There are three mechanisms that cause the water to move between the blood and the lymph:

• The pressure of the pumping of the heart will cause water in the blood in the capillaries to pass across into the lymph when that pressure reaches the capillaries.
• The level of protein present in the blood will cause the water to be drawn into the blood from the lymph.
• Water will also be drawn out from the blood into the lymph by the level of salt present in the lymph.

When any of these mechanisms are out of balance the result is that the water levels in the body become unbalanced with an excess of water in the lymph causing swelling and puffiness.

Depending on the underlying cause of the fluid retention there are a number of things that one can consider doing. If fluid retention is due to a high salt diet, reducing salt in the diet may be helpful. Dietary herbs that have been suggested as being beneficial include fennel, celery, parsley, garlic and onions. And drinking fennel tea may be helpful.

Fluid retention, which occurs after standing or sitting for long period of time usually, rights itself when one is able to move naturally again. Keeping the legs raised when possible and gentle exercise is often very helpful. A lymphatic drainage massage is also often very beneficial.

Essential oils can prove very helpful in getting the balance back to normal. Added to a massage oil which is then used to gently massage the affected areas upwards towards the heart is one method of use.

• Add 12 drops of essential oil blend to 30 ml of carrier oil
• Another method would be to add 3 – 8 drops of essential oil or essential oil blend into a bath or footbath

There are a number of essential oils you could consider adding to your blend when dealing with fluid retention including:

• Juniper Berry (Juniperus communis) – has diuretic properties
• Lavender ( Lavendula angustifolia) — has anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties
• Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare ) – has diuretic properties
• Geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) – has diuretic properties
• Cypress ( Cupressus sempervirens ) — has diuretic properties
• Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) — has diuretic properties
• Carrot seed (Caucus carota) — has diuretic properties
• Grapefruit (Citrus paradise) — has diuretic properties

Do make sure that you take into consideration any possible contraindications such as pregnancy with the oils used.

Blends for Fluid Retention

Juicing is another way to boost the flushing of toxins from the body and balancing fluid retention

The following juice blend is great to flush toxins from the body, boost the metabolism and balance body fluid:

•  1cm slice of fresh ginger root
•  2 sticks of celery
•  1/2 grapefruit
•  1/2 cucumber (lebanese is preferrable)
•  1/2 red radish
•  5cm sliced fresh pineapple

Add all ingredients to juicer, blend and Enjoy

Ionic Foot Detox Spa treatments also work wonderfully well for fluid retention, follow this link to learn more about Avalon Wellness Ionic Feet Detox Spa treatments

read more about Manual Lymphatic Drainage as a treatment to assist with fluid retention – extract from Health Schools Australia: Healing Massage blog for students

Finding the energy to cast aside any sluggishness is often one of the hardest parts of following a weight loss program. All of the essential oils listed here help to improve your state of mind and get you moving again.

Ginger is particularly recommended if you think you may need a bomb stuck under you before you’ll make any changes.

• Frankincense, Grapefruit, Juniper, Ginger, Peppermint

Emotional Eating

Do you comfort eat when things are going badly? Reward yourself with food when things go well? Eat if you are bored? Do you have a snack drawer at work? Do you stop eating if you are profoundly unhappy? These can all be signs of a tendency towards ‘emotional eating’. If you know you do this, then it may be that you need to tackle your habits too – and separate the associations you make with food.

Try any of the following essential oils to help you break any habits you have developed as a result of linking your emotions to your eating habits.

• Lemongrass, Melissa, Frankincense, May Chang, Geranium, Palmarosa, Juniper, Cypress, Sandalwood.

Try keeping a Food/Mood diary for two weeks – this can be a powerful reminder of just how closely your emotions are tied to your eating habits.

