Defining Aromatherapy



Aromatherapy is an incredible holistic and complementary therapy that is gaining recognition more and more each year. However, in the United States especially, the term has often been used as a meaningless buzz word to sell you smelly products. As a result aromatherapy is often misunderstood and very much undervalued by the general public. In this first lesson I will try to shed some light on what aromatherapy actually is.

Defining aromatherapy can be a difficult task in some ways. This is primarily because of the common misuse of the word. This misuse in addition to some of the elitist behaviors in the essential oil world itself has led to a gross lack of understanding by the common person. That is not to say all people who deal with essential oils are snobs by any means but I have witnessed personally certain people who work in the field behave snobbishly towards the public. Instead of making polite conversation and attempting to enlighten them they simply turn their nose up at the “obvious stupidity” and leave them flapping in the wind. When I witness this it annoys me to no end. If it has not been for the kindness of the woman mentioned in my last post I may have never had the same depth of understand I do now. She was kind to me and helpful in my quest for knowledge, despite my young age at the time.

I think that knowledge should be shared. Learning is vital to life and kindness is a virtue to cultivate. So here I will pass the kindness forward. I will teach you as best I can.

To begin with lets start with some history.

There is virtually no group of people in the history of humanity who has not at some time used plants for medicinal purposes. Aromatherapy is the use of aromatics or aromatic plants to support well being. Modern aromatherapy, as most people know it today, is quite young and has a rather short history. However, the history of medicinal and aromatic plants has an ancient lineage indeed.

Our primitive ancestors may have learned that smoke from a certain herb or berry dropped into the fire made them feel calm or opened there chest to breath easier. The Egyptians used resins, barks, oils and balsams for medicine, food preparation, spiritual activities and burials. It is thought that the Greeks learned much of there aromatic knowledge from the Egyptians and of course added there own experience to the history of it’s use. Hippocrates, considered to be the “father of western medicine” and a renowned Greek physician, is often quoted has having said, “the way to health is to have an aromatic bath and scented massage every day” And, of course, the Romans where well known for there decadent aromatic bathhouses.

In the middle ages aromatics where often burned in the streets and in homes to ward off infections and the bubonic plague. It is commonly suspected that tanners, perfume and glove makers where often immune to the plague because they where constantly surrounded by the aromatic essential oils of there trade.


During the eighteenth century essential oils where used extensively and much research was being done on their medicinal properties. However this was also a time that a growing specialization of medicine was occurring, which would eventually attempt to take medicine out of the hands of the common person. In the nineteenth century the family doctor was established.

In many ways the history of aromatherapy is the history of herbal medicine. Aromatherapy as we know it today, however, is a modern development based on how these aromatic plants where previously used. For this I would most like to thank Rene-Maurice Gattefosse, who coined the term in 1937 and the respective Gattefosse family.


Rene-Maurice Gattefosse



Rene-Maurice Gattefosse was the son of Louis Gattefosse, who owned and operated the Gattefosse perfume business, which still remains today. During Rene’s youth perfumes where still created with a mixture of natural essential oils, alcohol extracts and floral pomades. He, his father and brother worked closely together to define the compositions under which perfumes where prepared to set a standard of quality in strength and odor.

One of my most lovingly prized possessions, a gift from my husband, is a book called, “Formulary of Perfumes and Cosmetics” by R.M. Gattefosse. This first American edition published in 1959 being the English translation and revision of the French text published by the family in 1906, 1911 and 1920.

The original publication being based on the efforts for mentioned.

Due to this connection to essential oils for there perfumery business Gattefosse was already well connected with the herbal trade but it was not until the now famous laboratory explosion took place that aromatherapy, as we know it, came to be.

The story has been retold just a little different here and there but here is the quote from Rene’s book, “Aromatherapie” (1937)

“…External applications of small quantities of essential oils rapidly stops the spread of gangrenous sores. In my personal experience, after a laboratory explosion covered me with burning substances which I extinguished by rolling on a grassy lawn, my hands where covered with a rapidly changing gas gangrenous. Just one rinse with lavender oil stopped the gasification of the tissue. This treatment was followed by profuse sweating and healing began the next day. (July 1910)….”

