Ginkgo biloba ineffective against Alzheimer's disease

A large clinical study on the effects of Ginkgo biloba has found it to be ineffective in preventing the decline in cognitive abilities in older people, writes Elizabeth Weise from USA Today.

Ginkgo biloba is a supplement, prepared from extracts of the Ginkgo tree. It has been sold for close to half a century to help prevent Alzheimer's disease and other condititions detrimental to cognitive abilities. It has also been an essential part of traditional Chinese medicine for hundreds of years.

Ginkgo safe but ineffective according to clinical study

Steven DeKosky is the study's senior author, and dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He claims the news to be disappointing. However, Ginkgo biloba appears to be safe, according to the study, which was double-blind and placebo-controlled and involved over 3,000 people between 72 and 96 for a duration of seven years.

A previous paper published from the study found 120mg of Ginkgo biloba extract ineffective in reducing the occurrence of Alzheimer's disease or dementia. This newly published paper on the same study results reveals ginkgo to have no effect on other, narrower aspects of cognitive ability, such as memory, lingual and attentive skills and several other functions.

This clinical study on ginkgo larger than others combined

Lon Schneider, is an expert on gerontology at the University of Southern California. He says that these findings show "... that in properly designed, placebo-controlled studies, we can't seem to find an effect for Ginkgo biloba". He adds that this study is larger than all other previous studies on ginkgo biloba combined.

The findings are disputed by the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a supplement industry trade group. Douglas MacKay, a vice president at the council maintains that there is "... a large body of previously published evidence, as well as ongoing trials, which suggest that ginkgo biloba is effective for helping to improve cognitive impairment in older adults".

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