Stopping ginko biloba tablets

[Drummer]

I can't recall if I mentioned I started to take ginko biloba tablets here, but I have now decided to stop them - they are too powerful a circulation booster to use daily over an extended period.
I had a bad reaction to the first dose of AZ vaccine, and 10 days later my lower legs and feet were so swollen I was frightened.
Although I did what I could, I needed two lots of antibiotics in quick succession.
One toe was particularly bad and one of the joints is no longer working, all the skin came off - but I had started taking the tablets, and over the course of a week or so I could see that things were improving, much to my relief.

Just in case anyone was interested enough to try the tablets - assuming I did post about them, now that my legs and feet look and feel almost entirely as they did, I am stopping them after about 2 months. The ginko is also called the maidenhair tree due to the shape of the leaves, and it was used as a herbal treatment for a long time to improve circulation.
As poor circulation is common - from what I have read - amongst diabetics of all types, I thought this might be useful information.

 

[Gwynn]

Interesting. I will look them up. Any related information would be useful.

 

[Drummer]

Interesting. I will look them up. Any related information would be useful.

I would have thought there would have been information around - I read all my grandma's herbalist books before I was 7 so it is just something I know. So much useful information - raspberry tea in the last trimester of pregnancy, use of ergot as a last resort in childbirth, foxglove for heart failure, sage tea to comfort the elderly, rhubarb root - a powerful emetic - I could be dangerous if provoked.

 

[mikeyB]

Aye, but the trouble with herbs is getting the dosage right. Ergot is a powerful vasoconstrictor- derivatives are used in the throbbing headaches of migraine. Overdose of ergot is hallucinatory and almost always fatal.

And of course foxglove works in heart failure, the active ingredient is Digoxin, again now in very controlled doses. And again, overdose is exceptionally dangerous.

Ginko Biloba tablets are interesting. They do improve circulation, without doubt, and can be beneficial in erectile dysfunction and sexual response in women, too, which might be interesting to quite a few folk on the forum.

 

[Drummer]

Aye, but the trouble with herbs is getting the dosage right. Ergot is a powerful vasoconstrictor- derivatives are used in the throbbing headaches of migraine. Overdose of ergot is hallucinatory and almost always fatal.

And of course foxglove works in heart failure, the active ingredient is Digoxin, again now in very controlled doses. And again, overdose is exceptionally dangerous.

Ginko Biloba tablets are interesting. They do improve circulation, without doubt, and can be beneficial in erectile dysfunction and sexual response in women, too, which might be interesting to quite a few folk on the forum.

The herbals were full of instructions on how to prepare and test the concoctions made.
For the ergot it was something like taking a thimble full of the infected grain and making a tea, then putting tiny amounts into a pint of water and administering it in drops - they knew perfectly well the danger of getting the dose wrong, but it saved many lives - a modern extract was the only way to stop post partum haemorrhage within living memory, but it can be overdone even when the strength is known.
One of the dancers in a side I am with was overdosed and her muscles were in rictus for days after the birth.

Yes the Ginko biloba effects act all over the body and can be useful for things other than swollen toes. It can help with tinnitus or deafness for some, even for some forms of acne, and it improved my digestion, I noticed - my gut had not been quite what it was since the Metformin - I was so badly affected by it, but now things seem better.