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---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gingko helps with memory and dementia, study finds ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WASHINGTON (October 21, 1997 11:34 a.m. EDT http://www.nando.net) - Extract of gingko, sold in health food stores as an aid to memory and brain function, seems to help people with dementia, researchers reported Tuesday. The tree extract helped patients with Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of senility, and those with vascular dementia, Pierre LeBars and colleagues at the New York Institute for Medical Research in Tarrytown found. It delayed progression of dementia by the equivalent of six months, they reported in they wrote in a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. They tested EGb761, one extract from Gingko biloba, in more than 300 patients with dementia. Half got the extract and half got a placebo. "Compared with the placebo group, the EGb group included twice as many patients whose cognitive performance improved and half as many whose social functioning worsened," they said. Cognitive performance includes day-to-day activities such as reasoning, memory and learning. Gingko is approved in Germany for treating dementia but its use is not regulated in the United States. U.S. reaction to the study was cautious. "The research is encouraging, but it is premature to recommend gingko as a specific treatment for Alzheimer's disease without more rigorous research," Zaven Khachaturian, director of the Alzheimer's Association's Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute, said in a statement. He said the association strongly recommended that people talk to their doctors before taking any drug, including herbal extracts like gingko. "Though gingko is available on the market, there are a number of good reasons for caution regarding its use," he said. "First, earlier studies have shown that gingko may reduce the ability of the blood to clot. This could cause a big problem, especially when used simultaneously with anti-coagulents such as aspirin." Second, there were no controls on how much of the herb was in a capsule, and different amounts could have different effects, he said. Copyright 1997 Nando.net Copyright 1997 Reuters <http://www.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/health/102197/health15_15913_noframes.html> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- [log in to unmask]