Does aromatherapy work if you can't smell?

This one came up when I bought some massage oil for me fella - who couldn't sleep.

It stank great, cos it was full of all sorts of essential oils that are supposed to make you relax and sleep.

I was talking this up when I was massaging him, for placebo effect, and suddenly realised he has almost no sense of smell! This led to much hilarity.

I say it does - cos the odours still get to your brain - even if it doesn't turn them into smells, it is still receiving them.

The answer is no.


Next topic: Intuition .... real or imagined?

Ylang Ylang is great for relaxation. Have a bath or spa full of ylang ylang and you feel great after.

Lol - I will only let you get away with that cos intuition is a fun topic.

I say real - only, it is the result of subconsciously processing lots of information that comes in from how a person moves, talks etc.

If you have relevant experience and good observation, it "works" quite well.

If you have smegged up experience, then it just as reliably leads you astray.

Have you read the intro, australia, this is a silly arguments thread, not an aromatherapy info one!

Here is an example, Tico - in my work, I am always working with abused and traumatised people.

When the women who haven't worked on their crap successfully come in with new partners - it usually takes me 5 minutes flat to work out if they are gonna be arseholes or not. I could call this intuition - but it is a fortunately un-physically-abused personal history, and 24 years of working experience.

I get false negatives, but not false positives.

THEIR "intuition" -is telling them he is the man of their dreams!

Oooops, sorry. It is sunday afternoon

Go sniff some basil - it will freshen your brain.

That is your ability to size up the situation based upon your prior experiences. But what about a situation where you have no such experience? Do you have a "sixth sense" that tells you things, absent prior experiences? I think of "intuition" as an illogical sense, where what you've described is a situation where you make a conclusion, albeit subconsciously, based upon certain observable criteria.


I shouldn't have derailed your first topic so soon. Apologies. I actually think you are probably correct that aromatherapy likely works even if you can't smell. For instance, menthol will probably open up the sinuses of one whose olfactory nerves don't work.

I'm really going to sign off now. I'll use this post to say goodnight.




(I see deja vu as an upcoming topic for this thread...)

Ah - but I think that what we CALL intuition is exactly that. I do not think there is a sixth sense - and, crap in, crap out, when it comes to "intuition" - it is ionly as good as the information and experience base on which it relies.

Good thread, dlowan.

I tend to equate aromatherapy and placebos--"mommie's kiss will make it better" department.

As for intuition, I am given credit for great psychic powers for my tarot readings--but I don't read the cards, I read people.

Yes - but what os your silly argument re aromatherapy and not being able to smell, or intuition?

I have a very diminished sense of smell, have been tested by an expert in - what would you call it, nasophysiology? - at UC Irvine. I could pick up about ten of perhaps 75 substances, but identify less than that. (And, yes, yes, I can taste... ). Perhaps there are sub-notice nerve responses, I dunno, or some taste compensation going on.

I like good soaps - for their aesthetic qualities like color and feel, and I probably have a general sense that they don't smell terrible. For me, aromatherapy is just a nice story.

Yes - but does it work if you can't smell? Remember, this is a silly agument thread, and our premise is that it it DOES work if you CAN smell.

I thought I answered that it doesn't work for me (I called it a nice story), and I essentially can't smell. You want my answer to be sillier?

The Nose knows no noes, now.

No - no - don't recount - ARGUE!!! Reality has naught to do with it.

What is your theory about how your noselessness stops it working???? I say that the chemicals reach the brain whether your brain says "Nice stink" or not.

(Remember, the premise is that it DOES work - and we are here to argue passionately with each other)

Harumph, I am so reality prone... it is hard to separate and slip away from my sense.. of it. I think some substances physically alter nerve endings, ammonia for example. So, even those who don't smell, as such, do react to ammonia, because of nerves curling in distaste.

Hmmm, ammonia therapy...

I conject that whatever the elements of a noncaustic aroma are (such as from rose petals) that trigger nerve messaging to the brain in most people - don't actually attach to a nerve receptor in the nose of a nonsmelling person, an anosmic.... that there is receptor blockage, or at least receptor befuddlement.

It's true that I don't know that there is such a thing as a smell receptor on a nasal nerve ending, I'm just positing.
And I posit further that because of this veil over the nasal receptors that the brain doesn't get the message at all, much less any charming sense of therapeutic healing.

The anosmic then needs to go out and buy a battery equipped household aroma detector kit, which, when the red light blinks, attaches to a nasal nerve bypass system in the said anosmic's noggin. In time, these detector kits may be available in convenient portable formats.