TL;DR High-velocity work, like high speed in a car, can trigger our amygdala, narrowing our awareness to an anxious "spotlight", when we really need a relaxed "floodlight." We can break this default-mode loop by walking in novel natural environments to practice FAPST (Focused Attention on the Present in Space-Time). To biochemically support this "observe and remember" state, Ginkgo biloba (specifically the clinically studied EGb 761 extract at 240 mg/day) improves cerebral microcirculation and oxygen delivery without the jittery spike of a stimulant or the dulling effect of a sedative. But because 48 out of 59 commercial Ginkgo supplements in one survey failed authenticity tests, securing a clean, standardized extract is the key to actually unlocking its cognitive benefits.
We hear repeatedly of the health benefits of walking. But for those of us with a need, a need for some speed, walking doesn’t quite get our juices going. But here’s where The Where of walking matters.
Default Mode vs High Performance Attention
A walk around our own neighborhood lacks both the physical and mental challenge many of us with the “novelty seeking” gene (dopamine receptor D4) seek. However rewarding running (not jogging) and cycling are, compared to a mundane walk, speed comes at a cost. Namely, the scope of our awareness.
As mentioned in a recent video, I’ve been an amateur auto racer for many years. In recent years I’ve also coached novice high performance drivers on NorCal’s world famous racetracks. Something I coach new drivers on is how to push their spacial and situational awareness outward when our amygdala, excited by the rate of speed, narrows our attention down to little more than an attention “spotlight”, in front of the car. The high performance habit is forcing our eyes, thus brain, to notice everything our default mode brain is telling us to ignore. It’s a high performance doing anything habit.
Walking FAPSTer, Not Faster
“Mindfulness” is overused and often misunderstood. I’ve long thought it is just a poor translation of the Pali (ancient Indo-Aryan) word, Sati, from which is comes. A more accurate translation is less memorable, ironically. Literally, to “observe and remember.” How? By Focused Attention on the Present in Space-Time (FAPST, you heard it here first).
Walking with FAPST can be facilitated by walking in a new or less familiar natural environment. If you’ve ever taken a new or less traveled trail in nature you might have noticed how much more you notice around you, from novel surroundings. We notice and experience things in a novel environment we’d otherwise take for granted. Like how pine needles, or delicately fanned fern fronds, seem suddenly timeless. Pre-human yet present-human.
Noticing the old with FAPST, “beginner’s” eyes, can make walking through nature a walk through time. And a possible taste of timelessness.
Ginkgo’s Timeless Botany
You might not notice walking by it, but Gingko biloba is a tree in the ginkgoaceae botanical family, whose family tree spans over 200 million years. The many intervening mass extinction events it has survived have changed it very little. Ginkgo’s uniquely tenacious phytochemistry of terpene trilactones (ginkgolides, bilobalide) are linked to increased cerebral blood flow, neuromodulation, and enhanced neurotransmission, which enhances our ability to observe and remember. Making it one of the most mindful plant extracts.
Ginkgo Biloba Tree
"In my garden's care and favour
From the East this tree's leaf shows
Secret sense for us to savour
And uplifts the one who knows.”
Lore & Locales
Every ginkgo tree alive today descends from one branch of the ginkgoaceae tree’s family tree, originating in central China.[1] Buddhist monks cultivated it and by the early 10th century it was common to some of China’s urban landscapes.[2]
Ginkgo’s nuts were first eaten as, or with, regular foods.[3] Medicinal use begins in the Song Dynasty[2] via Lan Mao's Materia Medica of Southern Yunnan, ca 1436.[1]
In 1712, Engelbert Kaempfer, a German physician working for the Dutch East India Company, published the first Western record of "ginkgo." Live trees reached Europe between 1730 and 1760s.[4]
British rule brought ginkgo to north America sometime before commercial cultivation near Philadelphia in the 1780s.[4] A revolutionary coincidence?
