Aromatherapy is one of the most popular methods of treatment that are used in the sanatorium.
The name of this procedure combines two words "aroma" and "therapy", which means treatment with odors. In this method of treatment, only natural essential oils are used, which are extracted from different plants. Most of them have great bioenergetic activity, have anti-inflammatory, cleansing and disinfecting properties.
Aromatherapy with the use of natural essential oils has a pronounced antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral effect, which makes it possible to compete with many chemical antiseptics, sulfonamides and antibiotics in terms of effectiveness. The use of aromatherapy helps to increase the body's resistance to various stresses and diseases, stimulates the activity of the immune system. Under the influence of essential oils, the work of enzyme systems is regulated, metabolic processes are improved, the work of the kidneys and liver is stimulated, the cleansing of the body from toxic substances is improved. Aromatherapy also has an antisclerotic effect, which reduces the manifestation of symptoms of atherosclerosis.
In the sanatorium, aromatherapy can be carried out in several types: by spraying indoors, adding to therapeutic baths, oils during massages.
The active therapeutic effect of aromas is explained by the fact that the composition of essential oils includes a large number of biologically active substances – vitamins, phytohormones, steroids, which work as levers for controlling the process of natural mobilization of the body's internal defenses.
Volatile aromatic compounds enter the upper respiratory tract when inhaled, where they settle on the olfactory receptors, causing their irritation. Stimulation of the olfactory bulb, directly connected to the hypothalamus, causes a chain reaction of excitation of the peripheral nervous system, modulating the corresponding emotional-stimulatory reactions. In addition, activated olfactory receptors send afferent currents of excitation to the subcortical centers of the brain, increasing their tone and having a beneficial effect on the processes of higher nervous activity.
It is noted that essential oils have high bactericidal, antiviral, antiparasitic and psychomodulatory properties, depending on the composition of odorants, they have a relaxing or, conversely, invigorating effect. Recently, the beneficial effect of essential oils in the field of cancer prevention has been scientifically proven. The fact is that a large amount of antioxidants contained in them actively neutralizes free radicals, which are the main primary sources of cancer cells.
In addition to the therapeutic properties common to all essential oils, each of them is unique in its own way and has qualities inherent only to it. Thus, eucalyptus essential oil has high antibacterial, decongestant, expectorant, desensitizing properties, is used in the treatment of bronchitis, rhinitis, cough, sinusitis, flu, colds, asthma, muscle and rheumatic pains, skin diseases.
The most optimal period for aromatherapy is considered to be the off-season (autumn, spring), when the immune system is particularly weakened and needs resuscitation. The course of aromatherapy will help the body cope with viruses and microbes, neutralize inflammatory processes, improve blood microcirculation.
Among the therapeutic indications for aromatherapy: various respiratory pathologies, bronchial asthma, pneumonia, prevention of colds and flu, coronary heart disease, arterial hypertension and hypotension, angina pectoris, nervous and mental overload, stress.
The effect of aromatherapy:
- improvement of the internal environment of the body
- reducing the risk of allergization
- increasing the body's resistance to harmful environmental factors and diseases.
