What Peppermint Does To Your Blood Pressure

Most people know that peppermint is recommended for digestion, and we did a research review as to whether it works:

How Useful Is Peppermint, Really? ← also covers its use against nausea!

It does have its downsides too, as it can worsen gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), although by best current evidence, it seems that’s only if you already have it for some other reason. You can read more about that, here: Acid Reflux After Meals? Here’s How To Stop It Naturally

So, what about blood pressure?

The peppermint drop

Researchers (Dr. Lindsay Bottoms et al.) did a randomized controlled trial to see how peppermint oil fared vs placebo (a peppermint-flavored oil) in its effects on blood pressure.

In few words: taking 100 μl (that’s microliters, not milliliters, so that’s 0.1 ml) of peppermint oil twice daily for 20 days reduced systolic blood pressure by about 8.5 mmHg compared to placebo.

In more numbers: the peppermint group went from an average systolic pressure of 130.05 mmHg to 121.97 mmHg, while the placebo group remained essentially unchanged, going from 130.93 to 131.05 mmHg (in other words, technically the placebo made it slightly higher, but please note how close those two numbers are, so really it is a case of “it did nothing”, which is a fairly reasonable outcome for a placebo).

Dr. Bottoms and her team also assessed diastolic blood pressure, resting heart rate, body measurements, blood markers, psychological well-being, and sleep efficacy, of which the ones that had significant results were:

❝In addition to the primary outcome, and in further support of our hypotheses, adjusted diastolic blood pressure and resting heart rate at 20 days were also significantly lower in the peppermint group compared to placebo. In addition to the aforementioned effects, it is proposed that the effects of peppermint in reducing the resting heart rate were also mediated as a function of menthol. In addition to the vascular effects described above, peppermint supplementation may also influence resting heart rate through autonomic nervous system modulation. Menthol has been shown to activate TRPM8 channels located on sensory neurons, which can alter autonomic balance by enhancing parasympathetic (vagal) activity and/or reducing sympathetic drive.

Importantly, epidemiological studies have shown that resting heart rate is an independent predictor of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in both men and women with and without diagnosed cardiovascular disease.

Furthermore, epidemiological studies also suggest that reducing the resting heart rate is not only associated with decreased cardiovascular mortality but also with decreased all-cause mortality❞

You can read this paper in full, complete with all its data, here: Effects of peppermint (Mentha x piperita L.) oil on cardiometabolic outcomes in patients with pre- and stage 1 hypertension: A placebo randomized controlled trial

Want to learn more?

For more on blood pressure management, check out: Hypertension: Factors Far More Relevant Than Salt

And for other essential oils with evidence-based uses, see: Do Essential Oils Really Have Medicinal Properties?

You might also enjoy the Encyclopedia Of Herbal Medicine – by Andrew Chevallier

Take care!