Pages

Showing posts with label Alzheimer’s disease. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alzheimer’s disease. Show all posts

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Cutivation of Ginkgo tree

Two recent studies support earlier research on the use of ginkgo for improving cognitive function, particularly in older people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Seniors with dementia scored better on memory tests and had other improvements. In the first, researchers from Ukraine enlisted 400 patients with dementia in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 22-week study. They found that treatment with a gingko biloba extract (240 mg per day) to be associated with improvements in scores for a simple and short test for assessing cognitive impairment of memory and attention (SKT test) and neuropsychiatric symptoms. In addition, care giver distress scores were reduced significantly among care givers of patients in the ginkgo group, as compared to a worsening found among care givers of patients on the placebo. The researchers reported significant differences between the ginkgo and placebo groups in terms of apathy/indifference, anxiety, irritability/lability, depression/dysphoria,and sleep/nighttime behavior. They say the results suggest that supplementing with an extract of gingko biloba may benefit patients with dementia.

In a second study by German researchers, 404 patients with mild to moderate dementia (333 with Alzheimer’s disease and 71 with vascular dementia) supplemented with the same type and dose of gingko biloba extract for a period of 6 months. Similarly, the herb was found to improve cognitive functioning, non-cognitive symptoms, and functional abilities. Patients treated with the gingko had improvements on the SKT cognitive test battery as compared to deterioration or no change inpatients on placebo. Scores on the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) also improved in patients taking the supplement, compared to either a slight deterioration or only slight improvement in placebo patients. The researchers say that supplementation with gingko may be of benefit to patients with mild to moderate dementia due to either vascular dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
Source: Wien Med Wochenschr,2007;157(13-14):295-300; Alzheimer’s and Dementia, July 2008