Ginger: Ancient Wisdom and Modern Pharmacology


Original Post Date: April 23, 2013 by Matt Van Benschoten

Ginger is a common spice that has powerful medicinal effects. The Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica describes ginger as treating chest fullness, cough, arthritis, and dysentery. Ginger is spicy and warm and helps to induce perspiration in the early stages of common cold or flu. Nausea, vomiting, and food poisoning are alleviated by taking ginger root as a tea or powder.
The modern scientific investigations of ginger bring us new information and new applications in clinical medicine.
Ginger reduces the toxic effects of acetaminophen and alcohol. Pain relieving and antiangiogenesis effects make ginger beneficial in inhibiting cancer growth, with specific effects for stomach, liver, pancreas and melanoma. Ginger enhances the effectiveness of Taxol chemotherapy, controls vomiting and protects the kidneys from Cisplatin chemotherapy. Ginger stimulates the bone marrow to increase GM-CSF and white blood cell counts.
Ginger is antibacterial and antifungal, inhibiting campylobacter, branhamella, E. coli, cholera, porphyromonas, prevotella, and salmonella, common infections of the lungs, digestive tract, and mouth. Ginger is antiparasitic helping to treat giardia.
Ginger has anticoagulant and antithrombosis effects, helping to prevent blood clots and heal bruises. Cough and fever are reduced through the antipyretic and antitussive effects.
Ginger has antianxiety effects, increases gastric acid, and improves bowel function. Ginger stabilizes blood sugar in hypoglycemia, and reduces hypomyelination in multiple sclerosis. Ginger inhibits the excitotoxicity of glutamate, helping to reduce brain inflammation. Ginger inhibits scar tissue formation.
Ginger lowers blood pressure and increases intestinal blood flow. Iron absorption is enhanced, and motor neurons are stimulated to regenerate. Ginger boosts Natural Killer cell function, fighting viral infections and cancer. Ginger has a sedative and hypnotic effect to help sleep disorders. Ginger improves sperm motility assisting male fertility.

Ginger inhibits TNF alpha, a proinflammatory molecule related to many autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Acupuncture in the 21st Century

Original Post Date: April 23, 2013 by Aydin Bengisu In the last 35 years acupuncture has come into its own as a viable, modern medicine for treating many ailments. The inner workings of acupuncture continue to be identified by standards set by Western medical research. Acupuncture theory states that the needles regulate the flow of energy circulation via 14 channels that course through the body. Anatomical studies reveal that 80% of acupuncture points lie along major blood vessels, lymph vessels, nerve pathways, and connective tissue planes that surround the internal organs. Acupuncture is effective for pain relief, post-surgery and chemotherapy-associated nausea and vomiting. The World Health Organization and National Institutes of Health recognize acupuncture as effective for many illnesses including addictions, respiratory, orthopedic, gastrointestinal, circulatory, immunological, gynecological, and neurological disorders. The number of acupuncture treatments depends on the
Read more

Doing a Food-Mood Journal: Cultivating Awareness

Original Post Date: April 23, 2013 by Jordan Hoffman Food is the first to hurt and the first to help. Fundamental to most everything I treat is how my patients care for themselves. In fact, the longer I am in clinical practice the more convinced I am that lifestyle will always offset even the best medical intervention. And what is often most within my patients’ control to change is how they choose to nourish their bodies. Unfortunately, there is so much conditioning and misinformation these days about food that a big part of my role in working with patients is to get back to basics and help them rediscover a deeper understanding and connection with their food. And the very first step in that process is doing a 7-day Food-Mood Journal to see where they are at with their choices and help them make connections between those choices and how they feel in their bodies. Here is how it works. For 7 days, you write down: • What you ate; • When you ate; • How you felt after you ate
Read more