Maximize Immune System Function With The Right Aromatherapy Diffuser
In the world of therapeutic aromatherapy, there are three modalities of using essential oils: Topical application, ingestion and inhalation. Sometimes inhalation gets dismissed as not real medicine, but this just isn’t the case. Essential oils still get into your bloodstream if you inhale them (thereby helping oxygenate your blood, as many proponents will attest to) and providing a host of other therapeutic effects. But which diffuser is best? There are so many types available, in a wide range of prices. Which one is best really depends on your goal: to simply enjoy the aromatic pleasures of fine essential oils, or go all the way and get every last health-supportive effect you can from aromatherapy. We’ll look at them all here: warming, fan, nebulizing, and ultrasonic nebulizing.
The Data Is In: Science Is Concluding Essential Oils Have Many Health Benefits
Research over the last decade has informed us of many important therapeutic effects of essential oils. Oils have been shown to have a wide variety of important activity, from anti-viral, antibacterial and anti-fungal, to anti-anxiety and anti-depressant. The great thing about inhaling the oils is that you can reap many of these benefits at the same time. Some of the same oils that will lower stress levels can also support immune function by both enhancing our immune systems and directly eradicating contagions.
Diffusers for “Aroma” Therapy: Using Oils for Emotional and Energetic Benefits
Just the scent of an essential oil alone can radically alter physiological processes — the scent of Lavender is a well-known “anxiolytic”, which is just a fancy name for stress reducer. When the aroma hits our smell scent, our brain signals our body to stop stressing out! Other scents have been shown to brighten our moods. Lavender has been shown to be as effective as Valium at reducing stress; it also lowers aggression, brings about a state of calm, and actually improves the quality of sleep. Bergamot essential oil was the subject of research where the subjects noted that they felt better when inhaling this sweet/tart scent. So which is the best diffuser for these uses? It turns out any of them will do, and your choice depends on the size of the environment you’ll be diffusing the aromas into.
Here’s a look at all the common diffuser styles, ranging from ones that will cover the smallest areas to the largest. First there’s the warming plug in units. These evaporate the oils using moderate heat. They’re very quiet, inexpensive, easy to use, and good for a couple-hundred square feet. The fan diffusers are next, ranging from personal desktop size, to ones that will cover several hundred square feet. They’re fairly quiet, only slightly more complicated, and evaporate the oils using fan-blown air. “Ultrasonics” are next, which make a mist of oil and water together. They’re great if you’d like a little moisture in the air as well. Finally, there’s the cold-air nebulizing diffusers, which make a mist of pure essential oil. Some of these are rated for over 1000 sq. ft.
Again, all these diffusers will enable you and your family to benefit from the aromas of essential oils. Typically the more expensive units will have higher outputs, and some will have bells and whistles like built-in timer cycles and lighting effects. Still, you can make your choice purely on the size they’ll cover, or if perhaps you live in a dry environment, the ultrasonic units may be especially attractive. Further, the ultrasonics and the cold-air nebulizers have no pads to replace, which may be another consideration. If you’d like to gain the most benefit from the oils now and in the future, meaning you’d like to maximize your immune function and clean the air in your environment, it then becomes important to consider the actual concentration of essential oil being output.
A cold air nebulizing diffuser (note, not an “ultrasonic nebulizer”) is the most powerful diffuser available, and will address every possible application of essential oils you may ever have. The reason is this: the nebulizer make very, very tiny droplets of your oils — so small that it forms a cloud of the oil within its glass chamber. The air is so dense with essential oil that you can actually see it. Now, you won’t see it like this once its emitted several inches away from the diffuser, but you can be sure there’s still a high concentration of oil in the air. And for those times of the year when children are bringing home one cold after another, or the flu is going around at work, the nebulizing diffuser will offer the best available protection from aromatherapy.
How To Conserve Your Oils While Using Them Therapeutically
An important note when using any type of diffuser, your nose will become sensitized to any aroma very quickly. If you diffuse the same scent continually, you’ll notice you smell it less and less within just a few minutes. This is because your nose only has so many receptors for each aroma, and once they’re filled, they take a little time before they can signal the aroma’s presence to your brain again. All “high end” diffusers will either have a timer control built in, or recommend the use of a programmable appliance timer to cycle the diffuser on and off. A typical cycle is only 5 minutes “on” every hour — yes, only five minutes! If using the diffuser for immunity purposes, you might consider however running the unit continually on its lowest setting. In any case, know that no diffuser is more efficient than another — the amount of oil in the air is always a direct result of how much you’ve put in the diffuser — but a timer can help you smell a smaller amount of oil from any diffuser.
The author is proponent of the varied and potent healing actions of aromatherapy essential oils. For more, see http://www.anandaapothecary.com/essential-oils.html.
