Obesity is a major health crisis in Michigan. Defined as being significantly above one’s healthy weight, obesity has risen markedly in the Great Lakes State over the past decade, and today more than 62% of the population is overweight or obese.

Obesity is a serious threat to individual health. Researchers say that a high body mass index (BMI) constitutes a greater threat to a person’s overall health than tobacco use or alcohol abuse. Being obese also often leads to other medical conditions, such as arthritis and spinal problems, as well as life-threatening illnesses, called co-morbidities, like heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. Obesity is a public health threat, as well. In fact, it is the second leading cause of preventable death in America.

And, obesity comes at a financial cost. According to a recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control, the cost of obesity to the people of Michigan is substantial:  around four billion dollars every year in obesity-related public expenditures.

Obviously, Michigan can’t go on getting fatter. We live in the Mitten – so let’s work together to gain “the upper hand” on this disease.

What Is To Be Done?

Obesity is calculated in terms of individual body mass index, which is calculated using a formula relating to an adult’s height and weight Those with a BMI of at least 25 are considered overweight; those with a BMI of 30 or above are categorized as obese.

The citizens of Michigan face their weight problem in a variety of ways. Many of those suffering from obesity simply ignore their condition – until disaster strikes, like a heart attack or stroke. Others try to lose weight by using wacky diets, boot-camp-style exercise programs, or phony weight-loss pills. For a few, these methods work, but most people lose little or no weight, or they eventually gain back any weight they did lose. What’s more, those who try such miracle cures usually end up doing additional damage to their health, as well.

The secret to beating obesity is to look past weight alone and recognize the whole disease. Yes, weight itself is caused by overeating – but why do people overeat? It’s not natural, after all. Is a lack of character responsible? Are some people just gluttons?

Maybe a few here and there – but the vast majority of the obese are not.

Obesity is not a character defect. It is a medical condition – a disordered relationship between the person, the food they eat, and the lifestyle they lead. As a medical condition, obesity is best treated medically. One method of treatment is for the patient to follow a doctor-supervised diet and lifestyle alteration program that includes a reduction in their daily caloric intake and regular physical activity. For most obese people, this is the preferred solution.

But for some, bariatric surgery – also known as weight loss surgery – is the best form of medical treatment. While not a panacea, surgical weight loss has been proven to be an effective solution for those whose lives are jeopardized by this disease. Surgical treatment can help ease (and in some cases completely resolve) obesity-related health problems and co-morbidities. It can also help lessen the patient’s chances of developing weight-related health problems in the future.

Considering Surgical Weight Loss

It is important to realize that surgery is not a quick fix to cure obesity. The disease of obesity cannot be cured by surgery alone. Post-operative patients who fail to adopt the necessary lifestyle changes and who disregard their doctor’s instructions generally regain any weight they initially lost—sometimes even years after their procedure. In addition, the decision to have weight loss surgery is one best not made lightly. Anyone considering surgery as an option for the management of obesity should do so only in consultation with his or her physician.

The Fight is On

We can beat obesity, Michigan – but it won’t be easy. It will take all of us helping each other to stay active and eat right – not as a temporary measure, but as a way of life. Let’s be about it.

As a visitor to the Cape, you won’t have to travel far to find a good quality spa. In fact, most premier hotels in Cape Town boast their own in-house spas, which offer a range of treatments to their guests. Whether you seek facial, full body or hair and nail treatments, you’ll find these treatments, and others, at Cape Town’s leading hotel spas and health studios.

There’s no better time than when you’re on holiday to indulge in revitalising health spa treatments. Be sure to find out about the spa therapies available at your Cape Town hotel of choice. Most hotel spas offer a complete range of treatments for men and women.

Refresh, rejuvenate and renew at Cape Town’s exclusive hotel spas

Make the most of your luxury hotel accommodation in Cape Town! If you’re residing in one of the city’s 5-star establishments, there’s no need to leave the comfort of your hotel to enjoy some of the best beauty treatments available in Cape Town. Spend a few hours, or even a full day, being pampered and polished in decadent surrounds, as expert beauty therapists provide the treatments of your choice.

