Aromatherapy 'a health con'

NewsBot · Apr 2, 2006

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The Herald Sun are reporting:
Aromatherapy 'a health con'
02apr06

AROMATHERAPY is a "New Age marketing con" that does nothing more than burn a hole in your pocket, researchers say.

Psychologists claim to have debunked the idea that aromatherapy oils can relieve pain and alleviate ill health.
A psychologist who specialises in the power of scent says his experiments expose a massive marketing exercise that has no scientific basis.

Rather than relieving pain, aromatherapy could make people experience pain more intensely, says Dr Neil Martin, of Britain's Middlesex University.

In his study, volunteers were asked to plunge their arms into freezing water to see whether a pleasant lemon smell could mitigate their discomfort, or if the unpleasant smell of machine oil would make it worse.

But the lemon and the machine oil performed equally badly. In fact, the volunteers not exposed to any odours at all were best off.

Dr Martin said millions of people were convinced aromatherapy oils were doing them good. But mood music and massage used by aromatherapists applying the oils were the most likely explanation for a short-term feel-good factor, he said.

"They do make you smell nicer and temporarily lift mood, but the experiments do not support claims that aromatherapy can alleviate ill health and illness," he said. "That is more a marketing ploy than a scientific statement."

Carol Preen, secretary of Britain's Aromatherapy Consortium, said: 'This research did not involve aromatherapy because they simply used a certain smell to gain an effect.

"Aromatherapy is so much more than that and I do not see how they can say that this proves it does not work."
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DAVOhorn · Apr 2, 2006

Prove it works

They are always saying that Pts say they feel better.

But research regularly does not support this.

If the essential oils are that therapeutic i am sure that VERY MANY AROMATHERAPISTS would have OD'd on the oils and have complications due to poisoning by the oils.

A friend who is an aromatherapist could never provide an intelligent response to this argument.

The Placebo effect has a major impact.

Also MASSAGE in its own right has a positive impact upon people even if only temporarily.

regards David

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DAVOhorn Well-Known Member

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