Menthol allows me to breathe freely
Just about wherever I am, there is distinct smell that arrives with me.
It’s not the odor of cigarettes, booze or even Aqua Velva. What enters the room with me is the smell of menthol.
I grew up a fat kid, so I was programmed from birth to chew on things. After pacifiers, it was toys of all shapes and sizes. I chewed the appendages off more Star Wars action figures than I care to count. In school it was pencils and pens. You should have seen my mouthpieces in football. I chewed them to pieces.
If I didn’t have something in my mouth, I found myself clenching my jaw and grinding my teeth, habits which also bring any number of side effects.
Once I entered the workforce, I turned my molars on gum, but gnawing on that gave me headaches. From there I dabbled in paper clips, but the silver coating flaked and went down my throat, which I reasoned would not be good for the long term health of my innards.
I next ventured to the dark side with smokeless tobacco, but it’s expensive and pretty gross, especially in an office. I was able to kick my dip habit by using tobacco-free pouches and held onto those for a while to keep my mouth busy.
Then one night when as I was going to the gym, my nose was ridiculously clogged up, so I grabbed a handful of cough drops. They not only served to open my sinuses but they also kept my oral fixation placated.
But the next day my nose wasn’t particularly clogged, so their wasn’t a real reason for the cough drops. But I took them anyway and they opened my nose up fabulously. I tend to always have sinus problems, so breathing through my nose is generally a challenge anyway. I found the menthol in the cough drops allowed me to breath through my nose easier, which was a big bonus when working out.
It didn’t take long for me to have a variety of flavors of cough drops in my gym bag. I have one in my mouth through the entirety of my workouts. I know that gym regulars can probably smell them and I wonder if they think I have a perpetually sore throat.
This habit also bled over to me keeping bags of cough drops in my desk at work. I have one in my mouth nearly all day. It keeps my jaw busy and serves to open my sinuses, which as it turns out, is also a nice bonus at work.
At one point I did get concerned that cough drops, or more specifically the menthol within them, could have some type of negative impact on my health. After a little bit of research I found that there is such a thing as menthol poisoning, but you would need to ingest hundreds, if not thousands, of cough drops to get to that level.
More damaging can be all of the sugar contained in cough drops. Many lozenges contain as much sugar as hard candy which can add calories to your diet and damage teeth. Because of this I try to purchase sugar-free cough drops when I can.
For now, the benefits of allowing me to breath freely through my nose outweigh any of the negative impacts of the drops. I’m really quite addicted to the ability to breath easier throughout the day.
I suppose I could give up cough drops some day, but I fear I would have to smear my neck with vapor rub for the sake of my breathing. I don’t think anybody wants that.
-Chad Williamson is the managing editor at the Journal-Tribune.