In my previous blog I explained that aromatherapy can work very well for headaches. However, scent can also trigger headaches and then treatment with aromatherapy is not the best solution for you. I would like to explain this to you in this blog.
The meaning of smells.
Since time immemorial, we have associated meaning with smell. For example, smell can give a feeling of safety, but also of illness or death. For example, doctors in the Middle Ages described the breath of patients of an epidemic as “rotting flesh” or as “a decomposing corpse”. As a result, stinking smells were associated with illness and death, and inhaling these smells was seen as a way to contract the disease. That is why people who were still healthy wore all kinds of nosegays with strongly scented flowers and herbs. If you held these up to your nose, you would not get sick, was the idea.
This is also reflected in the famous ‘Plague Mask’ worn by the Plague Doctors. The beak of this mask was filled with theriac, a mixture of more than 50 different herbs (including wolfsbane, henbane, mandrake and wolfberry) and other ingredients (such as adder meat). It was thought that this mixture purified the infected air, so that the Plague Doctor breathed in purified air and was thus protected from the plague. In addition, the cloak they wore was smeared with fragrant wax.
Our sense of smell was especially important in ancient times; our nose helped us survive. For example, we could smell things like danger and fear, but we could also smell other people’s hormones, pheromones, which made us sexually aroused.


The functioning of our olfactory organ.
In simple terms, our nose has the function of cleaning and warming the air we breathe. We also use our nose to smell.
At the entrance to the nose are millions of nose hairs. These nose hairs ensure that the air is cleaned, preventing large and harmful dust particles from entering the lungs. If the nose hairs are saturated, for example because there is a lot of dust or pollen in the air, a sneeze automatically follows.
The nasal cavity is located approximately at the level of the facial plane to the back of the throat cavity. There you will find three thin bone plates on the left and right sides, covered with mucous membrane. These bone plates ensure that the internal surface of the nose is greatly enlarged. This causes inhaled air to become turbulent, causing it to warm up.
This turbulence ensures that the odorants are transported upwards to the olfactory mucous membrane that is located at the top of the olfactory cavity: flag behind the skull and between the eye sockets. Just below the 3rd eye.
This is where the olfactory nerves are located. These are therefore in direct connection with the outside air and that is why we react so quickly to smells. Smells are perceived very quickly by our olfactory organ, but the intensity of the perception also decreases very quickly. This means that we get used to smells very quickly. After a while you no longer smell them.
Recent research has shown that the olfactory receptors in the nasal cavity are different in shape. In this way, each receptor captures a smell that suits it. For example, one receptor registers a sweet smell, another a floral smell and the third registers the woody undertone. You can imagine that the more components a smell has, the more receptors have to get to work.
All this information is sent to the brain via the olfactory nerves, which are in direct connection with the hypothalamus and the so-called limbic system, where the smell is ultimately identified. The brain can recognize up to 10,000 different smells.
The connection to headaches.
This probably sounds familiar: you smell a sharp odor and suddenly feel pressure on your head and get tears in your eyes. This is usually the case with chemical1 odors such as chlorine, ammonia and strong perfume. These odors cause irritation and therefore small inflammations in the nasal cavity, which causes the headache.
The other reason that you can get a headache from odors is the fact that the olfactory nerves are in direct connection with the hypothalamus. This has an influence on the endocrine system, the pituitary gland and the autonomic nervous system. As a result, the hypothalamus is involved in the emotional, reproductive, vegetative, hormonal and autonomic functions (such as blood pressure). The hypothalamus also plays a role in the 3 core behaviors of humans: fight or flight, nutrition and reproduction. You could therefore say that the olfactory nerves are in direct contact with our emotional system and with the center that regulates how we behave.
A smell that evokes a bad memory can cause a stress reflex (a reflex that your body triggers when you are afraid or in danger) which in turn causes increased muscle tension in the neck and shoulders. This increased muscle tension can in turn cause a headache. You can also be startled by a smell, which in turn causes a stress reflex, which in turn causes your blood pressure to rise. This can also cause a headache.
Finally, there is also something called ‘Osmophobia‘, where you have an intolerance to smells. People who suffer from a lot of migraine attacks are particularly susceptible to osmophobia. There are studies that have shown that exposure to strong smells for 2 hours or longer can trigger migraines in 20% of migraine patients.


The solution.
A simple solution would be to avoid scents, but that is simply not possible. You come across people who wear perfume, even on a quiet walk with the dog you come across scents. In the summer you can smell the scent of a barbecue and in the winter the scent of a fireplace.
If you get a headache from the scent of your own perfume, you could see if another perfume does not trigger that reaction. You could also opt for a molecular perfume. In this case, the perfume is not made from natural ingredients such as flowers or herbs. Molecular scents consist of synthetic molecules that adapt to your body odor. These scents are generally hypoallergenic.
But how nice would it be if you no longer have an emotional reaction to a scent. The memory still exists, but that the emotional charge is gone. So that you can enjoy the scent again, without getting a headache.
Are you curious after reading this blog whether and how I could help you? Then send me a message on Instagram.
Every month I raffle 2 free headache sessions. During this free session I will look at your headache and its cause with you. I will look at the limiting beliefs that are lurking under the surface and resolve them for you. In addition, I will give you some tips and advice that you can start using immediately to experience less headaches immediately after the session.
My client Karin said about this session: “Immediately after the session I already experienced much less headaches”.
Do you want a chance to win one of those sessions? Then fill in the form here to apply.
- I don’t think the term chemical is entirely correct, because chemical means nothing more than not natural. And ammonia occurs in nature and also in our bodies. But it is a generally accepted term for these kinds of substances, which is why I just use it ↩︎