Therapeutic Archives - InnoHEALTH magazine

CSIR-CDRI scientists develop RT-PCR kit for Omicron variant

InnoHEALTH magazine digital team — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 04:28:14 +0000

New Delhi, Jan 24 (India Science Wire): As the Coronavirus continues to mutate, it has become challenging to diagnose and treat different variants of concern. Some like the Omicron, though milder in symptoms and fatality, are a super spreader and are propagating like wildfire across the world.

Currently, detection of this variant depends upon tests like the S-gene dropout or by NGS (nextgen sequencing) of the whole viral genome. While the S-gene dropout method is not specific to pinpoint the type of variant, the NGS method has its limitations in terms of expense, turnaround, and the number of centres that can provide such service.

A team of scientists at CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow, have developed an indigenous RT PCR Kit for the specific detection of the Omicron variant in collaboration with their industrial partner, Biotech Desk Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad. The kit has been named INDICoV-Om^TM.

Dr. Atul Goel, the team leader said that the kit provides for quick and cost-effective detection of the Omicron variant. It can also be aligned for the detection of other emerging variants of COVID infection and other respiratory infections in the future. The kit has been tested and validated by Prof. Amita Jain in several Covid positive patient samples at King George Medical University, Lucknow.

Dr. Shradha Goenka, Managing Director, Biotech Desk Pvt. Ltd., said the kit was likely to be rolled out by mid-February. “We are working on regulatory approvals and the assembly of the kit. We are keeping our fingers crossed for an early release”, said Dr Goenka.

Prof. Tapas K. Kundu, Director CSIR-CDRI, said the Institute is rapidly gaining expertise in antiviral research for therapeutics and diagnostics to combat any kind of viral infections. The team led by Dr Atul Goel is fully prepared for the detection of broad spectrum and specific pathogenic viral infection. This kit for SARS-Cov-2 omicron diagnosis has been submitted to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for validation and should be available for the people of the country soon.

The research team consisted of Dr. Niti Kumar, Dr. Ashish Arora, Ms. Surbhi Mundra, Ms. Varsha Kumari, Mr. Kundan Singh Rawat, and Ms. Priyanka Pandey, besides Dr. Goel.

ISW/SP/CSIR-CDRI/OMICRON/24/01/2022

Credits: India Science Wire

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Blood donation amidst the pandemic: If you haven’t then the time to donate is now!

InnoHEALTH magazine digital team — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 06:33:50 +0000

A couple of days have just gone by, and as I sink into my chair in the Blood Centre, it dawns on me that it’s been a year and a half into the pandemic journey. The Posters and motivational messages on the display board of the Blood Centre I work in, still smell fresh from the celebrations of the ‘NATIONAL VOLUNTARY BLOOD DONATION DAY’ on the 1^st of October, which was as anticipated was sober this year and the year that passed. COVID -19 has had major implications for the global healthcare sector, with blood transfusion services being no exception.

While at one corner the donors were hesitant with apprehensions of even visiting the blood centres, recipients were jittered with the thought of the virus being transmitted through the received blood.

The pandemic has brought in revolutionary changes in diagnostics, new chapters have been written in terms of medications, genetics, treatment protocols, vaccination to name a few. However, the fact that the need for human blood during the pandemic was there cannot be changed,it is there and will only continue to grow. Though hospitals witnessed a drop in the scheduled planned surgeries, the need for blood units persisted due to its therapeutic roles in trauma victims, anaemic, thalassemics and cancer management. The only life saving medicine that cannot be manufactured but can only be passed on from a generous donor to a patient in need is the human blood. The demand and supply chain was badly affected. While at one corner the donors were hesitant with apprehensions of even visiting the blood centres, recipients were jittered with the thought of the virus being transmitted through the received blood. To add on was the constraint of conducting voluntary blood donation camps, restrictions on travel which further affected the workforce. These, along with other factors made it challenging to pile up blood stock and suffice the blood demands of the patients in need.

As a team working in a Blood Centre affiliated to a tertiary care hospital, that caters to a vast rural population, we took the responsibility of motivating all potential healthy donors in and around our campus. What came as a surprise was that a few key facts needed to be cleared which were engraved in their minds, especially regarding COVID-19 and Blood Donation. A snippet of the same has been given below with the hope that voluntary blood donation can be boosted up.

