
Lavender’s Soothing Scent Could Be More Than Just Folk Medicine - extraterra
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/23/science/lavender-scent-anxiety.html
======
phren0logy
I was also impressed by the studies out of Germany on Silexan, which is a
lavender extract taken orally. The clinical trials took it head-to-head with
lorazepam, which is a benzodiazepine like Valium. It held up remarkably well,
with similar levels of anxiety relief. So the effects are not limited to
olfactory use.

I’m a psychiatrist, and I have prescribed it a few times for patients that I
treat. There’s a version of it available in the US called CalmAid that is
identified as the same isolate in Silexan.

International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice. 2013.
10.3109/13651501.2013.813555

Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology. 2017. 10.1097/jcp.0000000000000615

Frontiers in Pharmacology. 2017. 10.3389/fphar.2017.00280

Edit: added info on an RCT, a meta-analysis, and some work on the mechanism of
action

~~~
this2shallPass
Links to the above articles:

[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/13651501.2013.81...](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/13651501.2013.813555)

[https://journals.lww.com/psychopharmacology/Citation/2017/02...](https://journals.lww.com/psychopharmacology/Citation/2017/02000/Lavender_Oil_Preparation__Silexan__for_Treating.29.aspx)

[https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2017.0028...](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2017.00280/full)

Also, more articles relating to lavender oil preparation and treatment of
anxiety:

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20512042](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20512042)

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24456909](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24456909)

~~~
njarboe
A neat fact is that you can put any DOI at the end of doi.org/ and it will
(never has failed me) redirect you right to the landing page of the paper the
the DOI is a reference for.

So a paper with a DOI of 10.3109/13651501.2013.813555 can be reached by going
to: doi.org/10.3109/13651501.2013.813555

------
creep
I was in the psych ward a little while back and had an absolute _breakdown_
while I was there. They had security put me in the observation room behind the
nurse's station, which is just like a room with thick glass on three sides and
curtains on the outside and a mattress on the floor. I was losing my shit.
When I finally calmed down around 2 AM, a nurse came in with a little bottle
of lavender essential oil. She asked if she could put it on my pillow. I had
the best sleep of my time spent on the ward, and started using it when I was
discharged. I had wonderful dreams, I was calm in the morning, I was
comforted, I felt safe.

~~~
bfuller
If anyone is interested in experiencing this (sans psych ward melt down)
lavender sachets to put in your pillow are really _very_ nice.

~~~
toomanybeersies
Hops (as in the beer ingredient) are also a traditional sleep aid to put in
your pillow.

~~~
accrual
On the topic of traditional sleep aids, I found chamomile capsules [0] to be a
safe and effective sleep aid. I previously worked exclusively overnight and
tried many herbal supplements, finally settling on chamomile as my favourite.

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Natures-Way-Chamomile-Flowers-
Capsule...](https://www.amazon.com/Natures-Way-Chamomile-Flowers-
Capsules/dp/B0006U3QJQ)

------
quizme2000
My wife had a very stressful and painful delivery with our first. During her 3
day recovery at Kasier, our nurses provided a lavender treatment (oil on a
cotton ball) to help reduce her stress and calm her heart-rate. Our nurses had
provided us with a patient information sheet that Kaiser had prepared
specifically for this situation.

The key here is this was a very targeted and prescribed treatment performed by
trained professional staff with a lavender oil product intended for use in a
hospital. Not some huckster MLM agent that selling good knows what.

~~~
joncrane
Can't there be an in-between? I shouldn't have to be admitted to a hospital to
experience the beneficial effects of lavender treatment.

~~~
analognoise
Given lavender's known negative effects on developing boys, I think it should
only be available in a medical environment, or extensively labeled and
regulated.

If this destroys the oily-MLM huns, that would be a side benefit.

~~~
nate_meurer
There are no known negative effects on developing boys. See my comments down-
thread. The "studies" purporting to show hormonal effects were extremely low-
quality, and have not been reproduced. Other more recent studies are only in-
vitro, and in-vitro hormonal effects do not translate well in living humans.

Besides, lavender shares a chemical makeup with many other common herbs and
foods, or combinations thereof, and nobody is claiming that those disrupt our
hormones. The whole hypothesis doesn't pass the smell test.

------
rmm
When i was working on a project in Tunisia, i saw lots of the locals walking
around in the morning with little sprigs of rosemary (which grows everywhere
there) and taking sniffs of it as they commuted.

When I asked about it, they mentioned it was like a morning coffee, they felt
it woke them up, and "got their brain firing".

I gave it a go, and (n=1) it definitely felt like a pick me up. I grow
rosemary in my garden now, and every morning as I am getting ready for work I
will grab a bit and smell away.

~~~
bfuller
Also a popular remedy in Chinese medicine.

------
gmnash
Curious if it could be related to the hormone disruption properties of
lavender.

[https://www.endocrine.org/news-room/2018/chemicals-in-
lavend...](https://www.endocrine.org/news-room/2018/chemicals-in-lavender-and-
tea-tree-oil-appear-to-be-hormone-disruptors)

~~~
nate_meurer
AFAIK there is not yet any evidence showing hormone disruption from lavender
in people. There is some recent research showing effects in vitro (including
the report you cited), but nothing in actual humans.

