Ginger is a perennial plant that grows in India, China, Mexico, and several other countries. The underground stem is used. Ginger has been used in Ayurveda medicine for the treatment of inflammation and rheumatism. Buy Ginger supplement here. Ginger is now found in a diet pill product called Diet Rx that has hoodia.

Ginger and osteoarthritis
A highly purified and standardized ginger extract had a statistically significant effect on reducing symptoms of osteoarthritis of the knee. This effect was moderate. There was a good safety profile, with mostly mild GI adverse events in the ginger extract group.

Ginger as a blood thinner
Gingerols, the active components of ginger (the rhizome of Zingiber officinale, Roscoe), represent a potential new class of platelet activation inhibitors. Administration of 50 gm of fat to 30 healthy adult volunteers decreased fibrinolytic activity from a mean of 64 to 52 units. Supplementation of 5 gm of ginger powder with fatty meal not only prevented the fall in fibrinolytic activity but actually increased it significantly. This fibrinolytic enhancing property is a further addition to the therapeutic potential of ginger.

Ginger and pregnancy
Ginger is effective for relieving the severity of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy. Using ginger to quell morning sickness does not appear to raise the risk of birth defects. Ginger appears to help pregnant women who suffer from morning sickness, without side effects to the unborn child, according to a review of medical literature. In six studies that examined the effects of ginger in reducing nausea and vomiting in expecting mothers, ginger worked better than a placebo, or inactive drug, and as well as Vitamin B6, which has been shown to improve nausea and vomiting in some pregnant women. None of the women who took ginger had problems with their pregnancies, the authors report in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Ginger antioxidant
Ginger (Z. officinale; 1% w/w) significantly lowered lipid peroxidation by maintaining the activities of the antioxidant enzymes--superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase in rats. The blood glutathione content was significantly increased in ginger fed rats. Similar effects were also observed after natural antioxidant ascorbic acid (100 mg/kg, body wt) treatment. The results indicate that ginger is comparatively as effective as ascorbic acid as an antioxidant. Mangosteen is an herb that has xanthones and is a potent antioxidant..

Ginger studies
Effect of a ginger extract on pregnancy-induced nausea: a randomised controlled trial.
Willetts KE. University of New South Wales, Royal Hospital for Women, Randwick, New South Wales, Australia.
To investigate the effect of a ginger extract (EV.EXT35) on the symptoms of morning sickness. DESIGN: Double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial.  The participants included 120 women less than 20 weeks pregnant, who had experienced morning sickness daily for at least a week and had had no relief of symptoms through dietary changes. Random allocation of 125 mg ginger extract (EV.EXT35; equivalent to 1.5 g of dried ginger) or placebo given four times per day for 4 days.  The nausea experience score was significantly less for the ginger extract group relative to the placebo group after the first day of treatment and this difference was present for each treatment day. Retching was also reduced by the ginger extract although to a lesser extent. No significant effect was observed on vomiting. Follow-up of the pregnancies revealed normal ranges of birthweight, gestational age, Apgar scores and frequencies of congenital abnormalities when the study group infants were compared to the general population of infants born at the Royal Hospital for Women for the year 1999-2000. Ginger can be considered as a useful treatment option for women suffering from morning sickness.

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