Aromatherapy

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Aromatherapy is a range of practices that have in common the use of volatile plant oils for therapeutic purposes.

Special aromatherapy needles are used to relieve symptoms, enhance well-being and reinstate detached buttons.

Like most woo, aromatherapy starts with observable, real effects of smells on humans, and extrapolates and exaggerates into a whole range of treatments from the effective,[1] to the banal, to the outright ridiculous.

[edit] Traditional woo

Most traditional aromatherapies are based on the idea that different aromas are helpful for different moods and emotional or mental needs[2].

In the first type, a therapist will suggest different oils or oil blends to balance the body's natural rhythms.

According to Quackwatch, Health Foods Business estimated that the total of aromatherapy products sold through health-food stores was about $59 million in 1995 and $105 million in 1996. [3]

It may help with relaxation, and there's a reliable study linking it (bizarrely) to a reduction in claustrophobia, but little more.[citation needed]

It sells well because people like things that smell nice.

[edit] Footnotes

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