How To Gain Aromatherapy’s Most Important Benefits Through Diffusion

Essential oils are recently in the limelight of the alternative medicine scene. Professional aromatherapists have said for years that essential oils’ greatest gift to mankind will be the treatment and prevention of infectious illness — and now science is fully validating this claim. Plus oils have also been scientifically shown to make people happier and lower their stress levels (among a great many other therapeutic actions). What’s the easiest way to use these wonderful natural medicines for yourself and your family? Simple inhalation! And what’s the best way to do this? By using an essential oil diffuser. Here’s a look at all the medicinal benefits of inhalation of essential oils, and a guide to choosing the right diffuser for your needs.

Scientifically Proven Health Benefits of Essential Oils

The big interests in home use of essential oils is twofold: 1) They can bring calm to overexcited youngsters while acting as antidepressants for everyone. 2) They have proven antibacterial and antiviral actions; they are able to destroy these microbes in the air, while simultaneously support the strength of our immune system. There’s a good bit of scientific data backing both these claims available for free viewing at PubMed.Gov — start by simply searching for “essential oil” and see where it takes you. Again, the easiest way to reap these benefits of essential oils is to use a diffuser to release the oils into the air in your environment. A diffuser simply evaporates oils faster than they would naturally, getting a therapeutic concentration into your living or office space — but there are many diffuser styles — we’ll help you find the one best suited to your needs.

The Best Diffuser For Protection From Infectious Illness

For disinfecting the air in your environment, you need to evaporate a relatively high concentration of essential oils. The only way to do this effectively, while conserving the oils to keep costs to a minimum is to use a “nebulizing” diffuser in conjunction with a timer system. While these diffusers will have a somewhat higher initial cost, they’re the only diffusers that will output “therapeutic” doses of essential oils for every possible application. These diffusers “nebulize” the oils, making them into a fine, quickly evaporating mist. This is also the diffuser that will diffuse aroma in the largest area; so even if you’re only wanting a pleasing aroma in your home, for over 800 square feet, this is the diffuser of choice.

The nebulizers come in two styles: “cold air” and “ultrasonic”. The cold air units use only air pressure to diffuse the oils, and output the highest concentration of any diffuser type. The ultrasonic is essentially a small water-humidification unit, where oils are mixed with water and then evaporated. Both styles typically have output controls, so you can turn up or down the amount of oil being diffused. They are also both exceptionally quiet.

Simple Diffusers To Deliver Effective Aromas

Other styles of diffusers either gently warm the oils or use a fan to blow over the oils to evaporate them. Their intention is to get the oils in the air so you can enjoy their aromas — and while this sounds simple, its actually therapeutically meaningful: The “smell sense” is the only one of the five senses directly wired to the control center of the brain (signals from the other senses travel through “switching stations” first). The result is that the body reacts to a smell without us thinking about it. Certain smells can lower blood pressure, slow heart rate, and help us sleep more deeply. Some users report feeling happier or calmer when inhaling particular scents, and other scents make the mind sharper — improving test scores, reducing errors at work, and improving the efficiency of studying for school. A fan diffuser will blow air and evaporate oil from a cotton pad, and warming diffusers will safely (i.e. ok to use around children) and gently use heat to also evaporate oils from a pad. Both these styles are good choices for smaller areas, like a bedroom or living room.

Use Oils Efficiently with a Timer

The best way to use the least amount of essential oil for your needs is to use a timer — either built-in to the diffuser or a readily-available appliance timer. For ANY application, whether simple aromatic use or medicinal needs, one need only be exposed to the diffused oils for a few minutes at a time. Aromatically, your “smell scent” will become quickly accustom to the aroma, and you’ll start to think the diffuser isn’t working anymore. Running the diffuser for only a few minutes every half an hour lets your nose “forget” the oils are in the air. The same principal works for disinfecting the air and immune-system support — there’s no need to over-saturate the air with essential oils. They are so potent that there’s no need to continually diffuse a high concentration for these results.

Choosing Oils For Your Purpose

Each essential oil has a unique chemistry; the unique chemistry of each oil gives it its aroma and its therapeutic action. For emotional support — oils that make you happy — consider the “Needle” oils. Oils distilled from Spruce, Fir, and Pine needles are very popular to give your home the scent of being deep in the forest. You can imagine how pleasant that may be! Other anti-depressant oils include the citrus oils (virtually all the oils pressed from the peels of citrus fruit are considered very uplifting) and some folks really enjoy the florals: Rose Geranium, Rose, and Neroli. Lavender essential oil is THE most studied oil for calming and rest. There are many resources on the internet to help you find the oils you enjoy smelling, with the psychological energetic profile you’re interested in. Most oils in this category are safe for all ages — only Peppermint, used for invigorating mental activity, is not recommended for use with younger children.

For disinfecting your surroundings and boosting your immune system, there are many highly regarded oils to choose from. Lauris Nobilis (Laurel Leaf) was recently noted to have direct effects against the virus causing SARS, and due to its very complex chemical nature, will likely have this effect against many other viruses. Narrow-leaf Eucalyptus is very popular, and is called the “aromatherapist’s designer oil” for its broad range of actions. These include antiviral and immune-supportive effects, as well as a nice “pick me up” aroma. A little online research will help you find more oils in this category, and even diffuser blends formulated for this purpose. As the antimicrobial oils are often very potent, it is important to research whether your oils of choice can be safely used with children — it is likely that they are ok, but its best to be sure. A few oils that are too strong for diffusing are Cinnamon Bark and Oregano (these are excellent antimicrobial oils, but inhaling them can irritate the mucus membranes). Eucalyptus, Laurel Leaf, Rosalina and Lavender are great immune supportive oils for the whole family.

In Conclusion: Diffusers Make Aroma-Therapy Simple

Diffusing essential oils is easy to do, and gives the best results for certain aroma-therapeutic applications — specifically those to do with preventing colds and flu, supporting emotions and bringing calm to a family environment. There are many diffusers to choose from — generally the more expensive units will offer the greatest potential for therapeutic uses, but they’re certainly not necessary to get started. The lowest-cost warming diffusers are only about $12, simply to use, and are very durable. This, and several essential oil samples is a great way to get started using the therapeutic aspects of essential oils and aromatherapy.

Natural immunity is supported by the proper use of aromatic botanicals.


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