Essential oils can not only relieve fatigue and cheer up, but also strengthen our immune system. We’ll tell you exactly how.
Winter tests us with cold, short daylight hours and viruses. All this creates a serious burden on our immune system and psyche. What if essential oils could help us fight all these attacks more effectively? To prevent colds, flu and bad mood, experts advise using oils of eucalyptus, lavender, pine, bergamot and the plant whose smell you like.
In winter, it is good not only to diffuse essential oils in the air with an aroma diffuser, but also to use them for baths, massage creams and fragrant cocktails in which several aromas are mixed. If baths are not indicated for your health (diseases of the cardiovascular system, arterial hypertension, oncology), they can be replaced with soft compresses. A fragrant bath will help relieve fatigue and eliminate winter peeling of the skin if you add a few drops of lavender oil to it. Bath with chamomile oil gives a bactericidal effect, relieves irritability and soothes the skin, overdried by frost. And if you are in a bad mood, maybe even depression is creeping up, which is not surprising in the conditions of a short daylight hours, take a bath with bergamot. For several centuries now (first only in the Italian city of Bergamo, then throughout Europe, and now in the world), it has been considered the main essential antidepressant that can relieve unreasonable anxiety.
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As for massage and cosmetic creams, the main purpose of adding natural essential oils to them in winter is to moisturize the skin. Mimosa, lily of the valley, rose, jasmine or fern oils will help in this. The main thing is not to overdo it: 3-5 drops of essential oil per 10 drops of base oil.
To prevent symptoms of influenza and ENT infection
Some plant extracts are natural antivirals and antiseptics, says aromatherapist Nelly Grosjean. “Essential oils are valuable allies in the fight against winter sickness,” she says. – If you or your child have a runny nose, flu or SARS, then add a few drops of eucalyptus, lavender and pine oil to an aroma diffuser that does not heat essential oils an hour before bedtime. So the air in the room will be filled with the necessary substances that will fight viruses in the affected respiratory organs.
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- How to feel good in winter
For losing weight
In principle, winter time is not the best period for losing weight, since our whole evolution has prepared our body to accumulate fat reserves in the cold season. But most of us still want to start the spring-summer season in brilliant physical shape, and here aromatherapy is a real ally. Aromas of essential oils of grapefruit, fennel, ginger, geranium, cypress, lemon, juniper and pepper will help in this. Their effect is based on the fact that they have a weak diuretic effect and remove excess fluid from the body. The same oils remove toxins and normalize metabolism.