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Lavender – Aromatherapy for Relaxation

By HERWriter
 
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Holistic Health related image Photo: Getty Images

Lavender is an herb that grows as a short shrub approximately 24 inches tall. The plant is native to mountainous areas of the Mediterranean but has now spread throughout southern Europe, Australia, and the United States. The leaves of the plant are gray-green and are covered with a silvery down. Lavender has small, blue-violet flowers that are strongly scented.

Why lavender is used
Historically lavender was used in baths to help purify the body and spirit. The name lavender comes from the latin word “to wash.” In modern usages, lavender is believed to have a calming or soothing effect and is used to help with relaxation and to relieve anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, and depression. It is also sometimes used to treat hair loss (alopecia), and to relieve a headache or upset stomach.

How lavender is used
The flowers of the lavender plant are used in a variety of ways. The most common use is as an essential oil for aromatherapy. This fragrance of the oil is considered to be relaxing and can be used alone or in combination with other essential oils. These oils can also be rubbed on the scalp to help stop hair loss from alopecia. The essential oil is also used to make lotions or can be applied directly to the skin. Lavender flowers can also be dried and used to make teas or other liquid extracts that can be consumed.

Lavender Cautions
• Lavender is generally considered safe for use by adults. It should not be given orally to children as a tea or in any other form.
• Women who are breastfeeding should not use lavender.
• Lavender oil may be poisonous. Do not drink lavender oil or add it to tea or other foods.
• Lavender oil in aromatherapy is generally safe for adults, but the oil can cause skin irritation in people who are sensitive to it.
• Lavender oil should not be applied to the skin of young boys as it can cause abnormal breast growth in young boys.
• Lavender teas may cause constipation, appetite changes, and headaches.
• Lavender may interact with sedatives to increase drowsiness. Tell your doctor if you have used lavender prior to any surgery involving anesthesia.
• It is possible to develop an allergic reaction to lavender which can result in nausea, vomiting, headache, or chills.

The Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database provides ratings for the probable effectiveness of substances based on scientific evidence. Lavender has these ratings:
Possibly effective for treating alopecia hair loss when rubbed on the scalp in combination with other oils.
Insufficient Evidence– Scientific evidence does not support or disprove the use of lavender for any other use, including the treatment of depression, sleeplessness, agitation, loss of appetite, and overall well being.

Sources:
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
University of Maryland Medical Center
National Institutes of Health: Medline Plus

Add a Comment2 Comments

I love the Young Living lavender. I consider it the "Swiss Army Knife" of oils. I carry it with me everywhere I go. If I cut my finger or accidentally burn my hand, I pour a drop of the oil and it helps to heal in just a few hours. I fell off my bike a year ago (going too fast down a mountain trail). I poured the oil on the cuts on my leg and it healed without much of a scar. ( I used Thieves oil blend with the lavender as it helped to eliminate any chance of infection). It has been really dry this winter and I have had a few "bloody noses". I put a drop of the Young Living lavendar on the bridge of my nose and the bleeding stops. And it smells so good!

January 9, 2011 - 4:32pm
Expert

Dear Denise,

Thank you very much for bringing to light information on synthetic essentials oils.

Synthetic essential oils are dangerous and gives Aromatherapy a bad name.

One of my clients was using Young Living Therapeutic Grade essential oils for pre-cancer lesions on her face. One of them was lavender. A friend came back for Europe with a lavender that she claimed was better. The client used this oil instead of her YL oils. She called me the following day very upset. I went directly over to her house. She told me what had happened. The synthetic lavender dripped into her eye as she applied it to her lesions.( like she had done with YL oils in the months past.) Her eye swelled shut and burned. One look told me it was a chemical burn. She rinsed her eye with olive oil ( always dilute oil with oil never water) I called her eye doctor and her family took her to the E.R. The E.R. doctor agreed with me, she had a chemical burn from the lavender oil. Which turned out to have camphor in it. Never use any essential oils that are not YL oils. The results can be harmful to your health.

As a licensed Aromatherapy Coach and Vice President of Aromatherapy for the Natural Therapies Certification Board for the United States it is my duty to help people understand the difference between Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils and all the rest. I endorse Young Living Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils because I have seen first hand with my clients the profound effect they when no other options are available to them. I specialize in blends that are taken internally and I have confidence in Young Living’s products because of their standards and the FDA approval.

My mission and everyone at Wisdom By Nature is to take the fear out of Aromatherapy, give people the knowledge they want to make an educated decision and be pro-active in their health and everyone around them.

The Importance of Quality

Many oils, touted as essential oils, are derived with harsh chemicals, diluted, or copied and produced in a lab. Cheap copies bring cheap results and have the potential to be toxic. Therefore, it’s important to choose high-quality essential oils.

Young Living offers 100% pure therapeutic-grade essential oils, essential oil blends, and oil-enhanced products. At Young Living, in-house and independent laboratory testing shows that Young Living essential oils meet high industry standards that qualify them as “therapeutic grade.” This means that health professionals choose them for promoting health and wellness.
Young Living is dedicated to producing essential oils from the highest-quality plants. Healthy plants and proper distillation produce superior essential oils with powerful benefits. Every oil is put through a series of rigorous tests before it is deemed qualified to bear the Young Living label. Our essential oils are then bottled in dark, thick, glass containers to protect the integrity of the oils. Under the lid is a fixed orifice that helps to measure dosages and to ensure safety, particularly for young children.

Purity
Young Living Therapeutic Grade standards prohibit the acceptance of any diluted, cut or adulterated oils. Every product Young Living produces—essential oils, oil blends, nutritional supplements, or personal care—meets strict purity standards.
Every batch of essential oils is subjected to rigorous, state-of-the-art analysis at the Young Living chemistry lab. Using some of the most advanced equipment in the world, our scientists subject every batch of essential oils to Gas Chromatograph and Mass Spectrometer testing, and heavy metals analysis. Oils that exhibit even the slightest hint of possible adulteration or tampering are rejected.

Young Living Lavender essential oil is labeled by the FDA as a supplement to be taken internally if desired. As we all know anything approved by the FDA goes through many tests and sometimes takes years to approve. Young Living is willing to go the extra mile to make Therapeutic Grade Essentials Oils accessibe to people like you and I. Why? To improve the quality of our lives, our families, friends and even our beloved pets.

Here are just a couple of examples of how powerful essential oils can be including lavender.

Government studies have been done shown that true lavender essential oil does not cause an allergic reaction but right the opposite.(1)

Lavender along with other essentials oils have shown to lower lipid oxidation. Lipid peroxides are the products of chemical damage done by oxygen free radicals to the polyunsaturated fatty acids of cell membranes. (2) This means essential oils acted like anti oxidants in this study.

I hope that this helps shed some light on the difference between Therapeutic Grade and Synthetic Essential Oils.

I encourage everyone to join our group Everyday Living with Everyday Essential Oils and learn the benefits of using essential oils and not let all the hype get in the way of improving the quality of your life or someone you love

Chalyce Macoskey
Founder of Wisdom By Nature

(1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10217323
(2) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9490339

January 7, 2011 - 7:05am
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We value and respect our HERWriters' experiences, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice, although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.

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