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Saturday, September 23, 2017

Gotu Kola – Clinical Studies

  Gotu kola is one of the first herbs that I ever tried even before I started to study natural medicine.
 
I even remember buying a tincture of it when I went to visit my in-laws for the first time after me and my wife got engaged.

It felt like it had an immediate effect on my mind and helped me to think clearer. This may have very well been a placebo effect but maybe not.

Anyway I have gone through the two articles that I have linked to at the bottom of this post and it seems to me that the clinical research on Gotu kola is very supportive of its traditional uses.

Even though one of the articles concludes by saying that more research is needed, almost all of the clinical trials that are mentioned prove the herb to be effective for treating what it is traditionally used for.

What is very interesting that I learnt from these research papers is the possible unwanted side effects that can result from excessive use of the herb over an extended period of time. 

Even the use of the herb to protect against radiation is shown to be valid.
Here are the uses that were tested in the second of these two studies.

•    Venous insufficiency 
•    Sedative properties
•    Antidepressant properties
•    Antiepileptic properties
•    Cognitive and antioxidant properties
•    Gastric ulcer
•    Anti-nociceptive and anti-inflammatory properties
•    Radioprotection 
•    Herpes simplex
•    Retards the development of certain tumors 

http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb/gotu-kola

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3116297/

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