Can certain pills improve our memories?

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Make up blog assignment for the discussion on Memory.

Every year, Americans spend millions of dollars on "smart pills" in hopes of improving their memory. But do these pills really work? Can they help you remember where you put your misplaced cell phone or car keys? One of the most popular memory-enhancing pills on the market today is Ginkgo, an ancient Chinese medicine extracted from the Gingko tree. Because this medicine has been around for hundreds of years, people immediately assume that it must work, that it must improve their memory. If it didn't work, then why would it still be available today? Well, according to numerous studies, Ginkgo, as compared to a placebo, has little to no effect on the memory of normal individuals. Furthermore, studies show that Ginkgo does not have an effect on Alzheimer's either and does not reverse memory loss. In fact, Ginkgo can actually be harmful under certain circumstances. For example, Gingko interferes with blood-thinning medicines and can actually cause a person excessive bleeding. Yikes!

Perhaps in the future, scientists will be able to create a drug that improves memory, but, as it stands today, no such "smart pill" exists.

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This is a really interesting topic and post. It sort of reminds me of the movie "limitless" With Bradley Cooper. Where he gets those pills and starts taking them and they make him so smart, anyone who has seen that movie knows that it isn't real. I feel like these pills Gingko, are really stupid and they should not be selling them. I can't believe people actually believe this.

I also found this very interesting to read. Many vitamins can improve health, but I had never heard of a vitamin or any type of medicine that could supposedly increase intelligence, until my parents told me about Gingko. They said that it was a new vitamin that could supposedly help them to remember things easier. After reading your post, it makes me think that they should have maybe looked into this more, before starting to take it. I guess this goes to show that you can't always trust what you hear.

This post also reminded me of "Limitless" with Bradley Cooper. People should realize that with no science that supports the claim of these pills improving memory, then why use them? Until something is proven to make you smart (like the movie) or improve your memory, I think these things are best left to Hollywood and the movies.

I enjoyed this post because people are always looking for a quick fix or a pill to better themselves, and people will believe literally anything they market without evidence or fear of side effects. While it would be nice to just have a smart pill, per se, the concept that a root from China will improve your memory without being thoroughly studied is simply ridiculous. This definitely touches on the concept of extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, not advertisements from money hungry companies. Good post with interesting facts.

It might be an issue of placebo. The person taking the ginkgo thinks that it will improved their memory, making them pay more attention to what they need and thus are better at encoding it into long term memory. In Alzheimer's, the memory problems can be cause by biological issues in the brain, so that is not affected as much by placebo.

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This page contains a single entry by joh09617 published on May 2, 2012 6:48 PM.

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