Ginger Root Eased Nausea in Study of Chemotherapy Patients
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By Elizabeth Lopatto
May 15 (Bloomberg) -- Ginger, long used as a folk remedy for nausea, reduced by 40 percent the sick feeling experienced by cancer patients taking chemotherapy, a study found.
Patients who took ginger, as well as an anti-nausea drug, reported improvement in symptoms on the first day after chemotherapy, compared with patients who got the drug and a placebo, according to data released yesterday ahead of the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Quelling nausea is important because about 70 percent of chemotherapy patients experience it, even when they take anti- vomiting drugs, said Julie Ryan, the study’s lead author and assistant professor at University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York. Yesterday’s study, the largest of its kind, may help determine the best dose for those who want to supplement drugs with ginger.
“All of these home remedies that involved ginger for nausea probably were the right thing to do,” said Douglas Blayney, president-elect of the cancer organization and a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Michigan. The research found the most effective dose of ginger was about one gram, or a half-teaspoon.
“If one cookie or two cookies, or ginger ale, contained the daily dose of ginger, that could feasibly work,” Ryan said in a conference call. “Theoretically, it should work.”
Canada Dry Ginger Ale contains ginger, said Greg Artkop, a spokesman for the maker, Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc., of Plano, Texas. The company won’t disclose the amount, he said.
Morning Sickness Remedy
The root, native to Southeast Asia, has been shown in other studies to reduce morning sickness in expectant mothers and is used as a spice in foods, including cookies, tea, soups and candy. It’s been used in Asian medicine since the 1500s for nausea and is a folk remedy for ailments from alcohol withdrawal to ulcers, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Ginger may hinder blood clotting, and shouldn’t be used by chemotherapy patients without consulting their doctors, according to the American Cancer Society.
Over 600 patients in the study were asked to rate their nausea in the morning, afternoon, evening and night for the first four days after a chemotherapy cycle. All amounts of ginger doses in the study reduced nausea, though 0.5 gram and 1 gram were most effective, the study said. The research was led by Gary R. Morrow, an oncologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
