Sharp Thinking
Sharp Thinking
By Bob Lefavi, PhD, CSCS, CHES
Chairman, Changes Science Advisory Board
Give Your Brain A Boost with Sharp Thinking!
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Life in today' s Information Age taxes everyone' s memory. Experts believe the average adult in contemporary society encounters about 1,000 times more stimuli per day than his/her grandparents! Who could blame you if you forget where you put the keys every once in a while?
Question is, can you do anything about it? More and more research is beginning to show that perhaps you can.
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The herb ginkgo biloba has experimental evidence describing its ability to boost mental processes. A daily dose of ginkgo biloba was recently found to enhance mental performance in people mildly impaired by Alzheimer' s and other forms of dementia. Yet even before this study was published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), gingko sales had topped $100 million per year (1996). Now, especially after the study was featured on Nightline with Ted Koppel, sales of gingko are expected to continue to increase.
What got the editors of JAMA excited enough about this herb to place it as a lead article in a recent issue? Here' s what happened in the study: In order to look at the effects of gingko biloba on mild dementia, researchers at six medical centers had 309 patients take either 120 milligrams of gingko biloba extract' the exact amount in the daily dosage of Changes' Sharp Thinking or a placebo every day for periods of up to a year. After six months, 24% of the gingko users, but only 14% of the placebo group, showed moderate improvement on mental test. In addition, questionnaires completed by the patient' s family members indicated that 37% of the gingko group compared with only 23% of the placebo group, were doing better in daily life. Interestingly, the results were very much like those we see with the use of tacrine, a prescription drug approved about five years ago as a treatment for Alzheimer' s disease!
But how does gingko work? Does it restore the structure of brain neurons gone haywire? Probably not. What gingko does appear to do, however, is enhance blood flow to the brain, thereby maximizing the ability of arteries and capillaries to supply much needed oxygen to vital brain cells. That is, it may optimize the function of the brain' s potential at that point in time. Another mechanism by which gingko protects brain function is found in its positive effects on oxidants in the brain circulation. Several recent studies have shown that gingko acts as an antioxidant which helps to reduce free radical damage. And because many studies have shown the benefits of antioxidants in cognitive diseases, gingko is more than just a little promising as an enhancer of mental processes.
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