Standardized ginkgo leaf extracts are the basis of a nutraceutical sector estimated at over $10 billion a year today.[5]
Back To Work
One of the benefits of a long weekend hike or longer vacation is it’s afterglow. The newly or seldom visited place lingers in us for a while after returning to our regular, familiar surroundings. The residual subjective joy and calm can lend us clearer or more creative thinking. Much like the effect of ginkgo biloba from improved vascular brain blood flow. Effects that can’t come from the subtle sedative effects of other supplements, like L-theanine, or the stimulation of caffeine.
Manufacturing Methods
Ginkgo's primary extract, EGb 761, comes from dried leaves using an acetone and water solvent to concentrate a drug-to-extract ratio of 35 to 67:1. Then standardized to 22 to 27% flavone glycosides and 5 to 7% terpene lactones with ginkgolic acids held below 5 ppm,[7] because ginkgolic acids are a toxic fraction. Most all cap them at 5 µg/g.[8]
Climate, harvest region, drying method, and each subsequent process step shift the final composition, which is why clinical results from one ginkgo extract don't transfer to another one made differently.[6]
In one survey of 59 ginkgo dietary supplements, 48 contained at least one adulterant, usually rutin or quercetin added to hit the 24% flavonol number, or flavonoid-rich extract from Japanese sophora standing in for ginkgo.[9]
How It Works
Cognitive Enhancement
Ginkgolides and bilobalide are linked to increased cerebral blood flow, altered neurotransmission, and blood-brain barrier penetration. Combined, these provide the main mechanistic rationale for cognitive enhancement.[13]
Neuroprotection
Ginkgo’s neuroprotective profile is strongly tied to antioxidant and anti-inflammatory pathways. Biflavonoids provide an additional neuroprotective layer.[14]
Biochemical Nootropic Mechanisms of Ginkgo Biloba
Ginkgo Biloba’s Benefits
Improved cognition against mild dementia
240 mg/day of EGb 761 improves cognition, daily functioning, and overall clinical status.[15][16]Increased cerebral blood flow and neuroprotection
Ginkgolides and bilobalide cross the blood-brain barrier, block platelet-activating factor, and increase blood flow to the brain. Biflavonoids add antioxidant and anti-amyloid activity.[17][18]Reduced tinnitus and dizziness
240 mg/day quiets ringing and dizziness. In chronic tinnitus it worked as well as pentoxifylline, a prescription drug, with fewer side effects.[19][20]Longer pain-free walking against poor leg circulation
Adds a few meters: subsequent studies say it’s too little to matter.[21][22]
Ginkgo Biloba’s Risks
Ginkgo biloba is generally well-tolerated. As always, warnings about pharmaceutical interactions should be heeded.
Interaction with blood thinners
One study links ginkgo to bleeding. Stop two weeks before surgery, and check with your doctor if you take warfarin, clopidogrel, aspirin, or NSAIDs.[23][24][25]Possible carcinogen
Leaf extract caused liver tumors in two-year rodent studies. IARC lists it Group 2B, possible human carcinogen.[26]
Call To Self-Care Action
Search for a reasonably local trail. One you’ve either thrown a dart at to ensure novelty, or had wondered about but never taken, and walk it, as best you can. Distance is unimportant. Time is. Take all you can spare. Cycling isn’t off the table provided you minimize physical effort, to carefully pay attention to where you are and what’s around you. Less if any talking, your own or others, is best. No music. Just listen. Notice vision, though, without apprehension. Force your eyes, thus brain, up to the sky, then down to your feet, to notice how they move. See what the default mode brain ignores.
The following day, take a ~240mg Ginkgo biloba standardized extract.
Next week: Up to number two of our top cognitive enhancers: Phosphatidylserine.
Sunday inspo: We will never find our infinite self looking at others on a finite screen. Put down the phone. Lifting up our eyes lifts up our awareness.
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Until next time, eat fresh foods and stay active Beautiful Self-aware Brain!
