Saturday, January 2, 2010

Does Ginko Biloba improve your memory or prevent cognitive decline?

Apparently not.  For years, anectodal claims that supplementing with Ginko Biloba could enhance your memory or prevent dementia in old age have fed the almost 1 billion dollar a year industry (that's for Ginko alone, not the herbal supplement industry which is a 34 billion dollar a year industry... that is, in the U.S.A. alone, who knows how much gets raked in worldwide, but with demand throughout Asia for things like rhino horn and seal penis driving their respective source species to extinction, one can only imagine it must be a whole helluva lot).  Anyway, I wish I could say I came up with exposing this neuromyth all by myself, but I was first tipped off by Phil Plait at Discover blogs.  Here's the link to a recent article in USA Today relating the latest research.  I doubt that this report will have much of an impact because there will still be some people who swear by the supplement (just like there are plenty of people who swear by homeopathy and psychic healers and other sorts of quackery).

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