精油与芳香疗法安全性1 精油

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Essential Oils & Aromatherapy Safety


Essential oils are a fairly in depth topic. Basically they’re oils extracted from flowers, plants, grasses, roots, fruits, and leaves.

You can buy essential oils almost anywhere, but your best bet（最好的办法）is a specific essential oil shop, a natural food store, or co-op. You want organic 100% pure essential oils. There are tons of synthetics（人工合成）out there. Synthetic oils are ok for scent alone, but don’t hold any real health benefits. The absolute best way to know that you’re buying a brand of pure essential oil is by price. If you see a shelf of essential oils and they’re all the same cost – they aren’t pure. Some essential oils are very expensive to make while others, even pure ones, you can find at a relatively low cost. In any case, if each bottle of oil is $10, move on.

You should also look for dark bottles. Light can ruin the therapeutic（adj.治疗的）benefits of essential oils. Reputable companies almost always bottle their oils in dark glass. Another way to avoid fake oils is to shop with blotting paper（吸墨水纸）. Real oils, contrary to what you may think, are not all that oily. If you drop a few drops of real oil onto your blotting paper it will evaporate and leave no mark. Lastly, once you work with essential oils enough, you’ll be able to tell if an oil is fake by scent alone.

Aromatherapy Safety
Whenever you use essential oils you need to dilute (v.稀释) them first. In aromatherapy texts, you’ll often see the term, “Carrier oil” or “Base oil” this is the diluter. For example, if you’re going to use lavender（n.薰衣草） to treat a headache, the recipe may say, “Add 2 drops lavender to your carrier oil.” I almost always use sweet almond oil (甜杏仁油) as my carrier. It’s not too expensive, it’s light, but not too light, and has a good scent. You can also try apricot or ask at a natural health store about other options.
One note: if you’re allergic to nuts you cannot use carrier oil made from nuts. This may seem obvious, but I’ve seen a couple people actually use nut oils when they’re allergic. Instead, use a fruit oil, safflower, or sunflower oil instead.

中文译文：
      精油可算是个有深度的主题。从基本角度来说，它们就是从花卉、植物、草、根、水果及叶子中提取的油。
      现在你在哪儿都可以买到精油，但要买上等的还要去专门销售精油的小店，自然食品商店或合作社。你要的是100%的纯精油，可现在到处都是合成的人工制造。就香味而言，人工的是可以了，但它们不具备任何真正的健康价值。最佳的鉴别方法还是看价钱。如果你在店里看到一整排精油都一个价格，那肯定不是纯的。有些精油的制造费相当昂贵，可有些即便是纯的，你也会发现，它们的造价相对要便宜。不管怎么说，要是每一瓶都是10美元，直接走人吧。
      还有就是要选择深色瓶子的。光照射可能破坏精油的治疗效果。可信赖的厂家所生产的产品基本上一贯都是装深色瓶的。还有个避免买假油的方法就是利用吸墨纸。可能你还不知道，大多数精油并不像你想象的那样，其实它们不全都是很油腻的。如果你滴几滴真正的精油在吸墨纸上，他们会立刻挥发，不留痕迹。最后，一旦你接触精油时间长了，你就可以单凭气味分辨真假了。

芳疗安全事宜
      每次用精油都记得要先冲淡。在有关芳疗的文章中经常出现“媒介油”或“基底油”，这个专业术语说的就是稀释剂。举个例子，利用薰衣草芳香治疗头疼时，说明上就可能会说：“在基底油中加入两滴薰衣草精油。”我一般都用甜杏仁做基底油。因为不是很贵，而且浓淡适中，味道也挺好闻的。你也可以试试杏子或让从事自然健康的小店帮你看看别的选择。
      有一点要注意：对坚果过敏的人不能用坚果精油作基底油。虽然听起来是再明显不过的事情，但我确实碰到过有些人在自己过敏的情况下使用坚果精油。可以用水果精油，红花精油或者葵花精油代替。