4 ms·

Dr Gunter did a good job here, although I find her analysis a little shallow. A large part of the article is devoted to the discussion of what has been excluded

Dr Gunter did a good job here, although I find her analysis a little shallow. A large part of the article is devoted to the discussion of what has been excluded. Now, as for the included items, I'd expect a more in-depth discussion. For example, as for essential oils, she notes "a pleasant smell is not a medicine." I know WebMD might not be the best source of health information, but they sum up the current knowledge regarding aromatherapy use cases quite well.[0] I'm not a fan of aromatherapy but you can't just say there is no medicinal use for it in spite of evidence from several scientific papers (mild cases of anxiety mainly, see the meta-research [1]) - you need to be very precise, especially if you claim to do research. [0] https://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/aromatherapy-overview#1 https://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/aromatherapy... [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353611705800538?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S135361170...

kingosticks 8y ago
Agreed. Especially considering the earlier stated acknowledgment "that spirituality and religion can have a beneficial impact for some people."
loceng 8y ago
Completely agree. On an unrelated side note, I like to plan potential talent hires/people/thinkers I'd like to work with based in part on thoughtful comments I see people making and keep a running bookmark list of said people - thought I'd bookmark you in it to eventually maybe reach out to, and turns out I already had you bookmarked! Based on your HN profile description, sold even harder; here's my reply relating to down-vote system to an HN moderator: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18133326 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18133326 :)
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
  Thank you! Your comment made me realize I definitely spend too much time on HN...
  - loceng 8y ago
    Feel free to email me someday if you dare expose who you are to me - matt@engn.com :)
GiuseppaAcciaio 8y ago
Ignoring WebMD for a second because there are no citations in the article so all we have is the word of the person who wrote the article, it's usually not enough to cite a single contrary article to make a claim that someone hasn't done research properly. I can't access the article you cite, however a single meta-analysis from 1995 from a journal dedicated to alternative medicine in nursery and midwifery doesn't sound like the ultimate source; a casual check on Cochrane Review (https://www.cochrane.org/CD009215/PREG_aromatherapy-for-pain-management-in-labour https://www.cochrane.org/CD009215/PREG_aromatherapy-for-pain...) suggests that there are simply too few scientific studies to be able to say anything about whether it works or not (which is a polite way to say that if it did work, we'd know by now).
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
  I casually browsed a few of them and from what I found is that aromatherapy works for some people mainly in mild cases of anxiety, not for pain relief. Some articles: * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/gps.1688 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/gps.1688 "In summary, lavender is effective as an adjunctive therapy in alleviating agitated behaviours in Chinese patients with dementia." * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/gps.473 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/gps.473 "Post hoc analysis suggested that at this time of day the AM consistently reduced motor behaviour when compared with CA (p = 0.05). This provides preliminary evidence of a measurable sedative effect of aromatherapy massage on dementia within a robust scientific paradigm." * https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1526952305003946?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S152695230... "Our results suggest that aromatherapy-massage might be an effective intervention for postpartum mothers to improve physical and mental status and to facilitate mother-infant interaction." * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2648.1995.21010034.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2648.... "There were no statistically significant differences in the physiological stress indicators or observed or reported behaviour of patients' ability to cope following any of the three interventions However, those patients who received aromatherapy reported significantly greater improvement in their mood and perceived levels of anxiety They also felt less anxious and more positive immediately following the therapy, although this effect was not sustained or cumulative" * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1440-1819.2000.00727.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1440-1819.... "These results indicate that in chronic hemodialysis patients hiba oil is an effective, non‐invasive means for the treatment of depression and anxiety, and that lavender alleviates anxiety." * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ptr.2650030306 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ptr.26500303... "Although the overall number of supervening infections and their characteristics were not modified by the treatment, the frequency of relapse at least appears to have been significantly lowered in the group receiving treatment compared to the group receiving placebo." * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/smi.1402 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/smi.1402 "These findings suggest that peppermint aroma may be useful for relieving stress. " * https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11695-007-9170-7 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11695-007-9170-7 "Our results suggest that lavender aromatherapy can be used to reduce the demand for opioids in the immediate postoperative period."

kingosticks 8y ago

Agreed. Especially considering the earlier stated acknowledgment "that spirituality and religion can have a beneficial impact for some people."

loceng 8y ago

Completely agree. On an unrelated side note, I like to plan potential talent hires/people/thinkers I'd like to work with based in part on thoughtful comments I see people making and keep a running bookmark list of said people - thought I'd bookmark you in it to eventually maybe reach out to, and turns out I already had you bookmarked! Based on your HN profile description, sold even harder; here's my reply relating to down-vote system to an HN moderator: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18133326 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18133326 :)

dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
Thank you! Your comment made me realize I definitely spend too much time on HN...
- loceng 8y ago
  Feel free to email me someday if you dare expose who you are to me - matt@engn.com :)

GiuseppaAcciaio 8y ago

Ignoring WebMD for a second because there are no citations in the article so all we have is the word of the person who wrote the article, it's usually not enough to cite a single contrary article to make a claim that someone hasn't done research properly. I can't access the article you cite, however a single meta-analysis from 1995 from a journal dedicated to alternative medicine in nursery and midwifery doesn't sound like the ultimate source; a casual check on Cochrane Review (https://www.cochrane.org/CD009215/PREG_aromatherapy-for-pain-management-in-labour https://www.cochrane.org/CD009215/PREG_aromatherapy-for-pain...) suggests that there are simply too few scientific studies to be able to say anything about whether it works or not (which is a polite way to say that if it did work, we'd know by now).

dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
I casually browsed a few of them and from what I found is that aromatherapy works for some people mainly in mild cases of anxiety, not for pain relief. Some articles: * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/gps.1688 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/gps.1688 "In summary, lavender is effective as an adjunctive therapy in alleviating agitated behaviours in Chinese patients with dementia." * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/gps.473 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/gps.473 "Post hoc analysis suggested that at this time of day the AM consistently reduced motor behaviour when compared with CA (p = 0.05). This provides preliminary evidence of a measurable sedative effect of aromatherapy massage on dementia within a robust scientific paradigm." * https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1526952305003946?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S152695230... "Our results suggest that aromatherapy-massage might be an effective intervention for postpartum mothers to improve physical and mental status and to facilitate mother-infant interaction." * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2648.1995.21010034.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2648.... "There were no statistically significant differences in the physiological stress indicators or observed or reported behaviour of patients' ability to cope following any of the three interventions However, those patients who received aromatherapy reported significantly greater improvement in their mood and perceived levels of anxiety They also felt less anxious and more positive immediately following the therapy, although this effect was not sustained or cumulative" * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1440-1819.2000.00727.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1440-1819.... "These results indicate that in chronic hemodialysis patients hiba oil is an effective, non‐invasive means for the treatment of depression and anxiety, and that lavender alleviates anxiety." * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ptr.2650030306 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ptr.26500303... "Although the overall number of supervening infections and their characteristics were not modified by the treatment, the frequency of relapse at least appears to have been significantly lowered in the group receiving treatment compared to the group receiving placebo." * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/smi.1402 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/smi.1402 "These findings suggest that peppermint aroma may be useful for relieving stress. " * https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11695-007-9170-7 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11695-007-9170-7 "Our results suggest that lavender aromatherapy can be used to reduce the demand for opioids in the immediate postoperative period."