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Aromatherapy and Cardiovascular Disease

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Complementary and Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine

Part of the book series: Contemporary Cardiology ((CONCARD))

Abstract

The definition of aromatherapy is the controlled use of essential oils (2). Essential oils are steam distillates obtained from aromatic plants. Aromatherapy is a fairly new complementary therapy, although its roots are in herbal medicine, one of the oldest known forms of medicine. Aromatherapy is an accepted part of nursing care in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and Canada, and many nurses in the United States are beginning to use aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is particularly useful in cardiology (see Table 1), because the use of familiar smells and gentle touch can be deeply reassuring. Essential oils have many other properties that can be useful in cardiology-hypotensor, sedative, antiinflammatory, antispasmodic, analgesic, antibiotic, antifungal, and antiviral. This chapter covers the use of aromatherapy for borderline hypertension and for fear and anxiety associated with myocardial infarction (MI) or cardiac surgery and outlines interesting case and small clinical studies addressing the effect of essential oils on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

Table 1 Essential Oils for Specific Diagnosis
Full size table

“Whatever the physiological problem with the heart, its function is affected by what each individual asks of their heart in terms of effort. This is determined by the person we are, by the way we live within our own body and by the relationship we do or do not make with it” (1).

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Authors
  1. Jane Buckle PhD, RN
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Singer Division of Beth Israel Medical Center, Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    Richard A. Stein MD (Associate Chairman of Medicine, Chief of Medicine) (Associate Chairman of Medicine, Chief of Medicine)

  2. Cardiovascular Institute, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    Mehmet C. Oz MD

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© 2004 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ

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Buckle, J. (2004). Aromatherapy and Cardiovascular Disease. In: Stein, R.A., Oz, M.C. (eds) Complementary and Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine. Contemporary Cardiology. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-728-4_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-728-4_15

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-9831-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-728-4

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