Yang, Juan, Shin, Kyung-Min, Abu Dabrh, Abd Moain et al. · Global advances in health and medicine · 2022 · DOI
Researchers looked at whether ginseng, a plant supplement used for fatigue in other conditions, might help people with ME/CFS. They found only 2 small studies with a total of 68 patients. While the results suggest ginseng might be helpful, there isn't enough evidence yet to say for certain whether it works or is safe for ME/CFS patients.
This review addresses a critical gap in ME/CFS research by systematically evaluating a widely-used traditional remedy. Given the absence of curative or definitive therapies for ME/CFS, understanding whether complementary approaches like ginseng have evidence-based efficacy is important for patients seeking symptom management options and for guiding future research priorities.
This study does not prove that ginseng is effective or safe for treating ME/CFS fatigue. The extremely limited number of studies and small sample sizes mean findings could be due to chance or bias rather than ginseng's actual effects. The review cannot establish whether any observed benefits would persist long-term or generalize to diverse ME/CFS populations.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Yang, Juan, Shin, Kyung-Min, Abu Dabrh, Abd Moain, Bierle, Dennis M, Zhou, Xuan, Bauer, Brent A, et al. (2022). Ginseng for the Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Systematic Review of Clinical Studies.. Global advances in health and medicine. https://doi.org/10.1177/2164957X221079790
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-yang-2022-ginseng-treatment,
author = {Yang, Juan and Shin, Kyung-Min and Abu Dabrh, Abd Moain and Bierle, Dennis M and Zhou, Xuan and Bauer, Brent A and Mohabbat, Arya B},
title = {Ginseng for the Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Systematic Review of Clinical Studies.},
journal = {Global advances in health and medicine},
year = {2022},
doi = {10.1177/2164957X221079790},
note = {PubMed: 35186446},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/yang-2022-ginseng-treatment},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/yang-2022-ginseng-treatment
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