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IFA Journal "Simply Essential"Snippets of Current Articles
USING ESSENTIAL OILS IN WOUND CARE
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 | effective medical treatments - the current system was considered adequate despite its shortcomings. |
| no scientific evidence to support anecdotal claims - anything new requires evidence that it will not cause harm and that it will be effective. Such evidence was not available for the use of essential oils. |
| limited anecdotal evidence - it was rare to find anything published on this subject. |
| a reluctance by aromatherapists to innovate - wound care is a new area for modern aromatherapy and represents too many unknown and unfamiliar factors. |
| administrative problems - such as patient liability issues, insurance, medical codes of ethics and practice. |
| industry pressure - many aromatherapists were afraid to discuss this type of work due to possible criticism from their peers and possible contravention of their professional association guidelines. |
| education - wound care with essential oils is not taught and rarely mentioned in most aromatherapy courses. |
Professional health care workers such as nurses have become interested in essential oils for wound care (especially with the elderly) due to what they see as inadequacies in the current medical treatment system such as wound odour, inadequate pain relief, and the growing belief in the importance of treating the person rather than the symptoms.
COMMON NAME: AMLA
(infused in Sesame)
SANSKRIT /HINDI: Amlaki/Dhatri
phala/ Amlakam/Sriphalam
BOTANICAL NAME: Phyllanthus emblica
FAMILY:
Euphorbiacea
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Grows throughout India upto 4500 ft
PART OF PLANT:
Fruits (for oil)
TASTE:
Sweet, sour, bitter, astringent, pungent
Virya (Potency): cooling ; Vipaka(Post digestive effect):sweet
DOSHA EFFECT:
Pacifies Vata, Pitta and Kapha (sour generally aggravates pitta,
but Amlaki is an exception as its virya is cold and vipaka is sweet)
HISTORY: In the Indian Materia Medica it is also referred to as Emblica officinalis. It is a deciduous, small or middle sized tree. Amalaki is one of the herbs mentioned in all the ancient scriptures of Ayurveda. It is also sited in various archaic Sanskrit scriptures like Rigveda, Ramayana, Prabhu Samhita. The famous story of the great sage Chyavan who was totally rejuvenated by the Aswinikumaras through their herbal preparation which is known since then as Chyavana prasha, chiefly contains Amlaki fruits.
Amalaki is called Dhatri or nurse, as it resembles the nurse or the mother in its nurturing, rejuvenating, healing and soothing properties. It is pacifying, retains youth, an aphrodisiac, and beneficial to the entire nature. Charaka refers to it as one of the foremost Rasayanaas as it bestows long life, intelligence, memory, health, youth, glow, voice, complexion, strength and sex desire(Charaka Samhita, Chikitsa). It enhances longevity and promotes youth.
The herb is also known as Praja sthapana as it promotes reproduction, augments seminal fluids, delays aging and assists laxation. It is also recommended as a drug of choice for diabetes.(Astanga Hrdaya- Vagbhata)
The leaves resemble tamarind leaves which is called Amlika. Though it has all five tastes it is predominantly sour but because of its cold virya and sweet vipaka it does not aggravate Pitta and is good for all three doshas. In fact it is chiefly used to alleviate pitta diseases. Its astringent, bitter and pungent taste alleviates kapha and the sour alleviates Vata.
It possesses light dry and cold attributes or gunas. When used externally it relieves the burning sensation of the skin and is excellent for hair and skin care as an oil. We use it as a base carrier oil and add essential oils to it.
For good eyesight Amalaki can be boiled in cow’s ghee (amalaki ghrita) and this is good in case of progressive myopia. Also soaking the powder of amlaki in water overnight and washing it is good for the eyes.
It is popularly combined with Haritaki (Terminalia chebula) (Ho-tzu in Chinese medicine) which also has five tastes except sour and Bibhitaki (Terminalia belerica) and is called Triphala Churna (Tri-3 phala-fruits or berries). Churna means powder. My little dog “Lady” has this powder morning and night as it is a great combination for eyesight, anti aging, rejuvenation and detoxification.
