Aromatherapy Essay Research Paper AromatherapyAromatherapy is a — страница 2

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antiviral and antibacterial properties.? But these studies, he adds, ?were conducted in Europe, and the degree of scrutiny and peer review they underwent was not necessarily as high as the usual degree of such in the United States.? Can You Trust Your Aromatherapist? Outside the U.S. aromatherapy is widely accepted. In France, medical students are taught how to prescribe essential oils; in Britain, hospital nurses use aromatherapy to treat patients suffering anxiety and depression and to make terminal-care patients more comfortable. But the science behind aromatherapy is meager, and in the United States no legal standards exist concerning education in aromatherapy, certification therein, or the occupational practice of aromatherapy. Dr. d?Angelo is taking courses offered by the

Australasian College of Herbal Studies, a nonaccredited correspondence school in Oregon who six-lesson aromatherapy course leads to a ?Certificate in Aromatherpy.? The school also offers certificate courses in homeopathy; Homeobotanical Therapy, which centers on the use of botanical tinctures that purportedly have been prepared homeopathically; and iridology—so-called iris diagnosis. According to Dorene Peterson, the school?s principle: ?In the last 18 months, we?ve had a seventy-five percent increase in aromatherapy students.? Peterson holds a ?Diploma in Acupuncture? (?Dip ACU?) and two degrees: a baccalaureate and a ?Diploma in Natural Therapeutics? (?DNT?) from New Zealand. She says her school has 400 enrollees, ranging from age 18 to 68 and including ?professionals

adjuncting an existing career?: medical doctors, registered nurses, licensed massage therapists, and some radiologists. Other students are planning on jobs in beauty salons, in health food stores, and in the fragrance industry. The American Aromatherapy Association, also nonaccredited and in Oregon, offers certification based on attendance at two three-day meetings and submission of a paper that includes case histories. The association?s courses covers the use of essential oils as internal remedies. Another nonaccredited organization, the International Association of Aromatherapists, offers an 11-month correspondence course leading to certification as an ?Aromatherapist Practitioner.? Business Stinks? As director of his Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, in

Chicago, neurologist and psychiatrist Alan Hirsch, M.D., specializes in treating people with smell disorders. His passion, however, is investigating how odors affect behavior. Hirsch’s most attention-getting study focused on whether an odor could affect weight. Hirsch had noticed that, after losing the sense of smell, people’s weight increased. He theorized that people would eat less if they were subject to odors more often. For the study, 3,193 people were given an inhaler that imparted an odor somewhat reminiscent of corn chips. At the outset of the study the subjects’ average weight was 217 pounds; some subjects weighed nearly 600 pounds. Hirsch found that the more often the subjects sniffed the odor, the more weight they lost. The average weight loss over six months was

30 pounds. Some subjects sniffed the odor more than 200 times daily and lost more than 100 pounds. Most researchers are skeptical of Hirsch’s work. They complain that he doesn’t publish in respected scientific journals, that his studies therefore do not undergo rigorous peer review, and that his experiments are not well controlled. Hirsch concedes: “At this point, I wouldn’t use aromatherapy myself, as a physician to deal with disease. I don’t think we’re there yet. If I saw a physician using aromatherapy, rather than tranquilizers, I’d say that’s inappropriate at this point.” But Hirsch predicts that by 2010 aromatherapy will be a part of mainstream medicine. “In the future, odors may be used to diagnose disease,” he says. “If we ever find the odor

associated with the greatest impairment, we could potentially use that to diagnose the recurrence of disease.” Hirsch also describes more mundane purposes: “Maybe ten minutes before you wake up in the morning, the alarm clock will spray a scent to make you more alert. You’ll go to the kitchen, where an odor will be released to increase or suppress your appetite. Your office may be scented to make you more productive.” And at bedtime? “An aroma,” he replies, “to make you sleepy?or more amorous.” Observes principal Dorene Peterson of the Australasian College of Herbal Studies: “There is a philosophical difference between hard science and the approach that believes there’s vibrational energy that’s part of the healing process. Alternative medicine is offered