Healthy Bodies Blog

ESSENTIAL OILS: ORIGIN AND USES.
essential oils are listed as a part of your beauty products. How much do you know about them?Essential oils, whether inhaled or used on the body bring about psychological and physical relief that has become a scientific phenomena. Essential oils should only be used on the skin after diluting with a pure oil base such as almond oil, apricot oil, or olive oil. There is a noticeable difference in the texture of your skin after just a few applications of a natural essential oil.

They are not actually oils but the liquid distilled from the leaves, stem, bark and flowers of various plants. They are the extracted essence of the plant. These oils are volatile or rapidly evaporating and leave no oily feeling or residue. The difference between an essential oil and a perfumed oil is that an essential oil is a pure and natural plant product, while perfumed oil has a synthetic fragrance added, which is usually artificially created to smell like the natural fragrance but does not have any healing properties.

Essential oil is now used to treat a whole range of conditions and is believed to work on people both physically and psychologically. The theory is that when you smell an essential oil, it triggers your limbic system - the part of the brain that controls emotions and stores and retrieves learned memories - and relaxes you. The other part of the theory is that the essential oils are absorbed through the skin, and have medicinal properties which act on the cause of the problem.

When the cause is removed, well being follows. With the result, the demand and usage has increased a lot in Aromatherapy help create a sense of well being, enhance the immune system and promote better health. The oils are often combined to form blends which often work better than just using individual oils alone. The oils are vaporized in an oil burner, or an aroma stone vaporizer. Vaporization of the various blends help to create specific moods, a peaceful atmosphere and soothing fragrance.

Awareness about quality and purity is important as not all essential oils are created out of organically grown plants. Oils are priced according to availability and quality and these can vary greatly. Generally the pricing is based on plant origin, availability, quality of the distilling process and the amount of oil derived from the plant. If all oils of a specific brand all carry the same price, they are very likely not pure essential oils.

Most of the pure essential oils extracted from high quality organic plants have shown to be beneficial as an all round health enhancing oils. Evening primrose, cedar, wood apples, sandalwood, rose, lavender, jasmine while the spicy oils - cinnamon, cloves, cardamom are known to be pain relievers.

Just some of the conditions essential oil is used to treat are:
Anxiety, stress or insomnia
Headaches
Muscular aches and pains
Asthma
Eczema
Digestive problems
Menstrual or menopausal problems

There are many other uses of essential oils like being used as massage oil, application as a bath oil etc. Versatile and a part of many cosmetic products these oils are known to have a therapeutic effect in eliminating skin problems but should never be applied directly to the skin as they are highly concentrated and can actually burn the skin. Aromatherapy products such as toiletries contain only small amounts of essential oils while for therapeutic methods a higher quantity is required. But in their concentrated form the oils can be very powerful and should always be handled with care. Over application can could cause irritation, and some essential oils are toxic if used incorrectly - such as eating or drinking them. Essential oils can have side-effects - nausea, headaches or an allergic reaction for instance. Some of them, including citrus oils such as orange, lemon and bergamot, react with ultraviolet light and can cause skin to burn more easily in sunlight.

Some essential oils are also used as massage oils to treat pains and stress and handy enough for self massages also. All types of body pain can be reduced by a simple massage.Massage oils get the skin smooth and supple strokes with gentle rubbing of the back or the neck can help release the tension built up in the areas, letting you feel comfortable and flexible.

Regular body massage with essential oil blends release the deep seated toxins in the different part of the body, which may be causing discomfort. These toxins are then eliminated from the body through natural expulsion processes. Skin looks nourished by such invigorating massage that can keep your body toned, flexible and also reduces built up fat. Skin gets a healthy glow with better circulation so you get double advantage of a massage- healthy body with beautiful skin.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Skin care beauty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.