Self Image, Self Confidence, Self Worth

The great thing about a wellness “weight loss program” is discovering a new you as you slowly shed the burdens you have been carrying. If you know that how you feel about yourself right now is making it harder for you to maintain an appropriate weight, then consider adding any of the following to the tissue going into your shirt pocket. All of these essential oils help to lift your spirits. Most are also known aphrodisiacs and can help you to feel better about yourself.

• Sandalwood, Patchouli, Black Pepper, Jasmine, Neroli, Rose, Vetiver, Ylang Ylang, Geranium

Cyclical Cravings

If you know you gain or lose a regular amount each month as a result of your menstrual cycle, then it is quite likely that you are faced with more than a bad case of water retention.

Each of the following essential oils are known to help regulate the menstrual cycle as well as to suppress the appetite. You may find that certain essential oils are more appealing at different times of the month.

• Try Geranium, Clary Sage, Jasmine, Patchouli, Rose or Fennel

Detox and CM Loss

Try giving yourself anti-cellulite massages. Use up to three of the essential oils listed here (and three drops each of the essential oils in 20 mls of a carrier oil like Sweet Almond oil, I also like Coconut oil). Apply the massage oil to the areas you want to focus on such as your legs, hips and thighs). Then massage vigorously using plenty of percussion movements (like hacking and cupping). Daily application of this style of treatment can result in visible cm loss  (as well as an associated improvement in muscle tone) within six weeks of starting the treatment.

• Use Rosemary, Grapefruit, Juniper, Angelica, Cypress, Lemon, Bergamot in this blend. Juniper or Angelica are key oils to consider if you are focusing on detoxing.

If you find you have an increased urge to urinate it means the blend is working. Keep drinking plenty of water too. This will help the body to remove any toxins.

How to Suppress Your Appetite

The easiest way to use aromatherapy to suppress your appetite is to create a blend that you can put on a tissue – and then place in a blouseor in your bra. Wear it throughout the day if you know you tend to graze or snack a lot. Add three drops each of up to three essential oils to a tissue and inhale as required.

• Essential oils with the most effective track record for appetite suppression include Grapefruit, Vanilla, Benzoin, Peppermint, Cinnamon, Clove, Fennel, Lemon, Marjoram, Orange, Mandarin, Ginger and Black Pepper.
• Choose essential oil(s) that remind you of the foods you like – this will increase the effects. If you know you love sweets, biscuits or chocolate, focus on Vanilla, Cinnamon, Grapefruit or Orange for your blend.

His most influential work was a medical encyclopedia covering 25 books called ‘AI Kitab al Hawi’, which was later translated into Latin and other European languages, and known in English as ‘The Comprehensive Work’. His medical accomplishments were legion, and he also developed tools such as mortars, flasks, spatulas and phials which were used in pharmacies until the early twentieth century.

A legend is born

Next came Ibn Sina (980-1037), also a Persian, who was probably the most famous and influential of all the great Islamic physicians and known throughout Europe as Avicenna. His life truly was the stuff of legend. At the age of 16 he began studying medicine and by 20 he had been appointed a court physician, earning the title ‘Prince of physicians’. He wrote 20 books covering theology, metaphysics, astronomy, philology, philosophy and poetry, and most influentially, 20 books and 100 treatises on medicine.

His 14 volume epic ‘Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb’, which means ‘The Canon of Medicine’ was over one million words long and contained the sum total of all existing medical knowledge. This monumental medical encyclopedia included the Hippocratic and Galenic traditions, describing Syro-Arab and Indo-Persian practice plus notes on his own observations, becoming the definitive medical textbook, teaching guide and reference throughout Western Europe and the Islamic world for over seven hundred years.

Anglo-Saxon remedies

The oldest surviving English manuscript of botanical medicine is the Saxon ‘Leech Book of Bald’, which was written between 900 and 950 by a scribe named Cild under the direction of Bald, who was a friend of king Alfred the Great. (‘Leech’ is an old English word meaning healer). This early text contains a mixture of herbalism, magic, shamanism and tree lore, and describes 500 plants, their properties, and how they can be used in amulets, baths or taken internally.

