No matter what she's doing around the house, Sue Repke is always surrounding herself with Aromatherapy Candles USA.
Her kitchen is filled with aromatherapy oils, candles, and dish soap. Even her kids use aromatherapy sprays on their pills before bed."We have a little lavender vanilla linen spray that we tuck the girls in with at night. It helps them calm down," Repke said.Repke went to great lengths to see if they worked, by volunteering for a study.
To create stress, scientists at Ohio State University Medical Center put her feet in ice water, and pull tape off her arm. She then sniffed certain scents."Neither lavender or lemon had positive effects," said Dr. Janice Glaser, of Ohio State University Medical Center.But don't they help the body heal?" We couldn't find evidence.
We looked at every which way. We looked at heart rate and blood pressure. We looked at stress hormones. We looked at changes in immune function," Glaser said. And still nothing. It didn't matter if volunteers sniffed oils or distilled water.
Despite the results, Repke will keep using aromatherapy. But she knows, what it does for her body may be all in her head.