The idea behind hotel spas in Cape Town is to offer blissful body treatments in exclusive settings. Thus, hotel spas are plush, luxurious spaces designed to encourage complete relaxation and comfort. Aside from the beauty treatments on offer, most spas also feature saunas, steam rooms, tandem treatment rooms and refreshments. Guests are invited to enjoy these amenities at their leisure.

Signature beauty treatments at Cape Town day spas

Many hotel spas offer treatments that have been developed especially for their spas, and which are based on leading international therapies. Often, there are dedicated suites catering to skin, nail and beauty treatments, which generally include facials, manicures and pedicures. Separate suites serve to offer a range of massages and other body treatments, including head massages, foot massages, wraps, scrubs and detox treatments.

Hotel spas use only top quality products in their treatments, which ensure that clients enjoy the full benefits of these healing therapies. Some spas use organic products only, from their oils and lotions to their linen and robes. Natural fabrics and organic products ensure that clients enjoy a holistic beauty experience that nourishes body, mind and soul.

Most hotel spas also offer male and female changing rooms, and the more exclusive spas will even feature walk-in, dual-headed showers, vitality pools and Jacuzzis. Choose to spend a few hours enjoying these luxurious amenities, or treat yourself to a full day of relaxation and body pampering to experience the range of options available.

Indulge in Cape Town’s finest hotel spa treatments

Imagine spending some of your time in Cape Town having you body soothed and restored, freeing your mind of stresses and treating your body to healing, energising treatments. When you’re on holiday, you’ll have time to indulge in all the rejuvenating therapies that you simply don’t have time to enjoy during your busy day-to-day life. And of course, if you’re staying in a luxury hotel with an in-house spa, you’ll have no excuse not to spend a blissful day being pampered!

Before booking your Cape Town holiday accommodation, explore the range of beauty treatments and body therapies on offer. Select a hotel that offers the treatments you’d most like to experience, and book your accommodation today. An invigorating holiday in Cape Town awaits!

Known as Ayurveda, this system of traditional Indian therapy uses massage and herbs to relax the body, helping to restore the natural balance, improve circulation and eliminate toxins. These therapies also stimulate the body’s cells and endocrine system, encouraging the secretion of naturally produced “medicines”, which help to heal the body from the inside out.

Whilst many beauty practitioners claim to be familiar with Ayuredic practices, it’s only trained therapists who are able to administer these massages effectively. To gain the greatest health benefits from Indian massages, be sure to visit a genuine Ayurvedic health spa. There are a number of these in Cape Town, operating independently or as part of the health spa offerings at upmarket hotels.

Read on to learn more about Ayurvedic massage, or book your preferred Indian massage therapy to experience the healing, restorative powers of Ayurvedic massage.

What is Ayurvedic massage?

An ancient Indian wellness practice, Ayurveda aims to create harmony within the body. It does this by addressing several important lifestyle factors, including diet, exercise, massage, meditation and detoxification. By ensuring that each of these elements matches an individual’s unique life energy, Ayurveda promotes balance, serenity and relaxation of the body and mind.

Ayurvedic massages and wellness therapies

Massage is a vital element of Ayurveda, helping to purify the body, soothe the muscles, joints and bones, and improve circulation. A variety of essential oils are used in Ayurvedic massage, and these oils are chosen to match an individual’s unique energy. Trained Ayurvedic masseurs are able to assess clients to determine their bodies’ needs, and hence the right oils for their massages and beauty therapies.

Ayurvedic massage therapies, too, must be matched to individuals’ specific needs. Along with traditional massage techniques that most people are familiar with, Indian massage also includes a variety of techniques specific to Ayurveda massage.

These include tapping, squeezing and kneading, and are used in conjunction with conventional techniques. Once again, Ayurvedic therapists will use techniques, combinations and rhythms that work in harmony with clients’ individual energies, and with the particular needs of their bodies.

