Posted by bluedog on December 1, 2002, at 12:02:57
In reply to Ginkgo and SSRI sexual effects, posted by linkadge on December 1, 2002, at 10:39:46
I faithfully took Ginkgo Biloba for over 3 months. I ran out of the supplements last week and am undecided as to whether to get anymore because I did not notice any specific benefits from the herb. This was despite the fact that I was taking the therapeutic dose of 120mg of standardised ginkgo biloba extract (corresponds to approx 30mg of ginkgo flavonglycosides).
I did not notice any improvement in the sexual side effects caused by my ssri's (originally effexor and now prozac). The only time I ever noticed an improvement in the sexual side effects was when I reduced my dose of the ssri's.
However, just because I did not NOTICE any benefits specifically from ginkgo, that is not to say that I didn't RECEIVE any benefits because ginkgo as you probably know is a pretty potent antioxidant and can work synergistically with other antioxidants such as Lipoic Acid and Vitamin E to increase there effectiveness. I have linked to a very interesting article reporting on an interview with Dr Martin Pall who is a leading researcher on chronic fatigue syndrome. He stated that in treating his own chronic fatigue that he noticed the biggest improvement in his condition after taking ginkgo extract for 2-3 months. see http://www.imunologie.cz/kveten01_6.htm
The trouble I personally have is that I take a rather extensive supplement regime and it would be exceedingly difficult for me to isolate any one supplement as improving my overall health (and I can definitely state that my overall health has improved since commencing my supplement regime but I just can't say which of the supplements is specifically responsible for my improvement. If you want to see what my supplement regime is read the following thread - see http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021127/msgs/129993.html.) The other problem I have is that all my supplements are costing me lots of money and when and I need to make hard choices in rationalising my regime to save money, I personally think that Ginkgo is not as important as other supplements like Lipoic Acid or Vitamin E and therefore would prefer to drop this from my overall regime than the others.
That said, because I have only just dropped it from my regime, if I notice any decline in my overall mood and health in the next couple of weeks I would be inclined to conclude that it has resulted from dropping this supplement and I will hastily start taking it again..
I'll keep you posted if this happens
bluedog
poster:bluedog
thread:130105
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021127/msgs/130115.html