If you are a donor who wants to donate blood……

Blood donation during Covid is absolutely safe. All good Blood Centres practice stringent protocols of safety and donor screening. Spacing and repeated cleaning of donor stations, sanitizing places of potential contamination, wearing protective masks compulsorily and following biomedical waste disposal as per regulatory bodies are being followed. Also voluntary donor appointments are fixed by allotting time slots to avoid crowding at Blood Centres.

Vaccination and Covid……

The Notification from the Government of India has now declared that one can donate after 14 days of receiving any/each dose of currently available Covid vaccine, provided that the donor clears all the criteria for other norms of Blood donation. So, after two weeks past a vaccination one can be an eligible donor!

If at any point time one was hospitalized for Covid the proposed deferral period is 3 months from hospital discharge. Published studies and literature till date have shown that respiratory viruses like the SARS CoV2 cannot be transmitted by donation or transfusion.

What if you have got infected with Covid ………

According to the guidelines in India, a person can donate after 28 days of full recovery and without any further symptoms. If at any point time one was hospitalized for Covid the proposed deferral period is 3 months from hospital discharge. Published studies and literature till date have shown that respiratory viruses like the SARS CoV2 cannot be transmitted by donation or transfusion. So either as a donor or recipient you are safe!

Social media and healthcare related websites have been playing a crucial role in the dissemination of facts and myths pertaining to Blood donation ever since the Pandemic was declared. However it is recommended to follow credible websites and to directly speak to your doctor for any clarifications.

The above was a bird’s eye view of the need and clarifications regarding blood donation and Covid. I will consider my little effort worthwhile , after going through the above matter the little angel in your mind shouts out to you ‘ It’s time to be a hero and save lives, it’s time to donate blood and the time is NOW’

Composed by: “Dr.Archana Shetty, is currently working as a Blood Transfusion Officer and Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology at CDSIMER under the aegis of Dayananda Sagar University. With a teaching and diagnostic experience of over 12 years she is actively involved in blood transfusion services at the hospital.”

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Integrating Technologies to Better Healthcare

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 09:57:49 +0000

Age and disease demographics are changing rapidly across the globe. The number of people above 65 years is expected to double and constitute nearly 17% of the world population by 2050. The chronic disease incidence rate is expected to rise to 57% by 2020. These figures highlight the need to enhance the quality and efficiency of care with quick response time to health-related emergencies.

Ideas that cut across medicine, biological and engineering sciences, material design, and system innovations are converging to address these challenges. The shift is going to be from legacy products like pacemaker and imaging systems to wearables for general fitness tracking and gait monitoring. Taking a step further, researchers are now developing and testing more focused miniaturized bioelectronic devices for recording and analyzing health data for detecting determinants of health and for medical interventions.

In diagnostics, non-invasive bioelectronic skin sensors that measure analytes in biofluids like saliva, tears, and sweat are showing promising results in assessing stress levels and detecting conditions like diabetes and cystic fibrosis. Researchers from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi have developed a biosensor for detecting glucose in saliva samples for diabetes detection. The results can directly be viewed on the user’s smartphone. Many such studies are now underway in India.

Also Read: Healthy Lives: Everyone, Everywhere

Conductive gels and patch sensors resembling fashion accessories are also being developed to record cardiac, brain and muscle activity which could complement the traditional blood analysis and clinical examinations. Mechano-acoustic skin sensors that measure speech patterns and internal body sounds, like swallowing, are being explored to quantitatively measure the impact of rehabilitation in patients, such as those recovering from a stroke.

In treatment, miniscule implants placed inside the body can cross the blood-brain barrier and deliver the drug directly at the target site, even in hard-to-reach internal organs. Such devices have shown promising results in laboratory settings in reducing side effects and toxicity while increasing overall drug efficacy. This could also ensure patient compliance, a step further to the recently approved digital pill, especially in patients on long care and those with compromised cognition.

Certain implants can also electrically stimulate cardiac or brain tissues to treat conditions like irregular heartbeat, certain motor disorders, and cognitive impairments. Other implants like artificial retina and cochlear implants, restore functionalities of damaged tissues. These interventions, being referred to as ‘Bioceuticals’, could restructure conventional therapeutic options for more efficient outcomes.

