There are lots of good reasons to try and follow a healthier diet.

You lose weight, you feel good, but the main reason, to live a longer, happier, more productive life.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

Back by popular demand, it's the Nutrition Facts Grabbag,

where we look at the latest science on a whole variety of topics.

And we start with Ginko Biloba.

Turns out it doesn't seem to have any effect in preventing cognitive decline or dementia, but may play a role in treating it.

More than a third of older Americans take some kind of brain health supplement to the tune of billions a

dollars a year and one of the most popular is ginko bologna.

U.S. household survey suggests as many as 2% of Americans are taking Ginko supplement.

Ginko blob is a tree with fan-shaped leaves regarded as a living fossil, having persisted relatively unchanged for over a quarter billion years, its

resilience makes it a favorite of urban planners, hearty enough to survive, even a nuclear

blast, as one of the few survivors within a short radius of ground zero in erosion.

Over the last 30 years or so an extract of ginko leaves has become one of the most widely used herbal treatments for dementia.

A 2009 Cochran review of three dozen randomized controlled trials,

evolving more than 4,000 participants concluded that the evidence

that Ginko Biloba has predictable and clinically significant benefit for people with dementia

cognitive impairment is inconsistent and unreliable.

One trial showed very large benefits, but others showed no effect at all.

To put the subject to rest once and for all two large randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials were conducted one in Europe,

funded by a Ginko supplement manufacturer, and the largest longest study to date funded by the NIH in the United States.

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