Ginger: more than a tea for colds

Your nose is running. You stand in the kitchen, grate a root into hot water, and the sharp steam rises into your eyes. For many people, that smells like childhood.

In the chilled aisle, small bottles of ginger shots glow on the shelf. The label says something about the immune system. Videos claim the root lowers blood pressure, blood sugar and belly fat.

Many people know this ritual. And the question behind it: what of this is study, what is experience, what is advertising? That is exactly what I sort out here, along with the question of when a pungent root stops being harmless.

Gingerol, shogaol and what heat does to the root

Freshly grated ginger burns differently from the powder in the jar. Brighter, lemony, almost piercing. The powder tastes deeper and warmer. Is that just flavour?

Above all, it is chemistry. The rootstock, the rhizome, contains pungent phenols, first and foremost gingerols and shogaols. Picture fresh root and powder like grape and raisin: same origin, different chemistry.

You may know this pattern from turmeric. There too, little of the free active compound reaches the blood. How big this hurdle is, I explain in Curcumin and the question of absorption.

And now you know why the same spice tastes different in tea than from the jar, and why no statement about effects follows from that yet.

Well-established or traditional: what the medicines regulators say

A pack says: traditionally used. Does that mean it does nothing?

The answer is in the EU monograph of the HMPC, the Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products at the European Medicines Agency. The revised version for ginger was adopted on 7 May 2025. It separates two categories.

The monograph lists five areas as traditional uses: relief of motion sickness, mild cramp-like gastrointestinal complaints with bloating, temporary loss of appetite, mild joint pain and, since the revision, relief of cold symptoms. It also names limits. If gastrointestinal complaints or loss of appetite last longer than two weeks, joint complaints longer than four weeks, or cold symptoms longer than one week, this needs medical assessment.

One detail is surprising. Even for motion sickness, the HMPC in its assessment report rates the quality of the studies and the clinical relevance of the results as low, measured against today's requirements. By its own account, the classification as well-established remains for reasons of regulatory consistency.

And there is the German predecessor. Commission E at the former Federal Health Office assessed ginger in 1988, with corrections in 1990. According to Commission E, the indications are dyspeptic complaints and the prevention of motion sickness symptoms. According to consistent secondary sources, ginger should be avoided for pregnancy nausea, and used for gallstone disease only after consulting a doctor. The original text was not accessible, hence this caveat.

And now you know why tea for colds is a tradition and motion sickness is a question for studies.

Ginger for nausea: pregnancy, surgery, chemotherapy, travel

Your stomach is turning, and someone hands you a ginger sweet. Does that do anything?

Nausea is the field in which ginger has been studied most often. A large overview of 24 systematic reviews by Crichton and colleagues found the strongest evidence for the effect against nausea in pregnant women, with a large effect and a high GRADE rating. But depending on the occasion, the picture looks different.

In pregnancy

Cochrane is more cautious. The review by Matthews and colleagues of 41 trials with 5449 women calls the evidence for ginger limited and not consistent, but stresses: for no remedy against early pregnancy nausea is there high-quality evidence, and that does not mean the remedies are ineffective.

On safety there is a large observational study. In the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort, 1,020 of 68,522 women reported having used ginger during pregnancy. No increased risk of malformations, stillbirth, preterm birth, low birth weight or a low Apgar score was found (Heitmann 2013). The Embryotox counselling centre at Charité writes that ginger can be taken at usual doses in all phases of pregnancy.

Both are true at the same time. For mild nausea, ginger is a comparatively well studied option. Concentrated shots and high-dose preparations are something else. Severe nausea belongs in medical treatment, and there are tested medications for it in pregnancy. Before any ginger preparation and before using ginger specifically against nausea, talk to your gynaecologist, ideally also to your midwife, and do not replace prescribed anti-nausea medication with ginger.