🫶🏽
Footnotes:
[1] Dezhi, L., & Aili, Q. (2007). "Ginkgo in China" by Cao Fuliang. 2007. [book review]. Canadian Field-Naturalist, 121(4), 445. https://doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v121i4.497
[1] Dezhi, L., & Aili, Q. (2007). "Ginkgo in China" by Cao Fuliang. 2007. [book review]. Canadian Field-Naturalist, 121(4), 445. https://doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v121i4.497
[2] Hori, T. (2001). A historical survey of Ginkgo biloba based on Japanese and Chinese classical literatures. Plant Morphology, 13(1), 31–40. https://doi.org/10.5685/plmorphol.13.31
[3] Chassagne, F., Huang, X., Lyles, J. T., & Quave, C. L. (2019). Validation of a 16th century traditional Chinese medicine use of Ginkgo biloba as a topical antimicrobial. Frontiers in Microbiology, 10, 775. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00775
[4] Crane, P. (2018). An evolutionary and cultural biography of ginkgo. Plants, People, Planet, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.7
[5] Liu, X.-G., Lu, X., Gao, W., Li, P., & Yang, H. (2021). Structure, synthesis, biosynthesis, and activity of the characteristic compounds from Ginkgo biloba L. Natural Product Reports, 39. https://doi.org/10.1039/d1np00026h
[6] Kulić, Ž., Lehner, M. D., & Dietz, G. P. H. (2022). Ginkgo biloba leaf extract EGb 761® as a paragon of the product by process concept. Frontiers in Pharmacology, 13.
[7] Biber, A. (2003). Pharmacokinetics of Ginkgo biloba extracts. Pharmacopsychiatry.
[8] Boateng, I. D. (2022). A critical review of ginkgolic acids in Ginkgo biloba leaf extract (EGb): Toxicity and technologies to remove ginkgolic acids and their promising bioactivities. Food & Function.
[9] Frommenwiler, D. A., Reich, E., Sudberg, S., Sharaf, M. H. M., Bzhelyansky, A., & Lucas, B. (2019). Comprehensive HPTLC fingerprinting as a tool for a simplified analysis of purity of ginkgo products. Journal of Ethnopharmacology.
[10] Wohlmuth, H., Savage, K., Dowell, A., & Mouatt, P. (2014). Adulteration of Ginkgo biloba products and a simple method to improve its detection. Phytomedicine.
[11] Su, X., et al. (2022). Medicinal values and potential risks evaluation of Ginkgo biloba leaf extract (GBE) drinks made from the leaves in autumn as dietary supplements. Molecules, 27.
[12] Boateng, I. D., et al. (2022). Ginkgo biloba L. seed: A comprehensive review of bioactives, toxicants, and processing effects. Industrial Crops and Products.
[13] Forman, V., Luo, D., Geu-Flores, F., Lemcke, R., Nelson, D., Kampranis, S., Staerk, D., Møller, B., & Pateraki, I. (2022). A gene cluster in Ginkgo biloba encodes unique multifunctional cytochrome P450s that initiate ginkgolide biosynthesis. Nature Communications, 13. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32879-9
[14] Biernacka, P., Adamska, I., & Felisiak, K. (2023). The Potential of Ginkgo biloba as a Source of Biologically Active Compounds—A Review of the Recent Literature and Patents. Molecules, 28. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28103993
[15] Wieland, L. S., et al. (2026). Ginkgo biloba for cognitive impairment and dementia. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
[16] Tan, M.-S., Yu, J.-T., Tan, C.-C., Wang, H.-F., Meng, X.-F., Wang, C., Jiang, T., Zhu, X.-C., & Tan, L. (2014). Efficacy and adverse effects of ginkgo biloba for cognitive impairment and dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
[17] Forman, V., Luo, D., Geu-Flores, F., Lemcke, R., Nelson, D., Kampranis, S., Staerk, D., Møller, B., & Pateraki, I. (2022). A gene cluster in Ginkgo biloba encodes unique multifunctional cytochrome P450s that initiate ginkgolide biosynthesis. Nature Communications, 13. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32879-9
[18] Samec, D., Karalija, E., Dahija, S., & Hassan, S. T. S. (2022). Biflavonoids: Important contributions to the health benefits of Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba L.). Plants, 11(10), 1381. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11101381
[19] Spiegel, R., Kalla, R., Mantokoudis, G., Maire, R., Mueller, H., Hoerr, R., & Ihl, R. (2018). Ginkgo biloba extract EGb 761® alleviates neurosensory symptoms in patients with dementia: A meta-analysis of treatment effects on tinnitus and dizziness in randomized, placebo-controlled trials. Clinical Interventions in Aging.
