Please Read: Ginger Was My Answer

Ihatepooping said...
Simply,

So let me get this straight... I know you have a juicer that does this for you but you're saying to stick a cut of ginger into a blender, pour that into cloth, and then you mix the remaining liquid that gets strained with some water?

Pretty much.

Blend, strain out the fibers, prepare as you see fit. Just keep it under 70 deg centigrade. Just the other day I used a mini blender and a coffee filter when I was away from home. I found mixing it with pumpkin spices, milk and honey made a nice treat.

I am going to get the scoop from my friend and report back with the details. I am really intrigued with this as an adjunct to my regular meds. Not ready to give those up yet, but I planned on making golden turmeric paste, but if it isn't bioavailable I won't bother. I plan on reading more about that, as well.

Hi there! Did you get the scoop? I want to buy something ginger but not sure what? I'm terrible in the kitchen and teach all day. Thanks for your help!

Hey guys, just wanted to post in here to say I'll be trying this for one week and will report back. Currently I am not in a true flare but things are not perfect either. I am gassier than I'd like and I have had maybe 2-3 times in the last month where my stools were lined with blood. Most of my stools are plenty formed though and I have only mild to moderate discomfort. I would like to see if the ginger is able to improve things. Medication wise I am taking 5g of Pentasa per day.

I started with 25g (25ml) of the ginger extract last night and will be taking 50g for the next 6 days to assess. I did have quite a bit of blood this morning, more than I have in a while, but I THINK and hope that was going to happen regardless because I haven't had a large bowel movement in a while and this morning really emptied me out so to speak and just 2 days ago my BM was lined with blood so I hope that wasn't due to the ginger.

I'm quite gassy right now, though I've eaten a lot of vegetables today. Hoping for some noticeable improvements this week but of course I'm always skeptical.

Lastly, I'll note that my method of extracting the extract was to blend 8oz ginger root with 90g water...without the water it was getting caught and not blending. This was squeezed out with a cheese cloth and provided 240g of fluid. Meaning about 150g of ginger extract and 90g of water roughly, so my 50g (or 50ml) of ginger is coming from 80g of this ginger/water solution.

Has anyone else tried ginger since this thread was posted? To the OP did you find adding fat improved results at all? Or sipping with meals vs an empty stomach?

It's certainly very spicy...hope it's not causing any issues to the epithelium of the throat

Hm, just to update.....thought I was maybe getting some benefit from the ginger lately (again 50g of the extract per day), a little less gassy the last 2 days. But just had bright red blood in the toilet again. No way to know if this is from the ginger but it is a bit surprising as I hadn't had much like this other than one day after NYE binging. It's making me wonder if the blood Sunday morning was in fact from starting the ginger Saturday.

I'll continue for 1 more week and see what happens, and if there is any noticeable change when coming off of it.

imagardener2 said...
Ginger may or may not be involved in your bleeding. Ginger is a blood thinner but also is an antioxidant. It's not a short term cure but is a healthy addition to cooking and juicing. I never overdo taking ginger and prefer to add it grated fresh in stir fry (low heat addition at end of cooking meat and veggies) or add a few drops into my veggie juice.

Ginger can be very powerful if using freshly juiced so be careful with amount.
Try using mesalamine enemas again if you aren't right now.

What does it being an antioxidant have to do with this?

And yea it doesn't seem to have been a short term cure for me like it was for the OP. I mean Idk...I feel more or less fine, just the occasional cramp, but obviously the bleeding isn't good. I was going to say I don't really get how the "blood thinning" effect causes the bleeding here since "blood thinner" just means anti-coagulant...but there still shouldn't be blood at all unless there is some extra damage to the intestine but I guess since before the ginger I had a few bowel movements just lined with blood the anticoagulant quality could be responsible for it to go from just lining the stool to coming out as a bright red significant amount. IF that is the reason behind it then it would stand to reason that the ginger is not causing the blood by virtue of more damage to my intestine, but rather just allowing more blood to get through the damaged intestine (because it is not coagulating as much) and come out as a thinner bright red rather than a more clotted red on the stool?

I think you're right that I could keep in a small amount in the future, though based on what the OP said and the studies mentioned it seems like it needs to be in the extracted/juiced/concentrated form to be fully effective.

I dropped calories for the end of my diet (I bodybuild) this week to a very low 1500 calories per day, but will finally be going back up to more normal calories (2000+) and normal foods starting Saturday. I am curious to see if the reduced cramping and gas is just from eating less or maybe actually is from the ginger, so for the sake of completion I will continue with the ginger for one more week (with the added calories) and see if there is any improvement compared to before.

Oh and lastly yes, I agree on the enemas, I will be starting back on my Rowasa enema after this ginger experiment is over in about a week.

