Written by Angeline A. De Leon, Staff Writer. Ginger was as effective as sumatriptan in decreasing the severity of migraine attacks two hours after onset and had significantly less side effects than sumatriptan.
Despite the medical field’s progress in the management and treatment of migraine, the chronic neurologic disorder remains a difficult condition to effectively and completely alleviate. Often a wait-and-see treatment approach is involved. The growing distaste for the use of over-the-counter products, which are commonly associated with adverse side-effects and risk of dependency, has led to a renewed interest in herbal remedies for chronic conditions like the common migraine. One of the most powerful medicinal herbs, ginger is recognized for its wide-ranging therapeutic properties, with applications spanning from motion sickness and vertigo to vomiting, flatulence, and pain 1-3. Pharmacologic studies indicate that ginger is also effective in reducing blood sugar, normalizing blood pressure, and improving lipid profile 4,5. In 2005, Cady and colleagues showed that an over-the-counter drug containing ginger extract was able to completely alleviate migraine in 48% of patients and partially in 34% within two hours. Early research by Mustafa and colleagues also found lower headache severity and frequency in patients who consumed ginger powder every four hours for four days 6. In a 2014 study published in Phytotherapy Research, investigators evaluated the effects of ginger powder on migraine attacks without aura, relative to standardized medication sumatriptan.
In a one-month, double-blind, randomized, controlled study 7, a total of 100 patients (mean age = 35.1 +/- 6.2 years) experiencing common migraine without aura (as confirmed by a neurologist and reported as occurring between 2 to 10 days per month) were enrolled as participants. Subjects were randomly assigned to consume either 250 mg of powdered ginger rhizome or 50 mg of sumatriptan upon headache onset. At the time of migraine attack, participants were also instructed to complete a questionnaire on time of headache onset, headache severity (using a visual analog scale, VAS), time of drug ingestion, and response self-assessments 30, 60, 90, 120 minutes, and 24 hours following start of headache. At the end of the study, patients rated their satisfaction with treatment efficacy and their willingness to continue with their respective treatments.
Analyses revealed that at 2 hours following treatment, mean headache severity was similar for both the sumatriptan and ginger group (p = 0.116). A comparison of mean headache severity from baseline to 2 h following treatment indicated a 4.7 unit reduction on the VAS for the sumatriptan group (p < 0.0001) and a 4.6 unit reduction for ginger (p < 0.0001). Seventy % of patients in the sumatriptan group and 64% of those in the ginger group reported favorable pain relief at the 2-hour mark, and no significant group differences were reported in terms of headache duration. Furthermore, the prevalence of adverse side-effects (i.e., dizziness, vertigo, heartburn, etc.) was 20% for sumatriptan, compared to 4% for ginger (p = 0.028). Eighty-six % of subjects in the sumatriptan group and 88% in the ginger group reported high to superior satisfaction with treatment efficacy (p = 0.736).
In the present study, ginger powder was revealed to have a prophylactic effect comparable to standardized medication for the treatment of chronic migraine. Ginger powder performed similarly to sumatriptan in decreasing mean severity of migraine attacks two hours after headache onset, and no significant differences between the two products were reported in terms of patient satisfaction with treatment effects and willingness to continue with treatment. Ginger, however, was associated with the additional advantage of having significantly fewer subjective side effects. Future studies including a larger sample size and a longer observation period, as well as a clinical comparison of ginger to other natural herbal remedies used in the mitigation of migraine (e.g., peppermint oil) are warranted.
Source: Maghbooli M, Golipour F, Esfandabadi M, et al. Comparison between the efficacy of ginger and sumatriptan in the ablative treatment of the common migraine. Phytotherapy Research. 2014; 28: 412-415. DOI: 10.1002/ptr.4996.
© 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Posted January 28, 2019.
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- Grøntved A, Hentzer E. Vertigo-reducing effect of ginger root. ORL. 1986;48(5):282-286.
- Altman RD, Marcussen K. Effects of a ginger extract on knee pain in patients with osteoarthritis. Arthritis & Rheumatism. 2001;44(11):2531-2538.
- Ernst E, Pittler M. Efficacy of ginger for nausea and vomiting: a systematic review of randomized clinical trials. British journal of anaesthesia. 2000;84(3):367-371.
- Bordia A, Verma S, Srivastava K. Effect of ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) and fenugreek (Trigonella foenumgraecum L.) on blood lipids, blood sugar and platelet aggregation in patients with coronary artery disease. Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids. 1997;56(5):379-384.
- Mustafa T, Srivastava K. Ginger (Zingiber officinale) in migraine headache. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 1990;29(3):267-273.
- Maghbooli M, Golipour F, Moghimi Esfandabadi A, Yousefi M. Comparison between the efficacy of ginger and sumatriptan in the ablative treatment of the common migraine. Phytotherapy Research. 2014;28(3):412-415.
