326: The Science of Smell w/ Holly Brandenberger
Today we dive into all things science and smell! Our entire olfactory system is one of the most primitive parts of what makes us human. Our ability to experience and express emotions grew directly out of our brain's ability to process smells. Today. we'll dive into the science behind smell and how you can use those principles in practical everyday ways using essential oils.
Holly Brandenberger is a Registered Nurse and Certified Aromatherapist living outside of Seattle on her family farm with her husband and three small children. She provides evidence-based, easy to learn education on holistic health and essential oils on her popular instagram account Science of Essentials. Her website is scienceofessentials.com
Hi! I’m Sarah!
You deserve to live a healthy, happy life my friend. I’m here to help you find tools and information that help. I’m cheering you on. xo
👇👇 Hit play to listen now 👇👇
Listen Everywhere
Listen for free right here, or on your favorite podcast app: Apple Podcast • Stitcher • Spotify • Google Play • iHeart or TuneIN
Dive deeper:
Connect with Holly on her website HERE or on IG at Science of Essentials
Grab Holly’s ebook "Your First 30 Days with Essentials Oils" at Science of Essentials HERE
What does 6+ years of experience, thousands of hours of research, and an obsession with essential oils result in? THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO ESSENTIAL OILS, that’s what. Originally just for my Insiders, this guide literally has it all. And now you, yes you, can get this amazing resource for just $79. Click the link to stop worrying and start learning.
Got a recipe you want to share? Submit it to our DIY Dugout HERE
This Week’s DIY Recipe
Cozy Fall Latte
From: Monika Semerey, Baltimore, MD
Ingredients:
In a drip coffee maker, pour your ground coffee in the filter and add:
1 drop of clove
1 drop of cinnamon
Make your coffee. Meanwhile in the milk frother, pour your milk and add
1 drop of Cardamom
Directions:
Combine together and enjoy
Listen to all of The Essential Oil Revolution Podcast completely free on Apple Podcast • Stitcher • Spotify • Google Play • iHeart • TuneIN or Here on this website
Episode Transcript
This transcription is provided through Podscribe, an AI Technology, and is not 100% accurate.
You can help us improve this transcript! Contact team@revolutionoilspodcast.com and let us know you want to help. It’s very simple to do and we’d love to give you a shout-out for your help. Thank you!
0 (2s): Where there is great love. There are always miracles will a catheter
1 (7s): Empowerment in education. Two powerful elements that will help you break free of convention and transform your passion for wellness tool level. Beyond the status quo, the essential oil revolution, where you're given the tools to supersede an ordinary everyday lifestyle, inspiring speakers, DIY recipes, healthy living tips, and more. You'll discover it all here so tonight and get ready for a wellness revolution.
0 (38s): Hello. Hello. Welcome to the essential oil revolution. I'm your host, Samantha Lee Wright. And today with me on the show, I have a wonderful guest, Holly, Brandon Berger, and we're going to dive into all things science and smell. If you didn't know this already, our sense of smell is a really unique part of what makes us human. Our ability to experience and express emotion grew directly out of our brain's ability to process smells. Our entire olfactory system is one of the most primitive parts of what makes us human. And today we're going to dive into the science behind that and how you can use those principles to benefit you in so many practical, everyday ways.
0 (1m 24s): That's today on our show. But first let's pull a recipe out of R D I Y. Dugout. The DIY dugout is a collection of recipes that have been submitted by you. Our amazing listeners today's recipe comes from Monica simmery in Baltimore, Maryland, and her recipe is called cozy fall latte to make the cozy fall latte in a drip coffee maker, pour your ground coffee in the filter, and then add one drop of clove and one drop of cinnamon. Then just make your coffee as usual. Meanwhile, in the milk for author, pour your milk and add one drop of cardamon essential oil combined together and enjoy.
0 (2m 9s): Now, this is absolutely delicious. It's been my favorite thing this week. And if you don't have a milk frothier per se and you have what I have is just like a tiny little electric whisk for author thing that works too. And I've also done it by hand, just whisking really, really fast. And it's absolutely divine. Thank you so much for this recipe, Monica, if you have your own recipe, submit it to us by emailing DIY at revolution oils, podcast.com. When you do, you're automatically entered to win our monthly giveaways, where we send you a bottle of orange essential oil and our ebook chock full of her favorite essential oil recipes. You can look through our collection of DIY recipe is all there on our website at revolution oils, podcast.com/d I Y.
