Overview
- Researchers tracked 81 students over 10 weeks, with 17 developing mild upper respiratory tract illnesses and being assigned peppermint, butterscotch placebo, or no sweet alongside matched healthy controls.
- Objective tests showed that colds slowed reaction times and eye movements and lowered alertness.
- Sucking peppermint increased self-reported alertness in both ill and healthy participants without improving task performance.
- Lead author Dr Andy Smith proposed that mint aromatics may soothe signals from the body to the brain, reducing malaise.
- The peer-reviewed study appears in the World Journal Of Pharmacy And Pharmaceutical Sciences as UKHSA notes recent increases in rhinovirus circulation in the UK.