In India, a lot of work has now started in this sphere. Results from a few studies have started trickling in, with most of them in development or early stages of testing. Research findings in the journal Scientific Reports by researchers from IIT Kharagpur earlier this year reported bio impedimetric analysis of cancer cells that efficiently distinguishes their aggressiveness by measuring electric field impedance in laboratory conditions. In another study published in the journal Sensors earlier this year, researchers at IIT Delhi developed a novel low-cost prosthesis based on sensors to enable normal gait kinematics, i.e. motion analysis, for lower limb amputees.

IIT Kharagpur is setting up a Bioelectronics Innovation Laboratory that aims to develop battery-free implantable miniaturized engineering systems for treatment of brain, nerve, muscle or spinal cord disorders by restoring missing neural functions. The proposed coin-sized implant will be powered wirelessly and will combine brain activity testing like electrical simulation, bio-potential recording and neuro-chemical sensing for use in rehabilitation and prosthesis.

Also Read: India’s First Smartphone Insertable Cardiac Monitor

Round-the-clock data collected from bioelectronic devices could replace the present time-point investigations and lead to better management of the health condition of patients. In addition, data from multiple people can help develop artificial intelligence algorithms and predictive tools. Such tools have already started showing analytic performance similar, and sometimes better than manual inspection by a specialist physician. In countries like India, that suffer from a shortage of qualified doctors in remote areas, such devices have immense potential. However, data standardization, data security, and privacy protection must be addressed and regulated before rolling out such interventions.

In the next few years, health monitoring, neural prosthetics, and biochemical prosthetics are expected to drive major developments in this space. Although the monitoring devices have already started testing the market in niche patient segments, it may take the implants another 5-10 years to reach health centers as they make their way through developmental and regulatory checkpoints.

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Dance therapy: A paradigm shift

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 07:44:26 +0000

Neerja Singh is a retired scientist of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Her interest is in phytochemistry and non-conventional therapies benefiting the patient. She has practised many such therapies like yoga, dance etc.

Dance is an art wherein you can express yourself and have a therapeutic experience. Dance movement therapy is an old concept but needs a grip in India. The author shares her experience on how dance therapeutically heals her mentally and physically.

What is DANCE?
It is not just a form of art wherein you move rhythmically to music for entertainment. But, it is also a type of therapy. Here is how?

The purpose of dance is to express one’s emotion freely and take pleasure in performing it. If one is angry, cheerful, melancholy, afraid or feel strongly about something, one may choose to show it through eyes, facial expression, and body movements in dance.

There is nothing new about dance. It is well known that dance benefits our body and mind. People have been dancing for centuries or you can say since childhood for entertainment. However, dance as a type of therapy was recognized back in modern dance movement of 19th century. During this movement, it was realized that dance could go beyond simple entertainment, and can be used as a form of expressions. By mid of 20th century, dance therapy developed in US and Europe which added observation, interpretation and manipulation of dance elements into the practice. In 1966, a professional organization, the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) was established. Dance movement therapy (DMT) in USA, Australia, and dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) in the UK is the psychotherapeutic use of movements and dance to support intellectual, emotional and motor functions of the body,as a form of expressive therapy.

DMT uses movement and expression with the skills of psychotherapy, counseling, and rehabilitation to help individuals to achieve both physical and mental health, stress reduction, disease prevention and mood management.

Following are the benefits of Dance Movement Therapy –
1. Improves cardiovascular endurance
2. Improves balance and coordination
3. Improves muscular strength and flexibility
4. Improves body posture and mobility
5. Reduces muscle tension
6. Reduces stress and anxiety
7. Mood elevator
8. Improves expression of feelings
9. Builds confidence and get over shyness

Following are some recent research which showcases that dance therapy can be effective in the treatment of mental health issues like eating disorder, depression, and anxiety.

A study from the Journal of Arts in Psychotherapy (2007) found that dance therapy had a positive effect on participants experiencing symptoms of depression.

A study from Alzheimer’s care (2009) suggests that DMP improves memory recall in people with dementia.

American Journal of Dance Therapy indicated that DMT may be a treatment option for children on the Autism spectrum.

