“One way they work is through our sense of smell,” says Michelle Davila, ND, a naturopathic doctor with the integrative medicine department of Beaumont Health in Grosse Pointe and Royal Oak, Michigan. When you breathe in an essential oil, the scent molecules travel from the olfactory nerves directly to the brain. Here, they interact with a region known as the limbic system, which regulates emotions, memories, and sensations, Dr. Davila says. The scent molecules can also be absorbed into the bloodstream when applied to the skin. Once in the bloodstream, essential oils distribute throughout the body to potentially enhance different aspects of overall health, according to Davila. In other words, essential oils may be a helpful complementary approach for many health concerns, from stress and insomnia to pain and nausea. But don’t get too excited. “Essential oils have become very popular in the last several years, and they’re heavily marketed, so it might seem as though essential oils could cure anything,” Davila says. Instead, think of essential oils as a helpful addition to a healthy lifestyle and, potentially, with the guidance of your professional healthcare provider, an addition to your medical routine — not a magic pill. Here are some of the ways that essential oils may boost overall wellness.
Possible Health Benefits of Essential Oils
1. Lower Stress and Anxiety
“Some of the possible benefits of essential oils are reducing stress and calming anxiety, and those two aspects are probably the No. 1 reason people gravitate toward aromatherapy, at least in the beginning,” says Shanti Dechen, a certified clinical aromatherapy practitioner and the director of Aroma Apothecary Healing Arts Academy in Crestone, Colorado. A review and meta-analysis published September 2019 in Phytomedicine combed through 90 randomized and nonrandomized studies and concluded that, in general, the reviewed studies showed inhaling or ingesting lavender essential oil (diluted and under guidance) can lower anxiety levels. They also concluded that adding lavender essential oil to massage treatments can help reduce anxiety levels. These effects may be thanks to linalyl acetate and linalool, key compounds in lavender that have calming and sedating properties. The authors included a caveat about the low average quality of available studies, saying that higher-quality studies on lavender essential oil and anxiety are needed. That said, they acknowledge that inhaling lavender essential oil is generally safe, accessible, and inexpensive. Therefore, it may be a helpful therapy to ease anxious feelings in some people. According to the Cleveland Clinic, other essential oils to try for anxiety include bergamot oil, lemongrass oil, orange oil, and cedarwood oil.
2. Offer Headache and Migraine Relief
Headaches are one of the most common pain-related health concerns, affecting up to 75 percent of adults worldwide, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Migraine, a more severe form of headache, affects roughly 12 percent of U.S. adults, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Headaches are a major cause of absenteeism from work and school and, as the Cleveland Clinic notes, can lead to feelings of anxiety and depression. Some people turn to essential oils like peppermint for relief, and there is some very limited research on its use for headaches. According to a review, peppermint oil can potentially help ease a headache when applied superficially around the head and temple. This may be due to menthol, the primary active ingredient in peppermint. Menthol has a cooling sensation, which is thought to have an analgesic (pain relieving) effect, according to an uncontrolled study of 25 patients that examined migraine pain severity after applying a 6 percent menthol gel to the pain site. Those with migraine who used the gel saw noteworthy improvements in headache intensity by two hours after application.
3. Relieve Nausea
Some folks try essential oils to tame queasiness from pregnancy, chemotherapy, and indigestion. Peppermint essential oil and ginger essential oil, for example, are often used for digestive discomfort, including nausea. According to a review published in March 2018 in Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, peppermint relaxes gastrointestinal muscles and lowers inflammation that worsens nausea. Ginger, on the other hand, encourages the digestive process, preventing food from lingering in your gastrointestinal tract, which can sometimes cause nausea, according to research. Research suggests that these physiological interactions of essential oils and the gut may have real-world benefits. For example, a study published in September 2020 in the Journal of Holistic Nursing revealed that inhaling peppermint oil led to significant reductions in nausea and vomiting among hospitalized patients. The results were comparable to those seen by patients who used aromatherapy and an anti-emetic (anti-nausea) medication. However, patients were allowed to choose which experimental group they wanted to be part of, which may have skewed the results if patients expected their treatment to work. Research on the effects of inhaling ginger are less promising. In a study, women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer saw only slight improvements in nausea and none in vomiting after inhaling ginger essential oil.
