By Martin Watt. June 2020

Since the coronavirus outbreak started there have been numerous quacks
setting up prestigious looking web sites and blogs. The aromatherapy world
has plenty of them. I expect the multi level sellers representatives are
spreading the usual lies directly to their customers now after the FDA stopped
them over Ebola. So a few things to watch out for:

Claims to be highly experienced clinicians. Are they really or they just
claiming that? Check their qualifications and see if they are medical
professionals or, for example, are they naturopaths some of which have poor
training on essential oils. Some of their people still teach the long dismissed
chemical group theories of Dr Penole and his followers. In addition, many of
those therapists do not have what they do monitored by competent authorities
in the same way as doctors. You have no way of knowing if their treatments
are successful or cause more harm than good.

Claims to have treated thousands of patients: Can these people supply
any statistics on the numbers of people they have treated and with what
treatments? Never forget that anyone can claim anything on blogs and web
sites, who is doing the checking of truthfulness? There is no central system in
aromatherapy for collating clinical results.

Claims of antiviral activity of certain essential oils: In my surveys of
significant volumes of research papers I have found only a few oils that have
been clinically tested for antiviral activity and most of those are on rats and
mice. Most of the testing has been laboratory tests which may not be
replicated in tests on humans.

Many claims of antiviral activity are based on chemical groups theories rather
than on tests on the whole oils. Never forget these chemical groups theories
are just that and most have already been disproven - see other articles on this
site.
If you see such claims for essential oils (or blends) look to see if there is a
checkable reference. In most cases you will not find one, or is it to research of
little relevance to the antiviral claims being made for an essential oil.

Volumes of essential oils being suggested: If you see someone suggesting
that 10 drops of an oil (or undiluted blend) are applied to the skin up to 10
times a day, this ignores all the known dangers of using certain essential oils
on the skin. For example, I have seen articles that state that cinnamon bark oil
is dermocaustic – yes, it will burn the skin. However, the same article fails to
say anything about the high risk of skin sensitisation (systemic) which this oil
can cause. Therefore one has to consider if the writer really knows anything
about known safety issues.

I have seen an article suggesting that children under 7 may have 0.5ml-2ml of
undiluted essential oils put on the skin. This is shocking as it does not
differentiate between a baby and a young child. No way should that volume of
ANY essential oil ever be used on the skin of a baby.

Adding essential oils to the feet: The skin on the feet is the thickest on the
body. I have never seen any verified evidence that essential oils can penetrate
far enough to have any systemic effect. If you can smell an oil after using that
method you are inhaling it!

Other claims you may see: “Ceylon cinnamon leaves are uterotonic”.
Possibly the leaf infusion in traditional medicine might be but certainly not the
essential oil.
“Clove oil is uterotonic” As above. “Palmarosa oil is uterotonic” As above. All
such claims lead me to suspect that the writer does not know the difference
between herbal medicine and aromatherapy.

Summary

Certain essential oils can be very helpful for those that catch viruses affecting
the lungs. Indeed that is one of the oldest uses for them as they are effective
expectorants and anti- inflammatories. This is best done via the breathing air
using appropriate diffusers. It is generally not via skin application - although a
little oil may help via body heat evaporating the oil and the vapours are then
inhaled. That does not mean they can rid the body of the virus, it simply
means they can help with some of the side effects of the infection.

Also, beware of 'the latest news' articles on health food type web sites
and blogs. They are notorious for corrupting scientific research in
order to promote sales.

Source and copyright: aromamedical.org