Clinical studies test peppermint oil
Both studies tested the use of peppermint oil in patients prior to having colonoscopies. Japanese researchers from the Mitoyo General Hospital in Toyohama studied 8,269 patients who were undergoing esophagogastroduodenoscopy. The patients were divided into three groups, and given either hyoscine butyl bromide, glucagon or peppermint oil prior to their colonoscopies. The researchers developed an antispasmodic score, which gauged the level of success the treatment had in reducing intestinal spasms during the procedure.
Intestinal spasms are a problem for colonoscopies because as the equipment is inserted, sensitive intestines will often spasm, which can cause problems during the procedure and possible injury to the intestines. Thus, the drugs hyoscine butyl bromide and/or glucagon are often given prior to colonoscopy procedures.
The problem with these drugs, however, is like other pharmaceuticals, they can produce a myriad of side effects. Hyoscine butyl bromide, for example, can produce nausea, urination difficulty, breathing problems, dizziness, vision issues, rashes, itching, swelling of the hands and/or feet and other side effects.
The Japanese researchers found that the group taking peppermint oil had antispasmodic scores that were similar to the two pharmaceutical groups. Elderly patients had better antispasmodic scores than those in the pharmaceutical groups.
The researchers concluded that, “peppermint oil was useful as an antispasmodic during esophagogastroduodenoscopy, especially for elderly patients.”
Encapsulated peppermint oil
Researchers from Iran’s Isfahan University found similar results in their clinical study of 65 adults. Again, the treatment was done prior to giving the patients colonoscopy procedures. The patients were given either the peppermint oil capsule called Colpermin or a placebo in capsules. The researchers measured and compared procedure times, spasm scores, pain scores, endoscopist satisfaction and patients’ willingness to repeat their colonoscopy between the two groups.
The peppermint oil group fared significantly better than the placebo group. The peppermint oil shortened the procedure times, increased the doctor satisfaction scores, and more of the peppermint oil patients were willing to have another colonoscopy than in the placebo group. More importantly, the spasm and pain levels were significantly lower among the group taking the peppermint oil prior to the procedure.
While these results indicate that peppermint oil is by far the better strategy prior to colonoscopy, the results also confirm what many traditional and alternative doctors have found in clinical environments: That peppermint oil reduces spasms associated with irritable bowel syndrome. Irritable bowel syndrome sufferers dread the pain and intestinal sensitivity related to having spasms. For an IBS patient, a spasm can sometimes result in several days of difficulties eating and having normal bowel movements.
The use of peppermint oil for irritable bowel syndrome is also confirmed by a limited amount of research. Researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York reviewed the available clinical research in 2007 and found that peppermint oil may well be an appropriate treatment of choice for those with irritable bowel syndrome. And a more recent review of the clinical evidence by scientists from the Leeds Gastroenterology Institute at St James’s University Hospital in the UK found that there was clear evidence that peppermint oil was a useful intestinal antispasmodic for those with irritable bowel syndrome.
Peppermint leaf and tea has also been used by traditionally for irritable bowel syndrome. However, clinical practitioners have found that peppermint oil in enteric capsules will deposit more of the active ingredients of the oil into the intestinal tract. Oil and leaf ingested orally can be partially digested in the stomach, leaving less of the oil available to the intestines. Ingesting peppermint oil directly can also aggravate heartburn symptoms. Enteric-coated capsules typically bypass the stomach.
The primary active constituents of peppermint oil include menthone and menthol.
This adds to other clinical evidence that triple-coated peppermint oil helps irritable bowel syndrome.
Delivery system is important
But herbalists have also learned that the method of delivery of the peppermint oil is critical.
When peppermint oil is used straight, it can produce some heartburn as it interacts with the stomach and esophageal sphincters. To help prevent this, manufacturers have created enteric-coated peppermint oil. The coating helps deliver the oil into the intestines before it interacts with the stomach or sphincters.
This works in many cases. Yet in still some cases, the enteric coating can break down early, releasing some peppermint oil into the stomach or pyloric sphincter region. This can irritate the sphincter, duodenal intestine and stomach walls. This isn’t in all cases. But some.
