Herbal Ginger, the Best Remedy Which Protects Your Kidney Against Heavy Metal Toxicity, According to Studies

By Kyle J. Norton



The kidneys play a critical role in filtering wastes from the breakdown of active muscle and the food you eat and removing extra water from the blood through urinary secretion.

Kidney dysfunction can reduce the body's ability to clean your blood, filter extra water out of your blood, leading to fluid retention and high blood pressure in the early stage.

Chronic kidney disease is a gradual loss of kidney function over time. Chronic kidney failure is the end stage of chronic kidney disease which has been found in high number in patients with diabetes, high blood pressure and other disorders. 

Unlike many diseases, kidney disease often has no symptoms until it is in a very advanced stage.

Acute kidney dysfunction or acute kidneys failure is a result of insufficient blood flow to the kidneys such as renal hypertension. These types of kidneys dysfunction can be cured if the causes are found.

Most cases of acute kidney dysfunction may be associated with toxin accumulated in the kidney organs, leading to the condition of nephrotoxicity.

Nephrotoxicity is a condition of kidney function caused by exposure to toxic chemicals or overdose of certain medications.   

Some researchers suggested that mercury toxicity may be one of the major cause of kidney toxicity in the world as its concentration is rising continuously due to increased industrial, medicinal and domestic uses.

The World Health Organization wrote, "Exposure to mercury – even small amounts – may cause serious health problems, and is a threat to the development of the child in utero and early in life.".

And, " Mercury may have toxic effects on the nervous, digestive and immune systems, and on lungs, kidneys, skin, and eyes.".

The results strongly suggested that mercury toxicity alter biochemical parameters associated with the risk of kidney dysfunction.

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 promotion of kidney function investigated the ginger effect on kidney against mercury toxicity.

Male Sprague-Dawley rats (150±10g, n=6 per group) selected to the study were administered HgCl2 (12μmol/kg, ip; once only) then by the treatment of Zingiber officinale Rosc. extract (ZO: 125mg/kg, po) and 6-gingerol (GG: 50mg/kg, po) for three days after 24h of HgCl2 administration.

Acute HgCl2 administration showed a significant alternation of various biochemical parameters associated with kidney damage including transaminases, alkaline phosphatase, found in patients with renal failure and Lactate dehydrogenase, a biomarker for early renal damage.

Furthermore, HgCl2 also altered the levels of bilirubin, a predictor of the development of chronic kidney disease and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), elevated levels of GGT was found to induce chronic kidney diseases.

The alternation of creatinine, uric acid, and blood urea nitrogen contents used for a monitor of renal function also altered by the injection of  HgCl2.

These results suggested serious kidney damage was induced by the toxicity of HgCl2.

Additionally, injection of HgCl2 also decreased the levels of antioxidant produced by the host and elevated the production of free radicals.

Treatment by Zingiber officinale extract and 6-gingerol reversed all the parameters changed against acute mercuric chloride-intoxication by preventing oxidative degradation of biological membranes from metal mediated free radical attacks through their antioxidant activity.

In order to reveal additional information about ginger anti toxicity property, researchers examined the protective role of hydroalcoholic extract of ginger (Zingiber officinale) against ferrous sulfate-induced hepatic and renal functional disorders and histological damages in rats.

Rats selected to the study were divided into four groups (n=7): Sham, Sham + G.E (ginger extract, 400 mg/kg/day for 14 days), FS (ferrous sulfate, 30 mg/kg/day for 14 days), FS+G.E (ferrous sulfate, 30 mg/kg/day for 14 days; ginger extract, 400 mg/kg/day for 11 days from the fourth day of ferrous sulfate injection). 

Compared with Sham and Sham + G.E groups, administration of ferrous sulfate resulted in kidney dysfunction observed by the alternation of a number of parameters, including lower creatinine clearance and higher fractional excretion of sodium.

Moreover, ginger extract restored the levels of serum total protein, albumin, glucose, triglycerides and cholesterol and decreased bilirubin concentration in the blood similar to those of HgCl2 rats.

Dr. Gholampour F, the lead scientist after taking into account of co and confounders wrote, "ginger extract appears to exert protective effects against ferrous sulfate-induced hepatic and renal toxicity by reducing lipid peroxidation and chelating iron".

Taken altogether, ginger may be considered a functional remedy for the prevention and treatment of kidney dysfunction associated with heavy metal toxicity, pending to the confirmation of large sample size and multicenter study.

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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 and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References
(1) Zingiber officinale and 6-gingerol alleviate liver and kidney dysfunctions and oxidative stress induced by mercuric chloride in male rats: A protective approach by Joshi D1, Srivastav SK2, Belemkar S3, Dixit VA3. (PubMed)
(2) The protective effect of hydroalcoholic extract of Ginger (Zingiber officinaleRosc.) against iron-induced functional and histological damages in rat liver and kidney by Gholampour F1, Behzadi Ghiasabadi F1, Owji SM2, Vatanparast J1. (PubMed)
(3) Mercury and health by WHO