Aromatherapy For Fibromyalgia
If you are suffering from a chronic pain condition such as Fibromyalgia, it is likely that you have tried various remedies and treatments since you were diagnosed to treat and lessen the pain and connected symptoms.
Have you considered using aromatherapy as part of your pain management and treatment plan?
As you will see from the following article, there may be good reasons why you should consider this alternative, complimentary medicine.
First, we will look at what aromatherapy is and then discuss the ways it can be used, including hot aromatherapy baths for treating Fibromyalgia.
What Is Aromatherapy?
Herbs and plant oils have been used medicinally for centuries and centuries, it was Rene-Maurice Gattefossé who first used the term “aromatherapy” in 1928.
Gattefossé was a French chemist who burnt his hand by accident and then plunged it into a vat of lavender oil without giving it much thought. The result of his quick thinking was that the burn healed very quickly with no scar. This prompted him to investigate the healing potential of essential oils more thoroughly.
Today, aromatherapy is one of the most widely known and popular types of complimentary therapies. Part of its success is due to the approach involved in aromatherapy.
An aromatherapist takes into consideration your medical history, mental health, well-being and emotional condition to ensure that the best results are achieved.
Essential oils are used as treatments for both pain and to enhance mood. Take stress for example. If stress is ignored, it only gets worse, increases bouts of pain, its severity, and also affects your overall health.
An aromatherapist working with a patient suffering from stress will create a plan that includes a combination of suitable essential oils to reduce stress, promote relaxation, and improve health and mental outlook.
Of course, you do not necessarily need a specialist, as you can easily buy a diffuser and essential oils. Be sure to learn about the various properties of essential oils that will meet your needs. There are many different flavors of oil. For example, you can use lavender for relaxation and to induce sleep.
What Are The Benefits Of Aromatherapy?
It is now used to help people with various conditions and symptoms. You should note that proof of its effectiveness differs from condition to condition, symptom to symptom and patient to patient.
It is thought that essential oils can encourage positivity, boost and restore the immune system, uplift and soothe.
When it comes to treating chronic pain, one of the reasons aromatherapy is so helpful is that it helps to relieve the anxiety caused by the pain and vice versa. When pain is muscular, it has been noted that essential oils used topically in massages can also be an effective treatment.
How Does Aromatherapy Actually Work?
Mainly aromatherapy is the use of essential oils through your sense of smell. The brain has strong links to our sense of smell, which is why you react in different ways to different scents.
When your brain analyzes a smell, it sets of reactions in other parts of the body. It could be where you feel relaxed, energized, or hungry. Along with this, the nerves in your nose can also recognize and match smells to specific memories – this is why certain smells cause a variety of different emotions.
Various Methods Of Using Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy can be used in diffusers, personal inhalers and in massage oils.
As various essential oils have anti-inflammatory properties, they make perfect massage oils when diluted with a carrier oil and applied directly to the skin to alleviate pain or fight infections.
Additionally, essential oils can also be used in warm water baths, which maybe the best choices for chronic pain conditions.
Warm Aromatherapy Baths
By using essential oils in a warm bath, you can have your daily soak while also benefiting from aromatherapy. This is a great way to allow the healing properties of essential oils to help relax sore and swollen pain points seen in fibromyalgia.
The warm water in itself has been proven to help with the soothing of chronic pain and the addition of appropriately chosen essential oils increase its effectiveness.
Not only are you absorbing the oils into your skin but you are also inhaling the oils into your nose from the steam rising from your bath.
*Please note this is not intended to diagnose or treat, it is intended for informational purposes only.