DOSE:	60 mg	oral	Ginkgo biloba	(pill / tablet)
	60 mg	oral	Ginkgo biloba	(pill / tablet)

BODY WEIGHT:

110 lb

Gingko for Depression

I have been taking Gingko Biloba for about 10 months. I was taking four 30mg tablets per day at first, now I take two 60mg tablets. I started taking them on a whim- I had been going through a mild depression, and was looking for something to make myself feel better. I have gotten on well with drugs that increase bloodflow to the brain, so Gingko sounded good. I also get Reynaud's in cold weather and my family seems to have thick blood, so the circulation-improving effects also seemed like they would be beneficial.

After about 3 months of taking it and not really noticing any effects I one day noticed that I had been feeling quite good all week, and this contrasted to how I had been feeling for a long time previously. This was exactly the same feeling I had when a previous episode of depression lifted- it was only apparent how bad it was once it had gone. I continued taking it and have not felt depressed since then. Occasionally I feel filled with despair and thinking thoughts like 'what's even the point of my life?'. Pretty much every time this happens I remember that I have forgotten to take Gingko- I'm pretty sure it doesn't happen every time as I think I forget to take them reasonably often (I have not noticed any memory effects- I have always had a pretty good memory for some things but my ability to remember to take my keys with me is shocking), but no Gingko plus stress usually has a bad effect. I think this is a return to baseline rather than a side-effect of the Gingko.

I did recently try taking three 60mg tablets as I had forgotten to take it a few times that week, but I woke up in the night with palpitations. It wasn't necessarily the Gingko, but I think that is what it was. I would not increase the dose suddenly like that again.

I also once tried taking 120mg capsules for about a week (I bought them by accident instead of the usual tablets) but I felt pretty down by the end of the week so I went back to the tablets and felt better again quite shortly. Could be the formulation of each of the types, could be psychosomatic, who knows?

All in all, I have found good effects from taking it. This is entirely subjective (obviously) and everyone's body metabolises things differently and reacts to things differently, but I think Gingko has been responsible for relieving my depression, and I think that it would benefit from further research in this area. It apparently contains an MAOI, so probably something to do with that (not in the amounts that you would need to modify your diet (although maybe that is why I got palpitations that one time)).

Exp Year: 2017	ExpID: 110061
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: 30
Published: May 30, 2017	Views: 6,582
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Ginkgo biloba (195) : Health Benefits (32), Depression (15), Therapeutic Intent or Outcome (49), Retrospective / Summary (11), Not Applicable (38)