Does Ginkgo Biloba Improve Memory?
Although there have been numerous small studies investigating the effects of Ginkgo Biloba on memory, they have generally have been small and followed participants for short periods of time. The results have been inconsistent and overall inconclusive. The GEM (Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory) study was set up to address these inconsistent results. GEM is a large randomized controlled double-blind study. This type of study is regarded as the gold standard of scientific investigation.
The study followed 3069 participants aged between 72 and 96 over a 6 year period. Half the participants took a twice-daily 120 mg dose of Ginkgo Biloba and the other half took placebo pills. The results were published last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) [1]. The study found no difference in the rates of cognitive decline between the placebo and treatment groups. There was no evidence that Ginkgo Biloba had any impact on cognitive performance including memory.
Our Brain Fitness Program has also been subjected to a double double-blind randomized controlled trial. The results showed that participants who did 40 hours of training improved memory performance by about 10 years compared to people who spend the same time watching educational videos on a computer [2]. If you want to improve your memory I would strongly encourage you to look at the scientific evidence supporting an intervention before parting with your money.
1. Snitz, B.E., et al., Ginkgo biloba for preventing cognitive decline in older adults: a randomized trial. JAMA, 2009. 302(24): p. 2663-70.
2. Smith, G.E., et al., A cognitive training program based on principles of brain plasticity: results from the Improvement in Memory with Plasticity-based Adaptive Cognitive Training (IMPACT) study. J Am Geriatr Soc, 2009. 57(4): p. 594-603.
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Posted: Brain Fitness Program, Research studies
Posit Science's corporate blog is the place where our employees share their thoughts about Posit Science and its products, brain fitness, breakthroughs in neuroscience, and any other topic they find interesting and relevant. 
March 17th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Thanks for making the effort to share this with us, just loved it.
June 25th, 2010 at 10:31 am
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