Health News
2007-02-21
Spearmint tea may
curb abnormal hair growth
Drinking two cups
of spearmint tea each day may help women with excessive
hair growth, reports a Turkish study. Hirsutism in wome
Drinking two cups
of spearmint tea each day may help women with excessive
hair growth, reports a Turkish study. Hirsutism in women is
caused by too many “masculinizing”
androgen hormones; the result is hair growth on the
face, breasts, and stomach.
In a study at
Suleyman Demirel University, researchers made a cup of
spearmint tea by pouring one cup of boiling water over one
heaping teaspoon of dried spearmint and allowing it to
steep for five to 10 minutes. Twenty-one female
volunteers with hirsutism drank the tea twice a day
for five days of their menstrual cycle, reported the BBC.
Results showed a
significant decrease in active testosterone in the blood
and an increase of several female hormones, including the
reproductive follicle-stimulating hormone.
Researchers
suggest that spearmint may affect the metabolism of hormones
such as testosterone or directly affect the production of
androgen hormones.
"Current
therapies [for hirsutism] use either oral contraceptives to
suppress androgen production, or medications such as
spironolactone that prevent the body responding to
androgen,” said lead researcher Mehmet Numan
Tamer in a statement. “But this study shows that
spearmint could be a good natural alternative for
women who have mild symptoms. We now need to do
further studies to test the reliability of this
finding.”
Tamer and
associates decided to study the effects of spearmint on
hirsutism after previous reports showed extracts of the
spearmint plant reduces libido in men, possibly as a
result of lower androgen levels. (The Advocate)
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