The Chemistry
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| Source : http://www.biospiritual-energy-healing.com/essential-oil-chemistry.html |
How Essential Oils affect ‘Emotional Brain’?
Do you love the sweet smell of Earth after the first shower of rain? It smells of happiness to me. So, this is what is called Aromatherapy. Our sense of smell has the power to alter our moods.
A smell can be overwhelmingly nostalgic because it triggers powerful images and emotions before we have time to edit them… When we give perfume to someone, we give them liquid memory. Kipling was right: “Smells are surer than sights and sounds to make your heart-strings crack.”
We need only eight molecules of a substance to trigger an impulse in a nerve ending, but forty nerve endings must be aroused before we smell something. (Source)
Human body has an emotional brain called the limbic system which not only controls emotions but also the physical functions like heart rate, blood pressure, hormone production and release and many other such functions. It also has a olfactory cortex which is where any smell you inhale comes to and triggers response in your body.
So, basically, when you inhale an odor, it passes through the nasal passages in form of a protein. This protein is converted to electrical impulses when it reaches the cortex. So, whatever impulses the cortex receives, it sends the same messages to other organs. If you inhale a calming odor, the electric impulse tells the limbic system to relax and the system sends calming nerve impulses throughout the body.
Honestly, it is not as simple as this sounds but I have just given you a gist. For a detailed explanation, I would suggest you to check out this source.
Now we need to see how aromatherapy plays into all of this. Each of the essential oils has therapeutic properties, in that they are stimulating, calming, sedative, balancing, etc. When we inhale an essential oil molecule, it travels through the nasal passage to a receptor neuron that transports it up to the limbic brain, especially the hypothalamus. Remember that some of the functions of the hypothalamus are to regulate blood pressure, control heart rate and adjust hunger and thirst? Well, if you smell an essential oil that has a vibrationally calming effect on the body, and the hypothalamus receives the input to relax, then it creates neurochemicals that are sent through the body to relax and calm. Likewise if an essential oil has a frequency known to stimulate the body, then the limbic system will conform by sending the message to energize and become more active. Through this manner of transport, one can understand how aromatherapy oils can increase immunity, balance hormonal secretions, dampen or enliven hunger and thirst, and create sexual desire. (Source)
Wow. I love EO’s. Mix them in my hair oil all the time. Since you have a good experience in using EOs it would be nice if you could do a post of them for hair care/issues with hair .
hi Madhu. this is precisely the reason i started a series on essential oils. to really know how they work and why they work. i shall be covering the topic very soon. thanks for the idea and please let me know if this post was any useful. also, which essential oils do you buy???
Hi. Yes this post was useful. I was recommended a seller of essential oils by a acquaintance some time back and I buy all my oils from them.Where do you buy your oils?
wow. do share the information with me also. i used to buy my oils from moksha earlier then i am now buying most of them from kama only. but, i do like to explore different vendors for it.
wow, i really love how in depth you have gone with this post. it’s material that i have not understood about essential oils. love the series you are doing on them
hey Coral. thanks a ton for your encouragement 🙂 would try to make it even better!!
i also buy my oils from moksha. i am satisfied with them as of now. tried quite a few number of eo’s as well as carrier oils. also there floral hydrosols are good.kama is good but no outlet in pune. i am using kama’s hair oil though.
oh yup, even I like but I hate the entire process of ordering from them. there is no transparency. every time I ask them for prices, I get a different reply! but, I felt the oils were of good quality. how do you manage to order from them?
Hi. I take quotes from them via email.The quality of oils are good and so are there prices. Send them a mail and take quotes. They are quite helpful.The have also started online order through there website. I have checked prices around and no one comes close to them. And they have quite a variety also in terms of both eo’s as well as carrier oils.
yeah, me too take quotes from them and yes they take long to deliver. is it really true that their oils are comparatively inexpensive! in fact i was thinking of going to their office / shop once whenever I am in Delhi!!! will try it out.
also thing with moksha is there delivery time is long. takes about a week for the parcel to come.i have to plan well in advance if i need to stock up or require anything urgently.
Hi. Yes,there oils are comparatively inexpensive. I have looked around quite a bit . It would be fantastic if you could go to there office and speak to them then we could have some more information. Do let me know whenever you do visit them.
yes sure I shall definitely let you know 🙂