Many people suffer from anxiety and often rely on prescription drugs to help fight symptoms. The severity of anxiety symptoms can range from feeling nervous about trying something new to keeping a person locked in their home. Social anxiety has been ruining high school experiences for years as children cannot make new friends due to being too scared to present themselves. Some people choose to treat their symptoms using natural methods, such as drinking chamomile tea or exercising. For those who want to consider another natural remedy, pennyroyal might be an option.
What is Pennyroyal?
Pennyroyal, Mentha Pulegium, is an herb from the mint family. It has dainty, lilac flowers and grayish green leaves. The herb has been used to treat multiple ailments. In tea form, it has been used to calm stomach pains, treat mild symptoms of pneumonia, eradicate uric acid, ease joint pain, and regulate menstruation. In oil form, it is used to kill germs, repel insects, counteract venomous bites, treat gout, and as an agent in flea-killing baths. The oil is considered highly dangerous if consumed.
Sketchy Penny
Pennyroyal is used to regulate menstruation because, in proper doses, it causes the uterus to gently contract. Around the 13th century, women discovered this property and decided to use pennyroyal as a birth-control method.
That's right, ladies and gentlemen, pennyroyal is an old-school Plan B pill. Women would drink the tea to stop early pregnancies. Some women were desperate enough to drink gallons of the tea or consume the oil, which caused painful deaths.
Overdose symptoms include vomiting, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, fever, increased blood pressure, seizures, unconsciousness, and death.
Medieval women took Birth Control into their own hands, much like some women of today, when safe options were not available to them. It is hard to imagine anyone wanting to abuse this herb, knowing the effects it could have on the body.
Pennyroyal has many beneficial properties in both tea and oil form. One of its benefits is helping with anxiety.
Those who need a natural alternative could use pennyroyal as a calming agent. It will not work with everyone, just like anything else. Pennyroyal's past should not discourage present day use; however, its past should be remembered as a warning. Consult your doctor, consume in proper doses, and avoid oil consumption.
Is pennyroyal worth a sip, or should this herb stay in the fields?