Also, it can be considered as a treatment option for childhood obesity.

At my golden age with silver hair and a young heart, I must say, dancing helps me feel a lot better. I did all sorts of exercise, yoga, meditation, walking, jogging, etc. but I didn’t enjoy any of it and discontinued it sooner or later. Then, I realized that my body moves with emotions and expressions whenever I hear beats of music. I become thoughtless, feel happy and energetic. My mind connects with my body and soul, it’s like meditation to me. It therapeutically heals my aching joints and stiffness of body due to lifestyle diseases, much better than any physiotherapy ever could. This article is not some kind of scientific research, as lot of research on this topic has already been done all over the world. It’s only my insight and personal experience after joining a dance class. A group or couple dance class helps motivate you to do better each day and builds your confidence.

Some people might think, “A dance class? At this age? ”. Yes, I know it is uncommon but why not. One of the reasons that people of my age do not turn up at dance classes is because they are shy. Many North Indian families in earlier days did not appreciate dancing and did not allow girls to dance as it was looked down upon. I was never allowed to dance but allowed to do higher education in those days.

I will not tell you how to move your body or on which song you should dance or how you should dance…… No. I am only going to tell you to move your body and express your feelings as we all know that dancing makes us feel light, joyful, releases happy hormones such as Seratonin, Endrofin, Dopamin etc. Dance moves can predict our feelings like if we are anxious, or self-conscious while dancing, it will show through our moves. You can do any type of dance i.e. Ballroom, Ballet, Tango, Zumba or just wiggle slightly, do what you love or what you feel comfortable with.

Dance like no one is watching and just let go of yourself is the secret of good health. You do not have to be a dancer to get benefit from dance movement therapy. Do not let shyness, age or stamina come on the way. Let your heart dance with joy and happiness, your eyes will dance with emotions and your body movements will improve motor skills. The concept of DMT is new to India and needs more attention. India being the motherland of traditional and modern dance forms can be the new platform for DMT. A new concept like beer yoga is becoming a fad in our society wherein I feel DMT is much more scientific and effective in gaining holistic health. So be happy, enjoy and destress yourself, have a good diet and get better sleep. That is a secret of a happy and healthy golden age.

If you wish, sometime instead of sport shoes, put on your dancing shoes…Hey…..Come on…..Dance.

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Read all the issues of InnoHEALTH magazine:
InnoHEALTH Volume 1 Issue 1 (July to September 2016) – https://goo.gl/iWAwN2
InnoHEALTH Volume 1 Issue 2 (October to December 2016) – https://goo.gl/4GGMJz
InnoHEALTH Volume 2 Issue 1 (January to March 2017) – https://goo.gl/DEyKnw
InnoHEALTH Volume 2 Issue 2 (April to June 2017) – https://goo.gl/Nv3eev
InnoHEALTH Volume 2 Issue 3 (July to September 2017) – https://goo.gl/MCVjd6
InnoHEALTH Volume 2 Issue 4 (October to December 2017) – http://amzn.to/2B2UMLw
InnoHEALTH Volume 3 Issue 1 (January to March 2018) – https://goo.gl/fksdQx

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Audible Vibrations Devices to heal the stress

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Wed, 27 Dec 2017 08:02:13 +0000

SWARTANTRA, A DIGITAL HEALTH STARTUP LAUNCHES MOKSHA AND SIDDHAM

Two audible vibrations devices to heal stress led diseases

98% of all Degenerative Diseases such as depression, heart ailments, weight fluctuations, hormonal imbalances and sexual disorders are caused by Stress

Swartantra, a digital health startup was founded to make first of its kind audible vibration devices using a very unique combination of ancient spiritual science and modern technology to create a better everyday life for people by making oneself healthy mentally, emotionally, physically and at the soul level. In this endeavor Swartantra recently announced the launch of Moksha and Siddham, two audible vibration devices to heal stress led diseases. The devices are made using Swartantra technology based on sound vibrations which is amongst one of the oldest healing modalities. The products work directly on the central nervous system.

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This breakthrough technology ‘SWARTANTRA’ aims to manage a happier and healthier existence of one self. SWARTANTRA is a device that combines spiritual world with modern science. It eliminates the stress from one’s daily life and brings relaxation to the body. Its unique vibrations soothe the body, mind and soul by building positive energy every time the device is used. One can use this technology through the two devices Moksha and Siddham.

