Peppermint is Medicine

I don't know about where you live, but it's starting to heat up here in Los Angeles. When the weather heats up my thoughts turn to... peppermint.

When I lived in New Orleans so many years ago, I had a glass jug that used to hold orange juice that I filled up with tap water and kept in the fridge in the summertime. Being tap water, it tasted sort of funny so I started dropping in a bag of peppermint herbal tea to improve the taste. It was so good that I just kept doing it.

I didn't know it at the time, but aside from being a delicious, breath-freshening flavor, peppermint is good medicine, especially in the summertime. It has several medicinal actions, including:

• Releasing Wind Heat. What the hell does that mean? In Chinese Medicine, "wind heat" is a term for contagious diseases - colds and flu. Peppermint has an anti-viral effect in the early stage of such illnesses as mumps, influenza, and herpes. It is also an anti-fungal, and applied topically to the skin can prevent itching, fungal infections, and gum disease.
  
  
• Soothes the Throat and Eyes. Peppermint is an expectorant and a decongestant. A German commission noted peppermint's ability to soothe nasal passages when inhaled through the nostrils.
  
  
• Improves Digestion. In European herbalism, peppermint is used mainly for its ability to soothe nearly all segments of the digestive tract. Peppermint has been used for centuries to treat heartburn, it relieves upset stomach by calming the stomach muscles and improving the slow of bile; and peppermint improves the pain and irritation associated with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), with statistical improvements ranging from 75 to 89.5 percent in the groups studied.

There is some controversy in using peppermint to treat gastric reflux. Peppermint improves the flow of bile, and some patients may experience an aggravation of symptoms. People who suffer from gastric reflux should use peppermint with caution, which includes peppermint in foods such as ice cream and candy.

Last, but absolutely not least, peppermint is also used to treat stress and nervous disorders. That's right, peppermint relaxes you. In fact, inhaling the aroma of peppermint can help reduce stress while you are sitting in traffic, and cuts down on road rage.

Need more reasons to choose peppermint? I didn't think so...