Ginger: A Traveler's Aid

While studying herbal medicine, I noticed an interesting trend that is worth passing along: if a certain herb had a very important role in the kitchen of any ancient culture, look further. Usually, means that the herb has medicinal properties valid proof of the old town, centuries before modern medicine ever invented the concept of the research study. I think the ginger falls into that category. A favorite flavor in Asian cuisine, ginger has a strong record of more than 2500 years in medicine china. It is used mainly for gastrointestinal problems, se cree que help improve digestion, calm nausea and helps the expulsion of gases from the intestines (the perfect food additive, is not it?). In Western cultures, ginger tea remains a popular remedy for upset stomach and morning sickness.

Luckily for those of us skeptics not a hundred percent sure that two millennia of medical use is proof enough of a profit of grass, modern science has studied thoroughly enough ginger in at least one area-that of its use in preventing motion sickness.

Several recent studies have put ginger to the test in controlling nausea, some people experience when travelling in a vehicle moving or spinning. A study published in Lancet in 1982 gave the subjects either ginger or Dramamine before giving them a "walk" in a spinning, tilting chair. Those who took ginger experienced much less nausea than those who took Dramamine.

Another study from Denmark tested ginger versus placebo in subjects who then took to the open sea on a ship. Once again, ginger showed effectiveness in controlling nausea associated with motion sickness.

Personally I prefer the ginger because it lacks the side effects of drugs used for most modern motion sickness-a namely, fatigue, dry mouth, dizziness and palpitations. Whenever I used Dramamine, for example, I have a difficult time kept awake to enjoy the scenery I went to see in the first place.

Ginger capsules are usually contain about 500 milligrams of dried ginger rhizome and the recommended dosage is two capsules three times a day. Doses of up to 4 grams per day are considered acceptable. Try some the next time you travel!

A word about ginger and morning sickness: several sources, including the German Commission E Monograph, caution against the use of ginger to treat nausea in pregnancy. None of the sources gave what I thought was a valid reason for the recommendation. My guess is that nobody has enough tortured pregnant laboratory rats to make any recommendation one way or another on the safety of ginger during pregnancy. My personal advice would be to avoid high doses of capsules containing ginger and stick to a warm cup of ginger tea instead.