Lavender Tea: 6 Health Benefits, How to Make & Side Effects

Lavender tea can be consumed to reduce anxiety, combat headaches, improve sleep quality, relieve period cramps and boost immunity. This tea contains relaxing, analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties that can offer several health benefits. 

In addition, lavender tea also improves digestion and helps combat excess gas. It naturally contains linalool, an essential oil that has carminative, tonic and digestive action.

Lavender tea can be made with dried or fresh lavender flowers, or it can be made using tea bags. Both forms can be purchased in grocery stores, farmer's markets or natural health stores.

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Health benefits

Lavender tea can be used to:

1. Reduce anxiety

Lavender tea contains coumarin, linalool, β-oceminene and eucalyptol, which are bioactive compounds with relaxing and anxiolytic properties. This can therefore help to improve mood and general well-being, and help to reduce symptoms of anxiety and stress. Check-out other teas for anxiety that you can prepare at home to help manage mild symptoms.

2. Treat headaches

Lavender tea contains essential oils and types of alcohol with analgesic and relaxing effects, such as linalool and β-oceminene. Therefore, taking lavender tea can be a natural way to fight headaches and migraines, and reducing symptoms such as nausea, vomiting or sensitivity to light. 

Also recommended: 11 Teas for Headaches to Naturally Manage Pain tuasaude.com/en/teas-for-headaches

Although lavender tea can also be used to help reduce migraine symptoms, it should not be used to prevent flare-ups, because it may actually trigger a migraine.

3. Improve sleep quality

Lavender tea improves sleep quality and general well-being, and can help to combat insomnia due to its sedative, relaxing and anxiolytic properties. This can also help to reduce anxiety and agitation.

To combat insomnia and improve sleep quality, it is recommended to drink 1 cup of lavender tea before going to bed. Check-out other natural sleep aids you can use to help manage insomnia and promote optimal sleep quality.

4. Relieve period cramps

Lavender tea contains linalool, β-ocemene, which are essential oils with naturally analgesic and relaxing action. Therefore, lavender tea is a great home remedy to help relieve menstrual cramps.

5. Improve digestion

Because it contains linalool essential oil with carminative, tonic and digestive action, lavender tea can help improve digestion and combat excess intestinal gas. 

6. Boost immunity

Lavender tea strengthens the immune system because it contains eucalyptol, linalool and β-ocemene, which are anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial organic compounds that improve the action of immune system cells. Therefore lavender tea can be taken to help to fight infections such as the flu, allergies and colds.

Can lavender tea help you lose weight?

Lavender tea is a powerful sedative that reduces anxiety and, therefore, can complement the treatment of binge eating by controlling excessive food intake and promoting weight loss.

However, to lose weight effectively, it is also essential to maintain a healthy and balanced diet and to exercise regularly.

Check out the other health benefits of lavender and how it can be taken.

How to make lavender tea

Lavender tea can be made with fresh or dried lavender flowers.

Ingredients:

  • 1 teaspoon of dried lavender flowers
  • 1 teacup of water

How to prepare:

Boil the water in a pot or kettle. Then remove from heat, add the lavender flowers, cover the pot and let it infuse for 5 minutes. Strain and drink immediately. You can drink up to 3 cups of this tea per day.

Possible side effects

Lavender tea can cause drowsiness, constipation, headache, contact dermatitis, confusion and the presence of blood in the urine when consumed in excess or in people who are very sensitive to this plant.

Contraindications for use

Lavender tea should not be taken by children under 12 years of age. It is also not recommended for people with gastritis, gastric ulcers, pregnant women or women who are breastfeeding.

Because it can cause drowsiness, people who consume lavender tea should not drive or operate heavy machinery.

Lavender tea should also not be taken together with medications or substances that depress the central nervous system, such as alcoholic beverages, drugs or hypnotic and anxiolytic medications, for example.