How Does Peppermint Relieve Nausea From Anxiety And Nervousness – Scentered

by James OakleyAug 04, 20210 comments

The night after having my second daughter, I experienced crippling stomach cramps and what did the medical team at Addenbrooke’s give to me? Peppermint oil! They’d concluded from my description that the culprit was constipation, and they gave it to me to…well, get things moving if you know what I mean. 

I’m sure it would have helped, but it soon transpired that I had appendicitis so a batch of antibiotics and an appendectomy later, things were resolved. But it did educate me that peppermint oil is used for more than chewing gum, food flavouring, shower gel or dental hygiene! 

Benefits of Peppermint Essential Oil

This hybrid mint, derived from watermint and spearmint, comes from an ancient line of medicinal and culinary products. Originally, cultivated in Europe, much of the world’s peppermint is grown in the states nowadays.

It’s certainly a multi-purpose herb that can be used in a multitude of ways. Benefits include: 

• Alleviates stomach-ache or stomach upset
• Soothes painful indigestion
• Clears the nasal passages
• Improves mental function
• Cools and soothes joint pain and aching muscles
• Reduces the symptoms of headache and nausea 

Peppermint Oil and Anxiety

It might seem a tenuous link but bear with me because peppermint oil can be a saviour when you have anxiety. That’s because anxiety comes in many forms, but one of the most common issues is the effect it has on the stomach. Butterflies, tight stomach, nausea, churning stomach and irritable bowel syndrome are all conditions that can be caused by anxiety and stress. All of which can be improved by peppermint essential oil. If you’ve ever suffered anxiety, you’ll also know about the mind fog that comes with feeling overwhelmed. Peppermint is also stimulating and promotes clarity of mind essential for refocusing and regaining control.

How to Relieve Nausea Naturally 

Peppermint oil is often taken in the form of a capsule, peppermint tea or skin preparation. It has a wonderfully refreshing taste and supports healthy digestive function when it’s taken orally. Though more research still needs to be carried out to fully understand the effect of peppermint, it’s thought that it relaxes the gastric muscles which stops them from cramping and over-contracting. 

When your stomach muscles are relaxed, bile can move freely and break down fats to ensure that food moves quickly through the stomach. This relieves the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, stomach-ache and stomach upset like abdominal pain, bloating and gas and the feeling of a churning stomach which can make you feel nauseous.

Inhaling peppermint oil when you feel sick or nauseous can relieve the symptoms quickly. Firstly the act of deep inhalation engages the parasympathetic system and focuses your mind on your breath, rather than on your queasy stomach.  

Scientists are still trying to determine exactly how peppermint oil helps nausea, but we do know that when aromatherapy products are inhaled, molecules within essential oils travel from the olfactory nerves directly to the brain and impact our limbic system.

The limbic system plays a role in controlling several unconscious physiological functions. These include the key indicators of anxiety like breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. So, by using aromatherapy, it’s thought that it can impact on these indicators, like helping to slow down breathing or lower blood pressure. It’s a bit like a vicious cycle. If our body feels more relaxed, our mind feels more relaxed and vice versa.  The other thing about essential oils is that they can also be rapidly absorbed through our skin and transported around the body to our organs, having a direct impact on them too.

Focus Balm for Nerves and Nausea

Scentered FOCUS Balm has been specifically formulated with Rosemary, which increases alertness and boosts memory, Mint to help stimulate mental activity and increase focus on cognitive tasks, and Clary Sage, fantastic at relieving mental fatigue and promoting clarity.  

It’s a powerful, invigorating, mind-clearing blend, perfect for when you have nerves or anxiety, and it can also be used to quell the sensation of nausea.  This is a great aromatherapy balm to have in your daily repertoire too. Use it whenever you need to accomplish goals and tasks, when you begin work or study, before work meetings or after a lunch break when it’s time to refocus. We promise you that it’s better than coffee!

We would love to hear about your mental wellness journey. You can also keep in touch via our Instagram @iamscentered or sign up to our newsletter for updates, news and offers.

