Every so often, my feed fills up with reels claiming ginger is the answer to just about everything. Bloated? Drink ginger tea. Headache? Take a ginger shot. Feeling sluggish or coming down with something? Ginger, ginger, ginger. Apparently, we should all be adding ginger to our daily routine.
Don’t get me wrong, ginger has its uses. But it’s also considered warming and drying in TCM, and it isn’t going to suit everyone. What helps settle one person’s stomach might give someone else awful heartburn. That’s one thing I find interesting about traditional Chinese medicine. It looks at the person, not just the symptom. Two people can have the same stomach ache but need different approaches, depending on what’s going on with each of them.
What ginger actually does
In Chinese medicine, ginger actually shows up in two very distinct forms: fresh and dried.
Fresh ginger (Sheng Jiang) is mildly warming and dispersing. It’s what you reach for at the very start of a cold when you have that deep exterior chill, stiff neck, and haven’t broken a sweat yet.
Dried ginger (Gan Jiang), on the other hand, is significantly hotter. While fresh ginger releases outward toward the surface, dried ginger drives deep inward, acting as an internal furnace specifically for cold, stagnant digestion.
When ginger can be a good fit
Ginger can make sense for someone who tends to feel cold and sluggish. You know the person whose hands and feet are always freezing, who feels better after a bowl of hot soup, or who often feels heavy and bloated after eating? In TCM, ginger is considered warming, which is why it’s traditionally used when someone has chills and can’t seem to get warm, like when you’re shivering under three blankets. The idea is to warm the body and encourage sweating.
When I’d be more careful with it
On the flip side, if you already tend to feel hot or deal with dryness, TCM practitioners might take that into account before recommending ginger. If you often wake up sweating, have a dry, scratchy throat, or struggle with heartburn and acid reflux, you might want to be careful with how much ginger you’re taking. Downing a concentrated ginger shot every morning just because an influencer says it’s great for digestion might leave you with even more heartburn.
There are a few things to keep in mind from a medical perspective, too. Ginger supplements can interact with certain medications, and concentrated doses may be a concern for people taking blood thinners or preparing for surgery. If you’re pregnant, it’s also worth checking with your healthcare provider before taking concentrated ginger supplements. That doesn’t mean you need to avoid fresh ginger in your cooking. The amount you use in a meal is very different from taking a high-dose supplement every day.
So how do you know if it’s right for you if you don’t know your TCM constitution?
If you want to try it, start with a little fresh ginger steeped in hot water and see how you feel. You don’t need to make it super strong or force yourself to drink something you don’t even like.
See how your stomach feels after drinking it. If you get heartburn or it just doesn’t agree with you, don’t keep drinking it just because someone on Instagram says it’s good for you. If you’re taking blood thinners, have surgery coming up, or are thinking about using ginger supplements to manage a health problem, check with your healthcare provider first.
Ginger might work well for one person and not do much for another. You don’t need to make it part of your routine just because another reel tells you to.
What about ginger at night?
There’s an old Chinese saying that ginger in the morning is medicine, but ginger at night is poison. It sounds dramatic, but the logic makes sense in TCM.
Your body naturally starts winding down at night as you get ready for sleep. Ginger is considered warming in TCM, so drinking it right before bed might not suit everyone. If you already tend to feel hot at night or find yourself kicking off the blankets, you might want to have it earlier in the day instead.
Stick to the morning or afternoon, and you don’t even need it every day, cause more isn’t better. If you already run hot, something cooling like mint, chrysanthemum, or corn silk tea makes a lot more sense anyway. Start small and see how you feel, and if you’ve got an ongoing issue that won’t go away, go talk to an actual practitioner. A fifteen-second clip on your feed has no idea what your body needs.
Simply Salt & Soul
Ginger is a good example of why I don’t think we should take every piece of natural remedy advice at face value. Just because something has health benefits doesn’t mean it’s going to suit everyone. In TCM, ginger is considered warming, and how it fits depends on the person’s overall pattern.
If you tend to feel cold and sluggish or often feel heavy and bloated after eating, ginger might suit you. But if you’re already dealing with dryness, feeling overheated, or struggling with restlessness, it might not be the first thing a TCM practitioner would recommend. I think this is where some of the wellness advice we see online falls short. We hear that something is anti-inflammatory, good for digestion, or great for immunity, and suddenly everyone’s taking it. But how much do we really know about whether we need it in the first place?
A quick note: I’m sharing this to pass along what I’ve learned about traditional medicine, not as personal medical advice. It isn’t meant to diagnose or treat anything. Always check in with your doctor or a licensed practitioner about your own body and health.