Ginkgo Biloba

Ginkgo Biloba for Age-Related Memory Loss

Researchers at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute examined the impact of ginkgo biloba, compared to a placebo, in 10 patients, aged 45 to 75, who did not have dementia but complained of mild age-related memory loss. Over a period of six months four subjects received 120 mg of ginkgo biloba twice daily, and six received a placebo or inactive substance such as a sugar pill.

Researchers used cognitive tests to measure verbal recall and PET to measure brain metabolism before and after the treatment regimen. When compared with the group that received a placebo, they found significant improvement in verbal recall among the group of people who received ginkgo biloba. However, actual changes in brain metabolism, measured by PET for the first time, did not differ significantly between the study's two volunteer groups.

It should be noted that ginkgo has also been shown to impair performance. For example, in a small study of elderly people with mild to moderate memory impairment, Gurcharan S. Rai of Whittington Hospital in London and his team found that after 24 weeks of treatment, patients who took ginkgo could not recall digits as well as patients who received a placebo.

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