Ginger Tea: Healing With Zing[erones]

Depending on how you were raised, delicious and nutritious ginger may have only been in gingerbread cookies during holidays, or made an infrequent appearance as the pickled root on the side of a sushi plate. Essential for millennia in Middle and East Asian medicine and cuisine, this very spicy treat rich in so many health enhancing properties brings the warmth our bodies need not only in the cold months to combat malaise, but all year long to help defend against disease, repair damage from oxidative stress as we age, as well as support our brains and cognitive ability by reducing the inner flames of heat induced oxygen consumption (thermogenesis) in areas of swelling that cause stress and pain as a powerful anti-inflammatory. Let’s gingerly bring on ginger’s heat to alleviate and soothe the stress that accompanies our chronically inflamed bodies, and help our healing with a delicious cup of ginger root tea, while looking at all of the good for you benefits that ginger offers the body. By the end we hope you’ll want to dance like Ginger Rogers again and start drinking this root to help your knee and osteoarthritic pain—or, let’s say Shakira if you are not yet experiencing joint pain, have no idea who Ginger Rogers is and are in the preventative not remedying age range. Ginger is fantastic for every age, and for every human hoping to keep healthy each day.


The Zing of Strengthened Immunity

For millennia Middle and East Asian medicine has encouraged the consumption of ginger when feeling the onset of illness to stop sickness progression and expedite remediation. In addition to high levels of Vitamin C and magnesium, the classic mineral remedies we reach for when feeling sniffly, ginger’s specific profile of additional phytochemicals helps promote the strengthening of immunity to enhance its already immune increasing activity. Ginger has been shown to increase antibody response in the respiratory system, and is especially effective at defending against malaise with the compounds gingerol (ginger is named very aptly), shogaol, and paradol—more on these when we explore ginger’s anti-inflammatory properties. These compounds work together with ginger’s antimicrobial and antibacterial abilities to combat illness when sickness invades, fighting against bacterium and burning away threats with heat.

Soothing the Brain

When we are sick, sometimes what is most essential to our recovery is reducing our emotional stress, despite the fact that that when we feel sick we are often more stressed about getting healthy. This is a harmful cycle of mental stress adding to the physical stress our bodies are experiencing internally when illness invades, but this is a cycle which ginger can help mitigate. Inflammation is a physical, underlying root cause of mental stress, especially depression and anxiety, and the anti-inflammatory effects of ginger are especially helpful in reducing migraines and head aches. So when you are in the midst of fever, and congested, with all of the sinus pain, ginger has the ability to reduce this tension by alleviating this inflammation contributing to your stress levels, to soothe the strain when you need to be doing one thing: relaxing for your recovery. Ginger has the power to also reduce the inflammation that is a cause of Alzheimer’s disease, and has been shown to increase memory and cognitive ability in those suffering from neurological decline from age.

The Zinger: Zingerone, The One To Be For Anti-Inflammatory Ability

Now for the most powerful and universal benefit of ginger: the ability to reduce the inner flames of inflammation from the swelling and strain that cause so much disease in our bodies with anti-inflammatory abilities. A member of the family Zingerbercaea, similar to turmeric, ginger’s anti-inflammatory properties are well known to help reduce joint and osteoarthritic pain, especially within the knees. Yet the anti-inflammatory mechanisms have the ability to benefit the entire body, as chronic inflammation is the root cause of the majority of our bodies' most damaging chronic diseases. Compared to over-the-counter pain relievers, ginger has the ability to reduce the inflammation that causes the swelling and irritation that contributes to bodily pain, without the potential harm of hepatotoxicity. In fact, ginger is able to protect against hepatotoxicity caused by ethanols (which can be found in many of the foods/beverages we consume), helping reduce the oxidative stress that contributes to cellular degrading. Ginger is also able to inhibit lipid perodixidation, which causes damage to our bodies when fat molecules ionize and break apart, losing their original structure through oxidation, and in this damaged shape and state causing dangerous harm to the rest of the cells in our body. While reducing this dangerous oxidation, ginger can also reduce the level of nitric oxide in our bodies which contribute to further DNA damage (specifically neurodegeneration) that prevents the proper repairing of cells necessary for healing and disease prevention, as well as protecting the level of the essential glutathione amino acid, which also works to help repair DNA.

