And while we’re on the subject of aromatherapy, let me tell you about an article that appeared last week in the L.A. Times, entitled “Aromatherapy is in your head, not your nose.” The gist, as you might guess, is that aromatherapy is only as effective as the marketing campaign that promotes it.
The article includes quotes from an interview with Monell scientist Charles Wysocki, who says “smells don’t have a magic ability to alter mood or physiology.” However, the article also points out that scientific studies on aromatherapy are mixed. Cited is last year’s Japanese study, which found that lavender and rosemary aromas reduced stress hormones in saliva, as well as the recent study published in Psychoneuroendocrinology, which showed that lemon improved mood, but that there were no psysiological effects whatsoever from lemon or lavender. Apparently some of the subjects in the study believed in the effectiveness of aromatherapy, however, and the results of the study did not change their mind. In other words, as Wysocki points out, aromatherapy that works is aromatherapy that “comes with a very effective marketing campaign.”
Read the entire article in the L.A. Times
