Cara Care & Buscomint: Why we’re partnering with a peppermint oil herbal medicinal product

We’ve always believed that IBS treatment should be holistic, including nutrition, mental and physical therapy, and/or medicine. This isn’t just our belief—it’s what NICE guidelines recommend.

Our premium IBS program, Cara Care for IBS—now CE-certified as a medical device and available to you in the U.K.—incorporates many approaches, from audio-guided hypnosis, to weekly diet guidance.

Our holistic approach is why we’re excited to announce a new partnership with Buscomint (product full name: Buscomint Peppermint Oil 0.2ml Gastro-resistant capsule, soft), an herbal medicinal product from the pharmaceutical company Aventis Pharma Limited (trading as Sanofi). It’s now available at pharmacies in the U.K.

Get your extra free week of the Cara Care IBS program HERE.

Will the Cara Care app change?

You will have the optional ability to track taking Buscomint in the app. If you track Buscomint, you’ll see a survey that asks you about your experience of combining a digital therapy with Buscomint. Only this tracking and survey data will be shared with Sanofi. We may also share aggregated, anonymized data with Sanofi.

You might ask: why would a health app partner with a pharmaceutical company?

We understand that these sorts of partnerships can sometimes produce skepticism, so we wanted to explain directly to you—Cara Care users—why we think this is an exciting opportunity for us, for you, and for the future of IBS treatment in general.

1. Peppermint oil offers clear benefits for people with IBS

We would never partner with a product offering pseudoscientific benefits. We checked the facts: the benefits of peppermint oil are clear.

Buscomint contains a 100% natural ingredient: peppermint oil which is a natural antispasmodic. The guidelines for irritable bowel syndrome that doctors follow recommend that antispasmodic therapy be used (1). Peppermint oil is recommended well as several antispasmodics (1). Studies have shown the benefits of peppermint oil in relieving pain, cramps, and bloating (2).

Buscomint (product full name: Buscomint Peppermint Oil 0.2ml Gastro-resistant capsule, soft), should be taken until symptoms resolve, usually within one or two weeks. Please seek medical advice after 2 weeks in case of persistent or deteriorating symptoms.

Get your extra free week of the Cara Care IBS program HERE.

2. We don’t get money from this partnership.

The benefit to Cara Care is the ability to promote Cara Care to a wider audience of people, and to promote the combination of digital and traditional therapies for IBS management with a trusted partner.

3. What happens with your data

If you track Buscomint in the app or take a Buscomint survey, this data will be shared with Sanofi. We may also share aggregated, anonymized data from the app with Sanofi. We are based in Germany, are GDPR compliant, and use sophisticated data privacy protocols.

For more on your data, read our privacy policy here.

4. Our business model is not based on selling you pharmaceutical drugs.

So what is our business model then? Well, we’ll tell you!

Our business model in Europe is for our app to be prescribable, holistic IBS treatment that is reimbursed by health insurances. We’re already on our way to doing this in Germany.

Our business model in the U.S. is for our app to be offered by companies as an employee health benefit.

5. The content and recommendations on our app and website will not be influenced or reviewed by our business partners.

You won’t, for example, get recommendations to buy a certain drug from us. We strive to be factually-accurate and unbiased in all of our content and features. If a business partner is involved in any particular feature, we will clearly label it.

Get your extra free week of the Cara Care IBS program HERE.

We’d be very grateful for your feedback, especially if you decide to try out Buscomint. Send us your opinions, feelings, random thoughts (really, we’d love to hear from you): hello@cara.care or on Twitter.

*Buscomint Peppermint oil 0.2ml gastro-resistant capsules. For the symptomatic relief of abdominal pain, abdominal cramps and flatulence in IBS. Always read the label.

MAT-GB-2002336 (v1.0) September 2020