Essential Oils: Science or Snake Oil?

Essential Oils - and their claims - are huge right now. But is it all hype, or is there something special about these little brown bottles? To get to the bottom of it, we dig through the studies and speak to cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Rachel Herz and psychologist Prof. Mark Moss.

Check out the full transcript here: http://bit.ly/2PyEsKy

Selected references: Rachel Herz’s books: WhyYou Eat What You Eat & TheScent of DesireA review of the benefits of pepperminttea and oil A critical review of the clinicaltrials Mark’s twostudiesshowing that rosemary can enhance memoryThe experimentwhere lavender had different effects depending on what the people expected it to do

Credits: This episode was produced by Meryl Horn, with help from Wendy Zukerman, Rose Rimler and Odelia Rubin. Our senior producer is Kaitlyn Sawrey. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell and Caitlin Kenney. Fact checking by Michelle Harris and Rose Rimler. Mix and sound design by Emma Munger. Music by Emma Munger and Bobby Lord. A huge thanks to all the researchers we got in touch with for this episode - including Ryan Dalton, Elaine Elisabetsky, Belinda Hornby, Diane McKay, and Thomas Cleland. Also thanks to the Zukerman Family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson.

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