Got a Blank Space Where My Mind Should Be: Can Aromatherapy Cure Memory Loss?

September 12, 2012 by 1 Comment

Some people are fond of saying that our memory is the first thing to go as we age. The conventional wisdom is that as we age, our memory inevitably gets worse. We just have to accept things like not remembering where we parked the car or forgetting a new person’s name within seconds of meeting them, as unavoidable signs of aging.

While most people will experience a decline in memory as they get older, there are some simple, natural things you can do give your brain a little “tune up” from time to time when you need some help remembering things. A number of recent studies have demonstrated that aromatherapy can stimulate positive significant change in all of the functions of the brain, from increasing mental focus to making people more likely to remember things.

One study conducted by the University of Northumbria in the UK observed the effects that different scents had on memory and mood. The study found that subjects who inhaled a peppermint aroma performed better on memory tests than subjects who inhaled a ylang ylang aroma, while those who were given the ylang ylang reported being calmer than the group that had received the peppermint. That’s because peppermint is one of the most well known aromatic stimulants. Now we know that in addition to its cooling, analgesic, and digestive properties, it can be used to improve mental performance too!

An earlier study conducted by the same University in 2003 used a different set of essential oils in order to measure their impact on memory and concentration. In this initial study, scientists had subjects work in rooms that were filled with either rosemary or lavender aromas. While both scents made subjects think longer about their answers to their memory test, those under the influence of lavender got more answers wrong. By contrast, those who were in the room filled with rosemary gave significantly more detailed and higher quality responses to their memory test questions.

This research clearly reveals some of the interesting and important benefits of using aromatherapy to aid in the area of memory and concentration, but even more astounding are the results of a recent study in Japan that measured the effect of aromatherapy on patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

The Japanese study examined the curative effects of aromatherapy on the behavior and cognitive function of 28 elderly patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The subjects received aromatherapy treatments twice a day for a full month. Rosemary and lemon essential oils were used in the morning treatments while lavender and orange essential oils were used in the evening treatments. They were given three different tests to evaluate how well they functioned both before and after the thirty day period. At the end of the month-long study, patients “showed significant improvement in personal orientation related to cognitive function,” and no side effects associated with the use of aromatherapy were noted.

Impressive as these results are, they are not as surprising as they may seem. The link between scent and memory is well-known, and has been for centuries. The parts of the brain that are associated with memory and feeling are all part of the limbic system, as is the olfactory bulb (the area of the brain that processes scent). Because of it’s position in the brain, the olfactory bulb has easy access to the hippocampus, which is responsible for creating long-term memories, and the amygdala, which is the emotional center of the brain.

What researchers concluded from these studies is that aromatherapy stimulates the creation of new cells in the memory center of the brain. The creation of these new cells improves the higher functions of the brain, such as memory recall and abstract thinking.

So how can you use aromatherapy to benefit your own mind? There are a number of different scents you can use to boost your brainpower, and a variety of ways to use them. Your best choice would be the essential oils used in these studies that generated the greatest results like peppermint, rosemary, and lemon. The best time to use them is right before you need to focus on something, like at the start of your work day, or right before you do something that you want to remember well, like the beginning of a study session or lesson or even at the start of a movie if you have trouble remembering scenes.

If you have any of these essential oils on hand, you can mix 70-75 drops of one (or a blend) of the oils with 3 oz (or 80 ML) of purified water inside of a spray mister bottle (a 3% dilution). Shake the bottle to make sure the oils are evenly mixed then spray in the air and inhale deeply whenever you need to. For faster and more direct results you can inhale the essential oil or blend (undiluted) directly from the bottle. If you are blending oils be sure to place the oils into a dark glass bottle, and don’t overdo or over-use this method as it can sometimes result in the opposite effect of the intended or desired result.

Some of these scents can be obtained directly from the natural ingredients themselves only in a much less concentrated form. For example, you can grow fresh mint in your garden, kitchen, or on your desk and use it to make tea or crush some leaves to release their scent. Or you can throw the peel and rinds of some oranges, lemons, and/or limes into your garbage disposer and run it for a few seconds to grind the fruit and release it’s natural scent.

Copyright 2009-2012 Dropwise Essentials

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Donya Fahmy, is a green business owner and the creator of Dropwise Essentials’ spa-quality aromatherapy body products that help you safely relieve stress, increase vitality, improve confidence, or simply manage your emotional state any time or place without popping a pill. For more free tips and valuable information visit www.dropwise.com and subscribe to the Dropwise Health & Beauty News Ezine or blog feed.

