Maggie Tisserand - Aromatherapy for women : how to use essential oils for health, beauty and your emotions

Thanks to my friend Sue Robinson, who helped to edit many of the chapters.

Grateful thanks to my three children for being so trusting in me, and for the opportunities given to me to treat them, even for serious illnesses, and to put my faith to the test.

Firstly, I would like to explain my reasons for the title of my book, and apologize to all those men who have said to me What about aromatherapy for men? Of course, aromatherapy is not only for women: it is for any human being woman, child or man and also for animals, in certain circumstances. I chose the title as there is a large proportion of the book relating to pregnancy, childbirth and gynaecological problems, which are only pertinent to women, but there is much information contained in the book which will be of benefit to men, especially the section about Aromatherapy and the immune system ().

For much of the book I have drawn largely on my own experiences during pregnancy, childbirth and in bringing up three children; in the visible improvements in my appearance and the general state of my health; and also on feedback from friends and relatives who have benefited from using essential oils.

In a nutshell, aromatherapy means a therapy using aromas. The aromas come from the plant kingdom flowers, trees, bushes, and herbs. The relevant part of the plant (the wood of the sandalwood tree; the petals of the rose; the peel of the lemon; the leaves of rosemary bushes; berries of the juniper tree, etc) is put through a process of distillation, where the volatile, odiferous substance is captured. It is this liquid which is known as an essential oil.

Essential oils have many uses, although our sense of smell, being linked to our emotions, plays the largest part in recognizing the power of aromatherapy and it is here that we can discover how certain essences have the power to lift depression, or which essences have a calming influence on troubled emotions. Aromatherapy is a mixture of aromas, massage and medicine.

It was in 1972 that I first looked for an alternative form of medicine, when I decided that I no longer wanted to take aspirins or antibiotics. Homoeopathy was the alternative science that I chose to study, but whilst living in a sort of medical commune with other like-minded young people, something happened which was to imprint itself forever in my memory the miraculous healing power of essential oils! One day a friend turned up on the doorstep, nursing a badly burned arm. He had removed the radiator cap from his Jeep, and a jet of steam had seared the skin from his forearm. He resolutely refused to go to hospital, insisting that we treat him. Annie (an SRN nurse and trainee acupuncturist) diagnosed the injury as being a second-degree burn, and tidied up the site of injury with sterile instruments. I administered homoeopathic arnica to lessen the shock, and Robert Tisserand applied neat lavender oil on sterile gauze. The essence stung at first, but then reduced the pain, and this treatment was employed twice a day for a little over a week. After two weeks the arm was completely healed, there was no scar tissue, and our friend was able to return to work.

Lavender oil had been chosen because it had been used by Gattefosse in the 1930s and later by Dr Valnet both in the treatment of burns, and both with remarkable results. Witnessing for myself the incredible healing power of essential oils in this way was the start of a long love affair with aromatherapy.

During my 11-year marriage to Robert Tisserand, now a leading aromatherapist, I literally lived and breathed aromatherapy, utilizing essential oils for health, beauty and well-being, and although I am now divorced from Robert, my love for aromatherapy and my appreciation and respect for essential oils just gets stronger.

The subject of aromatherapy is so complex, yet at the same time so very simple to put into practice, that anyone can embark on the journey of aromatherapy, beginning with an aromatic bath and then, if so inclined, to go on studying aromatherapy for the rest of his or her life. There is always more to learn.

Having confidence is important when treating your familys minor ailments using essential oils. I have confidence to treat my children because of my knowledge of the essences, my intuition, and my trust in the loving power that put the essences into the plants. When we are sick we have to put our trust in someone or something, and that someone can be a doctor, a pharmacist, or yourself, and that something can be a doctors prescription, an over-the-counter drug, or aromatherapy. The choice is yours.

Throughout this book, I have expressed opinions which may offend some medical personnel. I am not anti-doctor; in fact, several of my friends are doctors, but I strongly oppose the over-use of prescribed drugs. Modern medicine has much to offer, especially with regard to technological life-saving techniques, and if I were ever run over by a bus, I would certainly be thankful for this facility. However, I see nothing to be proud of in the way that our hospitals are used as an outlet for the drug companies products, costing the National Health Service millions of pounds per year, when cheaper, more effective, and more user-friendly remedies are available. A few hospitals in the UK are now incorporating aromatherapy into their patient care, with quite astounding results (in one Oxford hospital ward the administration of night-time sedatives has been significantly reduced as patients are offered an aromatherapy massage instead, and some wards are using essential oils on burners to purify the atmosphere); however, the use of essential oils in hospitals is still only employed on a very small scale. A recent report outlines the dangers of picking up infections whilst in hospital, and according to this report, the longer your stay in hospital, the more likely you are to acquire an infection which could prolong your hospital stay. This reinforces my observations and comments about maternity hospitals being dangerous places for babies and for the newly-delivered mother, and emphasizes the need to take our healthy atmosphere with us. By surrounding ourselves with the protective aromas of plants, we can prevent the likelihood of succumbing to airborne bacteria. Aromatherapy is not just to treat an illness which has developed, but is a very real protection from environmental pollutants, bacteria and viruses. Instead of waiting for the body to manifest the pathological changes of disease, we have the tools available to protect the body and to build up resistance to disease, so that ill-health does not occur. We are at the beginning of a health revolution. Preventive medicine is the medicine of the future, and aromatherapy is one of the important therapies of the 1990s.

By keeping ourselves healthy and functioning efficiently, we automatically pay fewer visits to our doctor, thereby freeing him or her from the humdrum and repetitive prescribing of nonessential medicines, and allowing his or her skills to be channelled to the very sick and dying patient.

The reason for taking a trivial complaint to a doctor can no longer be excused in terms of well its free I have already paid for the NHS in my taxes. Now that each prescription charge is several pounds in value, it is possible to purchase a bottle of essential oil for almost the same price. As nearly all essential oils have excellent keeping qualities, every time we buy an essential oil, unlike the course of prescribed drugs which must be finished or thrown away, we are investing in long-term health by building up a collection of potent plant medicines. Furthermore, by utilising plant oils for our health needs, our bodies are no longer excreting antibiotics and other harmful drugs into the sea, via the sewage system. Aromatherapy is a truly holistic therapy, not only for humans but also for the planet.