14 DAY TRIAL // While some researchers are busy making a case of how the so-called sunshine vitamin could one day constitute a reliable treatment for asthma, others say that ginger might also prove beneficial to people affected by this medical condition.
Thus, a team of scientists set to present their findings at this year's ATS International Conference maintain that this spicy root can help make it easier for asthma patients to breathe.
They say that certain chemical compounds present in ginger work by enhancing the effects of bronchodilating medications.
More precisely, they help further relax the tissues that make up an individual's airway smooth muscle and thus allow them to breathe more easily.
The conclusion that ginger might up the efficiency of asthma medication is based on data collected while carrying out a series of experiments on samples of human ASM (airway smooth muscle) tissue.
More precisely, this tissue samples were made to contract, and then the researchers tried to pin down the most efficient way to compel them to relax.
By the looks of it, the tissue samples exposed to both ginger components and compounds typically used to treat asthma were the ones that relaxed the quickest.
Because of this, the researchers suspect that using both purified components extracted from said spicy root and run-off-the-mill medication is bound to improve on the overall wellbeing of asthma patients and their ability to breathe.
Newswise quotes study lead author Elizabeth Townsend, who wished to point out the following:
“Asthma has become more prevalent in recent years, but despite an improved understanding of what causes asthma and how it develops, during the past 40 years few new treatment agents have been approved for targeting asthma symptoms.”
“In our study, we demonstrated that purified components of ginger can work synergistically with β-agonists to relax ASM,” the specialist summed up the findings of these experiments.