Aromatherapy in the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

Lane Simonian

I am not sure where to post any more since they took away the clinical trial forum, but I will start here.

This is the latest among many articles and a few clinical trials dealing with the effects of aromatherapy on Alzheimer's disease and other forms of cognitive impairment.

Natural essential oils derived from herbal medicines: A promising therapy strategy for treating cognitive impairment

In summary, the natural drug volatile oil may play a role in improving cognition by reducing the neurotoxicity of Aβ, anti-oxidative stress, regulating the central cholinergic system, anti-acetylcholinesterase activity, improving microglia-mediated neuroinflammation, reducing inflammatory factor levels, inhibiting neuronal apoptosis, and regulating the balance of central amino acid levels. Compared to existing drugs, volatile oils from natural medicines are a unique health service resource because they are convenient and inexpensive, have fewer side effects and easily cross the blood–brain barrier. The combination of aromatic inhalation therapy, based on the olfactory pathway, can better reflect the characteristics of volatile oils, which are not affected by peripheral metabolism and BBB to deliver drugs into the brain to improve cognition, and can be used as a treatment or as an adjunctive therapy to improve CI [Cognitive impaiment], with clear efficacy and simple safety.

Jo C.

Thank you Lane, now it would be good to find one for myself . . . .

J.

Lane Simonian

I just sniffed a couple of them myself.

This quite good review of aromatherapy for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease came out recently:

Highlights

• Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a complex multifactorial neurodegenerative disease for which only a few drugs are currently available as symptomatic treatment.
• Aromatic plant extracts are indeed effective in improving cognitive function, reducing restlessness, and improving sleep quality in AD patients.
• The pharmacological mechanisms of aromatic plant extracts to improve AD are suggested to be the reduction of Aβ and hyper-phosphorylation of tau protein, anti-cholinesterase, inhibition of the release of inflammatory cytokines, and reduction of damages of oxidative stress.
• Aromatic plant extracts are considered to have neuroprotective effects and have potential medicinal value for the treatment of AD.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cns.14234

Iris L.

Lane, thanks for posting.

Lane Simonian

Thank you, Iris, for helping to make aromatherapy part of Best Practices.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Lane Simonian

Good one (or bad) one.

Many health stores sell essential oils. Some of the better ones for Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia are rosemary, bay laurel, lemon balm, orange, and lavender. Most of the trials used a diffuser but direct inhalation may work even better (except a diffuser may work better for sleep). A loved one can smell a couple of essential oils under each nostril for a few seconds once or twice a day. Some of the more stimulating essential oils such as rosemary can potentially increase anxiety and blood pressure in some individuals and some people are allergic to specific oils, but most people respond well to the treatment.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Lane Simonian

You are welcome, Victoria.

Here are some more details from the article I posted above and the results from two clinical trials.

In summary, the natural drug volatile oil may play a role in improving cognition by reducing the neurotoxicity of Aβ, anti-oxidative stress, regulating the central cholinergic system, anti-acetylcholinesterase activity, improving microglia-mediated neuroinflammation, reducing inflammatory factor levels, inhibiting neuronal apoptosis, and regulating the balance of central amino acid levels. Compared to existing drugs, volatile oils from natural medicines are a unique health service resource because they are convenient and inexpensive, have fewer side effects and easily cross the blood–brain barrier. The combination of aromatic inhalation therapy, based on the olfactory pathway, can better reflect the characteristics of volatile oils, which are not affected by peripheral metabolism and BBB to deliver drugs into the brain to improve cognition, and can be used as a treatment or as an adjunctive therapy to improve CI [Cognitive Impairment], with clear efficacy and simple safety.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2023.1104269/full

Effect of aromatherapy in patients with Alzheimer's disease: a randomised controlled clinical trial

Conclusions: Aromatherapy can improve sleep, alleviate psychobehavioural symptoms and improve quality of life in patients with AD, which may be related to reducing the level of oxidative stress in patients and inhibiting inflammatory factors; it is a non-drug intervention that can be widely applied. " [Lavender, sweet orange, and bergamot essential oils with a diffuser were used in this trial].

(link not working on this one)

Effect of aromatherapy on patients with Alzheimer's disease

Results: All patients showed significant improvement in personal orientation related to cognitive function on both the GBSS-J and TDAS after therapy. In particular, patients with AD showed significant improvement in total TDAS scores. Result of routine laboratory tests showed no significant changes, suggesting that there were no side-effects associated with the use of aromatherapy. Results from Zarit's score showed no significant changes, suggesting that caregivers had no effect on the improved patient scores seen in the other tests.

Conclusions: In conclusion, we found aromatherapy an efficacious non-pharmacological therapy for dementia. Aromatherapy may have some potential for improving cognitive function, especially in AD patients. [Rosemary, lemon, orange, and lavender essential oils were used with a diffuser].

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1479-8301.2009.00299.x