Ayurvedia: Helping your body to produce exactly what it needs to heal

Similar to other types of massage therapies, such as reflexology and acupuncture, Ayurveda targets certain pressure points on the body – known as marma points – that stimulate the body’s biochemistry. This encourages it to produce the hormones, neurochemicals and other natural secretions that are needed to heal the mind, body and consciousness. It’s almost like tapping into the body’s natural pharmacy!

Ayurvedia is thus greatly beneficial for a variety of reasons. It helps to improve the functioning of the immune system, cleanse and detoxify the body, and boost one’s general health. For those who are ill or suffer from chronic ailments, it offers relief from symptoms and an overall improvement in their level of health.

And of course, Indian massage therapies bring calm and relaxation to the body and mind, helping individuals to recover from the effects of daily life.

Types of Ayurvedic massages and Indian wellness treatments

The most well-known type of Indian wellness treatment is the Indian head massage, but there are many other kinds of Ayurvedic massages and treatments, including:
• Sammatva, which balances the energy centres,

• Detoxification treatments

• Deep muscle massage

• Soothing relaxation treatments

• Individually-prepared oil massages

• Lymphatic skin brushing and massage

• Indian cupping therapies

• Foot massages

• Deep facial, head, neck and shoulder massages

• Facials using steam, individually-prepared oils and herbal masks

• Scrubs and wraps

Ayurvedic massage and Indian wellness therapies in Cape Town

A number of health spas in Cape Town offer Ayurvedic massage therapies, tailored to the specific wellness needs of men, women, young mothers and even babies. Be sure to select a qualified practitioner to reap maximum benefit from your Ayurvedic massage – or better yet, choose a health spa at one of the city’s 5-star hotels.

At these spas, qualified therapists use the finest products during massage therapies, treating clients to a superior massage experience that offers effective healing, rejuvenation and relaxation. Indulge in an Indian health treatment, or visit the spa at your Cape Town hotel to discover the wellness therapies on offer.

And several matched the thought that woke me up the other night:

“I gotta pee.”

It’s one thing to be awoken by your kids making noise in the next room and quite another when it’s you who is sabotaging your own restful night.Thoughts that wake you up in the middle of the night engulfed in worry or fear is a common indicator of stress. The pressures and uncertainties in your daily life visit you through dreams and symbolic thoughts. Sometimes these dreams and thoughts jar you back into consciousness yet the feelings that evoked the rude jolt to healthy sleeping patterns remain.

These feelings are indicators for you to examine to reveal a greater understanding of yourself and what you experience. A dream in which you are worried, scared, or stressed in any way is a reflection of the dis-ease you are experiencing in your waking life.

According to the Dictionary of Dreams, the following symbols may shed some light on what the above thoughts may indicate as deep rooted feelings and fears that are getting in the way of emotional and physical well being:

eating food – This may be an indicator that the dreamer is concerned about a weight problem or eating disorder. It may be a health warning to draw attention to one’s eating habits or weight problem. (although the veggie munching response to my query above could have been sent in fun and humor)

search – Search and not find: Instills the need to find something that is lacking within. Can be spiritual or need for self-examination. Search and find: Signal of accomplishment and self-capability.

gate – Closed: An opportunity for you to decide upon. Open: The beginning of an opportunity to leave your current situation.

intruder – Someone or something has interfered with your peace of mind by forcing a situation upon you.

burglar – An intruder, unwelcome person or event, loss of something. Being forcibly deprived by someone’s actions.

With regard to the need to pee – when ya gotta go, ya gotta go!

Most dreams contain messages that serve to teach you something about yourself. Recurring dreams and wake-up thoughts are triggered by a life circumstance that keeps repeating itself. They are a message from your Higher Self to pay attention to, examine, and form a new perspective around the hidden meaning behind the dream symbol. Without judgment of any kind, look within yourself and face whatever you find in your exploration of what is the underlying stress.

