"Peppermint Aromatherapy for Nausea"
One of the most common fears patients express when facing surgery
is postoperative nausea which ranges from minor queasiness
to protracted periods of vomiting.
Feeling sick to ones stomach and throwing up after surgery
is a common problem, affecting between a quarter and a half
of those placed under general anesthesia,
and more than half of those at high risk.
Who's at high risk?
Women who don’t smoke and have a history of motion sickness.
I’ve explored the science behind treating nausea with ginger,
but if you’re too nauseous to eat, what do you do?
Well, people are often sent home with anti-nausea rectal suppositories,
however surveys show that cultural and sexual attitudes
may make a number of people sensitive to anything involving the rectum.
But the wording of the survey question they asked was,
"Are you happy to have a drug put up your back passage…?"
And I can imagine many of the respondents thinking
"Well, maybe I wouldn’t mind so much, but wouldn’t exactly be happy about it…",
especially when you’re feeling sick and throwing up.
And for women after a C-section,
they might not want to take drugs regardless of the orifice
if they’re breastfeeding.
So researchers decided to put aromatherapy to the test.
Research has shown that essential oils of both spearmint and peppermint
are effective in reducing nausea and vomiting after chemotherapy,
but this was after taking them internally, swallowing them.
Would just the smell of peppermint help with nausea?
They had women take deep whiffs of peppermint extract,
like you’d buy at a store, and it seemed to work.
While none sniffing plain water with green food coloring—the placebo—
and none in the control group who didn’t sniff anything
none of them felt better,
80% of the mint sniffers felt better within just a few minutes.
The study was criticized for being small,
and for not using pure peppermint oil.
Peppermint extract is peppermint oil plus alcohol—
maybe it was just the smell of alcohol that made people better!
And that’s actually not too much of a stretch.
In 1997, researchers reported a simple, innocuous,
and inexpensive treatment for postoperative nausea and vomiting—
the smell of isopropyl alcohol, which is what’s found in those alcohol wipes,
the little prep pads that nurses swab you with before shots.
They found out that they could just effectively tear one open
and wave it under someone’s nose and relieve nausea and vomiting
in more than 80% of folks after surgery.
It’s been since shown to work as well as a leading anti-nausea drug,
and may even work faster, cutting nausea in half
within 10 to 15 minutes, rather than 20 or 25.
So was it the alcohol, the peppermint, or both?
We didn’t know, until it was put to the test.
Patients were instructed to take three slow, deep breaths,
inhaling through the nose, exhaling through the mouth,
smelling alcohol, peppermint, or nothing.
The smell of the peppermint cut nausea in half within 5 minutes.
And so did the alcohol.
But so did smelling nothing.
So maybe it had nothing to do with the scent;
maybe it was just the instruction to take slow deep breaths.
That would make it a really cost-effective intervention,
if all we have to do is tell people how to breathe.
Though maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising,
given the proximity of the vomiting and breathing centers within our brain.
And indeed controlled breathing was effective with or without any scent.
So next time you feel nauseous,
inhale deeply through your nose to the count of three,
hold your breath to the count of three,
and then exhale out the mouth to the count of three.
And do that three times.
Ironically the researchers continued to advocate
using that nasty smelling alcohol pad
even though they showed it wasn’t any more effective than breathing alone.
Why would they do that?
Because since isopropyl alcohol has a readily detectable odor,
patients are more likely to THINK that their post-operation nausea and vomiting
is being actively treated when they inhale alcohol vapors
rather than just engaging in breathing exercises.