Aromatherapy for cancer patients can have very positive results as a complementary treatment. Essential plant oils will not heal cancer but can help patients cope with both the physical and psychological effects of the disease. In a Nursing Times survey it was revealed that aromatherapy massage is the complementary therapy most often employed to help patients cope.
Aromatherapy for cancer treatment has many positive effects including helping in palliative care and alleviating anxiety, easing chronic tension headaches and pain. The use or aromatherapy massage has also been shown to reduce the stress experienced by patients in intensive care units. Since the exact actions of essential oils on the body has not been extensively studied it is difficult to quantify these results.
In 1993 The Centre for the Study of Complementary Medicine at Countess Mountbatten House conducted a study of the way in which aromatherapy massage affected cancer patients in palliative and terminal care. It was found that using aromatherapy for cancer treatment was helpful in eighty one per cent of patients. These patients said that they felt better and more relaxed.
Sixty two per cent of the patients stated that the benefits lasted for several hours while twenty five per cent said the positive effects remained with them for more than a day. Eighty one per cent felt they would like to have aromatherapy for cancer treatment more than once a week.
It is not easy to determine whether the individual care was the basis for the results and not the massage itself. However the hospital continues to use aromatherapy for cancer treatment, since it appears to help their patients to cope with their illness, helps relieve depression and generally results in happier patients.
The effects of therapeutic massage on the pain of cancer patients is under study. It is thought that massage could perhaps act as an alternative to orthodox methods of pain relief. In one study pain relief was found to be significant only in the men who formed part of the study, not the female participants. More studies need to be done to evaluate the efficacy of aromatherapy for cancer treatment.
What is clear is that aromatherapy can have positive effects on both physical and mental and emotional symptoms. The combination of aromatherapy for cancer and massage treatments seems (at least based on anecdotal evidence) to provide much need relief for many patients. Whether this is due largely to the healing power of touch or the combined effects of aroma and touch is not known.
The most important thing for many cancer patients is quality of life. Many patients are not going to survive so the way in which they spend their last weeks or months will be of particular importance to them. Aromatherapy for cancer patients may not heal their bodies of the cancer but can definitely help to stimulate energy, appetite, provide some degree of pain relief and lessen anxiety and depression.