Chances are you have placed yourself as a victim in your worry. Any area where you give up your personal power, your ability and responsibility to intentionally create your experiences, you will suffer with stress or anxiety. Know that you are a victim to no one and no circumstance unless you allow yourself to be. Whether a horrible thing happened to you or could happen to you is not what is creating stress. What brings on worry, doubt and fear is what you have the event mean for or about you in your life moving forward. You have absolute power over how you choose to experience any event in your life, unless you relinquish it. When you let go of your power you deny your self.

To reclaim your personal power focus upon all that you have done and achieved in your life. I’ll bet that anything you set your mind to and were passionate about you have either achieved or are in the process of making it a real experience. Instead of giving up on yourself you were able to overcome obstacles, reach for new perspectives and new ideas when the going got tough. Do the same thing now with whatever wakes you up at night, Reach for a newer and better perspective. Take back your power and responsibility so that you can dream sweet dreams and enjoy restful nights.

One to two hours after eating dinner at 6:30 in the evening, Bob and Amy Gerahty used to come down with acid indigestion. Although they didn’t go to bed until 11:00 P.M., the symptoms lingered, preventing them from getting to sleep. They blamed their indigestion and insomnia on the food they ate for dinner. Their typical evening meal consisted of red meat, mashed potatoes with butter, salad, and a vegetable. Having heard so much about the harm a diet heavy in red meat and saturated fat can do to the heart and arteries, they became convinced that the food they had for dinner was at the root of their digestive problems. So they switched to chicken, fish, and polyunsaturated oils, but it didn’t ease their indigestion. No matter what they ate for dinner they got acid reflux afterward. The years passed and they continued to lie awake at night with painful esophageal and stomach problems.

Finally it dawned on Amy that because they could eat just about anything for breakfast and lunch without experiencing any indigestion, maybe it wasn’t what they ate for dinner but what time they had dinner that was the cause of their indigestion. So she moved their dinner back three and a half hours to three o’clock in the afternoon. They haven’t had acid reflux since; their weight problems have also vanished.

Why is it that Bob and Amy have no trouble digesting a big dinner in the middle of the afternoon, but the same meal eaten three and a half hours later at 6:30 P.M. gave them indigestion? This is not unusual. Acid indigestion is far more common in the evening after dinner than at any other time of the day. It is quite likely that the cause is depressed energy levels. This is nature’s way of preparing the body for sleep. With less than normal energy, fewer digestive enzymes are generated. The result is that in some individuals, the evening meal remains undigested and gives rise to a whole range of symptoms — including the most common, acid reflux. Amy and Bob have no gastric problems now that they eat their last meal of the day in the midafternoon, because it falls within the time period — between ten in the morning and five thirty in the afternoon — when the body’s energy level is highest, indicated by a body temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. When energy production in the body goes up, more digestive enzymes are produced.

Amy and Bob’s story points out the fact that for many individuals food is more easily digested at lunchtime than at any other time of the day. If you want to continue eating foods that you are allergic or sensitive to, you’re less likely to react to them between twelve and three o’clock in the afternoon. This is when the thyroid is at its most active and enzyme levels are highest. Enzyme levels are low in the morning because thyroid function is sluggish then, and they level off in the evening when thyroid function again begins to slow down.

“If you want to continue eating foods that you are allergic or sensitive to, you’re less likely to react to them between twelve and three o’clock in the afternoon.”

If it were possible for everyone to eat the last meal at three o’clock in the afternoon — which amounts to a partial fast — many health problems, including obesity, would disappear. I recommended to an elderly couple, both of whom were very ill with cancer, that they have dinner in midafternoon and not eat anything else for the rest of the day. Although at the time I made the recommendation their doctor had told them that neither would live more than one year, they are still alive and enjoying life — ten years after they began eating dinner at three o’clock in the afternoon.

An offense to good health is eating badly at dinner, but even worse is eating unhealthy snacks late at night. Not only have digestive enzyme and thyroid function slowed to a crawl by then, when you sleep they slow down even more. People are most likely to get acid indigestion in the evening because at the end of the day hydrochloric acid, bile, and enzyme levels fall.