0 (2m 59s): Thanks to Everly well for their support of our show. Do you ever wish that you could just get the tests that you need without having to go through a doctor's office and trying to convince them that you need to take a certain test and then worrying about your insurance, covering it with Everly? Well, you can order over 30 different at home lab tests. They'll simply ship you everything. You need to collect whatever samples at home, and then you ship it back to them. And then boom, within a matter of days, your physician reviewed or results that have been sent through a certified lab are right there for you on your phone or device. Some of the tests they offer include a vitamin D test. So you can measure your vitamin D levels that help maintain your bone and immune health metabolism tasks, a celiac disease, screening tests, food allergy tests, and so much more.
0 (3m 51s): I recently ordered the women's health tests to measure key hormones for more comprehensive look at my overall health. It was so easy. They simply shipped the package to my door. It had everything I needed in it to collect my samples and package it back up to send back to them in a prepaid envelope. Everything's super easy and straightforward and I'll have my results back in a matter of days. And for listeners of this show, Everly well is offering a special discount of 20% off an at-home lab test at Everly well.com/revolution. That's Everly well.com/revolution for 20% off your next at-home lab.
0 (4m 31s): Test Everly well.com/revolution. Thanks to Soma Vedic for their support of our show. Some of it had technologies was launched in 2011 as its founders. Ivan Rybicki was ongoing some recurring health struggles after years of no success with Western medicine, he turned to traditional Chinese medicine and focused on a variety of healing properties of precious and semiprecious stones and minerals. His experience inspired him to create so Mo Vedic Soma Veda is this beautiful device that combines Eastern approach to health and wellness with Western technology.
0 (5m 17s): It's based on the controlled release of energy from precious and semiprecious stones and creates a 360 degree coherent field with a radius of hundred feet in all directions. Various studies show that the coherent field created by a similar Vedic positively affects ourselves and improve cell regeneration, heart rate, variability and blood pressure while lowering free radicals. I love sleeping next to my Soma Vedic. It's just not only beautiful to look at, but it just feels good. The energy in my room just feels better with the device in it. It's important to some of Vedic that all of their customers truly love their products. So they're offering you a 60 money back guarantee to try Soma Vedic out.
0 (6m 1s): If you'd like to experience improved, sleep, more energy and productivity, try some innovative with a 60 day money back guarantee. Visit Soma vedic.com and use code revolution for 10% off that's <inaudible> dot com S O M a V E D I c.com code revolution. I'm here with Holly Brandon Berger, who is a registered nurse and certified aroma therapist living outside of Seattle on her family farm with her husband and three small children. She provides evidence-based easy to learn education on holistic health and essential oils on her popular Instagram account.
0 (6m 45s): Science of essentials. Her website is signs of essentials.com. Holly, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you here today. How are you?
3 (6m 55s): I am so honored to be here. I love the central oil revolution podcast. I just, I love you. I love everything that you share. I feel so honored to be here. Is that just, yeah,
0 (7m 5s): Absolutely. Well, I always rebel when we get to have certified aroma therapist here who also have been just entrenched in the essential oil culture are just true lovers of these little bottles of plant magic. So I'm excited to dive in. We're going to get really like geeky that's Zion's geeky today, and we're going to dive into a smell and just like how smell works, because we know that, well, first I guess my first question, like we know that essential oils, aren't all about the smell. They're partly about the smell, you know, help someone kind of understand the difference between essential oils on a smell level and essential oils on a, put it on your skin, into your bloodstream level.
3 (7m 49s): Oh my gosh. Such a good question to start off. I, yeah, let's get geeky and get into it all. So essential oils are aromas. Obviously they're essential oil stands for, at the essences of plants. So they're volatile molecules basically. So they travel through the air into our nose, into our factory system, but they're also made up of dozens to hundreds of different chemical constituents. And those chemical constituents have varying properties within the body just based upon their percentages in different categories, such as, you know, people have heard of aldehydes and turpines and phenols and alcohols. So those all have different reactions within the body and how we re react to them.
0 (8m 32s): Okay. And so those, those funnels react differently in the body. What's the difference between inhaling that through your nostrils or your sense of smell and, you know, applying that to your skin or taking it in a capsule, for example.
