Efficacy of Ginger Supplementation in Relieving Persistent Hypothyroid Symptoms in Patients with Controlled Primary Hypothyroidism: A Pilot Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial

Abstract

Primary hypothyroidism is a common disease. Some patients have persistent symptoms despite normal serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels. Ginger is reported to be beneficial in relieving similar symptoms. Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy of ginger supplementation in relieving persistent symptoms in these patients. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, 60 hypothyroid patients aged 20–60 years with normal serum TSH concentrations were randomly allocated to two equal parallel study groups of ginger (500 mg twice a day) or placebo for 30 days. Hypothyroid symptoms were evaluated as the primary outcome using the Thyroid Symptom Rating Questionnaire (ThySRQ) before and after the intervention. Anthropometric measures and laboratory indices including TSH, triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TChol), and fasting blood sugar (FBS) were considered as secondary outcomes. A significant lower mean total ThySRQ score (8.63 ± 5.47 vs. 15.76 ± 6.09, P < 0.001 ) was observed in the ginger group compared to the control group. Ginger led to significant improvements in the mean scores of the weight gain, cold intolerance, constipation, dry skin, appetite, memory loss, concentration disturbance, and feeling giddy or dizzy domains ( P < 0.001 ). However, no significant improvements were observed in hair loss, nail fragility, hearing, hoarseness, speech, and depression or feeling down ( P > 0.05 ). Ginger supplementation also led to a significant decrease in body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, serum TSH, FBS, TG, and TChol levels compared to the placebo. In summary according to preliminary results of this study, ginger supplementation can help relieve persistent hypothyroid symptoms. Also, it may have beneficial effects in terms of weight reduction and regulation of the FBS and lipid profile in hypothyroid patients.

Effect of ginger (Zingiber officinale) intake on human serum lipid profile: Systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…Duplicates, articles on ginger mixtures with other herbs, not available data or hazard ratio, and undesirable titles and abstracts were excluded. In all, 21 publications were found to be eligible after being matched with our inclusion criteria; however, four of these studies that used ginger and physical activity together were also excluded because we only want to see the effect of ginger intake alone not with combination of any other factor (Ayaz & Roshan, 2012; Farhadi et al, 2020; Karimi et al, 2015; Vahdatpoor et al, 2019), thus leaving 17 articles in our systematic review and meta‐analysis (Arablou et al, 2014; Ashraf et al, 2022; Atashak et al, 2011; Azimi et al, 2014; Babaahmadi‐Rezaei et al, 2020; Carvalho et al, 2020; Ebrahimzadeh‐Attary et al, 2015; Elgayar et al, 2020; Gholinezhad et al, 2019; Gholipoor et al, 2019; Mahluji et al, 2013; Makhdoomi Arzati et al, 2017; Rafie et al, 2020; Rahimlou et al, 2019; Tabibi et al, 2016; Talaei et al, 2012; Talaei et al, 2017). Details and extracted data from each included paper have been listed in Table 1.…”

“…Bordia et al (1997) findings also revealed that a higher dose of ginger (4 g/day ginger powder) consumed for a longer length of time (3 months) had no effect on lipids in individuals with coronary artery disease (Bordia et al, 1997). However, due to the small number of studies in some especial cases (there was only one article in each case for hypothyroidism, patients on peritoneal dialysis, NAFLD) (Ashraf et al, 2022; Ebrahimzadeh‐Attary et al, 2015; Tabibi et al, 2016), more studies are definitely needed for a more reliable conclusion.…”

“…Fakhri et al in a study of seven RCTs found that ginger intake resulted in a significant reduction in TG, TC, and LDL‐C, but it did not improve HDL‐C levels significantly (Fakhri et al, 2018). Our meta‐analysis included five papers more than meta‐analysis by Pourmasoumi et al (2018) and eight articles after 2018 (Ashraf et al, 2022; Babaahmadi‐Rezaei et al, 2020; Carvalho et al, 2020; Elgayar et al, 2020; Gholinezhad et al, 2019; Gholipoor et al, 2019; Rafie et al, 2020; Rahimlou et al, 2019), resulting in updated results compared to their study.…”

“…A study on use of ginger for hypothyroidism people showed that only 4 weeks of ginger intake is enough to see the significant TC and TG reduction in this group (Ashraf et al, 2022). Our findings showed that ginger has been more effective in hypothyroidism people compared to diabetics' subjects and it improved both TG and TC in hypothyroidism people only after 4 weeks (Ashraf et al, 2022); while it could only improves TG in individuals with type 2 diabetes based on our pooled results. This is in line with the findings by Al‐Noory et al that reported ginger 500 mg/kg has similar effectiveness as atorvastatin 10 mg/day in hypothyroidism animal models, while it does not have the same effectiveness in diabetic models (Al‐Noory et al, 2013).…”

“…A study on use of ginger for hypothyroidism people showed that only 4 weeks of ginger intake is enough to see the significant TC and TG reduction in this group (Ashraf et al, 2022). Our findings showed that ginger has been more effective in hypothyroidism people compared to diabetics' subjects and it improved both TG and TC in hypothyroidism people only after 4 weeks (Ashraf et al, 2022); while it could only improves TG in individuals with type 2 diabetes based on our pooled results.…”