What is Aromatherapy? How can it help me?Written by Tim Semones
Aromatherapy Defined Before I get started take note that fragrance oils (fragrances) are not essential oils. This is because they contain unnatural chemicals and do not provide therapeutic benefits like essential oils. Essential oils are pure "essence" of a plant and when used properly will provide both psychological and physical benefits. There are many essential oils. Absolutes, CO2s and hydrosols are also commonly utilized in aromatherapy. CO2s and absolutes are often defined as part of term "essential oil". Essential oils are very powerful and concentrated and should never be applied to skin in their undiluted form. When applied to skin essential oils are believed to be absorbed into bloodstream. The components of various oils are believed to aid in a variety of physical conditions including: health, hygiene, mental and beauty. To apply essential oils to skin carrier oils (pure vegetable oils) are used to dilute essential oils and carry them to skin. Examples of carrier oils include (but are not limited to): apricot kernel oil, sweet almond oil and grapeseed oil.
| | Fear of Ebola FeverWritten by Loring A. Windblad
Copyright 2004 by http://www.organicgreens.us and Loring Windblad. This article may be freely copied and used on other web sites only if it is copied complete with all links and text intact and unchanged except for minor improvements such as misspellings and typos. Exotic diseases are "in" these days. In past year we've had a flesh-eating bacterial disease, pneumonic plague and now Ebola fever of Zaire, which is not only making international headlines, but is also subject of a best-selling novel, The Hot Zone, and a new Dustin Hoffman film, Outbreak. Within last few decades, scientists have identified several viruses originating in Africa, perhaps in line with Pliny's ancient Greek saying: "Out of Africa, always something new" (in reference to animals interbreeding at water holes). The prophesy might apply to Ebola virus, named for a river in northwestern Zaire, and one of most recently identified of a class of viruses that cause hemorrhagic fevers. It is responsible for recent outbreak in city of Kikwit in Zaire, so far having caused 205 cases and 153 deaths. Hemorrhagic fevers are zoonoses (diseases of animal origin) that spread to humans from various animals - from rodents (Bolivian and Argentinian fever), from sheep (Rift Valley fever) or from monkeys (Marburg disease). Among more recently uncovered causes of hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, transmitted to humans from Ugandan monkeys, caused several deaths among German laboratory workers in 1969. Ebola virus of Zaire, one of deadliest, with a fatality rate of about 75 per cent, is also thought to have been transmitted to humans from some animal (as yet unidentified). More familiar hemorrhagic fevers include dengue fever, Lassa fever and yellow fever - a known danger among ancient seafarers and visitors to West Africa. Despite an effective vaccine against it, yellow fever continues to smoulder on in tropical Africa. Environmentalists believe spread of disease from animals to humans, as with hemorrhagic fevers, poses an emergent threat because deforestation and other drastic practices have disturbed biological harmony of ancient ecosystems. Like other hemorrhagic fevers, Ebola virus kills by attacking lining of blood vessels, making them "leaky" and destroying blood-clotting power, which leads to severe internal bleeding. Symptoms, which surface about 10 days after infection, include flu-like malaise (headache, sore throat, joint pains) and abrupt onset of fever. Later, in about 5 days, there may be a rash, severe stomach pains and hemorrhagic signs - bleeding from orifices (ears, nose), gastrointestinal bleeding and vomiting black blood. Death can follow rapidly from shock and kidney or liver failure.
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