Air Fresheners, Or Are They?

For years I've prided myself on believing that I take a very natural approach to the wellness of me and my family. However, I recently ventured into the aromatherapy market and found out, much to my dismay, that I was wrong. One of the primary "no nos" was air fresheners. Let's not even get started with all the petrochemicals and other chemicals that are in our other products like lotion, shampoo, conditioners, household cleaners, laundry detergents, and well you get the picture.

However, I thought that air freshener weren't TOO bad, were they? Oh I was so wrong! I read an article recently by Lesley Grimwood, a registered aromatherapist and member of the Aromatherapy and Allied Practitioners Association. What I read convinced me further that aromatherapy is not just something to be taken lightly and sniffed at! I recommend you find her article and read it thoroughly. (Air Fresheners ? Not To Be Sniffed At).

Unfortunately, now the word "aromatherapy" is being applied so loosely in our sales and marketing that "true" aromatherapy may have noses turned up at it because using quality essential oils cost quite a bit more. In fact, if you'll notice the word aromatherapy is being applied to so many things including, yes, air fresheners.

What I found out from Lesley Grimwood's article was that these so-called air fresheners are really just odor "disguisers" full of chemicals that are causing some maladies to occur in us. Since reading her article I really went proactive and decided that we would be ridding our home of all of these chemical-laden products. We did so in our yards, laundry products, cleaning, and now personal products. Every single one of the chemicals in these products, especially all the petrochemicals, invades our bodies and they don't leave unless we do a thorough detoxification! Our poor pets suffer even more because they can get the chemicals we use on our floors into their bodies through their feet!

Here's what was found in the Bristol University study on 14,000 pregnant women mentioned in Leslie Grimwood's article: those who used air fresheners daily suffered 25 percent more headaches than those who only used them once per week. It also reported a 19% increase in post-natal depression, and the babies suffered too. Those under 6 months who were exposed daily to the air fresheners suffered 30% more ear infections and 20 percent were more likely to suffer from diarrhea.

Further findings how found how these air fresheners that are supposed to make our homes smell better and in the commercials give us the impression that we will FEEL better, do almost the opposite actually. The findings showed that there was increased anxiety, tension, headaches, depression, insomnia, diarrhea, etc. THAT is supposed to make us feel better?

Well, I have found the better alternative to these horrible air fresheners ? essential oils diffused through a cold-air diffuser or mixed with spring water in an amber glass spray bottle. The incredibly great thing is that when essential oils are diffused into the air they don't just make the air seem fresher, the air IS fresher. Different ones do different things but they do affect every facet of your body in a positive, healing way. The oils when diffused can be into every cell of your body within seconds.

The essential oils have adaptagenic qualities so that they seek out where they are needed in the body. An essential oil is the lifeforce of the plant similar to our blood and immune system so they adapt very well in our bodies. They don't harm our bodies like the chemicals in these air fresheners are doing. Rather, they are helping our bodies while cleaning the air. Yes, I say CLEANING. The air really IS fresh after a diffusing of your favorite essential oils into the air.

Essential oils oxygenate and detoxify the blood in our bodies simultaneously. They create an environment where pathogenic organisms cannot live! With all the chemicals we're getting into our bodies through all the products we have in our homes, in our yards, in our air, in our foods, our bodies are degenerating because they cannot get rid of these toxins without help. This then can lead to disease.

However, when we inhale the essential oils either through a diffuser or directly or even by applying them to our bodies (I even ingest orally some of the ones I use as does my husband and our dog) the oils cross the blood-brain barrier and clean out the petrochemicals!! They're the only known substances that are able to do this!! And you just thought they smelled good!

So the next time you want to freshen things up in your home, try an essential oil instead and have true clean air!

Kim Bloomer is a natural pet care consultant and publisher of the RSS channel, AspenbloomWellPet http://www.Aspenbloom-WellPet.com She is also the editor of the upcoming audiozine on pet wellness for http://www.YourVoice.biz . You can find out more on the essential oils on her products RSS channel http://www.natural-pet-care-products.com

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Israeli mobile artillery units fire shells towards Gaza from their position outside the northern Gaza Strip, January 7, 2009. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)AP - Lebanese militants fired at least three rockets into Israel early Thursday, threatening to open a new front for the Jewish state as it pushed forward with a bloody offensive in the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 700 people.



President-elect Barack Obama introduces, Nancy Killefer, not shown, to the newly created position of chief performance officer, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, at his transition office in Washington. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)AP - President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday that the nation's recession could "linger for years" unless Congress acts to pump unprecedented sums from Washington into the U.S. economy, making his highest-profile case yet on an issue certain to define his early presidency.



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Illinois U.S. Senate Appointee Roland Burris smiles as he meets with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)AP - Illinois Republicans are promising tough questions Thursday for Senate-appointee Roland Burris on why he accepted a position offered by disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich and whether he promised the governor anything in return.



