Welcome to the Herbal First Aid Kit series! Here, we’ll talk about different herbs and how they can help you in a first aid setting. All the herbs I mention in this series can be found in my Herbal First Aid Kit. Today we’re going to talk about peppermint and comfrey
Peppermint
I think one of the most popular herbs of all time is peppermint because it grows like crazy. If you’ve ever grown it, it’s almost hard to get rid of peppermint but it’s so tasty and fun to use. Even peppermint candy, most of them contain real peppermint oil. So, even if you need to use a candy in a time of emergency if someone’s sick, that is always a really good thing to do.
I had one of my sons once feel really sick after eating at a restaurant. We found out later he got food poisoning and my husband got food poisoning, but they had peppermint candies on the way out and we grabbed some and it really helped ease the nausea that he was feeling. So, not that I’m really a big fan of peppermint candy, there’s not a lot of good things in that, but in times of need, go to the candy.
A lot of people don’t know that peppermint is really good for IBS. If you have ever heard of irritable bowel syndrome, you can take peppermint. Drinking the peppermint tea is amazing.
I have had a lot of people do this technique that Doctor Christopher recommends to get rid of asthma. Peppermint can help with asthma. My husband had asthma and I gave him a lot of peppermint tea. He used to use inhalers all the time and had really bad asthma. One night we just had the whole evening so I gave him tons of this peppermint tea. He was so sick of it, I gave him eight or nine glasses of it. It was really strong peppermint tea. And then I had him take lobelia and that actually causes you to vomit. And he actually vomited up all this black mucus-y stuff and he never had to use his inhaler after that. He still has asthma attacks but he doesn’t have to use his inhaler.
It’s really good for respiratory illness. We all know if you breathe in peppermint it just clears your sinuses.
Peppermint is so good at calming the system down. It’s really good if you get a child or someone with a high fever and you want to help their body get rid of the toxins inside them. I like to put people in a really hot bath if they have a fever. You want to help their system sweat and get rid of the toxins, but still stay calm and not get nauseated from that heat. You can do that with some peppermint tea. I prefer to do it with a little bit of yarrow tea or something to really increase that fever but the peppermint will be really calming to them.
We also know it’s good for things like gas. If you eat beans and have an issue like that, drinking peppermint tea usually stops that.
Peppermint also increases memory. Isn’t that fun? If a child is taking a test of something, it can help them think clearer. So it’s a really good thing for just helping them focus. It’s also really good if they have attention issues and need to calm down. I have one little guy that runs around like crazy. Those of you who know Tayton, you know his energy. We use peppermint a lot. He carries a rolled bottle in his pockets because he knows he goes a little crazy and peppermint is one of his go-to smells.
It increases alertness. It helps with bad breath, tooth pain. I’ve used it with children. A lot of times you can use clove essential oil for toothache but kids don’t love that. It kind of burns. So, try peppermint. Have them chew on a peppermint leaf or put a little drop of peppermint in their mouth. It may burn for a second but they can really handle it.
It’s also really good for hives, rash, poison ivy, poison oak, things like that. It’s one of the reasons it’s in my first aid kit, because if you’re out in the woods poison oak, poison ivy, itches, rash are really common with a lot of people. So I use it with the lavender and put it on the areas that are burning. This won’t hurt a burn. It actually counteracts the pain and the itch that you’re feeling and can help calm that down.
I also use peppermint for babies. I would never use peppermint straight for a child. I always make sure it’s diluted in some type of oil. I prefer jojoba oil or coconut oil or almond oil, anything like that. That’s the best way to use it for kids, is to make sure it’s really diluted. If it’s in a roller bottle, I usually keep it six drops or less in the roller for children and then, like I said, it’s good for fever and allergies and things like that.
Comfrey
Most people in the herbal world know about comfrey. There are some mixed feelings though. If you don’t feel comfortable using it internally you can just use it externally.
Comfrey is good for most wound healing. Back in the day if there was a finger that got cut off in multiple different parts and they put the different parts in a bowl with water and some comfrey and those parts came back together and be whole.
I know of a woman who was drugged from her car in a car accident and her hand was dragging on the ground sliding across the asphalt and it took off most of her hand. And they kept the hand in comfrey and she was able to regrow all of her fingers.
It’s a miracle worker, but you have to use it right.
A lady I worked with was going to need a hip replacement and we did a ton of comfrey fermentation right on her hip where you keep the comfrey and the water and keep that soaked with heat. She did that for two months and two months later she went back to the doctor and didn’t have any more problems with her hip.
Comfrey does prevent and reverse infections. It’s my favorite thing for burns. If you have a bad burn, you can mix comfrey powder with raw honey and wheat germ oil and you can blend that and that is a really powerful way to heal any burns.
It’s good for poison ivy, boils. I got a staph infection in Samoa and it was just a powerful way to help get rid of the sores that I was dealing with. If you get sore muscles from hiking too much or something like that or you get blisters on your feet, you can go ahead and just put it on.
Conclusion
That’s how to use peppermint and comfrey in a first aid setting. If you would like to have these herbs in your first aid kit, go ahead and head over to our store and look for our Herbal First Aid Kit! It’s a great way to care for you and your friends and family in a first aid setting in a holistic and natural way.