Rene-Maurice Gattefosse had some 50 years experience with essential oils before he wrote this book. It is was this above mentioned incident that led him to a lifelong passion and commitment for uncovering the therapeutic benefits of essential oils. He is the forefather of “aromatherapy” and therefore aromatherapy is defined, most simply as “the therapeutic application or use of aromatic substances (essential oils).”

In addition to the Gattefosse family, Dr Jean Valnet was another individual who contributed greatly to the shape of modern aromatherapy. Dr. Valnet was trained as a traditional physician at the University of Lyon in 1945. By 1953 he began his research into essential oils. He focused mainly on the best methods of application as well as dosage levels needed for maximum benefit without risk of side effects. During World War II Dr Valnet was successful at treating the wounds of war by using essential oils as antiseptics. He additionally created a number of effective remedies for issues ranging from skin conditions, respiratory conditions, muscular aches and pain and so on, utilizing essential oils. In 1964 he published, “The practice of aromatherapy” and it has since grown to be considered a classical text on the subject.

Also, Marguerite Maury deserves special notice as she pioneered the dermal application of essential oils for both psychological and physiological benefits gained threw pathways of the skin. She also is notable for emphasizing the importance of the individual. Thus contributing to an evolution of aromatherapy.
In modern practice, aromatherapy is dynamic, diverse and often divided. This is perhaps a reflection of both the industries youth and seemingly endless growth.

In England, holistic or traditional aromatherapy was made popular threw standardization. There a standard aromatherapy program includes, basic pathology, basic counseling skills, basic nutrition, anatomy and physiology, Swedish massage and basic reflexology. Oh, and of course, Essential oil therapeutics. This is to a lesser degree similar to many of the more comprehensive massage therapy programs offered in the united states. However, aromatherapy as a standardized practice has yet to be established in the US.

The original introduction of aromatherapy into the US mainstream was threw the retail and gift industries rather than threw the profession. With this original introduction so came poor quality oils and synthetic fragrances being sold as “the best of the best”. It’s no wonder that the average consumer is confused about what aromatherapy is and if there is a difference between essential oils and synthetics.

In my next article I will address this issue of synthetics vs. essential oils further.

I hope you have enjoyed this first lesson and that the content has been enlightening. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below and I will try to address them as either in return comment or in the next lessons as they follow.

Soap, Drugs and Rock and Roll

In the video, Soap, Drugs and Rock and Roll, we first meet Don Bolles, drummer from the punk rock band, “The Germs“. The irony is so thick; you can’t make this stuff up. On April 4, 20007, Don was arrested when, during a traffic stop, his Dr Bronners soap tested “positive” for the drug GHB. The video goes on to illustrate that the NarcoPouch 928 field drug tests used will not only give a false positive for GHB to Dr Bronners soap but any soap that is a natural soap. “Tom’s” (manufactured by Colgate-Palmolive) for example will have the exact same reaction. In an interesting twist this kit does not test positive when used with a detergent “soap”. So the video goes on to illustrate, in a fun way, the chemical difference between real soap vs. fake soap using this faulty feild drug test. By the way, Mr. Bolles was soon exonerated once an actual crime lab tested his soap and found no GHB what so ever.


Now if this isn’t interesting enough, David Bronner, President of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, takes this just one step further. Not only illustrating the chemical difference between soap and detergent but calling out manufactures of what he calls “pure, natural and organic synthetic detergent based product.” With tongue in cheek of course. Showing that many of the products we believe to be “organic” and “natural” are simply using meaningless hype words to sell us there detergent.

Kiss my face and Jason’s Naturals are just a couple of the examples he used. I was shocked to learn this because, although I don’t personally use these products, when I was in college for massage therapy, I had teachers, offhandedly, suggest these companies as, “good natural products”.