[20] Procházková, K., Šejna, I., Skutil, J., & Hahn, A. (2018). Ginkgo biloba extract EGb 761® versus pentoxifylline in chronic tinnitus: A randomized, double-blind clinical trial. International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy.
[21] Pittler, M. H., & Ernst, E. (2000). Ginkgo biloba extract for the treatment of intermittent claudication: A meta-analysis of randomized trials. The American Journal of Medicine.
[22] Nicolaï, S. P. A., Kruidenier, L. M., Bendermacher, B. L. W., Prins, M. H., Stokmans, R. A., Broos, P. P. H. L., & Teijink, J. A. W. (2013). Ginkgo biloba for intermittent claudication. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
[23] Bent, S., Goldberg, H., Padula, A., & Avins, A. L. (2005). Spontaneous bleeding associated with Ginkgo biloba: A case report and systematic review of the literature. Journal of General Internal Medicine.
[24] Stoddard, G. J., Archer, M., Shane-McWhorter, L., Bray, B. E., Redd, D. F., Proulx, J., & Zeng-Treitler, Q. (2015). Ginkgo and warfarin interaction in a large Veterans Administration population. AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings.
[25] Kellermann, A. J., & Kloft, C. (2011). Is there a risk of bleeding associated with standardized Ginkgo biloba extract therapy? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Pharmacotherapy.
[26] Mei, N., Guo, X., Ren, Z., Kobayashi, D., Wada, K., & Guo, L. (2017). Review of Ginkgo biloba-induced toxicity, from experimental studies to human case reports. Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part C.
[27] Tan, M.-S., Yu, J.-T., Tan, C.-C., Wang, H.-F., Meng, X.-F., Wang, C., Jiang, T., Zhu, X.-C., & Tan, L. (2014). Efficacy and adverse effects of ginkgo biloba for cognitive impairment and dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
[28] Wieland, L. S., et al. (2026). Ginkgo biloba for cognitive impairment and dementia. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
[29] Spiegel, R., Kalla, R., Mantokoudis, G., Maire, R., Mueller, H., Hoerr, R., & Ihl, R. (2018). Ginkgo biloba extract EGb 761® alleviates neurosensory symptoms in patients with dementia: A meta-analysis of treatment effects on tinnitus and dizziness in randomized, placebo-controlled trials. Clinical Interventions in Aging.
[30] Procházková, K., Šejna, I., Skutil, J., & Hahn, A. (2018). Ginkgo biloba extract EGb 761® versus pentoxifylline in chronic tinnitus: A randomized, double-blind clinical trial. International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy.
[31] Laws, K. R., Sweetnam, H., & Kondel, T. K. (2012). Is Ginkgo biloba a cognitive enhancer in healthy individuals? A meta-analysis. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental.
[32] Pittler, M. H., & Ernst, E. (2000). Ginkgo biloba extract for the treatment of intermittent claudication: A meta-analysis of randomized trials. The American Journal of Medicine.
[33] Nicolaï, S. P. A., Kruidenier, L. M., Bendermacher, B. L. W., Prins, M. H., Stokmans, R. A., Broos, P. P. H. L., & Teijink, J. A. W. (2013). Ginkgo biloba for intermittent claudication. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.