Ginger (Zingiber officinale) has been a staple in traditional medicine for centuries and is valued across cultures for its ability to ease digestive distress and fight inflammation. Its benefits for stomach ailments, nausea and intestinal disorders have been mentioned in Ancient Ayurvedic and Chinese texts.
Today, more evidence on ginger’s benefits is being published, and one recent study revealed this food’s ability to manage chronic gut inflammation, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).1
IBD is an umbrella term for disorders that cause chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. These conditions are characterized by persistent diarrhea, severe abdominal pain, fatigue and unintended weight loss.2 Over time, IBDs lead to malnutrition, intestinal damage and an increased risk of colorectal cancer.3
How Does Ginger Help Fight Inflammation in Your Gut?
A recent animal study published in Nature Communications journal4 explored how a specific compound in ginger called furanodienone (FDN) provides protective, anti-inflammatory effects in your gut.
• FDN selectively binds to and regulates a nuclear receptor in the gut — This helps reduce inflammation and protects the intestinal barrier, helping reduce the risk of inflammatory conditions like ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.5
• It activates the pregnane x receptor — FDN activates PXR, which plays a central role in regulating the immune response in the intestines. This helps significantly reduce symptoms of colitis, including weight loss, intestinal damage and high levels of inflammatory markers in the gut.
• Modulating PXR allows your gut to heal — When activated, PXR reduces the production of inflammatory molecules like tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), both of which drive chronic inflammation. PXR essentially turns down your immune system’s overreaction, allowing your gut to recover.6 As explained in an article in News-Medical.net:
“PXR specifically plays a role in the metabolism of foreign substances, like dietary toxins and pharmaceuticals. Binding between FDN and PXR needs to be carefully regulated because over-activating the receptor can lead to an increase in the metabolism and potency of other drugs and signaling metabolites in the body.”7
• FDN-treated mice had a drastic decrease in inflammation levels — Compared to untreated animals, their gut tissues also had lower levels of oxidative stress and fewer signs of damage. This suggests that ginger-derived compounds not only block inflammation but also protect your gut cells from long-term complications and infections.8
These findings suggest that FDN not only calms gut inflammation but also helps repair damage caused by chronic immune activation. “Collectively, these results support the translational potential of FDN as a therapeutic agent for the treatment and prevention of colonic diseases,” the researchers said.9
Early Treatment with Ginger Compounds Leads to Better Results
The featured study also highlighted how FDN improves gut barrier integrity. In IBD, the gut lining becomes damaged, allowing harmful bacteria and toxins to enter the bloodstream, which worsens inflammation.
FDN helps strengthen the gut lining by increasing the expression of tight junction proteins — molecules that hold intestinal cells together and prevent harmful substances from leaking out. This means FDN also actively repairs the gut’s defenses, making it harder for flare-ups to occur in the future.10
• The earlier the treatment is implemented, the better the outcome — The researchers discovered that mice subjects that received FDN early in the development of colitis had the best outcomes, with reduced severity of symptoms and faster recovery.
Hence, using ginger at the first signs of gut inflammation could be more effective than waiting until the damage has progressed. Even in mice with advanced inflammation, FDN still helped to reduce symptoms, though its effects were stronger when administered earlier.11
• Ginger compounds are safer than conventional treatments — The study noted that FDN had no toxic effects on other organs, including the liver and kidneys, making it a safer alternative over conventional treatments like corticosteroids and immunosuppressants, which lead to liver damage, infections and other side effects.
Jiabao Liu, a research associate at the University of Toronto’s Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research and one of the study authors, said:
“We found that we could reduce inflammation in the colons of mice through oral injections of FDN. Our discovery of FDN’s target nuclear receptor highlights the potential of complementary and integrative medicine for IBD treatment.
We believe natural products may be able to regulate nuclear receptors with more precision than synthetic compounds, which could lead to alternative therapeutics that are cost-effective and widely accessible.”12
Ginger Compounds Regulate Immune Cells to Reduce Inflammation
Another recent study, published in Frontiers in Immunology,13 examined how bioactive ginger compounds called gingerols and shogaols interact with immune cells to reduce inflammation. The researchers analyzed how these compounds affect different immune cells, which all play central roles in inflammation and immune responses.