The device signifies the startup’s aim to pioneer a new category of digital health: Audible Vibrations. Swartantra is the perfect mix of faith and technology. The vibrations are positive, natural, and therapeutic. The science behind it is the customization of vibrations by sharing the place of birth of an individual because the place of birth helps identify the latitude and the longitude making the vibration of this place extremely specific. Similarly, date of birth, time of birth and their present location helps in singling out what vibration works best for the person. This vibration is a permutation and combination of many healing vibrations that suit one by targeting the pituitary gland that releases both positive and negative hormones. The vibrations help regulate the flow of hormone in pituitary gland and thereby providing a complete and thorough attunement of body, mind and spirit.

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WHAT IS AROMATHERAPY?

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 09:13:53 +0000

The world is smelling a new reality and enjoying the benefits of sweet smell for a better health and well-being. Officially accepted and identified as Aromatherapy, it’s dating back to Veda times with original Hindu scriptures elaborately mentioning this method for lasting health benefits. The same has also been unearthed in other parts of the world and is getting widely accepted by people and the health industry as such.
Aromatherapy is the practice of using the natural oils extracted from flowers, bark, stems, leaves, roots or other parts of a plant to enhance psychological and physical well-being.
The inhaled aroma from these “essential” oils is widely believed to stimulate brain function. Essential oils can also be absorbed through the skin, where they travel through the bloodstream and can promote whole-body healing.
A form of alternative medicine, aromatherapy is gaining momentum. It is used for a variety of applications, including pain relief, mood enhancement and increased cognitive function.
There are a wide number of essential oils available, each with its own healing properties.
Aromatherapy is the practice of using the natural oils extracted from flowers, bark, stems, leaves, roots or other parts of a plant to enhance psychological and physical well-being.
Aromatherapy is the practice of using volatile plant oils, including essential oils, for psychological and physical well-being.
Essential oils, the pure essence of a plant, have been found to provide both psychological and physical benefits when used correctly and safely. The Essential Oil Profiles area details over 90 essential oils. Absolutes, CO2s and Hydrosols are also commonly utilised in aromatherapy. Although essential oils, CO2 extracts and absolutes are distilled by different methods, the term essential oil is sometimes used as a blanket term to include all natural, aromatic, volatile, plant oils including CO2s and absolutes.
In addition to essential oils, aromatherapy encourages the use of other complementary natural ingredients including cold pressed vegetable oils, jojoba (a liquid wax), hydrosols, herbs, milk powders, sea salts, sugars (an exfoliant), clays and muds.
Products that include synthetic ingredients are frowned upon in holistic aromatherapy. It is important to note that perfume oils also known as fragrance oils (and usually listed as “fragrance” on an ingredient label) are not the same as essential oils. Fragrance oils and perfume oils contain synthetic chemicals and do not provide the therapeutic benefits of essential oils.
Buyer Beware: Authorities do not regulate the use of the word aromatherapy on product packaging, labeling or in product advertising, so any product can be marketed as a product suitable for aromatherapy. There are quite a few products on the market that contain unnatural ingredients including fragrance oils and claim to be aromatherapeutic. It’s important to look at the ingredient label when seeking true aromatherapy products.
Also, use caution with marketing claims that state a product is “Made With Essential Oils” or “Made With Natural Ingredients.” Claims like these do not state that the product is only made with the ingredient(s) specified. Such products may contain heavy proportions of synthetic fragrance oils and only contain a minute quantity of essential oil to simply be able to profess the “Made With Essential Oils” claim.
Don’t let false marketing hype scare you away from the benefits of holistic aromatherapy. By exploring on the web, you can learn how to safely use just a few essential oils and start gaining the benefits of aromatherapy. If you realize you hold an even deeper interest, you can learn to make your own products and control the exact ingredients included in your own personal aromatherapy products.
The Benefit of Inhaling Essential Oils
Essential oils that are inhaled into the lungs offer both psychological and physical benefits. Not only does the aroma of the natural essential oil stimulate the brain to trigger a reaction, but when inhaled into the lungs, the natural constituents (naturally occurring chemicals) can supply therapeutic benefit. Diffusing eucalyptus essential oil to help ease congestion is a prominent example.
If not done correctly and safely, however, the use of essential oils can have severe consequences.
The Benefit of Topical Application

