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Comment by quizme2000 | Hacker News Reader

quizme2000

My wife had a very stressful and painful delivery with our first. During her 3 day recovery at Kasier, our nurses provided a lavender treatment (oil on a cotton ball) to help reduce her stress and calm her heart-rate. Our nurses had provided us with a patient information sheet that Kaiser had prepared specifically for this situation.

The key here is this was a very targeted and prescribed treatment performed by trained professional staff with a lavender oil product intended for use in a hospital. Not some huckster MLM agent that selling good knows what.

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Can't there be an in-between? I shouldn't have to be admitted to a hospital to experience the beneficial effects of lavender treatment.

Yes, I was posting this in the context of a clinical study. A good study will try to account for its controls, that was my point. The only problem is in the wide variability of the actual product to be used. There needs to be information on a manufacturer/producer and the form of the lavender oil/extract and application. Taking a bath, topical application, alcohol based mist etc..

The in-between shouldn't be health enthusiasts or exclude the scientific method. Upthread is someone linking research that lavender includes compounds which significantly impact endocrine function in a way that is just starting to be studied.

It is hard to tell which is worse, if these non-pharmaceuticals are completely ineffective or potent medicines.

Given lavender's known negative effects on developing boys, I think it should only be available in a medical environment, or extensively labeled and regulated.

If this destroys the oily-MLM huns, that would be a side benefit.

There are no known negative effects on developing boys. See my comments down-thread. The "studies" purporting to show hormonal effects were extremely low-quality, and have not been reproduced. Other more recent studies are only in-vitro, and in-vitro hormonal effects do not translate well in living humans.

Besides, lavender shares a chemical makeup with many other common herbs and foods, or combinations thereof, and nobody is claiming that those disrupt our hormones. The whole hypothesis doesn't pass the smell test.

>Not some huckster MLM agent that selling good knows what.

I'm just curious where you position naturalist stores? I can go and buy lavender essential oils for <$5 that will last a long time with using it multiple times a day.

I understand there's a hangup with science-oriented people on natural/holistic therapies, but I feel like you're misrepresenting things to support your biased mindset.

My position is that industry has a long and well documented history or over inflated claims and hyperbole. The FDA exists because of the danger of claims that get made. Even recently a product was recommended to treat dogs that was like 90 proof alcohol which was toxic. So yeah I have a hang-up with naturalist stores that I feel is well justified.

Ok but what about lavender specifically? Do we need the FDA to regulate lavender essential oils?

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