This week I accidentally stumbled across another use for peppermint oil. I started running routine again after taking a long hiatus from the road, not to mention giving birth to twins!  So, five months later I decided to restart my running sessions. Well, my mind was telling me I was physically and mentally prepared to dive into the sport of running, however my body did not agree. Lets just say my shins screamed the loudest for me to stop.

After returning home from my first week of training, I prepared to take a long bath to soothe some of the aches and pains, including the shin splints I developed. Consequently, I ran some bath water and started looking through my medicine cabinet for some ‘good ole’ home remedies.After noticing my tea tree oil, peppermint oil, lavender oil, and rose hip seed oil, I thought about how I could use these goodies. All of the previous mentioned oils can be used for skin treatments of some sort, but then again I needed something to soothe my pain. For this reason, I thought if I added a couple drops of the lavender oil to my bath water, then this would at least relax me and rejuvenate my skin.

Fortunately, (and I say fortunately with good reason) I mistakenly sprinkled around 8-10 drops of  peppermint oil, which I thought was lavender oil in my bath water instead. After, realizing my mistake, only after the lovely and intense aroma of the peppermint oil rose to my nose, I realized I sprinkled the wrong essential oil.  I am happy to say that my mistake did not dissuade me from proceeding with my bath. Instead, I managed to sit in the tube for 2-3 minutes before I started experiencing a cold shiver that seemed to be affecting the lower half of my body ( the part of my body that was fully submerged in the water) only.  As a result, I started to experience a menthol-like cooling effect and tingle feeling that felt like the ice baths I used to take as a college athlete after track meets! Needless to say, after realizing the good consequences of Peppermint oil to achy legs, I smiled and thought to myself,  I will not use those smelly creams to soothe my pain anymore, but  will apply natural remedies like peppermint oil to reduce joint inflammation!