Ginkgo Biloba and Blood Thinners: What You Need to Know About Bleeding Risk

I took ginkgo for years thinking it was just a chill herb for memory. Then my dad had a nosebleed that wouldn't stop after he started mixing it with his baby aspirin. Turned out he didn't even know it could do that. Now he's off it. Don't be like my dad.

So I'm 72, on warfarin for AFib, and I've been taking ginkgo for 'brain fog' since 2018. My pharmacist finally asked me about supplements during a routine check-up. I said 'oh that herbal thing?' and she nearly fainted. Got my INR checked that day-it was 5.2. I stopped ginkgo immediately. No more brain fog, but also no more scary bleeding scares. Honestly? I miss the placebo effect more than the actual benefit.

In India, we call ginkgo 'the memory tree' and people give it to grandparents like candy. No one checks for interactions. My uncle took it with clopidogrel after his stent and ended up in ICU with a GI bleed. We thought it was just 'old age.' Now I carry a printed list of dangerous herb-drug combos in my wallet. If you're on meds, ask your pharmacist before you swallow anything green or leafy.

I'm sorry, but why are we treating a tree leaf like it's a pharmaceutical? You're telling me a supplement that's been around since the Jurassic period is more dangerous than the 200+ FDA-approved drugs we pump into people every day? The real problem is the medical-industrial complex turning natural remedies into villains because they can't patent them. Ginkgo doesn't kill people. Fear and ignorance do.

They don't want you to know this but the FDA banned ginkgo in 2019 and buried the report. The real reason? Big Pharma doesn't want you healing yourself with trees. That's why they're pushing this 'bleeding risk' narrative. My cousin had a stroke after stopping ginkgo-coincidence? I think not. Watch what they do to turmeric next.

My mom’s on aspirin and started ginkgo for her circulation. I told her to stop. She didn’t listen. Two weeks later she bruised her thigh just by sitting on a hard chair. ER visit. Blood tests. They said ‘this is exactly what we warned you about.’ She’s now off everything except her meds and a daily walk. No more supplements. No more drama. Just life.

I cried reading this. My grandma died from a brain bleed after taking ginkgo with her blood pressure pill. She thought it was ‘natural so it’s safe.’ No one told her. No one asked. Please, if you’re reading this and you’re on meds-stop. Just stop. Talk to someone. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Let’s be clear-this isn’t about ginkgo being evil. It’s about people treating medicine like a buffet. You don’t toss random supplements into your body like they’re trail mix. If you’re on anticoagulants, you’re in a high-risk category. Period. No exceptions. No ‘but I only take one pill.’ The science is settled. The risk is real. The question isn’t whether you can afford to take it-it’s whether you can afford not to stop.

Back home in Delhi, my aunt swears by ginkgo. She says it keeps her sharp. But she also takes amlodipine, metformin, and aspirin. No one checks for interactions. No one even knows what ‘platelet aggregation’ means. We need community health workers-not just doctors-to walk door to door and explain this. In the West, you Google it. In places like mine, you just take what your neighbor says works. That’s the real crisis.

Oh please. 49% higher chance of abnormal clotting tests? That’s not bleeding. That’s a lab anomaly. Where’s the mortality data? Where’s the controlled study with 10,000 subjects? This is fearmongering dressed up as science. People die from statins, SSRIs, and even Tylenol. But nobody’s banning those. Why? Because they’re profitable. Ginkgo is a scapegoat for lazy medicine.

The notion that ‘natural’ equals ‘safe’ is a dangerous fallacy rooted in Romantic-era pseudoscience. Ginkgo biloba is a bioactive compound with documented pharmacological effects. To assume it’s harmless because it comes from a tree is as irrational as assuming arsenic is safe because it’s naturally occurring in soil. The burden of proof lies with the user-not the regulator. If you can’t demonstrate safety in polypharmacy contexts, you shouldn’t be taking it.

As a nurse, I’ve seen this too many times. Patients come in with INRs off the charts, and when I ask about supplements, they say ‘oh, I just take that herbal thing.’ No one thinks it counts as a drug. But it is. And it interacts. I keep a laminated card in my pocket with the top 10 dangerous herb-drug combos. I hand it out like candy. Ginkgo is #1. Always. Don’t be the person who says ‘I didn’t know.’

In Punjab, we use ginkgo leaves in tea for memory. My grandfather drank it daily. He lived to 98. But he never took blood thinners. The problem isn’t the herb-it’s the combination. If you’re on warfarin, stop everything else. If you’re not on meds, maybe it’s fine. But don’t mix. Don’t assume. Don’t be reckless. Your body isn’t a lab experiment.

My brother died from a brain bleed at 42. He took ginkgo, fish oil, and aspirin. The coroner said ‘combination toxicity.’ His wife didn’t even know ginkgo was a supplement. She thought it was a vitamin. That’s the real tragedy-not the herb, but the ignorance. We need public service announcements. Not just Reddit posts.

Let’s be honest: if this were a synthetic drug, the FDA would have pulled it off the market in 2010. But because it’s herbal, we get this performative ‘warning’ that does nothing. The system is broken. The regulation is a joke. And people are dying because we treat natural substances like they’re exempt from pharmacology. Ginkgo isn’t the villain. The regulatory void is.