Ginger More Powerful than Drugs as Treatment for Heartburn

Anthony Gucciardi
Natural Society

Lisa Garber
NaturalSociety
September 8, 2012

Should it surprise us that ginger, a cousin of the celebrated turmeric root, is outperforming Big Pharma? Millions suffering from heartburn and indigestion might be saving a pretty penny if they gave ginger a try as a treatment for heartburn instead of the multi-billion dollar drug industry’s many acid-blockers.

Acid reflux, Drugs, and Side-Effects

Dietary choices—like consuming caffeine, chocolate, fried and fatty foods, and alcohol—and simply overeating can lead to heartburn and acid reflux. In traditional medicine, we reach for pharmaceutical acid blockers like proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) when we have heartburn, but like many drugs these are not only often ineffective, they may exacerbate the condition. By design, acid-blockers can turn chronic heartburn into stomach acid barrier dysfunction by removing acid. These drugs are very dangerous, and shouldn’t be anyone’s first choice solution. Stomach acid, however, protects us from infection, aids in digestion, and manages the absorption of minerals and nutrients from our food.

According to GreenMedInfo, side effects of consuming acid-blockers include:

• Clostridium infections
• Diarrhea
• Pneumonia
• Bone fractures
• Gastric lesions
• Cancer

Ginger as Treatment for Heartburn – Outperforms Acid-Blockers

Big Pharma profits when people treat symptoms with pills and syringes rather than removing the source of the problem and treating the condition naturally. People across cultures and centuries, however, have treated gastric discomfort and other ailments with ginger, and it seems we still don’t need Big Pharma’s help.

In a 2007 study published in the journal Molecular Research and Food Nutrition, researchers compared the anti-ulcer and anti-Helicobacter plyori (a bacteria linked to ulcers) properties of ginger and conventional acid-blockers like Lansoprazole, or Prevacid. Remarkably, ginger performed six to eight times better than did the drug. Rather than interfering with or removing stomach acid barrier (and thereby deactivating proteolytic enzymes and increasing risk of infection), ginger inhibits acid reflux and contains potent proteolytic enzymes comparable to the celebrated papaya. Researchers cite the ginger root as “potential in-expensive multistep blockers against ulcer.”

In addition to being a treatment for heartburn, the health benefits of ginger are more than abundant, with the spice also being antibacterial, antiviral, and has antiparasitic properties. It’s been found to kill cancer cells more effectively than often harmful cancer drugs and even ease the common cough.