Protect Your Heart Using Healing Oils for the Mind, Body, Soul

 

A Whiff of Healing Oils for Your Heart

By Cal Orey, M.A.

I am not an aromatherapist or a doctor—but I am a nature-loving baby boomer who gets the wide world of healing essential oils. I have a history of growing up around flowers, plants, and trees which helps me to chill.  So, I was surprised and super spooked last summer when a cardiac event paid me (a health author), a visit like an unwelcome dinner guest knocking at my door. But thanks to a team of amazing doctors (some told me it was likely my holistic lifestyle that kept me alive) I survived.

No, essential oils are not a cure for heart disease (like I have, partly due to genes). But, a combo of the Mediterranean diet (includes fruit, vegetables, fish, eggs, nuts, whole grains, some dairy, and olive oil—which can help you lose weight, lower your risk of diabetes, and increase longevity), exercise, destressing, conventional meds, and nature’s oils can be beneficial for heart health.

Enter Aromatherapy 101. Essential oils from aromatic the bark, leaves, petals, rinds, roots, seeds, stalks, and stems of aromatic plants can help regulate heart rate, blood pressure and breathing and much more. This, in turn, means aromatherapy may have healing effects for people, like me, living life with heart disease.

Here, take a look at five favorite healing oils for your heart.

1.     Chamomile Essential Oil: Much like chamomile tea I love and sip often, this oil can have the same positive effects on keeping blood pressure in a healthy numbers range. It works by lowering stress levels, which can help to dilate your arteries. Also, chamomile is a nervine, which can help to maintain the nervous system and keep you calmer.

Come On, Try It! Chamomile oil can be used topically and sniffed. It can be used in baths and massages and inhaled from a vial or in a vaporizer. Whether it’s a spray for the air or put into an aromatherapy necklace that you can wear for its calming benefits, it’s one essential that is essential for me and may be for you, too.

2.     Cinnamon Essential Oil: This oil is given credit for decreasing LDL or “bad” cholesterol and improving heart health. Research has shown cinnamon oil contain an anti-inflammatory thanks to phenylpropanoid. This, in result, means that it may help with an anti-plaque effect, so your arteries won’t be clogged leading to heart disease.

Come On, Try It! Inhaling cinnamon oil from a vial, diffuser, or applying it directly to the skin with a carrier oil are some ways to get its benefits Cinnamon oil (food grade only).is a popular culinary essential oil used in both cooking and baking.

3.     Lavendar: Essential Oil: It’s touted for easing one big problem—stress. We live in a time when feeling on edge happens due to pressures from work, family, finances, and experiencing love and loss. However, turning to natural alternatives like calming lavender oil may be helpful as an aid to provide a sense of calm and normalcy so we can cope better with challenges that wreak havoc on heart health.

Come On, Try It! Inhaling this oil in a steaming vaporizer or putting a drop or two on a cotton ball is a sure-fire way to chill. It can be used diluted with a carrier oil (such as almond oil, coconut, and jojoba oil) and massaged on body parts and used in candles, baths, to spa massage.

4.     Orange Essential Oil: Studies show not only can orange oil lower anxiety, which is often linked to stress, but it can lower high blood pressure, too. And not unlike lavender oil this citrusy oil may even help lower the risk of developing heart disease.

Come On, Try It! Orange oil can be used by inhalation methods with a vaporizer. It is also used in aromatic massages, baths, beauty soaps and shampoos, and even cleaning products.

5.     Vanilla Essential Oil: The relaxing effect of the oil’s vanillin may lower blood pressure because it calms the mind and body and lessens stress, which can overlap with anxiety and depression, too. Medical researchers and aromatherapists will tell you vanilla oil, thanks to its disease-fighting antioxidants, may help fight damage to blood vessels. Also, calming vanilla can help stave off PMS anxiety to menopause stress, which sometimes come with heart palpitations due to fluctuating hormones.

Come On, Try It! Use this essential oil in massages and bathes. It can be inhaled from its vial or used in a diffuser. Vanilla oil is used in fragrances, soap, candles, and incense.

This article is intended as a reference tool only. It does not give medical advice. Be sure to consult your doctor or the appropriates healthcare professional before starting any new essential oil. (Adapted from The Healing Powers of Essential Oils: A Complete Guide to Nature’s Most Magical Medicine, by Cal Orey, published by Kensington.)

 

CAL OREY, M.A., is a bestselling author-novelist specializing in topics such as adventure, romance, and science. She holds a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in English (Creative Writing) from San Francisco State University. Her books include the Healing Powers series. She is a South Lake Tahoe local. Her website is www.calorey.com . 

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