Goalie Shogaol, Bold Defender Of Homeostasis You Want On Your 'Immuniteam'

The compound shogaol has the ability to reduce the expression of genes caused by inflammation, limiting the creation of proteins created in inflammatory responses making our bodies feel constantly exhausted from overworking because of what we eat and resulting chronic disease. The power of this element of ginger is in the ability to reduce the expression of genes that contribute to both inflammation and cancer, especially NF-kB, a gene which also contributes to the very malaises ginger is so helpful at remedying—an unquestionable link: osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, and digestive disease. Shogoal also has the potential to help rheumatic disease of joints with its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties. Also, paradol, another phytochemical for your 'immuniteam', packs powerful antioxidant properties to reduce internal inflammation.

Cancer Prevention and Protection

Inflammation is the one of the root causes of cancer proliferation. Ginger’s gingerol and shogaol content, the lovely antioxidants helping increase your immunity through organic methods, also are able to inhibit the creation of the fat/lipid called prostaglandin. You will be glad to know inhibition of prostaglandin works in tandem with antioxidant free radical reduction to prevent prostaglandin’s increase of the formation of cancerous tumors, as well as their vessels (through halted angiogenesis) that provide tumors the nourishment required to grow and spread. Ginger nips the budding of these harmful tumors that make us even more susceptible to pathogens.

For Your Belly

As a food that generates heat, ginger is able to increase heat production through a process called thermogenesis. By increasing the heat in your body, this mechanism can in turn increase fat burning, while promoting the utilization of already stored fats to be used instead of food for energy, which is essential for weight loss when our metabolism may need a little extra help incorporating the energetic source we already have around our bodies and bellies that is standing in the way of healthy weight. This is a key to losing weight. Ginger also works to prevent fat storage, fat absorption, and manage our appetites, so you can eat comfortably without extreme dieting. When enjoyed as a cup of tea, the appetite control benefits are particularly marked, because when we hydrate we feel less hungry. For those with digestive upset, the root has the ability to reduce discomfort, bloating, and promote digestion, expediting the utilization of food not just for healthy weight but for the internal health of your tummy.

Take This To Heart

As said, because it really is at the root, pun intended, oxidation is the central cause of so many forms of physical degeneration, especially for the heart and circulatory system. The phytochemical profile of ginger works to alleviate free radicals and reduce oxidative stress, all while reducing over-oxygenation that can be caused by increased weight requiring more effort for daily tasks, in order to reduce the very inflammation that causes increased strain in the circulatory system for both mitigation of vasoconstriction and its prevention. As mentioned, ginger has the ability to reduce lipid peroxidation, the degradation of fat cells into ions—broken apart from their original form into unstable pieces—that become the harmful free radicals that cause the stress that contributes to the destruction of bodily systems by disease throughout our bodies when fighting off a chronic condition, combating an illness, or when just going through the every day strain of a life that is often anxiety inducing, run on unhealthy diets that cause our bodies to work even harder and overheat internally. Ginger helps alleviate this strain.

Maybe Less Ginger Bread, With Ginger Tea Instead (To Help You Dance Again)

Ginger is so versatile, making it even easier to enjoy and incorporate in your supplementation or your diet because of all of the different ways you can sip or eat this spicy treat. Enjoy ginger root tea, add ginger spice to a meal, try pickled ginger that you may have already enjoyed accompanying sushi, or for a sweet treat try candied ginger—but prepare for a little bit of heat. In addition to those ginger chews, especially if you are being mindful of your sugar consumption, you can juice ginger to incorporate within green juices and smoothies. You will find the anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, immune enhancing, and cognitive enriching properties an essential addition to your day. Then you will probably be asking yourself how you didn’t start treating yourself gingerly earlier. Enjoy ginger in all of these ways, especially in the form of an extract to obtain all of the wonderful benefits we have explained. But today, the focus is on ginger tea.

Try ginger tea in the morning, for a vibrant and invigorating hint of warmth and spice to start the day. If you have digestive discomfort, try to incorporate ginger tea after a meal, to ease pain and support your tummy, as well as promote metabolizing of what you are eating and help with losing weight. It is also lovely in the evening, for a warming beverage as night cools at the end of the day, and great before sleep because as an herbal tea it does not contain caffeine.

Enjoy the healthful zing of ginger not just in a cookie during the holidays, but to heal your body every day from the inside out, with powerful botanical properties that will help you keep, or regain, the freedom of a life filled with dancing.

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