My dh has lost 50 pounds and i have lost 28 and we both are constantly freezing!! We used to be the exact oppisite so it must be we dont have that nice cushy layer of warm fat insulating us. But yea ill take being cold and skinny anyday of the week.

Originally Posted by Esofia:
So am I the only one using ginger to tackle the chilliness, then?

Ginger tea gives me terrible heartburn so I am reluctant to try the supplement! How many mg do you take? I might just try it anyway.

Originally Posted by Esofia:
So am I the only one using ginger to tackle the chilliness, then?

You can also use a pinch of chipotle pepper in your cooking. But I have had trouble finding it outside the US, so I bring loads of it back with every trip home. :) If you only use a bit, it doesn't create a "burning" taste like some other peppers -- in fact people who eat it might not know it is in the dish except for a little more depth, and a "smoky" effect -- but does produce warmth. It also goes well with chocolate which of course is another New World ingredient, and they are found together in many recipes for mole (various ingredients ground together as a paste for sauces). A restaurant I sometimes went to in Austin used it in their famous chocolate pecan pie.

A nice curry can have a similar effect, but now that I think about it, they usually have ginger in as well as pepper.

Curries have all sorts of spices, most of which will probably warm you up. I tend to do something like that if I need the help for a particularly cold day, but if I'm cold all the time then I prefer something where I can take a regulated dose every day. It would possibly work for someone who is willing to cook with a lot of spices every single day (although in that case would you not be doing so already?).

Juliana - it's 500mg, but if the tea gives you heartburn and you're sure it's the ginger in the tea doing it (are there other ingredients?) then you should probably just stay off ginger. I also have absolutely no idea how well it works for other people. I mean, there are loads of people on the internet saying that it worked for them, and it's a well-known circulatory stimulant and performs well in research, but for all I know that means it works brilliantly for 1 in 3 people and a bit for another 1 in 3 and not at all for the rest, or something. It's a mild blood thinner, so be careful if need be.

Cayenne and its relatives would also probably work, and you can get various forms of that. I haven't tried it myself, it's meant to be a great herb but my stomach would object strenuously. My guess is that if you have to be cautious about how much you use when cooking, the much larger amount needed for a therapeutic dose will upset your insides, but a herbalist will probably know more about that. It's a pity, I always fancied this circulation blend.

Anyway, I am now off to munch on some nice black garlic. I have a period with migraine due around now, a sore throat, and a wedding to go to tomorrow!

Originally Posted by Esofia:
Riddy - what dose and form do you take, and how well do you find it works? I think I've tried ginger in various doses for migraines, but now I think of it, I'm not sure I ever tried a particularly high dose. It's probably safer not to until I have my gall bladder removed, as apparently it can stimulate gall bladder contractions and I don't want another gall stone making a bid for freedom. I've certainly munched on various forms of ginger in the past for migraine-related nausea. Right now the only thing that works for migraines is a combination of co-codamol and a low dose of valium, and while I'm thrilled that something finally works after having migraine for more than half my life (works on muscular pain too, only thing that does for me), it makes me a constipated zombie too.

Hi Esofia,
I used to take 500mg or 550mg ginger capsules, 2 a day. If I was getting a migraine, I would take a couple more. When I was having the really bad time with migraines (20 migraines in the 28 days of February), the daily dose did not help much until the cycle was broken. After the February from h**l, it seemed to mostly lessen the severity. Even now, I eat crystallized ginger and/or make strong ginger tea when I have a migraine. Yogi Tea is my favorite brand - I don't know if they sell it over there. Pukka Tea 3 Ginger is also really good, and I think that's an English brand.

Years ago I had a chiropractor tell me about ginger - his advice was to take a large pinch of powdered ginger in a bit of water when I got a migraine/C1 vertebra misalignment. :p I decided there had to be a better tasting way.