Hello and welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

Now I know I've made a name for myself and explaining how not to do certain things.

Just look at my books. How not to die in my upcoming book, How Not to Diet.

But what I want to share with you is actually quite positive.

What's the best way to live a healthy life? Here are some answers.

Today we look at the best way to get arthritis under control.

How to manage the inflammation that causes it in our first story.

We learn how a quarter to a half teaspoon a day of powdered ginger can be as pain-relieving

as ibuprofen without the risk of damage, torrentestinal lining.

If ginger is so effective against migraines and the pain of menstrual cramps,

what about osteoarthritis and all to come disorder that produces chronic pain and disability?

The first major study published in 2000 showed no benefit over placebo, but the study only lasted three weeks.

The next in 2001 lasted longer, six weeks, and was by the end indeed able to show significantly better results than placebo.

But the placebo did so well, reducing pain from like 60s and a scale of 1 to 100 down to like 40s,

that bringing pain down that extra little bit into the 30s was not especially clinically significant.

And so an editorial in the official Journal of the American College of Rheumatology concluded that ginger should not be recommended for treatment of arthritis

because of the limited efficacy.

But since that time, there's been a few other trials that showed more impressive results,

such that ginger is now considered indeed able to reduce pain and disability in osteoarthritis.

But how well compared to other treatments?

Since osteoarthritis is a chronic disease, it's especially important to weigh the risk versus benefit of treatment

and the commonly used anti-inflammatory drugs can carry serious cardiovascular and gastrointestinal risks.

...