hardly any scientific breakthroughs...

hardly any scientific breakthroughs have occurred with Alzheimer's disease since 1907 when Alois Alzheimer first identified brain changes characteristic of the progressive mental disease that now bears his name. That is, until recently

Several major studies have been published from one side of to the other the past 12 months offering a ray of expectancy to families affected by this devastating illness. Perhaps the inundate of new research can be traced to the burgeoning legions of Baby Boomer heading into their older years, and fearful of the many age-related illnesses that nature could have in store.

First, there was the announcement from the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative cogitation that high doses of vitamin E (2000 I.U. by day) over a two-year period saves the day-to-day basic functioning capability of those afflicted with the mind-robbing disease of Alzheimer's. Now there's the research at handed at an American Medical Association conversation showing that the ancient herb Ginkgo biloba ("ginkgo") helps keep reasoning, memory, and behavior in Alzheimer's patients.

Understanding Alzheimer's disease

An estimated four million Americans are afflicted with Alzheimer's disease; in fact, it is the fourth leading cause of death among adults, accounting for about 10000 deaths each year.

Although this mortality rate is alarming, the chiefly tragic aspect of Alzheimer's disease is the los of memory, reasoning power, and ability to carry abroad daily functions that Alzheimer's victims undergo in the years -- and sometimes decades -- before death. The los of cognitive function is known as dementia, a condition that is primarily associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Antioxidant nutrients, on disarming free radicals before they damage clew cell components, can act as "antidotes" to the delivered radical-induced changes that may introduce Alzheimer's disease.

In fact, the pair recent studies demonstrating that vitamin E and ginkgo aid Alzheimer's patients share an underlying commonality: the couple of these nutrients are antioxidants.

religious news about ginkgo

Ginkgo biloba is the oldest living species of tree and ginkgo leaves have been used medicinally for at least 5000 years for the treatment of memory los in the somewhat advanced in life among other benefits. Modern research now confirms this ancient application for ginkgo.

According to Pierre Le Bars, PhD MD and associate researchers from the New York Institute for Medical Research, almost one-third of Alzheimer's patients taking ginkgo postscripts showed improvements in cognitive function during a double-blind clinical trial comparing ginkgo supplys with a placebo.

Le Bars' consideration enrolled 327 patients with dementia (caused by the agency of either Alzheimer's disease or stroke) and randomly assigned them to take either ginkgo correlatives or look-alike placebo pills each day for one year. The ginkgo appendixs provided 120 mg of a standardized concentrated extract known as EGb Of the initially listed group, only 137 patients complet the entire meditation -- some patients were dropp from the reflection because they developed other, unrelated illnesses, any did not take the scheduled amounts of add tos and others were withdrawn from the meditation by their caregivers.

application of mind results show improvement

After about six month of daily supply use, the ginkgo group showed better conclusions on standard tests of reasoning, memory, and behavior. Meanwhile, the assemblage taking placebos showed worsening touchstone results, which would be reckon uponed with the progressive nature of Alzheimer's disease.

In other words, Le Bars explains that "EGb appears to stabilize And, in an additional 20 percent of cases v placebo), improve the patient's functioning for periods of six month to single year. Regarding its safety, adverse general intents associated with EGb were no different from those associated with [the] placebo."

to what degree does it do it? Well, according to Le Bars, and colleagues, "the mechanism of action of" ginkgo is "only partially understood," although the main drifts seem to be related to its antioxidative properties, involving mingle families in the herb, including flavonoids, terpenoids (ginkgolides, bilobalide), and organic acids.

REFERENCES

Le Bars, PL Katz, MM Berman, N et al. "A placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized trial of an extract of ginkgo biloba for dementia," JAMA 278(16):1327-1332 1997

Drachman, D.A., and Leber, P "Treatment of Alzheimer's disease -- Searching for a breakthrough, settling for less" novel Engl J Med 336:1245-47,1997.

COPYRIGHT 1998 PRIMEDIA Intertec, a PRIMEDIA Company. All Rights Reserved

COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group