Remember, high acid waste levels in the body lead to weight gain. That’s one good reason why liquids that become acidic in the digestive tract shouldn’t be drunk in the morning on an empty stomach. Even if coffee and/or tea don’t give you acid reflux, don’t drink them before breakfast. When there is no food in the stomach, coffee and tea acidify. On the other hand, the best time of the day to eat fruit or drink fruit juice is in the morning when the stomach is empty, because fruit has an alkalinizing effect when the stomach is empty. When fruit is eaten later in the day when the stomach is full, it has an acidifying effect.

Your thyroid dictates the rate of your metabolism. Any malfunction or disease afflicting your thyroid may cause you to have noticeable fluctuations in your weight. A malfunctioning thyroid will cause you to either gain weight or lose weight beyond your control. To make matters worse, you could find that losing weight is almost impossible no matter what pill or plan you try.

It’s a mystery why sellers of diet plans and remedies fail to mention this amazing gland that can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Those that plan diets do not take into consideration how the thyroid controls the body’s metabolism which, in turn, affects how well the weight loss program works. Most experts and even media add to this misinformation by recommending that the best way to lose weight is exercise and cutting calories. Both of those will work effectively when done in a tandem and if your thyroid is functioning properly.

Many people suffer a condition called hyperthyroidism and are not aware of it. “Hyper” means “overactive” which means the thyroid is pushing the body’s metabolism into hyper drive. If this is the case, then that person will probably lose weight fast. This may seem like a positive effect for those who wish to lose weight but, in fact, this is actually hazardous to their health.

Aside from the medical difficulties such a disease brings, one will also notice weight problems as a result. These people have trouble keeping on weight and may notice weakness and bulging of the eyes. This disease may need special treatment from doctors.

Then there is a condition known as hypothyroidism. Of course, “hypo” means “slow” and the effect is the slowing of the body’s metabolism until the body gains weight at an abnormal rate. Both hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism have one common side effect. Both cause a general weakness in the body especially in muscle strength and overall energy level. Without special treatment, both may cause serious health problems in the long run.

To add to the problem of weight gain or weight loss is a caloric intake. Eating too many calories or too little calories with a malfunctioning thyroid can further throw the thyroid out of whack. You actually work against yourself by not getting the thyroid back to normal with a doctor’s supervision.

You must be careful when adjusting your caloric intake. Yes, cutting calories helps you lose weight but drastically cutting calories will trick the body into a hoard mode, that is when the thyroid slows the body’s metabolism to adapt to the lesser amount of available caloric energy.

If your body enters this mode, your body will work at such slow metabolism that losing weight becomes nearly impossible. The technique here should be to reduce calories without the thyroid slowing your metabolism. Only then can weight loss be long lasting.

The key to any weight loss plan is balance. You cannot go all day without eating and then gorge yourself with one big meal. This practice really plays havoc with the thyroid. This is why an imbalanced meal is highly discouraged among those that seek to lose weight. The sudden loss and then increase of calories will cause an imbalance in one’s energy consumption directly affecting fat deposit. In effect, by starving yourself you confuse your body. It simply doesn’t know when the next meal is coming so it slows the metabolism and stores fat for later use.

You can get off this merry-go-round. First, have your thyroid function checked by a physician. There are tests that can determine its function.

If your thyroid passes the test, here is a simple mathematical formula to help you arrive at the right amount of calories you will need per day to get nutrients in the right balance, maintain health while reaching your weight target.

First of all, multiply your weight in kilograms by 30. If you only know your weight in pounds, divide it by 2.2 to get to get the kilogram figure. Then divide the kilogram number by 30 to arrive at the number of calories that will maintain your current weight per pound of weight.

For example if your weight in pounds is 150, divide it by 2.2. That will give you a figure of 68.18. This is your weight in kilograms. Multiply this by 30 and you will arrive at the amount of calories you will need per day to maintain 150 lbs.

With this knowledge you can gradually start cutting calories to reduce weight. This is a long term deal. Start by cutting 100 to 200 calories per day until your body adjusts. Then cut another 100 calories and so on. You will begin to see gradual weight loss and you will not be starving your body. And, don’t forget exercise as part of your weight loss regimen.

