Monday, March 24, 2008

The Mis-Information Highway! - Lavender & the Media - Slanted Journalism, you think?

My rant of the day ! But first .. the meaning of :: 'Shill' .. as quoted from the Websters Dictionary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shill

... or the street verison .. selling you a 'dream' .. the 'mouth piece' of thehuge corporations that are controlling the media and information highway ..
slanted journalism .. oh my.! Here in America, please say it ain't so.!!
So, with that .. the LA Times today is pitching an article on 'Lavender'.
As a rebuttal to this misinformed 'Shill' of an article, with permission from Harry Roth, I am printing his response sent to the LA Times::

'Please try not to be such a shill of the fragrance industry.

I refer to your article today alleging that the effects of lavender are bogus, this assertion coming directly from a mouthpiece of the fragrance industry onto your pages. You should have at least checked PubMed for recent peer-reviewed journal articles on the efficacy of lavender in stress reduction instead of scarfing down fragrance industry pap.

Here are a few articles from JUST 2007-2008--that's right, ONE YEAR.
There are many, many more:


Nurses working in intensive care were less stressed when they used lavender.


The scent of lavender lowers blood pressure in mice.


Lavender bath oil reduces stress and crying and enhances sleep in very young infants.


Treatment with lavender aromatherapy in the post-anesthesia care unit reduces opioid requirements of morbidly obese patients undergoing laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding.

Relaxation effects of lavender aromatherapy improve coronary flow velocity reserve in healthy men evaluated by trans thoracic Doppler echo cardiography.


Positive effects of aromatherapy massage on blood pressure and lipid profile in Korean climacteric women.


Anxiolytic effects of lavender oil inhalation on open-field behaviour in rats. Shows lavender also sedating at higher doses.


Positive effects of lavender aromatherapy acupressure on hemiplegic shoulder pain and motor power in stroke patients.


Lavender relaxes women having electrocardiogram in Japan.


Lavender calms agitated behavior in people with Alzheimer's.


Lavender decreases the stress hormone cortisol.

Have an informed day.
Sincerely,
Harold A. Roth, Ph.D.

Want to say a great big 'thank you Harry!', for this wonderful and informative information.
(btw Harry's Blog - 'The Alchemist's Garden' is listed on my favorite blogs.)

thanks for stopping by,
~ until next time,
Rosanne

4 comments:

Tina Sams said...

Ah...so they've moved from "debunking" herbs into the world of aromatherapy. EO's must be so effective that they need to be debunked too.
Problem is, they all work.
Take a deep breath of some good lavender, Roe. Hee hee hee. Don't worry, it didn't change anyone's mind about herbs either.

Cindy said...

Well, I think I will just go sniff some lavender after reading this!

Unknown said...

I read the article debunking aromatherapy in our local paper. It's a shame the articles de-bunking the debunkers don't read wider press- good idea Harry had: writing a letter to the editor. I wish I'd done the same, but wasn't armed with all the wonderful data he presented to back up his assertion.

Wendy aka Gwendolyn said...

Thank you for this great post! I have been a true believer in Aromatherapy for years. Understanding the olfactory system, and how aroma's can trigger a memory is fascinating. There are those that have a closed mind and do not explore other therapies for simple relief. Kudos to you!