Chinese Medicine
ALZHEIMER AND GINKO BILOBA
by London Acupuncture Practitioner Roisin Golding
A famous Taoist, Peng Zu, was said to have been 767 years old in 1123 BC. During class a fellow student asked, “So, what did he die from?”
“Boredom,” replied another.
There are few reliable records of people living to be more than 120 years old. But that life span was exceeded last year by Mme. Jeanne Calmont of Arles, France, who died at 126.
So assuming one has escaped war, pestilence and fatal accidents, what hazards remain? Most people look on with a mixture of respect and amusement at cantankerous old folk who need help to get in and out of their favourite armchair because of creaking joints. We generally smile at the very slow nonagenarians holding up aisle flow in the supermarket. We respect these people. They’ve survived God knows what in their lives and they’re still here to tell the tale. A slow degeneration in the musculo-skeletal system is generally accepted with more or less good grace.
But watch someone you love disappear before your eyes into a world devoid of memory, emotion and personality, or into dementia, and the aging process seems far less benign. Fear of memory loss and intellectual capabilities is the fear of losing oneself.
There is no cure in Western or Alternative medicine for Alzheimer’s disease. But there are precautions we can all take. These include eating a diet rich in antioxidants, including Vitamins A, C, E, the mineral selenium and the chemical beta-carotene (closely related to Vitamin A). B vitamins are also important in synthesising neurotransmitters in the brain.
One of the most promising substances that has been shown to work in the short term (up to a year) for Alzheimer’s is the herb ginkgo biloba. Ginkgo, which is the oldest living species of tree in the world, surviving whatever it was the dinosaurs did not, was saved from more recent extinction by Chinese Buddhist monks. They revered it for its beauty and planted it in monasteries. Which is lucky as there are now no wild Ginkgo trees left. In Japan, ginkgo achieved the status of an immortal, becoming the very symbol of longevity and regeneration, when it was the first tree to grow back in Hiroshima after the 1945 atom bomb attack.
Although the Chinese have used ginkgo in herbal formulas for centuries, they had never used it, until recently, for dementia, nor had they used the leaf, which is the part of the plant most intriguing to modern medical researchers.
What those scientists have found is that ginkgo leaves increase blood flow to the brain, thereby improving mental functioning, including memory and concentration, thereby reducing absent-mindedness. Chronic infarct, which really means a slow dying off of parts of the brain due to minute , often unnoticed, strokes, responds even better to ginkgo. Since chronic infarct mostly affects 40- to 50-year-olds, there is a good case for taking this as a regular supplement.
Not only is it good for cerebrovascular flow (blood flow in the brain,) but it is also good for angina.
Research such as this has led the Chinese to review their theories on geriatric medicine. Traditional Chinese wisdom asserts that there is a natural decline in certain constitutional energies which lead to decline in bone density, loss of hearing and loss of brain matter. Consequently, many complaints of the elderly had been treated, until recently, by using herbs and acupuncture to support this essential energy. However, new treatment theories by eminent Chinese doctors focus on the importance of blood circulation in the brain.
On the other hand, since a high proportion of those suffering from Alzheimer’s also have severe hearing impairment and other constitutional symptoms, a combination of treatment is used to support the essential qi (or, chi, generally translated as energy) and to circulate the blood. Alzheimer’s patients are not normally seen in the Western acupuncturist’s clinic unless for treatment for concurrent symptoms such as joint pain. As far as I am aware, no studies have been done on the effects of Chinese herbal prescriptions in the treatment of Alzheimer’s, but this is showing promising results in China.
Before assuming that Alzheimer's is the cause of an elderly person's apparent mental deterioration, note that environmental pollution may be at fault. The elderly are much more susceptible to the toxic effects of indoor pollutants even at very low levels. If an elderly relative becomes confused and absentminded, especially if this seems to progress quite quickly, check out gas appliances at home for carbon monoxide leaks. Likewise, major refurbishing work could have exposed them to formaldehyde, (from new carpets and furnishings,) or toluene, a toxic chemical used in building materials, or lead. All of these can lead to mental impairment. It is worth getting a blood test to check for any of these.
Lead, not yet banned from gasoline in the United Kingdom, apparently accumulates in bone (and is therefore in bone meal.) Deterioration of bone from osteoporosis means that lead, which may have accumulated over many years, is released into the blood stream. It is worth taking a calcium supplement (the vegetarian type is safest) so that the calcium needed for essential metabolic functions does not have to be withdrawn from reserves in the bone.
