The author investigated ginger's potential effects on exercise-induced muscle pain. Initial experiments using a single 2-g dose of capsulized ginger yielded null results, leading to a shift to chronic supplementation experiments. After 11 continuous days of consuming 2 g of either raw or heat-treated ginger, delayed-onset muscle pain caused by eccentric exercise was reduced by 23%-25% compared with placebo. This research appears to have had a substantial impact, as evidenced, in part, by citation metrics as well as an associated increase in scientific and popular interest in ginger's role in health and pain management.
Patrick J O’Connor (2025) studied this question.