I have been a fan of essential oils for over 10 years now. I have found them personally useful for alleviating many physical and emotional issues in that time. I also especially find the aromas of many of them extremely inspiring and uplifting. I have personally used a combination of Therapeutic Grade (an important concept in essential oils use) Frankincense and Lavender from Young Living Essential Oils for managing symptoms of depression as have some of my clients. Here I report on a recent study done by Kim MJ, Nam ES, Paik SI.*** in Feb 2005 that employs a combination of lavender, marjoram, eucalyptus, rosemary, and peppermint in a carrier oil that looked at the effect of this combination on the symptoms of depression, pain and satisfaction in life in arthritis patients. This study has some scientific significance as it was an unblinded study with a comparison control group. The sample consisted of 40 patients, enrolled in the Rheumatics Center, Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital, South Korea. It is important to keep in mind that there is no information about the methodology of the study provided in the abstract and that the power of the study could be increased through randomization of patients and blinding of treatment and assessment phases. The study found that: "Aromatherapy significantly decreased both the pain score and the depression score of the experimental group compared with the control group. However, aromatherapy didn't increase the feeling of satisfaction in life of the experimental group compared with the control group. " Their final conclusion was: "The result of this study clearly shows that aromatherapy has major effects on decreasing pain and depression levels. Based on our experiment's findings, we suggest that aromatherapy can be a useful nursing intervention for arthritis patients." It is to be expected that the last parameter namely "satisfaction in life" would likely not respond as this is highly dependent on one's actual life situation and that this would in fact need to evolve or change. It has been my experience that individuals who succumb to chronic debilitating illnesses become traumatized by the actual length of time they find themselves incapacitated. This often imprints them with many fears of returning to a normal life. I have been helping such individuals overcome their fears with a new process (the Mind Resonance Process(TM) (MRP)) that is used to complement the essential oils. The use of MRP in conjunction with Essential Oils is proving to be a useful strategy to mobilize such individuals back into a state of normalcy. Reference: ***Kim MJ, Nam ES, Paik SI., Taehan Kanho Hakhoe Chi. 2005 Feb;35(1):186-94. |
