Four herbs can help you provide anti-aging therapies to your patients. Research has shown that these four herbs — garlic, ginkgo, Korean or Asian ginseng and green tea — appear to be particularly valuable in ensuring the health of the heart, general circulation, nervous system, liver and immune system and thereby help prevent Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease and cancer.

Knowing the research and how these herbs work can help you show your patients the benefits of including them in their healthcare regimen.

GARLIC
Heart disease is a major killer in the Western world. High cholesterol, high triglycerides, high blood pressure and high levels of fibrinogen in the bloodstream all contribute to heart disease. Garlic can help address these risk factors.

Research has focused on allicin-releasing garlic products that contain carefully dried garlic powder, which is rich in the sulfur-containing phytochemical allicin and an enzyme known as alliinase.

Upon ingestion, the enzyme dissolves in the digestive fluid and becomes active, converting the alliin into allicin. This action is exactly what happens when you crush a clove of fresh garlic. In other words, these allicin-releasing garlic products mimic the normal dietary intake of garlic.

A meta-analysis of eight clinical trials (415 patients) all using the same allicin-releasing garlic powder preparation found that garlic caused a modest but significant reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressures.1 Other clinical trials have found that allicin-releasing garlic products reduced plasma viscosity and fibrinogen levels,2 inhibited platelet aggregation,3 reduced the atherogenicity of low density lipoprotein (LDL)4 and reduced age-related increases in aortic stiffness.5

The role of allicin-releasing garlic preparations in lowering cholesterol and triglycerides is controversial. While early studies showed significant reductions, some of the later studies failed to demonstrate any effect.6

It has been suggested that the products used in the failed trials did not release allicin effectively (due to issues with dissolution or enteric-coating) and that appropriately formulated products are active in this regard.7,8 The best garlic preparations are enteric-coated so that they only dissolve in the alkaline small intestine, since gastric acid inhibits the activity of alliinase.

GINKGO
Ginkgo biloba is well known as an herb which improves memory and concentration, especially in older people.9 However, recent research has shown that Ginkgo can protect brain cells and enhance their survival.10,11

Its benefits in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have already been established in a number of clinical trials,12 making Ginkgo the number one herbal candidate for the prevention of AD.

Ginkgo and other cognitive treatments were linked to a lower incidence of AD onset in women 75 years old or older.13 Since Ginkgo is nontoxic and relatively free of side effects, it is suitable for long-term treatment.

GINSENG
Panax ginseng (Korean or Asian ginseng) is a plant that has been used in Asia to promote general health and longevity for thousands of years. Research from Korea over the last decade has highlighted that one aspect of Korean ginseng’s link to longevity can be attributed to its role in cancer prevention.

South Korea is in a unique position. As the socioeconomic status of Korea began to improve about 15 to 20 years ago, and Koreans began to prefer traditional herbal teas, many Koreans started to drink ginseng tea. Nowadays in Korea, ginseng tea is served as often as coffee and the use of other forms of this herb are equally as widespread. This provides an opportunity to observe the effects of the large-scale consumption of this powerful herb.

A group of Korean clinicians and epidemiologists decided to take advantage of this opportunity. In their first study, they found an inverse association between ginseng intake and cancer incidence.14 The scientists then extended this study to a case-controlled study on 1,987 pairs.15

Overall, the relative risk of cancer for ginseng users was 50 percent lower than for ginseng non-users. Researchers also found a decrease in risk with rising frequency and duration of ginseng intake, indicating a clear dose-response relationship.

Not all cancers were affected by ginseng. For cancers of the female breast, cervix, bladder and thyroid gland, no association (positive or negative) with ginseng intake was noted.

Smokers particularly benefited

from ginseng intake, with incidences of cancers of the lung, lip, oral cavity and pharynx substantially lower in smokers who were ginseng users compared to smokers who were not.

The research showed no significant difference in cancer risk between those who began to use ginseng between the ages of 30 to 39 and after age 60. In both groups the preventative effect appeared one year after the first ginseng intake and increased with duration of consumption.

GREEN TEA
Most of the research on green tea has focused on its potential to reduce the risk of cancer.

A review of 26 epide-miological and two substantial clinical trials over the period 1974 to 1997 found some conflicting results, but an overall positive association between consumption of green tea and protection against various types of cancer was found.16

The studies relied on interview and subject responses and were conducted mostly in Japan and China. The review found that intake of green tea was more often linked to a reduced frequency of cancer of the colon, bladder, pancreas, esophagus and lung.

The Japanese people have a high occurrence of smoking but a relatively low incidence of lung cancer. Their high green tea consumption has been put forward as a possible explanation.

A recently published epidemiological study which was not included in the above review followed people in Japan over 13 years and found that daily green tea use resulted in delay in cancer onset, reduced deaths from cancer and lower deaths from all causes.17

The authors entitled their study: “Can teatime increase one’s lifetime?” and concluded: “These results indicate that daily consum-ption of green tea in sufficient amounts will help to prolong life by avoiding premature death, particularly death caused by cancer.”

All the more significant was that this was a prospective study (looking forward from the start), which is considered to be more accurate, because it relies less on the participants’ ability to recall their behavior (in this case how much green tea they have drunk).

Yet other studies have shown that green tea intake was linked with reduced frequencies of even more different types of cancers, in particular prostate,18 breast cancer19,20 and ovarian cancer.21

Green tea also seems to be able to help prevent those other major killers: heart attacks and strokes. A prospective epidemiological study (once again in Japan) of 8,552 people found a significant reduction in deaths from cardiovascular disease, especially among the men.22 Benefits were most marked for those drinking more than 10 cups a day.

Kerry Bone, BSc (Hons), Dip Phyto, FNIMH, FNHAA, MCPP, is a practicing herbalist and head of research and development at MediHerb and principal of the Australian College of Phytotherapy. He can be contacted at www.mediherb.com.

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