Aromatherapy 101 with Dr. Mike Turvill

It was a beautiful and productive day, save the horrendously heavy traffic along the stretch of South Luzon Expressway (SLEX). Good thing that instead of slaving over getting to Ortigas for the interview, we had settled to meet halfway by having coffee at Starbucks Magallanes.

This experience is one of the many common things we go through each day. Little did we know that it contributes to the deterioration of one’s health. Yes, stress-inducing things like traffic, work, or finding yourself under poor time management can negatively affect one’s well-being and I’m not just talking about stress affecting temperaments. Think health in every sense of the word.

Getting Back to Basics

“Are you familiar with Aromatherapy?” Dr. Mike Turvill had asked. I know I should be asking the questions but I appreciated having been asked this particular question. Reason is that my own definition actually falls short of what Aromatherapy is all about.

Initial impression was that Aromatherapy was just all about scented candles, incense, or burning scented oils to create a scented atmosphere in a particular space (bedroom, office, etc). Scents being the operative word.

“Volatile essences have healed people since the dawn of time…” — Rene Maurice Gattefosse, French Chemist

According to Mike, Aromatherapy is the systematic use of essential oils distilled from plants as holistic treatments to improve physical and emotional well-being. Yes, it’s actually more than just lighting a scented candle or having scented baths. They’re just a part of the whole thing. Key to better understand the process are the words: aroma + therapy.

Scents play a large role in the healing and therapeutic processes and essential oils, larger. Though it doesn’t stop there.

The Essentials and Centuries-old Healing Wisdom

This brings us to the use of essential oils. Before all the modern science were made available for our health needs, people turn to ancient healing rituals or practices to cure ailments and the main component of such rituals/practices is essential oil. It worked then so why can’t it work now?

Mike shares that every ancient civilization used essential oils for healing and therapy. Essential Oils have therapeutic abilities that not only improve health but also help prevent disease. Apart from killing bacteria and virus, these are known to stimulate the immune system. Essential oils are also anitseptics and disinfectants and were once used to clean medical instruments and rooms in hospitals.

Essential oils number by the hundreds and around 300 are known to have healing and therapeutic abilities (there may be more); most are currently used in Aromatherapy like the following: Lavender, Lemongrass, Tea Tree, Peppermint, Eucalyptus, Palmarosa, Rosewood, Ylang Ylang, Sweet Orange, Cedarwood, May Chang, Mangosteen, Lemon, Citronella, Mango, Rosemary, etc.

Like what was previously stated, scents are the most obvious part of the therapy and, scientifically, whatever we smell can be ingested. The same thing with essential oils. Applied onto the skin, these are absorbed and goes into the blood stream, thus more potent than by just inhalation.

Aromatherapy + Spa

Spa places administer Aromatherapy in their sessions. These places often create a certain calming atmosphere from the get-go by applying the Aromatherapy principle of stimulating the olfactory senses. It’s all part of the Spa experience. Places like Nurture Spa Village and the Chi Spa of the Shangri-La Hotels (located in Edsa Shang, Mactan and Boracay) take it to the next level by incorporating Aromatherapy in their services, making full use of essential oils in their baths, scrubs, massages — Amu’in and Futuresse, respectively. It’s actually good to know if the spa place you frequent actually use genuine essential oils and not just plain carrier oils, scented or not.

DIY Aromatherapy

Learning more about these essential oils helped throw out the notion that using scents like strawberry, peach or chocolate in Aromatherapy is the real deal. We’re not saying that these scents are unpleasant because it does leave a particular space smelling good, though the healing benefits you may expect in DIY Aromatherapy will not be present. Mike even had to point out the importance in making sure you use real essential oils and have shared ways to determine if the bottle you’re purchasing from a seller is genuine (not fabricated). He strongly advises that we look for the scientific name of the essential oil on the label. And he further shared that a 10ml bottle of essential oil can go for as low as Php 300.00 for the common like Tea Tree to as high as Php 3,000.00 for the special sort (due to scarcity).

Mike told me that there are certain essential oils that can be applied directly onto the skin, i.e. Tea Tree, Lavender. But there a lot of these oils that need carrier oils for the reason that they’re too expensive (and impractical) to use alone.

You can look into Amu’in for Aromatherapy products you can use at home. They offer products to help you relax, heal, re-energize and even for a bit of romance.

About Dr. Mike Turvill

Has been in the Spa industry for the last six (6) years. Co-owner and President of Spa Essentials (makers of Spa Products like Amu’in), Spa Professionals (trains global standard Spa therapists) and Nurture Spa Village (Tagaytay and Pampanga). Earned a Degree from University of Bath and his Doctorate in Organic Chemistry from University of Nottingham. He’s a Chartered Chemist awarded by the Royal Society of Chemistry. And he used to be the Regional Technical Director, Asia Pacific Subsidiary for UNILEVER.

Photo: Copyright © 2008 Sasha Manuel

Image: amuinwellness.com