Friday, May 15, 2009

Ginger for Nausea

My SIL's second chemo session is scheduled for next week. Her first treatment went well but she said the nausea was the worst. Maybe I'll suggest she try ginger....

Ginger cuts nausea in chemo patients
May 15, 2009

New research shows that ginger appears to reduce nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy treatment for cancer.

As many as 70 percent of cancer patients who receive chemotherapy experience nausea as a result of their treatment, even though many take anti-nausea drugs.

A study of 644 patients with a history of chemotherapy-related nausea found that those who took capsules of ginger twice daily before starting a round of chemo were less likely to feel queasy on the first day of treatment than those who took a placebo. All participants in the study were also given standard anti-nausea medication on the first day of chemotherapy.

Taking the equivalent of a quarter to a half teaspoon of ginger daily was particularly effective at controlling nausea, researchers found.

It's not clear, though, why ginger might have this effect. One theory is that it acts as an anti-inflammatory agent in the gut, said the study's lead author, Julie Ryan, who presented her findings Thursday at a news conference by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Though ginger supplements were used in the study, eating or drinking foods with ginger in them might work, too, as long as it's the right dose and the ginger isn't artificial, said Ryan, with the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Previous studies suggest that ginger also reduces the severity of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.

In other research presented Thursday:

• People with oral cancers containing the human papillomavirus (HPV) fared better than those with tumors not associated with the virus. Patients with HPV-positive tumors responded better to treatment, were less likely to develop a second cancer and had less than half the risk of dying after five years, compared to patients with HPV-negative cancer, according to a study led by Dr. Maura Gillison, with the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. Heavy smokers, especially those who drink alcohol, are at the highest risk for oral cancer. But more than a quarter of people who develop this cancer have no known risk factors, and the number of cases among people under 40 has grown dramatically. The HPV virus appears to be the culprit in some of those cases.

• An experimental drug shows promise in preventing potentially deadly recurrences of neuroblastoma, a rare cancer of the head and neck that affects young children. The drug uses antibodies to stimulate the immune system to attack cancer cells. In a study of 226 children, 66 percent remained cancer-free two years after getting the new drug along with standard therapy, compared to 46 percent of kids who received standard therapy alone. Side effects of the drug include pain, allergic reactions and blood vessel leakage. As of now, the drug is only available through clinical trials.

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