3 (8m 47s): So the main difference is when we inhale an essential oil, the most benefits that we get psychologically, because it's obviously impacting the brain. So anything related to the mind, so that doesn't necessarily always mean, you know, helping support our moods. That also means anything else. So fatigue, energies, leap, obviously moods and emotions, which I'm sure we'll be talking a lot about as well. We can still get those benefits when we apply to the skin because we can still smell those aromatics and we apply them to the skin. It might not be as strong when we apply, you know, to the bottom of our feet, because it's a little bit farther from our nose, but we can still get those benefits that way when we apply them topically, we also are getting the absorption of those molecules through the bloodstream, which has just varying effects within the body.
3 (9m 41s): And as the body kind of metabolizes the central,
0 (9m 44s): I was asked that question recently from someone they said, I lost my sense of smell. You can, I still benefit from essential oils. And I want to just like go through my computer screen and be like, yes, you can, you know, still can, you know, they're not all about the smell because I mean, gosh, so many benefits, like even just down to the, you know, what can you replace in your home? That's toxic that you could replace with an essential oil or, you know, what does it do inside your body on a molecular level, on the DNA level and the blood cell level? You know, so there's so, so many benefits beyond just the smell that the word aroma therapy sometimes is a little bit misleading in that way.
0 (10m 27s): But I do want to dive into specifically the smell as well. So let's dive into, you know, how, how exactly does smell influence our emotions and why is that aroma therapy aspect of essential oils so helpful?
3 (10m 43s): Yeah. So I love this question because honestly, when I started using essential oils, I was like, no, they're not going to help my emotions. I think a lot of people go in very skeptical about that part of a realm of therapy, but there's so much science behind it, you know, and a lot of it has to do with just how anatomically our olfactory system is structured within the brain. So there's this really amazing psychologist and cognitive neuroscientists that I just love Dr. Rachel, her she's wrote a great book called the scent of desire, and she's done a ton of research, all about our sense of smell and how that impacts us. And she says that our primitive olfactory cortex was the first fabric of our brain.
3 (11m 24s): And from that neuro tissue grew our amygdala. So our Mandela is where our emotions are processed. So in other words, our ability to experience and just express emotion, it grew directly out of our brain's ability to process smells. So right there is just this strong link between emotions and our sense of smell. So when we inhale and aroma, you know, those odorant molecules trigger, you know, electrical signals within our factory bulb and not going to get into also
0 (11m 54s): Exactly
3 (11m 55s): What happened.
0 (11m 56s): And if we, if we'd never develop a sense of smell, we wouldn't have emotions. Can we make that leap?
3 (12m 1s): Not quite, not quite, but I mean, I, that's a really great question, but you know, people that do lack of sense of smell, it has been shown that they really struggle a lot more with feeling depressed. And there's so many different examples of this. I mean, people that have Alzheimer's, you know, as the hippocampus within their brain, which is important for our memory storage, as it deteriorates in the disease, oftentimes that impacts their emotions as well. Even just people that lost their sense of smell, you know, in the pandemic the last year, really, they didn't realize how much it impacted their emotions.
3 (12m 42s): I don't know how many people I've talked to that had this problem. My good friend is a nurse and she, you know, got COVID and lost her sense of smell. And she, it was around the holidays and she's like, the holidays are just not the state. She's like, I just feel so depressed. I eat all that that comes with the holidays is, you know, those good aromas of Christmas trees and baked goods and all that comes with it. And that it really is depressing. And so people that are born with, you know, nausea, meaning loss of sense of smell, it really can think negatively impact them, even just at a social part, a social connection with others. So much of what we eat and things we revolves around that feel good feelings of what we smell within our,
0 (13m 25s): And let me ask this, I mean, there's a lot of different reasons that people can lose their sense of smell or never have one to begin with it. Is there a way to get it back? Can essential oils help increase that, that ability to smell again?
3 (13m 43s): Yeah, so there's, there's a couple of different ways, you know, they say exercise can improve our sense of smell. Zinc can help improve it. But actually it just, even in the last couple of years of the research with essential oils and a factory trading has really just kind of skyrocketed, skyrocketed even like the children's hospital of Colorado, they have now eight olfactory training clinic. They call it smelling school for kids where they have, you know, children's smell for different essential oils a couple of times a day. And that just helps re-trigger those factory receptors that have been damaged from, you know, viruses or other reasons to help them start triggering again, to come back and regenerate.
3 (14m 28s): It just goes to show that like, smell function just so important for just our survival and our emotional health, which I just love that there's yeah.
0 (14m 35s): Yeah. I can't wait for that research to get a little more developed. Do you happen to know what oils they might be using in those studies or which ones they're kind of pointing at being the most beneficial for that?
