Can Aromatherapy Help Patients Deal with Alzheimer’s?
Looking up alternative Alzheimer’s treatments on the internet delivers a lot of interesting results. These alternative treatments include everything from music therapy to art sessions and many other fun activities that have been proven to help seniors dealing with Alzheimer’s by many studies.
But one thing that you probably never even considered to be helpful can show tremendous results in helping your seniors overcome dementia and Alzheimer’s, as recent studies have shown. We are talking about aromatherapy, and other similar alternative therapies that have been proven to deliver positive effects and surprising results.
We asked our homecare Hollywood experts to guide us through how aromatherapy can help seniors with these conditions.
What is Aromatherapy?
For those who never encountered the term, aromatherapy is a treatment using plant extracts known as essential oils. These have long been used to improve people’s health and relax their mind. This treatment is considered alternative and doesn’t involve any medications or other synthetic products.
While aromatherapy has been used for hundreds of years by many civilizations such as the Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, there has never been any scientific proof of the efficiency of this method. However, new studies have shown without a doubt that aromatherapy can have great effects on patients suffering from Alzheimer’s.
How Aromatherapy Helps Patients with Alzheimer’s
A study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information was successful in proving that aromatherapy has positive effects on Alzheimer’s patients. The study, conducted over a period of 28 days involved applying rosemary and lemon oils in the morning and lavender and orange oils later in the evening. The patients who took part in the study have shown great improvement of their cognitive functions with no observable side effects. The study concluded that aromatherapy can indeed help treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
A separate study also proved that aromatherapy helped Alzheimer’s patients sleep better and reduced their anxiety. The patients also experienced higher levels of serenity when a combination of geranium, mandarin and lavender was applied to their skin. Another positive effect of aromatherapy is that patients were easier to communicate with as the therapy had a calming effect on them.
Both studies agree that aromatherapy has no side effects if applied properly, which gives essential oils an upper hand over conventional medication. While lavender is considered the safest, other essential oils are considered safe. Since there are no adverse effects, aromatherapy seems to be a great alternative to antipsychotic prescription drugs.
Practical Use of Aromatherapy for Homecare in Hollywood
Lavender was by far proven to have the most positive effects on dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. Experienced homecare Hollywood experts have taken this into account and started using aromatherapy to help their patients. Using essential oils to calm patients down is much better than sedating them with prescription drugs, and lavender seems to excel at this.
A caregiver can apply lavender in many ways, for example add the oils into the bathwater or spray the seniors’ pillows with its oil. The calming effect lavender has helps seniors sleep better at night, while using citrus-based oils can give patients a much-needed energy boost during the day.
If your senior loved ones are suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s, aromatherapy might just be the miracle you were looking for. Consult your caregiver for help on applying the treatment and make this condition easier on everyone, especially seniors.