A good sniff!
What’s in a smell? TEE SHIAO EEK follows her nose to sniff out the therapeutic benefits of aromatherapy.
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Eve Taylor ... 'The olfactory senses affect the brain.' |
For aromatherapist Eve Taylor, the smell of basil evokes strong memories of her childhood.
“The smell always makes me feel good because it reminds me of my mother. She always bought me liquorice sweets when I was a child,” reminisces Taylor, who is the principal and founder of the Institute of Clinical Aromatherapy in London.
Scents are a strong trigger of memories and emotions. “The olfactory senses affect the brain,” she explains. “It is said that 35% of people who lose their sense of smell could become clinically depressed.”
Taylor is in the business of using smells to make people feel better. Although the origins date back thousands of years, the term “aromatherapy” is relatively modern and tends to conjure images of bottle-sniffing and candle-burning.
However, aromatherapy is not “just a smellist’s market”, as it describes the use of aromatic products in a therapeutic manner. The term “clinical aromatherapy” is also slowly gaining popularity, although Taylor clarifies that “clinical” doesn’t refer to the use of aromatherapy in a medical institution.
“The word ‘clinical’ means hands-on (application) and consultation, like in a salon. (It’s) not just sniffing.”
Today, aromatherapy for “treatment” is mostly offered in spas, salons and holistic or complementary health centres.
Scent therapy
“Your colon is not very happy at the moment. It is tired, lazy,” Taylor tells this startled writer within minutes of meeting each other.
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In aromatherapy, a soothing touch is often just as important as the choice of oil, especially for terminally-ill patients. |
“But the point is, you only go when you have to go,” she insists. “If you’re busy doing something, you’ll put off going.”
Equally amazing is how Taylor arrived at this diagnosis. Apparently, “the curve of the lower lip” was what gave the story away.
The “guru” of aromatherapy claims to be able to tell what problems you have by looking at certain features of the face, such as the lips, eyebrows or nose. She also looks at the feet as well as the rest of the body and certain mannerisms, such as how a person lies on the couch for treatment, walks or sits.
“See the fullness of the nostrils and the sinuses?” she says of the photographer at the table. “His nose is quite bulbous (around the bridge) and when he speaks, it is more mucous-y.”
According to her, he has sinus problems and would benefit from her No. 1 blend, which contains pure natural essential oils of geranium, lavender, cypress, sandalwood and eucalyptus.
Aromatherapy uses a wide range of scents from plant essential oils to impart therapeutic benefits. According to the Harvard Medical School’s website on consumer health information, essential oils are oils extracted from a plant’s flowers, leaves, needles, branches, bark, berries, seeds, fruits, rind or roots. Essential oils are used in many different ways, including directly on the skin, as a part of massage, in bathwater, via steam inhalation or in mouthwashes.
Aromatherapy is touted to have benefits for various physical and psychological conditions, including skin problems, musculoskeletal pains and even stress.
However, Taylor notes that aromatherapy isn’t aimed at treating medical conditions, but instead, improving the well-being of people.
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Lavender heaven ... Aside from lavender aromatherapy, which may help relieve anxiety, there is no conclusive evidence for the effectiveness of any type of aromatherapy. |
Favourite fragrances
Taylor cringes at the mention of the durian – “ooh, that’s a nasty smell” – but shivers pleasurably when she talks about damiana (turnera aphrodisiaca or turnera diffusa, a plant native to Central and South America).
According to her, damiana and durian have very similar scents, but while durian repels, damiana makes her go all hot and tingly. “It gets all my hormones going!” she giggles. Others may not agree with her, especially durian aficionados who are perfectly happy to stick their noses in 20 durians to choose the best ones.
“Scents are a matter of personal choice,” Taylor concurs. What kind of memories do these scents evoke? Which scents give you pleasure or pain?
Using natural, pure oils, Taylor has produced a range of essential oil blends for the face, body and home. She takes out a bottle of her personal favourite, Winterblend, which is “an antibacterial blend ? protecting you and your environment with exacting charges of negative ions into the air”.
One can almost be certain that there is no scientific validation for this statement, as few large-scale studies have been conducted on the benefits of essential oils.
However, Taylor repeatedly insists that aromatherapy does not treat medical conditions. “No way, no way. It’s not going to cure anything. But it will help to ease the discomfort.”
She says that Winterblend is useful for those with asthma, bronchitis and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), as it eases upper respiratory stress. She also encourages the use of her 301 blend, which includes clove and rosemary, for chemotherapy patients as it provides a warming effect.
In aromatherapy, a soothing touch is often just as important as the choice of oil. A terminally ill person cannot receive full aromatherapy treatment, but the human touch can make them feel just that little bit better during their last days.
“It feels good to be touched ... on the hands, the feet, the face ... rather than just being washed or injected,” says Taylor, whose institute trains hospice workers, nurses and midwives in the use of essential oils.
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