3 (14m 47s): So in previous studies, they have used eucalyptus lemon, clove and rose oil. So essential oils that have different aroma notes that are singles. So they're not, you know, made into blends at all that people usually can recognize. I actually did this with my husband years ago, just when he lost his sense of smell. And what's really cool is as you smell those oils every single day, you don't think that anything's changing, but then all of a sudden you start noticing, oh, actually can detect that lemon a little bit today. And then it kind of like waivers off. He's like, it's almost like you can feel like those olfactory receptors like triggering, triggering, and then they kind of like whimper out a little bit.
3 (15m 30s): And it's just, if anything, it's a good way just to track the progress.
0 (15m 33s): Yeah. And on a kind of opposite note, what, how do you compare this phenomenon of sort of people losing their sense of smell and then using essential oils to slowly try to increase that, that factory sensation again, versus nose blindness. Can you define nose blindness for us and, and in relation to essential oils, especially how perhaps if you're diffusing something for too long or too strongly, then you can kind of become nose blind to it.
3 (16m 3s): Oh God, that's a great question. So typically nose blindness is also known as another word as like sensory adaptation, meaning that's one version of it anyways, the, to Casa B overstimulation. So as we are exposed to odors and aromas in the air, our brains basically adapt and recognize that those odors are not dangerous. So the, our factory receptors will stop triggering for those. It's the reason why, like we cooked dinner and we can't really smell it, but then our significant other walks in the room and they're like, oh, it smells so good in here. And you're like, really? Does it smell good? I can't smell that. Or why some people will say, you know, I put something in my diffuser, but after a little bit, I can't smell it anymore.
3 (16m 48s): And that's just because our brain has a survival mechanism to be like, oh, well, that's not dangerous. So we don't need to detect that anymore. But if you leave the room and come back, you're like, oh, it smells so good in here. I got,
0 (16m 60s): Now you said the word, you said, the word dangerous. You know, your, your brain says, oh, this isn't a dangerous smell anymore. I can, I can shut that off. But you know, cooking smells on a central wheels. Aren't dangerous. But as our brain just kind of being like, okay, I don't need to be processing this information anymore. I know it's here. It's fine.
3 (17m 17s): Yeah. Yeah. That's another way to say it. It's just that our brains recognize that, you know, it doesn't need to be consistently processed, but on the other hand, I mean, if we smell fire or smoke, our brains will consistently recognize that and keep processing it. That's why eventually we start getting headaches from being around too much. Smoke is kind of telling us these warning signals to that you need to get away from whatever it is that you are exposing yourself to.
0 (17m 46s): Yeah. Interesting. Now walk us through impressions of smells. And we know that there's a link between those early memories and smell. And then like the first time you smell a certain essential oil to, you might have a really strong reaction, like positive or negative to that smell.
3 (18m 5s): Yeah. I love this question because I get asked it a lot. I remember when I first smelled the valor and I was like, Ooh, I, I don't know why everybody loves this. I just don't.
0 (18m 16s): It's funny. But anyone who doesn't love that smell at first sight. Yeah,
3 (18m 23s): I know. But now I like love it. So I've done a lot of research, just reading into why this changes for us. So there's several different reasons. Cause our factory preferences are just influenced by so many different factors. So one is just, you know, you may have a negative memory association with that science. So a great example of this is Cedar wood essential oils. So some people think Cedar wood smells like cat pee and it's just kind of funny. So what's interesting is why people have that memory center association is because Cedar wood was used very frequently in the past in cat litter. And it's just, it's really highly absorbent. And it mass orders very, very well.
3 (19m 5s): So either they had a cat in the past or someone they know how to cat or a neighbor or someone nearby, you know, emptied their kitty litter nearby them. They develop this negative memory set association with Cedar wood and that can happen. Not even human can be more traumatic than that. It could be like PTSD with certain aromas, but Cedar rate's a little bit lighter example. So that's just one example. The other one is just, you might not have any familiarity with essential oil. So if it's your first time being exposed to it, you may find it unpleasant, but just kind of, once you build a relationship with the site, it can get better and it can change. And just a lot of other great deal of factors influence our factory preferences.
3 (19m 48s): So our age colds and flu allergies, medications, pregnancy is a huge one at any shift in hormones. So when we're pregnant, we had like this huge burst of olfactory neurons and scientists believe that that just relates to how we imprint on our infants. It just helps kind of link that mother child bond, but it also kind of relates to why we're so sensitive to smells and we get morning sickness when we're pregnant. But other shifts in hormones, menopause is a big one. Even just those hormonal shifts that occur in the monthly cycle every single month, there's been research showing that there's slight flux fluctuations that are monthly cycle and our smell.
