Ginger Can Reduce Chemotherapy Side Effects

When undergoing chemotherapy, cancer patients often suffer side effects such as loss of appetite, nausea or difficulty chewing and swallowing. Ginger can reduce these side effects.

The doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, is now looking for an herbal way to help cancer patients cope with the side effects of chemotherapy.

Oncologist at the hospital has been experimenting with powdered ginger to reduce the severity muah, is caused due to chemotherapy (chemotherapy induced nausea vomiting or CINV).

Nausea and vomiting are the most important side effects in cancer patients after undergoing chemotherapy treatment.

"The severity of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting can be reduced with ginger, our experiments show that," Dr Sameer Bakhshi, from the Department of Medical Oncology, AIIMS, New Delhi, as reported by Indiavision.

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After the success of the study, doctors at AIIMS can say that there is a need to menyedian ginger root powder in capsules in varying doses to be used as adjunctive therapy in patients receiving chemotherapy with a high potential for vomiting.

In the study, researchers had randomized 60 patients aged between 18 and 21 years old.

"This is a double-blind study randomized single institutional performed at our center in 2009. Neither the patient nor the interviewer patient knows about the patient is given a dose of ginger root powder," said Dr. Bakhshi, who led the study.

He said that the doses given according to the weight of the person. While patients who weigh between 20 kg and 40 kg given 167 mg capsules of ginger root powder, while those in the 40 kg weight category up to 60kg are given 400 mg.

Six ginger root capsules given at different time intervals after the start of infusion chemotherapy.

"While ginger root powder is effective in reducing the severity of acute nausea and vomiting, it does not eliminate the symptoms completely. The capsules are well tolerated by children and young adults in our study and there are no side effects," he said.

The results of this study have been published in the Journal of Pediatric Blood and Cancer.

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