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The healing power of garlic
Garlic and its close botanical relatives -- onion, scallion, leek, chive, and shallot -- are among the world's oldest medicines. But garlic is the most medically potent member of the family and the one most thoroughly researched.
Garlic contains a compound, alliin (pronounced "al-lean"), which by itself has no medicinal value. But when garlic is chewed, chopped, bruised, or crushed, the alliin comes in contact with a garlic enzyme (allinase), which transforms it into allicin, the source of this herb's healing powers.
The main problem with garlic has been that it causes bad breath. But today, deodorized garlic products eliminate this problem while preserving the herb's medicinal benefits.
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Latest News
In June 1998, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study by researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany showing that garlic did not reduce cholesterol levels in 25 people with high cholesterol. [1]
This came as a surprise to people familiar with medical literature because more than a dozen studies show that garlic is a powerful cholesterol-lowering agent. The controversy prompted Varro Tyler, Ph.D., recently retired dean of the Purdue University School of Pharmacy and one of the nation's leading pharmacognosists (natural-product pharmacist) to investigate the German study. He discovered that the researchers did not use fresh garlic or processed fresh garlic but steam-distilled garlic oil. This process, he said, removes the herb's medicinal constituent, allicin. No wonder the researchers' garlic preparation did not lower cholesterol -- it lacked the compound that does it. [2]
Existing Medical Research
Garlic is best known for its ability to reduce cholesterol. Many studies demonstrate this, including the following:
- At the New York Medical College in Valhalla, a team led by Stephen Warshafsky, M.D., analyzed five very rigorous studies and determined that consuming one clove of garlic per day decreased total cholesterol by about 9%. [3]
- Australian researchers analyzed 16 studies and found that after one month, garlic cut cholesterol 12% when compared with placebo treatment.
- Studies at Oxford University in Britain, Brown University in Rhode Island, and the East Carolina School of Medicine in Greenville, N.C., show that if you have moderately elevated cholesterol (around 220), a few cloves a day (7 g) can reduce total cholesterol 5% to 10%. [4, 5, 6]
For every 1% reduction in total cholesterol levels, the risk of heart attack drops 2%. These studies show that garlic cuts cholesterol by about 10%, meaning that it reduces heart-attack risk by approximately 20%.
Garlic helps prevent heart attack in another way as well -- by making blood a little less likely to clot. Heart attacks happen when blood clots form in coronary arteries already substantially narrowed by cholesterol-rich deposits. Garlic helps keep these clots from forming.
Most strokes are very similar to heart attack, except that the artery that gets blocked is in the brain instead of the heart. Garlic's ability to cut cholesterol and reduce clotting helps prevent stroke for the same reasons.
Garlic also helps prevent cancer. In 1989, Japanese researchers at the University of Medicine in Kyoto showed that an allicin garlic extract interfered with the ability of tumors to grow and spread in mice. Since then, several studies have shown that the herb helps prevent cancer in people:
- The Iowa Women's Health Study followed 41,387 women (between ages 55 and 69 at enrollment) in that state for five years. Their diets were carefully surveyed. As their garlic consumption increased, their risk of colon cancer decreased.
- A similar study in the Netherlands tracked more than 100,000 middle-aged people for three years. As their garlic consumption increased, their risk of stomach cancer decreased.
- A recent study at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City shows that garlic impairs the growth of prostate cancer cells.
Sources
1 Berthold, H. "Effect of a Garlic Oil Preparation on Serum Lipoproteins and Cholesterol Metabolism: A Randomized, Controlled Trial," Journal of the American Medical Association (1998) 279:1900.
2 Tyler, V. "Confused on Garlic," American Botanical Council (Austin, Texas) release, June 17, 1998.
3 Warshafsky, S .et al. "Effect of Garlic on Total Serum Cholesterol," Annals of Internal Medicine (1993) 119:599.
4 Steiner, M., et al. "A Double-Blind Crossover Study in Moderately Hypercholesterolemic Men That Compared Aged Garlic Extract and Placebo," American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1996) 64:866.
