Sensitization - reply to Sherry-long

[Guest guest]

Sherry, if you found my reply harsh you have not been on the net long

as I have made far harsher comments lots of times, particularly over

Y.L. Fact is the net is packed to bursting with web sites offering

magic bullet scam cures. The vast majority of these are criminal

con artists out to make a buck out of gullible people. Whenever I

come across something that smells of a scam I try and warn people so

at least they may think twice before getting sucked in.

 

I put out several warnings a few years back over the scams of natural

hormone replacement creams. Subsequently it was found many of these

creams contained illegal levels of synthetic hormones. Despite that,

you will still find many women swearing blind they work. What many

do not want to understand is that you can get exactly the same

effects by giving people sugar pills-it's called the placebo effect.

So when I see people on newsgroups claiming " my daughter (or

whatever) was cured by such and such " I have to point out that this

is far from being valid research or even justification for the use of

the suggested treatment. More on this below.

 

I was searching for a post I made on this a couple of years back but

can't find it. So instead I am reposting some advice I gave which may

help some people as it helps explain what proper research is. So

often you find people claiming they " have done research " when in

reality they have simply scanned the internet and been suckered by

unverified and often deliberately misleading information.

 

I hope this explains a little but somewhere on my hard drive I have a

heap of stored messages and can repost some if necessary.

 

Martin Watt

http://www.aromamedical.com

======================

 

Jennifer asked valid questions which I will do my best to reply to:

How do you determine what oils will do?

 

Several answers to this.

 

1. Properly controlled clinical trials.

 

2. You spend months and months gathering decent information from a

huge range of medical and scientific publications. Far from easy if

you don't know where to start, or do not have access to a National

library. Also not possible unless you can sell the results of your

work or have a company funding you. This work is not possible from

the internet.

 

3. You invest thousands of Dollars buying therapeutics and

pharmacopoeia books dating back to the 1700s during which timespan

essential oils were widely used by the medical profession. Many well

documented uses can be established for the more common oils from

those.

 

4. You can spend several thousands dollars subscribing to big

international databases on essential oils although they are not so

hot on therapeutics.

 

5. You spend 4 years of full time training in the medical and

botanical sciences which helps equip you with the knowledge to be

able differentiate between different types of plant extracts. In

particular it helps give you a rough idea on if a given therapeutic

action is likely to be due to the herb or its oil or sometimes both.

 

6. You try and form an opinion on the psychological/emotional

attributes of essential oils based on experience, reports from other

therapists and research on olfaction. I hasten to add though that

this area is notoriously unreliable and fickle. You can even use

aromatherapy books to assist in that process because most

psychological effects are open to individual variation. For example

most people will relax when being massaged with lavender oil, but a

small proportion hate it, so there are no hard and fast rules on that

area.

 

Your alternative is to buy that information ready assembled from

someone who has already done all that work like myself.

 

>isn't this how we get some of the " traditional uses " is by<

>experiences of individuals?<

 

Yes, but with herbal medicine that process has taken tens of

thousands of years and has treated hundreds of millions of people.

Even then therapeutic and toxicological ideas can be wrong. So one

then relies on modern scientific investigations to help sort the gems

of traditional information from the garbage. With aromatherapy that

process is only around 30 years old with nothing like sufficient

documented information to draw the kind of conclusions most

aromatherapy authors/teachers have drawn. Also, they do not have the

training to even begin such a massive task. In aromatherapy the only

genuine " traditional uses " are those drawn from the past uses of

essential oils mainly by the medical profession. Anecdotal evidence

in aromatherapy is only worth anything if it is properly collated and

examined for possible flaws. Not one aromatherapy organisation has

ever attempted to do this in any concerted manner. If they did, we

might by now have had some really valuable information to hand over

to researchers to investigate.

 

>This remark would be true assuming that " most " therapists did

littleto no homework of their own to verify the information that

is beingpresented to them.<

 

" Most " aromatherapists are not educated in *how* to undertake such a

task. Most gather their information from the numerous books; written

by people who did not know of the true historical uses for essential

oils; had no contacts with oil producers; analysts; safety

specialists, etc. They simply did not know their trade before putting

pen to paper and so that is why so much of the material in these

books conflicts or is plain wrong.

 

>I am curious about why this the case with internal use but not the<

>other uses which are commonly used to administer aromatherapy? <

 

Internal use of essential oils is use as a medicinal substance.

External use in massage brings into play a whole different array of

metabolic and mind processes. For example, you could take a dreadful

smelling oil internally and get its medicinal effects via the gastro

intestinal system. If that same horrible oil were applied in massage

you would get none of those effects and may even be made to feel

worse, I suppose garlic oil would be a good example. I would say who

would want to be massaged with that crap but I know some therapists

do use it externally.

 

I hope this clarifies some really very complex issues a little.

 

Martin

http://www.aromamedical.com

 

, " Sherry Smith "

<scrapbookcherie@s...> wrote:

>

> I'm certainly not saying that anyone cannot express their opinion.

> What I don't appreciate is discrediting something (comparing

> something to YL for instance, or assuming that someone

is " inflating "

> thier credentials) without any information to back it up. This is

> inflammatory and unnecessary.

>

> I found Martin's post harsh. I am not here to defend any authors

> opinion, simply to post some information that may be beneficial to

> someone in need, as others are doing on this list.

>

> I certainly would not try to change anyone's personality and

wouldn't

> expect anyone to try and change mine either. I don't have any

> experience with the other lists your are mentioning and I actually

> never even heard of YL until I joined this list.

>

> Regards,

> Sherry

>

> , Butch Owen <butchbsi@s...>

> wrote:

> > Hi Sherry,

> >

> > Part of the below post is sort of harsh .. at least that's how it

> comes across to me. I am sure you have a lot to offer the list but

> telling folks your opinion or that of an author and then saying you

> are not interested in hearing their opinion is not what we are used

> to on Oils & Herbs. I say this for any of the new folks who have

not

> been around long enough to pick up on the personality of this list.

> >

> > One thing that will NOT happen .. and this is a fact .. the

> personality of this list will NOT be changed .. unless the List Mom

> changes it. And that is not likely to happen .. we will never be

> like the cut throat Idma List where folks are afraid to speak their

> mind. To date, this list has been known as the kindest list

> around .. a list where folks can disagree without being

disagreeable

> and be dead wrong without being crucified.

> >

> > The only exception to the above is if someone insists on

continuing

> to put out unsafe information .. then they will find that the

> patience of some folks is not without limit.

> >

> > For sure we all will have bad days now and then .. and folks

> forgive us most of the time .. if we have been around long enough

for

> them to know who we are on our best days. Entering a new list is

not

> different than entering a new bar without checking out the scene

and

> finding out who is who and who isn't .. and what the personality of

> that bar is.