AROMAPROFILES

Which Medicine

Having worked in a clinical setting as an aromatherapist for many years, I find it immeasurably sad that there is a reluctance on the part of the medical professions to take advantage of the benefits offered by essential oils. A confrontational stance seems to have been adopted with 'them' (natural therapies) on one side and 'us' (doctors and chemical manufacturers0 on the other. Instead of scanning the various complementary therapies and asking 'what can you do for my patients?', doctors all too often dismiss complementary medicines, which they neither understand nor have experience of, as too weak, or too strong, just a placebo or in-researched.

There are historical reasons behind this divide, to do with the growth of the chemical drugs industry and the protection of market interests - financial profit, in other words. The drugs industry spends millions of pounds employing political lobbyists, public relations officers and sales representatives who influence the decision-makers, the public and doctors against natural alternatives. In this market protectionism, however, the patient suffers. One can forgive general practitioners who have bottle enough time to talk to their patients, yet alone read the actual research behind many of the drugs they are prescribing. But hospital specialists , who have a limited number of conditions to treat, should most certainly look into complementary therapies and see what is on offer.

It is a great shame that essential oils are not further researched for use in mind-related conditions and nor are the antiviral essential oils investigated for the alleviation of earache, colds and flu, and other serious viral conditions. One can understand that chemical drugs are used when they are available, but there are many conditions for which nothing is available in the 'chemical medicine chest', but where natural options exist. One criticism levelled against aromatherapy is that it is unscientifically tested - that we don't know how it works. On the face of it this might seem like a valid complaint until one realizes that the chemical drugs industry, who orchestrate the opposition to natural therapies for financial reasons, very often has little idea how its drugs work. 

For example, for many years doctors have been told that tricyclic drugs used to treat depression are effective because they work to change natural levels of the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and serotonin. But, because of our limited knowledge about how neurotransmitters actually work in the brain, and the pathways they take, this is all just theory. Doctors reluctant to use natural medicines, but happy to prescribe chemical drugs, should take a long hard look into the back-up research of those drugs and ask themselves - does anybody really know how these work? The fact is that chemical drugs are regularly given product licences although the exact mechanisms for them are not understood and, according to the American Federal Office of Technology Assessment, 75 per cent of all currently available treatments have not had sufficient scientific scrutiny.

Another criticism levelled against natural therapies is that they are potentially toxic. The argument is ' just because it's natural doesn't mean it's safe'. Of course nature is full of dangers , as we tell our children every time they reach out to pluck unknown berries from a bush. But it is also true that nature is full of natural remedies. Natural medicines have evolved over thousands of years, time enough for people to know what natural products are good to eat, which are poisonous, which heal and which do not. It is upon this wealth of experience that aromatherapy draws and, indeed, upon which chemical companies draw as they search for medications to synthesize chemically in the lab.

Indeed without certain plants, the pharmacies in cancer hospitals would have little to offer. With my hand on my heart I can tell you that in my long experience I have rarely heard of an adverse reaction to pure essential oils used correctly by registered practitioners in aromatherapy treatments in Britain, other than passing skin irritation in some people who have sensitive reactions to certain plant products.

According to Dietrich Wabner, professor of chemistry  at the Technical University in Munich, skin irritation could be caused by biocide residues in particular essential oils, rather than being a reaction to that oil in general. The adverse 'side effects' of chemical drugs are becoming more well known due to the efforts of the media, and there are now several good books available to the public on that subject. It is ludicrous to criticize natural therapies on the basis of their potential toxicity when so very few toxic effects have been observed or reported, not only by me but by generations of serious medical researchers and government regulatory bodies.

Reference: The Fragrant Mind : Valerie Ann Worwood

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