Peppermint Oil Benefits and the Best Ways to Use It

• Peppermint oil may help relieve headaches, nausea, irritable bowel syndrome, and itching.
• The essential oil has muscle-relaxing properties, which are responsible for many of its benefits.
• It’s important to pick an organic peppermint oil for treatment since it’s free from synthetic pesticides.

Mint plants have been used in traditional medicine for centuries, stretching back to at least ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, when it was used to calm upset stomachs. 

Today, peppermint essential oil, a highly-concentrated form obtained by steam distilling the leaves, is recommended by the medical community for treating a host of everyday ailments.

Here are four conditions that may benefit from peppermint oil. 

1. Peppermint oil may help headaches and migraines

Research has found that applying peppermint oil to the forehead and temples can be useful for treating headaches and migraines. 

A 2016 review noted that peppermint oil is recommended for the treatment of tension-type headaches in adults and children over the age of 6 years old. The review authors suggested that it may even be as effective as acetaminophen (Paracetamol or Tylenol), a common over-the-counter medication to relieve pain.

“For my patients with headaches, I typically recommend initially treating pain with topical treatments like peppermint oil, or with a pain-relieving ointment like Tiger Balm, which contains menthol, a cooling substance derived from peppermint,” says Lisa Ravindra, MD, an assistant professor of medicine and a board-certified internal medicine physician at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.  

In a small 2010 study, topical menthol was shown to be more effective than placebo at reducing pain for migraines without aura.

Scientists aren’t exactly sure how peppermint oil eases headaches and migraines, Ravindra says, but it’s thought to help by relaxing muscles around the skull. 

“The associated cooling sensation also appears to distract nerves from the pain response,” Ravindra says. “Additionally, topical peppermint has been shown to increase blood flow to the area it is applied to, which can speed up healing.”

If you aren’t experiencing relief after 15 to 30 minutes of peppermint oil, Ravindra advises that patients use more traditional oral pain-relievers like Advil, Aleve, Tylenol, Excedrin, or any prescription headache medications you might have.  

2. Peppermint oil may reduce nausea

Simply inhaling the scent of peppermint oil — or applying a few drops of peppermint oil to a cool damp washcloth and applying to the forehead — has been shown to alleviate nausea in pregnant parents, patients receiving chemotherapy, and patients recovering from surgery.

In a 2020 study, hospitalized patients could choose to treat their nausea with either peppermint oil alone or peppermint oil and a prescription anti-nausea medicine. Both groups experienced nausea relief, but those who chose peppermint oil alone had significantly more improvement. However, the quality of the study is somewhat lacking.

“I extrapolate this data to support using inhaled peppermint oil as an option to treat my primary care patients that may have nausea due to migraines, stomach viruses, food poisoning, or other conditions,” says Ravindra.

According to Ravindra, the same muscle-relaxing qualities that peppermint oil offers for headaches are likely responsible for its nausea-relieving abilities.” It is also possible that the act of slow, deep breathing while inhaling peppermint oil is actually responsible for some of the perceived effects,” Ravindra says.

3. Peppermint oil can be used as a treatment for IBS

Irritable-bowel syndrome (IBS) is a complex disease with multiple factors contributing to its symptoms, so the best treatment will vary from patient to patient.  

But in addition to diet and lifestyle changes, doctors often recommend peppermint oil capsules before moving on to prescription medicines, according to Robert Shulman, MD, a board-certified pediatric gastroenterologist and professor of pediatric nutrition at the Baylor College of Medicine.

The use of peppermint oil to treat IBS symptoms, especially abdominal pain, has been supported in multiple human clinical trials. A 2019 meta-analysis found that people with IBS who took peppermint oil were 2.4 times more likely to experience overall symptom relief compared to those given placebo, and 1.8 times more likely to experience abdominal pain relief in particular. 

There are virtually no prescription medications approved to treat IBS in children, Shulman says, so he often recommends peppermint oil to his pediatric patients.

