Peppermint oil reduces blood pressure by 8.48 mmHg in small study (journals.plos.org)

Noticing that the waist circumference on average went down on the peppermint group (85.17 -> 84.61) while the placebo group it went up (88.33 -> 88.65)? Also the resting heart rate dropped for the peppermint group. My initial suspicion is that the peppermint group coincidentally was also the 'got in better shape' group. Maybe the peppermint helped, but for relatively small groups that also seem to be improving waist circumference and heart rates likely due to good diet and exercise, I'm not convinced the peppermint did jack shit. More investigation needed! Would be awesome if it helped though!

Maybe we can add some licorice root to balance the effect.

Whenever I see a study like this I assume that the researchers won the p<0.05 lottery

There are two types of peppermint supplements being sold: mentha pipereta that this study looked at, and mentha arvensis.

I wonder if mentha arvensis has the same effect. Supplements vs mint tea would be another interesting thing to study in future.

a single RCT of 40 people is about middle-of-the-range when it comes the hierarchy of evidence and is at best a 'that's neat, I'll wait a few years for there to be more studies' if you don't want to do any more thinking about it, a 'I need to see it in context of other studies' if you want a lot of work, or a 'I sure hope there's a meta/review' if you don't have the time but still want to remain skeptical

that said, there is a GRADE-assessed systematic review and meta on mint (PMC11587584) and this linked study's results are 7x the pooled effect size (SBP -8.5mmHg vs -1.2mmHg) of the other RCTs. the review also concludes that more high quality RCTs are needed before anything approaching clinical significance

the wildly disproportionate effect size indicates to me that this is one going to be one of those outlier studies that future reviewers will either likely omit or clearly state that it is an outlier result and if they're super duper honest they'll provide the new pooled results with and without this outlier study

Peppermint is also very helpful for headaches and nausea in my experience. I'll smell some peppermint oil or put a drop on my upper lip, headaches and nausea go away pretty soon after.

Ceylon cinnamon also helps lower blood pressure https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-ceylon-cinnamon

Essential oils are quite versatile for self-experimentation; maybe one day the world will rediscover oilahuasca.

That is very accurate sphygmomanometry!

So does it therefore reduce stress? Anyone?

Aren’t people generally getting some via toothpaste?

Doctor Bronner was right!

Peppermint - Pure-Castile Magic Soap: Cool, Refresh, and Awaken with Invigorating Peppermint

https://www.drbronner.com/products/peppermint-pure-castile-l...

Dr. Bronner invented the peppermint oil soap for soiled diapers

https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/1978/nov/02/cover-look-f...

Created in California: How Dr. Bronner’s became the soap for every subculture

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-07-12/dr-bronner...

>Perhaps inspired by that experimental ethos, customers have discovered their own unusual uses in the years since Emanuel started mixing gallons of peppermint castile soap out of his Pershing Square tenement apartment in 1948. [...]

>David, Mike and Lisa Bronner grew up in Glendale, not giving much thought to the prospect of one day taking over the family business and generally regarding their grandfather as a bewildering figure.

>“My granddad was always talking about uniting ‘Spaceship Earth,’ and it was kind of sailing over our heads,” David said.

>“He’d be talking to us as if we were all PhD students in religious studies,” Mike said of visits to Emanuel’s home when the siblings were in elementary school. “He was blind, and every once in a while he would say, ‘Are you there?’ and we’d be like, “All-one, Grandpa!’ And he’d be like, ‘Very good. OK, I want you to recite the peppermint bottle.’”

Lisa Bronner: The Poetry of the Lavender Label

https://www.lisabronner.com/the-poetry-of-the-lavender-label

>The label on the quart size of the Lavender Pure-Castile Magic Soap holds the greatest insight for me into his motivations and goals. The Peppermint label records the tenets of his Moral ABC, his guidelines for humanity to find unity and a path forward. But it is the Lavender quart that hosts his poetry, and in that I see his heart. [...]

>"To keep my health! To do my work! To love, to live!"

>"Great peace is found in little busyness."

>"Work well yourself and work for all."

>"Til we rally, raise, unite!"

>"All-One-God-Faith, All-One! Unite!"

>"Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime."

>"Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal."

>"Let us then be up and doing ... still achieving, still pursuing"

>"In all we do, let us be generous, fair & loving to Spaceship Earth and all its inhabitants."

>"We're ALL-ONE OR NONE! ALL-ONE!"

Well, mint tea does make me sleepy

Peppermint group N=20. Mkay. 2 of those lost to followup, one because they didn't like the taste (control group got peppermint cordial). The result might be real but needs followup before we all starting gulping down peppermint oil.

The funny thing is, I've read countless meta-analyses on various mainstream drugs, where total n=hundreds of thousands, and I still don't know if they work at all or not.

Also works well for IBS. Popular brand name green box. Bit pricey.

HN really upvotes some dumb medical articles, come on, n=20 about peppermint?

herbal tea is good for you, it seems