Improving Your Brain Power - Will Gingko Biloba Help ?
By Royane Real
Author of “How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative”
By now you have probably heard of the herb with the very odd name of Gingko Biloba. Gingko is often recommended as a treatment for memory loss due to aging and is reputed to be a way to help restore an aging brain.
Gingko has been widely used by many people in Europe and in Asia for centuries. In China, herbal doctors have been prescribing gingko for various ailments for more than 5,000 years!
This herbal product is made from the leaf of the gingko tree, one of the oldest kinds of trees in the world.
In North America, Gingko Biloba was almost unknown a decade ago, but now it is a herbal remedy that is very widely advertised in health food stores and magazines.
Gingko Biloba is being promoted as a nutritional supplement that can improve thinking ability, reverse memory loss, and ward off Alzheimer’s disease. If you’re concerned about keeping up the health of your brain as you get older, you may wonder if gingko biloba is right for you.
In much of the world, Gingko is prescribed frequently by doctors as a treatment for failing memory related to aging, and even as a treatment for the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
The ginko leaf extract contains many organic compounds. The compounds that are believed to be particularly beneficial to the brain are called flavonoids and terpenoids.
Below is a short list of some of the positive ways that gingko is believed to benefit the aging brain:
• It improves the brain’s blood supply, especially in the small capillaries
• It has antioxydant activity that neutralizes free radical damage in brain cells
• It can reduce inflammation of brain cell membranes.
• It improves the transmission of signals by neurotransmitters in the brain.
• It appears to improve the brain’s metabolism of sugar
• It increases the brain’s production of alpha brain waves which can improve mental alertness
Gingko is very widely used by millions of people who want to boost their mind power and improve their memory. It is even prescribed by Europen doctors as a remedy for failing memory due to aging.
But is gingko really safe? Does it really work to boost memory?
Should you take gingko if you want to keep a healthy brain as you age? Should you be jumping on the Gingko Biloba bandwagon, or is this nutritional supplement over-hyped?
In the last twenty years, hundreds of studies of gingko have been done to investigate the effectiveness of this herb. Some of these studies were done in laboratories to examine the effects of various extracts of the leaf on brain cells, and some were clinical trials on humans to measure the impact of Gingko on memory.
Many of these studies suggest gingko is an effective and safe remedy for age related confusion and memory loss.
However it is important to know that many of the favorable studies of Gingko were quite small and they only lasted a few weeks. Therefore the positive results of these tests might not be repeated in larger, better controlled studies.
If you decide you want to take Gingko, don’t expect any sudden, dramatic changes.
Any positive effects of Gingko could take several weeks or even longer, to become noticeable. The resulting improvements from taking Gingko are likely to be very small, usually about the same amount of memory improvement you’d get from drinking a cup of coffee!
If you decide to take Gingko, how much should you take? Most of the studies of Gingko used a standardized dosage of 120 milligrams a day, while the studies that used much higher doses did not show much more improvement in mental effectiveness. Therefore, a dose of 120 milligrams a day should be adequate.
Although some reports about Gingko hint that this herb might be able to protect you against developing Alzheimer’s disease, there is no real proof that taking gingko can keep you safe from getting Alzheimer’s. Gingko may have some small role to play in helping some people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s to experience a slight improvement in mental alertness and memory, but it does not seem to prevent the disease from occurring.
When you buy any herbal remedies, you must always keep in mind that the quality of the ingredients can vary widely. Researchers who test herbal products have discovered that many of the packages that say they contain Gingko, actually do not contain the levels of active ingredients they list on the label. In some cases, bargain brands have none of the active ingredients whatsoever!
Therefore if you’re going to take Gingko, be sure to use a brand you trust will have a standardized level of active ingredients.
For most people, gingko is very safe, although a few people do experience minor side effects such as an upset stomach.
However, if you aretaking blood thinners such as Warfarin, or if you take the anti-depressant, Trazadone, you may experience more serious side effects. It is possible that in some cases Gingko may interact with certain medications and cause problems.
Before you start taking Gingko, be sure to check with your doctor first. It’s important to make sure that none of your medications pose a problem when taken with this herb.
This article above is written by Royane Real, author of “How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative” To learn more ways to boost your brain power, download this special book at http://www.lulu.com/real
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