Peppermint oil may help IBS in a number of ways, Shulman says. Although researchers are still investigating the exact mechanisms, peppermint oil has long been thought to have anti-spasm properties, he says, which may relax the smooth muscle tissue of the lower gastrointestinal tract in people with IBS.

Shulman doesn’t recommend any one brand of peppermint oil capsule over another, but be sure to get one with an enteric coating, otherwise you might experience heartburn. This special coating allows the peppermint oil to mostly bypass the stomach and later be released in the intestines, where doctors believe it has the best effect.

Quick tip: People with IBS should take peppermint oil capsules twice a day, every day, to get the full effects. “The problem I see is that people don’t take it every day. They take it only when they feel ill. And by that point, it’s too late,” says Gerard Mullin, MD, a board-certified gastroenterologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Shulman says if you haven’t noticed any improvements in your IBS symptoms after about a week of taking peppermint oil capsules, it might just not work for you. And those who already deal with severe heartburn may need to avoid peppermint oil, he says. 

4. Peppermint oil may calm itching

There are fewer robust studies examining the effectiveness of peppermint oil to treat itching from insect bites, poison ivy rashes, or healing scars.  

But Ravindra says it’s a good alternative to topical over-the-counter hydrocortisone creams, which shouldn’t be used for more than two weeks because of potential side effects like skin thinning, discoloration, and acne. 

Peppermint oil may help relieve itch because of its skin-cooling effects and by distracting the nerves around the itchy spot. Peppermint oil should not be applied to broken skin, Ravindra says, because it could burn or aggravate the wound further.

What kind of peppermint oil to get

Ravindra recommends choosing an organic peppermint essential oil, since it’s produced from plants that aren’t treated with synthetic pesticides, insecticides, or fertilizers. 

Peppermint oil can be applied topically undiluted, but some may prefer to dilute with a carrier oil, like coconut or argan oil, which is gentler on the skin. A small number of people may experience irritation from topical peppermint oil, in which case you should stop using it.

Important: Ravindra says peppermint oil should not be used on or around infants or children, as it may cause breathing issues.  

Peppermint oil has a very low risk of toxicity when applied topically or taken orally, and has been used safely in numerous clinical studies. There is still a very small risk of allergic reaction, so if you experience redness, itching, or blistering where you’ve applied peppermint oil, you should stop using it. 

Insider’s takeaway

Peppermint oil is a low-risk, over-the-counter option for headaches, nausea, stomach pain associated with IBS, and everyday itching. Still, it’s always a good idea to discuss any supplemental treatments with your doctor before you try them. 

A.M. Hammond

A.M. Hammond is a contributing writer for Insider.

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Mint: benefits and harms, nutritional value, how to store it

Updated March 16, 2023, 2:19 pm

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Everyone is familiar with the refreshing effects of mint, but it has so much more to offer for health. What exactly – asked the doctors.

Mint is a popular herb used in cooking, cosmetics, hygiene products and just as an ornamental plant. She has almost no contraindications, it is easy to store and prepare. Raw or dried mint is a good source of vitamin A and antioxidants, and its derivative, menthol, helps with skin care. We understand what the main benefits of mint are, why it is added to cosmetics and in what cases it is worth being careful with this fragrant herb.

Contents

1. Nutritional value
2. Health
3. Cosmetic
4. Cooking
5. How to choose and store
6. Contraindications 900 16

Mint nutritional value

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Mint is over a dozen herbaceous plants that belong to the genus Mentha. The most common varieties are peppermint and spearmint. Their leaves are used both fresh and dried. Essential oil is obtained from them, which is processed into menthol. The latter, due to its strong and refreshing aroma, is used not only in cooking, but also in cosmetology.

Even a small serving of mint contains enough nutrients. For example, two tablespoons of fresh leaves account for [1]:

• 2 kcal;
• 0.03 g fat;
• 0.48 g carbohydrate;
• 0.12 g proteins.

