Why “Ginger Root”?

Zingiber officinale. Gingivere. Ziggiberis. Zinziberi.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Ginger. Your familiarity might range from chomping on a delicious Gingerbread Cookie at the holidays, to partaking in the medicinal benefits via Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), to sipping on a can of ginger ale on a cross-country road trip. (That is Vernor’s for my Michigan readers).

As it turns out, ginger has been found in texts for centuries, and although the origin of ginger root is unclear, it is believed to have been used for over 5000 years. Ginger was likely traded from China or India, and has been highly regarded for it’s medicinal properties since before the fall of the Roman Empire. In Ancient Greece ginger was wrapped in bread and used as a post-meal digestive aid. In England it was baked into a cookie and formed into the first Gingerbread cookie. TCM utilizes a warm, spicy tea or a ginger based tonic. You can use ginger in powdered, fresh, candied or dried form, but what we actually want are the rhizomes extracted from the bulbous root of the ginger plant. The oily substance varies in strength based on the maturity of the plant when harvested.

Scientific data varies in it’s findings, some studies agreeing that ginger is an effective antiemetic, while others state that ginger is neither effective nor ineffective at preventing nausea. Here is a video clip from a 2005 Mythbusters episode that convinced me personally to switch from Dramamine (Dimenhydrinate) to ginger pills for motion sickness. Just a heads up, there is quite a bit of vomiting in the video.

But how does all of this relate to mental health and/or counseling?

For that answer, let me quickly review the basis of the mind-gut connection. The idea that our bodies react to and hold emotions has long been present in psychology and mental health, but the idea that our digestive tract is a “second brain” is a far newer concept. But think about it: Have you ever felt butterflies in your stomach? Or experienced that pesky pre-presentation nausea? Or gone through a gut wrenching break-up? Those are all common examples of how closely the brain and the gut work together. The intestines, home to the Enteric Nervous System (ENS) can be effected by all types of psychological or psychosocial factors.

(For more on how our bodies react to trauma, cautiously read The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk).

Resources:

Bode AM, Dong Z. The Amazing and Mighty Ginger. In: Benzie IFF, Wachtel-Galor S, editors. Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects. 2nd edition. Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press/Taylor & Francis; 2011. Chapter 7. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92775/