The Best Anti Aging Herbs: Brain Herbs

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Ginkgo biloba and gotu kola are among the best anti aging herbs for your mind.

As we age, several factors can result in less blood flow to the brain. Blood vessels can lose elasticity and tone, making circulation less efficient in both the arteries and capillaries. Free radicals can lead to tissue oxidation (think of it as mental rust). This, in turn, can contribute to declines in memory function. The brain and central nervous system are especially sensitive to free radical damage.

Blood also can become “sticky,” slowing its flow. Any blockage can cause a stroke. Blood platelets can also clump, reducing flow to the central nervous system and inducing inflammation that can damage nerve cells and other tissue. All these factors, working alone or together, can decrease blood flow to the brain, decrease oxygen utilization, and eventually lead to age-related memory conditions.

Ginkgo
(Ginkgo biloba)

Ginkgo can ease these problems, helping ­reduce the risk of strokes, repair damaged nervous tissue and increase mental acuity.

Ginkgo leaf extract combines the best of traditional herbal wisdom with rigorous modern science. The benefits of ginkgo leaf extract are now supported by more than 400 scientific studies.

Ginkgo is not only the best-selling phytomedicine in Germany and France, it’s also in the top five of all medications, natural or synthetic, prescribed in Germany. In the United States, it’s best known for its ability to improve short-term memory.

Ginkgo leaf extract is produced through a complex process that yields a product standardized to 24 percent flavone glycosides and 6 percent terpene lactones. Potential toxic components, such as ginkgolic acid, are reduced to less than 5 parts per million. It takes about fifty pounds of dried leaf to make one pound of extract, so it’s known as a 50:1 extract.

The combination of standardized chemical components in the plant are essential to its effects. Flavone glycosides are responsible for ginkgo’s strong antioxidant effects and help reduce the stickiness of blood platelets. Terpene lactones promote ginkgo’s ability to protect cells and increase circulation. In addition, lactones have been shown to help rebuild nerve tissue while protecting nerve cells from damage when blood supply is slow. Research has shown ginkgo’s potential to relieve difficulties with short-term memory, attention span and mood by improving oxygen metabolism in the brain.

Is ginkgo for everyone?

The clinical literature suggests that ginkgo is most beneficial to people over fifty. A study published in 1999 examined the effect of acute doses of ginkgo leaf extract in thirty-one volunteers aged thirty to fifty-nine. Conducted in England, the research evaluated the short-term effect of ginkgo on working memory after nine, fifteen, and twenty-one hours. Researchers found that ginkgo did improve short-term memory in healthy volunteers, and that a dose of 120 mg was most effective. The results also suggested that cognition was more likely to improve in individuals fifty or older.