Therapy Archives - InnoHEALTH magazine

Building a Smarter, More Balanced Life: Practical Strategies for Mastering Mental Health

Khushi Khandelwal — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 10:30:00 +0000

Sahya S. Dev

What Is Mental Health?

In modern history for so long, health was primarily seen as the absence of illness, and mental health was viewed in the same light: if you didn’t show symptoms of mental illness, you were considered mentally well. But as psychology and medicine have progressed, it’s become clear that mental health is much more nuanced than simply not having a diagnosis.

Today, mental health is understood as a state of emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how we think, feel, and act, and it impacts how we cope with stress, connect with others, and make choices. Mental health is about thriving—not just avoiding illness—and it’s essential for living a balanced and meaningful life.

Factors That Affect Your Mental Health

Genetics
Genetics play a major role in shaping mental health. For instance, your natural tendency toward happiness is heavily influenced by your genetic makeup. Similarly, having a close relative with a mental health condition can increase your risk of facing similar struggles. That said, genetics aren’t destiny. Environmental influences and personal choices can greatly buffer or manage the effects of genetic predispositions. For example, while anxiety may run in families, developing healthy coping strategies and pursuing therapy can significantly lessen its impact.

Life Experiences and Trauma
Trauma—whether it’s from childhood or adulthood—can have a profound impact on mental health. Traumatic events like losing a loved one, experiencing abuse, or enduring significant life stress can leave lasting emotional scars. While trauma can be difficult, it doesn’t necessarily have to define your mental health long-term. Many people, over time, find ways to heal and even grow stronger from their trauma, though some might need professional help to process their experiences.

How to Improve Your Mental Health

Managing mental health is an ongoing process, and it’s crucial to develop healthy practices that help you cope with life’s challenges. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, below are some guidelines to improve your mental health and well-being.

Create Deeper Social Connections
Having strong social connections is one of the best predictors of good mental health. Instead of seeking external validation through material gains, focus on building meaningful relationships. Share your thoughts and feelings with people you trust, and seek those who will support you when things get tough. Relationships that offer emotional safety and vulnerability are incredibly valuable for mental well-being.

Develop Healthy Lifestyle Habits
Your body and mind are deeply interconnected. Taking care of your physical health can greatly enhance your mental health. Here’s how to start:
- Sleep: Sleep is crucial for mental health. Consistent lack of sleep contributes to irritability, stress, and mental health disorders. The target should be 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Create a calming pre-sleep routine and avoid screen time or stimulating activities before bed.
- Exercise: Regular physical activity releases endorphins, helping to improve mood and reduce stress. You don’t have to hit the gym for hours—simple activities like walking, jogging, or yoga can have a big impact.
- Nutrition: A healthy diet supports your brain’s functioning. Focus on whole, nutrient-dense foods like fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains. Avoid excessive sugar and processed foods, which can worsen mood swings and fatigue.
Meditate and Practice Mindfulness
Meditation helps reduce stress and fosters a deeper understanding of your thoughts and emotions. Mindfulness meditation, in particular, allows you to observe your thoughts without judgment, helping you detach from negative thought patterns. Apps like Calm and Headspace, or the Waking Up app by Sam Harris, offer guided meditation sessions that can help cultivate peace and presence in your life.
Spend Time in Nature
Spending time outdoors is proven to boost mental well-being. Nature has a calming, restorative effect on the mind. Research shows that spending at least two hours a week in nature can significantly improve your mood and mental clarity. Whether it’s a walk in the park or a hike in the woods, make time to reconnect with the outdoors regularly.
Set Boundaries
Learning to say “no” and set healthy boundaries is essential for mental health. It’s easy to overcommit in work, relationships, and social situations, leading to stress and burnout. Be honest with yourself and others about what you can and can’t handle, and prioritize your own needs. Boundaries help protect your emotional energy and preserve your well-being.
Practice Gratitude
Gratitude shifts your focus from what you lack to what you have. Regularly acknowledging the things you’re grateful for—whether big or small—can improve mood and mental health. Consider keeping a gratitude journal where you write down a few things you’re thankful for each day.
Develop Healthy Coping Mechanisms
Life inevitably throws challenges your way. It’s important to have healthy strategies in place to manage stress and difficult emotions. Some effective coping mechanisms include:
- Mindfulness and Meditation: These practices help you stay grounded in the present moment and alleviate stress.
- Breathing Exercises: Deep, slow breathing can activate the body’s relaxation response, helping you manage anxiety or panic.
- Talking to Someone: Don’t bottle up your emotions. Sharing your feelings with a friend, family member, or therapist can help you process difficult emotions.
Seek Professional Help When Needed
If you’re struggling with mental health issues, it’s crucial to seek professional help. A therapist, counselor, or psychiatrist can guide you through challenging emotions and provide tools to help you manage stress, anxiety, or depression. Therapy can also offer a safe space to explore your thoughts and feelings, while medication may be necessary for some conditions.

