via John Nicholeson Severa
After conducting a study on 50 women who were in their 20s, researchers in Japan unveiled the possibility of lowering the risk of having dementia when a human inhaled a rose-scented essential oil consistently.
According to the researchers, this is the only study that proved the connection of inhaling a scent into altering the brain’s structure.
“This study is the first to show that continuous scent inhalation changes brain structure,” they stated.
Based on their findings, the subjects who inhaled the smell of rose-scented essential oil for a month showed an increase of gray matter into their Posterior Cingulate Cortex (PCC), a part of the brain that is connected to a human’s ability to learn and hold memories.
PCC shrinks when an individual is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease and because of their discovery, the enlargement of gray matter in PCC due to inhaling this essential oil may help in maintaining proper cognitive function and a chance of lowering the risk of dementia.
While these results will unlock new avenues for scientific discoveries, the test subjects were only at their young-adult stage and the application of this study to older people is still uncertain.
This study was published in Physiology and Behavior, a journal created by Elsevier that focuses on learning and memory.
