Black Ginger Benefits for Men: What is Black Ginger Good For?
In a world that’s ever more fast paced and filled with new sources of energy expenditure daily, it’s only normal to keep searching for supplements and key ingredients that help our energy levels, vitality, and overall wellbeing. But, while you can optimize your nutrition and supplement intake through various artificial or highly processed foods and drugs, there are some great natural alternatives - such as black ginger.
A herbaceous plant used in traditional medicine for hundreds of years, black ginger can yield multiple health benefits for everyone, and for me in particular. From improving physical fitness performance, to supporting healthy blood circulation, and helping you retain energy and vitality, black ginger can answer lots of everyday health and wellbeing questions.
Read on to find out more about this wonder plant, where it comes from and how it’s been used, and why you should add it to your shopping list.
What is Black Ginger + What Does It Do?
No matter how much time you spend in the kitchen, you’ll be familiar with the “regular” ginger root that you can spice up your meals with. Nowadays, we also see lots of great ginger drinks and shots in shops, and you’ll find ginger based teas and infusions. These are great for calming a bad stomach and are excellent palate cleansers. But that’s not where black ginger comes in.
Black ginger is dark, purple-ish, and quite different in flavor from your run-of-the-mill regular ginger. It’s originally native to Thailand and known as Kaempferia parviflora as its scientific name. It is the rhizome of a flowering plant and looks just like regular ginger on the outside. When you cut it, you will discover the purple color inside. Dried, it becomes really dark - hence the name.
Just like regular ginger, black ginger is spicy but slightly different in flavor. Its taste is more peppery. As a powder, it can be made into tea or mixed into a smoothie and it is also brewed into wine in Thailand. You will also find black ginger extract in supplements such as Marcapa’s soft-gel capsules.
Where Does Black Ginger Come From?
Originally, black ginger comes from South-East Asia, particularly Thailand and Malaysia. It is a root plant similar to white or regular ginger, but with slightly different flavor and additional health benefits (see below).
Today, black ginger supplements can be taken as capsules, in which you can consume the plant extract mixed in with olive oil.
Traditional Uses of Black Ginger in Herbal Medicine
The history of using black ginger as a supplement to boost vitality, energy levels, and sometimes as an aphrodisiac dates back to hundreds of years ago. Thai medicinal uses include consuming black ginger to fight allergies, the symptoms of diabetes, gout, dysentery and general fatigue.
Thanks to its rich content in amino acids, antioxidants and selenium, black ginger has been an ingredient in many remedies in herbal medicine. It was used to cure anything from asthma to diarrhea and impotence, on top of the conditions listed above. While some of these claims could be circumstantial or part of folklore, the fact is that black ginger has been in use for centuries. Today, researchers around the world are testing it in controlled environments to see how many of its benefits manifest themselves.
Nutritional Value of Black Ginger
Several studies have been conducted to analyze the nutritional value of black ginger and how the various components in the root plant can impact human health. There are encouraging reports around the quantity and distribution of antioxidants such as polyphenols in black ginger, which makes it an ideal food source to fight inflammation and offer a whole host of benefits.
Polyphenols have been linked to increasing brain health, protecting against heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, and to anti-inflammatory benefits. In a study on the polyphenolic content of black ginger and its use with diabetes patients, researchers have found that the plant (among other medicinal plants) is a source of natural antioxidants which can reduce oxidative stress in diabetes.
Moreover, the antioxidants in black ginger have a positive effect on recovery from exercise and in boosting physical activity performance. By improving how the body reacts to inflammation and our energy metabolism, black ginger also improves muscular endurance (reducing fatigue).
Finally, black ginger extract has also been found to be rich in selenium, an essential mineral that supports various processes, from thyroid function to digestion and the immune system.
Black Ginger Benefits for Men’s Health
So, how does black ginger work for the benefit of men’s health? Here are some of the key positive impacts you can expect from adding it into your range of supplements.
Black Ginger for Vascular Health
Blood circulation is the cornerstone of a healthy body. A healthy blood flow transports oxygen to the muscles, helping them recover from exercise-induced fatigue. Moreover, a well-functioning circulatory system enables us to function to the best of our abilities.
Black ginger is associated with improved vascular health, namely better and freer blood flow. This has a positive impact on energy levels, anti-inflammatory action, and a healthy reproductive system for males.
Black Ginger for Energy
Research has found that consuming black ginger activates the brown adipose tissue in the body. This tissue transfers energy from food into heat - generating more energy and also contributing to increased metabolic function. As part of our evolutionary process, brown adipose tissue and its role in thermogenesis helped babies survive and supported active life in colder surroundings (through generating heat). This is therefore a great way to boost energy and to support fat burning, too.
