Many are interested in how mint affects the human body. It is known that it helps to relieve stress and relieve insomnia from soothing baths, which add peppermint essential oil. Tea from its leaves helps a person to relax and fully relax. To understand how mint affects pressure, you need to understand the properties of this amazing plant.
Peppermint Features
This plant rightfully occupies one of the first places among medicinal herbs. Many people are interested in: does mint increase or decrease pressure? Before answering this question, you should understand what this plant is.
Mint is distinguished by its aroma, which many people like. It has been used for a very long time in cooking, industry, and medicine. There are a large number of varieties of this plant: pepper, water, fragrant, Japanese, field, etc. All these varieties have an amazing aroma and contain menthol. Peppermint is recognized as the most fragrant , so it is very popular. This culture was bred by man, so it can not be found in the wild. She found her application in culinary, medicine, perfumery and cosmetology.
Japanese mint is also very popular with cosmetologists. Its essential oil is used to make shampoos, creams, lotions, and other hair and body care products. The most famous way to use this herb is to make oral care products based on it, and all thanks to the menthol aroma. In Russia, peppermint was used in a bath, steaming brooms in fragrant water. And of course, such a plant has been used for medicinal purposes for centuries, as it has many beneficial properties. Here is this herb - mint, the benefits and harms of which will be discussed below.
Useful properties of mint
Due to the fact that this plant contains menthol, it is characterized by a large set of valuable qualities.
Peppermint has a positive effect on the nervous system, calming and stimulating the brain. She also helps to cope with insomnia.
It has anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antispasmodic effects, helps to cope with headache and discomfort in the intestines and stomach.
Mint normalizes the digestive system, improves metabolic processes, increases appetite, removes toxins. All this helps to increase the body's defenses.
Mint is also effective in the treatment of colds. It is used for the preparation of medicinal tea and inhalation. Quite often it is used in the manufacture of warming ointments and nasal drops.
This medicinal plant is characterized by remarkable bactericidal and antiseptic properties.
Decoction and tincture of mint have a choleretic and diuretic effect.
This medicinal herb is useful for angina pectoris, it lowers blood pressure well, as it promotes vasodilation.
Peppermint is rightly considered a "female" herb. Its benefit for women is that due to the phytoestrogens it contains, pain during menstruation is reduced, and menopause is well tolerated. During pregnancy, this plant helps to tolerate toxicosis more easily.
Contraindications to the use of mint
You need to know that mint contains bioactive substances that many cannot tolerate. It can cause allergies, so when making mint tea, only a small leaf is enough. In addition, it is better not to give it in any form to children who are under the age of three more.
Mint is contraindicated for people with a sick liver and kidneys, as well as for women during lactation. Excessively large doses can negatively affect the condition of people with bradycardia and bronchial asthma, since menthol can inhibit the work of the respiratory center.
Peppermint and Blood Pressure
Menthol is able to give a tonic and relaxing effect, and preparations made on its basis have anti-inflammatory qualities. In addition, it favorably affects the central nervous system. So does mint increase or decrease pressure? It contributes to its decrease, therefore, with hypotension, it must be taken with caution.
Menthol dilates blood vessels, helping high blood pressure decrease. It should be remembered that this substance is part of such vasodilator drugs as Validol and Valocordin. Thanks to them, spasms of the vessels of the brain are removed and the work of the heart improves.
The healing properties of mint tea
Does mint increase or decrease pressure? We have already dealt with this issue, so you need to know how to properly take it. The best option is brewing tea with this plant. To do this, it is best to use fresh leaves in the amount of two or three pieces, which are poured with boiling water and steamed for 10 minutes. In the pharmacy, you can buy dry mint, which should be brewed one teaspoon each.
If you drink tea with mint, the pressure can significantly decrease, so it is recommended to use it during an attack of hypertension. You can also conduct a course of prevention for two weeks, in which you should drink half a glass of mint tea in the afternoon and evening. It is very useful to add a teaspoon of honey in a glass of such a drink, and if you drink it before bedtime, then a calm and deep sleep is guaranteed.
In extreme heat, people with hypertension feel very bad, so cool peppermint tea with the addition of a slice of lemon raises the mood and overall tone of the body. Also, green tea with mint lowers blood pressure, so its regular use greatly facilitates the well-being of hypertensive patients. But drinking more than four glasses a day is not recommended.
Precautionary measures
Peppermint can be harmful if used improperly. It is important to remember that this is a medicinal plant that should not be abused. If you take it in large doses as a choleretic and diuretic, then dehydration may occur.
A pregnant woman should take this fragrant herb with caution, and during lactation, mint helps to reduce the amount of milk. Men are also undesirable to use it in large doses, because the plant has an effect on the hormonal background.
Conclusion
Here is such an amazing plant - mint, the benefits and harms of which we have examined. It will be useful only if you use it in the recommended dosage. And when asked whether peppermint increases or lowers blood pressure, it is safe to answer that it reduces it, and quite significantly. Therefore, it is strictly forbidden to hypotensives.