Aromatherapy study says it doesn't work | Unit 2 | CW2 Colorado

Aromatherapy study says it doesn't work

Local therapist disputes findings

by Dave Young, News2

March 3, 2008

WESTMINSTER (KWGN) — Researchers at Ohio State University Medical Center tested aromatherapy products, to see if they really work.

Doing everything from dunking patients feet into ice water to having them smell certain scents like lavender and lemon oil, which followers say can act as therapy and help heal your body.

The researchers conclusion? "We simply couldn't find evidence. We tried every which way," said Dr. Janice Kiecolt-Glase of Ohio State University Medical Center. "We looked at heart rate and blood pressure, we looked at stress hormones, we looked at changes in immune function."

But Cynthia Priest runs a Westminster aromatherapy store called Cinters Aromatherapy and said the researchers are dead wrong. "There's too many people out there sick and hurting," she said, "who can't afford to go to the doctors and stuff like that, this stuff does work."

She said mixing specific essential oils and applying them to the body has helped her, and hundreds of her clients with a wide variety of ailments. And she said the study oversimplified the mind-body connection of alternative therapies.

"Even prescriptions from doctors, do not work the same on people," Priest said. "I think that they have to do more research more study, and they have to make sure that their oils are 100% therapeutic."

But the researchers say it didn't matter if volunteers were sniffing oils, or distilled water, the results were the same. Even if someone said they felt better, they didn't really get better.

"Well, we all know there's something called a placebo effect," said Dr. Ronald Glaser of Ohio State University Medical Center. "And that's where a person imagines that something is going to be an outcome and in a significant number of cases that's exactly what happens."

But Priest said a trained therapist mixing the right combination of essential oils, can unlock the body's potential to heal itself.