We’ve all experienced unrelenting nausea at some point or another. At these times, you’re first instinct may be to turn to over the counter medications; however, Ginger works as a simple, effective natural antidote.
For thousands of years, Arabic, Indian, and Asian healers prized Ginger as a food and medicine. This tropical plant, which is in the same botanical family as turmeric and cardamom, was effectively used to relieve nausea and vomiting caused by illness and seasickness.
Thanks to the spice trade, the tradition caught on in Europe. As one sixteenth-century physician put it: “Ginger does good for a bad stomach.” In The Family Herbal from 1814, English physician Robert Thornton noted that “two or three full cups for breakfast” will relieve “dyspepsia due to hard drinking.”
Modern research later confirmed that Ginger reduces nausea and vomiting from multiple causes: morning sickness, postoperative upset, chemotherapy treatments, and motion sickness.
The studies on whether or not Ginger prevents motion sickness are mixed. One study found Ginger to be as effective, with fewer side effects, as dimenhydrinate (Dramamine). Other studies indicate that, when added to antinausea medications, it further reduces nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy.
While the best-researched use of Ginger is in combating nausea and vomiting, studies have shown that Ginger is a multi-faceted remedy with at least six more healing effects:
It reduces pain and inflammation, making it valuable in managing arthritis, headaches, and menstrual cramps.
It has a warming effect and stimulates circulation.
It inhibits rhinovirus, which can cause the common cold.
It inhibits such bacteria as Salmonella, which cause diarrhoea, and protozoa, such as Trichomonas.
In the intestinal tract, it reduces gas and painful spasms.
It may prevent stomach ulcers caused by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin and ibuprofen.
You can take Ginger in whatever form appeals to you.
If you suffer from travel-related nausea, bring some Ginger candy along on your next trip. Ginger has been proven to be more effective in treating travel sickness than Dramamine!
In a rather politically incorrect experiment, some nasty scientists fed dogs copper sulfate and found that Ginger extracts stopped the profuse vomiting that would have normally attended the dogs' being poisoned. This may not have been good news to the dogs who needed to throw up the poison in order not to die, but it is for people who are suffering from less serious intestinal distress.
Ginger also has been found to increase gastric juice secretion and the production of hypochlorite. This means that food is digested more quickly, creating an unfriendly environment for bacteria that otherwise could send you to the toilet for a week or more. Along these lines, chemicals in Ginger have been proven to knock out the sort of bacteria that cause 'Delhi belly' and 'Montezuma's revenge'. One of the classic treatments for bacterial dysentery in the tropics is Ginger, and people there are well advised to use this cheap and effective cure.
The key to Ginger's use in cases of intestinal flu due to bacteria, and indeed in cases of food poisoning, may lie in its high content of volatile oil. The root may contain as much as three percent volatile oil, which is a lot for a plant. When you make Ginger tea, you will even see oil floating on the top of the water in which you boiled the root. Volatile oils have a powerful bacteria-killing capacity, and it seems probable that as the volatile oil floats down the digestive tract, it kills bacteria along the way.
When you are sick because some alien creature has moved into your guts,Ginger is the perfect cure. First, it will kill the invader, and second, it will soothe the nerves that are causing the indescribably horrible sensation know as nausea.
One of the phenomena that people who work in the health business are seeing lately is flu, both intestinal and respiratory, that last a really long time with periodic flare-ups. If you are using Ginger to treat an intestinal flu, keep right on using it even after you have lost all flu symptoms, say a week or more. This may ensure that the flu won't come back.
Typical illnesses treated with Ginger include bacterial dysentery, cholera, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, chills, cramps, and lack of appetite. If you have intestinal flu, you probably have all the above-mentioned symptoms; the good news is that you can get rid of them and maybe even their cause with a cupful of Ginger tea.
Side Effects of Pure Ginger?
These seem to be minimal!
Some consumer reports have suggested that Ginger can cause nausea and stomach-upset rather than prevent it, but these do seem to be rare cases.
Since ginger is an anti-inflammatory, people on any blood-thinning medications should perhaps approach the spice with caution to ensure it doesn’t interfere with their condition, although studies on this are not by any means conclusive. If you have any doubts at all, please do consult your doctor.
More medical information on Ginger can be found here.
I hope you found this information useful.
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