“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.
