular site points to a few inconclusive studies and claims all of aromatherapy to be dubious. What if we used these same guidelines investigating conventional medicine? How many deaths occur each year from properly prescribed and used drugs? From medical mistakes? The combined total makes these about the third leading cause of death in America (after heart disease and cancer, but before auto fatalities and cigarette use -- See Mercola.com, 'Death by Medicine'). Guess the number caused by mis-use (or any use for that matter) of essential oils. What's the smallest non-negative number you can think of? That's the currently accepted statistic.

On to the cutting edge of aroma-medicine: The big news is that essential oils, yes very the same used in aromatherapy (this IS the idea we're trying to get across!), are highly effective antibiotics and antivirals. Again, we invite you to search for 'essential oil' and 'mrsa' -- this is the staphylococcus aureus bacteria 'superbug' that has become resistant to commonly available antibiotics (the MR in the name stands for 'methicillin resistant'). You'll find studies showing the efficacy of Tea Tree essential oil in clinical applications, and positive results in the lab using several other oils. And thus far it is thought that these oils have no adverse effects at effective doses.

There's a huge body of data affirming the strong anti-tumorial effects of essential oils. Linalool has been shown to completely destroy certain liver cancers. Frankincense has other powerful anticancer action -- cellular toxicity that's specific to tumors! (One of the great challenges of chemotherapy is killing the cancer cells without killing the rest of the human). Lemongrass too has "promising anticancer activity". Search for yourself and you'll find more pages than you can get through any time soon.

So why are these criticisms of aromatherapy so popular, at least in Google's eyes? Why do some folks like horror flicks and car crashes -- not sure, really. It might have to do with there being a closer relationship between 'aromatherapy' and 'Glade Plug-in Air Freshener (TM)' in many people's minds than there is between 'aromatherapy' 'frankincense' and 'tumor cell specific cytotoxicity'. One reality is that there's a lot more money pushing the Glad Plug-In concept. Because essential oils cannot be patented as medicines, the amount of money to be made by Really Big Business is negligible. So it's up to small natural health companies, individual practitioners, and the wonderful education and research facilities doing the technical work to get the word out. And particularly to rock the boat a bit when so-called authorities make truly dubious claims about the dubious nature of aromatherapy. Plant medicine has kept human beings alive for millennia -- essential oils are just very active molecules produced by plants, and aromatherapy is so-called as it deals with the therapeutic applications of these aromatic molecules. Aroma-therapy. Get the word out!