Health Benefits of Dill

Dill is an annual plant used for centuries both as in cooking and as a medicinal herb. Native to the Mediterranean, southern Russia, and Scandinavia, today dill is cultivated throughout America, Europe, and Asia. You may have had your first experience with dill’s pleasant taste in cooking or pickled vegetables. Nowadays the seeds and leaves are used for cooking, but people are rediscovering the medicinal properties of the ancient herb. The health benefits of dill are worth exploring.

Relieves Gas

If you tend to be gassy or have flatulence, you’ll be delighted to know that dill is a carminative, an ingredient that can dissolve gas and keep it moving through the intestines. So, if you deal with excessive gas, eating dill will reduce your discomfort without medications.

Prevents Diarrhea

Dill has two properties that make it effective in preventing diarrhea. The herb promotes healthy digestion and motility; at the same time, it contains monoterpenes and flavonoids that inhibit bacterial growth and cause diarrhea. Eating dill as an everyday part of your diet will help keep you regular.

Aids Indigestion

If you get indigestion frequently, you might want to add dill to your dinner. Dill promotes healthy digestion by prompting the stomach to secrete digestive fluids and the liver to produce bile. The essential oils in dill stimulate the intestines into peristaltic action, which helps relieve constipation.

Reduces Menstrual Cramps

If you deal with menstrual cramps every month, you may have your relief right in your pantry. Dill has been shown to reduce menstrual cramps; students at Khon Kaen University in Thailand tried various herbal remedies and dill showed great promise in relieving this sometimes debilitating symptom of menstruation.

Helps You Get a Good Night’s Sleep

If you have insomnia, dill may help you sleep. The flavonoids and B vitamins in the herb act as relaxants, and eating dill or drinking it in a tea has calming effects. You might just reach for dill instead of over-the-counter sleep aids the next time you can’t get to sleep.

Ends Hiccups

Hiccups can be frustrating and embarrassing, even if we all get them from time to time. Knowing that dill can stop hiccups is helpful. When gas gets trapped in your esophagus, those carminative properties of dill dissolve that gas and get it moving through your system. Reach for dill instead of the other folk remedies next time you have hiccups.

Helps Manage Diabetes

Diabetes is a serious condition that occurs when the body doesn’t make enough insulin to process the sugar in the bloodstream. Although there have not been many studies done with dill and diabetes, it appears dill may be able to promote healthier insulin levels as well as serum lipid levels in the body.

Reduces Arthritis Pain

People have taken advantage of dill’s ability to treat arthritis since ancient times. The herb has anti-inflammatory properties that help reduce inflammation in joints to relieve pain and stiffness. It can treat gout, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoarthritis. Eating dill or drinking dill tea every day will help with these symptoms.

Freshens Your Breath

Everyone loves to have fresh breath, and dill can make that happen. Because dill has antibacterial and germicidal properties, chewing dill or rinsing your mouth with a dill tea will keep your bacteria at bay, leaving your breath fresh and your mouth clean. It can also prevent gum decay.

Helps Depression

Dill has a therapeutic effect on depression, according to the American Journal of Therapeutics. It acts as both an antidepressant and an analgesic, stimulating the production of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine, and other hormones. Dill extracts behave a lot like prescription depression medications, without side effects.