Ginger has been a favorite remedy of Chinese medicine practitioners for centuries, Ginger’s medicinal uses are as widespread as its culinary value. Many people find ginger as a relief for nausea and upset stomachs. It’s used as an aid for digestion and cough suppressant. Stuides have attributed gingerol, one of ginger’s volatile oils with antimicrobial qualities.Ginger can act as a food preservative and kill the bacteria salmonella. Ginger has also been shown to possible reduce arthritic pain, but only recently has been studied as a pain reliever because of potential anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties.
In one study, four to 36 weeks of daily raw or heat-treated ginger doses (30 to 500 mg.) achieved reductions in knee pain from osteoarthritis.
In another study, researchers from the University of Georgia and Georgia College and State University examined the efficacy of multiple days of ginger doses for relieving experimentally induced muscle pain from 18 eccentric muscle exercises. Seventy-four students were divided in three groups given either raw ginger, heated ginger or placebo. For the study, student volunteers were tested on 11 consecutive days while taking ginger supplements.The authors hypothesized that pain ratings after exercise would be lower in the ginger group compared to placebo subjects.
Results from the subjects’ responses data showed that both raw and heat-treated ginger lowered muscle pain intensity after eccentric exercise by 25 and 23 percent, respectively. Heat treating ginger, therefore, did not increase the analgesic benefit.