Introduction: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) believes that ginger peel does have the effect of promoting urination to reduce swelling, and is generally used to treat conditions like edema, abdominal distention, and difficult urination. For constipation, theoretically, patients with heat-type constipation, characterized by symptoms such as dry and hard stools, abdominal bloating, and a dry mouth with bad breath, may benefit from the auxiliary treatment of ginger peel. This is because the "Medical Forest Essentials" records that "ginger peel is acrid and cold." However, ginger peel is mainly used to expel wind-heat from the skin, while heat evil in the anal and intestinal areas is generally treated with other Chinese herbs, such as Cassia Seed Tea.
Therefore, the saying "eating ginger peel for constipation" is not suitable for patients with constipation of patterns like deficiency-cold, qi deficiency, or blood deficiency. Even for patients with heat-type constipation, it is not suitable if the symptoms are severe.
So, is the practice of "eating ginger flesh for wind-cold colds" correct? Deputy Chief Physician Xia Gongxu from the department of preventive medicine at the hospital explains that the common folk remedy of "ginger brown sugar water" for preventing and treating wind-cold colds is logical. This is because ginger is warm in nature, and its unique "gingerol" can dilate blood vessels, accelerate blood circulation, and thereby achieve the effect of expelling cold.
It should be noted that this method can be used for prevention and as an adjunctive treatment for patients in the early stage of a wind-cold cold. However, it is not suitable for patients with moderate to severe cold-type colds. This is because ginger is mainly used to release the exterior, and its sweating effect is relatively weak. In clinical practice, it is often used together with ephedra and cassia twig to enhance the sweating effect. As for whether it is necessary to peel the ginger to have the effect of expelling cold, it is not necessarily so. It is just that the effect is slightly better after peeling, but the overall impact is not significant.