President George W. Bush is honored by the military in a farewell ceremony at Ft. Myer in Arlington, Va., Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009. He is joined by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, right, and Joint Chief Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen, left. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)AP - The United States and its partners have shortchanged Afghanistan by focusing on short-term goals pursued without a cohesive strategy or a clear understanding of the way the poor, decentralized country works, an independent study concludes.



In this photo provided by the Washington State Department of Transportation, water rushes past a washed out road near Blewett Pass on U.S. highway 97 in Washington State on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009 in Washington State. (AP Photo/Washington State Department of Transportation)AP - More than 30,000 people were urged to leave their flood-endangered western Washington homes as swollen rivers, mudslides and avalanches engulfed neighborhoods and roadways.



In this Dec. 11, 2008 file photo, President-elect Barack Obama, right, stands with Health and Human Services Secretary-designate, former Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, during a news conference in Chicago.   (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak,File)AP - Showing the emphasis that some lawmakers are putting on health care issues this year, former Sen. Tom Daschle will be the first of President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet choices to undergo a hearing.



AP - The chances that a teenager will be cited for talking on a cell phone while driving are pretty much zero in Oregon, a consequence of the way the law is written and a problem other states may be facing.

Christian Bale accepts the favorite action movie award for 'The Dark Knight' at the 35th Annual People's Choice Awards on Wednesday Jan. 7, 2009 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)AP - Holy People's Choice Awards, Batman!



Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops poses with the BCS championship trophy during a press conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009. Oklahoma will play Florida for the NCAA BCS football championship Thursday, Jan. 8. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)AP - Standing next to the crystal football, Bob Stoops was the picture of Mr. Agreeable. Any pose the photographers wanted, the Oklahoma coach gave them. Looking to the right, gazing to the left, smiling straight ahead. That is, until a shutterbug told Stoops to hold up one finger — a "we're No. 1" shot. No chance, pal.



President-elect Barack Obama at a news conference in Chicago December 7, 2008. (Jeff Haynes/Reuters)Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama will seek Thursday to rally support for a massive fiscal stimulus package by warning that the United States could remain mired in recession for years without bold action.



Palestinians ride on a carriage past a Hamas government building damaged in an Israeli air strike in Gaza January 7, 2009. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)Reuters - Several rockets fired from Lebanon struck northern Israel on Thursday, slightly wounding two people, police and medics said, in an attack seen as linked to Israel's war on Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip.



Pedestrians are silhouetted on an electronic board displaying share prices outside a brokerage in Tokyo January 8, 2009. (Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)Reuters - Citigroup forecast a synchronized global recession in 2009 and said developed economies may "flirt" with deflation while emerging market economies will slow sharply, adding that global corporate earnings were only a quarter of the way through an expected 50 percent drop.



Media persons stand outside the headquarters of Satyam Computer, the country's fourth-largest software company, in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad January 8, 2009. (Krishnendu Halder/Reuters)Reuters - India vowed to strengthen laws to prevent corporate fraud after Satyam Computer, the country's fourth-largest software company, shocked investors by revealing profits had been falsely inflated for years.



A man walks past the entrance to the Bank of England in London in this October 8, 2008 file photo. (Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters)Reuters - The Bank of England cut interest rates by half a percentage point to a record low of 1.5 percent on Thursday as it battles to keep Britain from falling into a deep and lasting downturn.



Oleh Dubyna, the head of Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz, arrives at the European parliament Foreign Affairs Committee in Brussels January 8, 2009. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters)Reuters - Russia and Ukraine failed to resolve a gas row at a meeting in Moscow but will continue talks to end the dispute which has choked off supplies to Europe, a senior Ukrainian gas official said on Thursday.



A customer looks at listings on display outside a Brown Harris Stevens offices in New York, June 4, 2008. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)Reuters - It took war, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and the collapse of some of New York's famed investment banks, but Manhattan apartment prices are finally falling.



Reuters - U.S. cities are vulnerable to an attack like the gun-and-grenade assault that terrorized Mumbai for three days and killed 179 people, the White House homeland security adviser said on Wednesday.

Fake coffins wrapped in black with the Arabic words AFP - Rockets fired into northern Israel from Lebanon on Thursday jolted efforts to end the war in Gaza where Israeli jets carried out mass strikes on smuggling tunnels.



A Palestinian protestor flashes the V for 'victory' sign in front of an Israeli soldier near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's old city. Israeli warplanes bombed suspected arms-smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza early Thursday, as diplomats worked to secure a ceasefire in an offensive that has killed 700 Palestinians.(AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)AFP - Israeli warplanes bombed suspected arms-smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza early Thursday, as diplomats worked to secure a ceasefire in an offensive that has killed 700 Palestinians.




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