Natural health and healing at your fingertips

Natural health and healing at your fingertips


Aromatherapy
Ellen Cox

Most people have a story about how they came to be in the field of work they are in. Mine began almost 18 years ago in Australia. While visiting eastern Thailand I contracted Malaria of the brain (Falciperum – the most dangerous strain) and almost departed to the ‘happy hunting ground’. It was a frightening experience and thanks to the wonderful professional care I received in the Geelong Hospital, Victoria, I survived. However, being discharged weighing just six stone, it became apparent that full recovery of my health was in my hands and mine alone.
I was given no advice or instructions on how to go about this. Even today, the majority of people rely entirely on help outside of themselves for good health. Embracing your own good health is down to each individual. Embracing your own good health can also help ensure a positive outcome from an illness or treatment.
In my case, good food and plenty of exercise (I went fruit picking for a year) and fresh air played an enormous role on the road to restoration. Complementary Health in Australia was a lot more advanced at that time than elsewhere. I enrolled in an aromatherapy night course, and the aromatic journey began. This, I believe, enhanced my health’s recovery and gave me a new insight into plants that I had never dreamed possible.

Aromatherapy for all
Calling all gardeners, growers and plant lovers: Aromatherapy is not just for complementary therapists or health professionals. Essential oils, the basis of aromatherapy, are found in and extracted from berries, flowers, leaves, rind (fruits), seeds and wood. Why a plant manufactures an essential oil is an ongoing debate among scientists. It is said that plants produce essential oils to protect themselves from infection and disease, similar to an immune system.
Extraction methods differ, but a ‘true’ essential oil is obtained by a method called steam distillation. The oils are distilled in a similar way to alcohol, and, like alcohol, essential oils are the most potent form of plant extract available to us, and thus require care and attention in relation to dosage.
Each oil contains a unique combination of an immense number of chemical constituents, which in turn offer a wide range of properties. They can be antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic, decongestant, expectorant, rubefacient (counterirritant) or sedative.
How essential oils work is directly related to where they go, and when and how they are absorbed and eliminated by the body. This is called pharmacokinetics. A simple and interesting example is garlic rubbed on the soles of the feet can be smelled on the breath within 30 minutes. I’m not suggesting you need to try this of course, but it does indicate how certain molecules are absorbed by the skin and transferred into the blood stream.
All of our blood passes via the lungs and many particles in that blood transfer to the air in our lungs which of course we then breathe out, in this case with a hint of garlic! On a serious note of course chemicals can gain access into our bloodstream in the same way so before we go plunging our hands into nasty cleaning agents, think for a moment. Or before we bathe, wash, apply products to our bodies which are full of undesirable chemical ingredients perhaps its time to choose more natural alternatives. Much of what we put on the outside of our bodies ends up on the inside too.
Now the initial tutorial is over it may be more clear how essential oils have much to offer to our general health and wellbeing. Nature after all didn’t forget much, provisions for our health are available to us all in many natural forms, it’s knowing how and what to avail of, how to use and what to expect. I hope in the course of this column I can provide some basic, useful, helpful information from what I have learnt over the course of 17 years working with essential oils.

> Ellen Cox has worked with Atlantic Aromatics for fifteen years, is a qualified Professional Aromatherapist and a member of the International Federation of Professional Aromatherapists. She has undertaken aromatherapy studies with the worlds leading Aromatic Medical Practitioner, Dr Daniel Penoel, in France. She currently practices aromatherapy two days a month in St. Brendan’s Retirement Village in Mulrany.