If you’ve been around Joyous Health for any amount of time, then you know I love to celebrate the amazing medicines gifted to use by Mama Earth! I’ve written about the benefits of lavender, ginger, cinnamon, tea tree, turmeric, comfrey root, reishi, and so many more! Today I want to dig into one of my favourite herbs: lemon balm! It’s so versatile and can be used topically or internally for incredible health and beauty benefits.
While it’s most well known for helping to soothe stress and anxiety, this herb does so much more! Below I’ll cover everything you need to know about this incredible herb including what it is and its seven powerful health and beauty benefits.
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What is Lemon Balm?
Lemon balm, or Melissa officianalis, comes from the same family as mint but has a distinct lemony scent. While it can easily grow around the world, it is native to West Asia, North Africa and Europe. It can be used as both a culinary and medicinal herb. Traditionally, it has been used in herbal medicine since the Middle Ages as a nervine tonic that helps to reduce anxiety and improve mood. It has powerful antioxidant and antimicrobial properties from a phytonutrient called rosmarinic acid, which we’ll look into in more detail below.
Lemon balm is a great herb to cultivate in your yard since it grows so abundantly and is quite easy to take care of. I suggest growing it in a pot as opposed to a garden bed since, much like mint, it can start to grow out of control and quickly take over your garden!
7 Amazing Health Benefits of Lemon Balm
1. Helps relieve stress
One of the most powerful benefits of lemon balm is that it helps alleviate stress. This benefit can have a tremendous impact on digestive health and function. Your brain is intimately linked to your digestive system, so when you’re feeling stressed out or nervous it can cause discomfort and even nausea. This herb is a great option if you find you get tummy aches or lose your appetite due to stress. I love to sip on a cuppa my favourite TLC Tea to help calm my nervous system.
2. Can help reduce symptoms of anxiety
Symptoms of anxiety include excitability and nervousness, neither of which help promote joyous health. This study found that enjoying lemon balm regularly helped to reduce symptoms of anxiety so you can feel happy, calm and joyous! These anxiety-reducing benefits are why it’s one of the main herbs in our calming cuppa TLC Tea.
3. Can help improve sleep quality
One of my pillars of joyous health is to regularly get deep, restorative sleep. I’ve talked about some of my favourite tips to improve sleep here and here. Lemon balm has also made my list of herbal remedies to improve sleep thanks to researchers who found that when combined with valerian it improved sleep quality by 70 to 80%! I know I’ve already mentioned it, but unwinding at the end of a busy day with a calming cuppa TLC Tea can help you drift off to dreamland since it’s combined with other calming and sleep-promoting herbs such as chamomile, lavender, and passionflower.
4. May help support cognitive function
You’ve likely noticed a trend in the health benefits of lemon balm so far–it works great to nourish the nervous system to reduce stress, anxiety, and improve sleep. These interesting results demonstrated that participants who ingested lemon balm performed better on a series of cognitive tests and showed increased alertness. While more research is needed to prove these benefits, there’s no harm in incorporating lemon balm into your daily routine if you need a little extra brain support!
5. Can help relieve indigestion and nausea
You’re likely familiar with the digestive benefits of mint, but did you know that lemon balm can offer similar benefits, especially for indigestion? As I mentioned above, it can help reduce stress and anxiety, both of which have great benefits on digestive health. However, this study also found that eating a dessert made with lemon balm helped reduce symptoms of indigestion.
Lemon balm may also help relieve nausea especially when used in conjunction with other herbs like ginger or mint.
To enjoy these benefits try cooking with this flavourful and fragrant herb or sip on a cup of tea after a big meal to support your digestive health.
6. Can help reduce skin swelling and irritation
You might be surprised to learn that this fresh, rejuvenating herb is not just for tea drinkers! Lemon balm acts as an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory agent for the skin. It can help reduce swelling and skin irritation. It supports skin health because it’s so rich in flavonoids and rosmarinic acid, both of which act as antioxidants for the skin to reduce fine lines and wrinkles.
These incredible skin-soothing benefits are why lemon balm is one of the main ingredients in our Magical Mist Toner. Not only does it smell incredible when you spritz it on your face, it feels so refreshing! The benefits truly are magical!
7. Has antibacterial properties
Lemon balm has also demonstrated antibacterial properties. When applied to the skin, the compounds in lemon balm can help cleanse the pores and may even reduce the appearance of blackheads. The rosmarinic acid can also help balance oily skin. These combined benefits can make lemon balm an effective addition to skincare products used to treat acne or breakouts, especially when used as a nourishing toner. Each spritz of our Magical Mist infuses your skin with healing vitamins and antioxidants, while also creating the perfect surface to apply a nourishing and moisturizing serum.
You can learn more about functional herbal ingredients for skincare here and here.
I hope this post has inspired you to start enjoying the incredible flavour, health and beauty benefits of lemon balm into your routine. Whether you want to sip up the benefits in a calming cuppa tea or support a healthy glow with the most amazing Magical Mist, Hello Joyous has you covered with totally clean, organic products infused with this healing herb to make it as easy as can be!
Xo Joy
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