A year or so ago we were introduced to father and son Mark and Aaron Theno who started a company in the USA called Bioesse.
Bioesse manufacture aromatherapy patches which deliver essential oils to your own personal space via inhalation. The patches are specifically non ‘transdermal’ (they don’t administer the oil through the skin) but rather they allow you to inhale the oil without it needing to affect everyone in the vicinity. This makes them ideal for hospital wards and hospice care, where they are becoming very popular.
Mark just sent me a heart-warming article about how his Lavender and Camomile Patch has been used with babies in intensive care at the University of Kentucky.
Many of these babies are in shock from withdrawal to drug exposure in the womb, and the normal treatment is to give them doses of methadone and morphine. The babies who received aromatherapy stayed in Intensive Care an average of 6.4 fewer days than babies who did not receive the aromatherapy treatment, and the babies who received aromatherapy also needed smaller doses of withdrawal maintenance medication.
Perhaps inevitably the financial benefit of this has been highlighted in addition to the benefit for the baby and the family, and the results are staggering. Each day of treatment in Intensive Care costs about $5,000 per baby. A patch lasts for eight hours and costs a couple of dollars. You can work out the cost savings…
Dr Lori Shook, who headed the research, pointed out that, ‘Herbalists, chemists and massage therapists have long professed the therapeutic and healing properties of essential oils. Lavender oil, which produces the mood-balancing serotonin chemical in the brain, triggers sedative states and relaxation, while camomile oil balances out emotions.’
Dr Shook was also familiar with veterinarians’ use of lavender to calm skittish animals and, as a horse owner, had seen spooked horses respond to lavender. Knowing many of her infant patients were inundated with drugs in the early days of their lives, she wanted to integrate non-pharmaceutical therapies to treat babies experiencing stress and medical complications related to withdrawal from drug exposure in the womb.
You can download a write up of the study here.
Bioesse Inhalation patches come pre-loaded with a variety of different oils, and blank patches are also available. Oshadhi are pleased to be sole UK distributors for these patches and you can find out more here.