Victoria Eliseevadietologist, endocrinologist of the Semeynaya clinic network

“It also contains small amounts of vitamins A and C, iron and calcium. On an industrial scale, mint is grown not only as a seasoning or flavoring agent, but also as a raw material for medicines. In pharmacology, stems, leaves and inflorescences are used. Peppermint essential oil contains limonene, dipentene and menthone, it is also rich in organic acids: malic, citric and succinic.

Decoctions and tinctures are prepared from mint, and menthol is an excellent antiseptic and a well-proven anti-inflammatory agent. Often in nutrition, mint is used as a natural “burner” of fat. If you want to eat a cake, then it’s enough to drink a cup of mint tea, even if you break loose in the end, eat less than you planned. ”

Mint health benefits

Peppermint has been used in folk medicine for many years to treat diseases and relieve various symptoms. Today, some of the beneficial properties of mint have been scientifically confirmed. Here are the main ones.

1. Improves digestion . Peppermint is used as part of the collection for the treatment of disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, as well as for antispasmodic and choleretic effects. There are studies on the benefits of peppermint oil in relieving the symptoms of indigestion, relieving abdominal pain and nausea [2]. “Peppermint goes well with lemon and helps increase metabolism, saturates with vitamins, and removes fluid that has stagnated in the body,” says Dr. Eliseeva.
2. Helps in brain function. One study found that mint extracts may help treat symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, although more research is needed. The smell of peppermint may improve memory and increase alertness, although it is not known if ingestion has similar effects [3]. According to experts, mint aromatherapy is a great way to relieve stress and irritation.
3. Relieves colds. Many over-the-counter cold and flu medicines contain menthol, the main ingredient in peppermint oil. It is believed that this is an effective remedy for relieving nasal congestion, although this property of this substance has not yet been fully studied. However, there are studies in which people noted a subjective positive effect in the fight against the common cold with menthol [4].
4. Supports oral hygiene. Toothpaste and floss, mouthwash, chewing gums and other products that help quickly get rid of bad breath contain menthol. However, mint not only masks the smell, but also reduces the bacteria that cause it. One study found that drinking peppermint tea and chewing the fresh leaves of the plant had an antibacterial effect, reducing harmful bacteria in the mouth [5].
5. Helps with weight loss. Inhaling peppermint essential oil vapor reduces appetite and suppresses hunger, which helps to maintain a low-calorie diet, says nutritionist Victoria Eliseeva. Since the properties of peppermint include stress relief, the level of cortisol in the body decreases, which means that the rate of metabolic processes increases, which contributes to weight loss. “Peppermint goes well with lemon and increases metabolism, saturates the body with vitamins and removes stagnant fluid in the body,” the nutritionist summarizes.

Mint in cosmetics

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Due to its cooling properties and aroma, menthol is most often added to cosmetic skin care products. This natural ingredient relieves pain and improves the smell and taste of the product. Most often, it can be found in various cleansing gels and mousses for washing, lipsticks, creams, as well as preparations for the treatment of acne and other skin diseases. According to the dermatologist, this is due to the ability of menthol to create a sensation of cooling.

Margarita Gekhtvrach-dermatologist, expert of the Children-Butterflies Foundation

“Instead of lowering skin temperature, menthol has a cooling effect. This is a complex process, the essence of which boils down to the fact that in the end an impulse is formed, which is either blocked or dulled in the dermis and then the epidermis, which are responsible for determining the temperature. Nerve endings send a message to the brain that the skin is cooling.

Menthol also increases the effectiveness of some drugs applied topically to the skin by dilating the blood vessels. In cosmetology, this feature made it possible to release a whole line of products, including for the temporary effect of increasing the volume of the lips. These include balms and glosses that color the lips while creating a well-defined “pout” lip.

Do not apply menthol directly to the skin without dilution. Any cosmetic products with it should be used as directed. OTC products tend to have low levels of menthol and are well tolerated by most people.”

Cooking mint

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Mint is widely used in cooking to add flavor to food and drink. It goes equally well with both sweet desserts and hot dishes, including meat dishes. It gives a fresh taste to chocolate ice cream, alcoholic mojitos, soups, vegetable salads and lamb dishes. Cooks advise adding raw mint leaves to food, and only at the end of cooking.