You may consult a nutritionist to help you develop a weight loss plan tailored to your lifestyle. Many health centers off this service either free or through your health insurance.

In the end it all comes down to math. If you consume more food than your body needs, it stores the excess as fat.

Now is a good time to start studying the back of food cartons. Try to keep your diet at a 40% protein, 25% fat, and 35% carbohydrate meals based on your caloric needs you determined using the formula. You should spread your total caloric intake more than three meals a day for optimum results.

While it may be simple computation to get at numbers, do not forget the earlier mentioned fact that the body adapts to its condition. Expose it to extremes and you may find yourself getting extreme results, perhaps, results you never wanted.

Gaining a sleek body can be easy with the right knowledge. Now, you have that knowledge. But, remember, always consult a medical professional before you apply any advice which may detrimentally impact your health.

Yours for success.

Jim DeSantis

Cheat Your Way Thin is a weight loss system that will show the secret of how to get rid of weight without giving up your favorite foods, including ice cream, cookies and burgers.

Cheat Your Way Thin is a diet program that Joel Marion happened to stumble upon when he was working on his own body. He was trying to get into the best physical shape of his life. As you can probably imagine, the diet that he was on was quite strict, including lots of fruits, vegetables, and lean meats and cutting out all the unhealthy foods. Marion was following his plan to a T but just wasn’t seeing results. Eventually, he caved to his cravings–not once, but twice. That’s right. In just one week, he pigged out on Italian foods, then a few days later, pizza. Imagine his surprise when he lost three pounds that week.

Now, the title does sound good–who wouldn’t want to lose weight while “cheating” on their diet. But this isn’t to say that you can eat whatever you want all of the time. That’s what you were doing when you gained weight! Cheat Your Way Thin is based on changing your eating plan on certain days. Some days are strict, but others allow you to eat whatever you want. This idea of a “cheat day” is appealing to many people and can help you to stick with the diet long term.

The first part of the book describes Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL). These measure the effect that certain foods have on your blood sugar level and forms the basis of the diet.

When following the Cheat Your Way Thin diet, you can choose between monitoring portion sizes or counting calories. You’ll also be eating five times per day, a technique that is known to keep the metabolism active. Marion goes into much detail about why it’s better to divide your daily calorie allotment into five meals instead of just two or three–you’ll actually store more calories as fat if you only eat two or three meals a day!

The next part of the book explains the cheat day and the “rules” of the cheat day. You may balk at the idea of having rules on your cheat day, but I assure you that they’re really not that bad. For example, one of the rules is to not feel guilty about what you’re eating. There is more guidance, but we cannot give it all away here.

The book then goes on to explain the real meat of the diet, which is to alternate different types of eating on different days. Aside from the cheat day, on some days you will eat a low carbohydrate diet, a low GI diet, or a high GI diet. You can also eat from a list of “free veggies” on all of your days. Everything is clearly explained.

Cheat Your Way Thin has three phases to the diet plan–The Priming Phase, The Core Phase, and The Maintenance Phase. As with most diets, the Priming Phase is the strictest, but that’s OK because the early days are when you are most motivated and you can lose weight quick that way. In the priming phase you only have two cheat days. Once you move to the Core Phase, however, you get a cheat day once a week. You follow the Core Phase for as long as you need to in order to reach your weight loss goals. You don’t have to worry about the Core Phase being too strict–there are actually five different plans to choose from within the Core Phase, so you can easily find one that suits your needs. Once you’ve lost the weight, you move on to the Maintenance Phase.

Maintenance on this diet is easy because you haven’t disrupted your metabolism. Other diets severely restrict your calories, which causes your body to act as if you are starving and thus try to hold onto fat. When you go off a diet like that, your metabolism is still low, so you would end up gaining the weight back. Cheat Your Way Thin avoids that yoyo trap.

Another part of the book covers how to monitor your progress and how to boost your results with additional exercise. Marion states that instead of following a “steady state cardio” plan, where you exercise at the same exertion for the full workout, you should follow a “Mixed Interval Training”, or MIT, plan, which alternates higher intensity activity with lower intensity activity.