Engage in Hobbies and Interests
Engaging in activities you love can bring a sense of fulfillment and purpose. Whether it’s painting, playing music, gardening, or reading, hobbies provide an outlet for self-expression and relaxation. They also serve as healthy distractions when life becomes overwhelming.
Be Patient with Yourself
Mental health is a journey, and progress takes time. It’s essential to be kind and patient with yourself during difficult times. Healing is not linear, and some days will be harder than others. Celebrate the small victories along the way and recognize your progress, no matter how small.

Managing mental health is not a one-time fix but an ongoing process that requires attention, patience, and self-compassion. By developing healthy habits, building supportive relationships, and practicing self-care, you can create a solid foundation for mental well-being. Remember, mental health is just as important as physical health, and seeking help when needed is a sign of strength, not weakness.

Authors Biography

Sahya S. Dev, holds an MBBS, MD, and Diabetology Fellowship, with 2 years’ teaching experience, 11 publications, and interests in public health. She is COVID-19 certified by Johns Hopkins and Stanford.

The post Building a Smarter, More Balanced Life: Practical Strategies for Mastering Mental Health appeared first on InnoHEALTH magazine.

Machine Learning in Claims Processing

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 07:57:09 +0000

Challenge

Healthcare costs across the world have soared over the past decades at a rate at which, where United States spends more on healthcare than the national budget of half of the countries in the world. A big chunk of those expenses relate to pharmaceutical products.

AI and IoT in Healthcare: Need of Future
Opportunity

Here is the opportunity for Machine Learning Solutions – in US, by and large, most pharmaceutical transactions are captured electronically as claims. These claims, and the way they are processed, cover a myriad scope of information including patient demographics, disease states, drug utilization review, formularies, coverage and utilization review, contra-indications, etc. This information can be used for a number of reasons – better pricingof drugs based on their utilization and volume, better prediction of diseases and therapeutic journeys where we can guess over time which drugs a patient will require, and a more interactive engagement of the patient using virtual “friends” to guide them through their therapy and ensure compliance, adherence and better outcomes.

IoT can truly Transform Rural Healthcare in India

Over the past several years, solutions have been operationalized working with payors, PBMs on cost and efficacy predictions for new therapies for HIV (PrEP treatment) and Hemophilia (Gene Therapy). Another application is successfully helping Pharmacy Benefit Managers predict their most efficient drug pricing for patients who are not covered with insurance, cost efficiencies for seasonal and style drugs to name a few. GxWave™ leverages LSTM algorithm (Long Short-Term Memory) in predicting price efficiencies, claim volumes, call center call volumes, and average margins.

Approach

Solutions such as GalaxE’s GxWave™ platform with solutions such as Claims Neurology described below, utilizes their proprietary technology to extract business rules from adjudication systems and then use prior claims data to predict various “edits” or applicable rules such as prior authorization (where the use of a specific drug requires express approval from the physician) or adjustments and accumulators so that across their therapy, the price they pay is properly adjusted for the full range of medicines and medical services the patient consumes. These pathways for the adjudication of a claim are then trained on neural nets that learn the time based, formulary based, disease and therapy-based trends.

AI and Cybersecurity in Digital Healthcare

The trained nets are then used to predict and project the therapeutic journey of a patient, or the volume and timeframe for the consumption of specific therapy in a given market.

