Peppermint, Peppermint, Oh how I love thee peppermint!
Seriously, have you discovered how awesome this stuff is? We are in LOVE with peppermint around our home. It seems like every day we find a new use for Young Living Peppermint essential oil. It is our most-used oil, used several times a day around here. Here it is, not even noon, and I have already used it four times today! From a burst of energy to help with bug bites, it has all kinds of uses. Here is a list of our top ten uses for Peppermint Oil!
1. Energy–Feeling worn out? Sluggish and no motivation to do anything? Take a drop of peppermint into the palm of your hand and rub your hands together. Now inhale the vapors. BAM! The other day I desperately needed a nap, and felt like I couldn’t move from my chair–but I had a to-do list a mile long that just wouldn’t wait. Peppermint oil to the rescue! I was up and had all of my tasks completed without feeling like I was going to drop any second.
2. ADHD/Focus–Peppermint essential oil is AWESOME for ADHD issues, especially focus issues. If you fight brain fog or have kids who have trouble focusing, try diffusing peppermint oil, or rubbing some in your palms and inhaling the vapors. Research from the University of Cincinnati showed that inhaling peppermint essential oil increased mental accuracy by 28 percent! We have three people in our home with ADHD, myself included. Peppermint oil is a part of our personal ADHD blend, combined with vetiver and a few others, that really helps us focus and get our work done. In fact, I sit here writing with peppermint oil diffusing! It just helps me organize my thoughts better.
3. Soothing Bug Bites–Mix five drops of peppermint oil into a tablespoon of almond or olive oil, and store in a glass container. (I use these glass roller ball containers from Amazon.) When you or your kids end up covered in any kind of itchy bug bites, simply roll some on. The peppermint soothes the itching almost immediately. You can add a few drops of lavender essential oil too, for a one-two knockout antihistamine punch. LittleMissSunshine forgot to use her all-natural bug spray the other day before heading out to play with friends, and came home covered in chigger bites that were driving her crazy! One roll of peppermint oil and the itching was gone!
4. Nausea–For centuries now, moms have reached for peppermint when their families had a tummyache. From overeating to the stomach flu, the scent of peppermint is enough to quell nausea. I carry peppermint oil in my purse now for this very reason. From kids who have overindulged on too much sugar to morning sickness to just old-fashioned nausea, a thirty second sniff is enough to set all right with the world! A month or so ago I was on vacation, and had overindulged in too much junk food during our trip. My stomach was protesting this sudden change, and loudly. I felt AWFUL. Like I was going to be sick any second. I spent an hour in pain, with a cold washcloth on my head, trying to make it all stop. I remembered I had some peppermint oil with me, and thought it couldn’t hurt anything to try. I didn’t expect much, I felt that bad! Well, I was shocked when two minutes later the entire thing was gone! GONE! No nausea. No pain. No anything. Within ten minutes I felt energetic and ready to go for the evening. I have no idea how it works, but I have used it time and time again. It works!
5. Allergies–Peppermint is a natural antihistamine, like Benadryl or Claritin, without the side effects! You can use peppermint essential oil all on its own, but for a super-duper antihistamine combination, I mix together lemon, lavender and peppermint oils into a glass roll-on container, diluted with almond oil. I rub this on the back of my neck or the wrists and palms of my hand for quick but lasting relief. Reapply as needed, usually two to three times a day. We have some pretty strong seasonal allergies around here, and have all found relief using this mixture. (I took allergy shots for 18 years, starting at only 9 months old–a rarity in the 70’s.) Many sites will suggest taking the oils in a capsule, but I don’t find it to be necessary. Simply rolling them on and inhaling the vapors has worked wonders for us. If you have several people in the house with allergies, diffusing peppermint after applying them would help as well.
6. Heartburn–I rarely get heartburn, not since I switched to a real foods diet. But every once in a while, when I eat out or have processed foods, it hits. I have tried lots of remedies, but nothing works as fast for me as peppermint oil! I put a single drop of peppermint oil in a glass of water and drink it down. BAM! Heartburn gone! (My lips do tingle a bit from the oil, so if you have time, mix the oil in a bit of honey or sugar first, to blend it into the water better.) The peppermint oil hits the acid that is causing the burning and kills my heartburn immediately!
7. Gas–If you are battling gas pains, we have found inhaling the scent of peppermint oil to be a huge help. We also will rub a diluted drop or two on our kids’ tummies. My daughter will go from pain to relief in just a couple of minutes. It seems to dissipate the gas quickly. I don’t understand how it works so fast, but it is such a blessed relief!
8. Respiratory Infections/Colds/Sinus Infections–From bronchitis to the cold to the flu, I have relied on peppermint oil to open passageways and soothe inflamed sinuses for several years now. For this, I find that inhaling or diffusing works best. It quiets coughs, opens up airways and dries up runny noses for us. My favorite way to use this is in a diffuser, for long term relief. But for immediate relief we put a drop or two into a cup of hot water, then cover it with our hands and inhale the warm vapors. They are very strong and will open up sinuses almost instantly for us. I have also been known to rub peppermint oil on their feet and chest to help boost the immune system and break up phlegm.
9. Headache pain–If you frequently suffer from headache pain, you want to make Young Living Peppermint essential oil your new best friend! Research has shown that peppermint oil blocked headache pain in a double-blind controlled study. I simply diffuse it or rub some on my temples. Headache is gone!
10. Sleepy Teenagers in the Morning–Have a teenager who has trouble getting up in the morning? Of course you do–they’re a teenager! Here is what I do–I have begun diffusing peppermint oil in JD’s room in the mornings. He wakes up faster, and has a much pleasanter demeanor when he comes down the stairs for breakfast. This alone is worth the price of a bottle!
Seriously, is there anything Peppermint Oil doesn’t help with? It seems to us to be an all-around swiss-army knife kind of oil. There are so many other ways we use it, like in our homemade hand soap, but these are our top ten favorites. We use it so much that I have filled a glass roller bottle for each person with ten drops of peppermint oil and filled the rest to the top with almond oil. We store one in each room. They can roll it on, simply smell it, or add it to their diffuser as they need it. I keep one in my purse, too. And because each use only uses one to two drops at most, the average cost per treatment is under .15/use. That makes this VERY Naturally Frugal. I am sure that we will continue to discover new ways to use and love Young Living Peppermint essential oil!
Looking for more information on essential oils? Here are a few other resources you can check out:
- Our Naturally Frugal Essential Oils group on Facebook, where we share questions and testimonies about our experiences
- This post talks about why I chose Young Living essential oils, and how you can order them for yourself–and save 24% when you do!
- My 14 day FREE ecourse on essential oils is full of great information to help you get started!
- This post is part of a 31 Days series on Naturally Frugal Essential Oils. Check out the main page for more posts!
Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless of commission, I hold my reputation highly and promise to only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
