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Lavender Relief

Lavender Relief

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il of lavender can diminish the perception of pain-oeven though a dental-school study has determined it actually does nothing to alleviate the physical suffering of it. On different days, 26 volunteers participated in three pain tolerance tests: heat up to 126 degrees, pressure, and a tourniquet temporarily cutting off circulation. For ten minutes leading up to and during each test, the subjects inhaled fumes from a cotton pad scented with lavender oil, rosemary oil, or distilled water (a placebo). Neither type of aromatherapy affected pain endurance or physiological responses (such as heart-rate changes) any differently than the placebo. Yet those who had just sniffed the lavender recalled the pain as significantly less awful than they did after the rosemary or the water. Psychologist Jeffrey J. Gedney and his colleagues at the University of Florida College of Dentistry in Gainesville suggest that lavenderis well-documented tranquilizing sensory and emotional effects can alter peopleis memory of an unpleasant experience.

72%

of women say that stress is the leading ?cause of physical pain they experience, versus 56 percent of men. oGallup poll of 2,002 adults