The hypothesis is highly questionable to begin with, simply because the
chemicals in lavender that show hormone disruption in vitro (almost all of
them terpenes in the latest studies) are ubiquitous in nature, being present
in hundreds of other widely consumed foods and herbs, often in high
concentrations. Nature has surrounded us with these chemicals, and we've
evolved in their presence. It would be really odd for lavender to cause
problems, and not any of the other plants that contain the same substances.

The 2007 report (by Henley et al) that kicked off the whole panic over
lavender and tea tree oil is a textbook case of poor quality pseudo-research
that should never have been published. It had a sample size of three. That's
right, three. It was neither blinded nor controlled in any way. It was simply
a doctor who thought he noticed a decrease in gynecomastia among three kids
after they stopped using some products that might have contained lavender or
tea tree oil. If you want to know what's wrong with scientific publishing and
reporting nowadays, reading about this case is a great place to start [1].

1 - [https://roberttisserand.com/2013/02/lavender-oil-is-not-
estr...](https://roberttisserand.com/2013/02/lavender-oil-is-not-estrogenic/)

~~~
makmanalp
Does the 2013 rebuttal study in that link tell us anything about the safety of
ingesting lavender extract (e.g. like the Silexan studies given above)?
Wouldn't that involve much higher absorption than topical application?

Update: OK, weirdly enough, Tisserand seems to be highly involved in the
aromatherapy industry per their own website, and the study [0] seems to
involve researchers from the "Research Institute for Fragrance Materials"
which sounds suspiciously like an industry-related group - is this reputable
at all??

[0]
[http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1091581812472209](http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1091581812472209)

~~~
nate_meurer
I think this is one of those situations where most of the people who care
enough to debate are those with an economic interest. Like perfumers. Conflict
of interest is possible I suppose, but Tisserand's rebuttal seems well
reasoned regardless, and he provides a list of other rebuttals from other
people.

> _Does the 2013 rebuttal study in that link tell us anything about the safety
> of ingesting lavender extract?_

No, only topical application, albeit in far greater quantities than is seen in
typical usage.

> _Wouldn 't that involve much higher absorption than topical application?_

No, not necessarily. Silexan is delivered in 80mg doses. Higher levels of the
same chemicals can easily be delivered by common foods. For example, a dish
that's well seasoned with thyme or coriander can easily contain far more than
80 mg of linalool, and a few other ingredients would easily provide the same
terpenoid profile as found in lavender, just as if you were to eat a large
amount of lavender oil. Lavender really isn't anything special.

------
wazoox
I can tell you that cutting lavender, bowing with a blade under a flaming sun,
isn't soothing at all :) Ditto throwing tons of lavender with a fork in the
distillation tank next to the blazing fire :)

------
sprucely
Soothing? I have a disgust of all things lavender, and I don't appreciate
being subjected to the aroma when colleagues use lavender products. I wonder
if there's a connection between my visceral reaction and my general lack of
ability to relax.

~~~
Raphmedia
Entirely possible. Think of cilantro that tastes and smells like soap for some
people. Contrary to popular belief, we do not all perceive the world in the
same ways.

"This may be traced to the OR6A2 gene, an olfactory receptor able to bind many
of the aldehydes implicated in the herb's very particular smell. Perhaps those
with a specific variation in the gene are particularly sensitive to its
soapiness."

[http://mentalfloss.com/article/91060/why-does-cilantro-
taste...](http://mentalfloss.com/article/91060/why-does-cilantro-taste-soap-
some-people)

[https://flavourjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/20...](https://flavourjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2044-7248-1-8)

~~~
cpeterso
Perhaps there is a genetic or allergy response to lavender. I have allergies
and the smell of lavender makes me want to sneeze. :\

------
synaesthesisx
Terpenes like linalool are also found in other popular plants. I hope to see
our understanding of these substances continue to grow.

~~~
pcmaffey
Including cannabis, which contributes to the variety of strains with differing
smells, tastes, and psychoactive effects.

~~~
uxp100
And the origin of the lawsuit against La Croix, iirc. I saw headlines
describing insecticide in La Croix, and read them and went, oh, that's in
beer.

------
haley6688
Dr. Angie Lillehei from Minnesota also studied lavender and sleep in her 2014
study:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26133206](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26133206)

She now sells sleep patches:
[https://www.noctilessence.com/](https://www.noctilessence.com/)

------
chiefalchemist
I understand why there are drug and medical experiments / studies using mice,
but why is something like this done with mice and not humans?

------
tyu1000
Wow, a small-sample-size mouse study.

~~~
slashink
While I’m not particularly hopeful for actual positive outcome of a larger
study I must ask: isn’t this how studies are supposed to be done?

You devise a hypothesis, you confirm it as good as you can in an experiment
and document the procedure. Someone else then peer reviews your study and
finds any potential mistakes, if the research looks promising enough an
independent research team will devise a larger study with more funding to
verify the claims, repeat this X times until some sort of conclusion can be
made.

Again, I’m partial against this study but at least it’s a study.

~~~
bluntfang
>if the research looks promising enough

I would replace promising with profitable.

