Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

There are many brands of enteric-coated peppermint oil on the market. This particular brand is no better or worse than others I have tried. None of them, including this one, has achieved a fully effective enteric-coating function. An enteric coating is generally a polymer barrier applied to the surface of the gel capsule of a neutraceutical or pharmaceutical. This coating prevents the gel capsule from dissolving in the acid of the stomach, which has a pH of around 3. Enteric coatings are formulated to break down rapidly in the neutral to mildly-alkaline environment of the small intestine, whose pH is 7-9. The key sign that a brand's enteric coating works properly is that you will not burp up peppermint minutes or even hours after swallowing a capsule, and you will not feel a burning sensation in your esophagus. It is important to take enteric peppermint on an empty stomach. If you take it on a full stomach, your stomach will be producing lots of acid. Yes, supposedly an enteric-coated capsule should not dissolve in stomach acid, but it makes sense, in order to not overtax the enteric coating, to expose it to as little acid as possible by swallowing it into an empty stomach. In that regard, most brands of peppermint oil include a label instruction to take it a minimum of 15 minutes before eating (I wait an hour). When I get heartburn from this or other brands of enteric peppermint, which I frequently do, my remedy is to put a pinch of baking soda in my mouth, swish it around with a bit of water, and then swallow it. Within 5 minutes, the baking soda, which is alkaline, will neutralize the burn from the peppermint. The purpose of taking peppermint oil is to reduce pain--all kinds of pain--because of its function as an antispasmodic (a substance which relieves the pain of muscle spasms, especially of smooth muscle such as in the bowel wall--see below). Because of this antispasmodic effect, most people take enteric peppermint to reduce pain from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which is medically classified as a "functional disorder" (see below). Muscle spasm AKA cramping is the primary cause of IBS pain, back and neck pain, and tension headaches. (Two other herbs that are also excellent antispasmodics are chamomile and ginger.) In my personal experience, brewing a pot of peppermint tea works as well for reducing muscle pain as enteric-coated peppermint, and you never have to worry about a burning sensation in your esophagus when you ingest peppermint as tea. I purchase organic peppermint leaves in bulk, and that is a lot cheaper than buying enteric-coated peppermint capsules. I make a pot of about 2 quarts of distilled water with about 2 tablespoons of tea leaves. I sweeten it with stevia and/or honey. I bring it to a boil and let it simmer for a few minutes. I also sometimes cold-infuse peppermint tea. For that method, I put 2 tablespoons of tea leaves in a 2-quart glass carafe and place it overnight in the refrigerator. However, note that when you are in pain, hot tea has an additional merit that cold tea does not. Heat is also a natural antispasmodic in that it, too, acts to relax muscle spasm. I recently used hot peppermint tea for the pain of an infected tooth, and it worked better than Ibuprofen for reducing the pain. Hot peppermint tea is also great for nausea, whatever the cause of the nausea. Enteric-coated peppermint oil capsules have long been recommended by doctors (both alternative/holistic doctors and those mainstream doctors who practice "complimentary" medicine) for gastrointestinal (GI) problems, including indigestion and, most especially, IBS. The nerves in the colons of people with IBS are hypersensitive AKA "irritable." Where a person with normal bowel function experiences peristalsis (the wormlike movements of the bowels which push waste matter through the bowels) as a barely noticeable, non-painful sensation, people with IBS experience peristalsis as pain, ranging from mild to severe. Peppermint in all its forms, whether ingested internally or applied externally, as a tea, tincture, extract, poultice or oil, has been known for thousands of years to have the healing, antispasmodic effect mentioned above. In recent, modern times, scientific research has indicated that it is the menthol contained in peppermint which stimulates the anti-pain channel called TRPM8 (see below). This causes pain-sensing nerve fibers in the bowels to become less sensitive. I have included below examples of scientific studies of peppermint oil, in particular two studies whose authors performed a global analylsis of many different studies of the effectiveness of pepperment oil for IBS. The consensus among all these studies is that it is at least as effective as pharmaceuticals for IBS, and often much more so. Most importantly, it has none of the terrible side effects of IBS drugs. The only side effect of peppermint oil is the transient "heartburn" I discussed above, compared to the truly awful side effects of IBS drugs which include, but are not limited to: Headaches, gas and bloating, skin rashes, hemorrhoids, dizziness, exhaustion, severe stomach pain, severe abdominal cramps, bloody diarrhea and/or severe constiption, nausea and vomiting, high fever, severe edema (swelling in face, midsection, hands or feet, which may possibly be due to damge the drugs are doing to the liver and kidneys), high fever, congested and/or infected sinuses with accompanying sinus pain, cough and/or bronchitis (most likely caused by sinus infection dripping infected mucus into the throat), joint and back pain, insomnia (very likely due to all the discomfort caused by the drugs). Worst-case symptoms: abnormal liver function and potientially life-threatening pancreatitis. DEFINITIONS Functional disorder: A physical disorder for which the medical establishment, via palpation, lab tests and x-ray screenings, can find no detectable contributing abnormality. IBS is a classic excample of a functional disorder. Physicians are trained to look for a "structural disorder," in which some aspect of the body can clearly be found to be damaged or diseased. Until Big Pharma has developed a drug to treat a particular functional disorder, mainstream doctors have long been in the habit of labeling functional disorders, such as IBS, as being "merely" a psychosomatic disorder aka "hypochondria" and referring the patient to a psychiatrist (especially if the patient is female). Mainstream doctors in the USA are not trained to say, "The cause of your functional condition is currently unknown, but if you are suffering pain, your nerves and brain are definitely involved, and it is not your imagination. Unfortunately, I'm not an expert on treating chronic pain like yours. Let me refer you to somone who can help you treat it safely." During the past decade, Big Pharma has developed drugs to treat IBS. Since then, far too frequently, with little warning to patients about the terrible side effects, or first advising patients about the many non-drug options for treating IBS, they prescribe these drugs with little oversight. Smooth Muscle: This is involuntary muscle, which works automatically and unconsciously, as compared to voluntary muscle, which is directed consciously. Examples of smooth muscle include: The walls of blood vessels, stomach, intestines, ureters, and prostate, and the iris of the eye. TRPM8: This stands for: transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily M, member 8. It is also known as the cold and menthol receptor 1 (CMR1). It is a protein that in humans is encoded by the TRPM8 gene and is the primary molecular transducer (transformer) of cold somatosensation. Low concentrations of TRPM8 agonists such as menthol have been found to be antihyperalgesic. (Hyperalgesia is an excessive sensitivity to pain, and an antihyperalgesic reduces that tendency. An agonist is a chemical that binds to a receptor and activates the receptor to produce a biological response. Menthol is an organic compound made synthetically or obtained from mint oils such as peppermint.) RESEARCH Cappello G et al. Peppermint oil (Mintoil) in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome: a prospective double blind placebo-controlled randomized trial. Dig Liver Dis. 2007;39(6):530-6. Grigoleit HG1, Grigoleit P. Peppermint oil in irritable bowel syndrome. Phytomedicine. 2005 Aug;12(8):601-6. Harrington AM et al. A novel role for TRPM8 in visceral afferent function. Pain. 2011;152:1459-68. Khanna R1, MacDonald JK, Levesque BG. Peppermint oil for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Clin Gastroenterol. 2014 Jul;48(6):505-12. Merat S et al. The effect of enteric-coated, delayed-release peppermint oil on irritable bowel syndrome. Dig Dis Sci. 2010;55(5):1385-90.