Scents of Health : As Aromatherapy Gains New Followers, Some Ask If It Works and If It Should Be Regulated

Each night before she goes to bed, top-ranked triathlete Colleen Cannon sets up the smelliest part of her training regimen.

She places a potpourri diffuser by her bedside--an electrical device that heats water and fragrance--and adds 10 drops of “essential oils” (oils distilled from flowers, bark, roots and other plant life).

In addition to inhaling aromas while she sleeps, Cannon may also rub a drop or two of a different essential oil on her forehead in the belief it will improve the quality of her rest. Or she may apply another oil just below her navel to counteract PMS.

As if this weren’t enough, every morning Cannon gives herself a quick full-body massage with a mix that contains yet another essential oil.

Why the olfactory obsession, especially when Cannon often uses non-perfume odors such as sandalwood and juniper?

The athlete claims her daily dances with aromatherapy have markedly improved both her health and athletic performance. Aromatherapy uses fragrance to stimulate the sense of smell and trigger various physiological responses.

“Since I’ve been using scents and smells . . . it’s been easier for me to compete in hot races,” she says. (Cannon is currently the No. 1 U.S. women’s short-course triathlete and one of the top three female triathletes in the world.)

“I’ve been doing triathlons for 10 years. I see a lot of triathletes come and go,” she adds, noting that she uses other natural therapies concurrently. “This has really helped me to regenerate my body from top to bottom.”

Although aromatherapy enthusiasts as dedicated and thorough as Cannon may be rare, increasing numbers of people are experimenting with essential oils in the hopes of reducing stress and enhancing health. Interest in aromatherapy has grown to the point that essential oils (or products containing them) are routinely found in drug stores, bath and body shops, health food stores and department stores.

A small number of U.S. doctors and chiropractors who have studied aromatherapy are advising their patients to inhale certain scents to treat specific medical problems. And it is becoming commonplace--at least on the West Coast--for massage therapists and cosmeticians to incorporate essential oils in the lotions, creams and oils they use on their customers.

What’s more, practitioners have organized a professional association. At the same time, some major players in the aromatherapy arena are calling for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate the manufacturing of products, although the FDA prefers to continue regulating items on a case by case basis.

(Such products are, typically, mixes of essential oils and other potions: bath oil, shampoo, cosmetics and other personal care items. But essential oils can also be bought undiluted--usually in tiny bottles of an ounce or less.)

Although nobody’s sure just when aromatherapy began, many ancient cultures, including the Chinese, the East Indians and the Egyptians, documented the use of essential oils to treat physical disorders.

In this century, aromatherapy has been taught in medical schools in Europe. (In France, where the term aromatherapy was coined in the 1930s, it’s recognized as a medical specialty, like surgery or dermatology). But the practice has only recently caught on in the United States, where it is still considered, at best, alternative medicine and, at worst, quackery by many physicians.

Check out aroma therapy in the current edition of “The American Medical Assn. Encyclopedia of Medicine” and you’ll find:

” . . .Recently, interest in aroma therapy has been rekindled along with other alternative therapies . . . Practitioners claim that the treatment can be used for a range of disorders, but that it is particularly effective in psychosomatic and stress-related disorders . . . .There is no conclusive scientific evidence that the benefits achieved are greater than those achieved by the power of suggestion.”

Which is to say, the stuff might as well be snake oil in the view of the AMA. But rejection by the American medical Establishment has not stopped customers in the slightest. Many are purchasing do-it-yourself aromatherapy manuals from a rapidly expanding selection. Or they’re skipping the books and simply purchasing products with such names as “Emotional Rescue.”

Substantial profits are generated through the marketing of essential oils and related products.

Minneapolis-based Aveda, the cosmetic firm widely credited with popularizing aromatherapy in the United States during the last decade, reported $50 million in business in 1990, double its 1988 sales. Founder Horst Rechelbacher, who says that about 95% of his products contain essential oils, estimates that 1991 sales will double those of 1990.

Last year, Estee Lauder, one of the world’s largest cosmetic firms, introduced a new division, a line that contains several products laced with essential oils. In Origins, Lauder’s first new product line in 10 years, gels and bath oils are labeled “Sensory Therapy” rather than aromatherapy. Their product names include ‘Stress Buffer,” “Muscle Easing” and “Peace of Mind.”

Though they’re just starting to reach the masses, aromatherapy products have been available in the United States for roughly the last decade--for those who have known where to look.

In Santa Monica, for instance, a bath and body shop called Palmetto began selling products with blends of essential oils shortly after it opened in 1980. But owner Jane Kennedy recalls that she wasn’t able to stock much of a selection of individual essential oils until about five years ago.

Now, along with essential oils, Kennedy offers one of the most complete supplies of books on aromatherapy around.

Consumers can also find out more about aromatherapy from massage therapists, psychotherapists, cosmeticians and others who have studied the practice.

In addition, a small but growing number of medical doctors and chiropractors will prescribe specific oils to treat health problems ranging from asthma to lower back pain.

In triathlete Cannon’s case, the fragrances she uses to de-stress and compete more effectively are selected for her by chiropractor John Douillard of Lancaster, Mass.

A former professional triathlete, Douillard has trained about 200 medical doctors and chiropractors throughout the United States in treating patients with aromas and other non-drug therapies. (These MDs and chiropractors are all affiliated with guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Maharishi Ayur-Veda Health Centers, at which the ancient Indian natural medicine called ayurveda is practiced.)

