Ginger prostates

Ginger has been a popular medicinal and culinary spice across the centuries and across cultures. Chinese sailors from ancient times have been sure to carry ginger root to ward off the perils of seasickness. After a good bacchanal the wise Roman would recline in the Venus position on a lounge and chew on some ginger wrapped in bread to aid digestion. The English also recognised the digestive properties of ginger and made it into an ale; ginger beer. In recent times the anti-inflammatory qualities of ginger have made it a popular part of arthritis treatment. As if that were not enough to keep ginger occupied now researchers have found a new property: the capacity to prevent prostate cancer.

This research was conducted by an associate professor in biology who believed wanted to go beyond isolating chemicals from ginger and testing their anti-cancer effects. She believes that there is a synergistic interplay between chemicals in any given herb or plant and that the action of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Hence, you can use smaller doses of the whole plant to achieve the same effects that you would get with a single chemical.

To this end she tested whole ginger extract against prostate cancer cells in the laboratory. The ginger extract not only hated the growth of cancer cells but also caused cell death in the prostate cancer cells.

Additionally, further animal based studies showed that ginger extract was selective in that it did not affect healthy cells while killing cancer cells and reducing tumours. In fact, tumours regressed by up to 60 per cent with no toxicity whatsoever.

Humans would have to consume around 100 grams of ginger in their daily diet to achieve similar dosages as were used in these studies. Given its gentleness, it seems that there is another good reason to taking in a little ginger root each day.

The really good news for men about all of this is that in order to achieve prostate benefits they don’t have to take ginger in the same way that they are examined for prostate problems. Ginger root can be safely taken by mouth; no insertion is required.