Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. Supplementing with 2 grams of panax ginseng for 4 weeks significantly reduced mental fatigue by 7.7% in participating subjects compared to control.
Chronic fatigue syndrome is a debilitating illness that severely impairs a person’s quality of life and has no effective treatments (1). A 2004 study (2) suggested that chronic fatigue syndrome reduces household productivity by 37% and labor force productivity by 54%, which costs the U.S. economy $9.1 billion per year. As a result, ways to effectively treat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are at a premium.
Fortunately, panax ginseng may help those with chronic fatigue. A 2013 study (3) involved 88 subjects (20 men and 68 women) between the ages of 20 and 60 with chronic fatigue syndrome. They received either 1 gram of panax ginseng extract (29 subjects), 2 grams of ginseng extract (29 subjects) or a placebo (30 subjects) per day for 4 weeks. Before and after the study, each subject provided blood samples and completed the Chalder fatigue severity questionnaire (4) which included a Mental Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) and a Visual Analog Scale (VAS), with decreasing scores on both scales indicating a decrease in fatigue symptoms.
After 4 weeks, the researchers noted significant benefits of the ginseng supplementation in two areas:
| Placebo | Ginseng 1g/day | Ginseng 2g/day | p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mental NRS | 18.4% decrease (7.1 to 5.8) | 16.7% decrease (20.4 to 17) | 26.1% decrease (20.7 to 15.3) | 0.002 |
| VAS | 18.4% decrease (7.1 to 5.8) | 21.2% decrease (7.1 to 5.6) | 32.9% decrease (7.3 to 4.9) | 0.049 |
When addressing the 18.4% decrease in mental NRS, the researchers stated “this would result from placebo effects because the drug administered was panax ginseng” and that “psychological distress has been regarded as both the main cause and symptom of chronic fatigue (7).”
When suggesting how panax ginseng was able to elicit these benefits, the researchers pointed to the antioxidant properties as there was both a decrease in cell damage (MDA) and an increase in antioxidant status (GSH) and research has suggested that oxidative stress “may be an important contributor” to the onset of chronic fatigue syndrome (5, 6):
| Placebo | Ginseng 1g/day | Ginseng 2g/day | p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MDA (microMolar) | 4.6% decrease (17.5 to 16.7) | 23.6% decrease (18.7 to 14.3) | 27.3% decrease (18.4 to 13.4) | 0.009 |
| GSH (microMolar) | 2.0% decrease (56.5 to 55.4) | 6.4% increase (57.4 to 61.1) | 0.6% increase (60.8 to 61.2) | 0.0043 |
For the researchers, “Our results provide the first evidence of the anti-fatigue effects of panax ginseng in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome” and that “we submit that these changes in antioxidant properties contribute in part to its mechanism.”
Source: Kim, Hyeong-Geug, et al. “Antifatigue effects of Panax ginseng CA Meyer: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.” PLoS One 8.4 (2013): e61271.
© 2013 Kim et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Posted March 3, 2016. r/cw
Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com.
References:
- Craig T, Kakumanu S. Chronic fatigue syndrome: evaluation and treatment. Am Fam Physician 2002; 65: 1083–1090
- Reynolds KJ. The economic impact of chronic fatigue syndrome. Cost Eff Resour Alloc. 2004 Jun 21;2(1):4
- Kim HG. Antifatigue effects of Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. PLoS One 2013 Apr 17;8(4):e61271. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061271. Print 2013
- Morriss RK, Wearden AJ, Mullis R. Exploring the validity of the Chalder Fatigue scale in chronic fatigue syndrome. J Psychosom Res 1998; 45: 411–417
- Jason LA, Richman JA, Rademaker AW, Jordan KM, Plioplys AV, et al. A community-based study of chronic fatigue syndrome. Arch Intern Med 1999;159: 2129–2137
- Puri BK, Agour M, Gunatilake KD, Fernando KA, Gurusinghe AI, et al. (2009) An in vivo proton neurospectroscopy study of cerebral oxidative stress in myalgic encephalomyelitis (chronic fatigue syndrome). Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids 81: 303–30
- Roy-Byrne P, Afari N, Ashton S, Fischer M, Goldberg J, et al. Chronic fatigue and anxiety/depression: a twin study. Br J Psychiatry 2002; 180: 29–34
