Ginger And Acupressure Aid In Morning Sickness? Science Says They Might Help

Up to 85 percent women go through morning sickness during their pregnancy period and the signs can affect their daily routine, according to the report published in the journal JAMA on October 4. The review from the United Kingdom suggested that for women with morning sickness, there are a variety of home remedies including consumption of ginger and acupressure that can relieve the symptoms, but the efficiency of these methods does not have any valid evidence.

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The research was led by Catherine McParlin, an associate researcher at Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in the U.K., and it observed 78 cases on the treatments for vomiting and nausea during pregnancy. Out of the 78 cases, 67 were a randomized clinical trial which implies that the people in the study are arbitrarily assigned to receive either the treatment or a placebo.

However the results obtained from this study were not appropriate to draw any sort of conclusions as they did not offer much information due to low quality studies since the research did not include a wide variety of patients thus rendering the whole exercise as imprecise, according to Live Science.

Overall, the treatments provided to pregnant women with morning sickness fell into three categories. First category included the simple changes in lifestyle, such as a diet change or over-the-counter remedies. Second category included the medicines prescribed by doctors while the third category was of patients with severe symptoms of morning sickness and need to be admitted to hospitals.

Women with mild symptoms could be treated with the consumption of ginger and use of acupressure as the initial approaches. Acupressure is an old age practice that involves the application of pressure to certain points on the patient's body. The researchers focused on applying pressure on the point on the inner side of the wrist, about one-sixth the way up the arm.

There are other options such as nerve stimulation that involves applying a mild electric current to the same point where acupressure was applied. Although the procedure is safe, the benefits are still unclear.

The researchers have noted that the results of the study are largely in line with the guidelines published by American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist (ACOG) last year. Those guidelines suggested that ginger and acupressure for mild cases, and corticosteroids for severe cases should be used for patients that are not responding to any other remedies.