Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Ginkgo Biloba: A Smart Drug?

I figure there are three types of herbs which are useful, those are exaggerations and those who are much hyped, but also prove useful. Ginkgo biloba, in my opinion, falls into the third category, although I am not sure that what is hyped is exactly what is useful. The herb we know as Ginkgo is derived from the leaves of the maidenhair tree that grows in warm regions of the U.S. and in China. The Chinese have used for five millennia for the treatment of respiratory diseases and memory. Today is marketed as "smart drugs", which will improve their cognitive abilities, including memory.

My first questions are, "how can you do that?" and "should not we all be taking?". Advertising is fairly vague on how they are supposed to work so naturally I had to look elsewhere for answers. I believe that once you understand how the grass is much easier to decide when to use and for what purposes.

Most studies on ginkgo biloba indicates that it is useful only in those circumstances in which problems of movement is a factor. Substances Ginkgo biloba inhibit platelet activating factor (PAF) in the blood and, therefore, make blood less sticky. Slippery blood flows better through the arteries that could be partially clogged with cholesterol deposits. It also appears to be a regulating effect on the muscle tone of the blood vessels in the grass so that the blood has more space in which to flow. It makes sense that if something becomes more practice, which works better.

In claudication (a condition involving poor circulation in the legs), ginkgo biloba was found to significantly improve pain-free foot in patients who took. Similarly, memory loss because of poor blood flow to the brain can improve through the use of Ginkgo biloba. In fact, there are clinical trials in patients with dementia who showed slight improvement in memory of those who took ginkgo. The problem is, not all dementia is related to poor circulation.

Therefore, if my brain is slow, but the movement of my brain is fine, ginkgo help me? Only if you cree that football players wear fools breathing strips on their noses actually work better than those who do not.

Seriously, however, believe that ginkgo biloba has a valid place in the treatment of circulatory disorders. Patients with claudication, impotence, memory loss or other manifestations of microvascular complications (small vessels) disease a good opportunity to do with the improvement of ginkgo in a much more reasonable than the price of drugs at our disposal today.

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