With all the consolidations of drug & device industries in play, their efficiency has to be at the highest point in order to drive patient costs lower. GxWave™ is helping these entities with improving efficiency. With a combined data set comprising elements of documentation across the development lifecycle of an application with governing procedures and its intended use, natural language processing techniques can derive information from previously unexplored data sets that can be analyzed to ensure compliance to regulations, adherence to organization policies and procedures and alignment with the documented intended use of the system. Healthcare IT consists of diverse applications with multiple critical integrations at various levels where regulatory impact can be ambiguous and could be left unassessed. A change in the landscape has to be simultaneously assessed for regulatory and risk impacts (includes business, security and privacy risks) without delays ensuring all impacts are being planned for before the change is implemented.

Healthcare IT market builds the foundation of Artificial Intelligence
Advantages
A number of advantages have surfaced with these solutions:
1. Immediate re-categorization or inspection of current non-regulated applications that could potentially be regulated due to change in feature/functionality.
2. Expose deficiencies within the system that could lead to a potential replacement for not being able to satisfy customer and regulatory requirements.
3. Allow for continual monitoring instead of the traditional approach of conducting periodic reviews.
4. Improve software documentation quality across the application lifecycle.

This is just the beginning. We expect that solutions like GxWave™ will utilize data from genomics, patient profiles, therapy histories and help generate the most medically and economically rational and effective therapies for patients in the very near future!

About the authors

Sandipan Gangopadhyay is the President and COO of GalaxE and plays a key role in GalaxE’s continued worldwide expansion and operational success Prior to this, Mr. Gangopadhyay spent over a decade in high profile roles in both Pharmaceutical and Information Technology companies around the globe and instrumental in setting up one of India’s first private Software Technology Parks. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Bombay University, is a member of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, and is certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT.

Dheeraj Misra is the Chief Technical Officer and Senior Executive Vice President of GalaxE and has over 15 years of experience in the design, development, testing, porting and maintenance of application and system software for the healthcare industry. Prior to this, he spent a number of years in high profile roles at HCL Technologies, Context Integration, Eforce Global, and as a Research Specialist in Parallel Processing. He has a B.E. in Computer Engineering from REC, Allahabad.

Vijayaraj Chakravarthy, Senior Vice President of Delivery and Head of Strategic Business Unit, is a member of the GalaxE’s executive leadership team, responsible for organization growth and innovation through predictive analytics platform aiming to discover new cost reduction opportunities in the Healthcare ecosystem of the United States. He serves as a subject matter expert on various AI/ML-based platforms and frameworks. He is passionate about solving industry problems with automation methods and agile execution. His leadership style focuses on developing a positive environment, teamwork, passionate culture, and an entrepreneurial mindset. He has B.E in Electrical and Electronics from PSG College of Technology, India. He enjoys spending time with his family. He has a green thumb to nurture organic gardens. He likes to do tech-inspired research projects for Kids.

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Innovative Therapeutic Treatment for Tinnitus Patients

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 10:21:49 +0000

Tinnitus, or ringing years as it is commonly called, isn’t a condition itself. It is a symptom that associates with perception of noise or ringing in the years.
Globally, around 7 per cent of the population is suffering from tinnitus. It is very difficult for a person who hears continuous sound in ear without any sound present in the environment. This can highly interfere with our daily lifestyle. Tinnitus can affect people of any age ranging from 10 – 90 years. Nowadays tinnitus is seen more in youngsters due to their continuous exposure to loud music. This leads to reduced concentration towards studies, along with other symptoms like head heaviness, ear heaviness, vertigo, noise irritation, sleeping disturbance, etc.
An innovative therapeutic device offers assessment and therapeutic solution that aims to alleviate the perception of unwanted sound completely. This device is capable to give instant relief that improves a patient’s day-to-day lifestyle and other symptoms like concentration and sleeping pattern. It must be used for 6-8 months due to the long existence of tinnitus which is around days, months or years. This innovative tinnitus treatment can be done clinically as well as remotely. Both ways patients get relief. About 4000 patients of tinnitus have been provide relief with this innovative methodology. The procedure involves providing customized algorithmically modified therapeutic sound via medicated earphones for 20–45 minutes for 2–3 times a day in the affected ear. The results are highly reduced in tinnitus and give instant relief. Regular follow- ups are done on weekly basis as needed. The results reveal the success rate of up to 90 per cent.
How the Therapy Started?
Due to the lack of a proper therapeutic solution for tinnitus, the quality of life of patients worsens day-by-day due to continuous unwanted sound in ears and head. Even medications are of not much help to an extent. The innovation came into existence keeping in mind the observations and need of the patients. It is called as husband and wife innovation or MedTech innovation.

