NOW Foods has begun developing information in the e mailings which they make each week. The idea for this came from Bonnie Coberly of the Better Health Campaign, who is trying to establish a batch of personal stories to present to Congress to show the importance of nutritional, alternative, and complimentary methods to improve health. To help her with this project, NOW Foods is using their network to generate a substantial amount of personal stories. In order to improve the credibility of these stories, NOW Foods has arranged with their technical staff to add references to supporting research.

 

If you have a personal story, we will add the supporting research to it and use it to help inform the public through Fruitful Yield & Now Foods e mailings, and also make this information available to Bonnie and others who wish to use it. Please send in any stories for this purpose to:

Mary Tevis
395 S Glen Ellyn Rd
Bloomingdale, IL 60108
or via e mail to:mtevis@nowfoods.com
Mary can also send you e mail copies of these stories each week.

Sincerely,

Elwood Richard, President
Now Foods

Although personal stories don't have the same degree of certainty that results from quality research, these stories do have value. Over 158 million Americans are using some form of nutrition, alternative, or complimentary therapy. The story that follows may be the starting point for quality research or may show how existing research can be used personally

MEMORY AID by Elwood Richard

When I was in my early sixties, I noticed that my memory began to fail. It became increasingly frustrating to go into a room and forget why I went there. Often, I would have to go back to where I had been in order to remember what my errand was. At times, I believed that I could force myself to remember without going back, and sometimes this worked, but I was losing ground.

I was familiar with the mental assistance research showing that Gingko biloba increased blood flow to the brain (1, 2), bioflavonoids increased small capillary circulation (3), lecithin reduced cholesterol levels (4), vitamin E and other antioxidants kept cholesterol from oxidizing (5), and ginseng helped mental alertness (6), but had not included some of them in my daily supplement program, which already included a lot.

Failing memory was a wake up call, and I began to do all of the mental alert? supplements every day - even to the point of taking liquid lecithin with me on trips with the rest of my supplements. (One tip for those who take liquid supplements on trips is to tighten the lids with one of those 3-inch circular rubber pads, wrap it in a paper towel and put it in a zip lock bag.)

Now I am ten years older and find that I still have trouble remembering names, but I don’t go into rooms any more and forget why I went there. I believe that everyone who is getting forgetful as they get up in years should try what I tried. There are reasons other than poor brain circulation and hardening of the arteries in the brain that can cause forgetfulness, and if these ideas didn’t seem to work within a few months, I would recommend seeing a knowledgeable physician who is familiar with complementary medicine.

An approach even better than the one I took, would be to begin a program to prevent or delay senior moments. It is relatively easy to run a test to see if a mental alert program can improve your memory. Pick a time of day in which your activity, sleep, and food and supplement consumption are the same as other days (perhaps the first thing on waking.) Then test yourself by trying to remember sequences of numbers or objects that you have placed on a table, after the same waiting period each day (perhaps 60 seconds). You should see a difference within a month.

What worked for me will not necessarily work for others, but this is what I take for alertness daily:

2 capsules gingko biloba
3 capsules panax ginseng
2 capsules bioflavinoids
800 to 1000 IU Vitamin E (This is much more than a young person needs.)
1 Tbs. liquid lecithin (most lecithin users don’t take enough)
1 tablet Vitamin C, 1000 mg.
1 capsule grape antioxidant

References:

Vorberg G (1985) Gingko biloba extract (GBE): A long-term study of chronic cerebral insufficiency in geriatric patients. Clin Trials J 22:149-157.
Vesper J, Hansgen KD (1994) Efficacy of Gingko biloba in 90 outpatients with cerebral insufficiency caused by old age. Phytomedicine 1:9-16.
Struckmann JR, Nicolaides AN (1994) Flavonoids. A review of the pharmacology and therapeutic efficacy of Daflon 500 mg in patients with chronic venous insufficiency and related disorders. Angiology 45(6):419-428.
Morrison LM (1958) Serum cholesterol reduction with lecithin. Geriatrics 13(1):12-19.
Niki E, Noguchi N (2002) Effects of antioxidants against atherosclerosis. Mol Cell Biochem 234-235(1-2):19-25.
Scholey AB, Kennedy DO (2002) Acute, dose-dependent cognitive effects of Ginkgo biloba, Panax ginseng and their combination in healthy young volunteers: differential interactions with cognitive demand. Hum Psychopharmacol 17(1);35-44.