Aromatherapy is the notion that certain good smelling, plant derived oils enhance you health and physical well being, far beyond the pleasant smell and nice feeling they endow. They are inhaled, or massaged on, or occasionally ingested. It is claimed that they relax you, release negative energies, enhance sexual performance, help ones memory, and make one feel all-around better. These claims are highly questionable.
No empirical, double-blind, replicable tests, published in refereed scientific and health related journals, show that these oils do what they are claimed to do. It looks like a placebo effect, where the expectation of the user makes it happen.
So, beyond their very pleasant smell, and the softness they endow
the skin, there is insufficient scientific or medical experimental
evidence, published in refereed journals, to support aromatherapy's
claims. Aromatherapists usually cite themselves, or testimonials as
proof, but for the extraordinary claims they make that kind of
evidence is insufficient. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary
proofs, and the burden of proof is on the claimant, not the critic.
The warm water the oils are used with, or the expectation that they
make one feel better, may be responsible for aromatherapy's
claims.
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