Top 3 Uses For Lavender You Didn’t Know About
I became interested in lavender due to a documentary on Netflix called Unwell. In the documentary a women referenced a study with lavender.
The women was claiming that the study resulted in lavender being just as effective as Ativan in treating anxiety.
I was perplexed. Is there enough evidence to make such strong claims? Can lavender really be just as effective as a drug used for treating psychotic episodes in people with anxiety? With these questions in mind, I investigated the world of lavender.
What is Lavender?
Lavandula angustifolia, also known as lavender, is a species of evergreen flowering plant that is native to Europe, northern and eastern Africa, the Mediterranean, southwest Asia, and southeast India.
Lavender has been shown to demonstrate sedation and anxiolytic effects making it beneficial in some disease states.
Not only is it beneficial, but lavender has also shown to have minimal side effects. Some cases have shown minor side effects such as GI disturbances, nausea, constipation, and increased appetite.
How is it used?
Most known for it’s fragrance form, lavender also comes in other forms such as capsules and topical oils.
Typical dosed from 80–160 mg daily or aromatherapy 1–15 minutes for 6–8 weeks.
Some people will swear by the healing factor of lavender essential oils and supplements. How much can be scientific proven from these claims?
What can lavender be used for?
I wanted to address the trial I mentioned at in the beginning of this blog about lavender as treatment in anxiety. This trial did show that lavender was just as effective as Ativan in treating anxiety, like what was said in the documentary.
But they fail to mention that the dose used in the trial was below the effective dose use in Ativan to treat anxiety. A few things this study did show was an improvement in anxiety, remission rate, and sleep score compared to placebo with aromatherapy lavender.
While it’s arguable what that trial proves using lavender as a treatment for anxiety, there are other more validating clinical trials. Such as a meta-analysis examining 5 clinical trials found higher dosing of lavender to be effective compared to placebo, paroxetine, and Ativan in treating anxiety.
Lavender has also shown to reduce symptoms of depression. One study showed lavender aromatherapy reduce depression symptoms and anxiety. While another study with oral lavender showed a 33% improvement on depression score compared to patients’ baseline.
Another condition that benefits from aromatherapy lavender is painful periods, also known as dysmenorrhea. One study demonstrated a 28% improvement from pain compared to placebo after 2 months of lavender aromatherapy. Another study showed a significant improved in pain when lavender aromatherapy was combined with a massage.
How to best utilize lavender daily?
Lavender has proven to help a variety of problems. The question is how do we incorporate of lavender in everyday life? And the answer is easy. If taking a capsule daily or sitting for 10 minute doing aromatherapy is too much, you can simply put a few drops of lavender oil on your wrist and smell it throughout the day.
Lavender is known to be a sedating agent used effectively to treat anxiety, depression, and dysmenorrhea. Lavenders benefit don’t stop there.
While there is a lack of consisted evidence lavender has also been used for varies other ailments such as alopecia, insomnia, pain, and eczema. The use of lavender has not been proven to benefit these areas but there is some limited evidence suggesting potential.
Overall, lavender is a safe alternative or add on therapy in treatment for certain disorders.
