From the unlikely-to-do-any-harm school of medicine - and good if it helps.
Efficacy of Ginger Supplementation in Relieving Persistent Hypothyroid Symptoms in Patients with Controlled Primary Hypothyroidism: A Pilot Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial
Abstract
Primary hypothyroidism is a common disease. Some patients have persistent symptoms despite normal serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels. Ginger is reported to be beneficial in relieving similar symptoms. Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy of ginger supplementation in relieving persistent symptoms in these patients. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, 60 hypothyroid patients aged 20–60 years with normal serum TSH concentrations were randomly allocated to two equal parallel study groups of ginger (500 mg twice a day) or placebo for 30 days. Hypothyroid symptoms were evaluated as the primary outcome using the Thyroid Symptom Rating Questionnaire (ThySRQ) before and after the intervention. Anthropometric measures and laboratory indices including TSH, triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TChol), and fasting blood sugar (FBS) were considered as secondary outcomes. A significant lower mean total ThySRQ score (8.63 ± 5.47 vs. 15.76 ± 6.09,
)was observed in the ginger group compared to the control group. Ginger led to significant improvements in the mean scores of the weight gain, cold intolerance, constipation, dry skin, appetite, memory loss, concentration disturbance, and feeling giddy or dizzy domains ().However, no significant improvements were observed in hair loss, nail fragility, hearing, hoarseness, speech, and depression or feeling down ().Ginger supplementation also led to a significant decrease in body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, serum TSH, FBS, TG, and TChol levels compared to the placebo. In summary according to preliminary results of this study, ginger supplementation can help relieve persistent hypothyroid symptoms. Also, it may have beneficial effects in terms of weight reduction and regulation of the FBS and lipid profile in hypothyroid patients.
Cool .. i have a longstanding addiction to dark chocolate and ginger treats in various forms. and have been getting away with putting dark chocolate in the shopping trolley since i came to the forum by saying it's 'medicinal' (ferritin) ..... now i can chuck in a jar of medicinal stem ginger too ......and tell my GP a ginger addiction could be the cause if he doesn't like my low TSH.I do love this forum.
Thanks helvella any chance of finding me a study showing beneficial effects of Cognac / Glenmorangie / Sloe Gin?
Helvella Wow!!! You must be a mind reader. Thank You for this post. I was wondering just recently about Ginger Supplement . Yay or Nay. Since we need to be vigilante either supplements and food we consume being thyroid meds dependent .Very Interesting and Very Informative . Thank You.
Interesting. So ginger improved some symptoms but not others, I'd love to know why. I do wish they had measured fT3 and fT4 levels before and after the trial, it might have given some clues.
It was a very short trial- I wonder if they kept it rolling to see longer term effects 30 days does seem rather short for a comprehensive review. Fingers crossed there will be more to come! I’m off to get some ginger supplements (I especially like the weight reduction aspect!)
I have read (somewhere, but don't know where) that ginger is helpful for reducing inflammation. If that is true then it could be a reason for ginger having a beneficial effect on people who are hypothyroid.
It's often touted as a treatment for arthritis pain, I'm partial to ginger root tea, I boil some ginger root in a saucepan for about 10 minutes then drink it. I don't know if there's enough ginger in it to make any difference. Supplements are far more concentrated.
That is pretty much all I drink, and I chew chunks of fresh ginger too. (I also recently found a dark chocolate that I can tolerate, so I have DIY dark chocolate ginger or brazil. Yum).
Maybe its the soya lecithin thats in most of the chocolate. Lidl do ones with sunflower lecithin 😀 their cheap chocolate is 30p (or it was last time I looked), their cheap dark chocolate doesn't have milk in and is delicious 😘. Only problem is that I seem to be allergic to cocoa
Interesting, thank you. My pack doesn't mention soya but no surprise there. I tried the Lindt after the G& B was ok, and that was a problem for me. I used to buy Aldi and that was good, but that was years ago before everything went haywire and haven't tried it again recently. I'll maybe try the Lidl.
I have often read that ginger is good for travel sickness and as my daughter used to suffer quite badly, I would take a packet of ginger nut biscuit s with me on long journeys. A very good excuse to nibble on biscuits 😃
Funny, I too am just trying out Ginger. As I understood that it was Hood for inflammation, I am also taking it for Inflammatory bowel Disease. I have no idea yet whether it will have a beneficial effect on that... the jury is still out. Unless someone here knows?