The only downside is if you are a vegetarian. Then you may find that you have a hard time finding sources of protein that are high protein and low carb. The vegetarian options on the list of acceptable proteins are cottage cheese and eggs. So OK if you can eat those foods. And of course if you eat meat you will be fine.

The Cheat Your Way Thin diet is a sound diet plan for those that like to follow a plan to lose weight. Knowing that you have one day where you can eat whatever you want is extremely motivating for many people. Marion says that if you follow his diet plan, you should be losing about one to two pounds a week, which is a good amount of weight to lose. People that lose weight at this rate are more likely to keep it off than are those that lose weight quickly.

Many people could find success through Cheat Your Way Thin. The diet is quite easy to follow. Even on the days that are not cheat days, you can still enjoy some of your favorite foods. Sure, you may not be able to eat pizza every day, but that’s not really healthy anyway. And you can have it some days, unlike on most diets. So go for it.

Download the Cheat Your Way Thin now

Aromatherapy has also been used for many centuries in India. Aromatherapy has roots in antiquity with the use of aromatic oils. Aromas are used to identify the oils, to determine adulteration, and to stir the memory. Aromatherapy is already slowly getting into the mainstream. Nurses, doctors, massage therapists, osteopaths and trained aromatherapists are some of the people who practise aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is one of the most popular forms of complementary therapy and is widely used by people buying over-the-counter oils, and by health professionals in a range of settings. Various massage techniques may be used although Swedish massage is the most common. Aromatherapist will take a medical history and then determine which oil, or combination of oils, will be the most beneficial for you. Essential oils will be diluted in a carrier oil, such as almond or grape seed, and then massaged into your neck, shoulders and upper back, or given as a full body massage, or a facial. the oils should not be swallowed or otherwise taken internally, unless under expert medical supervision, as they may be toxic. Allergic reactions are also possible. It’s best to test for this by applying a small amount of diluted oil on the back of the wrist or ear lobe as test before using it fully.

Aromatherapy Uses and Benefits

1.Aromatherapy can be used to relax and soothe the mind and body, to energize or even to arouse.

2.Aromatherapy derived from the use of essential oils to solicit specific emotions.

3.Essential oils can be used in Aromatherapy, to scent potpourri, lotions, cosmetics, perfumes, food flavorings and medicinally.

4.Essential oils can also be used via the bath, diffusion, massage, or compress. Each individual person, fabric, or material may react differently to a particular suggested use.

5.Essential oils can be mixed in a cream essential oil combinations are applied directly to the skin for beauty care or treatment of sores or irritations. By using different essential oils, you can control the nature of those benefits.

6.Essential oils come from plants while fragrance oils are artificially created and often contain synthetic chemicals.

7.Essential oils are taken from a plant’s flowers, leaves, stalks, bark, rind, or roots. The yield of essential oil differs with individual plant species-ranging in most cases from about 0.2 to 2.0%. That’s why literally tons of plant material are required for just a few hundred pounds of oil.

8.Anxiety and stress seem to be the most prevalent benefits of aromatherapy oils.

9.Aromatherapy oils are used in different ways such as being made into candles and incense and burned, used as massage oil or placed in diffusers or burners to heat the oils in order to disperse the aroma throughout an area.

10.Aromatherapy is the use of pure essential oils to benefit your daily life and encourage a holistic lifestyle.

11.Bath-4-8 drops added to a full bath and swirl the water around. Try Twinkle pure essential oil blend, or the healing benefits of our Mineral Spa Bath Salts.

12.Inhalation-1-2 drops on a cotton ball or handkerchief, or 1-2 drops on a cotton ball on the underside of your pillow (avoiding eye contact). See Lavender pure essential oil blend.

13.Humidifier-2-10 drops in a humidifier for a sick room.

14.Sauna or Steam Shower-1-2 drops. See Breathe Easy, or Mystic pure essential oil blends.

15.Hot Tub-8-10 drops in the hot tub after entering and turning on the pump. See pure essential oil blends.