Efficacy of Ginger Supplementation in Relieving Persistent Hypothyroid Symptoms in Patients with Controlled Primary Hypothyroidism: A Pilot Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial
What this study found
Ginger supplementation led to significant improvements in total ThySRQ scores and various symptoms such as weight gain, cold intolerance, and concentration difficulties. It also reduced body weight, BMI, waist circumference, TSH, fasting blood sugar, triglycerides, and total cholesterol levels.
- Study & population
- Participants were aged 20-60 years, diagnosed with overt primary hypothyroidism, and had normal serum TSH levels.
- Intervention
- In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 60 patients with primary hypothyroidism received either 500 mg of ginger or a placebo twice daily for 30 days.
- Key limitation
- The study had a small sample size, short duration, and only assessed one dosage of ginger.
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Open PDFOriginal 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.