When the Crusaders returned from the Holy Wars they brought back rose water, perfumes, aromatics and remedies that were previously unknown. Fragrant plants became more popular, with aromatic herb garlands decorating homes and rose water being used to wash the hands of those who could afford it. The availability and range of aromatic medicines continued to increase over the next few hundred years, but the knowledge of the Eastern physicians had not yet begun to arrive on our shores.

Medieval apocalypse

During the 13th and 14th centuries in Europe, medicine was almost entirely governed by the Catholic church. They considered illness and disease to be a punishment from God, and the standard form of treatment administered by the priests was prayer, and perhaps a session of blood-letting. When the ‘Black Death’ first arrived in 1347, it was devastating. Almost 50% of London’s inhabitants succumbed within the first year, and up 40% of the entire population of Europe would die within 3 years. The basic Anglo-Saxon botanical remedies such as wearing sachets of dried lavender and amulets of thyme proved no match for this deadly pandemic.

In 1597 John Gerard published ‘ Herball, or General Historie of Plantes’ which is now considered a herbal classic. Although the very first essential oils such as juniper, lavender, rosemary and sage had arrived in Britain around this time, he makes no mention of them. Gerards book proved highly influential, and the apothecaries which had previously only sold the medicines prescribed by doctors, began to to prepare and compound their own medicines too. New style apothecaries that dispensed medicines and attended to the patient began appearing throughout England. But not quickly enough.

The second visitation of the Black Death in 1603 hit almost as hard as the first, and virtually every available aromatic was burned in houses and on the streets to keep the pestilence at bay. Benzoin, styrax, frankincense and various spice oils were all used to prevent the spread of this deadly disease, but to little effect. It was reported the only people not to succumb to the plague were the workers involved in aromatics and perfumery, and this is undoubtedly due to the highly antiseptic properties of the essential oils.

Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654) was one of the most influential herbalists who also introduced the concept of astrological herbalism. In his most famous work, ‘The English Physician’ (1652), Culpeper’s descriptions of herbs, oils and their uses were intermixed with astrology. Other notable herbalists such as Joseph Miller and John Parkinson would also leave a rich botanical legacy, paving the way for later generations to expand upon. The essential oil industries throughout Europe flourished, providing oils for the pharmaceutical, flavour and fragrance industries.

Champions of modern aromatherapy

The term ‘aromatherapie’ was coined by a French chemist named René-Maurice Gattefossé (1881-1950) who studied the medicinal properties of essential oils for many years whilst working in his families perfumery business. He had the opportunity to personally test his innovative theories when an explosion in his laboratory caused a severe burn to his hand.

He plunged his hand into a vessel of pure lavender oil which immediately reduced the swelling and helped accelerate the healing process. Most impressively, he was left with no scar. He was a prolific writer covering many subjects, but it was his passion for researching essential oils that eventually led to the publication in 1937 of his ground-breaking book, ‘Aromathérapie: Les Huiles essentielles hormones vegetales’.

A French doctor named Jean Valnet followed the work of Gattefossé, and during World War 2 whilst working as a surgical assistant he used essential oils of chamomile, clove, lemon and thyme to treat gangrene and battle wounds. After graduating as a surgeon at the end of the war, Valnet continued to use essential oils to treat illnesses, and was the first ever to use them to treat psychiatric conditions. His inspired book, ‘Aromathérapie – Traitment des Maladies par les Essence de Plantes’ was released in 1964, and in 1980 translated into English and released under the new title of ‘The Practice of Aromatherapy’, putting aromatherapy on the English map.

Madame Marguerite Maury (1895-1968) was an Austrian born biochemist who became interested in what was to become aromatherapy, after reading a book written in 1838 by Dr Chabenes called, ‘Les Grandes Possibilités par les Matières Odoriferantes’. This was the man who would later become the teacher of Gattefossé. Her influential book, ‘Le Capital Jeunesse’ was released in France in 1961 but sadly did not initially receive the acclaim that it deserved. In 1964 it was released in Britain under the title of ‘The Secret of Life and Youth’ and has at last been recognised for the great work that it was.