New triple-coated peppermint oil system
Recently, a new development in the delivery of peppermint oil for IBS conditions was clinically tested. The results were significantly better. Once again, they prove that peppermint oil, if delivered to the right location in the intestines, can significantly east IBS.
Image Courtesy of Digestive Diseases and Sciences Journal
The new system is called a triple-coated microsphere. The three coatings are, from outer to inner:
1) microcrystalline cellulose outer coating
2) pH triggered enteric middle coating impermeable to stomach acid but breaks down with intestinal acids
3) Inner seal that traps the terpenes within peppermint oil
The terpene trap is because it is the terpenes in peppermint oil that produces the heartburn sensation. The new formulation delivers pure peppermint oil and its main constituent, L-menthol, directly to the small intestines without disturbing the stomach wall or pyloric sphincter.
Clinical study tests the triple-coated peppermint oil
Researchers from the University of South Alabama and IM HealthScience studied 72 patients with moderate IBS – either IBS-diarrhea or IBS-mixed. These are advanced stages of IBS – diarrhea-predominant IBS or diarrhea and constipation mixed.
The patients were divided into two groups. One group was given a placebo, and the other group took two capsules of the triple-coated peppermint oil three times a day. The Ibgard supplement contained 90 milligrams of peppermint oil per capsule.
Both groups were assessed after 24 hours and four weeks of treatment. They were tested with Total IBS Symptom Score (TISS). The peppermint oil group saw a decrease in IBS symptoms of nearly 20 percent 24 hours after starting the treatment. After four weeks, the peppermint oil group saw a 40 percent decline in TIIS symptom scores. Compared to the placebo group, the peppermint oil group had a reduction of symptoms of nearly 42 percent.
The peppermint oil group also experienced a significant decrease in the number of severe and unbearable symptoms of IBS – about half of the placebo group.
Furthermore, only one of the peppermint oil group reported any discomfort from taking the supplement – and this consisted of flatulence.
Other studies proving peppermint oil eases IBS
Other research has supported the use of peppermint oil for IBS pain and spasms. These have confirmed single-enteric coated peppermint oil can have significant benefit as well.
In a 2013 study, researchers from the Mymensingh Medical College Hospital in Bangladesh conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study on 74 patients (65 completed the study) who had irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) with significant diarrhea.
The researchers gave the patients either a placebo or a capsule of peppermint oil three times a day for six weeks. The researchers assessed the pain and symptom scores at three weeks, at the end of the trial and two weeks after the end of the trial. The peppermint oil group had significantly less pain scores at the end of the trial compared to the placebo group.
In a 2007 study from Italy’s G d’Annunzio University Medical College, researchers gave a placebo or two enteric-coated peppermint capsules twice a day for four weeks to 57 irritable bowel patients in another double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study.
In this study, 75% of the patients taking the peppermint oil had more than a 50% reduction in total IBS symptoms. The peppermint oil group also had a significant reduction in symptoms four weeks after the study was completed.
The researchers concluded that:
“A 4 weeks treatment with peppermint oil improves abdominal symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.”
In a 2010 study, researchers tested 90 patients who had irritable bowel syndrome. In this placebo-controlled, double-blind and randomized study, the patients were given either a placebo or one enteric-coated peppermint oil capsule three times a day for eight weeks.
By the end of the eight weeks, the peppermint oil group had 14 people who were completely free of pain symptoms – more than double the rate of the placebo group. The peppermint oil group also had significantly better pain scores on average across both groups.
The researchers concluded that enteric-coated peppermint oil, “is effective and safe as a therapeutic agent in patients with IBS suffering from abdominal pain or discomfort.”
The enteric coating on the peppermint oil capsule is critical because this allows the peppermint oil to be delivered to the intestines with a minimal amount of digestive enzyme breakdown from the stomach. While peppermint tea and fresh peppermint has also been used by traditional healers for centuries for digestive issues including IBS, the enteric-coated capsule increases the speed and effectiveness of this natural remedy.
We’ve also discussed probiotics for IBS and cumin oil for IBS.
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