Rosacea? Aromatherapy and other natural methods help

If you've been swallowing quantities of antibiotics to solve a problem with rosacea, it might be time to think about trying a natural remedy. Antibiotics can cause health problems, especially with the gut, and taking them frequently also reduces their effectiveness when you really need them, so it's best to avoid them if you can.

This article from Natural News discusses various treatments in the natural pharmacopea, and essential oils are right up there at the top of the list. Why not give them a try.

Lemons

"Lemon tree very pretty
And the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon
Is impossible to eat"

Every time I think about lemons, this song from my childhood pops back into my memory, so I thought I would just share that with you!

Of course, the lyrics are totally wrong. I know tequila fans used to (may still do) eat lemons with salt when drinking their favorite tipple. So that's that, then. And, of course, you can make a quite delicious home made lemonade (totally different, much better than the see through sugary stuff you get in stores labeled "lemonade") by boiling some lemons with a couple of tablespoons (that's 25 grams if you've gone metric) of sugar and half a pint (225ml - I'm using UK pints here, so the US equivalent of that would be 1.25 US cups) of water per lemon. You need to use the zest and flesh of the lemons, throw away the white pith in between or it spoils the taste.

The essential oil of lemon is very safe. Visit this page to find out what you can use lemon oil for. And if you're interested in other things to do with lemons or lemon juice, this page should be interesting.

A little knowledge...

Proving the old adage that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" is a supposedly scientific study of the efficacy of aromatherapy carried out by Ohio State University.

Researchers taped cotton balls of lemon essential oil or lavender essential oil underneath human guinea pig's noses! and were surprised that this had no effect on their immune systems. It's almost as ludicrous as wearing an aspirin around your neck to combat headaches, but even so, it's been reported with a straight face as "proving" that aromatherapy doesn't work.

It's obvious from the design of the experiment that the researchers involved didn't bother to find out how aromatherapy works. Instead, they leapt to the conclusion (as many lay people do at first) that the term aromatherapy means that smelling something pretty makes you well.

In fact, as you'll know if you're a regular reader, it is the complex mixture of volatile components which carry scent along with them - not the scent itself - that is therapeutic. These elements are absorbed into the body mostly through the skin (or in the case of certain symptoms they may indeed be breathed in, but significantly these weren't tested for).

It's almost as if the people who set the study up were deliberately trying to find a way to bring aromatherapy into disrepute. They didn't test for effectiveness in emotional, mood and respiratory complaints, where their methodology might have had some chance of working, but for a boost to the immune system, which requires absorption.

Hmm. Big Pharma anybody?