I have truly loved learning about ginger.  I have been amazed at the many ways it can enrich our lives.  While doing the research for this paper several members of my family were able to try ginger as the herb of choice for many things from headaches to upset stomachs.  I have really enjoyed drinking ginger tea.  It is very pleasant to taste and seems to do everything from helping with digesting foods, encouraging production of saliva, limiting gas, and encouraging an over all sense of well being.

My son came to me one night with an ingrown toenail. Unfortunately, he had been suffering from it for quite some time without mentioning it to me, because it was very inflamed, infected, and absolutely disgusting.  Because of this ongoing research, I thought that we would use this as one of my personal experiences just to see what ginger could really do.  We started immediately with him drinking several cups of tea a day.  He really enjoyed this especially with a little added honey.  Some days this tea would be from a tea bag, other days it was freshly grated.  If the tea bag was used, we would put it onto his toe and wrap it with saran wrap overnight.    Amazingly, in the mornings, the swelling was actually decreased from the night before.  The redness was also lessened.  We soaked his toe in warm water with powdered ginger added to the water, and after it had soaked for at least 20 minutes, we would take it out and dry it really good before opening a ginger capsule, pouring it onto the toe and wrapping it for the night.  We did this for three weeks and the toe completely healed.  We were both so pleased.  So as I close this paper, I have to say thank you to ginger.