“Lavender for Generalized Anxiety Disorder” Lavender oil, distilled from lavender flowers, is most often used in aromatherapy and massage. Despite its popularity, only recently have scientifically-based investigations have been undertaken into its biological activity, however. There have been small-scale studies suggesting a benefit from lavender massage, but maybe it’s the massage, not the lavender. There was a study on patients in intensive care comparing massage with odorless oil to massage with lavender oil, and through patients massaged with lavender oil did say they felt less anxious and more positive, there were no objective differences found in terms of blood pressure, breathing, or heart rate. Frankly, maybe the lavender was just covering up the nasty hospital smells. Subsequent studies using more sensitive tests did find physiological changes, though. We know, for example, the smell of lavender changes brain wave patterns, but what effect does this have? Well, it makes people feel better, and perform math better, faster, and more accurately, whereas the smell of rosemary, for example, seemed to enable folks only to do the math faster —not necessarily with greater accuracy. What if you eat lavender flowers, or in this case take capsules of lavender-infused oil so you could double-blind the study to compare lavender head-to-head to a drug like valium, lorazepam, known as Ativan, for generalized anxiety disorder? Generalized and persistent anxiety is a frequent problem and is treated with benzodiazepines, “benzos”, or downers like valium. Unfortunately, these substances not only make you feel like you have a hangover, but have a high potential for drug abuse and addiction, so they decided to give lavender a try. The drug Ativan certainly reduces anxiety… but so does lavender. By the end, you couldn’t tell which was which! And in fact, among those that responded to either, the lavender seemed to work better.  Since lavender oil has no potential for drug abuse and causes no hangover effects, it appears to be an effective and well-tolerated alternative to benzodiazepine drugs for the amelioration of generalized anxiety. One cautionary note, however. There was a case series published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Prepuberty gynecomastia linked to lavender. Reports of young boys exposed to lavender-containing lotions, soaps, hair gel, and shampoo, starting to develop breasts, which disappeared after these products were discontinued, suggesting that lavender oil may possess hormone-disrupting activity. Indeed, when dripped on estrogen receptor positive human breast cancer cells, lavender does show estrogenic effects and a decline in male hormone activity, though it’s unknown if similar reactions occur inside the body when lavender flowers or lavender oil is ingested.As found on YouTubeSeanCooper🗯 The Shyness & Social Guy ⇝ The 3 WORST Mistakes You Must AVOID If You Want To Overcome Shyness (PLUS: 1 weird trick that targets the root biological cause of shyness so you can stop being nervous, awkward, and quiet around people…) By Sean Cooper, The Shyness & Social Anxiety Guy. The fact that you’re reading this article tells me you may have already reached a point where you feel your shyness is NOT going away on its own… or you fear it’s getting worse and worse. And I don’t want you to waste one more day living a life where you feel left out, bored, or depressed because you don’t have the relationships which would make you happy. That’s why I’ve put together this page to help you avoid the worst mistakes that keep many people stuck with shyness for years… often giving up hope of ever improving as you watch other people have interesting “normal” lives without you. Yet this doesn’t have to happen.