After surgery

A meta-analysis by Lu and colleagues with 14 randomised trials and 1,506 patients found lower nausea scores with ginger 2, 6 and 12 hours after surgery. Outside the recovery room, vomiting and the need for anti-nausea medication did not differ.

A network meta-analysis by Zhao and colleagues with 2199 participants painted a different picture. Ginger oil had the highest probability of reducing vomiting (RR 0.39; 95% CI 0.16 to 0.96). For the occurrence of nausea, no ginger variant showed statistical superiority over placebo, although nausea intensity and the need for anti-nausea medication were lower with ginger powder and ginger oil. Honest label: mixed.

During chemotherapy

A meta-analysis by Crichton and colleagues found a signal on nausea and vomiting only for acute vomiting, namely in a subgroup with no more than 1 g of ginger per day for more than three days (study data): in three trials with 301 participants it was less frequent with ginger (OR 0.4; 95% CI 0.17 to 0.81). For nausea, overall vomiting, delayed vomiting and other outcomes related to nausea and vomiting, no significant association was found.

A review by Burg and colleagues of 24 studies with 2409 people with cancer describes inconsistent results, and two studies even found disadvantages. That is why you should raise ginger openly with your oncology team.

When travelling

And the only well-established EU use? The studies are old and small. In Lien and colleagues, ginger reduced artificially induced motion sickness, gastric rhythm disturbances and the hormone vasopressin in 13 volunteers. In Stewart and colleagues, ginger did not protect 28 volunteers in a rotating chair, whereas scopolamine did. The monograph gives 1 to 2 g for adults one hour before the start of travel Monograph figure, not a recommendation.

And now you know why the same root is named as an option in pregnancy and at the same time comes with a note of caution.

Pain in numbers: period pain, joints and migraine

The hot water bottle is already on your belly. Can a root do more?

Period pain

Here there are surprisingly many studies. A meta-analysis by Moshfeghinia and colleagues found lower pain intensity compared with placebo (SMD -1.13; 95% CI -1.59 to -0.68) and a shorter pain duration (SMD -0.29). Compared with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, NSAIDs for short, and with exercise, there was no difference. Heterogeneity was high (I² 81.05%), and safety data were rare. And no difference from NSAIDs is not proof of equivalence.

For PMS there is one small double-blind study with 70 women: symptoms differed significantly in favour of ginger, and the team itself phrases its conclusion with a maybe. More in Understanding PMS. No study I found showed that ginger can bring on a period.

Osteoarthritis

Assessments differ. Araya-Quintanilla and colleagues consider the evidence for ingested ginger in knee osteoarthritis insufficient. The umbrella review by Crichton rates the effect as small, with high GRADE certainty. The EU monograph lists mild joint pain only as a traditional use.

Botanically, turmeric also belongs to the ginger family, more on that in Turmeric and inflammation. Frankincense is associated with a different inflammatory pathway, more on that in Frankincense for joints and gut.

Migraine

With the head, the data become thinnest. The most recent assessment by Atkins and colleagues covers eight randomised trials with 594 people. Their conclusion: it is currently too uncertain whether ginger is effective as acute treatment or for prevention.

As an add-on to a painkiller, in one study with 60 people they see possibly little to no difference after two hours. As an add-on to preventive medication, two studies with 183 people showed a possibly meaningful reduction in pain after three months. Both with low certainty of evidence. They rate the comparison with a triptan without a placebo group as very uncertain. In a study by Martins and colleagues with 107 people, ginger alone over three months brought no greater preventive benefit than placebo.

None of this is a reason to leave out a triptan, a painkiller or prescribed migraine prophylaxis. Sudden, worst-ever headache or new neurological deficits need immediate medical assessment.

And now you know why ginger has the most studies for period pain, the calmest finding for the knee and the greatest uncertainty for the head.

Stomach and digestion: emptying faster, but not always feeling better

After a meal, everything sits in your belly like a stone, and someone recommends ginger tea.

