Herbal Ginger Protects the Joints Against Osteoarthritis In Human Trials

By Kyle J. Norton

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a form of arthritis,  found in the general term of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) characterized by the wear and tear on joints.

The chronic and medical condition affects over 25 million people in the United States alone. 

The characteristics of osteoarthritis are aching pain, stiffness, or difficulty of moving the joint or joints. Therefore one must understand the differences in prevalence and incidence estimates of osteoarthritis (OA), compared to other types of arthritis.

Furthermore, the pain usually gets worse ina change of weather, at night and in the advanced diseases, and the pain can occur even at rest. 

If you have some of the aforementioned symptoms, please make sure that you check with your doctor to rule out the possibility of osteoarthritis 

Conventionally, management of osteoarthritis (OA) focuses on pain relief and improves physical function through pharmacological, nonpharmacological, and surgical treatments if it is necessary.

If you are currently taking some of the medications for the treatment of osteoarthritis, please make sure you know all the side effect for preventive measure.

Out of many risk factors associated with the onset of osteoarthritis, some researchers suggested that the increase in age is one of the disease prevalent factor found in the aging population.

Dr. Richard F. Loeser, said, "Basic aging studies in non-articular cells suggest that cell stress or cell damage response contributes to chronic inflammation that promotes age-related diseases. This cellular response results in the senescence-associated secretory phenotype which has many of the characteristics of an OA chondrocyte in terms of the cytokines, chemokines, and proteases produced".

And, "Because OA occurs in older adults who also have age-related changes in muscle, bone, fat, and the nervous system, it is likely that a more general and systemic approach will be needed to better understand the link between aging and OA".

The result strongly indicated the increased risk of osteoarthritis in the elderly.

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 osteoarthritis assessed the clinical efficacy and safety of oral ginger for the symptomatic treatment of osteoarthritis (OA).

The study included 68 participants with osteoarthritis were randomly assigned evenly to receive standard treatment with or without self-knee massage with ginger oil twice a week.

At the end of the first and fifth week, participants in both groups were assessed regarding pain and functional state.

According to the assessed results, the mean Visual Analog Scale (VAS) Pain scores of the intervention group were significantly lower at the end of the first and fifth weeks compared to control.

Furthermore, the mean total scores and mean Function subscale scores of the functionality in activities of daily living with the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) were significantly lower in the intervention group in the first- and fifth-week assessments, also compared to control.

The results strongly suggested that self-massage of the knee with ginger oil should be used combined with standard medical treatment for osteoarthritis patients.

Based on the findings, Dr.Tosun B, the lead scientist said, "Nurses can easily train patients and their caregivers on knee massage, and the intervention can be implemented by patients at home without any restrictions on location".

In order to reveal more information about the ginger effect on osteoarthritis, researchers launched a systematic literature search followed by meta-analyses on selected studies, including randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing oral ginger treatment with placebo in OA patients aged >18 years.

According to the Hedges' standardized mean difference (SMD), and safety by risk ratio (RR), out of 122 retrieved references, 117 were discarded, leaving five trials (593 patients) for meta-analyses.

Ginger intake showed a statistically significant pain reduction with a low degree of inconsistency among trials.

Quality of life from the selected trials also statistically and significantly improved in favor of the ginger group.

Interestingly, patients given ginger were more than twice as likely to discontinue treatment compared to placebo.

The results exerted a similar efficacy as seen in the aforementioned study.

Take all together, ginger may be used alone or combined primary therapy for the treatment of osteoarthritis, pending to the confirmation of large sample size and multicenter human 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 ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Efficacy and safety of ginger in osteoarthritis patients: a meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials by Bartels EM1, Folmer VN2, Bliddal H2, Altman RD3, Juhl C4, Tarp S2, Zhang W5, Christensen R. (PubMed)
(2) Effects of Self-Knee Massage With Ginger Oil in Patients With Osteoarthritis: An Experimental Study by Tosun B, Unal N, Yigit D, Can N, Aslan O, Tunay S.(PubMed)
(3) Aging and Osteoarthritis by Richard F. Loeser. (PMC)