Herb proven to help Alzheimer’s patients

A large medical study in Europe has found that a patented Ginkgo biloba leaf extract is of significant benefit to Alzheimer’s disease patients.

The study was published in Arzneimittel-Forschung (Drug Research) and involved 395 outpatients who had mild to moderate dementia with neuropsychiatric features, such as depressed mood, anxiety, irritability and aggression.

The Ginkgo biloba extract used in the study was EGb 761, which is available over the counter in Australia under the name Tebonin. During the 22-week trial subjects were given either a placebo, or 240mg per day of EGb 761.
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The patients treated with EGb 761 showed improvement throughout the study with a highly significant advantage of 4.5 points in the SKT compared to those who received a placebo. Similar improvements were found in all other applied tests. A 35% decrease in distress was observed in caregivers of the active treatment group.

The authors of the paper said they believe that this may reflect both the patient’s improvement in behavioural and psychiatric symptoms as well as the reduction in dependency with respect to activities of daily living.