Overview

• The study, led by Dr Andy Smith at Cardiff University, is published in the World Journal Of Pharmacy And Pharmaceutical Sciences.
• Researchers followed 81 students, 17 of whom developed a mild upper respiratory illness, and assigned participants to peppermint, placebo butterscotch, or no sweet.
• Testing found that having a cold was associated with slower reaction times, slower eye movements, and reduced alertness.
• Sucking a peppermint increased alertness in both ill and healthy participants, with no significant improvement detected on performance measures.
• The team proposes aromatic vapours as a plausible mechanism and describes the finding as a simple, low-cost aid, while noting the small, student-based sample limits generalizability.