Does ginseng make your mind sharper?

by Aimee Keenan-Greene

Should you take ginseng to heighten your thinking ability and prevent, or even treat, dementia?

New research says ginseng appears to have some beneficial effects on cognition, behavior, and quality of life.

However, lead author JinSong Geng, M.D., says at present he cannot go so far as to recommend taking the herb because he sees a lack of high-quality evidence.

Ginseng is among the most widely used herbs worldwide. It is said to provide a broad array of physical and mental benefits, including cognitive enhancement and protection against age-related decline and dementia.

The authors found five randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled studies to help them analyze the herb’s effectiveness. These studies comprised 289 patients, each of whom were healthy and without signs of dementia or cognitive decline.

Individual studies showed superiority on some measures of cognitive function among participants taking ginseng, including working memory and an increase in calmness.

Another trial found the group receiving ginseng scored significantly better on some tests of learning and memory.

Despite some positive findings, studies included in the systematic review did not add up to a “convincing” case for ginseng’s effectiveness as a cognitive enhancer, the authors concluded.

The reason - the authors could not combine data from the individual studies for a meta-analysis, due to differences among the studies in design, including herbal types and doses, preparations, and testing methods used to measure cognitive function, Geng said.

Because the studies all involved healthy subjects, researchers were unable to determine the potential of ginseng to prevent or treat dementia, Geng said.

Richard Brown, M.D., suggested that two aspects of cognitive enhancement cited by the review, improvement in reaction time and in working memory, are worth taking seriously.

“It was a very careful review. But as with many Chinese herbs and treatments, while ginseng has been used by millions of people, there aren’t a lot of rigorous modern studies,” said Brown, an associate professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University.

There were no serious side effects observed in connection with the herb. One of the studies reported adverse effects like headache, dizziness, diarrhea and eczema, but these occurred in both ginseng and placebo groups, and were not severe.

The review appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. 

Study Source: Health Behavior News Service, part of the Center for Advancing Health.