I was the goalkeeper for my junior high soccer team. After a dynamic save, I took a soccer cleat to my forehead at strike force. The catastrophic hit stole 72 hours of my life. I don’t remember the hospital. I don’t remember going home. I didn’t recognize my family. I had a grade 4 concussion and a traumatic brain injury.  My body eventually healed, but my brain took years to follow.

 

My neurologist prescribed Adderall, and it got me through the rest of junior high and most of freshman year. I hated depending on it, but it worked, that was until COVID hit, and the nationwide shortage made it impossible to get. Suddenly, I had nothing, and though I doubled down on my studies and graduated with honors, my recall was sluggish at best. I stayed mentally exhausted, staying up day and night to keep up with my peers. There were no real answers to the problem, even fewer solutions, and college was harder than anything I’d faced before.

 

Anatomy and Physiology were destroying me. I knew the material. I could explain it out loud perfectly. But the moment I sat down for an exam, everything disappeared. I’d also lost my previous ADA accommodation because of insurance issues. My coverage lapsed because I aged out, my college didn’t offer medical services, and it was going to cost hundreds out of pocket for one Dr’s visit. No medication, no support, grades that showed it.

A friend mentioned peppermint or lemon essential oil. I thought it sounded ridiculous, but I tried it anyway because I was out of options.

 

I went from failing to A’s.

So, I needed to understand why, because I’m a woman of science, and “just trust the vibes” has never been enough for me.

 

Here’s what I discovered: smell is the only sense with a direct pathway to the hippocampus and amygdala. The parts of your brain that handle memory and emotion. Every other sense gets routed through a relay station first. Smell skips it entirely. That’s why a scent can drag you into a memory more vividly than any photo can. It’s not sentimental, it’s how your brain is wired.

 

For peppermint specifically, research has shown real improvements in alertness and long-term memory performance. Rosemary has been linked to prospective memory, the kind that helps you remember to take action to do something, not just know it. Lemon reduces anxiety, which matters because stress alone can tank your recall, no matter how well you studied.

 

My setup wasn’t complicated. I diffused peppermint oil through an Ionic mister on my desk while I studied. During exams, I used a roller ball blend on my wrists, subtle enough that nobody around me noticed, but I could smell it. The idea is your brain starts linking that scent to focused studying, so when you smell it during the test, you’re pulling yourself back into the same mental state. That’s called state-dependent memory, and it’s documented science, not wellness influencer content.

 

I want to be honest about what this is and isn’t. Essential oils didn’t heal my TBI. The research is still growing, and results vary person to person. The neurological mechanism is real, the studies are there, and the barrier to trying a $12 to $20 bottle of peppermint oil is low enough that I believe it’s worth knowing about.

 

About Eden.

Eden Daniel, has her BS in exercise and sports science from Bryan College, NSCA tactical certification, and is a graduate student in athletic training at MTSU. She is the first student in Bryan College history to compete in multiple research projects during her undergraduate degree and was recently invited to Fort Bragg as a sponsored guest at The Valkyrie Project symposium regarding her current research on tactical training for female operators. She was the founding member and President of Phi Epsilon Kappa Iota Eta chapter Exercise Science honor society for the last 3 years. Eden is a member of a competition tactical shooting team, sponsored fitness athlete of Spinto Fitness where she runs races and participates in Hyrox and Crossfit workouts and is active in numerous charities. She and her Boston Terrier Lovey reside in Murfreesboro.