Ginger is one of the most widely used and loved ingredients in culinary dishes worldwide. Its unmistakable zing gives everything from beverages and deserts to veggie and meat dishes a fresh and exciting taste.
But ginger is much more than a spice to liven up your recipes. This root plant has been used medicinally for over 2000 years for its broad-spectrum antiviral, antibacterial, anti-parasitic and antioxidant properties. In fact, ginger has more than 40 powerful pharmacological actions. (1)
What is even more exciting is that studies now also confirm this spicy root has potent anti-cancer properties that can be up to 10,000 times more effective than conventional chemotherapy for targeting cancer stem cells, preventing new tumors from forming, and even keeping healthy cells alive, something chemotherapy cannot do. (2)
Ginger’s Anti-Cancer Compounds
The most commonly used part of the ginger plant is the rhizome—the root-like stem that grows underground similar to a carrot.
The rhizome contains a variety of trace minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and zinc. It also contains numerous vitamins, including thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), pantothenic acid (B5), vitamin B6, folate, as well as vitamin C and E.
Apart from these valuable vitamins and minerals, the rhizome is also a significant source of antioxidants including gingerols, shogaols, zingerones and paradols, all of which give ginger its potency and unmatched anti-cancer properties.
To date, studies show that ginger is effective as both a cancer preventative and a therapeutic agent. One 2012 study published in the British Journal of Nutrition clearly revealed that whole ginger extract (GE) exerts significant “growth-inhibitory and death-inductory” effects in a wide range of prostate cancer cells. In fact, the study suggests that GE can inhibit the growth and progression of prostate cancer cells by as much as 56 percent. (3,4)
Other studies show that ginger is a key factor in defeating hard-to-treat cancers such as skin,(5) lung, (6,7) ovarian,(8) colon,(9) breast,(10,11) and pancreatic cancer cells.(12)
In the case of ovarian cancer, this type of cancer is often deadly because symptoms typically don’t appear until late in the disease. So, by the time ovarian cancer is diagnosed, it may have already spread well beyond the ovaries. In fact, in over 75 percent of women that develop ovarian cancer, they are not diagnosed until they are already in the advanced stages of the disease. (13)