Now I am an avid label reader. I think it all began for me with food labels, but in general label reading is important. Money doesn’t come easy and I for one want to know what I’m buying. The best defense you have against labels and advertising that is misleading is to understand what you’re reading.

You can’t just blindly trust the words on the front of the bottle. You need to understand that words such as “natural” and “organic” mean nothing. My husband always jokes, “Uranium, is natural”, do you want to put that on your face?

Let me give you a definition:

or·gan·ic


1. noting or pertaining to a class of chemical compounds that formerly comprised only those existing in or derived from plants or animals, but that now includes all other compounds of carbon.
2. characteristic of, pertaining to, or derived from living organisms; organic remains found in rocks.

Based on this the word “organic” means nothing in regards to product health and safety. Many companies have recognized that the consumer is wanting more natural products. The result has been that they make something that looks “natural” and use the word, organic. They do this to imply a healthy natural product without actually saying it. It’s a loophole and a deceptive one at that.

So how can you protect yourself from misleading terms such as, “natural” and “organic”? Turn the bottle around! Simple right?

Some of you may think, “Not so” and in a way your right. Companies typically write there labels in such a way that you’d need a chemistry degree to even half understand it. I could suggest you bone up on your Chem courses but here is a simpler solution. Lets have a quick look at lables.

To start I’ll use Dove Deep Moisture Nourishing Body Wash as a base line example.

Dove, to my awareness, has not outright claimed to be soap or even implied it. They call there detergent things like, “beauty bar”, “moisturizing bar” and of course the common, “body wash”. I am in no way singling them out as “bad” but rather using there ingredients list to give and example of what a common detergent looks like in the form of “body wash”

Dove Deep Moisture Nourishing Body Wash
Ingredients
Water, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil or Helianthus Annus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Glycerin, Petrolatum, Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Ammonium Laureth Sulfate, Lauric Acid, Cocamide Mea, Fragrance, Polybutene or Polyisobutylene, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Isostearic Acid, Peg-5 Cocamide, Acrylates/Beheneth-25 Methacrylate Copolymer, Peg-30 Dipolyhydroxystearate, Dmdm Hydantoin, Tetrasodium Edta, Etidronic Acid, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891).

There first ingredients are pretty straight forward and not necessarily bad. However as the list descends you see the chemical cocktail thicken. You don’t have to know exactly what these latter things are to know they aren’t natural. In defense of Dove I have never found them to be misleading and there products are not terrible for detergent but they are still detergent.

Now on to the next product. For this I randomly searched Amazon.com using the phrase, “Organic soap”. I’ll give Amazon credit in that the first items that came up where pretty much in line with my search but about 11 items down on the first page we have:

Nature’s Gate Organics Liquid Hand Soap, Lavender & Aloe
Ingredients
Certified organic lavender hydroflorate aqua blend with certified organic extracts of juniper, sage, echinacea and licorice, olefin sulfonate, cocoamidopropyl betaine, certified organic aloe vera, vegetable glycerin, cocamide MEA, PEG-150 distearate, certified organic lavender oil, isoceteth-20, citric acid, grapefruit extract and pure essential oil of ylang ylang.


Wow, look at that. See the similarity? This is also, not soap.


Now here is -
Dr Bronner’s Magic Soap ,18-in-1 hemp peppermint, pure castile soap
Ingredients:

Water, Organic Coconut Oil*, Potassium Hydroxide**, Organic Olive Oil*, Mentha Arvensis*, Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Organic Peppermint Oil*, Citric Acid, Tocopherol

Here’s what all the little stars mean -

* CERTIFIED FAIR TRADE INGREDIENTS

** None remains after saponifying oils into soap and glycerin

Can you see the difference? This is soap.

You may say, well there are still some words I don’t recognize there. That’s ok. The main thing to bare in mind is that the majority of the label is clearly understandable and minimal in ingredients.

