
Using Aromatherapy to Relieve Diabetes Symptoms
For those living with diabetes, aromatherapy or the use of essential oils can directly improve quality of life and help relieve their symptoms. Aromatherapy has often been relegated to the same category of medicine as crystal healing and reiki massage. “New Age” stores with chime music playing and incense burning in all four corners always seem to feature a display of essential oils by the cash register. However even though some vendors may make claims of essential oils that they can’t follow through on, medical research has proven that some oils can have genuine therapeutic value, both in terms of relieving stress and lowering blood pressure through aromatherapy, and also via physical means such as wound care and improving circulation.
What is Aromatherapy?
Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils to effect changes in your body, whether physical or emotional. An essential oil is basically a plant extract. The volatile compounds of various herbs, roots, and other plant material are extracted via pressing, heat processing, and other methods, and then mixed with what is called a carrier oil, a neutral oil such as jojoba oil, to allow it to be used in a targeted way. There are hundreds of plant species which have been recognized in various cultures and time periods to be helpful with any number of ailments.
The use of, and various methods of extraction for, essential oils is thought to originate with Ibn al-Baitar, a Muslim physician and chemist who lived in Spain in the late 12th and early 13th century.
The term aromatherapy was coined by a French perfumer in 1937. Ren
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