A large study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, tested whether ginkgo biloba prevents dementia. It found that 120 mg of ginkgo twice a day (240 mg a day) had no effect on preventing dementia or Alzheimer's disease.
Many people today take ginkgo leaf extract to improve memory or to prevent or treat Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, ringing in the ears (tinnitus) and other conditions. In Europe and the US it is one of the best-selling herbal medicines, and it tops the list of prescribed herbal medicines in Germany and France.
The study mainly aimed to find out whether ginkgo could reduce the rate of all types of dementia, Alzheimer's disease and mental decline, as well as its effect on disability, heart disease, stroke and death.
Dementia is a group of brain diseases in which a person can no longer remember their daily activities; some types are reversible. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia in older people. 4.5 million Americans have it: it is an incurable disease that starts with mild memory loss and ends with severe brain damage and death.
The study included 3,069 people aged 75 and over, some healthy and some with mild memory problems. Some took 120 mg of ginkgo extract twice a day, the dose an earlier study had found most effective, and the others took a dummy pill. They were followed for six years. During that time, 523 developed dementia: 246 in the dummy-pill group and 277 in the ginkgo group. Ginkgo didn't reduce any type of dementia or Alzheimer's disease. Might it only work after many, many years, perhaps more than 15?
So if part of your budget goes on ginkgo, you may want to stop buying it unless new research overturns this study.
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