Comments on: Ann Walker festival: "There is no convincing evidence that Ginkgo biloba is efficacious for dementia and cognitive impairment"

By: jonhw

jonhw — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:06:52 +0000

Yes – thanks for the update. It will be interesting to see whether sites such as Healthspan update their articles on Ginkgo…though I also won’t be holding my breath.

By: dvnutrix

dvnutrix — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:59:02 +0000

Thanks for the update. Given the popularity of Ginko (I've read that up to 10% of people with cognitive decline use it) it would have been exciting and useful had it had any useful degree of efficacy. It is in-line with the Cochrane review that it didn't. However, let's not hold our breath waiting for Holford to issue an update, eh? McCarney R, Fisher P, Iliffe S, van Haselen R, Griffin M, van der Meulen J, Warner J. Ginkgo biloba for mild to moderate dementia in a community setting: a pragmatic, randomised, parallel-group, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2008 Jun 9.

By: woodchoper

woodchoper — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:30:24 +0000

Its also worth noting that on 16 June 2008 the BBC reported that:

“A herbal extract used by an estimated 10% of people with dementia is not an effective treatment for it, an Imperial College London study suggests.”

“But a six-month trial of 176 people with mild to moderate dementia found no difference between those taking ginkgo biloba and those taking placebo.

The results are in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7453167.stm