In the world of therapeutic aromatherapy, there are three modalities of using essential oils: Topical application, ingestion and inhalation. Sometimes inhalation gets dismissed as not real medicine, but this just isn’t the case. Essential oils still get into your bloodstream if you inhale them (thereby helping oxygenate your blood, as many proponents will attest to) and providing a host of other therapeutic effects. But which diffuser is best? There are so many types available, in a wide range of prices. Which one is best really depends on your goal: to simply enjoy the aromatic pleasures of fine essential oils, or go all the way and get every last health-supportive effect you can from aromatherapy. We’ll look at them all here: warming, fan, nebulizing, and ultrasonic nebulizing.
The Science-Proven Health Benefits of Essential Oils
Scientific investigation over the last several years has revealed a great many truly medicinal properties of essential oils. We’re finding out its not just about great smells, but that these great smells can affect us profoundly. Diffusing essential oils has been scientifically proven to lower physiological markers of stress and lessen anxiety. Other research indicates essential oils can have a very positive impact on our immune system function. Oils stimulate the immune system into action, improve its function, and actually de-activate infectious viruses and bacterial. All these benefits can be gained by using the right aromatherapy diffuser.
Choosing A Diffuser For Aromatic Applications
Just the scent of an essential oil alone can radically alter physiological processes — the scent of Lavender is a well-known “anxiolytic”, which is just a fancy name for stress reducer. When the aroma hits our smell scent, our brain signals our body to stop stressing out! Other scents have been shown to brighten our moods. Lavender has been shown to be as effective as Valium at reducing stress; it also lowers aggression, brings about a state of calm, and actually improves the quality of sleep. Bergamot essential oil was the subject of research where the subjects noted that they felt better when inhaling this sweet/tart scent. So which is the best diffuser for these uses? It turns out any of them will do, and your choice depends on the size of the environment you’ll be diffusing the aromas into.
Each type of diffuser will cover a different number of square feet — and generally the less expensive models are for the smaller spaces. A “plug-in” diffuser plugs straight into a wall socket, and evaporates oil from a cotton through warmth. Easy to use, silent, great for one small-to-moderate size room. Very inexpensive. Next, the fan diffusers blow air over an oil-saturated pad. They might make a little “white noise” sound from the fan, but are generally very tolerable. The smaller units are inexpensive and for small spaces like the plug-in unit. Larger ones might cover areas up to four hundred square feet. Like the plug in, you’ll need to replace the pad every once in a while. Then there’s “ultrasonics”, which are small ultrasonic humidification units made to diffuse essential oils along with the mist of water vapor they emit (sometimes called “ultrasonic nebulizers”). Also very quiet, and nice if you’re in a dry environment. The cover about the same space as the larger fan units. The most powerful diffusers are simply called “nebulizers”, as they nebulize the essential oils to evaporate them. This means they make the oil into very tiny particles which you can see as pure essential oil vapor (without water). These are nearly silent, and can diffuse into areas larger than eight hundred square feet.
Any of these diffusers will allow you and your family to enjoy and benefit from the aromatic effects of essential oils. Generally the more costly units will cover more square footage, but will not provide more benefit in terms of aroma. If however you’d like to take full advantage of the medicinal aspects of essential oils, providing immune support (and data is now coming out that essential oils can even prevent cancer) you’ll want to be a little more careful with your selection. For actions like disinfecting your living environment, boosting immune function, and perhaps using essential oils to support recovery from an illness, it can be important to put a higher concentration of essential oils in the air than you can do with a simple fan or warming unit.
A cold air nebulizing diffuser (note, not an “ultrasonic nebulizer”) is the most powerful diffuser available, and will address every possible application of essential oils you may ever have. The reason is this: the nebulizer make very, very tiny droplets of your oils — so small that it forms a cloud of the oil within its glass chamber. The air is so dense with essential oil that you can actually see it. Now, you won’t see it like this once its emitted several inches away from the diffuser, but you can be sure there’s still a high concentration of oil in the air. And for those times of the year when children are bringing home one cold after another, or the flu is going around at work, the nebulizing diffuser will offer the best available protection from aromatherapy.
Conserving Your Oils While Gaining The Most Benefit
All diffusers share a common result: when you run the diffuser all the time, its likely that you’ll stop being able to smell the oil you’re diffusing. Your nose can quickly become accustom to a scent, and while its still at the same concentration in the air, you won’t be able to smell it! The best approach is to run your diffuser for only a few minutes every hour if your aim is to enjoy the aroma. You’ll often see programmable timers with which you can adjust the on and off cycle of the diffuser to maximize your enjoyment of your oils.
More on the healing effects of essential oils can be found at http://www.anandaapothecary.com.
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Tags: alternative health, aromatherapy, children, disease, essential oils, family, health, Home, illness, natural health