3 (20m 36s): For example, we are more sensitive to sense in the first half of our cycle. And then the second half, we're more easily able to identify aromas. Do I think it's just so cool.
0 (20m 47s): That is interesting. So if you're a perfumer, then that's like your best days at work, right?
3 (20m 54s): No, I totally think so. You know, when, like how our monthly cycle, you know, fluctuates and how, you know, we're more creative in certain parts of the month. I guess if you were a perfumer, you're probably going to be a queen. The second half of them are just our olfactory receptor cells. So they're really unique compared to any other sensory neurons within the body is because they regenerate every 28 to 30 days. So they do this to replace neurons that are damaged by exposure to our environment. And because they're replaced that may influence just our perceptions and our preferences as well.
0 (21m 30s): Okay. So the cells are replaced. And with that, perhaps a loss of, I don't want to say memory, but like your body's memory of that, of that smell. But, but we so easily recognize old smells too. Like the smell of, you know, grandma's cookies or something. If we smell that again, that can come back. Right?
3 (21m 52s): Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Our sense of smell is actually the sense that triggers the most vivid, emotional memories.
0 (22m 0s): Yeah. Now how, what, how can we use that knowledge? Why is that important and how can sort of the everyday user at home say, okay, smell is powerful. It's the most powerful way to tap into my emotions? You know, how do I use that?
3 (22m 15s): Lots of different ways, you know, it just bringing up memory a little bit. One of my favorite ways is just to create, you know, memory send associations with essential oils. So start using essential oils in conjunction with other stress relieving activities. We start to associate those sense, like taking a bath with essential oils is way different than taking an unscented bath, right? So we start creating those memories and associations with relaxation when we smell those essential oils later on, we remember how relaxed we felt and our body automatically recognizes it remembers and starts to feel that way as well.
0 (22m 49s): Like Pavlov's dog, you can kind of train yourself. Yeah,
3 (22m 53s): Well, totally, completely. But you can also use it just to trigger memories from the past. My husband and I, when we got married in 2010, our wedding gift to each other was perfume and cologne. So we didn't know what to get each other. We're like, let's just do this. This'll be fine. So we each picked, I picked a cologne for him and he picked a perfume for me. And then we gave it to each other the day of our wedding, you know, without knowing what each other picked, which now thinking back I'm like, that was kind of risky. Like I could have really not have liked what he picked for me, but I didn't thankfully, but it was coolest. So we wore it for the first time on our wedding days. And now, you know, 12 years later, whenever we wear our, that cologne or that perfume, like it just brings back so many memories and so many emotions from that day.
3 (23m 45s): I actually, a couple of weeks ago, I opened up the perfume butter just to smell it. And immediately I was brought to tears and I was not expecting it at all. And I just started thinking about these crazy memories just from that day that I haven't thought about in years. So it's really cool, like essential oils. You can kind of tie that in, but if you're you have a big event coming up, such as, you know, having a baby or getting married or, you know, traveling, I have a good friend that went to Machu Picchu and she brought the oil sacred mountain with her and she opened it for the first time when she was hiking. And she said, now, whenever she smells, it, it just, she remembers so many vivid, beautiful memories from that trip and that hike and things that she saw and heard.
3 (24m 26s): And it just takes her right back to that moment.
0 (24m 29s): I had a similar experience with my husband and I during our wedding and our honeymoon as well. We there, our theme, our sort of plant theme was damiana, which is a very well-known herb, a flower that you can make a tea out of. We had a friend that made meat out of it from scratch damiana Mead. And it's, it's just one of those sort of love plants, like, you know, for libido and connection and all these things. And we would, you know, drink a lot of that tea. And now every time I smell damiana, if someone has like a tea bag of dried herbs and we, and I smell it, it, yeah, it just, it almost brings me to tears. I'm like, oh no, I miss my husband. And all it brings me back to that because it was such I'm the happiest day of my life.
0 (25m 12s): My wedding day, we had a blast. It was just, everything was wonderful. The honeymoon is great and all that jazz. And I think so I love that idea of using essential oils and sense to kind of commemorate certain experiences like how frankincense resin was used in a lot of churches. Right. They would fill the churches with the, this frankincense resin and, and it there's, I'm sure that there was many, many ceremonial aspects of smell throughout history that, you know, we don't even have documentation of because it was just such a, of course kind of a thing it's like, of course we're gonna, you know, give the gift of scent to commemorate this experience.
