I had a peaceful and relaxing Christmas with my family—and I hope you did, too. I’m especially thankful you’re here with me today, taking a break from some of the holiday merry-making, as I continue to delve into more effective, natural approaches for achieving and maintaining good health.
Today, I’ll be continuing with my holiday-inspired Dispatches by talking about ginger, another traditional spice that makes its way into a lot of baking during this time of year.
But really, you should try to add fresh or ground ginger to your cooking all year long, as it has some amazing health benefits. Especially for the brain…
Thousands of years of benefits
Ginger comes from the rhizome (or root) of the flowering ginger plant, which is native to China. And it has been documented for more than 3,000 years in China as a traditional remedy for indigestion and nausea, and was said to be used for 5,000 years before that. Which perhaps explains why ginger is so prominently featured in Asian cuisine.
But it turns out, there’s much more to ginger than its ability to settle an upset stomach and add some zing to good Szechuan.
In fact, a fascinating study published recently in the experimental science journal Rejuvenation Research found that ginger may also help slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
And I pay careful attention to this kind of cutting-edge research from small labs, as it’s where much of the real work on AD is being done.
By comparison, mainstream medicine has spent billions of dollars and two decades researching and developing toxic drugs to treat AD. But none of them have been able to slow—much less reverse—the loss of memory or thinking skills.
Of course, these failed AD drugs rely largely on patented derivatives of petrochemicals that are inherently toxic to the brain. By comparison, ginger is a very promising, safe, and effective natural treatment that has been shown in a recent lab study and clinical trial to slow—and even reverse—AD symptoms…
Ginger prevents and even reverses AD-like symptoms
For this cutting-edge study, researchers induced lab rats to develop AD. Next, they injected the rats with low, moderate, or high doses of ginger for 35 days. Then, at the end of the treatment period, they assessed the rats’ learning and memory.
It turns out, the ginger treatment prevented “AD-like symptoms” in the rats…and even reversed some “dysfunctional behaviors” caused by AD!
Ginger is also beginning to show promise in human studies…
In fact, in one recent study, middle-aged women who took 400 mg and 800 mg of ginger daily for two months enhanced their cognitive processing and attention without any side effects.
And this finding makes a lot of sense to me, as we know that ginger tames inflammation and oxidative stress, which cause premature degeneration of neural brain tissues, as seen in AD patients.
Making the leap from the lab to real life
In the second study I mentioned, women took 400 to 800 mg daily and experienced enhancements to their memory.
But remember, ginger is a natural food substance that humans consume at much higher doses when enjoyed with a meal. So, in my view, you can probably tolerate doses up to 2 grams (or 2,000 mg) daily. And even at this higher “food quantity” dose, there’s no known toxicity.
Of course, you can also just sprinkle some ground ginger regularly onto your foods. Or, better yet, add fresh, chopped ginger to your marinades, salads, smoothies, soups, and stir fries.
I also enjoy making a hot infusion with fresh ginger root. I simply cut a slice of the root, add it to a mug of hot water, then let it steep for a few minutes before drinking.
This soothing infusion almost instantly cures an upset stomach. I hear it also works well to tame the nausea associated with chemotherapy and early pregnancy. And now—we also know it offers significant, long-term benefits to your brain!
Of course, at this time of year, ginger tea pairs perfectly with your leftover gingerbread cookies. So what are you waiting for? Enjoy!
P.S. In addition to adding ginger to your diet, there are various other ways to naturally protect your brain against Alzheimer’s, all of which I discuss in my Complete Alzheimer’s Prevention and Repair Protocol. This innovative, online learning tool discusses natural medicine’s most cutting-edge treatments for Alzheimer’s and a complete brain recovery. So, what are you waiting for? Click here to learn more or to enroll today!
Sources:
“Protective effects of ginger root extract on Alzheimer disease-induced behavioral dysfunction in rats.” Rejuvenation Research 2013; 16: 124-133.
doi.org/10.1089/rej.2012.1389
“Zingiber officinale improves cognitive function of the middle-aged healthy women.” Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2012; 383062: 9. doi.org/10.1155/2012/383062