It has been mentioned throughout history that lavender has a distinctive and pleasing fragrance and many believe it can relieve mild anxiety. You find it today in many lotions and body oils and in use when getting a professional massage. Does the aroma trigger relaxation or something more powerful and proven to use to treat anxiety – there have been some clinical trials and the calming effects were recorded.
So what is Lavender help people out with. Here is a list:
- Lavender helps with restlessness, nervousness and insomnia.
- Lavender helps with depression symptoms.
- Lavender can be used for painful and inflammatory conditions including migraines and joint pain.
- Lavender can help people who suffer from agitation related to dementia.
There have been many studies conducted by researchers in order to find a correlation between lavender and anxiety. A study was conducted where 97 healthy subjects in a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial were given 100 mL and 200mL lavender capsules. After patients were given the capsule, they watched two short films; one neutral and one anxiety-provoking. They found that the patients who took the 200 mL lavender capsule, had reduced anxiety while watching the neutral film. In the other film the lavender “was mildly beneficial in females but only on HRV measures.” In males, sympathetic arousal increased during the anxiety film (GSR). HRV significantly increased at 200 mL during all 3 film clips in females, suggesting decreased anxiety.” Researchers concluded that lavender has anxiety reducing effects in low anxiety conditions but no conclusions were found towards high or clinical anxiety.
Another study conducted in 2011 targeted elementary school teachers who tend to be under a lot of stress. This study was done in Taiwan and the subjects inhaled essential oils including lavender. “They found that even a 10-minute-long weekly inhalation of aromatherapy resulted in a significant reduction of blood pressure and heart rate, and drove autonomic nervous activity toward a balanced state. In addition, participants with moderate and high degrees of anxiety benefited more than the light anxiety group.”
“In a study published in the journal Phytomedicine, lavender oil was shown to be just as effective as the pharmaceutical drug lorazepam (Ativan).” The plus of using lavender is that it is not a drug, and will not become abused.
Since there are many different types of essential oils, you might be wondering if lavender is the best. In a “a randomized controlled trial in 2013 suggested that clary sage essential oil may be useful—more so than lavender—in reducing stress for female patients undergoing urodynamic assessments.”
This blog post was extremely fascinating! Every time my mom is stressed, she either takes a lavender bath, rubs lavender oil on herself, or inhales lavender. She claims that its effects are incredible. I found your study with school teachers really interesting because it showed quantitative results to a problem (stress) that is extremely qualitative. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, lavender also can help with skin issues, insomnia, headaches, or nervous disorders.
https://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb/lavender
Lavender could also be relaxing because scents bring back memories. If a person has good memories involving lavender it could help to put them in a better mood. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120312-why-can-smells-unlock-memories
The effect that scent has on people has always fascinated me, so this was really fun to read, especially since I enjoy the scent of lavender. The picture of the flower that’s in the post got me wondering if the color of lavender has any of the same effects as it’s scent, and it seems that it does- when I googled it, I found numerous links from various wellness blogs as well as interior design and house blogs that cited lavender as a relaxing color- this article recommends that you paint your bedroom walls lavender to help relax http://www.housebeautiful.com/room-decorating/colors/g1610/relaxing-paint-colors/
There is nothing better than sitting in a candlelit room, relaxing to calm aromas in the air. Having a choice of scent, lavender will always be my number one. It is an extremely soothing herb that not only is calming, but has an everlasting beautiful aroma. Besides its uses for scents, lavendar can be found in many other products that can have relaxing and calming results. Health Online reports that lavender can be used to reduce bloating. “The polyphenols (a type of antioxidant) in lavender can help reduce the ‘bad’ bacteria in your gut.” There is much psychology between having low self-esteem and not being relaxed. Therefore, not only does lavender provide an external effect, but internal as well.
I know Andrew had talked about how bad anecdotes are, but I have to share my own story! I find that lavender helps me a lot, in fact I get my best nights of sleep when I smell it. It’s really incredible what natural herbs can do for you- black oregano can work miracles. I got sun poisoning when I was in Croatia and went to the pharmacy to get some medicine. The woman handed me black oregano oil and told me to rub it on the affected area as well as drink a teaspoon of it in the morning and night. It was gone within a week- if you’ve ever gotten sun poisoning before, you would know that that’s insanely fast. here are some other ways oregano oil can help!