When you were growing up, you probably had some favorite smells. Fresh bread, home-baked cookies, your mother’s perfume, or the spring air after a soft rain. Inhale these scents again and they can take you right back to a sweet memory.
“The sense of smell is by far the most powerful of all our senses,” says Steve Pearce, one of the UK’s top experts on smells. “There is nothing between [the nerve receptors] and the brain, unlike other senses. Its direct contact means we get a very quick, very intensive reaction to odours.”
Author Luke Vorstermans, founder of The Sense of Smell Lab, agrees. “Our brain processes information delivered through sight, sound, taste and touch by identifying the incoming information first, which then triggers the emotions. But our sense of smell does the reverse. Incoming aromas are first processed by the emotions and subsequently identified. Our most powerful feelings are triggered when the emotional centers of the brain are activated by the stimulation of different smell receptors.”
This may help explain why so many cancer patients benefit from aromatherapy-the use of certain aromas to relieve stress, anxiety, pain, and depression. Aromatherapy uses essential oils extracted from plants to elicit different responses. “I’ve successfully used aromatherapy to help ease patients’ anxiety and promote relaxation, boost energy levels, and to help combat nausea and insomnia,” says Cherie A. Perez, RN, who teaches aromatherapy at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center’s Place of Wellness in Houston.
Some studies have supported the effectiveness of aromatherapy with cancer, like the1998 UK study that showed that women with breast cancer who had aromatherapy treatments showed a significant improvement in feelings of anxiety, depression and stress.
If you want to try aromatherapy, ask your massage therapist to incorporate it into your massage (remind her that you have sensitive skin), or you can try it at home in many ways. Here are a few suggestions to get you started. (If your skin is cracked or wounded, use caution when applying oils and stay away from open wounds.)
- To overcome nausea or lack of appetite, inhale peppermint, cardamom, ginger, or spearmint (use only a couple drops).
- For radiation burns, dilute 12–20 drops of neroli, lavender, or blue tansy oil per ounce of aloe vera to make a soothing ointment.
- To calm fear, diffuse rose, neroli (orange blossom), spikenard, or vetiver in an aromatherapy diffuser, or apply a drop to a handkerchief and take with you to treatment.
- Create your own tumor-fighting mixture with a combination of rose, may chang, and almond; or almond, cardamom and sandalwood in a 1–1.5% blend with a massage oil.
- To encourage sleep, diffuse lavender or cedarwood in your bedroom.
- To raise your spirits and increase energy, add pink grapefruit or juniper berry to your massage oil, or diffuse in the living room (avoid citrus oils on your tender skin while going through treatment).
- To strengthen the immune system, mix bryony (4%), eucalyptus (3%), lavender (3%) and rosemary (3%) in a vegetable oil base and massage into the skin.
- Use aromatherapy bath salts or candles to enjoy a soothing bath, or add 8 drops of lavender, bergamot, or chamomile to the water.
Do you have a favorite way to use aromatherapy to relieve side effects? Please share it with us!
Photo courtesy of bardha neziri via Flickr.com.
