Does ginger help with anxiety?

The best-controlled trial to measure ginger and anxiety together found no difference from placebo. That trial, a 14-day study in 51 healthy adults, tested ginger for its effect on gut bacteria and included anxiety as one of several secondary measures. A smaller, lower-quality trial in hospitalized burn patients reported a mixed result. Neither supports ginger as an anxiety treatment.

What the evidence doesn't support

It doesn't support ginger, at any dose or form tested so far, as a way to reduce anxiety in a general population. No trial has been designed with anxiety as its primary outcome and enrolled people specifically because of anxiety symptoms — the two trials below measured anxiety as a secondary outcome, in healthy adults and in hospitalized burn patients respectively, which is a different and narrower question than "does ginger help someone who is anxious."

What the trials found

A 2023 randomized, double-blind trial gave 51 healthy adults 1.2 g/day of standardized ginger powder or placebo for 14 days, primarily to study gut bacteria. Depression, anxiety and stress were among the secondary outcomes measured, and none showed a significant difference between the ginger and placebo groups.

A separate, smaller trial randomized 120 hospitalized burn patients to a placebo capsule, a 250 mg/day ginger capsule, or a prayer intervention recited three times daily, and tracked pain and anxiety over 6 days. Pain scores were lower in both the ginger and prayer groups than the untreated control. On anxiety, the only comparison the trial reported was that the prayer group scored significantly lower than the ginger group by day 6 — the abstract doesn't report whether the ginger group's anxiety differed from the untreated control at all. This trial also wasn't blinded, which limits how much weight to put on it, and it studied a specific population (hospitalized burn patients) that doesn't generalize to everyday anxiety.

Trial	Population	Dose	Anxiety finding
2023 RCT, n=51	Healthy adults	1.2 g/day ginger, 14 days	No difference from placebo
Trial, n=120	Hospitalized burn patients	250 mg/day ginger, 6 days	Worse than prayer group; not compared with untreated control

Questions people ask

Can ginger help with anxiety?

The one trial that tested this cleanly, in healthy adults over 14 days, found no difference from placebo. A second, lower-quality trial in a different population didn't answer the question either way.

Can ginger cause anxiety?

Neither trial reviewed here reported ginger increasing anxiety compared with placebo or an untreated group. Ginger's more commonly reported side effects are gastrointestinal, covered in ginger side effects.

How much ginger should I take for anxiety?

There's no established dose, because no trial has found a dose that reduces anxiety in the first place. The trials above used 1.2 g/day and 250 mg/day, and neither showed a clear benefit over a control.

Does ginger tea help with anxiety?

Neither trial reviewed here tested ginger tea specifically; both used capsules or powder. There's no research on tea that we found addressing anxiety at all.

When to talk to a doctor

Anxiety that interferes with daily life, work or sleep is worth raising with a doctor. Ginger is not a treatment for anxiety, panic disorder or generalized anxiety disorder, and nothing in the evidence above supports using it as a substitute for an evaluation, therapy or medication a doctor might recommend. If you take medication for anxiety or any other condition, or are pregnant or nursing, talk to a doctor before adding any supplement.

Related reading: does ginger help with depression?, does ginger help with sleep?, and ginger benefits: what the research does and doesn't show.