where the students will leave with a medical license; and to corporations or businesses that agree to the JSA’s objectives and inclusion criteria. Below we review some evidence-based research that was carried out in Japan by our group. The research has been published in PubMed journals. We also outline some ongoing projects in JSA-related hospitals.
Aromatherapy for stress relief and/or dementia Accompanying the recent development of complementary and alternative medicine, rigorous scientific investigation needs to be carried out to confirm the purported effects (often anecdotal) of aromatherapy. In the published literature, there is little evidence of the effects of aromatherapy on the endocrine system. To remedy this, Toda and Morimoto (2008) researched the effect of inhaled lavender on the endocrinological salivary stress markers, cortisol and chromogranin A (CgA). In this study, 30 healthy students completed a series of mathematical tests for 10 minutes and then rested for 10 minutes. During the resting period, the experimental group (16 students) inhaled essential oil of lavender. Results showed that the experimental group had statistically lower levels of CgA than the control group. These findings suggest inhaled lavender has a measurable stress relief effect, and thus could be clinically useful for treating mental stress. Another study explored the effect of aromatherapy on patients with Alzheimer’s disease (Jimbo et al 2009). Researchers examined the effects of aromatherapy on dementia in 28 elderly people, 17 of whom had Alzheimer’s disease (AD). After a control period of 28 days, aromatherapy was carried out over the next 28 days, followed by a