Health Benefits of Panax Ginseng
Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!
You’ve probably heard of ginseng before, either American, Asian, or Chinese ginseng. Asian ginseng, also known as panax ginseng is one of the most popular herbal supplements in the world, and for good reason. This medicinal herb has been used for millennia in Eastern traditions for its health-giving properties. It’s proven to be safe, and modern scientific research has proven many of it’s already known health benefits such as reduced risk of cancer and a strengthened immune system. Read on to learn how you can incorporate panax ginseng into your wellness routine in order to improve your health!
What is Ginseng?
Raw ginseng root
To establish the health benefits of ginseng, it’s important to understand the plant genus.
Ginseng is a root plant found in temperate climates across the globe. There are three sub-types: Korean ginseng (P. Ginseng), Chinese ginseng (P. Notoginseng) and American ginseng (P. quinquefolius). All three types of ginseng are used medicinally. Korean ginseng is also known as panax ginseng, and this type of ginseng is the focus of this article.
Panax ginseng is the most thoroughly studied of the three types of ginseng, and therefore the safest in terms of dosing recommendations. American ginseng is relatively well-studied, and Chinese ginseng is far less common in both the environment and the medical literature. All three species of ginseng appear to have potent health benefits if taken appropriately, from reducing cancer risk to improving subjective well-being.
Ginseng reduces Inflammation and lowers risk of Cancer
Panax ginseng is a powerful antioxidant (1), especially after extraction and concentration of ginsenosides (the active ingredient). To accomplish this, the root is processed and the active components are extracted using ethanol. The other health effects, namely lower inflammation and reduced risk of cancer, appear to work downstream of it’s ability to increase all three main antioxidant enzymes (OD, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase). Antioxidants are important for human health because they reduce inflammation.
The process of oxidation (redox), where a chemical loses electrons, releases free radicals (hydrogen ions). Free radicals are highly reactive and can lead to chain reactions that may damage the cells of organisms. This is the root cause of chronic inflammation.
The study cited above used dermatitis patients as the trial group. Dermatitis is an inflammatory skin condition. Antioxidant products like ginseng have the potential to reduce symptoms for a wide range of inflammatory conditions, and also for conditions with inflammation as a secondary side effect.
Inflammation is also a main driver of cancer (2), and panax ginseng has been studied to notably reduce colorectal, ovarian, pancreatic (3), and overall cancer risk (4).
Ginseng strengthens the Immune System and lowers Blood Glucose
One of the best ways to test the immune-boosting qualities of a research compound is to test it on cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, and ginseng has been studied under these conditions and was shown to alleviate adverse affects from chemotherapy (5). Chemotherapy significantly inhibits immune function because it destroys many cells that are necessary for proper immune function. The study, which administered ginseng to cancer patients that received chemo treatment, found that the group taking ginseng had notably improved immune function once the treatment was completed.
Stop viruses with ginseng
Immune-boosting products like ginseng and elderberry aren’t only good for those with cancer, and it’s believed those beneficial effects from the ginseng can still be useful for preventative health. Year round or even just seasonally during the winter, or for those who get sick with the common cold or flu more frequently than normal, ginseng is a supplement to take for a trial run. These products are also typically known and recommended to people in fields of work that expose them to increased pathogens, like schoolteachers, doctors, or those in public service.
Ginseng has powerful immune regulating effects, and it also has the ability to beneficially assist the circulatory system. As you can see the postive effects of panax ginseng are wide ranging. By boosting the circulatory system, ginseng is able to lower blood glucose levels (6), for most a very good thing) an increase blood flow (7).
Ginseng improves Mood, promotes Calm, and enhances Sleep.
It’s been known for over one thousand years in Traditional Chinese Medicine that panax ginseng can improve mood in humans with mood disorders, but modern medicine is just now catching on to studying these more subjective health markers. Ginseng can be especially effective for those with depressive disorders since the product is a minor stimulant and a tonic. And even though ginseng is a mild stimulate, it helps bring about a sense of calmness (8).
Knowing panax ginseng helps with depression is worthwhile because it’s better to use natural medicine to solve health problems at their onset. This is important because mental health drugs tend to be some of the most addictive and laden with side effects. You never want to reduce your health to improve one other.
Panax ginseng not only improved general mental health, but also aided social functioning in those struggling with socializing. These issues are uniquely connected for each individual. Elderly Koreans with Alzheimers reduced their rate of cognitive decline with ginseng (9), and ginseng helps improve sleep quality (10), which everyone knows is vital to proper brain health and function.
Keep Ginseng in your Cupboard
When you’re more likely to get sick, periods of high stress, traveling, and to help improve your mood and well-being, ginseng is helpful to have on hand. Especially with a cold or flu, the sooner you can begin supplementing with panax ginseng, elderberry, and zinc the more symptoms will be damped and duration of the sickness will be reduced.
Ginseng can be taken daily safely for up to a few months. As a holistic health supplement, panax ginseng can be taken to improve health while factors like diet, exercise, sleep, and sun exposure are improved. Keep taking the below recommend dosages of ginseng until you feel better. For daily preventative health 200 mg once a day up to 3000 mg spread out for acute uses are safe. Store all supplements somewhere cool and dry and the ginseng supplement should stay good for a long time.
My Recommended Ginseng Supplement
There are two factors I consider when choosing a supplement brand: whether the company tests their products and whether the product is based on research. Illuminate Labs does both. They’re a supplement manufacturer that shares all of their test results on their website which is unheard of. They also share all of the medical research papers that went into their product formulation. The Illuminate Labs ginseng extract supplement is my favorite panax ginseng supplement it’s great knowing that what I use is safe and tested.
References
Hong CE, Lyu SY. Anti-inflammatory and Anti-oxidative Effects of Korean Red Ginseng Extract in Human Keratinocytes. Immune Netw. 2011;11(1):42-9.
Coussens LM, Werb Z. Inflammation and cancer. Nature. 2002;420(6917):860-7.
Yun TK, Choi SY. Preventive effect of ginseng intake against various human cancers: a case-control study on 1987 pairs. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 1995;4(4):401-8.
Yun TK, Zheng S, Choi SY, et al. Non-organ-specific preventive effect of long-term administration of Korean red ginseng extract on incidence of human cancers. J Med Food. 2010;13(3):489-94.
Cheng Lin. Ginseng alleviation of adverse effects from radiotherapy or chemother apy in liver cancer patients. Shanghai Cancer Hospital, Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai 200032. 1989-02
Luo JZ, Luo L. Ginseng on hyperglycemia: effects and mechanisms. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2009;6(4):423-7.
Jovanovski E, Jenkins A, Dias AG, et al. Effects of Korean red ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Mayer) and its isolated ginsenosides and polysaccharides on arterial stiffness in healthy individuals. Am J Hypertens. 2010;23(5):469-72.
Reay JL, Scholey AB, Kennedy DO. Panax ginseng (G115) improves aspects of working memory performance and subjective ratings of calmness in healthy young adults. Hum Psychopharmacol. 2010;25(6):462-71.
Heo JH, Lee ST, Chu K, et al. An open-label trial of Korean red ginseng as an adjuvant treatment for cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Eur J Neurol. 2008;15(8):865-8.
Kitaoka K, Uchida K, Okamoto N, et al. Fermented ginseng improves the first-night effect in humans. Sleep. 2009;32(3):413-21.