Have you ever stopped to think about your sense of smell? It is truly one of the most wondrous processes that our body is capable of.
Our sense of smell is our most powerful sense even though, generally, we often neglect it. We use it the least of all our other senses, preferring to use our senses of sight and hearing.
How we smell is a very complex process involving a part of our nose and various parts of our brain. We have the ability to recognize up to 10,000 separate odors, but each thing we smell needs to be volatile (capable of entering a gaseous state) for our senses to be able to detect and identify it.
Noses come in all shapes and sizes externally, but the external features are only for the passage of air as we breathe. Internally, olfactory epithelium (mucous membranes) located on the roof and upper part of both walls of the nasal cavity are the part of the nose that detects odors.
This epithelium contains some 5 million olfactory neurons, plus their support cells and stem cells-each topped by at least 10 hair-like cilia. During normal breathing, the inhaled air slightly touches the cilia, so that odors can be detected from the environment.
Sniffing, which is deliberate, strong inhalation of air through our nose, pulls the air deeply into the cilia to increase the amount and strength of the odor that has been detected, by increasing the amount of the gaseous chemicals that come into contact with the cilia. For detection to occur, the cilia are covered with a thin film of mucous that is necessary to dissolve the chemicals in the gaseous substance that carries the odor.
It is estimated that each cilia cell has between 500 and 1,000 receptor proteins that are genetic in nature, and determine which odors our brains can detect and identify, according to which receptors are activated by the odor. Each neuron is connected, via a synapse to the olfactory bulb, which is part of the brain, by a long fiber called an axon.
The axon passes through the bone above the neurons, called the cribiform plate. It is in the olfactory bulb that the first impressions are made.
Once the odors have triggered the receptor sites, the olfactory bulb sends nerve impulses, via the olfactory bundles, to the thalamus (which then transmits the impulses to the neocortex) and to the hypothalamus. It is in the neocortex that discrimination, perception, and memories occur allowing us to correctly identify what it is we are smelling.
The hypothalamus forms part of the limbic system (the oldest part of the brain). which activates smell-related emotions. The limbic system is also involved with visceral functioning, via the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
In this way, the hypothalamus and limbic system play a key role in emotional conditions such as stress and depression. Aromatherapy works by using various odors to achieve specific therapeutic results when utilizing the person's sense of smell to manipulate their limbic system.
The odors of the essential oils trigger limbic responses that affect the person physically, mentally, and emotionally, with each oil having a variety of effects upon the person depending on the oil's chemical constituents and the person's memory association of that odor. Although it is not known exactly how essential oils absorbed through the skin and into the blood stream, skin absorption through massage has a therapeutic action on the brain functions, controlled by the limbic system and on internal organ and tissue systems.
Although the use of aromas for therapeutic use has been around for centuries, it is only recently that research has been done in earnest to determine how our brains work to determine smells and how these odors can affect us. Research is being conducted to determine the relationship between smell and the success of ventures such as attaining a job or selling a house.
This research is aimed at rationalizing what we already instinctively know, and detailing how it actually occurs. Other research has determined the relationship of aromas and the productivity of workers in Japan, using various scents and measuring the changes in productivity with each scent.
Lavender, for example, has been tested in various settings to determine the effect it has on animals and people. We may never fully understand all of the wonderful effects that it has on us, but we can certainly appreciate them!
Author Resource:-
Tommy Greene has worked since 1986 as an interior decorator specializing in home decor. He has written hundreds of articles about decorating home and office spaces including finding the right kind of scentsy.
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