Peppermint for Pain
I just 💚 these little @southern_soul_sa salves - we have 6 varieties - Calendula 💐, Breathe Easy (congestion) 🤒, headache 🤕, hemp 🍃, lady cramp 😭 and deep sleep 😴. I’m still slowly making my way through them as they seem to last forever 🕰 ~
Both the salves in the picture contain peppermint 🍃oil, which is useful for IBS and stomach issues, nausea (I’ve been told to sniff it to relieve the latter), muscle pain, itching and headaches.
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What is peppermint? 🌱 Mentha Piperita (Latin) is a hybrid between watermint and spearmint, and indigenous to Europe and the Middle East, but now cultivated in most parts of the world. Strange fact - c90% of the world’s peppermint comes from Morocco (?!) 🇲🇦
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Peppermint to relieve pain: a few studies have shown effectiveness of peppermint oil as a treatment for migraines and chest pain. The reason it seems to work is that menthol provides a cooling sensation (as we have probably all experienced!), which alleviates discomfort. In short, the menthol tricks our TRPM8 receptors into feeling “cold” 🥶 (similar to chillis making us feel heat) 🔥
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More strange facts:
- the Ancient Greeks believed peppermint could cure hiccips
- they also brought us the word mint in the first place - it comes from Minthe in Ancient Greek. Minthe was a water nymph from southern Greece loved by the god Hades, god of the underworld. She claimed to be superior to his wife Persephone, who got angry 😡 and turned her into a mint plant (so that she would be trampled by passersby). Hades could not undo the transformation but managed to give her a beautiful fragrance that would appear if she was stepped on 😕...
- the ancient Greeks also used mint in funerary rituals, together with other aromatic herbs, likely for practical (fragrant) reasons
- the ancient Romans used mint for their baths and to clean their teeth. We have some mint bath salts if you want to copy them! 🛁
- In Europe, mint was used by cheese makers 🧀 as it seemed to discourage rats and mice 🐁
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Finally, don’t forget our 10% off deal ends tomorrow - we have lots of little salves and lotion bars that make such cute presents for the special people in your lives 🤗