Essential oils that are applied to the skin can be absorbed into the bloodstream. The constituents of essential oils can aid in health, beauty and hygiene conditions. Since essential oils are so powerful and concentrated, they should never be applied to the skin in their undiluted form. To apply essential oils to the skin, essential oils are typically diluted into a carrier such as a cold pressed vegetable oil, also known as a carrier oil. Common carrier oils include sweet almond oil, apricot kernel oil and grape seed oil.

Other Benefits

In addition to therapeutic benefit at the emotional and physical level, essential oils are helpful in other applications. Essential oils can be used in household and laundry cleaners. Some oils act as a natural insect repellent and pesticide. You may recall using citronella candles during the summer to keep mosquitoes away. Citronella essential oil is the ingredient in the candles that is responsible for repelling the mosquitoes.

Essential Oil Blends

Essential oils can be blended together to create appealing and complex aromas. Essential oils can also be blended for a specific therapeutic application. Essential oils that are carefully blended with a specific therapeutic purpose in mind may be referred to as an essential oil synergy. A synergistic essential oil blend is considered to be greater in total action than each oil working independently.

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Read all the issues of InnoHEALTH magazine:
InnoHEALTH Volume 1 Issue 1 (July to September 2016) – https://goo.gl/iWAwN2
InnoHEALTH Volume 1 Issue 2 (October to December 2016) – https://goo.gl/4GGMJz
InnoHEALTH Volume 2 Issue 1 (January to March 2017) – https://goo.gl/DEyKnw
InnoHEALTH Volume 2 Issue 2 (April to June 2017) – https://goo.gl/Nv3eev
InnoHEALTH Volume 2 Issue 3 (July to September 2017) – https://goo.gl/MCVjd6

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SWEET SMELL OF HEALTH AND WELL BEING

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 07:31:49 +0000

Not all ready-made aromatherapy products labeled with the word aromatherapy are pure and natural. Products that contain artificial ingredients do not provide true aromatherapy benefits. At worst, they provide no benefit or be harmful. At best, they provide only a fraction of the benefit that natural products supply. Buyers seeking true aromatherapy products must look at the ingredient label to ensure that the product does not contain fragrance oils or unpure (chemical) components. A general rule-of-thumb is to be wary of products that do not list their ingredients and those that do not boast of having pure essential oils (look for products that contain pure essential oils on their ingredient list and avoid those that have words like fragrance). A note, however, is that some sellers of good-quality aromatherapy blends do not list their ingredients because they are worried that others may copy their creation. By asking the seller more about the blend, and listening to how they respond, you should have a better idea about the quality of the blend being sold. Good suppliers should be happy to provide you with a list of the ingredients. They understand that some individuals must avoid particular oils due to health problems.

Can aromatherapy cure my major illness or psychological problem?

If you expect that aromatherapy alone will cure a major illness or permanently “cure” “stress,” you will likely be in for a disappointment. But if you develop a realistic mindset and expect that aromatherapy may help with a physical condition, may help with symptoms, may effect your mood, or help alleviate or temporarily eliminate stress or other psychological factors, you should be delighted with the overall results that you experience by incorporating aromatherapy into your lifestyle.

Holistic aromatherapy is a complementary alternative health modality. Aromatherapy is not intended to replace standard medical care, but is meant to complement it. In some cases, under the guidance of a qualified practitioner, aromatherapy can offer an alternative choice to taking prescription or over-the-counter drugs.
Aromatherapy can offer practical benefit for a variety of common ailments or symptoms such as assisting with cuts, wounds, bruises, inflammation, arthritis, muscle stiffness, indigestion, acne, skincare, hair care, hygiene, PMS, menstruation, and for providing mental and emotional assistance with such issues as stress, fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, fear and enhancing concentration.

Aromatherapy does have valid and extraordinary uses. It can improve one’s lifestyle tremendously, especially if you take the time to become educated about each essential oil, its chemistry, safety and applications. But, as with anything in life, sensibility comes into play. Do not fall prey to any claims that aromatherapy can cure major illnesses or can cause miracles to happen. Aromatherapy can be play a beneficial role in assisting with illnesses, but it should not be depended upon as a cure.

