Ginseng Aids Memory in Stroke Patients

Ginseng Aids Memory in Stroke Patients

BEIJING--In a small study out of China, researchers reported aginseng compound may hold cognitive benefits for stroke patients. In apresentation held Feb. 14 at the American Stroke Association's 28thInternational Stroke Conference in Phoenix, researchers led by Jinzhou Tian,M.D., from the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, discussed to results of astudy involving 40 patients with mild to moderate vascular dementia, a cognitiveside effect from multiple, small strokes.

Divided into two groups, 25 volunteers were randomly assigned to receive acompound containing ginseng extracted from roots and leaves and panaxnotoginseng (also known as sanchi) three times daily; the remaining 15 received40 mg of Duxil (a dementia drug that increases oxygen to the brain) threetimes daily. In previous research, the ginseng compound had been found toincrease brain chemical activity in aged mice, but its effects on humans had notbeen studied until now.

In the ginseng compound group, researchers noted a significantly higherincrease in total memory scores, such as story recall, delayed word recall andverbal learning, compared to the drug group. In the face of these positiveresults, the study's authors still noted the ginseng compound warrants furtherresearch before being considered a treatment option for vascular dementia.

In a statement from the Stroke Council for the American Heart Association (www.americanheart.org),Chairman Robert Adams said, "There is currently great interest in studyingherbs used in traditional forms of medicines, and the problem of dementia afterstroke is a significant one. As the authors point out, this work showing thatginseng may improve memory after stroke needs to be further studies, with largersample sizes." He added a placebo-controlled study would be the next step.