It’s just a matter of scents.
 
By Luke Vorstermans
 
Our sense of smell contributes enormously to the quality of our lives. The use of aromas and fragrances in temples and churches for religious ceremonies, at feasts and celebrations, and for the promotion of love, health and wellness goes back as far as recorded history.
 
Aromatherapy, deemed a fringe therapy 30 years ago, is now a mainstream healing technique that focuses on the application and inhalation of essential oils for the purpose of affecting the mood and health.
 
And recent medical research about the power of our olfactory sense shows it triggers memories, enhances moods and improves health and wellness.

Imagine using your sense of smell to help manage your emotions, alleviate stress, curb cravings and treat a variety of psychological and physiological problems.
 
By Luke Vorstermans
 
In the past several years a whole new generation of scent products is taking advantage of new research in the science of smell.
 
Shelf space for room deodorizers, scented plug-ins and sprays has increased dramatically. Imagine even scented candles are now a billion dollar industry. Aromatherapy is booming because our sense of smell contributes enormously to the quality and enjoyment of our lives and well being. Walk into any pharmacy, grocery store, or supermarket and you’ll see how scents are added to many household product lines. These products, and hundreds like them, are delivering a new awareness of the use of scents in our lives.

Inhalation of vapor from black pepper extract reduces smoking withdrawal symptoms.
 
By Beverley Hawkins
 
I am often asked whether there are any essential oils that can help one to stop smoking. In fact a number of people have found that using aromatherapy and essential oils to be very helpful when they want to quit smoking.

When it comes to sexuality, health conscious boomers are seeking alternatives.
 
By Luke Vorstermans
 
With increasing life expectancy predicted to give Baby Boomers another 20 or 30 years of retirement living, they are facing a growing dilemma: the pills they swallow today could have dire consequences in the years to come. While many common prescription and over-the-counter drugs were developed to help maintain health and vitality, the growing alarm over their side effects is causing a backlash. Is the short-term gain worth the long-term pain?

A new patch for women was recently developed to enhance sexual desire. The twist? It uses our sense of smell to activate the ‘feel good’ vibes.
 
By Luke Vorstermans
 
While the pharmaceutical giants have been clamoring to develop a ‘pink Viagra’ in hopes of duplicating the success of the ‘little blue pill’ for men, research into aromachology – the science of smell – is pioneering a non toxic pathway into the pleasure centers of brain using our sense of smell. The result? Helping women who suffer from a low libido or sexual desire may be as simple as smelling the right scents.

Scents of coffee and chocolate have a significant effect on enhancing cognition and clerical office work.
 
By Luke Vorstermans
 
Are you feeling sluggish around the office? Take a whiff of scents derived from products you already rely on to get you through the day: coffee and chocolate.
 
At the 2007 Conference of the Association for Chemical Reception Sciences, researchers from Wheeling Jesuit University reported that the scents of coffee and chocolate have a significant effect on enhancing cognition and clerical office work.

A breakthrough electronic nose was able to identify the presence of cancer cells with an accuracy of 92 percent.

By Luke Vorstermans

While the Sense of Smell Lab has put its focus on developing products such as the innovative aromapod, research about the power of olfaction is gaining prominence in many facilities and universities across the globe.
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New research by a team of Israeli scientists, who have been working with olfaction and a cure for cancer, believe they are a step closer to diagnosing this disease at an early stage.

The Vivid World of Odors

The smells that surround us affect our well-being throughout our lives. Smells also retain an uncanny power to move us.
 
By Maya Pines
 
After taking a mixture of mind-altering drugs one night, Stephen D., a 22-year-old medical student, dreamed that he had become a dog and was surrounded by extraordinarily rich, meaningful smells. The dream seemed to continue after he woke up—his world was suddenly filled with pungent odors.
 
Walking into the hospital clinic that morning, "I sniffed like a dog. And in that sniff I recognized, before seeing them, the twenty patients who were there," he later told neurologist Oliver Sacks. 

​By Luke Vorstermans
 
The nose knows…
 
Rabbits can smell danger before they can see it. Squirrels can find the acorns they buried months before. Bloodhounds can trace a lost child across miles of rugged terrain. This amazing sense of smell originates in two small patches of several million odor-detecting cells nestled high in the nasal passage. A rabbit has over 100 million of these cells, and a dog has over 220 million. By comparison, a human has only about five or six million. Yet even though the human sense of smell may not be as heightened as many other creatures, we can still detect thousands of different scents.

Fun Facts about our Sense of Smell
 
The sense of smell plays a vital role in our sense of well-being and quality of life.
The sense of smell brings us into harmony with nature, warns us of dangers and sharpens our awareness of other people, places and things. It helps us to respond to those we meet, can influence our mood, how long we stay in a room, who we talk to and who we want to see again.
 
Everyone has his or her own unique odor-identity or “smell fingerprint”. This is determined by many factors including: our genes, skin type, diet, medicine, mood state and even the weather.