Simple Anti-inflammatory Tea

“I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.”  – Lao Tzu 

Today I want to share a very simple and powerful anti-inflammatory tea that you can make at home. In fact, you might already have the ingredients readily available. The two main ingredients that you will need are turmeric and ginger.

Both of these powerful roots are used in Chinese herbal medicine and have been studied extensively in recent years. You can find a lot of great information on these herbs by doing a quick search on PubMed.

From the lens of Chinese Medicine, both of these herbs are warming. Turmeric, or jiang huang, is traditionally used for moving blood and alleviating pain, which is now being confirmed by research. Ginger has a wide variety of usages in Chinese Medicine depending on if it's fresh (sheng jiang), dried (gan jiang) or charred (pao jiang). It can be used for common cold, cough, nausea, vomiting, abdominal and chest pain.

As for making the anti-inflammatory tea, you can use the fresh roots or the powdered variations. I suggest trying both and seeing which you prefer. I find it easiest to make a big portion and then you can store it in the fridge for a few days, warming it up as needed.

Add the following to a big pot: 5 cups water, 5 slices fresh ginger (or 1 tsp ginger powder), 5 slices fresh turmeric root (or 1 ½ tsp turmeric powder). Bring the water to a boil and then simmer with lid on for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, turn off the heat and let it sit for another 5 minutes. Then, strain and pour yourself a cup of this delicious golden tea. Add a small amount (less than ¼ tsp) of ghee (clarified butter) or coconut oil to enhance the absorption of the anti-inflammatory components.

Store the remainder of the tea in the fridge in a sealed container. Consume within a few days, adding ghee or coconut oil to each warm cup. You can also add lemon for flavor or a small amount of local, organic honey to taste. Try drinking at least 2 cups a day to begin to see results. 

This tea can be helpful for many different chronic inflammatory conditions. Such as: arthritis, pre-menstrual symptoms, pelvic pain, dysmenorrhea, chronic pain and gut health issues to name a few. Recently, I even had someone share with me that this tea was more effective for their painful condition than over the counter pain relief (including NSAIDs).

This tea is well-tolerated by most. One word of caution for those experiencing acid reflux, you may want to try a small portion at first and see how it feels in your body. You can also cut down on the ginger if you know it is irritating for you at this time. Follow your body's intuition.

Here are a few articles to look into for more information on the biochemical properties of these two powerhouse herbs:
Ginger--an herbal medicinal product with broad anti-inflammatory actions.
Gingerols and shogaols: Important nutraceutical principles from ginger.
"Curcumin, the King of Spices": Epigenetic Regulatory Mechanisms in the Prevention of Cancer, Neurological, and Inflammatory Diseases.