After her death, the work of Maury continued through her protege, Danièle Ryman, who is now herself considered an authority on aromatherapy. The work of Valnet and Gattefossé stimulated and influenced Englishman Robert Tisserand, who in 1977 wrote the very first aromatherapy book in English entitled, ‘The Art of Aromatherapy’. This book became the inspiration and reference for virtually every future author on the subject for almost two decades.

Today we are at last unfolding the final secrets of the Egyptian mysteries, revealing aromatherapy to be one of the finest ways to combat the detrimental effects of stress, restoring the beauty, tranquility and harmony of Nature into the lives of everyone.

This was a time when the ancient Egyptians first burned incense made from aromatic woods, herbs and spices in honour of their gods. They believed that as the smoke rose up to the heavens, it would carry their prayers and wishes directly to the deities. Eventually, the development of aromatics as medicines would create the foundations that aromatherapy was built upon.

Look to eternity

During the 3rd Dynasty (2650-2575 BC) in Egypt, the process of embalming and mummification was developed by the Egyptians in their search for immortality. Frankincense, myrrh, galbanum, cinnamon, cedarwood, juniper berry and spikenard are all known to have been used at some stage to preserve the bodies of their royalty in preparation of the after-life.

The valuable herbs and spices they needed were laboriously transported across inhospitable deserts by Arab merchants for distribution to Assyria, Babylon, China, Egypt, Greece, Rome and Persia. The most sought after materials were frankincense and myrrh, and because during those early trading years demand outstripped supply they had a value equal to that of gems and precious metals.

Masters of perfumery

The Egyptians loved to use simple fragrances in their daily lives and did so at every opportunity. At festivals and celebrations women wore perfumed cones on their heads which would melt under the heat, releasing their beautiful fragrance. After bathing, they would anoint their bodies with oil to protect them from the drying effects of the baking sun and to rejuvenate their skin.

During the period between the 18th and the 25th Dynasty (1539-657 BC), the Egyptians continued to refine their use of aromatics in incense, medicine, cosmetics, and finally perfumes. Until just a few hundred years before the birth of Christ, the Egyptian perfumery industry was celebrated as the finest in the whole of the Middle East and beyond. So great was their reputation as master perfumers, that when Julius Caesar returned home with Cleopatra after conquering Egypt around 48 BC, perfume bottles were tossed to the crowds to demonstrate his total domination over Egypt.

Enter the Greeks

The richness of the Egyptian botanical pharmacopoeia had already been assimilated by many other cultures during previous millennia; the Assyrians, Babylonians and Hebrews had all borrowed from their vast knowledge of aromatic medicine. As the Egyptian Empire crumbled into decline around 300 BC, Europe became the heart of empirical medicine, where new methods were steadily evolving into a more scientifically based system of healing.

The earliest known Greek physician was Asclepius who practiced around 1200 BC combining the use of herbs and surgery with previously unrivalled skill. His reputation was so great that after his death he was deified as the god of healing in Greek mythology, and thousands of lavish healing temples known as Asclepieion were erected in his honor throughout the Grecian world.

The Father of Medicine

Hippocrates (circa 460-377 BC) was the first physician to dismiss the Egyptian belief that illness was caused by supernatural forces. Instead, he believed the doctor should try to discover natural explanations for disease by observing the patient carefully, and make a judgment only after consideration of the symptoms.

His treatments would typically employ mild physio-therapies, baths, massage with infusions, or the internal use of herbs such as fennel, parsley, hypericum or valerian. Hippocrates is said to have studied and documented over 200 different herbs during his lifetime. He believed that surgery should be used only as a last resort and was among the first to regard the entire body as an organism. Therefore we have Hippocrates to thank for a concept fundemental to true aromatherapy.