4. Ease Pain From Menstrual Cramps
Between 16 and 91 percent of women and girls suffer from menstrual pain (dysmenorrhea), per a review, with many turning to over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for relief. However, although most women tolerate intermittent short-term use of NSAIDS, common NSAIDs like aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), and naproxen sodium (Aleve) aren’t recommended for women with bleeding disorders, asthma, an aspirin allergy, liver damage, stomach disorders, or ulcers, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. NSAIDs can also cause side effects like gas, bloating, heartburn, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea or constipation, notes the Cleveland Clinic. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is another pain-relieving medication often used for menstrual pain that may cause side effects, including rash, hives, difficulty swallowing, swelling, itching, and red skin, according to MedlinePlus. Other holistic options, such as aromatherapy, may offer a safer alternative or complementary approach for easing menstrual pain and may potentially reduce NSAID use and side effects. According to the Cleveland Clinic, painful menstrual cramps happen when the uterus contracts so strongly that it presses against nearby blood vessels, cutting off the muscle tissue’s oxygen supply. Pain is felt when part of the uterus briefly loses access to oxygen. Limited research suggests that essential oils may help relieve menstrual pain. In one study in Korea, 45 high school girls received a single 10-minute abdominal massage with either an essential oil blend or acetaminophen. The essential oil group experienced a greater reduction in pain after 24 hours compared with those who took acetaminophen. However, while the study results are promising, they should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s unclear whether the pain-lowering effects were due to the abdominal massage, the essential oils, or both. The small size and the fact that only one treatment was given make it impossible to conclude how aromatherapy might work for larger groups of women in the long term. Another review published in November 2018 in the Journal of Clinical Medicine examined 19 studies on the use of aromatherapy (via inhalation, massage, and oral consumption) to help alleviate pain in women experiencing primary dysmenorrhea. It found a moderate level of evidence for the efficacy of essential oils to potentially reduce menstrual pain but concluded that future research, overcoming certain methodological roadblocks, is warranted.
5. Encourage Sleep
Sleep disorders affect nearly 70 million Americans every year, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Common treatments for sleep disorders like insomnia include cognitive behavioral therapy, a prescription sleep aid, or a combination of the two, per the Mayo Clinic. Adding a relaxing essential oil to your nighttime routine may also help. Lavender oil, for example, contains many beneficial compounds, including the aforementioned linalool and linalyl acetate. These two compounds work to depress the central nervous system activity, with linalool exhibiting sedative effects and linalyl acetate showing narcotic actions, according to a review. (Merriam-Webster defines “narcotic” as a drug that dulls the senses, relieves pain, and induces profound sleep in moderate doses.) Research suggests that inhaling lavender oil may help lull you to sleep. In a study of 60 patients in a cardiac intensive care unit, those who inhaled lavender essential oil for 15 days saw significant improvements in sleep quality and anxiety compared with patients who did not inhale the oil. Similarly, findings from another study in 31 young adults, ages 18 to 30, revealed that taking a whiff of lavender essential oil prior to bed may have helped improve sleep quality. Subjects reported feeling “higher vigor” the next morning. Researchers attributed this to a potential increase in slow- and deep-wave sleep patterns, compared with a control night during which participants didn’t sniff lavender. In a review, researchers examined 15 studies, 11 of which were randomized, controlled trials, to evaluate the hypnotic effects of the inhalation of essential oils on sleep quality. While most studies suggested a positive effect of essential oils on potentially decreasing mild sleep disturbances, the reviewers concluded that further studies with larger participant sample sizes are vital to substantiate these findings.
