Essential Oils: What They Are and How They Work

Essential oils are the "signature" of the plant, its heart and soul. They are volatile oily substances that contain hormones, vitamins and have antibiotic/antiseptic qualities. Marcel Lavabre defines them as "the most concentrated form of herbal energy". Essential oils work in many different ways. The first and most direct way is through our sense of smell. It takes only eight odor molecules to activate our sense of smell: when these odor molecules reach the mucous membranes in your nose, they are picked up by as many as 10 million olfactory receptors. Once these receptors identify a smell, nerve cells transport this information to the limbic system. The limbic system is our lizard brain, the most primitive part of our brain. It presides to our basic drives: hunger, thirst, sex, thoughts, memories, emotions. It is also connected to the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus to regulate and balance the hormonal activities in our endocrine system. The limbic system also affects immunity. By acting on the limbic system, smells and fragrances such as neroli, rose, geranium oil, or ylang-ylang can affect the way we feel, thus enhancing our emotional as well as physical health. And all this happens within thousandths of a second!

When we inhale essential oils, their minute molecules also enter our lungs. There, they attach themselves to oxygen molecules, which circulate them throughout our body through our bloodstream. Once inside the cells, they activate the body’s self-healing response. You’ll experience great results especially in the treatment of head-ear-nose ailments.