Ginger Health Benefits and Side Effects


Ginger is one of the most popular spices and herbal medicine in all over the world. For thousand years ago, ginger has been used to treat the common cold, flu-like symptoms, headaches, aid digestion and painful menstrual periods. Besides ginger can help reduce nausea, vomiting, relieve nausea in cancer patients who are having chemotherapy. It is also promoted for arthritis or joint and muscle pain. With me, ginger is one of my favorite spice and drink’s ingredients. I love cooking fish, chicken, beef with ginger and make some ginger drinks in cold days to keep me warm or reduce cold’s symptoms. Today I would love to share with you what I know about health benefits of ginger; side effects and how I use it in my daily life.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF GINGER:

Home remedy for cold and flu-like symptoms

Ginger is a great ideal for treating cold and flu-like symptoms. This spice can make your body warmer and reduce the cold symptoms. I always keep some fresh ginger in a fridge in case I got a cold suddenly. Ginger also gets on well with lemon, honey, and mint leaves. And here the way I usually make a ginger honey drink when I got a cold.
All you need is 2 gram of fresh ginger and honey. You can press or chop ginger into small pieces. But with me, I prefer pressing ginger more than cutting it into small pieces. By pressing ginger we can take more water and nutrient from ginger than cutting. After that, you can put pressed ginger or cut ginger into a cup with 1 or 2 tsp. of honey. Depend on your taste, you can put more or reduce the honey. Pour 150-200 ml of fresh boiling water over it. Wait for 5 -7 minutes you can enjoy your ginger honey tea.
Having 2 cups of ginger honey tea in a day can reduce the cold symptom and support the cold medicine. Besides, the ginger honey drink also can help to reduce muscle pain caused by exercises.

Natural remedies for muscle pain

Several types of research of the University of Georgia have found that daily ginger consumption can also reduce muscle pain caused by exercise. In a research, 30-40 volunteers consume 2 gram of raw ginger or heated ginger for 11 consecutive days. On the eight days of research, volunteers performed 18 extensions of the elbow flexors with heavy weight to induce moderate muscle injury to the arm. Three days after the exercise, doctors assessed prior volunteer’s arm functions, inflammation, pain and a biochemical involved in pain. The research found that ginger supplementation reduced the exercise-induced pain by 25 percent. Besides, the research also found that the heat-treating ginger like cooking ginger could not reduce the pain as the raw ginger. So that is a good new that you can use ginger as natural remedies for releasing the pain in exercise. You can eat or drink 2 gram of fresh ginger in 11 continuous days to reduce the pain in exercise.

Natural remedies for nausea and vomiting

Ginger has been used as a natural remedy for nausea and vomiting for a thousand years ago. This ginger’s health benefit has been proved in some recent clinical studies of using ginger to reduce nausea associated with pregnancy. According to these research, ginger has proved the help to reduce morning nausea if pregnant women use 1g daily of ginger in short period no longer than 4 days. If you want to use ginger as a home remedy for nausea and vomiting during your pregnancy, you should ask your doctor before taking it. Pregnant women do not take more than 1 gram of ginger per day.
A few studies also suggest that ginger reduces the severity and duration of nausea – but not vomiting during chemotherapy. However, there is some disagreement in published studies about the likelihood of this side effect. It is too early to say whether ginger really can reduce nausea during chemotherapy in cancer treatment. People who have cancer should talk to their doctors before taking ginger because ginger has the potential to interfere with blood clotting and prolong bleeding time.

Other applications

Ginger has a long history as an herbal remedy for upset stomach, motion sickness, and loss of appetite and as a pungent spice for cooking. In Asia, ginger has been used to help digestion and treat stomach upset, diarrhea, and nausea for more than 2,000 years. Ginger has also been used to help treat arthritis, colic, diarrhea, and heart conditions.

SIDE EFFECTS OF GINGER

Is ginger good to everybody? The answer is yes but if you use too much ginger it might cause mild heartburn, diarrhea, and irritation of the mouth. And here are some situation people should pay attention when using ginger.
      Don’t use ginger with children under 2-year-olds. Children over 2 may take ginger to treat nausea, stomach cramping, and headaches. But you should ask your doctor to help you find the right dose for the children.

–  Pregnant or breastfeeding women, people with heart conditions, cancer, diabetes, and gallstones should not take ginger without asking doctors.

–  Ginger may interfere with blood clotting and prolong bleeding time like Chamomile. There is a risk of serious bleeding if a person takes blood-thinning medications such as warfarin or medicine which can reduce the level of platelets (blood cells that help the blood to clot) or interfere with platelet function. So do not take ginger if you have the bleeding disorder or using blood-thinning medication and even aspirin. Make sure to tell your doctor if you are taking ginger before surgery or being placed under anesthesia for any reason.

HOW TO USE GINGER?

You can use fresh or dried ginger root in cooking and in preparing herbal remedies. Remember that a maximum amount of ginger adult can take is only 5 gram per day including food sources. And always ask your doctor to help you find the right dose for you.
·        If you use ginger for the treatment of nausea, you can use 250 milligrams to 1 gram of powdered ginger taken with liquid several times per day.
·        For pregnancy-induced vomiting, some studies have used 650 mg to 1 g per day. Pregnant women should not take more than 1g per day. Don’t take ginger without first talking to your doctor.
·        For arthritis pain: You can use 2 gram of ginger daily for 11 continuous days to reduce the pain.

With me, ginger is my favorite home remedy for cold and flu-like symptoms. One cup of ginger honey is not a bad choice to reduce the cold and support the cold medicine. Besides, you can combine ginger with the mint leaves, lemon and honey to make tasty and healthy drinks for cold days. In the coming posts, I will discuss more fresh ginger mint tea and how to mix ginger with other ingredients. 

REFERENCES

Medical news today, ‘‘What are the benefits of ginger?’’, medicalnewstoday.com, 11th September, 2013

Medical news today, ‘‘Daily ginger consumption found to ease muscle pain’’, medicalnewstoday.com, 20th May, 2010

American Cancer Society, ‘‘Ginger’’, Cancer.org, 15th May, 2010

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