And all the men said “Aroma whaa?”

“Smelling stuff can’t actually do anything for you can it? I mean, how does aromatherapy actually work?” I’ve asked Ariel (and Google) these questions over and over again these past few months. Our lifestyle has been evolving to include essential oils, and as a very supportive husband ( oh, and very humble) I’ve been all in on Ariel buying oils. That said, I wasn’t just going to watch as we exchanged dollars for oils without understanding what it was we were really buying. So after weeks of digging, I wanted to share some key findings to save you all (especially the skeptics) from having to dig through Google for hours at a time.

Before that though, I want to explain something really important. A lot of you have probably tried to do this research yourself. You’ve Googled “Proof that essential oils work,” or searched similar terms only to yield poor results. Well, there is a reason for that. It has to do with what’s called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. SEO is how Google decides which content to show you first when you search for terms. Scholarly articles and research papers around essential oils don’t rank high in SEO for three primary reasons.

1. Essential oils posts about making money have oversaturated the search algorithm, drowning out educational posts. This is likely a result of the effectiveness of MLM’s as a distribution method for oils.
2. Research-lite blog posts that are strategically designed for SEO scoring have also oversaturated the algorithm.
3. The true scholarly articles and essays are often static PDF’s found in a professor’s portfolio of work. These are boring websites with very little SEO optimization.

All of this means finding quality research on oils requires some digging. I’ve linked to some of that content throughout this post.

Now, for the stuff you came for. What is aromatherapy, why is it used, and can it actually accomplish what it’s used for?

Let’s start with the what. What is aromatherapy?

Aromatherapy is defined in the dictionary as:

the use of aromatic plant extracts and essential oils in massage or baths.

And now the why. Why is aromatherapy a thing?

Aromatherapy is aimed at improving a person’s health or mood.

So can smelling oils, and massaging them into your skin create an increase in health and mood?

Yes. Well that’s the short answer at least. The long and more accurate answer is — it depends on the oil.

In a study called Effects of Fragrance Inhalation on Sympathetic Activity in Normal Adults, Shinichiro Haze, Keiko Sakai, and Yoko Gozu placed groups of random adults in chairs and measured neural activity after each participant smelled an essential oil.

Depending on the oil, the sympathetic nervous system (the part of the brain responsible for fight or flight reflexes) either increased or decreased in relative activity. None of the inhalations resulted in unchanged levels of neural activity. Put more simply, smelling essential oils resulted in patients feeling more energized, or more relaxed.

Feeling energized was a result of smelling oils with the highest levels of terpenes and sesquiterpenes ( similar to the chemicals found in coffee)

Ethers such as methyl chavicol and anethole; and other components were detected in pepper oil, estragon oil, fennel oil and grapefruit oil, which induced stimulation of sympathetic activity*

Feeling more relaxed was a result of smelling oils with the highest levels of alcohol. (similar to the chemicals found in alcoholic beverages)

Alcohols such as citronellol, geraniol, nerol and patchouli alcohol, and other components were detected in rose oil and patchouli oil, which induced inhibition of sympathetic activity*

This is just one of many studies conducted demonstrating the ability of essential oils to influence mood and health. The obvious realization here is that depending on the desired mood, the proper oil should be inhaled.

Given this, it makes sense that essential oils are being consumed more regularly. With the ability to mildly influence our nervous system aromatherapy is a legitimate means of improving health or mood.

*Lorig TS and Schwarts GE: Brain and odor: I. Alteration of human EEG by odor administration. Psychobiology 16, 281–284 (1988)

*Product Development Center, Shiseido Co., Ltd., 2–2–1, Hayabuchi, Tsuzuki-ku, Yokohama 224–8558, Japan Received May 9, 2002 Accepted August 2, 2002

*Dorland’s (2012). Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary (32nd ed.). Elsevier Saunders. p. 1862. ISBN 978–1–4160–6257–8.