Aromatherapy For Hot Flashes
Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy uses the scents and oils from plants, flowers and roots to sooth, relax and heal stressed bodies. Plants such as lavender, bee balm, lemon balm, geranium, violets, rosemary and lilac when infused into a bath solution or processed into essential oils for massage and burners, can calm and ease discomforts like hotflashes.
Many holistic and natural remedies are available to help reduce the effects of menopausal hot flashes and women swear by this one or that. Natural aids work for some and may not work for others, much like pharmaceuticals. Each woman has her own experience with remedies like aromatherapy for hot flashes. Many find simples (singular ingredient) or combination that works well for them.
Aromatherapy Methods
Aromatherapy can be practiced a number of different ways, one of the favorites being massage oils. Some aromatherapists include tea in their methods list. Tea, besides the benefits of drinking it, is aromatherapeutic especially if the steam is inhaled as we sip. Acknowledging the scents and letting them into our experience is the ultimate goal of aromatherapy in general.
Baths give the added benefit of the healing powers of hot or cool water and immersing the body into it. Our bodies are over ninety percent water and feel buoyant in water, easing the stress on muscles and bones, letting the body relax in the liquid. Add a cheesecloth pouch of herbs and flowers such as lavender, hyacinth and mint to ease a body overheated by hot flashes and energize it.
Spray mists are made from a purified water based mixture of aromatherapeutic ingredients such as Aloe vera and mint to freshen the skin during a hot flash. The aloe tends to stay on the skin, cooling it with the gel-like texture.
Humidifier pouches sit in your humidifier and release subtle scents into the air, circulating them throughout your environment. For hot flashes, a mix of hyacinth and spearmint can help sooth the skin.
Potpourri and Candles not only look lovely, but work on the senses by relaxing and soothing with exotic, woody, citrus or flower scents. Citrus scents can ease the intensity of a hot flash by filling the air with the light heady citrus aroma
Aromatherapy Ingredients
Among the many suggested aromatherapy ingredients for the relief of hot flashes, the most popular seem to be lavender essential oil (considered especially soothing in a massage oil), lemon balm with its heady and powerful lemon scent, rose water for bath and body spritzers, and aloe vera with its minimal scent and exceptional cooling properties.
Others include sage, geranium, angelica, jasmine, fennel and bergamot. All are strongly scented and considered appropriate for use in aromatherapy for hot flashes.
References
University of Virginia: Alternative Complementary Therapy for Midlife Women
Aromatherapy Recipes for Hot Flashes
Hyacinth Image - K. Davis
