Coping
Date: 2002-11-05

Question:
I have been reading about ginger to help relieve nausea in pregnancy. My question is can you take too much ginger? And also I read you should not use dried ginger only fresh ginger. My other question is what about the crystalized ginger you buy in the spice aisle of the grocery store? Is that considered dried ginger and therefore shouldnt be used in pregnancy? Any advise would sure help. Thanks

Answer:
Two studies on ginger pills (powder in pill form) have been published. Women in these efficacy studies were given 1000 mg per day and had no adverse outcome above the 1 percent to 3 percent baseline risk for birth defects present for all pregnancies.

It would be very difficult to establish what is too much ginger or what the difference might be between pills, dried, fresh, or crystalized forms of ginger. We can only mention our recent, unpublished study of 187 women who took ginger in all its forms at some point in their first trimester. This study showed no increased incidence of birth defects in the pregnancy outcomes, over the baseline risk. These women had tried ginger in different forms, sometimes with antiemetic medication, as well, and the quantities and types of ginger were not easily determined.