BACKGROUND: Most of the cardiovascular diseases can be prevented by doing regular physical exercises and using herbal supplements. The present study is aimed at assessing ginger supplement and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on inflammatory indices contributing to atherosclerosis in overweight women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study is a randomized, experimental, and controlled one in which thirty healthy overweight women aged 20 to 30 years were randomly divided into three equal groups, namely, ginger, ginger+HIIT, and placebo+HIIT. The training groups performed high-intensity interval exercises (ie, 40-m maximal shuttle run) for ten consecutive weeks. The supplement groups daily took 3 g of ginger pills and the third group took placebo. RESULTS: Paired t-test revealed a significant decrease in the density of type 1 monocytes chemo tactic protein (MCP-1) in HIIT+ginger (p = 0.026) and HIIT+placebo (p = 0.001) groups. Besides, maximum aerobic capacity in the two training groups significantly increased p = 0.002 and p = 0.000, respectively. In spite of this, analysis of variance showed no significant differences in three groups regarding the three indices such as intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) (p = 0.093), MCP-1 (p = 0.075), and serum interleukin-10 (IL-10) (p = 0.164). CONCLUSION: A 10-week intensive interval exercise, by itself or together with ginger supplement, improved MCP-1 and maximum oxygen consumption in overweight women, without any significant effect on soluble ICAM-1 and IL-10. These findings indicate the relative and efficient role of HIIT in overweight women without the necessity to combine with ginger as an antioxidant/anti-inflammatory supplement.

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