Advanced Memory Formula Review: 80 mg Ginkgo, 240 in the Trial

Per two-tablet serving, and the company publishes all of it: calcium 130 mg and phosphorus 66 mg from tricalcium phosphate; Ginkgo biloba leaf extract 80 mg standardised to a minimum 24% ginkgo flavone glycosides and 6% terpene lactones; phosphatidylserine complex from soy lecithin 150 mg; glycerophosphocholine 250 mg supplying 50% alpha-GPC, from soy; acetyl-L-carnitine 250 mg as the HCl form; bacopa leaf extract 120 mg standardised to a minimum 50% bacosides A and B; blueberry fruit 4:1 extract 125 mg; luteolin 30 mg; soy lecithin 100 mg; and NEUROFACTOR decaffeinated whole coffee fruit concentrate 100 mg. Other ingredients are powdered cellulose, silica, croscarmellose sodium, calcium stearate, rice concentrate, stearic acid and a cellulose coating. The label states it contains soy.

It is a third of the dose in the trial that tested this question most seriously. The Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory study gave 3,069 community volunteers aged 75 or older 120 mg of Ginkgo biloba extract twice daily — 240 mg a day — or an identical placebo, and followed them for a median of 6.1 years across five academic medical centres. Advanced Memory Formula provides 80 mg per serving. The standardisation matches the research, at 24% flavone glycosides and 6% terpene lactones, so this is a like-for-like comparison of amount rather than of quality.

No, and that is the more important half of the answer. In GEM, 523 participants developed dementia: 277 in the ginkgo group and 246 on placebo. The rate was 3.3 per 100 person-years on ginkgo against 2.9 on placebo, giving a hazard ratio of 1.12 with a 95% confidence interval of 0.94 to 1.33 and P=0.21. For Alzheimer's disease specifically the hazard ratio was 1.16 (0.97 to 1.39, P=0.11). So at 240 mg a day, over six years, in three thousand people, ginkgo did not reduce dementia. A product containing a third of that dose is not in a stronger position.

No, and credit where it is due. Every active ingredient on the panel carries its own milligram figure. That is not the norm in this category and it is not even the norm at this company — the same manufacturer's CircO2 pools beet root, hawthorn, L-citrulline and sodium nitrite into a single 420 mg proprietary blend with no individual amounts. Here you can take each number and check it against whatever evidence you can find. That is a real point in the product's favour, and it is why this review can be specific rather than speculative.

They are disclosed, which means you can look them up rather than take our word for it. The larger amounts are glycerophosphocholine at 250 mg supplying 50% alpha-GPC, so about 125 mg of alpha-GPC, and acetyl-L-carnitine at 250 mg. Phosphatidylserine complex is 150 mg, bacopa extract 120 mg at a minimum 50% bacosides, blueberry 4:1 extract 125 mg, NEUROFACTOR whole coffee fruit concentrate 100 mg and luteolin 30 mg. This page does not claim to have adjudicated the trial evidence for each of those — that is several separate reviews — and it will not pretend otherwise. What it can tell you is that the amounts are on the label, which is the precondition for checking any of them.

Yes. The label states CONTAINS SOY, and three separate ingredients are soy-derived: the phosphatidylserine complex is from soy lecithin, the glycerophosphocholine is from soy, and there is 100 mg of soy lecithin listed on its own. Anyone avoiding soy should treat this as a soy product rather than a supplement that happens to contain a trace.

The company lists it from $41.50 per bottle at the multi-bottle price, for 30 servings at two tablets a day, so roughly $1.38 a day at that rate. Whether that is reasonable depends entirely on the question this page is about: the biggest single ingredient claim rests on ginkgo, and the ginkgo is at a third of a dose that did not work at full strength.

This page will not make that call for you, but it can narrow it. If you are buying it for the ginkgo, the evidence does not support the purchase and the dose is below what was tested. If you are buying it for alpha-GPC, acetyl-L-carnitine, phosphatidylserine or bacopa, then the honest position is that the label gives you real numbers to evaluate, and you should evaluate them against those ingredients' own evidence rather than against the marketing. And if memory changes are what prompted the search, that belongs in front of a doctor before it belongs in a shopping cart — memory complaints have causes that are worth identifying and some of them are treatable.