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- EFFICACY: NEUROPROTECTION, BUT NOT PREVENTION: There is a large body of data to
support the efficacy of Ginkgo biloba (EGb 761) (“ginkgo”) as a neuro-protector and an
enhancer of neural functioning, well summarized by Fugh-Berman and Cott, Lake and
Spiegel (through Lee, R., Yee, P.S. & Naing, G.), Mischoulon and Rosenbaum and the
Natural Standard. However, Fugh-Berman, Brown et al., Berkeley Wellness and the Mayo
Clinic question ginkgo’s effect on memory and specifically its apparent inability to prevent
Alzheimer’s dementia, based on the negative NCCAM-sponsored GEM study and Cochrane
Collaboration meta-analysis. The recent evidence is mostly negative, including the 2012
publication of the GuidAge Study. But all sources except Berkeley Wellness remain
optimistic for some ongoing neuroprotective role for Ginkgo:
3. SOURCES
Writing in 1999, Fugh-Berman and Cott found support for the use of ginkgo for mild
dementia from four credible double-blind studies and a meta-analysis of forty
controlled trials of treatment for “cerebral insufficiency.”^1 Fugh-Berman and Cott
concluded that there is a small but significant effect of 3 to 6 months of treatment
with 120 to 240 mg per day of ginkgo extract on objective measures of cognitive
function. However, Fugh-Berman now states that ginkgo appears to be ineffective in
preventing or delaying cognitive impairment. Fugh-Berman is persuaded that though
ginkgo has a mild effect in treating dementia (it’s about as effective as conventional
drugs used to treat dementia), it does not prevent it.
Writing in 2006, Lake and Spiegel concluded that ginkgo, “can be used for a number of
conditions, including dementia and cerebral insufficiency,” citing the same studies
used by Fugh-Berman and Cott.^2 They noted that most reports of improvement had
involved elderly subjects with some cognitive impairment and called for more extensive
trials with healthy subjects.
Mischoulon and Rosenbaum (through Amri, H., Mones, A-A, Le Bars, P. & Kastelan, J.)
consider the standardized EGb 761 ginkgo extract formula to be “one of the most
