A cuppa what cures ya

Back in the early spring, I started drinking spearmint tea because I’d seen an article on some website about mint tea making you need to shave your legs less. Given that I’m a trifle, mmmm, how to say it delicately, gorilla like? A hairy Mary? Fuzzy wuzzy? Okay. Let’s go with fuzzy wuzzy. That at least sounds kinda cute. Which it ain’t. But it sounds better. Anyhoo. Back on track. I was down like a circus clown for anything that could get me off that hairy-go-round.

So, I went out and bought a giant box of mint tea, and started drinking 2 very strong cups a day. I did not notice any change in the leg situation. Sigh. But what I did notice was another change, that I hadn’t even hoped to ask for.

I’ve had near constant neck pain for almost 10 years. Sometimes better. Sometimes worse. But there about 75% of the time. I’d always assumed it was bad posture and a latent WASPy gene that gave me the tendency to ruthlessly suppress my emotions and carry all stress in the neck and back resulting in tension headaches. But the pain had started to diminish within days of starting the tea. And after about 2 weeks, I’d say I had about a 95% reduction in my symptoms. Not what I’d asked for, but good none-the-less.

So I went and did some research. I found a little information on using mint oil topically. But nothing on mint tea for pain. Absolutely nothing. Not even one of the whackadoodle hippie freak herbal medicine sites. So, of course, I thought it was just some sort of weird coincidence. And when my supply of tea ran out, I didn’t replenish. It wasn’t doing what I’d thought it would and it’s not one of my favorite flavors, so I was just as happy to stop.

About 2 weeks later, my neck is so bad that I’m scared if I turned my head too fast I was going to go into a spasm. I didn’t put it together. High pollution, hotter than hell on a Saturday night, lack of sleep, sleeping funny. I came up with any number of reasons . . . hey, wait a minute. Didn’t I . . .? So I started up the tea again. And again within 2 days, I’m feeling better. And within 2 weeks my neck is as loose as a goose. Go figure.

So, I’m just going to give in. It makes no logical sense. There’s not one study to back me up. Not even a witch doctor herbal remedy. It shouldn’t work. But it does. I’m just going to let that be good enough for me. I guess I'm just lucky it wasn’t something weird like spider leg tea.