Here are some ideas for cooking with mint.

• Mint Lemonade. Combine lime juice, sugar and crushed mint leaves in a glass or decanter. Pour the mixture with non-carbonated water, let it brew. Additionally, the drink can be cooled with ice cubes.
• Fruit salad. Cut fruits and berries to taste – apples, pears, peaches… Dress the dish with one spoonful of honey and mint leaves. The salad can be served cold or baked.
• Mint tea. Pour boiling water over several bunches of fresh or dried mint, previously placed in a teapot. Let it brew for 3-5 minutes.
• Mint pastry . Add a few chopped mint leaves to your cookie, pie, muffin, or muffin batter. Mint aroma is especially well combined with chocolate and citrus fruits.

How to choose and store mint

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When buying mint, look for bright, even and dense leaves. Store them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to one week. Mint can be frozen if desired. To do this, use both whole bunches of grass, and pre-finely chopped plant. Mint is relatively easy to grow at home, but in a summer cottage without proper control, it can quickly “seize” the space like a weed.

For whom mint is contraindicated

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Peppermint is safe for most people and does not usually cause side effects, and allergies to it are rare. However, according to the advice of the endocrinologist Eliseeva, mint should be carefully introduced into the diet for low blood pressure, it can also aggravate varicose veins.

In addition, mint oil is contraindicated in children under two years of age, as menthol can cause respiratory arrest (apnea). Peppermint oil should also not be used during pregnancy without medical advice due to lack of evidence of its safety during this period [6].

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Nadezhda Gurina

Mint tablets

Composition: 900 03

active ingredient: peppermint oil;
1 tablet contains peppermint oil (in terms of 50% menthol) 0.0025 g
excipients: talc, calcium stearate, potato starch, confectionery sugar.

Dosage form. Tablets 0.0025g

Basic physical and chemical properties: tablets of white color, sweet cold taste with the smell of peppermint oil.

Pharmacological group. Antiemetics and anti-nausea drugs.

ATX code A04A D.

Pharmacological properties.

Pharmacodynamics. Peppermint tablets, stimulating the sensitive receptors of the mucous membranes of the oral cavity and stomach, reflexively reduce the feeling of nausea and prevent vomiting, and also have a moderate antispasmodic, sedative and choleretic effect.
Pharmacokinetics. Not studied.

Clinical characteristics.

Indications. Nausea, vomiting, gastrointestinal smooth muscle spasms, bitter taste in the mouth.

Contraindications. Hypersensitivity to the components of the drug. Spasmophilia, croup, bronchial asthma, diabetes mellitus. Age up to 3 years.

Interaction with other medicinal products and other forms of interaction. Not found.

Application features. Patients with gastroesophageal reflux (heartburn) should avoid taking the drug as heartburn may increase.
If you have an intolerance to some sugars, consult your doctor before taking this medicine.

Use during pregnancy or lactation. For pregnant women, treatment is prescribed by a doctor, provided that the expected benefit to the mother outweighs the potential risk to the fetus. If necessary, the use of the drug during lactation should stop feeding.

The ability to influence the reaction rate when driving vehicles or operating other mechanisms. The drug generally does not affect the ability to drive vehicles and work with mechanisms. If there are signs of a side effect of the drug (see “Side Effects”), you must refrain from driving.

Dosage and administration. Administer 1-2 tablets under the tongue.
The maximum daily dose for adults and children over 12 years old is 8-10 tablets.
For children from 3 to 12 years old – 3-5 tablets per day.
The course of treatment depends on the achieved therapeutic effect.

Children. Do not use in children under 3 years of age.

Overdose. Inappropriate use of mint preparations can lead to pain in the heart area.

Adverse reactions. Pain in the region of the heart; allergic reactions, including hyperemia, rash, itching, swelling of the skin, urticaria, dermatitis in some cases – dizziness.