Picture the stomach as a kneading machine with an outlet valve. Its lower part, the antrum, kneads the food pulp and pushes it on portion by portion. Exactly this movement was measured with ginger.

This fits the EU monograph, which lists mild cramp-like gastrointestinal complaints with bloating and temporary loss of appetite as traditional uses, and Commission E with dyspeptic complaints. Relief of these complaints is not clinically established by this.

The same monograph also lists the common side effects: stomach discomfort, belching, indigestion, heartburn and nausea. That is not a contradiction, but the same property seen from two sides.

Through the lifestyle lens: a spice does not make up for hasty eating, constant stress or lack of sleep.

If fullness, early satiety or upper abdominal pain have been with you for weeks, it is worth looking for the cause before the next home remedy. What may lie behind functional dyspepsia and when delayed gastric emptying comes into question, I describe separately. If you are prone to heartburn, notice whether ginger makes it worse, more in Understanding heartburn. Unintended weight loss, difficulty swallowing, vomiting blood or black stools need immediate medical assessment.

And the microbiome? In a placebo-controlled study with healthy young adults, ginger powder changed individual aspects of bacterial composition. What that means is covered in Medicinal plants and the gut.

And now you know why ginger can push digestion along for some people and cause heartburn in others.

Blood sugar, blood lipids, blood pressure, weight and liver: reading small numbers correctly

A short video says: ginger lowers blood sugar, blood pressure and belly fat. The numbers behind this exist. They just tell a quieter story.

Blood sugar. In type 2 diabetes, a meta-analysis by Chen and colleagues of 13 papers found lower values for fasting glucose (MD -16.27 mg/dl) and HbA1c (MD -0.41%), with very high heterogeneity. The authors themselves rate the magnitude as of limited clinical relevance. A second meta-analysis by Schumacher and colleagues of five randomised trials found no significant effect on fasting glucose and HbA1c. Honestly summarised: contradictory, small at most.

Blood lipids. A meta-analysis by Salih and colleagues found lower values for total cholesterol (SMD -0.44) and triglycerides (SMD -0.61). LDL and HDL did not change significantly. That is no substitute for prescribed lipid-lowering therapy.

Weight. A meta-analysis by Rafieipour and colleagues of 27 randomised trials with 1309 participants found a pooled weight difference of -1.52 kg (95% CI -2.37 to -0.66). Certainty of evidence was low for body weight and very low for waist circumference and BMI. That is a study figure, not a goal. Weight depends on many building blocks, see Understanding weight holistically.

Liver. In fatty liver, liver enzymes fell with ginger in a study by Ghoreishi and colleagues with 76 people with type 2 diabetes, but also with placebo. The Fibroscan measurements of liver fat did not change significantly. According to the US database LiverTox, no liver damage was reported in more than 100 clinical trials with ginger, although few of these trials specifically monitored liver values. A single case report from Japan describes acute liver injury with jaundice under a product said to contain ginger, whose composition was not analysed. These data offer nothing to support a detox promise. What matters for the liver is covered in Liver detox: what counts and what is marketing.

Ginger can be part of a diet; it is not a counterweight to lack of exercise or lack of sleep. If you take blood pressure medication, diabetes medication or lipid-lowering drugs, do not change them because of these numbers, and discuss larger amounts of ginger as a preparation beforehand.

And now you know why the phrase proven to lower in such videos promises more than the meta-analyses deliver.

Colds, ginger shots, mental health and hormones: where tradition, hype and studies part ways

The tea is steaming, your nose is running. It feels as if it is doing something.

Colds and the immune system

Since the 2025 revision, the EU monograph lists the relief of cold symptoms as a traditional use. So: long experience, no study evidence. A targeted PubMed search for clinical studies on ginger for colds, carried out during the research for this article, returned not a single hit. Tradition

What remains is plausible and human: warmth, fluids, steam and the ritual of taking care of yourself. That is a conjecture, not a measured result. How the notion of immune boosting can be put into context, using cold exposure as an example, is covered in Cold, the immune system and hormesis.