Sorry, I haven’t read the study. But for those of us who don’t have ginger supplements, so fresh ginger and ginger the spice and preserved ginger all offer benefits, too?
And, I'm still drinking my ginger tea every day. It's wonderful.
For those of you that are interested in recipes, I recently had the idea of taking the crystalised lemon and ginger, a side product of my ginger and lemon syrup, chopping it up small, and using it instead of currants and saltanas in a fruit cake recipe I like. The result is gorgeous! A different kind of ginger cake.
I haven't made any for some time, but will probably make more when I can get my hands on some fresh ginger - this is the right time of year for good lemons! The syrup from the last batch has all gone, and I'm just using up the crystalised fruit that is left.
I'm afraid we don't have Sainsbury's or Asda in France. But we do have it our main hypermarkets. I just meant when I can find the energy to go shopping.
Thanks for the recipe. I will be making some. I usually buy pukka 3 ginger teabags. Make it in a pint mug and add a piece of crstalised ginger. But this sounds better.
How funny, I drink two very large cups of the 3 ginger every morning which equates to 700mls so I do count that as liquid towards my two litres of "water" a day. I would love to get hold of proper ginger but do not wish to buy from China although I understand it is available from Peru with a company but part of a package. I used to buy the uncrystalised Australian ginger regularly where cane sugar is used but am getting overweight now I think due to thyroid and don't want to overdo the sugar. I actually visited the ginger farm in Buderim when I lived in Australia.
I know, I used to buy a lot from a local Lakeland shop or order it on line. I haven't looked for it lately. I found this which apparently I ordered back in 2020 and had totally forgotten but despite it saying sugar free it says contents 90 percent ginger 10 percent fructose. I wonder if ginger capsules would suffice smile.amazon.co.uk/Ginger-P...
I made a typo should have said uncrystalised ginger. I just had a quick look and the delivery isstill £3.50 on top. I used to buy 4 bags at a time to try and compensate lakeland.co.uk/16544/Buderi... and it says Ginger (55%), Cane Sugar (45%)
That Buderim sweet ginger is delicious. But I do think it's misleading to call it uncrystallised because it can fool people into thinking it's somehow 'sugar free'.
Whereas it is still 'candied', just doesn't have the sugar coating on the outside.
Thanks for that, I hadn't thought of Pukka for ginger tea. I use their liquorice, although I react to the bags so have to rip them open and make in a jug. I make my own ginger tea from root mostly, but sometimes you want something easier. Must try adding crystallized ginger though!
Oh, would really like the recipes for all the parts of the process. Sounds good. I often use ginger, garlic and little bit of chilli to start off a veg curry. Really would like to incorporate more ginger - yes I love Dark chocolate gingers too but haven't seen them for a while.
You ? - mentioned the candied peel left over from making a ginger and lemon drink. So I suppose I'd be interested in the proportions/recipe for the drink, how the peel becomes candied and the proportions/recipe for the cake too. But I'll settle for the first two recipes I can adapt my own cake recipe. If convenient and you have time. Thanks
Well, the lemon and ginger drink if very simple. Just thinly sliced fresh ginger and lemons placed in a mason jar, and covered with the honey of your choice. Then leave to macerate for a couple of weeks. When you want a hot lemon-ginger drink, just spoon some of the juice into a cup and add hot water.
So, when all the honey and juice has gone, you're left with the ginger and lemon slices, which by then are crystalised. You could dry them and eat them just like that, but I tried adding them to my favourite cake mix, recipe here:
5-ingredient Pimm’s boiled fruit cake
Ingredients
• 1 cup (250ml) Pimm’s
• 750g mixed dried fruit
• 395g tin condensed milk
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
Method
1. Preheat oven to 140C. Line a 20cm cake tin with baking paper.
2. Place Pimm’s and dried fruit in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from heat, stir well and allow to soak for 30 minutes. Stir through condensed milk and eggs, then fold through flour. Pour into tin and smooth the top.
