A tree sells memory.

Walk into any drug store and find the brain aisle.

Ginkgo sits there by the fish oil. The bottle says it helps you think sharp and recall more.

That tree is old. It grew back when dinosaurs did. So the pitch sells itself… an old leaf for a keen mind.

And folks buy it. In 1998 alone, US ginkgo sales hit $310 million.

I spend over $20,000 a year on the kind of deep research hedge funds pay for. Part of that job is plain.

I skip the label. Then I read the trials, and only the ones with a dummy pill.

Ginkgo has two big ones. Here is what they found.

// The Facts

Start with the short test. A team at Williams College took 230 fit, sharp adults over 60.

Half took ginkgo three times a day, just as the box said. The rest got a look-alike pill.

Its maker said you would feel it in four weeks. The team gave it six.

Then they ran 14 tests of memory, focus, and speech. Friends and family rated each one too.

Both groups scored the same on all of them.

SAMPLE: 230 adults, 60+ · TIME: 6 weeks · TESTS: 14 · GAP VS DUMMY PILL: none

// The Big Test

Then came the giant. Over 3,000 adults, ages 72 to 96, signed up at US med schools.

Each took 120 mg of ginkgo twice a day, or a dummy pill. They kept at it for about six years.

Scores for memory, focus, and speech tracked the same in both arms. It did not cut the odds of dementia, either.

Six years is a long time to take a pill that does what a sugar pill does.

SAMPLE: 3,069 adults · DOSE: 240 mg a day · TIME: 6.1 years · GAP VS DUMMY PILL: none

So what does work?

Here’s the thing. A pill asks you for no work at all.

That may be the flaw. The brain seems to grow when you make it strain.

A lab in Dallas put that to the test… with a camera and a sewing kit.

// Brain Hack

The Hard Hobby

Denise Park’s team at UT Dallas took 221 adults, ages 60 to 90.

Some learned to shoot and edit with a digital camera. Others learned to quilt on sewing rigs run by a chip.

Both skills were tough. The other groups did easy things, like music at home or trips with friends.

After three months, the ones who learned a hard skill showed a lift in memory. The easy groups did not.

SAMPLE: 221 adults, 60 to 90 · TIME: about 15 hrs a week for 3 months · RESULT: memory gains vs. easy tasks

1

Pick a skill you can’t do yet: a camera on full manual, a new tongue, a keyboard, or code.

2

Make it stretch you: if you can do it half asleep, it is too easy. You want steps you must hold in your head.

3

Build the hours: the trial group put in about 15 a week. Start with what fits your life and add from there.

4

Climb when it gets smooth: once a task feels easy, add the next hard piece.

I took up watercolor this summer. My first ten tries looked like wet cereal. That is the point… the struggle is the dose.

Ginkgo asks for a pill and gives back the same as a dummy.

A hard new skill asks for sweat and gives back a sharper mind.

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