Feeling sick? Try ginger

Eating one or two slices of fresh ginger daily, plus one or two garlic cloves, will help cold sores (and also chicken pox and shingles); you can also apply fresh ginger to unopened sores up to six times daily.

Hangovers: drink ginger tea with lemon before going to bed and through the morning and day after; also put ginger oil in your bath.

Morning sickness: make an infusion of ginger tea using half a tsp of grated fresh ginger per cup of pure still water. Infuse for at least five minutes. Sip small amounts frequently throughout the day, rather than drinking a whole cup at a time. Take a maximum of three cups a day. Alternatively, you can take a capsule containing about 75 mg of ginger every hour. This can be taken during the first three months of pregnancy.

Nausea and travel sickness: drink up to five cups of ginger tea daily and sip while hot. You can top up the same ginger with hot water several times because the ginger 'cooks' and actually gets stronger. Take the tea in a flask if you are travelling or chew crystallised ginger; if nothing else is available you can eat ginger biscuits.

General well-being
Make or buy a fresh juice of apples, carrots and ginger. Use about four large apples (washed but not peeled), four medium carrots (washed, topped and tailed) to a one-inch chunk of peeled fresh ginger.

Cautions

• Do not take ginger in medicinal doses if you have a peptic ulcer
  
• Do not take the essential oil internally