• Suppresses excessive immune activity — According to the researchers, gingerols and shogaols directly interfere with key inflammatory pathways. They reduce the production of pro-inflammatory molecules like interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) and TNF-α.
• Blocks inflammation-triggering pathway — The study also found that these ginger compounds block the activation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), a major signaling pathway that triggers inflammation, and inhibit mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways, which contribute to immune cell overactivation.
• Suppresses macrophage-driven inflammation — Macrophages, which are immune cells responsible for eliminating harmful invaders, often become overly active in conditions like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). When this happens, they release excessive amounts of inflammatory chemicals, damaging the gut lining.
The study authors found that 6-gingerol suppressed macrophage-driven inflammation by reducing the production of nitric oxide (NO) and other inflammatory markers. It also blocked macrophages from releasing high levels of IL-1β and TNF-α, which contribute to tissue damage in the gut and other areas of the body.14
• Influences the inflammasome system — Further analysis showed that gingerols and shogaols influence the body’s inflammasome system, which acts as an internal alarm, triggering inflammation when harmful stimuli are detected. Overactivation of inflammasomes is linked to chronic inflammatory diseases. This effect provides another layer of immune regulation, reducing unnecessary inflammation in the gut and beyond.
Overall, the research highlighted how gingerols and shogaols work on multiple levels to reduce inflammation — directly influencing immune cells, blocking key inflammatory pathways, and supporting anti-inflammatory metabolic processes. The researchers noted:
“Ginger has been used traditionally as an herbal medicine for the treatment of many maladies, and due to their potent immunomodulatory capacity several reports proposed ginger-derived bioactive compounds as candidates for the management and prevention of autoimmune diseases.”15
What Else Is Ginger Good For?
Medicinal plants are now becoming widely appreciated for their ability to protect and even help treat diseases, and ginger stands out for its whole-body benefits. In fact, if you do a quick search on my site, you’ll find numerous articles detailing the many advantages of adding this humble root crop to your diet. Below are a few notable examples of ginger’s impressive benefits:
• Has protective effects against cancer — One of the most well-known benefits of ginger is its ability to help protect against different types of cancer, including breast, cervical16 and colorectal cancer.
In a recent study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, researchers highlighted ginger’s ability to help inhibit and treat colorectal cancer by inhibiting cancer cell proliferation, inducing cell cycle blockage, promoting apoptosis (programmed cell death) and suppressing cancer cell invasion and migration.17
• Supports healthy aging — A review published in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity journal18 notes that ginger contributes to healthy aging and protects against age-related conditions, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and dementia, cardiovascular issues, respiratory disorders and gastrointestinal diseases. According to the researchers:
“Aging is a complex process that is determined by multiple and interdependent genetic, cellular, and environmental factors. Ginger, one of the most commonly used natural products both for gastronomic and medicinal purposes, has documented antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-infection, and chemopreventive properties.”19
• Offers pain relief — Clinical trials have demonstrated that ginger can modulate pain through a variety of mechanisms, including inhibiting prostaglandins.20 Traditionally, ginger has been used to treat pain associated with menstruation, osteoarthritis, migraines and delayed onset muscle soreness.
To learn more about ginger’s cancer protective effects, read “The Cancer-Fighting and Chemoprotective Properties of Ginger.” For more about its whole-body benefits, check out “Study: The Anti-Inflammatory Properties of Ginger.”
How Can You Incorporate Ginger Into Your Diet?
Ginger is a culinary treasure; when cooked and added to your favorite dishes, it provides a delicious yet mild spiciness and fragrance. However, it’s more than just a flavor enhancer — fresh or dried, it’s a powerful tool for calming inflammation at the cellular level.
- Best ways to use fresh ginger — You can add fresh ginger to warm water, tea, smoothies or use it as an ingredient in homecooked meals. Grated or finely chopped, it tastes great when added to curries or stir-fries.