0 (25m 55s): And I think that can be a beautiful thing.
3 (25m 59s): Yeah, there actually, I was just reading a study that came out last, but where archeologists were able to pinpoint odorant molecules in Egyptian tombs, like, you know, thousands of years ago. And they think they're able to like, pinpoint exactly what like Cleopatra at war, which I know. So
0 (26m 23s): That's so cool.
3 (26m 24s): I know, I know. It's just so interesting to see how aromas have really impacted as across generations and centuries.
0 (26m 33s): So that, that kind of makes me think of another question about can, can sense memories be passed down through children know to, to our children. Like, so for example, with Cleopatra, you know, had, had I been a descendant of so-and-so so-and-so Cleopatra's lover, you know, 20 times removed or whatever who clearly remembers this smell of Cleopatra, is it possible that that, that reaction, that sense memory could be passed on genetically?
3 (27m 5s): You know, I'm not sure how much research has been done with that. I mean, we know that our sense of smell is highly subjective and individualized, and that our genes do play a role in that. There's two there's two great scientists, Linda Buck and Richard Axel. They actually got a Nobel prize in physiology, physiology of medicine in 2004 for just recognizing that there's this large gene family of a thousand different genes that are used to code different odorant receptors. They actually found that we are able to differentiate and form memories from 10,000 different folders, which is just so cool.
3 (27m 45s): So genes do play a small role. I don't think there's a ton of research showing that it's passed on. I know like for cilantro haters, do you like cilantro?
0 (27m 56s): I don't hate it,
3 (27m 58s): But like there's like 10% of the population thinks cilantro tastes like soap. And the reason why is because scientists have found that those people have a shared group of olfactory receptor genes that pick up strongly on the smell of aldehyde chemicals, which is just interesting. So that's why they, they think it's, you know, tastes like soap so they can blame their parents for not allowing them to enjoy Mexican food to the fullest.
0 (28m 25s): There you go. So I want to go backtrack for a second. I meant to ask more pointedly. I'm sure you get this question a lot. And I, I want to know if it's a myth or any science behind, you know, people say, if you don't like the smell of an essential oil, it means that you need it all the more is that true?
3 (28m 46s): You know, I think it's a really interesting thought. I am. I think it's fascinating. There honestly is no scientific basis to it at all. Trust me, I have looked and looked him up to say the science to back it up. But I mean, as of right now, I make a science is always evolving. There is nothing to prove that, but I do think it's just a really fascinating hypothesis.
0 (29m 14s): Yeah. Very interesting. I wanted to ask too, Holly, what is, is there a big difference between essential oils in the way that it acts on our senses of smell versus other smells?
3 (29m 29s): You know, essential oils are much more potent and they do contain a lot more, you know, constituents because there is so much more potent, but as far as like impacting our motions, you know, if you smell a, you know, peppermint leaf versus if you smell peppermint oil out of the bottle, obviously the peppermint oil is going to be much stronger, but I think they still will facilitate a similar response within the body.
0 (30m 2s): Yeah. Yeah. Well, the fact that they're portable for sure makes them like more accessible, but if I'm understanding correctly, there's not really a different process that our bodies go through necessarily when smelling an essential
3 (30m 16s): Can use. Yeah. And we can use them in different ways and you know, they're much more potent and, you know, they don't really go bad. So it's much different than carrying around a bunch of peppermint leaves in my pocket versus peppermint oil 0 (30m 29s): And how our smell, how smell different than pheromones.
3 (30m 35s): Oh, that's, that's a great question. So pheromones are chemical messages that are produced in our bodies and are emitted through our sweat glands. Technically we can't smell pheromones because of just the, how the human body is made. I mean, dogs and other mammals, obviously they can much better than we can, but our Fairmount can alter scent a little bit. This is why the central oil Devonna gets, you know, a big rap for being it like changes whenever people put it on and everybody smells, some people smell a little bit sweet and they were in some people's smell, seeing more flower when they wear it. But that has to do with our Fairmont's because every person has their own signature Fairmount, and it's actually formed within the wound.
3 (31m 20s): So babies, for example, like a baby's nose starts to form early in the first trimester. It's actually one of the first to develop in utero and at birth. It's like the most advanced sets that they have. So newborns actually can orient themselves by smell more than any other sense when they're placed on their mother's belly, after birth, they can like work their way up to the breast navigating by sense of smell alone. But what's really cool. Like if you've ever smelled, you know, your newborn, a lot of people are like, oh, they just smell so good. And I can't get enough of that.