Compresses and footbaths: the anthroposophic lens

In anthroposophic and integrative nursing, ginger compresses and ginger footbaths have a firm place, for example for respiratory infections or for falling asleep. That is clinical tradition, and remarkably, researchers from precisely this setting have critically tested their own applications.

In a crossover study by Vagedes and colleagues, 18 healthy young adults received chest compresses with mustard, with ginger or with warm water only on the upper back. Mustard and ginger both produced a sensation of warmth, but the skin became measurably warmer only with mustard. An effect on infections was not studied.

In a randomised study by Kuderer and colleagues, 28 people with long-standing sleep problems took an evening footbath for two weeks, in warm water alone or with 80 g of ginger powder. Both groups slept better over time. The ginger brought no additional effect on sleep, only more sensation of warmth in the feet, which is why the authors tend to recommend warm water alone for this group.

Ginger shots

60 millilitres, sharp as a wake-up call, and the word immune system on the label. Two German consumer advice centres have looked at what is inside.

For the teeth, the issue is less the ginger than the combination of acid, sugar and daily repetition. According to a review by Saads Carvalho and Lussi, frequent consumption of fruit juices is significantly associated with more erosive tooth wear, and swishing drinks around in the mouth tends to promote erosion. No study on ginger shots themselves was found, including none on yellow teeth.

For a sensitive stomach, the consumer advice centre suggests drinking only a little at a time and adjusting the pungency. In pregnancy, the Danish risk assessment views concentrated shots critically, and on anticoagulants a daily shot belongs in a conversation with your doctor.

And the shot for weight loss? A sugary juice is not a weight loss tool, and the study figures on weight cannot be transferred to shop-bought shots. The parallel to juice cleanses is obvious, more on that in Juice cleanses under critical review. What role fructose plays in metabolism is covered in Sugar, fructose and the liver. If you like shots, read the ingredients list and the sugar content.

Mental health, sleep and hormones

On mental health and sleep, the story is quickly told. In a placebo-controlled study by Crichton and colleagues with 51 healthy adults aged 18 to 30, 14 days of ginger powder changed neither mood nor quality of life. No robust study on ginger alone for depression or anxiety was found, and none on ingested ginger and sleep. If you sleep badly after ginger in the evening, pungency or heartburn could play a role, as a conjecture without a study. For persistent sleep problems or low mood, a medical assessment is the better path than a spice. If thoughts of not wanting to live anymore come up, get help immediately: Telefonseelsorge 0800 111 0 111 or 0800 111 0 222, around the clock and free of charge, and in acute danger the emergency number 112. These are German numbers; outside Germany, please use your local crisis line and emergency number. Plant-based options for sleep: Valerian and passionflower.

With hormones, precision pays off. A review by Banihani summarises studies in which ginger increased testosterone production in males, especially under oxidative stress, mostly in animal experiments. According to the author, this has not yet been confirmed in humans. The EU monograph, too, describes higher testosterone levels only in male rats. Animal What over-the-counter preparations can do for testosterone is covered in Testosterone boosters and the evidence.

And now you know why the most famous use of ginger is the least researched, and why a shop-bought shot is mostly juice.

Plant-based does not mean harmless: safety, interactions and who should be careful

It's only a spice, isn't it?

In the kitchen, that is exactly what ginger is for most people. The US database LiverTox lists it as GRAS, short for generally recognized as safe. But as soon as the spice becomes a capsule, an extract or a daily shot, the question changes.

Common side effects

The EU monograph lists stomach discomfort, belching, indigestion, heartburn and nausea as common, meaning in at least 1 in 100 and fewer than 1 in 10 people treated. Hypersensitivity reactions are possible, their frequency is unknown. In the pregnancy trials, heartburn did not occur significantly more often with ginger than with placebo. In the osteoarthritis trials, by contrast, people taking ginger dropped out more than twice as often.

