Have you ever tried ginger for IBS or SIBO?

Ginger is a root herb used as a food flavouring and also has traditionally been used as a medicine. It’s a well-known anti-inflammatory and can be a good way of supporting your digestive system. 

Ginger for slow transit time in IBS-C

Some studies have shown that taking high levels of ginger powder in a concentrated form in a capsule can help with the speed at which your stomach empties itself, so it can help with the speed of things going through your digestion, this can be really helpful if you’ve got slow motility. 

You need to take quite a high dose for it to be effective, so you may want to try something like a gram of powdered ginger a day. 

Because taking ginger can help to speed up the food going through your digestion, it’s really good if you struggle with food sitting in your stomach for a long time.

Ginger can also be used as a prokinetic in SIBO to help encourage your Migrating Motor Complex. (You can read more about the MMC and SIBO in this article)

I’m Anna Mapson, a registered nutritional therapist. Together we can find solutions to IBS and make a plan for your journey to better gut health. Let’s talk about your symptoms and how you can take charge today!

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But what about IBS-D?

Ginger is also really effective for people who have IBS diarrhoea-predominant type symptoms and it’s been shown to slow the amount of water that’s drawn into the bowel. 

This could keep your food or the stool in your gut for a bit longer, acting to reduce the time it takes to dash through your system. 

And because it’s slowing things down, hopefully, that can help people with more diarrhoea-predominant symptoms.

So when it comes to ginger, it actually works for both constipation and diarrhoea!

Ginger supports immune health

This superhero herb is great for reducing inflammation, so can be quite useful for people who need a bit of support for their immune system or pain relief. It works by scavenging free-radicals, which helps reduce a chronic inflammatory response. 

In IBS the action of reducing the inflammation may help with reducing the over alert connection between the brain and the gut. This is sometimes called visceral hypersensitivity. Visceral hypersensitivity is common in IBS, and it means your brain is receiving more messages about a normal amount of water or gas in the intestines, causing you to feel more pain and sensitivity.  

Ginger can help relieve that sensitivity where you feel like you’re reacting to absolutely everything. My clients often come to me with the feeling that their digestion is raw and that just everything is hurting, so in cases like this, ginger can be really useful. 

Help for nausea 

Ginger is also good for combating nausea and that awful sicky feeling that people with IBS often have. 

Some people find sucking on ginger sweets helps with travel sickness. 

How to take ginger for IBS

If you’d like to take a higher dose of ginger, you can take it as a supplement, but a great way to do it is just to grate some fresh ginger into a cup of tea or a cup of warm water and drink it, you’ll get a more gentle lower dose using fresh ginger.  

You can also use ginger in your recipes as well, adding it to curries and mixing it in with food.

I sometimes even like it with porridge, it can be quite a spicy kick in the mornings!

What about you?

Let me know if you try ginger for your IBS, and if it works for you, or also if you have any questions about any other supplements or herbs and things that you’ve heard about and would want to talk about it with a professional, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

I help people with IBS and SIBO get control of unpredictable gut symptoms to find long-term relief from painful and embarrassing symptoms without restrictive dieting.

I can help you to:

• Understand your digestion better, so you recognise your triggers
• Eat a well-balanced diet, with tasty meals that are simple to prepare
• Develop better digestion and more energy