SAN DIEGO (Reuters Health) - Ginger is effective in reducing nausea due to motion sickness, according to researchers at the Digestive Disease Week meetings here.

Ginger is a Chinese herbal remedy that has been traditionally used to reduce nausea. For the first time, Dr. Wei Ming Sun and colleagues, from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, have conducted a study that proves ginger's effectiveness in relieving motion sickness symptoms.

Seven healthy people, aged 18 to 35 years, had motion sickness artificially induced, by being spun in a large drum 30 minutes after eating a meal. Study participants were given either 1,000 milligrams of ginger powder or a placebo (inactive) pill one hour before motion sickness was induced.

Nausea scores during the drum rotation, rated on a scale of 1 to 3, were significantly lower for study participants who were given the ginger powder than for 'controls' given the placebo. The average ginger group score was 1.0, whereas the placebo group average was 2.5, the researchers report.

Nausea scores after the cessation of the drum rotation, rated on a scale of 1 to 10, were 7.8 for the placebo group versus 1.5 for the ginger group.

Those who took ginger experienced a greater delay in developing nausea than did the controls, 11.4 minutes in contrast to 4.6 minutes, Sun's group noted.

The investigators also measured the electrical activity of the stomach and found that ginger kept the rate of stomach contractions normal during drum rotation. In contrast, the placebo group experienced a 7% increase in stomach contractions.