If you’ve suffered a stroke, start taking ginkgo biloba.
The herb can speed recovery and repair cognitive problems, especially following ischemic stroke, the type that is caused by a blood clot in the brain.
It’s routinely given to stroke victims in China, especially by TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) practitioners who recognize its antioxidant qualities that protect nerve cells.
Researchers from Beijing Tiantan Hospital in China recorded the cognitive recovery of 3,163 stroke survivors after they had been given intravenous (IV) injections of 25 mg gingko diterpene lactone meglumine (GDLM) for 14 days or a placebo IV.
By the end of the initial trial, the patients who were given the gingko IV were recording cognitive scores that were around 10 percent higher than those given the placebo, and the improvement was even more significant after 90 days. The researchers are confident the improvements would continue beyond that point.
Gingko expands blood vessels in the brain, and improves their tolerance to hypoxia, or inadequate oxygen supply, while increasing cerebral blood flow. It could also have a protective effect on neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Gingko has not been approved by America’s drug regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a post-stroke remedy.
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