Health – Grundeis

Lavender oil has been used for centuries for its wide variety of medicinal and therapeutic properties. Today, lavender essential oil is still one of the most popular oils for aromatherapy. Lavender essential oil can be used to improve mood, decrease anxiety & stress, promote better sleep, relieve pain, speed up wound healing, treat fungal infections, fight acne, reduce allergy symptoms, and repel insects. To see how lavender essential oil can improve your health and daily life, read on below. Improve Mood Lavender essential oil is most known for its ability to improve an individual's mood. Floral scents have been scientifically proven to improve mood and increase feelings of happiness by three times. Lavender has a distinct floral scent, making it perfect for bettering your state of mind for the day. Studies have also shown that the scent of lavender increase your mood as well as increase your energy levels. Inhaling lavender increases your positive brain activities that make you feel more fresh, alert, and active. So, next time you're feeling a little down or are having trouble finding the energy to get up off the couch, try introducing a little lavender into your day! Decrease Anxiety & Stress Not only can lavender improve your mood, but it can also relax it. Inhaling the smell of lavender has been shown to reduce skin temperature, lower heart rate, and decrease blood pressure, leaving you feeling calmer than before. In fact, some medical practices have been known to use lavender essential oil to decrease a patients' anxiety before being sedated for surgery and other procedures! In the past year, more than 30% of American adults felt that they were so stressed most days that they could hardly function. While lavender essential oil won't get rid of all your stress, it will make your day a bit better. Promote Better Sleep With over 50 million Americans struggling with sleep disorders and many more reporting that they struggle to get enough sleep in a night, finding ways to better sleep has never been so relevant. Lavender essential oil's calming properties and brain-activating effects have been proven to help individuals of all ages fall asleep faster and to also stay asleep longer and wake up feeling more refreshed. This is because the scent of lavender calms your central nervous system and increases your slow-wave brain function, inducing less REM sleep and more deep sleep. This increase of deep sleep over REM sleep is what helps you wake up feeling more energized and refreshed, making lavender essential oil a great way to finish your day great and start your next day off right. Pain Relief Lavender essential oil is a powerful anti-inflammatory and pain reliever. It is well-known for being able to help you with reducing headaches, menstrual cramps, joint pain, and general muscle discomfort. Both inhaling lavender essential oil from a diffuser or candle and applying the oil topically to the targeted area can help you with pain and inflammation. Plus, lavender is much cheaper than most pain-medication and has no known adverse effects when paired with other medications! Be mindful when applying lavender oil directly to the skin, as some people can be sensitive to its high concentration. While normally okay for use directly on skin, if you experience itching, burning, or other reaction, you might be too sensitive or have an allergy. If your skin is sensitive, try diluting the oil with a bit of unfragranced lotion or carrier (such as almond or coconut oil) before applying. If that ibuprofen isn't helping you out much, maybe try applying some lavender oil to help ease the discomfort! Speed Up Wound Healing A study conducted in 2016 found that applying lavender essential oil to minor cuts and wounds greatly sped up the healing process of the injury. Lavender essential oil helps heal your wounds by helping form tissue, aiding in the shaping and conversion of the tissue into skin, and assisting the shrinking of the wound until it closes with the new tissue in place. If you choose to try this yourself, mix a three to four drops of lavender essential oil with a carrier oil (such as coconut oil or jojoba oil) and dab onto the wound with a cotton ball or pad. Repeat this as needed. Note that this method does not clean a wound. Make sure to continue to keep your wounds clean alongside lavender essential oil application. If you have a would that's already healed, keep applying lavender oil! Its tissue-building properties and amazing wound-shrinking powers can help in healing and reducing the visibility of scars. Treat Fungal Infections As antifungal-resistant fungal infections become more and more common, the quest to find the ultimate antifungal has begun, and lavender essential oil might just be the hero. Lavender essential oil has powerful anti-fungal properties alongside its many other superpowers. And not only is it anti-fungal, but it has been proven successful at fighting those pesky fungal strains that other anti-fungals have failed against. Lavender-based treatment is most effective against common skin and nail infections. The oil works by destroying the cell membrane of the fungi, killing it over a short period. It also has this power against other germs and microbes, given its high levels of antimicrobials and antioxidants. Fight Acne Multiple aspects of lavender essential oil make it great at fighting breakouts. Its antimicrobial properties help kill the acne that cause breakouts. Its antiflammatory properties help to reduce the swelling of pimples, and its wound healing properties help shrink and heal those pesky zits. These things together make lavender essential oil a must in getting rid of acne. To use lavender essential oil for acne, mix three to four drops of it with a carrier oil and apply it to your face after cleansing. Although lavender has awesome anti-microbial qualities, it still does not replace cleanser and water. To fight acne, it is imporant to fully cleanse your skin before applying the lavender oil mixture. Reduce Allergy Symptoms Alongside its incredible anti-inflammatory abilities, lavender is also a powerful natural antihistamine. Both of these can help you reduce inflammation in the sinuses and lungs, as well as any itching, sneezing, running noses, and watering eyes. Because of this reduction of inflammation, inhaling lavender slows down the build-up of mucus in the lungs, making it much easier for you breathe and a whole heck of a lot easier for you to sleep. Lavender essential oil can be inhaled via a diffuser or candle to work as allergy relief, or it can be applied directly to your skin with a carrier oil or lotion for any skin allergies. This amazing oil can also be used to reduce swelling and discomfort from things like hives, bug bites, or rashes. Try using lavender next time your seasonal allergies come around--you might just find it helps a lot of your symptoms, and it makes your life smell even better! Repel Bugs While scents like citronella and peppermint are widely known for their insect-repelling qualities, lavender essential oil is also a great tool to keeping those pesky flying guests away. Blood-sucking bugs, such as mosquitoes and spiders, find their prey by using their sense of smell. When lavender oil is scenting the air around you or in a lotion/oil on your skin, bugs have a hard time smelling you, since all they can smell is lavender. As a result, they're far more likely to leave you along, making you far less likely to get bitten! If you're outdoors, try to use a lavender lotion or dab lavender on your skin rather than using a candle or a diffuser. Candles and diffusers of lavender oil are great for indoor spaces, but their vapor/smoke often get carried away by the wind, leaving you much more vulnerable to bugs. Ways to Introduce Lavender Essential Oil into Your Life One of the best parts about lavender essential oil is that there are so many ways to reap its benefits in your day to day life! The best way to inhale lavender is to use a diffuser or a lavender essential oil scented candle. Both of these methods release particles of the essential oil into the air, making your space smell lovely and allowing you to inhale all that lavender goodness. A diffuser will spray a higher concentration of the oil into the air than a candle would, but both work just fine. If you don't have a diffuser or any candles, don't sweat it! You can still inhale the scent of lavender oil by placing a one to two drops on your palms and rubbing your hands together. Cup your hands over your nose and inhale deeply. Do this as much and as often as you need. There are also essential oil necklaces you can buy to put your choice of oil in. You can take your oil on the go with you that way, mobilizing your oil of choice. For more physical applications of lavender essential oil, you can mix water and lavender oil in a mister to spray a pillow before you sleep. You can also mix lavender with a carrier oil and use that mixture in a variety of things, like cold compresses, baths, lotions, balms, etc. Or you can just apply that mixture directly onto the skin. There are plenty of lavender essential oil-based products out there as well. Heated neck wraps for aches and pains, bath salts, reed diffusers... all are great products that will help you benefit from the power of lavender essential oil. All in all, lavender essential oil is the every-man of essential oils. Whether you inhale it, rub it in, or soak in it, you're sure just how positively it'll affect your life.