The Amazin' Peppermint

I first tasted the cool flavor of peppermint from the candy canes that I used to eat at Christmas.  Then one day my father picked some from the back yard and made me a cup of tea with it.  My mom was a nurse and would always give me peppermint in some form whenever I had an upset stomach.  It was also my favorite flavor of toothpaste or breath-mint when I was a kid.  As an adult, I've had many different digestive ailments and peppermint oil played a role in treating and soothing indigestion issues.  So as you can see, peppermint played many roles in my life. It's interesting to see how medicinal it is.

According to Harvard Medical School, peppermint can play many roles in healing.  They found that 75% of patients who took peppermint oil had great reductions in IBS symptoms (irritable bowel syndrome) than the placebo group.  They feel that menthol is the rockstar medicinal aspect of peppermint.  This is why you find menthol in lozenges and "cooling" pain relieving creams like Be*g*y or Tiger Balm.  It's also used to treat, sooth or relieve other ailments like fever, pain, nausea, flatulence, headache and many, many others.

How wonderful that an herb that has been in my life from as far back as I can remember is such a health booster!  It's not difficult to grow peppermint, it grows like a weed in fact.  I look forward to growing it in my own yard in the near future.