Anticoagulants

With anticoagulants, open means caution, not all clear. The study by Jiang and colleagues does not represent people on long-term therapy, other anticoagulants or with pre-existing conditions. The study by Shalansky and colleagues relies on self-report and cannot establish causation, and excessive INR values there were only associated with taking warfarin for less than three months. What follows is a direction, not a ban: if you take anticoagulants or antiplatelet drugs, discuss capsules, extracts and daily shots with the prescribing practice. Whether kitchen amounts already make a difference has not been studied. Never change the anticoagulant itself on your own.

Before surgery

A German summary of product characteristics advises stopping a ginger medicine because of an increased bleeding tendency when surgery is planned. A review by Hatfield and colleagues considers the data on bleeding risk contradictory and names discontinuing non-essential dietary supplements two weeks before surgery as best practice. What this means for you: mention ginger preparations and daily shots in the consultation before any planned operation, and plan the approach together with the surgical and anaesthesia team.

Gallstones

According to Commission E and a German summary of product characteristics, ginger medicines should only be used for gallstone disease after consulting a doctor. No clinical study on this was found. The warning follows the precautionary principle and, according to secondary sources, the bile-stimulating property that Commission E attributes to ginger. Whether this should be assessed differently without a gallbladder, data are lacking. That belongs in a conversation with your doctor.

Diabetes and blood pressure medication

No study was found on interactions with glucose-lowering medication or blood pressure medication. The small effects on blood sugar and blood pressure in meta-analyses are nonetheless a reason to discuss larger amounts as a preparation beforehand, especially when the medication is finely adjusted. Hypoglycaemia caused by ginger is not established. And this is expressly not a guide to changing anything about your medication.

Pregnancy, breastfeeding and children

On pregnancy, both sides are set out in the section on nausea. For breastfeeding, the EU monograph does not recommend ginger medicines, whereas Embryotox writes that ginger appears to be acceptable during breastfeeding. For children and adolescents under 18, the monograph generally does not recommend ginger medicines. Only for the traditional use in motion sickness is the limit 6 years. In pregnancy and breastfeeding and for children, the rule is therefore: discuss preparations with a doctor beforehand, and in pregnancy and breastfeeding ideally also with your midwife.

And how much?

No universally valid daily amount can be derived from the studies. The umbrella review by Crichton and colleagues reports amounts of 0.5 to 3 g per day in capsule form for up to three months consistently across the included studies, with great heterogeneity between studies and poorly described preparations Study figure, not a recommendation. Ginger as a spice in food is different from an extract, a capsule or a daily shot. If you take medication, are pregnant or have pre-existing conditions, the amount belongs in a conversation with your doctor.

Three directions instead of a recipe

• Enjoy ginger as a spice and as a tea, without burdening it with therapeutic expectations. Warmth, flavour and ritual are allowed to simply feel good.
• For mild nausea, period pain or joint pain, ginger can be one building block. The question of the cause still matters, especially if symptoms are severe or persist.
• Raise preparations and shots openly if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, take anticoagulants, diabetes or blood pressure medication, have gallstones or have an operation ahead of you.

Whether dietary supplements make sense at all, I describe in principle in Dietary supplements and homeostasis. And because the term comes up often: ginger is deliberately not called an adaptogen here. What this term means and what it does not, I explain in Adaptogens explained.

In the end, this is not about a root. It is about a kind of freedom: enjoying home remedies without expecting more of them than they can deliver, and without putting off important things because of them.

If you'd like to do more than read and get started right away: below this article you will find the option to book an appointment.

And now you know why, with ginger, I don't ask whether it is good or bad, but in what form, in what amount and for whom.

Frequently asked questions about ginger

Where ginger connects to other topics

Ginger rarely stands alone. It touches the stomach, the menstrual cycle, the joints, metabolism and the question of when a preparation makes sense. Here is where to go next.