Aa
Coping with Mint allergy/sensitivity
Am I the only one who reacts badly to anything mint? Cause I'm sure feeling lonely...
It wouldn't be so bad, except... Mint is EVERYWHERE! I have to order expensive toothpaste because the normal stuff stings like crazy and makes me nauseous. Cherry tastes like medicine. And I can only tollerate cinnamon in very small doses (like what's mixed in the sugar for cinnamon toast small). I have yet to discover a brand of mouthwash that does not contain mint in some form or other - or else the cinnamon kind makes first burns then makes my mouth go numb. Ditto for breath mint alternatives. (I can't even handle a Tic-Tac in my mouth for more than a few seconds, much less chew on it or swallow it.)
Face clensers with menthol stung, and also left my face feeling greasy. But not in the haven't washed my face often enough way.
I don't know how much money I've wasted on cough drops/throat lozenges, chapstick, lotions, etc, only to discover after application that, you got, there is mint of some sort in it.
And sadly, avoidance seems to have only made reactions worse. Just the smell of other people's mints (breath mints, candy mints, peppermint sticks) makes me feel ill. And the first time I consumed any in eight years, it was an accident, had half of a mint Brussells cookie, and a stomach ache for a good twenty minutes.
Anyone else here that *look* when you tell others you and mint don't get along? Care to share your symptoms? Your coping/mint alternatives?
Tiffany
It wouldn't be so bad, except... Mint is EVERYWHERE! I have to order expensive toothpaste because the normal stuff stings like crazy and makes me nauseous. Cherry tastes like medicine. And I can only tollerate cinnamon in very small doses (like what's mixed in the sugar for cinnamon toast small). I have yet to discover a brand of mouthwash that does not contain mint in some form or other - or else the cinnamon kind makes first burns then makes my mouth go numb. Ditto for breath mint alternatives. (I can't even handle a Tic-Tac in my mouth for more than a few seconds, much less chew on it or swallow it.)
Face clensers with menthol stung, and also left my face feeling greasy. But not in the haven't washed my face often enough way.
I don't know how much money I've wasted on cough drops/throat lozenges, chapstick, lotions, etc, only to discover after application that, you got, there is mint of some sort in it.
And sadly, avoidance seems to have only made reactions worse. Just the smell of other people's mints (breath mints, candy mints, peppermint sticks) makes me feel ill. And the first time I consumed any in eight years, it was an accident, had half of a mint Brussells cookie, and a stomach ache for a good twenty minutes.
Anyone else here that *look* when you tell others you and mint don't get along? Care to share your symptoms? Your coping/mint alternatives?
Tiffany
When ever I eat mint my right ear bleeds (I had a ruptured eardrum decades ago, don't know if it never heals or what) my throat swells, gets completely raw like when I had strep throat, my sinuses also bleed. My husband thinks I'm crazy, of course I'm not. I'm just wondering why this developed after 30+ years of not being allergic to mint. Peppermint is the worst, immediate reaction, spearmint (which I love) takes a little longer to cause a reaction. I'm wondering if (and I know this sounds strange) could it be that I have a germ of sorts that needs to be cured? The reason I ask is that sometimes when you cleanse there is a healing crisis due to the uck being flushed out of the body. I ask this only because as a child I had no reaction to mint...just wondering...any comments? Blessings to All :)
I'm not one to really get headaches, but being around mint I can feel it start bringing a headache on. At one point being closed up in a room with someone chewing mint gum I had to go home and go to sleep because it felt like the top half of my head was going to explode. I guess it must be something like a migraine. I've gotten to where I'm not really crazy about flying anymore, which I have to do periodically for work, and it's not because I'm afraid of flying. It's because there's no place to go when people are chewing mint gum on the plane.
For some reason people seem to think it's a joke and want to test it too because it's so unusual. So they purposely bring it around to see if I notice. I love those people. Can I take their diabetes meds from them, or their nitro pills? Wouldn't that be a hoot!
For some reason people seem to think it's a joke and want to test it too because it's so unusual. So they purposely bring it around to see if I notice. I love those people. Can I take their diabetes meds from them, or their nitro pills? Wouldn't that be a hoot!
I have not read all of these but I have found out that Mint bothered me, gave me rashes on my face when I make mojitoes and then I found out that Lavender was jacking me up bad... they are in the same family. I got rid of all my lavender products and I am fine now.
I am the as me as you. I cannot be around people who eat mints, chew gum or use cough lozenges and remedies that contain menthol. I am salycilate sensative but struggling for a diagnoses. I use fennel no fluoride toothpaste by kingfisher as it has no salycilates.
Wow,never heard of this before.
I am allergic to even very small amounts of mint, tree fruit (apples, pears, plums etc), root veggies (carrots, celery, onions etc), citrus, grains (rye, oats, barley) and dairy.
Will have to look this up, thanks!
I am allergic to even very small amounts of mint, tree fruit (apples, pears, plums etc), root veggies (carrots, celery, onions etc), citrus, grains (rye, oats, barley) and dairy.
Will have to look this up, thanks!
I am also allergic to mint. In my case I'm extremely sensitive to the most common types of spearmint found in most food/drinks/products. Peppermint and menthol do not affect me and I am fine with aspirin. Luckily as some of the other people who posted before I didn't realise I had an allergy for some time so I thought I just strongly disliked some minty products, until I realised the ones I didn't mind were actually peppermint or menthol and the ones I had nasty reactions to were all spearmint. I generally detect it right away, if not before consumption when there's a large amount because I can smell it. When I don't smell it, the taste makes me gag and I stop eating. As such I haven't had any violent reactions but I am making sure to stay away from it to avoid the symptoms getting worse.
