Breathing Terpenes Help Reduce Stress & Rewire Neuroplastic Pain

Key Points

• Aromatic plants produce essential oil molecules that are anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antiviral, and bactericidal, called terpenes
• Terpene-rich plants have been used throughout antiquity to treat various diseases even before we understood the science behind the compounds
• “The oldest written evidence of medicinal plants’ usage for preparation of drugs has been found on a Sumerian clay slab from Nagpur, approximately 5000 years old. It comprised 12 recipes for drug preparation referring to over 250 plants.” 
• Dioscorides, the father of pharmacognosy, was a military physician and studied medicinal plants wherever he traveled with Nero’s Roman Army.  In 77AD, he wrote the classic “De Materia Medica,” sharing data on the medicinal plants used through the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance
• It was not until 1827 that Heinrich Emanuel Merck established the first pharmaceutical company 
• In 1849, Pfizer was established as a fine chemicals business but was propelled into painkillers and antiseptics due to the American Civil War 
  
• Since the advent of commercialized pharmaceuticals, the industry has grown to 2,015 brand-name pharmaceutical businesses, over 20,000 different prescription drugs, and over 4.3 billion prescriptions in the United States each year 
• Chronic pain is a complex process, and many who experience chronic pain have no physical cause, such as arthritis or disk damage
  
• It is now believed that chronic pain is caused by changes in the brain that persist even after damage from an injury has healed and can result from pathways in the brain associated with the initial injury.  This type of chronic pain is known as Neuroplastic Pain
• Studies show that inhalation of aromatic plants can result in immediate pain reduction
  

Breathing Terpenes Help Reduce Stress and Rewire Neuroplastic Pain

Your brain is the primary control center for all your body functions.  It controls how your body performs as well as how it responds when it is injured.  When your body experiences stress or injury, the brain is responsible for reacting and providing the necessary responses to ensure survival. However, your brain cannot perceive between a real or imagined stressor.  Your brain will always seek survival in every situation.  It does not matter if you are being chased by a bear or worrying about how to pay your bills, having a fight with your spouse, or pulling your child away from traffic; your brain sees all these scenarios as dangerous and activates the Sympathetic Nervous System to create within your body the necessary survival response. 

When the Sympathetic Nervous System is activated, your body reacts with the fight or flight response, your

• Heart rate speeds up
• Blood pressure increases
• Respiration quickens
• Adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol hormones are released into your bloodstream
• Blood flow is routed away from digestion and directed towards the arms & legs to make fight or flight possible
• And your digestion shuts down

Stress, in and of itself, has a positive intention of ensuring your survival.  However, chronic stress creates within your body an unsustainable way of being.  Chronic stress has become our standard way of operating in our hurry-up and rush-around society.  Many people choose prescribed or over-the-counter remedies for relief, yet more and more people are returning to or finding natural therapies to manage their stress for the first time.  Looking back to the past and seeing how our ancestors used plant medicine gives us insight into the most readily available natural healing modality.

Since man began experiencing physical and mental discomfort, we have sought out relief.  We found that plant medicine is provided by the seeds, bark, fruits, flowers, rhizomes, and all other parts of the plants.  Aromatic plants produce essential oil molecules that are anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antiviral, and bactericidal, called terpenes (Cho et al., 2017).  Terpenes are the largest group of organic compounds produced by various plants and are volatile, which means they evaporate quickly into the air.  Walking among the aromatic plants, you inhale the aroma infused with the medicinal terpenes released into the air. Terpene-rich plants have been used throughout antiquity to treat various diseases even before we understood the science behind the compounds (Petrovska, 2012).  Whether walking through a forest or garden, you inhale the terpenes emitted by the aromatic vegetation, and the healing properties are diffused into your bloodstream.

With this understanding that the scents being released into the air carry medicinal terpenes, Forest Bathing, AKA Shinrin Yoku, entered the Japanese healthcare system in 1982 (Park et al., 2010).  Shinrin Yoku is the Japanese art of making contact and taking in the forest atmosphere to promote well-being.  Walking through the wooded areas, you enjoy the scenery and breathe deeply in the terpene-rich air.  The combination of a slower, deeper, and more intentional breathing rate coupled with the inhalation of terpenes

• Decreases heart rate
• Lowers blood pressure
• Lowers cortisol concentrations
• And increases your parasympathetic (rest and digest function) nerve activity (Park et al., 2010).

Plants have been used as medicine since the beginning of time.  “The oldest written evidence of medicinal plants’ usage for preparation of drugs has been found on a Sumerian clay slab from Nagpur, approximately 5000 years old. It comprised 12 recipes for drug preparation referring to over 250 plants.” The Ebers Papyrus details 700 plant species and drugs.  The Chinese book “Pen T’Sao” outlines 365 dried medicinal plants.  The Bible and Talmud summarize various aromatic plant rituals, and we even see plant medicine spattered throughout classic literature. Dioscorides, the father of pharmacognosy, was a military physician and studied medicinal plants wherever he traveled with Nero’s Roman Army.  In 77AD, he wrote the classic “De Materia Medica,” sharing data on the medicinal plants used through the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance (Petrovska, 2012).  Early man’s search for medicinal cures in nature is seen in written documentation, archaeological evidence, and the preservation of plant matter entombed with human remains (Petrovska, 2012). 

It was not until 1827 that Heinrich Emanuel Merck established the first pharmaceutical company (Yamakawa, 1995).   In 1849, Pfizer was established as a fine chemicals business but was propelled into painkillers and antiseptics due to the American Civil War (2020). In 1885, many pharmaceutical companies began manufacturing commercial drugs.  Since the advent of commercialized pharmaceuticals, the industry has grown to 2,015 brand-name pharmaceutical businesses, over 20,000 different prescription drugs, and over 4.3 billion prescriptions in the United States each year (Sabanoglu, 2021). 

