Thursday May 29, 2014 (foodconsumer.org) -- Eating ginger or taking ginger supplements may help prevent fructose-induced kidney injury, according to a new study in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

For the study, rats were treated with drinking water with 10% fructose and also treated with ginger extract once a day.

The study shows that ginger supplementation in a dose of 50 mg of ginger extract per kg not only improved hyperinsulinemia and hypertriglyceridemia, but also attenuated liquid fructose-induced kidney injury in rats.

Ginger supplementation also prevented excessive renal interstitial collagen deposit by suppressing fructose-stimulated monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 and its receptor chemokine receptor-2.

The study concluded "ginger supplement diminishes fructose-induced kidney injury through suppression of renal overexpression of macrophage-associated proinflammatory cytokines in rats." 

Fructose is associated with metabolic syndrome which increases risk of development and progression of chronic kidney disease.   Ginger has been demonstrated in previous studies to improve diet-induced metabolic abnormalities. (David Liu, PHD)

Reference

Ginger extract diminishes chronic fructose consumption-induced kidney injury through suppression of renal overexpression of proinflammatory cytokines in rats Yang M, Liu C, Jiang J, Zuo G, Lin X, Yamahara J, Wang J, Li Y

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2014, 14 :174 (27 May 2014)