User:Haleighj/sandbox

Effectiveness
There is limited medical evidence that aromatherapy can prevent or cure any disease, but a handful of evidence suggests that it does in fact have certain health benefits. These studies have shown that among cancer patients, aromatherapy has been found to lower anxiety and depression symptoms. In 2015, the Australian Government's Department of Health published the results of a review of alternative therapies that sought to determine if any were suitable for being covered by health insurance; aromatherapy was one of 17 therapies evaluated for which no clear evidence of effectiveness was found. Evidence for the efficacy of aromatherapy in treating medical conditions is limited. The evidence that does exists included a particular lack of studies employing rigorous methodology. A number of systematic reviews have studied the clinical effectiveness of aromatherapy in respect to pain management in labor, the treatment of post-operative nausea and vomiting, managing behaviors that challenge in dementia, and symptom relief in cancer. However, some studies have come to the conclusion that while it does improve the patients mood, there is no conclusive evidence on how it goes in to play with pain management. Studies have been inconclusive because of the fact that no straight forward evidence exists. All of these reviews report a lack of evidence on the effectiveness of aromatherapy. The studies were found to be of low quality, meaning that more well-designed, large scale, randomized controlled trials are needed before clear conclusions can be drawn as to the true effectiveness of aromatherapy.

Safety concerns
Aromatherapy carries a number of risks of adverse effects and with this in consideration, combined with the lack of evidence of its therapeutic benefit, makes the practice of questionable worth.

There is an immense amount of studies exploring the concerns that essential oils are highly concentrated and can irritate the skin when used in undiluted form. Therefore, they are normally diluted with a carrier oil for topical application, such as jojoba oil, olive oil, or coconut oil. Phototoxic reactions may occur with citrus peel oils such as lemon or lime. Also, many essential oils have chemical components that are sensitisers (meaning that they will, after a number of uses, cause reactions on the skin, and more so in the rest of the body). Chemical composition of essential oils could be affected herbicides if the original plants are cultivated versus wild-harvested. Some oils can be toxic to some domestic animals, with cats being particularly prone.

Most oils can be toxic to humans as well. A report of three cases documented gynecomastia in prepubertal boys who were exposed to topical lavender and tea tree oils. The Aromatherapy Trade Council of the UK issued a rebuttal. The Australian Tea Tree Association, a group that promotes the interests of Australian tea tree oil producers, exporters and manufacturers issued a letter that questioned the study and called on the New England Journal of Medicine for a retraction. Another article published by a different research group also documented three cases of gynecomastia in prepubertal boys who were exposed to topical lavender oil.

While some advocate the ingestion of essential oils for therapeutic purposes, licensed aromatherapy professionals do not recommend self-prescription due to the highly toxic nature of some essential oils. Some very common oils like eucalyptus are extremely toxic when taken internally. Doses as low as 2 mL have been reported to cause clinically significant symptoms and severe poisoning can occur after ingestion of as little as 4 mL. A few reported cases of toxic reactions like liver damage and seizures have occurred after ingestion of sage, hyssop, thuja and cedar oils. Accidental ingestion may happen when oils are not kept out of reach of children. As with any bioactive substance, an essential oil that may be safe for the general public could still pose hazards for pregnant and lactating women.

Oils both ingested and applied to the skin can potentially have negative interactions with conventional medicine. For example, the topical use of methyl salicylate-heavy oils like sweet birch and wintergreen may cause bleeding in users taking the anticoagulant warfarin.

ARTICLE EVALUATION: Everything seems relevant, and nothing really distracted me. However, there is very little information on the subject. It is only a couple months out of date but it is missing plenty of information such as, what the two theories mean exactly, and what evidence could be added.

The article seems pretty neutral in tone and nothing is too much in one direction.

There is only two sources for this article. One of which is a journal over the topic, seeming a little to one sided view point, as well as the other source. So they do not seem to be very reliable. There are no discussions in the talk page.