Alternative medicine is popular with many Charleston residents looking for natural remedies to help treat a range of illnesses. One of the more popular go-to’s is essential oils. Do these do any good with hearing issues?
Popularity of Essential Oils
If you think essential oils are something you really need to fry foods, you need to get out of the kitchen more. They are actually the liquid compounds from plants.
Essential oils have been around for hundreds of years, with people using them to flavor foods and make products smell good.
Their popularity has been on the increase in recent years as people look for new ways to treat old woes. Anything to get out of sitting around a hospital room!
The number of essential oil combinations is almost limitless. Herbs and fruit are most popular; top essential oils include lavender, peppermint, lemon and eucalyptus. They are typically inhaled or rubbed on the skin; do not swallow them, no matter how delicious they smell!
What do people claim to use essential oils for?
There are many claims about the health benefits of essential oils, which can supposedly help people in Charleston suffering from a wide variety of health issues. Essential oils are touted as offering benefits like:
- Boosting energy
- Relieving stress
- Aiding digestion
- Reducing anxiety
- Improving mood
- Fighting infections
- Treating headaches, nausea and skin conditions
Are essential oils used to treat hearing loss?
Additionally, many claims have been made about essential oils’ effectiveness at treating hearing loss, tinnitus, vertigo and ear infections.
Individuals with sensorineural hearing loss can allegedly find relief from cajeput, geranium, lavender and tea tree oils, while helichrysum oil is said to help both conductive and sensorineural hearing loss sufferers. But doctors aren’t buying into the hype.
The Alleged Benefits of Essential Oils on Hearing & Balance
There is simply no evidence that essential oils or other popular alternative therapies, such as CBD oil and homeopathy, provide any health benefits.
Essential oils are not regulated by the FDA and, while using them properly shouldn’t create any problems, if you’re expecting to go to bed hard of hearing and wake up miraculously cured, it’s not going to happen.
Traditional options like hearing aids can provide proven improvements to your hearing and wellness.
Pregnant or nursing women should refrain from using essential oils, and some users might experience a rash or skin problems.
Dispelling hearing loss rumors
If you experience a ringing in your ears called tinnitus, you may have heard that cypress oil, ginseng oil, helichrysum oil, juniper oil, lavender oil, lilies oil, olive oil, onion oil, petitgrain oil, rehmannia oil and spotted orchis oil, among others, will all stop your ears from ringing. Unfortunately, this is not true.
Likewise, vertigo sufferers are told that basil oil, bergamot oil, bitter orange oil (neroli), CBD oil, clary sage oil, cypress oil, geranium oil, ginger oil, lavender oil, lemon balm oil, peppermint oil, rose oil, rosemary oil, tangerine oil or thyme oil can all help stop the room from spinning. Again, there is no clinical evidence to back that up.
The same holds true for people with ear infections. Supposedly, lavender oil, olive oil, tea tree oil, oregano oil, basil oil, thyme oil, bishop’s weed oil, peppermint oil, mustard oil and a mixture of sesame and castor oil will help infections heal faster. This has never been shown to be true.
Essential oils won’t do much for hearing or balance problems, but there are plenty of traditional treatment solutions that actually do work. For more information, contact your local hearing specialist.
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Charleston, SC 29414
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Charleston, SC 29412
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