Quaternick,
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I’ve passed it on to the rest of the team.
Jane
High Altitude & Nutrition
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Hi Uphill Athletes! As an uphill athlete with decades of experience in mountain sports and member of UA community from the first book by Steve I’m really gratefull for the community to live and grow. In spite of being a sexagenerian I’m still learning and in some cases contributing where I believe, I can or should.
With great interest and expectations I’ve started listening to a new series of Podcast about Altitude. After listening to the last episode I believe I have to add a bit of my expertise related to pharmacological aspect. At approx 50 min (see transcpript) there is a mention of a food additive “of intereset”, namely Ginkgo Biloba (and not Baloba). Btw: this is an ancient plant (see interesting details elswhere!), known from Chinese trad medicine. To cut the long story short: extract of leaves are sold as an OTC medicine in Europe, but having in mind rather lax regulation elswhere it can be bought as food additive resp supplement, OTC dosage up to 240 mg per capsule. The main indication is dementia in early stages. It’s indication is based on traditional use, but was later correlated to increased cerebral blood flow. This would intuitively make the extract of leaves of Gingko Biloba an ideal supplemet. However, there is a very serious risk associated with the (supposed) mechanism of action: use of the extract has been associated with very dangerous cerebral bleeding. Some regulators, especially German BfArm have issued warnings and even rejected marketing aurhorisation for high dosage forms.
To cut the long story short: I’d not go for it. There are to many open questions besides above mentioned safety issues like posology/dose determinentios etc. (Disclosure: PhD in Pharmacy, almost 40 years in pharma R&D).
Gals: no offence, pls. Anxiously awaiting new episodes, keep up doing good job for the Community!
Go hard & Stay safe!
Quaternick
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