Page 152 - The Memory Program How to Prevent Memory Loss and Enhance Memory Power

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ern India, I had learned firsthand of the rapaciousness of fake Ayurvedic practitioners who thought
nothing of adulterating historic remedies with their own brand of poison, purely for the sake of
pocketing a few extra rupees. Heavy metal therapy is not unknown even in Western medicine, where
injections of gold— yes, metallic gold— have been used successfully to treat severe rheumatoid
arthritis. On the other hand, heavy metals can actually worsen Parkinson's disease, and I knew that
Ayurveda had no effective treatment for this condition. I had a heated argument with my mother, and
for a change, I won. She is well educated and knew about the toxicity of heavy metals like lead and
mercury, but the tragedy of my father's illness had clouded her judgment and led her to desperately
seek a remedy that might prove to be better than the standard medication, Sinemet.

The next example reveals the other side of the coin: an Ayurvedic preparation with potential
promemory effects.

BR-16A: Travails of a Promemory Ayurvedic Preparation

A former colleague of mine, Dr. Chittaranjan Andrade, has studied an Ayurvedic preparation that
now goes by its modern name, BR-16A. In controlled animal experiments, he showed that BR-16A
improved learning and reversed short-term memory deficits in mice. But when he approached the
four manufacturers of BR-16A in India, none of them were willing to fund further basic research to
find out which of the twenty or more ingredients in the substance was responsible for improving
memory. They also refused to fund controlled clinical studies in patients, because if one of the
companies invested a large amount of money in research on BR-16A, any positive results obtained
would translate into free profits for the other three manufacturers that had not invested in the
research effort. As Chittaranjan discovered to his chagrin, it is virtually impossible to get financial
support to conduct large-scale, systematic studies of Ayurvedic and other traditional medications.
His basic science research on BR-16A is solid, and I think it is unfortunate that clinical development
of this potential anti-memory-loss agent has been stopped in its tracks. “Memory-Plus,” which
contains the traditional medication “Brahmi,” is also marketed in India, but the evidence supporting
its use is much flimsier than with BR-16A.