In a recent study by Sasannejad P, Saeedi M, Shoeibi A, Gorji A, Abbasi M, Foroughipour M. in the Journal of European Neurology (2012;67(5):288-91. doi: 10.1159/000335249. Epub 2012 Apr 17.) the authors conclude that "inhalation of lavender essential oil may be an effective and safe treatment modality in acute management of migraine headaches". This is one of first of many clinical placebo controlled studies that are revealing the efficacy of aromatherapy in treating common medical conditions.
The last decade has seen a growing awareness and interest in alternative and potentially safer and more natural approaches to many emotionally and physically based problems. Herbal, homeopathic, and other approaches are beginning to be researched in medical schools and helping to provide a more holistic and preventative approach to health care.
My interest in aromatherapy came about through personal experiences a number of years ago with my pets who seem to respond to essential oils rather profoundly. Since then I have been searching for credible research on their clinical efficacy.
I have personally used therapeutic grade Lavender Essential Oil for skin ailments after having read many positive anecdotal reviews on its benefits on helping burn wounds. It has also over the years been applied as an alternative albeit not scientifically proven agent to address such conditions as: anxiety, mood instability, muscle spasms, high blood pressure, bacterial and other infections and pain management.
Migraine headache has been felt to arise from arterial muscular spasm resulting instability in brain blood flow. It has also been thought to, in some cases, have an underlying emotional component as well. In this light, it would appear that Lavender Essential Oil with its spasmolytic (i.e. anti-spasm/relaxing effects on arterial muscles) and its anti-anxiety effects might contribute a new line of treatment for migraine sufferers.
The study noted above, which randomly divided and matched 47 migraine sufferers into 2 groups of cases and controls and compared the efficacy of inhaled Lavender Essential Oil in the case group against inhaled liquid paraffin in the placebo controlled group.
It was found that there was a 71% reduction in migraine headaches in the case group vs. only 47 % response in the placebo controlled group.
Apart from not being a blinded study, it does attempt to carefully and rigorously discern whether inhalation of Lavender Essential Oil has any efficacy in the treatment and amelioration of migraine headaches. Its conclusions reached a statistical significance of 1 in 1000 which makes it's a credible result.
If you are interested learning more about essential oils and how you can make them part of your personal wellness armamentarium then I refer you to the Essential Oils Desk Reference by Essential Science Publishing (with which I am not affiliated).
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