Just for information’s sake, Tocopherol is commonly known as vitamin E, Metha Arvensis is the Latin name for a plant called “water mint” and potassium hydroxide is, of course, a type of lye. Lye and fat make soap.

Understanding what your reading and making educated choices, is the most empowering thing you can do .
Some of you reading this may be thinking, “I’m outraged! What about regulations? Who’s taking care of this? I want to sue!”


Ok, ok, hold it right there buddy. That’s all well and good and noble sounding but here’s my two cents on that. There are already people suing companies over this. Litigation is long and taxing both financially and emotionally. A well meaning person would say, “Well we shouldn’t just ignore it!” Well of course not, but there are two issues I want to address here.

First, you have the negative effect on small business, threw over regulation. In a society of free trade, regulations don’t necessarily benefit the little guy. The small business person cant afford it. It’s one thing to have basic consumer protection, but anything beyond that is counter productive and damaging to smaller companies. Excessive regulations ironically benefit the large powerful corporations because they make enough money to offset these issues and over the long term this benefits them because it weeds out competition. In other words buries the competition threw enormously exhausting expectation. Meanwhile the larger companies who do “bad things” simply pay there fine or tie you up in court for a decade. Now I’m not saying we shouldn’t have rules. Basic no nonsense things like labeling is perfect and should be expected. It doesn’t hurt anyone as long as it’s within reason. If there’s nothing to hide in a product then there’s no issue to putting a label on it. We already have regulation for labels and enforceable rules for those who mislabel.

The second part is this: I’m a believer in the adage, “Work smarter, not harder”. Going up against large companies in the above mentioned way is counterproductive and hurts the chances for competition. It’s the “hard way.” Competitive small businesses give you options and options are your “smarter” way. If you want to accomplish a better marketplace with the kind of products you value then you should stop buying the products that you don’t want in the market. Additionally small businesses should be given support for growth not the other way around.


If you still want to sue? Buy Dr Bronners soap. David Bronner is constantly in court on behalf of regulations and being a company with fantastic ethical standards they’re in it for the right reasons, I think. Not just that but if your going to purchase, buy ethically, period.

In my utopian world regulations would be minimal and limited. Consumers would make educated decisions and support the better guy, not the bigger guy. People would be held high for high standards and admired for kind and ethical practice.

I know I said this before but it defiantly stands repeating, “Understanding what your reading and making educated choices, is the most empowering thing you can do.” You are not a victim of circumstance you are a victim of choice.

(I would like to add I am in no way affiliated with Dr Bronners. They haven't paid me and they don't know me. I just feel they're an all around ethically strong company and I like there soap.)

The Fear of Soap

For the average person cleaning yourself is as natural as eating or sleeping. It’s part of the basic routine we all go threw everyday. So why then does the idea of soap cause such anxiety? You may think I’m strange for saying this. By soap, however, I don’t mean the same as you might think. I don’t mean the petrochemical laden detergents called soap. I mean good old fashioned lye soap, real soap, actual soap.


Over the last couple of years I have been studying soap, lotions and various “personal care” products. Initially, I just wanted to make some Christmas gifts for friends and family. I thought I could save myself a few bucks and still make something enjoyable for people to have and use. The more I read and learned the more fascinated I became with the idea of better products for your body and the more upset I became with the toiletry and cosmetics industry in general.


That being said, it still doesn’t exactly explain what I mean by the fear of soap, So I’ll start with a little history.


What is soap?


The first soap was most likely discovered accidentally when some fats from an animal cooking fell into the ash of a fire. This on the most fundamental level makes “soap”. The refined version, the artisan interpretation, goes a little more like this: lye (either sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide) and fats (either animal or plant based). Castile Soap, being an example of natural soap creation.


Castile Soap, named for the region of Spain where it was made most famous is traditionally a combination of lye and plant oils. Typically olive or a combination of olive and laurel, but the more modern variations include fats ranging from coconut oil to hemp oil and various combinations there of.


