Smell Of Lavender Is Like Relaxing Magic – Scientists Say

Cynthia McKanzie – MessageToEagle.com – Ancient people knew a long time ago lavender has potential health benefits. Modern scientists are now confirming the smell of the plant is really relaxing. Lavender works its relaxing magic all around us: from garden borders to bath bombs to fabric softener. But can the plant also be used in hospitals and clinics?

Recent research that in order to benefit from vaporized lavender compound linalool we must smell it, but absorb it in the lungs. That’s when lavender can exert its calming effects, which could be used to relieve preoperative stress and anxiety disorders.

“In folk medicine, it has long been believed that odorous compounds derived from plant extracts can relieve anxiety,” says co-author Dr. Hideki Kashiwadani of Kagoshima University, Japan.

Modern medicine has overlooked these scented settlers, despite a need for safer alternatives to current anxiolytic (anxiety-relieving) drugs like benzodiazepines.

Numerous studies now confirm the potent relaxing effects of linalool, a fragrant alcohol found in lavender extracts.

“However, the sites of action of linalool were usually not addressed in these studies,” Kashiwadani points out.

Many assumed that absorption into bloodstream via the airway led to direct effects on brain cell receptors such as GABAARs—also the target of benzodiazepines. But establishing the true mechanism of linalool’s relaxing effects is a key step in moving towards clinical use in humans.

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“These findings nonetheless bring us closer to clinical use of linalool to relieve anxiety—in surgery for example, where pretreatment with anxiolytics can alleviate preoperative stress and thus help to place patients under general anesthesia more smoothly. Vaporized linalool could also provide a safe alternative for patients who have difficulties with oral or suppository administration of anxiolytics, such as infants or confused elders,” researchers say.

The purple shrub may even have potential as a safer alternative to the sleeping pills ‘benzos’, the study suggests. More research is needed to determine how lavender can by used by doctors, but if you enjoy the smell of this wonderful plant why not use it to unwind when you for example take a bath.

Materials provided by Frontiers.

Written by Cynthia McKanzie – MessageToEagle.com Staff Writer