Founders of botany & pharmacology

After Alexander’s invasion of Egypt in the 3rd century BC, the use of aromatics, herbs and perfumes became much more popular in Greece prompting great interest in all things fragrant. Theophrastus of Athens who was a philosopher and student of Aristotle, investigated everything about plants and even how scents affected the emotions. He wrote several volumes on botany including ‘The History of Plants’, which became one of the three most important botanical science references for centuries to come. He is generally referred to today as the Founder of Botany.

The next great luminary was the Greek military physician Dioscorides (40-90 AD) who served in Nero’s army. In order to study herbs, Dioscorides marched with Roman armies to Greece, Germany, Italy and Spain, recording everything that he discovered. He described the plants habitat, how it should be prepared and stored, and described full accounts of its healing properties. His results were published in a comprehensive 5 volume work called ‘De Materia Medica’, also known as ‘Herbarius’.

This epic publication was the first ever systematic pharmacopoeia and contained 1000 different botanical medications, plus descriptions and illustrations of approximately 600 different plants and aromatics. His magnificent work was so influential he has been bestowed the accolade, the Father of Pharmacology.

Of gladiators and emperors

Perhaps the most brilliant and influential of all Greek physicians was Claudius Galen, who lived from 129-199 AD and studied medicine from the age of seventeen. He began his medical career aged 28 under Roman employ treating the wounds of gladiators with medicinal herbs. This unique experience provided him with the opportunity to study wounds of all kinds, and it is said that not a single gladiator died of battle wounds while under the care of Galen.

Due to his phenomenal success he quickly rose to become the personal physician to the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and since Rome was a thriving academic center during the lifetime of Galen it was the ideal place for him to conduct further research. Galen was the last of the great Greco-Roman physicians, and within 100 years of his death the Roman Empire would begin to decline, plunging Europe into the dark ages.

As the Romans began pulling out of Britain, much of their medical knowledge was discarded and all progress in the Western tradition of medicine came to a halt for hundreds of years. During this period, Europe sank into the lowest depths of barbarism recorded in history, and it would be the turn of another culture to carry the torch of aromatic medicine forward.

Follow this link to Aromatherapy and its History ~ Part 2

Some real-estate agents advise clients to bake bread or brew a fresh pot of coffee to create an atmosphere for prospective purchasers. If YOU are trying to sell your house try a few drops of clary sage or lemon essential oils to help put viewers at ease.

Uplifting studies and offices
Workplaces can sometimes be stuffy. A personal way to enjoy a better scent at work is to put a few drops of oil on a tissue or handkerchief to inhale. You can also spray your space or use a burner at your desk. Useful for the office are basil, rosemary, bergamont and lemon.

Add charm to the living room
Adding fragrance to a room can prevent ill-health and balance emotions. Use a vaporiser, burner, water bowl or room spray or even try blending your own pot pourri. Rose, geranium, orange and lavender are pleasing, uplifting scents. For an intimate atmosphere use sandalwood or patchouli. If you trying to unwind try geranium, lavender, sandalwood or ylang-ylang.

Party Time
Clary sage or jasmine will create a “feel-good” atmosphere. If you prefer a lighter, fresher scent try orange, lemongrass or neroli. For a festive effect blend from the spicier oils such as frankincense, sandalwood, cinnamon and orange.

Bedroom or boudoir
Whether planning a restful sleep or a night of passion, fragrancing the bedroom just before retiring creates ‘atmosphere’. Rose, neroli and lavender are delightful for the bedroom. Use lavender to freshen a musty spare room for guests.

Avalon Essences | Aroma Products hand crafted with Love | JJ’s Mystical Avalon was created to inspire each of us to take the time we need to love and nurture ourselves. It’s time to stop using products in an effort to be loved and instead begin to use them to love ourselves. I hope you will use Avalon Essences to affirm your magnificence and become part of the Feminine Mysteries of Avalon