Ginger for Migraines
Ginger for migraines is rapidly becoming a popular natural migraine treatment, as evidenced from this recent study and our own testing.
The most popular drugs on the planet for migraine treatment fall into one of two categories:
- OTC drugs, like aspirin, acetaminophen (such as motrin), tylenol, excedrin, etc… All of these drugs contain some combination basic pain killer and caffeine, both of which can work to alleviate the effects of headaches. These drugs work best with minor pain, or if the headache is treated early enough.
- Prescription drugs, are a variety of drugs which often treat severe pain, such as sumatriptan (Imitrex is the most popular brand name). These drugs often have a variety of nasty side effects including nausea, drowsiness, and headache “rebounding”, whereby the headache comes back after being gone for several days.
A third and emerging variety of migraine / headache treatment are herbal remedies for migraines – sometimes considered natural remedies, which include one of the best herbs for pain relief – ginger. Ginger is well regarded for its ability to calm your stomach … Remember mom giving you gingerale for your stomach problems? That’s because Gingerale has ginger in it!
Researchers in Iran recently completed and published a study comparing the effects of sumatriptan and ginger. Sumatriptan is a very popular abortive migraine drug, which is often prescribed all over the world. The study took place with over 100 men and women who suffered migraines. On average, these were people who had suffered the effects of migraines for seven years. The study was “double blind”, and the patients were given either 250mg of dried ginger powder, or 50mg of sumatriptan.
The results were fantastic … showing that ginger for migraines was as effective as sumatriptan, and it was able to provide 90% relief within a few hours of ingesting the pills. Even better, the patients taking ginger had almost no side effects, compared to about 20% of the sumatriptan patients who experienced heartburn, dizziness, and drowsiness.
… Read more about the results of the study, here.
There are a variety of natural, OTC, and prescription (Rx) drugs that can help with your migraines and cluster headaches. We continue to review and discuss those on our blog, as well as our migraine treatments pages. Do you use ginger? Was it effective?
Fun fact: One of our founders recently started taking daily doses of ginger for migraines, to see if it can help him keep cluster headaches at bay.
Update: Over the last month or so, I’ve been taking this ginger for the last month or so, twice a day, at double the dosage that’s recommended, ie, 550mg x 2, twice a day. So far, this has helped reduce my migraines as a preventative measure. I’ve also taken it when my cluster headaches are coming on, alongside tylenol and acetaminophen, which seems to remove migraines faster than without the ginger.
[…] at bay, or you can take it at the first evidence of the headache coming on, and expect to see some migraine pain relief in a few hours (similar to Sumatriptan according to some […]