Lemon balm spreads on its own. It came over with European colonists, grew in Jefferson's garden at Monticello, and now naturalizes across much of North America, usually in the part of the yard nobody planted.
It is also the subject of something unusual for a garden herb: a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in adults whose only complaint was heart palpitations.
That is worth stopping for, because palpitations are among the most common complaints of the menopause transition and among the least examined. A 2021 review in Women's Midlife Health put it plainly, that much less is known about palpitations than about hot flashes and night sweats.
The leaf's major phenolic is rosmarinic acid, the compound commercial extracts are standardized to.
In 2009, in Phytotherapy Research, a methanol extract of lemon balm leaf inhibited GABA transaminase in rat brain tissue, and rosmarinic acid was identified as the compound mainly responsible. Ursolic and oleanolic acids from the same leaf were active as well.
GABA transaminase is the enzyme that breaks GABA down. GABA is the brain's main inhibitory signal, the one that lowers the volume on everything else. Slow its removal and inhibitory tone rises.
The human trial ran in 2015 in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology. Seventy-one adults with benign palpitations took 500 milligrams of a freeze-dried water extract of the leaf, twice a day, for two weeks.
Counted episodes fell 36 percent. On placebo they fell 4.2 percent. Anxiety, sleep and mood scores improved alongside.
Name what that does not prove. The enzyme work is rat tissue in a dish, the episodes were self-counted over fourteen days, and no rhythm change was confirmed on an electrocardiogram.
Her side of it comes from a 2022 analysis of the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation, published in Menopause. Among 3,276 women, palpitation reports sorted into three patterns, and about half of the cohort sat in a trajectory that climbed through perimenopause and eased in late postmenopause.
Do This 30-Second Cherry Trick For Deep, Restful Sleep Every Night
Sarah rushed into the E.R. for granulated sugar.
Her swollen, inflamed hemorrhoids weren’t going away.
Recti-Care, Prep-H…
And in her words,
“Enough ice cubes to freeze hell over.”
All did nothing to eliminate her hemorrhoid pain.
After 7 days of flare ups…
And 5 days of non-stop pain…
Lauren needed relief, NOW.
But even after the Doctor applied a granulated sugar “Butt mask”…
(Yes, you read that correctly.)
Sarah was still in pain.
Thankfully, this mysterious “Virgin Mary Herb” breaks the cycle of chronic hemorrhoids.
In under 10 seconds every morning you can:
Kill pain
Stop bleeding
Accelerate healing
Without Prep-H, Sitz Baths or other ointments and creams.
The best part is…
As Sarah A. sent in,
“This is the only thing that worked AND kept working!”
If you or a loved one are suffering with itchy, bloody, inflamed hemorrhoids…
And you’re willing to take 10 seconds a day to fix it.
Then tap below
Those trajectories were not related to atherosclerosis or arterial stiffness.
Which puts this issue in an unusual position. In most issues the hormone's role in the problem can be named. Here estrogen appears in the timing and nowhere in the explanation.
The transition tells her when this happens and to whom. It has not yet told her what it is.
So the claim to carry to the grocery store is the small one the trial actually supports. Two weeks of a standardized leaf extract reduced how often adults noticed their own heartbeat.
Not that it corrects a rhythm. Not that it replaces the workup a new flutter deserves.
The Pantry Prescription
WHAT TO BUY:
Dried Melissa officinalis leaf, loose or in tea bags, for daily drinking. For the studied amount, capsules labeled lemon balm leaf extract, 500 milligrams each, standardized to rosmarinic acid. Skip anything labeled lemon balm flavor, and do not swallow lemon balm essential oil.
HOW MUCH:
500 milligrams twice a day, 1,000 milligrams total, which is what the trial used. The trial's form was a freeze-dried water extract of the leaf, and most labels do not print the herb-to-extract ratio, so capsule strength is not directly comparable between brands. Tea is one to two cups a day and is not the trial dose.
HOW OFTEN:
Daily. Two weeks is the full length of the only trial, so give it that long before deciding anything.
WHAT TO EXPECT:
In the trial, self-counted palpitation episodes dropped over fourteen days, along with anxiety and sleep scores. Some people notice mild drowsiness. Expect nothing visible and nothing measurable in the mirror, and treat it as a two-week trial of one variable rather than a fix.
WHAT IT COSTS:
About 5 to 15 dollars for 60 capsules at 500 milligrams, which is a month at the studied dose. Dried leaf for tea runs roughly 6 to 12 dollars for a month of daily cups.
WHO SHOULD ASK FIRST:
Anyone with new, worsening, or forceful palpitations, or palpitations with chest pain, breathlessness, or fainting, needs a clinician before an herb. Palpitations can come from an arrhythmia, thyroid disease, or anemia, and nothing here substitutes for ruling those out. Rosmarinic acid interferes with thyrotropin binding at the thyroid receptor in laboratory work, so anyone with thyroid disease or on thyroid medication should ask first. Ask also if you take sedatives or sleep medication, or have surgery with anesthesia coming, since lemon balm may add to sedation. There is no safety data in pregnancy or breastfeeding.
Griddled Flatbread with Lemon Balm Yogurt
Set a dry skillet over medium-high heat and griddle one ready flatbread or pita about one minute a side, until it puffs and shows dark spots.
Stack a large handful of fresh lemon balm leaves, roll them, slice them thin, and stir them into half a cup of thick Greek yogurt with the zest of half a lemon and a pinch of salt.
Spread the lemon balm yogurt on the warm flatbread, drizzle a teaspoon of olive oil over the top, and eat it hot. Fresh leaves here are flavor, not dose: the trial ran on one gram a day of a freeze-dried water extract in capsules, and no realistic amount of leaf on bread matches it.
