Vanderbilt Emergency Room Uses Ambient Scenting to Reduce Stress

This small diffuser is available through Air Esscentials.

Scents Can Help Residents of Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Facilities

Because scent recalls memories and affects mood, it can be very beneficial for senior citizens who live in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. These facilities, in general, tend to have a musty, hospital type smell which contributes to the low spirits of their residents. A scent solution, whether it is limited to certain areas or is connected to the air conditioning system, can help. Although the sense of smell diminishes somewhat with age, it is still a powerful way to reach those who are infirm, and even those with severe dementia. For patients with Alzheimer's, more recent memory is usually impaired, but older memories may still be available.

In a study, researchers found that 86.8% of those born after 1930 had olfactory-evoked recall, and 61.3% of older respondents who were born before 1930. (Nostalgia: A Neuropsychiatric Understanding; Alan R. Hirsch 1992)

Although the most common memory-related scent is baked goods, nostalgic scents tend to differ by region where the respondents grew up. For those on the east coast of the US, it was flowers; south - fresh air, midwest - farm animals and west coast - barbecued meat brought the memories flooding back. In other countries, scents particular to those regions did the same.

Other scents that can be used in the nursing home setting include citrus to improve mood and lavender to calm agitated residents.

Something Smells Healthy: Using Scent Technology for Wellness

Many scent marketers concentrate on pitching hotels and retail establishments because of the direct correlation between scent and a positive retail experience, including more time spent in the store or hotel and repeat business. But have you considered expanding your prospecting to medical establishments and other places where wellness is an issue? Hospitals, doctors’ offices, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities can benefit from using scent.

Anxiety Management

In one study at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, researchers administered either a vanilla scent in humidified air or non-scented humidified air to patients undergoing an MRI as part of a diagnostic workup for cancer. The study found that the administration of the scent produced a 63% drop in the patients’ anxiety levels.[1] In addition to diagnostic testing, there are a number of other medical situations where scent can be used to reduce patient anxiety, including before surgery, in dentist offices, in pediatricians’ offices and even hospital waiting rooms.

Immune System Support

Scientists at the University of Tokyo discovered that the fragrant compound linalool, found in sweet basil, thyme, cinnamon, citrus and mangoes not only works on the nervous system to produce a calming effect, but also positively impacts the immune system. Although the study used rats as subjects, scientists extend the results to apply to humans as well. Rats subjected to stress, when exposed to the linalool, showed no depression of their white blood cell counts, like the rats in the control group. In addition, the rats who inhaled the linalool scent had far fewer stress genes activated than the rats who were not exposed to the fragrance.[2] This study suggests that people who sniff linalool, which is commonly used in aromatherapy and as a fragrance in soaps, shampoos and other personal care products, can stay healthier.

Germ Killing

Some of the latest in scent technology has less to do with fragrance and more to do with killing bacteria, fungus spores and viruses. There are new products that can be used to completely sanitize the area, killing even resistant microbe strains like that responsible for staph infections. Staphylococcus is common in hospitals, and is incredibly hardy, having been found to survive on polyester (the fabric used for hospital privacy curtains) for almost three months[3]. Current precautions against this menace is swabbing beds, tables and other surfaces with an ethanol and ammonia blend, which has a strong unpleasant smell and fumes that are unhealthy for patients and sanitation workers to breathe.

So, expand your horizons and include healthcare facilities in your prospecting.

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[1] “Fragrance Administration to Reduce Anxiety During MR Imaging,” Redd WH, Manne SL, Peters B, Jacobsen PB, Schmidt H., Psychiatry Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, July-August 1994, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7949692

[2] Stress Repression in Restrained Rats by Linalool Inhalation and Gene Expression Profiling of Their Whole Blood Cells. J. Agric. Food Chem., 2009, 57 (12), pp 5480–5485 Akio Nakamura, Satoshi Fujiwara, Ichiro Matsumoto’ Keiko Abe

[3] Neely AN, Maley MP (February 2000). "Survival of enterococci and staphylococci on hospital fabrics and plastic". J. Clin. Microbiol. 38 (2): 724–6. PMID 10655374. PMC 86187.