How to Buy Essential Oils
Tips that can help you select vendors of pure, high quality essential oils:

When shopping for essential oils, watch out for words such as “fragrance oil,” “nature identical oil,” or “perfume oil.” These words indicate that what you see is not a pure, single essential oil.

Watch out for vendors that sell each of their “essential oils” for the same price. This doesn’t guarantee that the oils are not pure or of good quality, but it really does scream of concern. Generally speaking, Neroli, Jasmine and Rose, for instance, should cost a lot more than Geranium and Ylang Ylang and anyone reputable in selling essential oils should realise that and should be aware that selling all oils for the same price is a red flag to knowledgeable consumers. A good quality Patchouli usually costs more than Eucalyptus. The basic, common citrus oils including Sweet Orange oils are some of the least expensive oils.

Avoid buying oils from retailers/suppliers that don’t provide the essential oil’s botanical (Latin name), country of origin or method of extraction. For instance, there are multiple varieties of Bay, Cedarwood, Chamomile, Eucalyptus, and so on. Each offers different therapeutic properties.

Organic oils are typically superior to non-organic oils.

Be cautious about purchasing oils from traveling vendors that set up shop at street fairs, farmer’s markets, craft shows, festivals or other limited-time events. Some traveling vendors at these events may know their customers have no recourse against them after the event is over.

Safety Measures

Essential oils should never be used undiluted on the skin. There are instances when experienced aromatherapy users and practitioners make exceptions to this precaution, but only once significant essential oil knowledge is gained should you ever attempt to apply an undiluted oil on the skin. Lavender and tea tree are listed by a large number of aromatherapy sources as being oils that can be used undiluted. Undiluted use of lavender and tea tree, however, should be discouraged as severe sensitivity still could occur in some individuals. Again, the safest rule of thumb is to never use any essential oil undiluted.

Some oils can cause sensitization or allergic reactions in some individuals. When using a new oil topically for the first time, do a skin patch test on a small area of skin — it’s easy.

Some essential oils are phototoxic and can cause irritation, inflammation, blistering, redness and/or burning when exposed to UVA rays. For more information, learn about phototoxicity and phototoxic essential oils.

Some essential oils should be avoided during pregnancy or by those with asthma, epilepsy, or with other health conditions. Be sure to research/review the safety precautions associated with each essential oil that you use.

Less Is More

When using essential oils, use the smallest amount of essential oilthat will get the job done. If 1-2 drops are called for, for example, don’t use more than that. Essential oils are very concentrated. (As a sidenote, some companies or their representatives may suggest that you use as much as you want — it’s in their best interest that you go through your oils faster so you then need to reorder more frequently. Generally speaking, it takes a lot of plant material (i.e. flower petals, leaves, needles, bark, wood, root, etc.) to obtain the botanical’s essential oil by steam distillation. It’s wasteful to use more essential oil than is needed for your particular application.)

Not all essential oils are suitable for use in aromatherapy. Wormwood, pennyroyal, onion, camphor, horseradish, wintergreen, rue, bitter almond and sassafras are examples of some of the essential oils that should only be used by qualified aromatherapy practitioners, if ever at all.

Never let children use essential oils without the presence of an adult knowledgeable about their use. Most essential oils smell wonderful and many essential oils such as citrus oils can smell like they are “yummy” and safe to drink. ALWAYS keep your essential oils away from children. Treat the oils like medicines that are poison in unknowing hands.

Essential oils should not be taken internally without guidance by a qualified practitioner or until you have gained adequate knowledge and understanding of the risks and safe internal applications and dosages.Even though essential oils are cold pressed or steam distilled from a range of citrus and common spices like Lemons, Oranges, Grapefruits, Allspice, Basil, Black Pepper, Cinnamon, Clove, Fennel, Ginger, Rosemary and a number of other botanicals that are routinely ingested without the need for precautionary usage info, essential oils are highly concentrated and should not be ingested without thorough understanding of appropriate usage and risks for each oil. For more information, read Internal Use of Essential Oils.

Essential oils are flammable. Keep them out of the way of fire hazards.

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