Fresh ginger and dried ginger both have strong health benefits, but the flavor of tea made with dried ginger may be milder. To make tea with fresh ginger root, you need to boil two glasses of water with a one-inch piece of dry ginger, reducing the amount to one glass and drinking it. According to Dr. Radhamony and Shah, the best way to consume ginger is in a tea made with fresh root or powdered ginger using a tea bag.
It can also be consumed after meals to improve digestion. Ginger won't necessarily provide you with immediate pain relief, but studies show that it can improve pain and stiffness over time for conditions such as osteoarthritis. Recent studies focus on the effects of applying ginger oil topically for relief from pain associated with osteoarthritis. Other studies have looked at the effects of ginger supplementation before exercise on muscle damage and late-onset muscle pain.
Ginger extract has anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects in rats with ethionine-induced hepatoma, and it has been found to be effective in preventing post-operative nausea and vomiting after major gynecological surgery. It has also been evaluated for its effects on fetal and neonatal outcomes in the children of women who had been treated with dry ginger during pregnancy. When taken along with medicines that lower blood pressure, ginger can cause blood pressure to drop too low. It has been compared to vitamin B6 in the treatment of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, and it has been found to reduce delayed gastric emptying and nosocomial pneumonia in adult patients hospitalized in an intensive care unit.
Ginger does not affect the ex vivo production of platelet thromboxane in humans, and it has an anti-emetic effect when compared to placebo as an adjunctive treatment in children and young adults receiving chemotherapy with high levels of emetogenesis. Ginger ale's carbonation can calm an upset stomach, but ginger itself has the ability to ease an upset stomach as well. It does not affect the amount of cyclosporine the body absorbs when taken at the same time, and inhaled ginger aromatherapy has been found to reduce chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and improve health-related quality of life in women with breast cancer. Finally, studies have looked at the effects of ginger root processed to obtain particles of different sizes on growth, antioxidant status, and serum metabolites of broilers.