- Dried ginger has more antioxidant effects — Dried ginger contains concentrated shogaols,21 making it even stronger at reducing gut inflammation. If you have severe gut issues, consider taking it in small doses daily.
- Introduce ginger slowly — This is important particularly if your gut is sensitive, as it will help avoid any negative reactions. Once you’ve adjusted, gradually increase the dosage.
What Other Strategies Can Help Support Your Digestive Health?
IBD and other digestive issues are driven by an overactive immune response, which leads to long-term health risks. The key to reversing this is by addressing the root cause — chronic inflammation.
In addition to using ginger, you also need to implement a full-body approach to calm your immune system and heal your gut from the inside out. Here are some tips for you to follow:
• Eliminate inflammatory foods from your diet — What you eat determines whether your gut stays inflamed or begins to heal. Vegetable oils, processed sugars, excessive omega-6 fats, and highly processed foods fuel gut inflammation. Eating these regularly keeps your immune system on high alert.
The key is to remove these unhealthy foods from your diet and focus instead on whole, nutrient-dense foods like fresh fruits and well-cooked vegetables that support digestion and gut lining repair.
Replace seed oils, which are loaded with linoleic acid (LA), with ghee, tallow or grass fed butter, and limit processed grains and refined sugars, which spike inflammation and disrupt gut bacteria. Avoid fried and overly processed foods too, as they contain harmful compounds that worsen gut damage.
• Strengthen your gut barrier with butyrate — If your gut lining is compromised, harmful bacteria and toxins will leak into your bloodstream, triggering even more inflammation. Strengthening your gut barrier stops this cycle, and one important factor that’s essential for this is optimizing your butyrate production.
Butyrate, a type of short-chain fatty acid produced by certain beneficial bacteria in your gut, helps maintain tight junctions in your gut, which stop large particles or toxins from passing into your body. The healthy bacteria in your gut produce butyrate whenever you eat specific types of fiber.
However, when you skip whole fruits and vegetables and rely on low-fiber options like processed foods, you starve these good bacteria, limiting their ability to ferment the fibers that create butyrate.
To learn more about the importance of butyrate for gut health and inflammation, read “Understanding Butyrate — The Key to Optimal Health and Well-Being.”
• Restore your immune balance by regulating stress and getting high-quality sleep — Your gut and immune system are directly influenced by stress and sleep quality. Chronic stress weakens the gut lining and fuels inflammation, while poor sleep disrupts immune regulation. For helpful strategies to improve your sleep, read “Top 33 Tips to Optimize Your Sleep Routine.”
Your gut health is completely within your control. Addressing inflammation at the root level by changing what you eat, reducing stress, and strategically using ginger will allow your digestive system to heal and function properly again.
FAQ: Common Questions About Ginger’s Benefits for IBD
Q: How does ginger help with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)?
A: Ginger compounds, including furanodienone (FDN), activate the pregnane X receptor (PXR) in the gut. This reduces inflammation, lowers oxidative stress and strengthens the intestinal barrier, helping to prevent further damage.
Q: What does the research say about ginger’s role in gut health?
A: A study published in Nature Communications found that FDN in ginger significantly reduced gut inflammation and repaired intestinal damage in animal models of colitis. Another study in Frontiers in Immunology found that gingerols and shogaols suppress immune cell overactivity.
Q: Why is early use of ginger important for gut health?
A: Research shows that when ginger compounds are used at the first signs of gut inflammation, symptoms are less severe, and recovery is faster compared to delayed intervention.
Q: How does ginger impact your immune system function?
A: Ginger compounds block inflammatory pathways like NF-κB and MAPK while reducing immune overactivation. They also decrease key inflammatory molecules such as interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α).
Q: Is ginger a safer alternative to conventional IBD treatments?
A: Studies found that ginger compounds reduce gut inflammation without harming the liver or kidneys, unlike corticosteroids and immunosuppressants, which carry risks of organ damage and infections.
