Help for Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy

According to the federally funded study, people who started taking ginger capsules several days before a chemo infusion had fewer and less severe bouts of nausea afterward than others who were given dummy capsules.

Study leader Julie Ryan of the University of Rochester in New York says "We were slightly beside ourselves" to see how much it helped.

The study tested a drug-like ginger root extract, and it's not known if people could get the same benefits from ginger teas or the powdered ginger sold as a spice.

Results of the study were released today by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and will be presented at the group's annual meeting later this month.