COFFEE FOR A HEADACHE
Headaches have a complicated rela-
tionship with caffeine. If your body is
used to getting a lot of this stimulant
and suddenly finds the amount lack-
ing, you could get withdrawal-related
head pain or a migraine. Even just
sleeping in and skipping the morning
fix can trigger problems for some cof-
fee addicts. However, trials have shown
that a moderate amount of caffeine—
perhaps around 130 milligrams, the
equivalent of a large cup of coffee—
can enhance the headache-tempering
effects of over-the-counter painkillers
such as Tylenol or Aspirin. That is
why you can buy headache-specific
versions of these drugs with caffeine
added to them.GERMAN CAMOMILE
FOR ANXIETY
A member of the daisy family and a
very popular tea, German camomile(Matricaria recutita) is tradition-
ally held to be a calming herb—and
so far, preliminary trials have
borne that out. In a trial that took
place between 2010 and 2015 and
was supported in part by the U.S.
National Institutes of Health, 179
people with generalized anxiety
disorder started off on three daily
500-milligram German-camomile-
extract capsules. Those who
responded to it (about half of them)
either continued with this regimen
for 26 weeks or were switched to an
identical-looking placebo, and the first
group maintained lower anxiety symp-
toms. “The results supported the
promising effects of camomile,” says
Dr. Jun J. Mao, an integrative-medicine
specialist and a trial co-investigator.
Someday, he’d like to see what would
happen in a larger trial, but “Doing
herbal research is very challenging, as
there is little funding.”
German camomile is safe for most
people. That said, some are allergic to
it, and it might interact with blood
thinners like warfarin (raising the risk
of serious bleeding), birth control pills
or diabetes medications.PEPPERMINT OIL
FOR IRRITABLE BOWEL
SYNDROME (IBS)
There are all kinds of IBS treatments,
from special diets to antidiarrheal med-
ications, but there’s also a lot of varia-
tion in how sufferers respond to them.reader’s digest
84 september 2019