On the most basic level this sounds simple and good; natural. So why then the fear or soap?


You may think you don’t fear soap. What’s more you may believe you use soap everyday, but the reality is far different. What modern society has accepted as “soap” is not soap at all but detergent. The only most basic similarity between the two are that they are surfactants, but on many other levels they are far different.


If your wondering, Surfactants are compounds that lower the surface tension of a liquid, the interfacial tension between two liquids, or that between a liquid and a solid. For this case we are referring to a substance that, when dissolved in water, gives a product the ability to remove dirt or grease from surfaces.


Detergent, unlike soap, is a varied cocktail of chemicals which mimic soap. Some of the ingredients are created with similar byproducts but then mixed with other agents. In there own right, I think detergents where created with good intentions in mind. Being more acidic in nature they seemed to function more efficiently for cleaning surfaces. They appear to not leave residue and as such where considered more ideal for clothes washing as well. They are versatile much like soap, but they are not soap.


For an understanding of what led to the widespread usage of detergents we should take a glance back in time. During the 1800’s respectively, patents where being registered for various detergent chemicals. Although the history of detergents is not so veiled as the origin of soap making, there is still some considerable debate on the origins of the detergent industry, as we know it. It has been suggested that during the time of World War I detergents where being developed in answer to the interest of utilizing fat for productions other than soap. By World War II the availability of fat was in decline and as a result detergents rapidly gained strength in the market. From a manufacturing standpoint these chemical variations where more cost effective and as such continued to gain popularity.


Over the years, companies have grown enormously and threw the course of advertising have very much influenced an individuals understanding of the most basic of concepts. They’ve additionally capitalized on complacency. Basically we have been told for decades, “Soap is bad” and most believed it.
In modern times, information has become more widely available to the masses and some people have started questioning this. Ironically we now have companies attempting to pass off detergents as “soap”. I would assume, with the hopes that the average consumer would just take there word for it and in many cases they do.


You may ask yourself, what’s wrong with this?


Well aside from the obvious personal enslavement that comes from a place of complacency and ignorance, detergents are recognized to be toxic to the environment and organic life. We are organic life and we are a part of our environment.


Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not some preachy green freak. I eat meat and I’m ok with that. I don’t have a recycling bin, though I probably should. I’m your average person, just like you. I was for the longest time mindlessly consuming myself. However, I am on a personal mission to change that.


I had a fear of soap. When I first decided to start making natural products for myself I was simply looking for a cheaper, better, solution. I wasn’t looking to make soap or learn about soap. I was actually learning how to make lip balms and body butters. Natural soap, interestingly enough, goes hand and hand with these because they are similarly made with fats.


At first I was scared of the idea of lye. With good reasons because lye in its own right is caustic. However, it doesn’t take long to learn that when lye emulsifies with fats you no longer have lye. You have soap. Soap properly made is not only safe and natural but in the hands of a skilled soap maker can be beautiful and nourishing to your skin. Once I became aware of this simple process I was captivated but I was still afraid of soap.


We have been told soap is bad for your skin. Ask anyone about washing your face with “soap” and they balk at the idea. There are two reasons for this: brainwashing and misinformation. Brainwashing by businesses trying to sell you a million different products. Misinformation by those same companies trying to confuse you about what “soap” really is. Furthermore, confusing generations about what “clean”, “natural” and “healthy” is. The result? Trusting in the corporations instead of your own self education. I was afraid to try real soap because I was made fearful by misinformation.


If you want to get down to it, humans initially washed themselves with water and moisturized with oils. Around 2000BC give or take soap was mentioned for the use of cleaning the body but throughout history bathing varied as common practice. In 1300AD Castile soap was invented, so for the next 500 years give or take, if a person used soap to bathe then it was a natural lye and fat based soap. Detergents have only been in regular use for body cleaning since the 1940’s. The math is simple.


Do you have a fear of soap?












(soap picture from - T and J Soaps - http://www.etsy.com/shop/TandJsoaps )