Popular Herbal Supplement Does Not Prevent Alzheimer’s
Ottawa - Results of a new study find that the herbal supplement called ginkgo does not prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
Ginkgo is widely sold in health stores the world over due to it containing antioxidents which are very good for the body.
The hope was that these antioxidents would help prevent Alzheimer’s disease in elderly healthy adults and even those with mild cognitive impairments.
This proved to not be the case as when compared with study participants taking a placebo, almost as many of the group on the herbal supplement were diagnosed with the brain degenerative disease.
“At this point in time, I wouldn’t tell anybody to take the medication in hopes that it would work (to prevent Alzheimer’s),” said study lead author Dr. Steven DeKosky, dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine
“If they want to continue taking it — because it’s not toxic and not expensive — they probably aren’t going to hurt themselves other than spending the money,” DeKosky added.
