Science
Scientists, after a comprehensive review of the results of numerous studies, came to the conclusion that the beneficial properties of such a popular medicinal plant as ginseng are, to put it mildly, exaggerated. We are talking about the ability of this plant to stimulate thinking abilities and, supposedly, treat various forms of dementia. However, JinSong Geng, the author of the study, believes that ginseng can actually have some positive effects on a person's cognitive ability and even on him behavior, improving the quality of life. “But, at this point in time, it is too early to make any recommendations about whether to take this medicine or not, as there is very little evidence of its benefits,” the scientist said.
It is worth recalling that ginseng, which, in fact, includes several plant species, is a very popular drug used in different parts of the world. It is believed that ginseng is extremely useful not only for the body, but also for the brain, as it can improve thinking ability and protect the body from the development of many ages diseases, including dementia.
The researchers based their conclusions on the results of five so-called double-blind tests, in which neither the testers nor the subjects knew anything about the real goals of the experiment, as it could influence test results. The aim of all these experiments was to determine the effectiveness of ginseng drugs. A total of 289 volunteers took part in the studies, each of whom was in good health, without any signs of dementia or other mental disabilities. Participants were predominantly young or middle-aged: in three studies, the subjects were between 20 and 31 years old, and in the other two studies, they were about 50 years old. Four studies were aimed at finding any effect from relatively long-term use of ginseng drugs — from eight to 12 weeks; the fifth study was aimed at to detect any changes in the body or behavior of the subjects after two days of taking medications.
According to scientists, research has indeed revealed certain benefits from taking ginseng. Some tests have shown certain improvements in the memory performance of test participants. Some positive changes were also recorded, demonstrating an improvement in the stress resistance of the participants in the experiment. However, according to the researchers, in other tests, subjects showed similar results both before and after taking ginseng drugs. Thus, it remains to be recognized that the results obtained are very disparate and do not allow us to draw unambiguous conclusions about the usefulness of ginseng for mental and cognitive abilities.
An interesting point is the analysis of the side effects that were observed after taking various ginseng drugs. Although none of the subjects complained of any serious side effects, scientists still recorded certain negative effects, such as headache, nausea, diarrhea, and even dermatitis . However, according to scientists, these side effects were detected not only in those who took ginseng, but also in those who took a placebo or a pacifier, that is, a neutral harmless drug.
Thus, having collected all the data obtained, scientists did not dare to draw unequivocal conclusions about the benefits of ginseng drugs due to the lack of explicit indications. Perhaps the reason for this was the tests themselves, which were conducted without any taxonomy, providing researchers with disparate data collected under different conditions for analysis. Be that as it may, researchers believe that it is too early to dismiss ginseng as a drug that can provide tangible benefits to the human brain — just more research is needed. And while scientists are getting cash grants for these very studies, ordinary users of ginseng drugs can only rejoice that these drugs can not do any harm.