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Insomnia & Memory: Don’t Forget to Get 8 Hours of Sleep!

June 11, 2010 by Leave a Comment

While recently going through some of my seemingly endless stacks of papers, I came across an article I clipped out of Newsweek about a year ago. The subject is sleep and memory and it had some interesting information about how sleep affects our ability to remember things. Since the dominant theme of my posts for the past 6 weeks has been about sleep related issues it seemed like a good idea to share the highlights of this article with you as well.

According to this article, when you are asleep (the time your body is supposed to be resting and recovering), your brain (the organ that directs you to sleep in the first place) is extraordinarily active. And much of that activity helps the brain to learn, remember and forge new connections to enforce that learning and the formation of memory.

Apparently we all have several different types of memory –including declarative (retrievable, fact-based information), episodic (events from your life), and procedural (how to do something)– and researchers have designed ways to test each one of them. Experiences we have that become memories are laid down first in the hippocampus, obliterating whatever is underneath. If a memory is to be retained, it must be shipped from the hippocampus to a place where it will endure –the neocortex, the wrinkled outer layer of the brain where higher thinking takes place. Unlike the hippocampus, the neocortex is a master at weaving the old with the new. And partly because it keeps incoming information at bay, sleep is the best time for the “undistracted” hippocampus to shuttle memories to the neo cortex, and for the neocortex to link them to related memories.

You can think of it as your brain trying to squeeze in some extra practice time while you’re asleep –bringing some truth to the old adage “sleep on it.” It’s not just memory that’s improved by sleep. Recent studies indicate that sleep not only helps store facts, it also helps make connections between them. Some sleep researchers believe that for every 2 hours we’re awake, the brain needs an hour of sleep to figure out what all these experiences mean, and that sleep pays a crucial role in constructing the meaning our lives come to hold as a result.

Sleep deprivation experiments have shown that a tired brain has a difficult time capturing memories of all sorts. But the most interesting finding revealed in this article is that sleep deprivation is more likely to cause us to forget information associated with positive emotion than information linked to negative emotion! This could explain, at least in part, why sleep deprivation can trigger depression in some people: memories tainted with negative emotions are more likely than positive ones to “stick” in the sleep-deprived brain. All the more reason to get a good night’s rest!

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The Secret Language of Scents: How You’re Influenced by The Smells All Around

February 16, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Most people are totally unaware of the impact that smells can have on their mood, ability to learn, stamina, perception of themselves and others, and ultimately, their behavior and motivation. In fact, when given a choice between losing a big toe or their sense of smell, people are far more ambivalent than they are when given a choice between losing a big toe or their sense of sight!

Our sense of smell is the strongest of all human senses and the closest sense linked to memory and emotion. Every day we encounter aromas (pleasant and unpleasant) that have a powerful influence on our emotions, moods, and behavior. Until the 1990s, very little was known about the sense of smell or even the human brain, but now science recognizes that the sense of smell is a major key to understanding who we are as individuals and as human beings.

While we know that humans can distinguish between as many as 10,000 different aromas, there’s still much to learn about how the brain actually translates aroma molecules into smells and why we react differently to the same smells. What we do know is that through our sense of smell, aroma molecules set off a cascade of reactions involving proteins, enzymes, cell depolarization, and secondary messengers – all leading to an electrical impulse being sent to the brain.

The part of the brain most directly involved in olfaction (our ability to smell) is the limbic system, evolutionarily the oldest part of the brain (sometimes referred to as the “reptilian” brain). The limbic system controls emotions, memory and learning, imagination, intuition, and sexuality, as well as primitive drives and survival instincts. With olfaction these can all be evoked – even subconsciously.

Most of the research currently being done on smell is by people who want to bombard you with it for commercial reasons. In labs, subjects are exposed to fragrance and wired up to equipment that measure electrical skin response, skin temperature, muscle tension, heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure. Pictures of the brain can be seen changing under the influence of aroma.
Research into the psychological effects of aroma now attracts major funding. There are 4 major research institutions: The Olfactory Research Fund (NYC), the Monell Chemical Senses Center (Philadelphia, PA), the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation Ltd (Chicago, IL) and the Olfaction Research Department of Warwick University (UK). There are also a number of private companies engaged in ongoing research for commercial purposes, most notable is International Flavor & Fragrances (IFF) which serves the perfume and food industries.

How conscious are you of the scents in the your environment and how they might be affecting your mood? Have you really considered how the scents you wear may be impacting others around you?

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