If you are feeling that you are under stress or tension, or you are overloaded with work, or you feel pain and tiredness, essential oils massage therapy might be the answer to your problems. The main purpose of essential oils for massage therapy is not to physically remove sore spots in the body as to use the unique properties of essential oils. Essential oils massage therapy is massage with oils or with lotions that contains essential oils 100 % natural, highly contracted herb essence. View this page to read about various massage types.
There are more than 3000 essential oils, and every single of them has unique therapeutic properties. Essential oils massage therapy combines strength of essential oils with therapeutic effect of massage. This combination gives a positive effect on mind and body. During essential oils massage therapy, you inhale small molecules from oils at the same time they are absorbed through skin affecting circulation, nervous, lymphatic and skeletal system. Essential oils for massage therapy raise the level of relaxing and healing.
Main properties of essential oils
Every essential oil that is used in massage have unique properties and effect, such as:
- Antibacterial: cinnamon, oregano, tea tree, ajowan
- Antiseptic: most citrus, eucalyptus
- Anti- inflammatory: wintergreen, lemon, italian everlasting
- Analgesic: spike lavender, bay tree, basil, roman chamomile
- Stimulating: mastic tree, cypress, red cedar
- Relaxing: roman chamomile, majoram, mandarin, ylang ylang, basil
They can also have afrodisiac and even euphoric effect. Essential oils are often combined with Swedish massage, lymphatic massage, acupressure massage and relaxing massage. Quality of oils is very important.
Benefits of essential oil massage
Massage therapy with essential oils lowering the pain and symptoms of menstrual period, according to study by Journal of Obestrics and Gynecology from 2015. This massage can also reduce symptoms of menopause, it was confirmed by a study, where the 10 women recieve essential oil massage on a regular basis during their menopause, which effectively reduce their symptoms.
One very interesting study on the Oxford Brookes University in UK analyzes the effect of essential oil massage on whoever is giving birth. The study lasted 10 years with 8000 women as participants. The study proved that massage therapy reduces pain and anxiety during birth.
In South Korea there was a study that shows the effect of essential oil massage therapy in lowering blood pressure. Patients with hypertension where assign to 3 groups. One group was the patients who receive essential oil massage therapy, second was group without any treatment, and a third group were the patients who received massage therapy with synthetic oils.After the experiment there was the huge difference between patients who received essential oil massage therapy and the other two groups. Their level of blood pressure was much better than the other patient groups.
Precautions
Essential oils can cause a skin allergic reaction. They are very strong and skin can absorb them in high amount, so it’s very important not to overuse the essential oils. Also, if you are sensitive to strong smells this type of massage therapy is not recommended for you.