Have you had the experience of locking the keys in the car, or doing all of those “Monday-itis” things? Perhaps you just do not want to face what is really going on at work today.
I once heard Ita Buttrose, (Australian Journalist/Editor “Queen”) say: “If you are not doing what you would want to be doing if you were going to die in six months, get out of it.” I totally agree with this statement. If you are not doing what you want, you are taxing your physical, emotional and spiritual health. And, it may be reflecting in both your home life and work lives.
So many people wait until they hit rock bottom to make changes. I am passionate about aromatherapy because it is so easy to integrate into your work environment. I have had endless clients in my clinic over the years that are running on empty and have lost the excitement for life and just plain old do not want to be at work any more. They can be in a position where they feel that they are unable to leave the workplace because of usually money constraints etc. So it is important that if they are going to stay at the place of work that they set their environment for success and to feed them positive energy. If it is acting like an energy sucker, they are killing themselves slowly.
If you
don’t like it, change it.
If you cannot change it,
It was not that bad in the first place.
Have you changed jobs because you could not get on with the boss or your co-workers, and found that the new job presents similar problems after you have settled in? Why are you attracting these problems? I call them learning experiences, because you are in that environment and with those people to learn something. Only you know what it is, and perhaps you need to access help from a practitioner to understand the lesson to be learnt. Otherwise you may find yourself constantly changing jobs, and still never finding happiness.
‘Discontented minds and fevers of the body are not to be cured, by changing beds or businesses.’
- Benjamin Franklin
Ever thought about the fact that you spend so much of your life at work? It does not matter what kind of work you do, from the retail environment, to the office, natural therapies clinic or doctor’s surgery, all work places can be enhanced by using essential oils. Physical, emotional and business health can be weakened if teams of people are working at levels that are taxing them. It is pretty hard to find nowadays, anyone working with a lighter workload than they had five years ago. I know myself; the demands of owning a business are enormous. However, with a little thought you can bring a more relaxing yet productive environment into the workplace with the help of essential oils.
“Sugar and spice and all things nice.” “Sweetheart”, “Sugar-plum” – the white stuff is always painted in a great and cuddly light. Let’s take a hard look at sugar, and its partners-in-crime, aspartame and saccharin.
There are a number of sugars’ around:
Glucose – occurs naturally in fruits and vegetables. Glucose is alsways present
in our bloodstream and is a key material in the metabolic functions of all
plants and animals.
Dextrose – known as corn sugar, is manufactured from starches.
Fructose – natural sugar found in fruits.
Lactose – milk sugar.
Maltose – malt sugar.
Sucrose – refined sugar manufactured from sugar cane and beet.
Refined sugar has had its salts, fibres, proteins, vitamins and minerals removed to leave a white, crystalline substance devoid of any nutritional content, only offering empty calories. Sucrose is labelled as ‘a carbohydrate’, that most generic of terms which describes a compound comprising of carbon coupled with hydrogen and oxygen.
Sugars contained in nature, whole foods are easily metabolised by the body. Sucrose on the other hand, devoid of vital minerals, becomes a greedy starch which cannot metabolise completely in our bodies, resulting in the formation of metabolites, such as pyruvic acid and unstable sugars containing five carbon atoms. These toxic by-products interfere with the respiration of cells, preventing them from acquiring sufficient oxygen to function correctly. These poisonous metabolites, in their free radical or oxidation format, are constantly seeking to stabilise themselves by robbing our healthy cells of available electrons. This action in turn degrades the cell and the cell dies.
Another reason to avoid sugar is to slow down the aging process. If you want to stay looking young, it is very important to limit sugar to the smallest amount possible. It is the most significant factor that accelerates aging. It does this by attaching itself to proteins in the body forming new sugar-protein substances called advanced glycation end-products (AGE).
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