November 20th, 2008
Ginkgo Biloba does not help either
In the last few months I have seen study after study debunking common health food store myths. (Picture from NaturHeal blog.)
Glucosamine won’t stop arthritis. Neither the special ingredients in mens’ or womens’ multi-vitamins really prevent cancer. If you already have cancer, please skip the orange juice. But only take Vitamin D in a pill – the Sun will kill you.
Now it’s ginkgo biloba. If you think it’s saving your memory from the ravages of Alzheimer’s, forget it.
The Journal of the American Medical Association published results from a randomized test of ginkgo and found it does nothing to prevent either Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia.
The study gave either ginkgo or a placebo to almost 6,000 people, aged 75 and over, over six years. Almost one in 10 developed some form of dementia, slightly more in the ginkgo group than the control.
What seems to work best, in preventing all sorts of disease, is exercise. Find some physical activity you enjoy and do it as much as you can, no matter what your age.
You will be happier as well as healthier.
Health does not come from a pill. It’s what we do with the health we have, more than anything but genetics and chance, that determines how long we will keep it.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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