Feeling better

The last few days have been interesting. For the last two weeks my left ankle has been painful again and constantly swollen. I was on the verge of making a Drs appointment when something strange happened.

My OH made me a cup of ginger herbal tea as usual on Sunday morning. Four or five years ago I rather reluctantly gave up ordinary tea and coffee as it was giving me bad headaches and had become my main migraine trigger. Ever since then my morning ritual has been drinking a cup of Twinings Lemon and Ginger tea. However this time he added some slices of fresh ginger just for a change. He had also bought me some crystalised ginger. He spotted it when shopping in our local health food shop and bought some knowing how much I love it. So, for the past few days I have been eating a small piece of crystallised ginger with my morning tea. Within a few hours on Sunday the swelling on my ankle went down completely and although not totally pain free I was able to put my full weight on it. Ever since then my ankle has been a normal size.

It may be a coincidence but I have started to wonder if the ginger is making a difference. A while ago I read an article about a clinical trial which took place in Miami to assess the effectiveness of ginger as an anti-inflamatory in patients with osteoarthritis. If you are interested you can read about it here. The results of the trial were not totally conclusive and there is still much debate amongst doctors about its benefits. At the time I remember being interested but then promptly forgot about it. I did not know that I had arthritis so I though no more about it. That is until a few days ago when I talking to my OH about the ginger tea.

I am not going to go mad and start eating lots of ginger. Like many herbs and spices it can be dangerous in excess. And of course I would never take a supplement without consulting my GP first. However I will carry on taking small amounts. Apparently fresh and candied ginger root contain higher concentrations of the substance which acts as an ant-inflammatory than the powdered form. That might explain why adding fresh ginger to my tea and eating crystalised ginger seems to have helped. The tea bags contain powdered ginger. For now, as I love ginger any way I will carry on eating and drinking it. After it can't hurt and hopefully it might help.

One thing that I have learnt over the last 12 months is that it is worth trying anything which will make me feel better. Like most chronic illnesses, the experience of arthritis is slightly different for everyone. If ginger can help me, whether it is the placebo effect or not, I am not going to ignore it.