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# Fluoride damages your brain, ginkgo biloba extract may help
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/fluoride_ginkgo_biloba_extract_0601130705/
- Published: 2013-06-01T20:04:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T15:46:56.000Z
- Description: Rats exposed to fluoride plus a Ginkgo biloba extract for three months had better learning and memory, higher superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase activity and less malondialdehyde than rats exposed to fluoride alone, a Chinese study reports.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Herbs, Nutrition, #vivvo-import

Saturday June 1, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- Fluoride is added to 75% of the U.S. drinking water. And studies have found excessive exposure to fluoride can lead to dental and skeletal fluorosis and damage to the brain in addition to causing diabetes and infertility in men. A new study now suggests that taking ginkgo biloba extract as a dietary supplement may protect against the learning and memory damage induced by chronic fluorosis.

Previous studies have shown that ginkgo biloba extract can help prevent Alzheimer's disease and actually the herbal supplement is now commonly used to treat patients with learning and memory impairment in Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease in China. 

The current study led by C. Zhang from Xuzhou Medical College Affiliated Hospital in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China and colleagues shows that rats exposed to both fluoride and a Ginkgo biloba extract preparation for three months had better learning and memory abilities, better activities of superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase and reduced malondialdehyde,compared to rats exposed only to fluoride.

The study was published in the June 1, 2013 issue of Biological Trace Element Research.

Reporting by Jimmy Downs