3. Bake for 2 hours. Place a circle of foil over the top of the cake if it is browning too quickly.
4. To make the syrup, boil ingredients for 5 minutes until slightly thickened. Brush over warm cake.
So, I just leave out the Pimm's and dried fruit, and instead add about a cupful of the finely chopped, crystalised lemon and ginger. And it works very well - although I also added an extra egg in case it was a bit dry.
For my ginger tea, it's even more simple. Just roughly chop a couple of large pieces of ginger and put into the blender and add a pot of honey to taste. Blend it and keep in mason jar, and you can use it straight away because blending the ginger releases all the juices, and it's instantly hot and sweet to the taste. Just add a tea bag and boiling water. I also add milk, but that's just me!
That is so kind of you Greygoose. I've copied it to print later. I've never candied anything before, sounds simple - and the cake looks scrummy. Thank you
Must try that. How much Ginger do you use for, say, a beneficial cup of tea? Or are there good supplements one can buy... to get the effective dosage right?
Do you think 4 ginger nut biscuits a day will do the job? I do love a good ginger nut. I also used to make ginger beer until one batch exploded🤯on the shelf! Must see if I can make a new plant 🤔
I used to make ginger beer when I had an outhouse to store it in. Had lots of exploding bottles! So, I don't fancy keeping it in the house. But, it was lovely.
I hope nobody got hurt! Flying glass can be lethal. But, oh, elderflower champagne must be the nearest thing to heaven on earth - that and cream cakes.
Oooh! I loved elderflower champagne! I remember staying on a farm in the late 60s and helping with getting the hay in and there was nothing nicer on a hot summer’s day after lugging bales to see the farmers wife coming up the field with a flagon of elderflower champagne! I tried to make it once but failed miserably… may have to try again!
Would be good if you could make your own ginger nuts. I love ginger and I do buy the dark choc coated ginger biscuits, they are gluten free but I am always thinking about the amount of sugar that biscuits contain which would outweigh the benefits.
A cake I make has 100 grams of crystallised ginger plus 2.5 teaspoonsful of ground ginger. I'd be surprised if it had more than 16 slices (it is loaf shape).
That would be 6 grams of ginger plus at least an eight of a teaspoonful of powder. I imagine as used in the study it would have been dried and in capsules. Ending up being similar and possibly more in my cake!
Ginger is a prokinetic, meaning it helps your digestion speed up. That’s why it helps with certain symptoms related to digestion and metabolism. There are other prokinetics that can be taken too.
I have searched for other natural prokinetics online but all I found was stuff like iberogast with is ridiculously expensive considering how much needs to be taken. Do you know of any other natural ones that are freely available like ginger? 🙂
I only found ginger and artichoke as actual foods. Otherwise it seems to be various proprietary 'herbal mixes', as in this article byronherbalist.com.au/herba...
May explain my love of ginger, turmeric and lemon “tea”
Half tsp powdered ginger
Half tsp powdered turmeric
Half squeezed lemon with the half lemon then plonked in the cup
Pour hot water over, add a dash of honey
Throughout the day I just keep topping up with hot water. More interesting than plain water, though of course I drink that too
When made with boiled fresh ginger and turmeric it’s quite a potent taste and probably better for me but the powdered way is so easy and convenient and now I know it’s probably good for me, I’ll spread the word
Very interesting thank you. I am also a ginger addict and drink two large cups of ginger tea every morning since i gave up dairy. I used to buy the ginger root but it seems impossible to buy it unless it comes from China and I won't buy that particularly after the Green Peace study on their soil.
Thank you helvella you've got me on the ginger trail again. I just found these and will give them a go, I had to laugh as one of the semi bad reviews was that the use by date was "only" a year or so ahead lol . The main thing is they do not contain any nasty fillers like mag stearate, maltodrextrin etc and not from China. smile.amazon.co.uk/Associat...
Oooooooohh I am off to Tesco for stem ginger, I already have a couple of squares of 85% cacao chocolate from Aldi which is wonderful. They used to do a 95% one too, but that seems to have bitten the dust unfortunately.
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But we do have it our main hypermarkets. I just meant when I can find the energy to go shopping. 
Very encouraging performance by a chemical analogue of T3 in stabilising FT3 by those who take T3
The effects of Nigella sativa on thyroid function, serum Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor – 1, Nesfatin-1 and anthropometric features