Douillard has prescribed aromas for other top-ranked triathletes, among them Scott Molina, one of a handful of triathletes who dominated the sport throughout the 1980s. And through his “Invincible Athletics” program--which promotes peak performance through Transcendental Meditation and ayurvedic practices--Douillard has prescribed specific aromas and other therapies for professional bodybuilders, skiers, cyclists and runners.

Why do aromas produce physiological changes?

According to Douillard, fragrance affects brain chemistry--which in turn affects everything else.

“The sense of smell directly accesses the limbic system where all the emotions lie,” Douillard says. “It directly accesses the hypothalamus, which is the main switchboard of the body, controlling the neurochemical and hormonal regulation of the body. It directly accesses the frontal lobes, which control memory and attention, and the sense of smell accesses the reticular system, which basically integrates the mind and body.”

“That’s accurate,” says Dr. Hyla Cass, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine. “The sense of smell accesses emotions attached to early memories and as such it can be used in the process of healing. It would be useful if it were introduced in the training of medical doctors and psychotherapists.”

Cass does not use aromatherapy in her clinical practice because she says she has not been trained in the practice.

Others in the mental health field have not waited for formal training before incorporating aromatherapy into their work. Maralyn Teare, a marriage and family counselor and clinical instructor of psychiatry at the USC School of Medicine, came upon the use of fragrance in the late 1970s. She was working with a woman extremely afraid of freeway driving.

“We were working on her breathing and keeping her focused. We were about to exit the freeway and she was starting to anticipate it. Her anxiety was escalating,” Teare recalls. “There was a gardenia in the car on the armrest between us and intuitively, I reached for it and asked her to smell it. Her focus totally changed. It helped her to relax and drive safely on the off-ramp.”

Since then, Teare says she has worked with hundreds of people suffering from various phobias and her use of fragrance has produced predictable, favorable results.

She cautions, however, that all scents don’t necessarily work for all people: “Scent is very person-specific. What may work for you may not work for someone else.”

Teare has not published what she calls her “experiential research.” And virtually no formal research on medical uses of aromatherapy has been published in U.S. medical journals, a problem for those who want to see more acceptance of the practice.

“We’ve got tons and tons of clinical data, but we do need to do some hard-core research to really show and document that the correlations we see are really there statistically. We’re in the process of developing that,” Douillard says.

Other U.S. medical practitioners who use aromatherapy in their practices are small in number and do it quietly, says Kurt Schnaubel, a chemist who owns The Original Swiss Aromatics, an essential oils firm based in San Rafael Calif.

Schnaubel is also the founder of the Pacific Institute of Aromatherapy (PIA), which sponsors classes in aromatherapy. Several times a year, PIA brings in aromatherapy researchers and European physicians to give classes.

In such courses, students typically learn botany and chemistry as it relates to the oils, how to blend oils and how to incorporate them into massages and facials to promote relaxation and reduce stress. Though sometimes taught by physicians, the classes steer clear of instruction on using essential oils for medical purposes.

“Some medical doctors in the United States use aromatherapy but do it secretly because they’re afraid of what their peers would think,” Schnaubel says. “What I foresee is that what is now seen as quackery will change 180 degrees and the medical world will want to get it under its belt. And the more successful it becomes on the medical level, the more it’s going to attract regulatory attention.”

Indeed, some aromatherapy entrepreneurs suspect it’s only a matter of time until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration begins regulating the preparation and marketing of essential oils. Already, some in the field are taking steps to begin self-policing, hoping that governmental intervention may be unnecessary.

“The FDA might not do the best job. That’s why we want to do it ourselves,” says Marcel Lavabre, co-founder and president of the Los Angeles-based American Aromatherapy Assn.. Created in 1988, it has nearly 200 members.

“Our goal is to regulate the practice of aromatherapy and the use of essential oil in this country,” adds Lavabre, who is also the owner of Aroma Vera, a Los Angeles-based essential oil company.

“It’s true. Essential oils can be misused,” Lavabre says. “You can hurt yourself with them if you try and don’t follow guidelines.”

How can you harm yourself?

“If you use aromatherapy topically and you make a bad mistake, you don’t usually create lasting damage. You create discomfort, inflammation, something that will pass . . . “ says Swiss Aromatics’ Schnaubel. He warns against the temptation to add more than the recommended dose of essential oil to a bath or lotion:

“From that angle it’s very safe. People want to take more responsibility for their own health, and aromatherapy is a safe thing to experiment with if you use your own common sense. Of course, if you drink two bottles, you could get in trouble. It would be the same as driving your car off the cliff to see if you can fly.”

But some aromatherapists would prefer that the FDA start regulating now.

Says Aveda’s Rechelbacher: “The aromatherapy movement all of a sudden has become uncontrolled. It needs to be controlled. The FDA needs to step in. They’re very conservative and they need to be. Essential oils have been used in medicine and quality cosmetics since the beginning of history. They are are potent, volatile natural chemicals. In the wrong dosage and the wrong concentration, they can be toxic.”

At the FDA, a spokesperson says there are no plans for regulation of the aromatherapy industry, but that products are judged on an individual basis.

According to an FDA press release on aromatherapy, “A claim that a perfume’s aroma is good or beneficial, in general, is a cosmetic claim not requiring FDA approval before a product is sold. But if someone tries to market a scent with labeling ‘for treatment or prevention of allergies’ or other condition or disease, presumably this could be found after investigation to be a new drug claim, requiring pre-market approval. The agency will make judgments on a case-by-case basis.”

In the meantime, it’s every nose for itself.