Posting an update. I crossed the one year mark this month. As a glutton for punishment and as a way to validate the ginger, I gave it up for a couple months with only sporadic 50ml drinks here and there. Over a couple months stool was getting watery, more frequent, urgent, explosive. Decided to buckle down and go the full 100ml for three days and after three days hard stool, lactose tolerant again, one BM every two days (my pre-UC norm).

For anyone struggling with spiciness, get a 20oz tumbler, fill it half with boiling water, a generous portion of honey, add lactose free milk or almond milk until almost full, then add 100ml ginger juice and mix. The milk offsets the spiciness of the ginger and drops the drink temp below 70 deg centigrade. Add pumpkin spices for a festive gingerbread flavor.

@Fasso

The amount was arbitrary at first. I've been experimenting to see what works for me. I discovered that 50ml maintains me well, but 100 reverses my symptoms. My goal was to get enough in high enough concentrations that it wouldn't be too diluted by the time it reached my gut. Talk to your doctor, ask their opinion, and trust your body. If it doesn't feel right, then listen to your body and stop. My ginger drink makes my tummy happy.

simplys said...
@Fasso

The amount was arbitrary at first. I've been experimenting to see what works for me. I discovered that 50ml maintains me well, but 100 reverses my symptoms. My goal was to get enough in high enough concentrations that it wouldn't be too diluted by the time it reached my gut. Talk to your doctor, ask their opinion, and trust your body. If it doesn't feel right, then listen to your body and stop. My ginger drink makes my tummy happy.

Any theories as to how it's working? Killing 'bad' bacteria?

simplys said...
Posting an update. I crossed the one year mark this month. As a glutton for punishment and as a way to validate the ginger, I gave it up for a couple months with only sporadic 50ml drinks here and there. Over a couple months stool was getting watery, more frequent, urgent, explosive. Decided to buckle down and go the full 100ml for three days and after three days hard stool, lactose tolerant again, one BM every two days (my pre-UC norm).

For anyone struggling with spiciness, get a 20oz tumbler, fill it half with boiling water, a generous portion of honey, add lactose free milk or almond milk until almost full, then add 100ml ginger juice and mix. The milk offsets the spiciness of the ginger and drops the drink temp below 70 deg centigrade. Add pumpkin spices for a festive gingerbread flavor.

Thanks for coming back and keeping us updated Simplys, it's awesome this is working so well for you

simplys said...
@David

I would caution that ginger is a blood thinner so it could complicate bleeding. I know that Alcohol can take me from mappy to hurting really fast.

I do wonder how much of an anti-coagulant / blood thinning effect ginger has, especially in such concentrated form

imagardener2 said...
David1991
Re "blood thinning", I recently read that blood thinning can also make skin more susceptible to bleeding which in UC would be rectal. Just something to think about before taking too many supplements or too much of them that contribute to that.

Mae West famously said "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful" but my experience has been "not always".

Do you have a source you can post for that?

Things seem to be going quite well right now. Minimal gas, no cramping, no blood, all formed stools. I'm planning on dropping the ginger for the next 2 weeks to see if things get noticeably worse. I would think having done it for the last 2 weeks, and dropping it for 2 weeks, would be enough time in each phase to determine it's effects.

Does anyone disagree and think I would need to go longer? I have a cruise 2 weeks from today so I figure it works into that structure pretty well. If I tried to do 3 weeks of the ginger and 3 weeks off the ginger my off weeks would be considerably confounded by eating a bunch of whatever on the cruise.

countess18 said...
Are you still on the SCD diet? Also why stop something that works esp. before a cruise?

I am not on the SCD, and have not been for quite some time aside from a random month or so last fall (my full run of it was 4 months in the summer of 2016).

I see your point, which is why I'm back and forth about it. I was thinking of coming off of it to see if I notice a difference. I of course don't want to get worse but I figured if I did get worse I could conclude the ginger helped, whereas if I stayed just as good (minimal gas and cramping with formed stools) then perhaps it did not help much if at all.

I've been following this thread since the beginning. I am a firm believer in ginger root tea for the relief of arthritis pain in my shoulders. I can easily see that getting the juice out of the fiber, with no heat used, could be much better. I've used many herbal remedies over time; some work, some don't. Ginger and cinnamon are two that have worked for me and ginger works great. I had to give up cinnamon due to my blood getting too thin and bruising too easily. BUT ginger...is some wonderful stuff. I never noticed much change in my UC due to it, but find it interesting to follow. It's a bit amazing that, after talking with a REAL herbalist...not another moron like myself...that every weed in most everyone's lawns...have a medicinal purpose. We just don't know what they all are! Thank you for sharing the ginger research...I shall continue to watch.

Any thoughts on potentially using the ginger/tumeric extract tinctures?