0 (31m 51s): Remind smelled like birthday cake. I could not stop sniffing them. Yeah.
3 (31m 55s): It was like, people are always like, oh, I just, I just want to eat them cause they smell so good. If only we could bottle up that newborn smell, but that smell exists because of those fear modes. So those chemicals singles are communicated back and forth between the fetus and the wound and his, or her mom and the link so strong that the mother can identify her infant, not only by smell, but also fear is at birth, which is just so important for just that mother, infant bonding. We actually, we adopted my son in 2015 and we had, I am so thankful for the most amazing social worker. And she just really recognized that scent and pheromones plays such a huge role in just our bonding.
3 (32m 39s): And she told us, she's like for the first four months that you have him, I don't want anyone else holding him, but you and his dad, my husband, and we were like, okay, we can do that. It was easy for us, but not easy for our, you know, our other family members that wanted to hold them, but
0 (32m 57s): Especially important because of the adoption and
3 (33m 2s): Yeah, because he was adopted and she wanted him to associate our set, our smells the sense on us and our form, pheromones with being, feeling safe and secure and bonding. And same with us, you know, we recognized his smell and it just really helped promote the bonding between each other. And we know with an infant, they can smell you walking into the room. You can be 10 feet away from them and they can smell, oh, my mom just walked into the room. I know I'm safe. Now I know that she's here. And she really wanted us to be persistent about making sure that he recognized which sense we're my husband has eyes to help him feel safe, secure and bonded.
0 (33m 49s): Yeah. Yeah. So that brings up a good question about the use of essential oils around babies and infants. Is that something that we should maybe avoid because we don't want to kind of mix up the natural sense and the natural pheromones that are at play here and that bonding that's in play, especially like right at birth?
3 (34m 13s): Well, it kinda depends. I mean, if you're pregnant and you're used to using essential oils, your, your baby already has those associations with those sense with you. I mean, babies starts smelling, you know, early, within the first trimester. So they already have that association,
0 (34m 32s): But I could see on one hand, you know, an anointing, a child at birth with maybe frankincense and having it be this sort of celebratory occasion and how you could use this essential oils, for example, in the room and your child's room to create the sense of like safety. Especially if maybe you're wearing a scent, like let's say, you're like, I'm going to, I want my baby to associate me and my feelings of comfort with like lavender. So you wear some lavender perfume and then you have that diffusing in the baby's room. Yes. You know, while they're sleeping, you know, I could see that being really, really beneficial. And on the other hand, I'm like worried in the back of my mind, like, Ooh, are we like messing up this developmental, this key developmental thing that babies have going on in this early stage?
3 (35m 20s): Well, any essential oil that we apply is going to differ slightly based on our modes. So it's always going to be a little bit individualized, but I do think, you know, using essential oils in that way really help the child. And I give this example a lot, just, you know, with women that are going on maternity leave and then going back to work and starting to associate smells of essential oils with them. And when they go back to work, say they use, you know, lavender, for example, like you gave. And when they go back to work, if they have, you know, a drop of lavender on a lovey or a blanket, the baby will think of, you know, mom, but also that works kind of vice versa.
3 (36m 7s): So, you know, when someone goes back to work after maternity leave and they're, you know, pumping, which I know is sometimes really challenging when you don't have your baby right near you. And it's, you know, there's a lot of emotions that come with being separated and all that. And they, you know, scientists have said, if you, if we look at our phone and we look at photos on our phone, it'll help our let down so much faster, but scent can also help with that because scent triggers emotion. So we have a memory center association with a particular oil in our BD. Once we smell them, it can actually help, you know, release the milk, but also just help us become overflowed with oxytocin, which is, you know, promotes that emotional.
3 (36m 51s): Yeah.
0 (36m 52s): I imagine like a baby's blanket too, you know, that has their scent on. It would be a good thing to have. I've also heard like take a video of your baby crying for milk, like one of those hunger cries, you know, and that can trigger. So yeah, there's a lot of ways you can pull those, those pheromones as those perceptions, those sensations into the workplace when you're, when you're having to pump at work. Holly, this has been so much fun. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. Are there any last words of advice or tidbits of information you want to share about our sense of smell?
