Ginger Helpful for Nausea and Vomiting of Pregnancy CME Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2003;189:1374-1377 Jan. 6, 2004 — Ginger is safe and mildly effective for the treatment of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP), according to the results of a prospective comparative study published in the November issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. "Many women are hesitant to take medicinal drugs for fear of harming the fetus, so consequently they are often interested in nonmedicinal options such as acupressure, acupuncture, and ginger," write Galina Portnoi, MD, from the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, and colleagues. "Despite the years of the use of ginger in many cultures, there remains little information regarding its safety and efficacy during pregnancy." The investigators compared pregnant women who were taking ginger during the first trimester of pregnancy with a group of women who were exposed to nonteratogenic drugs that were not antiemetic medications. Of 187 pregnancies, there were 181 live births, two stillbirths, three spontaneous abortions, and one therapeutic abortion. There were no significant differences in outcomes between the two groups, except that more infants weighed less than 2,500 g in the comparison group (12 vs. 3; P </= .001). In the group taking ginger, mean birth weight was 3,542 ± 543 g, mean gestational age was 39 ± 2 weeks, and there were three major malformations. Of 66 women who completed scores rating on a scale of 0 to 10 how effective the ginger was for their nausea and vomiting, the mean score was 3.3 ± 2.9 SD. Although the small sample size resulted in limited power to examine the rates of major malformations, the authors concluded that ginger does not appear to increase the rates above the baseline rate of 1% to 3%. "The results also suggest that ginger is somewhat helpful in alleviating the symptoms of NVP, more so with the capsules than any other preparation," they write. "This evidence-based information can be helpful to women and their health professionals when making the decision regarding the treatment of nausea and vomiting with ginger during pregnancy." Duchesnay Inc. supported the Motherisk NVP Helpline used to enroll women in this study. Mead Johnson/Canada also supported this study through an unrestricted grant. News Author: Laurie Barclay, MD CME Author: Désirée Lie, MD, MSEd Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2003;189:1374- 1377
toby jones <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]... > Ginger Helpful for Nausea and Vomiting of Pregnancy CME Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2003;189:1374-1377 > > Jan. 6, 2004 - Ginger is safe and mildly effective for the treatment of nausea and vomiting of > pregnancy (NVP), according to the results of a prospective comparative study published in the > November issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. And spontaneous abortions or premature births be careful