6. Offer Antimicrobial Effects
Many essential oils also have antimicrobial effects when applied to specific sites on the body, Davila says. Eucalyptus essential oil, for example, shows potential in fighting oral bacteria like Porphyromonas gingivalis, according to a review published in June 2019 in Molecules. This bacteria contributes to periodontitis, an inflammatory disease that destroys the tissues around teeth. The main component in eucalyptus, 1,8-cineneol, has been used in oral hygiene products like mouthwash, the authors note. According to the University of Minnesota Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing, it’s possible to add a few drops of essential oil to water, which you then gargle and spit out for certain essential oils and indications. However, some experts warn against using this technique. “When you take a drink of that water, the essential oil is going to launch right into the membranes of your mouth,” Dechen says. Over time, it may create scar tissue and irritation. Tea tree essential oil is another option that’s packed with antimicrobial properties. Test tube studies show that tea tree essential oil prevents the herpes virus from multiplying, according to the Molecules review. Meanwhile, a randomized, controlled study of patients with recurrent herpes labialis (cold sores) revealed that a 6 percent tea tree essential oil gel may offer some benefit as a treatment when applied topically. However, the authors acknowledge that the small sample size makes it hard to gauge the treatment’s effectiveness.
7. Tames Muscle Pain
Mixing a few drops of essential oil into your massage oil may offer benefits for various causes of muscle pain, including chronic back pain. Research is limited at this time — here are two small studies on this topic, which are not conclusive. For a study in Thailand, researchers assigned older adults with chronic back pain to receive a 30-minute Swedish massage (a gentle massage style aimed at relaxation) with ginger oil or a 30-minute Thai massage (an active massage style that uses firm pressure) with no oil twice a week for five weeks. While both groups experienced significant improvements in pain, the Swedish massage with ginger oil group saw better long-term outcomes, as found by assessments taken 15 weeks after treatment. However, it’s hard to know if the improvements were due to the ginger oil, the massage technique, or the two in combination. Essential oils may also help lower muscle pain after a workout. A study published in September 2019 in Comparative Exercise Physiology randomly assigned 24 nonactive women to receive either one dose of a rosemary oil supplement, two doses of a rosemary oil supplement, or a placebo every eight hours for 14 days. After that, all the women performed an eccentric leg curl exercise to create muscle damage. They continued taking their supplement or placebo until 72 hours after the exercise session. Researchers measured each woman’s muscle swelling, muscle pain, and several markers of muscle damage before exercise, then 24, 48, and 72 hours afterward. They found that the women who took two doses of rosemary oil had significantly lower levels of creatine kinase 48 hours after exercise when compared with the women who took one dose or a placebo. Creatine kinase is an enzyme that’s found in muscles, with higher levels indicating muscle damage. The findings suggest that supplementing with rosemary oil may reduce exercise-induced muscle damage and soreness. However, using essential oils in the form of a supplement is generally considered a risky move. According to Operation Supplement Safety, there’s no reliable scientific evidence that consuming any essential oil orally is safe. “Essential oils are antimicrobial, so taking them orally could affect gut bacteria and the digestive tract, which for some people can cause irritation in the esophagus and stomach,” Davila says. In a review and meta-analysis, researchers examined 12 studies on the efficacy of using essential oils for various types of pain in general, including chronic, acute, and postoperative discomfort. While researchers found a significant positive effect of aromatherapy in reducing pain across all studies, and with no adverse effects, they concluded that because there’s no uniform measure of the types of pain, and because the sample sizes were small, more research is needed to fully understand clinical applications of essential oils with regard to pain management.
The Bottom Line: Who Might Want to Use Essential Oils as a Complementary Therapy?
If you’re looking for a complementary therapy that may help with stress and anxiety, sleep, pain, nausea, and headaches or migraines, essential oils might be worth a try. Just be sure to do some research beforehand, as some essential oils may cause allergic reactions or interfere with medications. Check that there are no safety issues or contraindications for the essential oils you’re thinking of trying. When in doubt, it’s best to discuss with your primary care doctor or practitioner trained in the use of essential oils for health concerns.