3 (37m 30s): You know, what I really love about our sense of smell is that not only does it bring back memories, but it helps bring us to the present moment, probably more so than any other sense. So I just want to encourage those that are listening, just to recognize this moments in life that occur every single day, whenever Emma like hits your nose and just makes you stop and just fully embrace being in that moment, because it really just brings us to stillness and what a gift that is. Right.
0 (38m 5s): Well, Holly, I have learned so much today about the science of smell and essential oils and how it, how it affects our bodies through our amazing noses. Like, let's just give a shout out to our noses for a second. They're pretty amazing little pieces of machinery right there on our face.
3 (38m 23s): So you really are. They really are. And that sounds so geeky and nerdy, but it's so true. Like Eddie people don't realize it until they lose their sense of smell. How amazing and like just helpful it is this life.
0 (38m 36s): Yeah. Well, before you go, we always love to ask our guests these closing questions. And the first is what's one or two self-care practices that you try to do every day to stay healthy.
3 (38m 49s): So two things, I try to move my body every single day and I try to find a quiet moment to recharge. Sometimes those things go hand in hand, but yeah, I love to run so on days that I can't, sometimes that means just a five minute walk or a dance party with my kids, or even just like stretching. And I'm also just kind of, I'm an introvert at heart. So I love to just recharge alone. And I feel like life is so busy and sometimes it's hard to find those five minutes. So I love to meditate or even just take five minutes and go for a walk and just kind of clear my head.
0 (39m 26s): I love that. And finally, what's one thing we should all ditch completely and replace with something healthier today.
3 (39m 34s): Okay. I know I'm going to get a ton of hate for this one, but coffee. So, oh my goodness. My husband, when he got COVID, he couldn't stand the smell or taste of coffee anymore. So we decided we would give it up and we actually swapped it for brewed CACO, which is just basically they take CACO beans and Rosen like coffee. So it kind of has a little coffee flavor, but also chocolate flavor. And it's something warm, but there's no caffeine at all. It actually has Theo Bri mean, which is just a more natural stimulate that doesn't make you so jittery and anxious.
3 (40m 14s): And also doesn't have that addictive quality like caffeine does. Cause once we went through like the caffeine withdrawal, oh my goodness. Those like caffeine headaches are like no other. So once I went through that, I was like, oh, I don't think this is probably good for my body to have coffee like this every day. Yeah.
0 (40m 33s): Well what brand of cacau, D D like, I feel like I saw an episode of shark tank where someone came on and it was trying to sell cacao. You know, what you call it, you don't call it coffee.
3 (40m 46s): Do we use the brand Creo brew? It's C R I O B R U. And we really, really, really like it.
0 (40m 55s): The people on shark tank I saw. Oh,
3 (40m 57s): Really? Probably. I don't know if a lot of other companies that make it, but I don't know. It's really great. And I just feel like anytime the body is so dependent on something like caffeine, it's probably not good for us. So, but it feels really great to be caffeine free in the morning. Like it's, it makes a difference.
0 (41m 15s): Yeah. Yeah. I love the taste of coffee and the smell of coffee and the warmth, you know? So I'll have it like as a treat, but as soon as I feel myself becoming dependent on it, I'm like, Nope, got to shut down, shut it down.
3 (41m 29s): Yes. Yeah. Sometimes we find, we realize like how anxious it can make us in the day. Cause it is a diuretic. So it kind of like dehydrates us and definitely can lead to more anxiety.
0 (41m 42s): All right. Well, Holly, I'm sure a lot of people are going to want to learn more about you and how they can best be a part of your world. Where would you like to send people to go?
3 (41m 51s): So they can find me on Instagram at science essentials or at my website, science of essentials.com. I'm actually, I have a new, a hundred page ebook that just came out called your first 30 days with essential oils. And it's all science focused just to help those that want to use essential oils to promote their health and healing.
0 (42m 10s): Very cool. Well, we'll put a link to that in the show notes below as always make it easy for everyone to find you. Thank you so much, Holly. This has been so much fun. You shared so much wisdom with us here today on the essential oil revolution. Thank you.
3 (42m 23s): Thanks for having me.
0 (42m 26s): The essential oil revolution is created by me, Samantha Lee. Right? Thanks so much for tuning in. If you're looking for show notes, resources, DIY recipes, list of our sponsors or more, you can find it all there on our website, revolution, oils, podcast.com while you're there hit that contact button and say hello, tell us what you think of the show, how we can improve topics you want covered. And anything else you want to say? We'll catch you again next week. In the meantime, keep on learning. Keep on discovering. And most importantly, keep on treating yourself. Well, you are worth it.