This blog contains in depth articles, but also at times smaller entries, like this one that I felt I had to share.
I just stumbled upon a 2024 scientific study showing that regular inhalation of rose essential oil increases grey matter volume.
I do not make any claims here; I just resume what this study found and provide the link.
As the autors mention, research into the health benefits of scents is on the rise. However, little is known about the effects of continuous inhalation, such as wearing scents on clothing, on brain structure.
Then study was conducted on a total of 50 healthy people, 28 in the intervention group and 22 in the control group, asking them to wear a designated essential oil rose scent on their clothes for a month.
The results showed that the intervention increased the gray matter volume (GMV) of the whole brain and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) subregion
The study first resumes different researches on the links between aromatherapy and the brain before presenting it's methodology and data, and limits, which are then discussed.
Here are a few excerpts, directly quoted form the article :
Research into the health benefits of scents is on the rise (Ebrahimi et al., 2022, Fukada et al., 2012, Atsumi and Tonosaki, 2007, Watanabe et al., 2015, Kawai et al., 2020, Choi et al., 2014). The efficacy of scent has also been confirmed in brain research (Wang et al., 2005, Van Regemorter et al., 2022). However, most of these studies have examined the effects of temporary odor stimulation on brain responses. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the changes that occur in brain structure when a person is continuously exposed to scent stimuli for a month. Rose essential oil was used to scent the intervention group, and plain water was used to scent the control group
The results showed that daily inhalation of rose essential oil increased the GMV (=Grey Matter Volume) of the whole brain and its PCC* subregion (...)
* The PCC = posterior cingulate cortex, involved in memory-odor associations, odor memory retrieval, and semantic memory processes (Maddock et al., 2001, Binder et al., 2009, Bird et al., 2015)
It has been confirmed that aromatherapy has effects on various parts of the body, including the brain. However, to the authors' knowledge, there have been no studies to date that have investigated the effects of simple interventions such as adding fragrance to clothes on the brain.
The authors postulate that :
The result of this study that continuous inhalation of rose essential oil increases the GM of PCC has implications for the practice of dementia prevention
One thing I wonder is why the author's speficically chose rose, which they don't discuss (thouzgh, amsuingly they explain their choic of dipropylene glycol in which the rose essential oil was diluted.
Also, of course, I wonder what would be the effects with other oils.
The reference of the article is :
Kokubun K, Nemoto K, Yamakawa Y. Continuous inhalation of essential oil increases gray matter volume. Brain Res Bull. 2024 Mar;208:110896. doi: 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2024.110896. Epub 2024 Feb 7. PMID: 38331299.
You can find the study here.