Finally, by increasing energy and blood flow, Kaempferia parviflora is associated with increased libido - linking it to benefits for men’s sex life.
Black Ginger for Metabolism and Weight Loss
The boosted energy levels, increased function of the brown adipose tissue, and overall improved blood circulation attributed to consuming black ginger all have a positive effect on creating an efficient metabolic system and helping weight loss programs.
Thanks to the role that black ginger extract can play in speeding up recovery, increasing muscular endurance, and reducing inflammation, it will also support an increasing exercise program which helps lose weight and tone up.
Black Ginger for Endurance and Recovery
Studies have shown that black ginger extract can help increase physical fitness performance and muscular endurance. This is thanks to components which boost energy production in our bodies. Experiments on mice led to a significant effect on their endurance when swimming and added grip strength, confirming that the consumption of black ginger extract improves both performance and endurance.
Through better blood flow, black ginger contributes to the transportation of oxygen to the muscles throughout the body. This allows muscle cells to repair after hard efforts, building strength and endurance and reducing the time to recovery for athletes.
Black Ginger for Pain and Inflammation
Some research has been done on the effects of black ginger extract on pain, namely in the case of knee osteoarthritis. There are positive effects on the pain threshold and on the severity of damage to knee joints when using black ginger. The researchers also found that the methoxyflavones present in the root reduced the enzymes that work to degrade collagen in the knee cartilage (an effect of ageing).
Other clinical studies point to the fact that black ginger extract’s antioxidant components work effectively against inflammation and reduce the growth of skin bacteria as well.
Black Ginger for Cognitive and Mood Health
There is some evidence that black ginger extract helps reduce the cognitive impairments in the brain, improving neurological health. Moreover, it supports choline in the brain, which is linked with wellbeing (mentally and emotionally).
Black Ginger for Improved Sexual Function
It’s been suggested that black ginger works as a natural PDE5 inhibitor, which people use in drugs to treat erectile dysfunction or pulmonary hypertension. These appear naturally in black ginger, leading to it being considered beneficial for men’s sexual wellness.
PDE5 inhibitors prevent the enzyme PDE5 (which lives in the walls of our blood vessels) from working. This relaxes the vessels, leading to better blood flow - a key element of the erectile function for men. A 2018 study on 14 men found that the ethanol extract from black ginger could improve sexual health, but more research is needed in this area.
What’s the Difference Between Regular Ginger and Black Ginger?
Both regular and black ginger are rhizomes and they look quite similar from the outside. However, when you cut into them, you can see that the black ginger has a dark purple color, which, when dried, becomes even darker (close to black, hence its name).
While regular ginger is known to have beneficial effects on gastrointestinal health, black ginger has many other health benefits thanks to its antioxidant content. Both types of ginger are associated with improvements in the immune function and with some level of anti-inflammatory action, but it is black ginger that has the bigger impact on the latter. Finally, black ginger helps promote blood flow and boost energy, sexual health, cognitive function etc.
Benefits of Black Ginger Extract vs Black Ginger Powder
Black ginger can be consumed in powder or extract form (the latter being available in capsules). It’s important to understand that these processes affect the potency of Kaempferia parviflora. Creating the powder involves freeze drying the rhizomes, then pulverizing them. This doesn’t retain the same nutritional value as obtaining black ginger extract.
For black ginger extract, the technique used distils the rhizome into a concentrated form. On a per gram basis, this ends up with a stronger, more concentrated black ginger that is then ingested in capsules.
How to Take Black Ginger for Men’s Health
As we’ve seen, black ginger can be consumed in a few ways, often dried and made into a powder, which can be added to smoothies or drunk in tea. The rhizome is also brewed into a drink in Thailand. These uses of black ginger in powder form contribute to your health and wellbeing, but they involve using a very small quantity of the original plant. Pulverizing the rhizomes also removes some of their nutritional value (after they’ve been freeze dried). Moreover, using black ginger powder involves mixing it into your drinks and having to taste it - which may not be to your liking!
On the other hand, consuming black ginger extract gives you a concentrated amount of the plant. This is more potent, giving you the full benefits quicker and more effectively. You can take Kaempferia parviflora extract in easy to swallow capsules where it’s been mixed in with olive oil. These are easy to digest and no side effects have been reported.
Moreover, consuming black ginger extract in capsules gives you more control over the exact amount you’re taking. We recommend two 300-mg capsules, taken daily in the evening. It’s simple, convenient, and quick to act on your body so you can enjoy all the benefits of black ginger as soon as possible.
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