Currently I get nausea, dizziness and feel faint as soon as I even inhale it through the nose, so I get the issue of transports with mint gum and having to politely ask co-workers not to consume it near me.
I have been able to find toothpaste without mint, check some homeopathic compatible pastes. I have successfully used Vademecum with no mint and at least one of the Sensodyne toothpastes. I have seen at other people's Cinnamon toothpaste and a rare salty toothpaste with sunflower seed. If you manage to get your hands on this one can help if your mint allergy has put you off using toothpastes because it breaks with the usually sweet/minty pattern and smell. I am still looking for it as the taste was way better than any I've tried so far.
I've met two other people with mint allergy and another with a similarly rare allergy so I've been aware of it for some time now, but originally it was also a problem for me to explain I really couldn't stand it. I still get the weird looks from people when I say I am allergic, one of my colleagues even thought I was 'trolling' him about chewing gum near me.
I realised it wasn't just dislike the day I was served a very nice soup which had a minute amount of mint in it: one leaf to flavour the whole pot. The taste was amazing and I couldn't taste or smell the mint at all, however after a few spoonfuls I started feeling faint and nauseous so I stopped eating. I was still quite young and people thought I was being fussy about eating vegetables, I tried to explain that I actually loved the taste of the soup but somehow knew I couldn't hold it down. In the end I said, "its as if you put mint in it" Obviously there was, and my family was so surprised I managed to detect it that they never questioned the intolerance/allergy again. I've had a few similar incidents since where very tiny amounts of spearmint won't go undetected by me even if nobody else can taste or smell it and was then verified to be present in traces or small percentage. As soon as I start feeling queasy and faint I know I'm in contact with it somehow.
I think it helps understanding that you're intolerant to it, sometimes it's a chemical, salycilate or linalol can be the culprits, and you might find yourself allergic to a bunch of plants from the same family, sometimes its a protein in the plant. I would guess I'm reacting to a protein which is present in spearmint but not in peppermint. I haven't tested any of the others but I eat food with many seasoning and so far I don't recall reacting this way to other herbs and spices, though by association I'm always wary of food that comes smells of anything that is a little "minty" like thyme in case it's hiding spearmint too haha
Mint kind of pops up when you least expect it, because its an uncommon allergy people just assume its fine to add it and you wouldn't always think about asking when you go out to eat because they'll put it on stuff like... oh hey lets decorate your guava juice with some mint! So now I'm more and more often finding that I have to ask in restaurants if there's any mint in the dish even just for looks.
Currently I get nausea, dizziness and feel faint as soon as I even inhale it through the nose, so I get the issue of transports with mint gum and having to politely ask co-workers not to consume it near me.
I have been able to find toothpaste without mint, check some homeopathic compatible pastes. I have successfully used Vademecum with no mint and at least one of the Sensodyne toothpastes. I have seen at other people's Cinnamon toothpaste and a rare salty toothpaste with sunflower seed. If you manage to get your hands on this one can help if your mint allergy has put you off using toothpastes because it breaks with the usually sweet/minty pattern and smell. I am still looking for it as the taste was way better than any I've tried so far.
I've met two other people with mint allergy and another with a similarly rare allergy so I've been aware of it for some time now, but originally it was also a problem for me to explain I really couldn't stand it. I still get the weird looks from people when I say I am allergic, one of my colleagues even thought I was 'trolling' him about chewing gum near me.
I realised it wasn't just dislike the day I was served a very nice soup which had a minute amount of mint in it: one leaf to flavour the whole pot. The taste was amazing and I couldn't taste or smell the mint at all, however after a few spoonfuls I started feeling faint and nauseous so I stopped eating. I was still quite young and people thought I was being fussy about eating vegetables, I tried to explain that I actually loved the taste of the soup but somehow knew I couldn't hold it down. In the end I said, "its as if you put mint in it" Obviously there was, and my family was so surprised I managed to detect it that they never questioned the intolerance/allergy again. I've had a few similar incidents since where very tiny amounts of spearmint won't go undetected by me even if nobody else can taste or smell it and was then verified to be present in traces or small percentage. As soon as I start feeling queasy and faint I know I'm in contact with it somehow.
I think it helps understanding that you're intolerant to it, sometimes it's a chemical, salycilate or linalol can be the culprits, and you might find yourself allergic to a bunch of plants from the same family, sometimes its a protein in the plant. I would guess I'm reacting to a protein which is present in spearmint but not in peppermint. I haven't tested any of the others but I eat food with many seasoning and so far I don't recall reacting this way to other herbs and spices, though by association I'm always wary of food that comes smells of anything that is a little "minty" like thyme in case it's hiding spearmint too haha
Mint kind of pops up when you least expect it, because its an uncommon allergy people just assume its fine to add it and you wouldn't always think about asking when you go out to eat because they'll put it on stuff like... oh hey lets decorate your guava juice with some mint! So now I'm more and more often finding that I have to ask in restaurants if there's any mint in the dish even just for looks.
Have an Answer?
You are reading content posted in the Allergy Community
Find out what causes asthma, and how to take control of your symptoms.
Find out if your city is a top "allergy capital."
Find out which foods you should watch out for.
If you’re one of the 35 million Americans who suffer from hay fever, read on for what plants are to blame, where to find them and how to get relief.
Allergist Dr. Lily Pien answers Medhelp users' most pressing allergy-related questions
When you start sniffling and sneezing, you know spring has sprung. Check out these four natural remedies to nix spring allergies.
