Ginger for Nausea from Chemo

Here’s another example of a clinical study proving the effectiveness of one of grandma’s remedies. It’s important that such studies are done, as they may also disprove the benefits of a possibly expensive placebo.

The nausea associated with chemotherapy is experienced by about 70% of patients having this form of treatment; it’s often a major problem, and can last for a longtime. It’s therefore a good model to test the anti-nausea effects of medicines, and, in this case, an herbal ‘medicine’. The study is summarized by Reuters, based on a presentation at American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.

The design was a double-blind (neither the patients nor the doctors knew who was taking which treatment), placebo-controlled study in 644 cancer patients who were scheduled to have at least 3 chemotherapy sessions. They were divided into 4 groups, according to the contents of the anti-nausea treatment capsules they took: placebo, 0.5 grams ginger, 1 gram ginger, and 1.5 grams ginger. Capsules were taken once a day for 6 days, starting 3 days before the chemo cycle. Nausea was reported, using a score of 1-7, 4 times a day. Everyone on the study was also given anti-vomiting drugs, such as Zofran® or Novaban®.

The lower two doses of ginger scored nausea at 1 or 2, while the placebo was associated with scoring at the 4 or 5 level. The high dose of ginger did not have such a good result. Corresponding to grannie’s recipe, the lower doses were equivalent to ¼ to ½ teaspoonful of fresh or dry ginger added to food or a drink. But, more would be too much! As I said before, it’s refreshing to find a home remedy that actually works well in a fairly rigid experimental design.