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For years, practitioners of alternative medicine have been touting the benefits of ginkgo, especially for maintaining brain health, but a new study finds that the centuries-old nostrum does little to slow the cognitive decline of aging.
Researchers at six universities across the U.S., led by Dr. Steven DeKosky at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, report that elderly people taking ginkgo supplements showed no notable differences in scores on brain-function tests from people taking placebo pills. The team, which published its results Tuesday, Dec...
"For me, this kind of closes the book on whether or not, if you start taking ginkgo later in life, you are going to have cognitive benefit," says DeKosky, vice dean of the School of Medicine. "We don't have good evidence that it maintains good brain health."
The study is the largest and, with a mean follow-up of six years, also the longest to investigate the effects of ginkgo on the brain. An earlier analysis, also led by DeKosky, reported in 2008 that ginkgo supplements do not prevent the development of dementia or Alzheimer's disease...
Scientists had thought ginkgo extract might work as an anti-inflammatory agent to keep brain connections healthy and promote steady flow of nutrients to neurons. They also thought ginkgo, a strong antioxidant, helped inhibit oxidative damage to brain neurons caused by free radicals found in pollutants or made as a...