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Go Gung Ho for Gingko to Minimize Stroke-Related Brain
Damage 10-14-08
Each year in the United States,
approximately 700,000 people experience the devastating effects of a stroke.
Most of those strokes, about 87% of them, are ischemic strokes, which are caused
when an artery to the brain becomes blocked. The loss of blood flow damages,
even destroys, brain cells in the vicinity. Additional damage occurs once the
blockage is cleared and blood flow resumes.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions have recently announced their
success in minimizing some of the damage to brain cells that occurs once blood
flow is resumed. Their study was based on proving the therapeutic effects of
daily doses, before the stroke occurred, of an extract from the gingko biloba
tree, which seemed to prevent about half the brain damage that was expected.
The research team worked with mice so it is unknown whether the same dramatic
effects would be seen in humans but the results suggest further investigation.
One group of mice, referred to as the HO-1 knockout mice, did not carry the gene
that produces heme oxygenase-1(HO-1), an enzyme that breaks down an iron
molecule, heme, which is a common component of blood. Previous studies have
indicated that HO-1 is a protective antioxidant agent that reduces inflammation.
A second group of mice was genetically normal.
Half the mice in each group were given a specific laboratory-grade extract of
gingko biloba, EGb 761, for each of seven days before researchers induced a
stroke in them all by blocking the blood flow to one side of their brains.
Neurological function was measured one hour after the induced stroke and again
two and 22 hours afterward. Tests involved running in patterns and reaction to
external stimuli. Function was measured on a four-point scale - no functional
deficiency (1), weakness in the affected forelimb (2), inability to bear weight
on the side affected by the stroke (3), and no spontaneous motor activity at all
(4).
The genetically normal mice that were pretreated with gingko extract experienced
50.9% less neurological impairment than the genetically normal mice that did not
get daily gingko supplementation. The areas of the brain damaged by the induced
stroke were an average of 48.2% smaller in the pretreated genetically normal
mice than the untreated normal mice.
The mice in the HO-1 knockout group did not enjoy the same positive effects of
the gingko extract as the normal mice did. Neurobehavioral function proved to be
about the same for these mice, whether pretreated with gingko or not.
The research team attributes the success of the gingko extract to its
antioxidant properties, which, in this case, seemed to eliminate the oxygen-free
radicals that accumulate at the stroke site when the flow of blood is restored.
Oxygen-free radicals, produced when a cell dies, are toxic and can trigger the
death of surrounding cells. The gingko extract is thought to be the catalyst for
a series of molecular activities that neutralize oxygen-free radicals before
damage can be done.
Today’s conventional treatment for ischemic stroke is to administer tissue
plasminogen activator (tPA) to clear the arterial blockage causing the stroke or
to remove it by some other means. While this treatment removes the blockage and
gets the blood flowing again, it does not address the damage caused when blood
flow is restored.
Prescriptions for gingko biloba are frequent in Europe and Asia, where the
extract is taken for memory impairment. Sylvain Doré, PhD, and associate
professor in the Johns Hopkins’ Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care
Medicine, suggests a daily dose of ginkgo may prove to be an effective
preventive measure when taken by people at high risk of having a stroke. While
further work is needed to reach that goal, Doré, who was lead researcher for the
study, says this study offers a possible understanding of how neurons are
protected by gingko. Full details of the study are in the current issue of the
medical journal, Stroke.
Gingko biloba trees, native to China, are grown ornamentally in shaded areas in
temperate regions around the world. The US and France cultivate the trees for
commercial purposes.
Comment:
Never by herbs from China! They will be heavily adulterated, full of pesticides and herbicides, as well as not cleanly manufactured. Any reputable company will list company of origin on their bottles.