About the author

Soniya Gupta is a qualified audiologist and speech therapist. She has cured more than 1000 patients with speech, language & tinnitus problems.

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Low back pain is the leading cause of disability

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 06:26:22 +0000

Affecting an estimated 540 million people at any one time, but unfortunately, the condition is mistreated against the best-known guidelines. Worldwide, overuse of inappropriate tests and treatments such as imaging, opioids, and surgery means patients are not receiving the right care, and resources are wasted.

Evidence suggests that low back pain should be managed in primary care, with the first line of treatment being education and advice to keep active at work.

A 2008 survey of all registered physiotherapists in Maharashtra (India) showed that 46 percent of physiotherapists advised patients with low back pain to rest.

63 percent of Indians believe that bed rest is the mainstay of therapy.

A new series of papers in The LANCET highlights the extent to which the condition is wronged, often against best practice treatment guidelines.

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According to researchers a prospective study in the period 10th October 2008 of 25251 patients with chronic back pain received in an Indian orthopedic clinic, reported that 100 percent of patients underwent imaging, with 76 % diagnosed with non-specific low back pain and 10 % with spondylosis. According to the Global Burden of Disease study every year, a total of 7.3 million years of productive life is lost in India because of disability from low back pain. Physiotherapist and Assistant Professor Saurabh Sharma, in the Department of Physiotherapy, Kathmandu University of Medical Sciences, told InnoHEALTH magazine in an email interview that he was also aware of practices of low back pain, which is far away from evidence recommendations.” For example, rest, lumbar supports/corsets are prescribed very commonly against the current recommendations.

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Similarly, all patients are prescribed medicines, electrotherapy, taping, and ex-rays. More than half individuals are advised MRI. Similarly, patients are also treated with new treatments that the clinicians claim but have never been tested in clinical trials (research), such as matrix rhythm theory practice in Pune, he said. In reality, a high proportion of patients worldwide are treated in emergency departments, encouraged to rest and stop work, are commonly referred for scans or surgery or prescribed painkillers including opioids, which are discouraged for treating low back pain.

“The majority of cases of low back pain respond to simple physical and psychological therapies that keep people active and enable them to stay at work,” explains series author Professor Rachelle Buchbinder, Monash University, Australia. “Often, however, it is more aggressive treatments of dubious benefit that are promoted and reimbursed.”

The series reviews evidence from high-and low-income countries that suggests that many of the mistakes of high-income countries are already well established in low-income and middle-income countries. Rest is frequently recommended in low and middle-income countries, and resources to modify workplaces are scarce.

Low back pain results in 2.6 million emergency visits in the USA each year, with high rates of opioid prescription. A 2009 study found that opioids were prescribed to around 60% of emergency department visits for low back pain in the USA. Additionally, only about half of people with chronic back pain in the USA have been prescribed exercise. In India, studies suggest that bed rest is frequently recommended, and a study in South Africa found that 90% of patients received pain medicine as their only form of treatment.

“In many countries, painkillers that have limited positive effect are routinely prescribed for low back pain, with very little emphasis on interventions that are evidence-based such as exercises. As lower-income countries respond to this rapidly rising cause of disability, it is critical that they avoid the waste that these misguided practices entail,” adds series author Professor Nadine Foster, Keele University, UK.

The Global Burden of Disease study (2017) found that low back pain is the leading cause of disability in almost all high-income countries as well as central Europe, Eastern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, and parts of Latin America. Every year, a total of 1 million years of productive life is lost in the UK because of disability from low back pain; 3 million in the USA; and 300,000 in Australia (see GBD for country-specific estimates available).

