Complementary Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine

Chapter 15 / Aromatherapy and CVD 239
15 Aromatherapy
and Cardiovascular Disease
Jane Buckle, PhD, RN
CONTENTS
BACKGROUND
DEFINITIONS
SCIENTIFIC BASIS
CONTEMPORARY USE
CAUTIONS
CLINICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES AND EVIDENCE
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
“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).
BACKGROUND
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 famil-
From: Contemporary Cardiology
Complementary and Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine
Edited by: R. A. Stein and M. C. Oz © Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ
239