Bloating & gas

Fennel, German chamomile, peppermint and sweet basil belong in the European tradition to the 'wind-breaking' species — they were given after a meal, and their role was to calm a cramp rather than to remove gas. The catalogue holds fifteen of them under this topic.

The old advice tends to be phrased as a ritual: slowly, warm, after eating. The part about slowly is probably more effective than the plant in the cup.

Bloating is most often a functional complaint: eating speed, the amount of air swallowed, the composition of the diet and the bowel's sensitivity to stretching. The documented approaches aim there — eating pace, regularity, adjusting triggers, a guided diet in irritable bowel.

Beware one common shortcut: peppermint oil in an enteric-coated capsule and peppermint tea are not the same thing. Studies are done with the first, the second is what is drunk at home, and the result cannot be carried from one to the other.

Bloating with weight loss, blood in the stool, anaemia or a lasting change in bowel habit needs an examination, not tea — especially if the complaints began after fifty.

Have a persistent feeling of fullness and a swollen belly that does not ease for weeks assessed separately; in women it is a symptom not to be overlooked. And sudden severe pain with bloating and no wind passing belongs straight in emergency care.