This natural supplement can cause stroke!

Herbal medications should be used with
cautionHerbal medications and therapies are becoming very popular, and many people are falling in love with them. But there is need for caution as some of them with ginkgo can pose serious danger to the brain, reports Sade Oguntola.

Thousands of people rely on different vitamin and mineral supplements for better health. There are various claims on these supplements as essential to protection against health problems like cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis and birth defects.

Opinion has long been divided on whether such supplements can actually improve well being, given that there are evidences that multivitamin supplements make men to have increased risk of fatal prostate cancers and that hepatitis was associated with Kava, a herbal remedy for anxiety.

There is now evidence that ginkgo biloba, the popular Chinese herbal extract, thought by many to ward off dementia, could actually do more harm than good. Scientists investigating the ancient herb’s brain-boosting properties discovered a higher rate of strokes in those taking it daily than among those who were on a placebo, or dummy pill.

A stroke occurs when blood-flow to brain tissues is disrupted, killing brain cells by robbing them of oxygen and nutrients. They are usually caused by the blockage of a blood vessel to the brain, or a ruptured blood vessel that causes bleeding into the brain. Depending on the portion of the brain that is damaged, stroke victims can suffer a variety of disabilities, including paralysis, slurred speech, memory loss and confusion.

Ginkgo has been used for the treatment of several diseases for centuries in Asia and in recent years has become one of the most prescribed medicines in Germany and France. The extract is derived from the nuts and large, fan-shaped leaves of the Ginkgo biloba, typically grown as a shade tree. Ginkgo extract contains a number of pharmacologically active compounds. However, the relative concentrations of these can vary widely in the unregulated ginkgo sold in health and food stores in many countries, including Nigeria.

The new study involved 118 people, 85 years and older, with no memory problems. The elderly subjects were randomly assigned to receive either a ginkgo biloba extract (240 mg daily, provided by Thorne Research) or placebo for three years. The extracts were independently verified to contain at least six per cent terpene lactones and 24 per cent flavone glycosides. Tests and scan were carried out to make sure they did not have other illnesses, such as diabetes, angina, heart failure, mental illness or Parkinson’s disease.

During the study, seven people taking ginkgo had strokes or warning strokes, compared with none in the placebo group. Dr Hiroko H. Dodge and colleagues from the Department of Public Health at the Oregon State University in the US conducted the study. The study was published in Neurology, a peer-reviewed medical journal. This randomised placebo-controlled trial was double blind and ran as a pilot study for 42 months.

Dr. Dodge in a statement said, “Ginkgo has been reported to cause bleeding-related complications, but the strokes in this case were due to blood clots, not excessive bleeding, and were generally not severe.” “These results need to be clarified with larger studies, but the findings are interesting because ginkgo biloba is already widely used, readily available, and relatively inexpensive,” said Dodge.

“One of the most pressing public health problems facing our society is the rapidly growing number of people who, due to their age alone, are at high risk of developing dementia. The potential to delay or prevent this is of great importance. Further studies are needed to determine whether gingko biloba has any benefits in preventing cognitive decline and whether it is safe.”

The findings have naturally raised alarm among the many who take the herb. In fact, this research is just one of several recent studies that have raised questions about supplements used to ward off age-related problems. Meanwhile, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) of several countries like Britain, has set “safe upper limits” for a range of vitamins and minerals, but there are no guidelines of how much ginkgo biloba is safe to take.

The herb has been used in China for centuries to treat respiratory disorders such as asthma. Then in the 1950s, German scientists discovered the leaves of the plant contained substances called ginkgolides, which appeared to stop blood vessels constricting; they also prevented blood from becoming too “sticky” and reduced damage to cells.

Memory problems are often linked to a reduced blood supply to the brain, so gingko was seen as a useful anti-ageing weapon, but there is much less evidence on whether taking it daily will actually stop someone getting the condition in the first place. Around 40 clinical trials have since demonstrated that the herb can improve memory and concentration in some patients in the early stages of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

Professor Stephen Jackson, a specialist in elderly care at King’s College Hospital, London, was of the opinion that the apparent increase in stroke risk in the ginkgo biloba trial was probably due to chance. He declared that until larger studies on more people are completed, it is impossible to say for sure ginkgo biloba was not the cause. His advice, therefore, was that anyone who has dementia, and has been using ginkgo biloba to slow its progression, should carry on taking it if it seems to be helping to improve his or her memory.

But healthy people taking it to ward off dementia should stop it, as the small risk of a stroke may outweigh any benefit they might get in terms of preventing memory loss. However, ginkgo has been reported to cause bleeding-related complications, but the strokes in this case were due to blood clots, not excessive bleeding, and were generally not severe. Before now, reports of adverse effects of the herb have included an increase in bleeding-related complications and experts have warned that because ginkgo is also a mild blood thinner, it may be risky to use it in patients already on blood thinning medications commonly prescribed in people at risk for stroke.