| Disease | A STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF SPEARMINT ON LES FUNCTION, ACID REFLUX AND SYMPTOMS. IN HEALTHY VOLUNTEERS, A DENT SLEEVE AND A PH ELECTRODE WERE PLACED IN THE DISTAL OESOPHAGUS. THEY WERE THEN GIVEN SPEARMINT EITHER IN A FLAVOURING (0.5 MG), OR A
HIGH (500 MG) DOSE, OR A PLACEBO, USING A DOUBLE-BLIND RANDOMIZED CROSSOVER DESIGN. LES PRESSURE, OESOPHAGEAL PH AND SYMPTOMS WERE RECORDED FOR 30 MIN BEFORE AND AFTER ADMINISTRATION. LES PRESSURE WAS NOT AFFECTED BY SPEARMINT, EITHER HIGH DOSE
(19.6 VS. 16.0 MMGH), FLAVOURING DOSE (20.2 VS. 19.8 MMHG) OR PLACEBO (20.5 VS. 19.2 MMHG, ALL N.S.). THERE WERE NO DIFFERENCES IN REFLUX OCCURRENCE FOLLOWING HIGH DOSE (MEAN = 0.65 VS. 0.85 EPISODES), LOW DOSE (0.4 VS. 0.5 EPISODES) OR PLACEBO
(0.7 VS. 1.10 EPISODES, ALL N.S.). THERE WAS A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN MEAN SYMPTOM SCORES FOLLOWING HIGH-DOSE SPEARMINT (0 VS. 0.35 . P = 0.03). BUT NOT LOW DOSE (0 VS. 0.2) OR PLACEBO (0 VS. 0.5. BOTH N.S.). |