Alzheimer’s Disease is a common type of dementia, or decline in intellectual functioning. Once thought rare, Alzheimer’s disease is now known to affect more than 4.5 million people in the United States alone. It afflicts 10 per cent of Americans over 65 and as many as 50 per cent of those over 85 years of age. This disease does not only affect the elderly, but may strike when a person is in his or her forties.
Alzheimer’s disease is known to be a degernerative disorder that is characterized by a specific set of physiological changes in the brain. Nerve fibers surrounding the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center become tangled and information is no longer carried properly to or from the brain. Therefore, new memories can’t be formed, and old memories can’t be retrieved.
Ginkgo biloba extract acts as an antioxidant and increases blood flow to the brain. According to a report published in the October 22, 1977 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), ginkgo biloba extract can stabilize and, in some cases, impove the mental functioning and social behavior of people with Alzheimer’s disease. This was later confirmed in a 1997 study. Reccommended dosage is 100 to 200 mgs. of ginkgo
per day.