More than 25 million people in the United States report chronic pain, with back pain being the most common (Reynolds, 2021). Chronic pain is a complex process, and many who experience chronic pain have no physical cause, such as arthritis or disk damage.  It is now believed that chronic pain is caused by changes in the brain that persist even after damage from an injury has healed and can result from pathways in the brain associated with the initial injury.  Like walking a well-worn forest trail from beginning to end, your brain continues to connect the initial injury with the initial pain receptor. This type of chronic pain is known as Neuroplastic Pain (2022).  Pain, when experienced in response to injury, is your warning system.  When you are injured, your body sends signals to the brain warning of possible tissue or structural damage, and you feel pain.  Sometimes, though, your brain can mistake and interpret a safe message from the body as a danger.  Each time your body experiences something akin to the motion or feeling of the initial injury, the pain center in your brain is activated, sending the signal back to the initially affected area, mimicking the original pain response even though the wound has healed and no diagnosable evidence remains (Reynolds, 2021). 

Neuroscience has discovered that smell and memory are closely linked because of the brain’s anatomy (Walsh, 2020).  The limbic brain, responsible for our behavior and emotional responses, directly receives scent information from the olfactory bulb.  When the scent of aromatic plants is inhaled, the terpenes are transported immediately to the limbic brain, amygdala, and hippocampus.  Studies show that inhalation of aromatic plants can result in immediate pain reduction (Lakhan, 2016).

Coupling the inhalation of terpene-rich aromatics with deep breathing techniques can increase the therapeutic benefit.  There are a variety of Breathwork techniques that, when used in conjunction with essential oil diffusion, will promote more profound relaxation, which turns on the parasympathetic nervous system ushering in a state of relaxation and reduce pain.

• Belly breathing (AKA Diaphragmatic) helps you to learn to use your diaphragm correctly. Most people spend their entire waking time holding their stomachs in and increasing stress.  By relaxing your belly and allowing your diaphragm to work, you usher in an even deeper state of relaxation. 
• Breath Focus breathing uses imagery or focus words to help your mind concentrate. By choosing a focus word or image, you are allowing your mind and body to work together to usher in relaxation.
• Lion’s breath releases tension in your chest and face. This is one of those techniques that you may want to practice alone until you are comfortable. Opening up your eyes and mouth wide to let out the stress of the day clears away stress and worry.
• Alternate Nostril breathing takes some coordination, but enhanced cardiovascular function and a lower heart rate make this technique worth trying. You want to avoid trying this if you are sick or congested, as consistent, smooth breathing is required as your brain focuses on the method.
• Humming Bee breath calms your nervous system almost immediately. It is excellent for helping to reduce anger and frustration.  Breathe in and, keeping your mouth closed, breathe out, making a loud humming sound.  This technique is fabulous to practice when you need to relax right away.

Existing medical treatments for chronic pain cost more than $600 billion annually, more than heart disease and cancer combined, and fail to provide relief for most sufferers, prompting researchers and patients to seek alternative treatment options (Reynolds, 2021).  Reducing mental stress through inhalation of a terpene-rich environment, either through taking time for Shinrin Yoku or utilizing other Terpene-rich options, has the potential to begin the process of reducing physical stress and rewiring the old injury pathways.  Thus, many seek complementary forms of relief from their chronic pain and find it in the terpene-rich aromatic plant world.

References

• A history of the pharmaceutical industry. (2020). Retrieved from https://pharmaphorum.com/rd/a_history_of_the_pharmaceutical_industry .
• Cho, K. S., Lim, R., Lee, K., Lee, J., Lee, J. H., & Lee, S. (2017). Terpenes from Forests and Human Health. Toxicological Research, 33(2), 97-106. https://doi.org/10.5487/TR.2017.33.2.097
• Cox-Georgian, D., Ramadoss, N., Dona, C., & Basu, C. (2019). Therapeutic and Medicinal Uses of Terpenes. Medicinal Plants: From Farm to Pharmacy, 333–359. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31269-5_15
• Lakhan, S. E., Sheafer, H., & Tepper, D. (2016). The Effectiveness of Aromatherapy in Reducing Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta- Analysis. Pain research and treatment, 2016, 8158693. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/8158693
• Neuroplastic pain. (2022). Retrieved from https://www.painreprocessingtherapy.com/neuroplastic-pain

• Park, B. J., Tsunetsugu, Y., Kasetani, T., Kagawa, T., & Miyazaki, Y. (2010). The physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku (taking in the forest atmosphere or forest bathing): evidence from field experiments in 24 forests across Japan. Environmental health and preventive medicine, 15(1), 18–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12199-009-0086-9
• Petrovska, B. B. (2012). Historical review of medicinal plants usage. Pharmacognosy Reviews, 6(11), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.4103/0973-7847.95849
• Reynolds, S. (2021). Retraining the brain to treat chronic pain. Retrieved from https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/retraining-brain-treat-chronic-pain
• Sabanoglu, T. (2021). Total number of retail prescriptions filled annually in the U.S. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/261303/total-number-of-retail-prescriptions-filled-annually-in-the-us.
• Walsh, C. (2020). What the nose knows. Retrieved from https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/02/how-scent-emotion-and-memory-are-intertwined-and-exploited/
• Yamakawa K. (1995). Historical sketch of modern pharmaceutical science and technology (part 3). Yakushigaku zasshi, 30(1), 1–10. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11613518

First published in Aromatika magazine's 2022 9.4 edition. www.aromatikamagazine.com