Chinese herb may slow Alzheimer's, study says

BY BRIGID SCHULTE

Mercury News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON Mary Shaver knows what it's like to see the light go out,
slowly and inevitably, in someone's eyes. Through her husband's illness,
she knows the heartbreak of Alzheimer's, a memory and thoughterasing
disease that has no cure. The best that medicine can offer are two drugs
that merely delay the devastating decline.

Tuesday, the American Medical Association endorsed an unusual third
possibility: an ancient Chinese herb called ginkgo biloba.

At an AMA conference in Washington, researchers from the New York Institute
for Medical Research presented the results of a study of nearly 300
patients with either Alzheimer's or another form of dementia.

Their study showed that for one in three patients, an extract from the
leaves of the ginkgo biloba tree delayed the progression of dementia by six
months to one year about the same as the two prescription drugs approved
by the Food and Drug Administration, Cognex and Aricept.

None of the ginkgo patients' cognition or social skills improved markedly,
researchers said. But those taking the herbal extract did not decline,
unlike the group taking placebo, or dummy pills.

``The study shows a modest result,'' said Dr. Pierre Le Bars, one of the
report authors. ``But sometimes we forget that even to stabilize a patient
with this terrible disease is a fantastic result.''

With 4 million Americans in some stage of Alzheimer's, researchers are
scrambling to find out what causes it and why, and who will be affected. By
the middle of the next century, that number will climb to an estimated 14
million Americans.

Ginkgo trees are hardy and resistant to pollution, and are the only trees
around that grew at the time of the dinosaurs. For thousands of years, the
Chinese have used ginkgo to improve mental clarity.

More than 200 studies in Europe show that ginkgo boosts memory, and the
drug is widely prescribed. Le Bar's research was funded by Willmar Schwabe
Pharmaceuticals, one of the largest makers and distributors of ginkgo.

In the United States, ginkgo has been available in healthfood stores as a
vitamin supplement for the last 10 years.

Published Wednesday, October 22, 1997, in the San Jose Mercury News