Ginger, the Potential Anti Airway Hyperresponsiveness in Asthmatic Patients

By Kyle J. Norton

Scientists may have found a pungent spice for the treatment of airway hyperresponsiveness in asthmatic patients, according to the studies.

Airway hyperresponsiveness is a hallmark of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease caused by the exaggerated response of the airways to nonspecific stimuli.

Asthma is respiratory disease associated caused by the spasms in the bronchi of the lungs, leading to symptoms of difficulty in breathing. In other words, asthma is a disease as the results from an allergic reaction or other forms of hypersensitivity.

Asthma attacks can be dangerous, if not treated immediately. In an asthma attack, the airways become swollen and inflamed, leading to overproduction of mucus, that causes the narrowing of the airway.

According to the statistics provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in the US, or more than 26 million people have asthma, with 8.3 percent of adults and 8.3 percent of children.

The exact cause of asthma is not known. But exposure to various irritants and substances that trigger allergies (allergens), including airborne substances, such as pollen, dust mites, mold spores, pet dander are most common prevalent risk factors.

Some researchers suggested that widespread obesity may be correlated to the rise of asthmatic cases over the past few decades.

 Dr. Sveta Mohanan and colleagues in examing the pathophysiology and implications of obesity and asthma in primary care centers wrote, "Mainstream clinical practice has yet to adopt aggressive management of obesity as a modifiable risk factor in asthma care, as is the case with a risk factor like tobacco or allergen exposure".

And, "Our review suggests that evidence of chronic inflammatory response linking obesity and asthma indicates a need to address obesity during asthma management, possibly using patient-centered approaches such as shared decision making".

The findings strongly indicated a link between obesity and the risk of asthma.

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) or ginger root, the second superfood used for thousands of years by mankind, is the genus Zingiber, belonging to the family Zingiberaceae, native to Tamil.

The root has been used in traditional and Chinese medicine for the treatment of dyspepsia, gastroparesis, constipation, edema, difficult urination, colic, etc.

Researchers on finding a natural compound for the treatment of respiratory infection with no side effects evaluated the ginger activity on airway smooth muscle relaxation and calcium regulation.

In isolated human ASM,  researchers found that ginger caused significant and rapid relaxation.

In both guinea pig and human tracheas, injection of  [6]-gingerol, [8]-gingerol, and [6]-shogaol induced rapid relaxation of precontracted ASM (100–300 μM) compared to [10]-gingerol failure in the induction of relaxation. 

In human ASM cells, exposure to [6]-gingerol, [8]-gingerol, and [6]-shogaol, blunted subsequent Ca2+ responses to bradykinin (10 μM) and S-(−)-Bay K 8644 (10 μM) associated with the reuptake in airway smooth muscle compared to no response of the [10]-gingerol at a concentration of 100 μM.

Futhermore,  in A/J mice, the nebulization of [8]-gingerol (100 μM), 15 minutes before methacholine challenge, significantly attenuated airway resistance, compared with vehicle. 

These results suggested that not all compounds from ginger experts a respiratory protective effect through inducing airway smooth muscle relaxation, thus decreasing the symptoms of asthma.

Dr. Elizabeth A. Townsend, the lead scientists said, "these novel data show that ginger and its isolated active components, [6]-gingerol, [8]-gingerol, and [6]-shogaol, relax ASM, and [8]-gingerol attenuates airway hyperresponsiveness, in part by altering [Ca2+] I regulation".

In order to reveal more information about ginger relaxed airway smooth muscle (ASM) activity, researchers examined the 6-gingerol, 8-gingerol, or 6-shogaol bioactive compounds found in ginger potentiate β-agonist-induced ASM relaxation.

In human ASM, the airway issues were relaxed dose-dependently with β-agonist, isoproterenol, in the presence of vehicles, 6-gingerol, 8-gingerol, or 6-shogaol (100 μM).

A Significant potentiation of isoproterenol-induced relaxation was observed with each of the ginger constituents. 6-Shogaol showed the largest shift in isoproterenol half-maximal effective concentration.

6-Gingerol, 8-gingerol, or 6-shogaol significantly inhibited PDE4D involved smooth muscle contractility, whereas 8-gingerol and 6-shogaol also inhibited phospholipase C β activity also involved constriction of smooth muscle.

The findings strongly suggested that Isolated components of ginger potentiate βagonist-induced relaxation in human ASM.

Taken altogether, ginger processed a number of bioactive compounds may be considered a functional remedy for the prevention and combined with primary therapy for the treatment of asthmatic symptoms through attenuating air hyperresponsiveness.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Effects of Ginger and Its Constituents on Airway Smooth Muscle Relaxation and Calcium Regulation by Elizabeth A. Townsend,1 Matthew E. Siviski,1 Yi Zhang,1 Carrie Xu,1 Bhupinder Hoonjan,2 andCharles W. Emala. (PMC)
(2) Active components of ginger potentiate β-agonist-induced relaxation of airway smooth muscle by modulating cytoskeletal regulatory proteins by Townsend EA1, Zhang Y, Xu C, Wakita R, Emala CW. (PubMed)
(3) Obesity and asthma: Pathophysiology and implications for diagnosis and management in primary care. by Sveta Mohanan, Hazel Tapp, Andrew McWilliams, and Michael Dulin. (PubMed)