Low back pain mostly affects adults of working age. Rarely can a specific cause of low back pain be identified so most are termed nonspecific and evidence suggests that psychological and economic factors are important in the persistence of low back pain? Most episodes of low back pain are short-lasting with little or no consequence, but recurrent episodes are common (about one in three people will have a recurrence within 1 year of recovering from a previous episode) and low back pain is increasingly understood as a long-lasting condition.

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The authors say that healthcare systems should avoid harmful and useless treatments by only offering treatments in public reimbursement packages if evidence shows that they are safe, efficient and cost-effective. They also highlight the need to address widespread misconceptions in the population and among health professionals about the causes, prognosis, and effectiveness of different treatments for low back pain.

“Millions of people across the world are getting the wrong care for low back pain. Protection of the public from unproven or harmful approaches to managing low back pain requires that governments and health-care leaders tackle entrenched and counterproductive reimbursement strategies, vested interests, and financial and professional incentives that maintain the status quo,” says series author Prof. Jan Hartvigsen, University of Southern Denmark. “Funders should pay only for high-value care, stop funding ineffective or harmful tests and treatments, and importantly intensify research into prevention, better tests, and better treatments.”

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30 min of sunbath a week can make infants’ vitamin-D sufficient

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Tue, 08 May 2018 09:41:17 +0000

It used to be a routine practice in India to massage infants and give them a sunbath. But changing lifestyles in recent decades have confined kids to indoors. This has led to the emergence of Vitamin D deficiency as a major problem among infants.

A study from Delhi has suggested an estimate for the minimum duration for which infants need to be exposed to sunlight every day to achieve sufficient levels of vitamin-D in their body.

Doctors at the University College of Medical Sciences, New Delhi enrolled 100 infants and asked their mothers to record the time, duration, and the body area exposed during sunbath every day starting 6 weeks of age.

The study found that an exposure of as low as about 30 minutes of sunlight per week with about 40% of the child’s body exposed to the sunlight can help achieve adequate vitamin-D status at 6 months of age. The researchers also found that the ideal time to give the sunbath is between 10 AM and 3 PM.

Also Read: India’s Nutrition Atlas Goes Live

“This small intervention can help improve levels of vitamin D in infants without the need for supplements or formula feed. And can possibly benefit more than 16 million babies born in the country every year,” Dheeraj Shah, professor of pediatrics at the University College of Medicine Sciences, New Delhi, who is a co-author of the study.

The study took into account factors like the skin color of infants and season of sunbath. About 90% of the mothers in the study were themselves vitamin D deficient. Mothers who were on vitamin D supplements were excluded so that the study results remained unaffected. The journal Indian Pediatrics publishes the study.

“We are planning further studies with a larger group of infants to test it as an intervention therapy”, said Piyush Gupta, corresponding author of the paper. The skin synthesis with Vitamin D when ultraviolet rays from the sun convert a molecule,7-dehydrocholesterol, on the skin into an inactive form of the vitamin. This enters the blood circulation and converts to its active form in the liver and kidney.

Several studies over the years have shown that more than 50% of the Indian population is vitamin D deficient. This is a matter of concern, especially for infants. Because Vitamin D is important for calcium absorption, normal growth and development, and maintenance of bone health and hair follicles. Insufficient vitamin D levels cause lethargy, irritability, and a predisposition to infections. Extreme Deficiency of vitamin D can cause rickets which results in malformation of leg bones.

Umesh Kapil, professor of Gastroenterology at the AIIMS, New Delhi, felt that the proposed strategy may not be feasible in winters when the temperature remains low. While agreeing with Kapil, Shah said, “We have reported that for the winter months. If the child is fully clothed with only face and hands are exposed, the required sunbath is calculated to be two hours per week or approximately 17 minutes per day.”

Ramesh Agarwal, professor of Pediatrics AIIMS New Delhi, suggested that randomized control trials must be done to test this intervention as a therapy. He also highlights the need to evaluate the safety of sun exposure in relation to hyperthermia, burns and skin cancer in infants.

(Shared from India Science Wire)

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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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