5 Silagy, C. and A. Neil, "Garlic as a Lipid-Lowering Agent: A Meta-Analysis," Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of London (1994) 28:39.
6 Neil, H.A., et al. "Garlic Powder in the Treatment of Moderate Hyperlipidemia," Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of London (1996) 30:329.
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The main constituent of garlic is alliin, a sulfur-containing amino acid derivative; alliin gets transferred into a substance called allicin. This ingredient carries the garlic odor; it is also responsible for the antibacterial aspect of garlic.
Garlic also contains vitamins A, B, C, and E, as well as selenium and scordinins.
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Common Uses
- Lowering high cholesterol levels
- Fighting heart disease, stroke, and cancer
- Fighting infections
- Aiding digestion
Remember that no health claims for garlic have been evaluated by the FDA.
Historical and Folkloric Use
Garlic remains have been found in caves inhabited 10,000 years ago. But the first garlic prescription, chiseled in cuneiform on a Sumerian clay tablet, dates from 3000 B.C.
The entire ancient world from Spain to China loved garlic, but no people enjoyed it more than the Egyptians, called "the stinking ones" because of their garlic breath. Egyptians taking solemn oaths swore on garlic like we swear on the Bible. The herb was found in the tomb of King Tut.
Garlic appeared prominently in the world's oldest surviving medical text, the Ebers Papyrus (1550 B.C.). It was an ingredient in 22 remedies for headache, insect and scorpion bites, menstrual discomforts, intestinal worms, tumors, and heart problems.
Soon after Moses led the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt around 1200 B.C., they complained of missing the finer things of life in bondage. The Bible relates: "We remember the fish we ate in Egypt, and the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic." (Numbers,11:5)
Greek athletes ate garlic before races, and Greek soldiers munched the herb before battle. In his play Knights, Aristophanes wrote: "Now bolt down garlic. You will have greater mettle for the fight." In Homer's Odyssey, Ulysses turns to garlic for strength against the sorceress Circe. Circe had turned Ulysses' men into swine, and planned to do the same to him. But a god gave Ulysses garlic, which thwarted Circe's spell.
Greek midwives hung garlic cloves around birthing rooms to safeguard newborns from disease and witchcraft. As the centuries passed, Europeans fastened braided garlic plants to their doorposts to keep evil spirits at bay, a custom which survives today in the garlic braids that hang in many kitchens.
Hippocrates recommended garlic for infections and digestive problems, including dysentery.
In China, garlic has been used medicinally for thousands of years. Traditional Chinese physicians still use it to treat infections, respiratory ailments, and heart disease -- uses confirmed by modern science.
After Hippocrates, garlic was widely used in the West as an infection fighter. Juice was squeezed from its bulbs and applied directly to wounds.
During World War I, garlic was used as a battlefield medicine to treat infected wounds and amebic dysentery (caused by the protozoan Endameba histolytica). After the war, during the 1920s, researchers at Sandoz Pharmaceutical Corporation in Switzerland isolated alliin from the herb and discovered that its chemical relative, allicin, is a powerful antibiotic.
Since the 1920s, garlic's broad-spectrum antibiotic properties have been confirmed in literally dozens of animal and human studies. The herb kills the bacteria that cause ulcers (Helicobacter pylori), tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), food poisoning (Salmonella), and women's bladder infections (Escherichia coli), along with the fungi that cause athlete's foot (Trichiophyton mentagrophytes) and vaginal yeast infections (Candida albicans).
Today, pharmaceutical antibiotics have largely replaced garlic. But allicin helps prevent and treat our current top three causes of death: heart disease, cancer, and stroke.
Dosage and Administration
Garlic can be found in many forms: individual supplements in aged (odorless) pills, dried pills, powdered tablets, liquid form, oil-filled capsules, garlic oil, and fresh garlic cloves.
Capsules or tablets. Take one 100 mg capsule orally three times daily, or as directed on the package. You may use oil from the capsules externally to treat things like minor skin problems. Apply the garlic directly onto the affected area two to three times each day.
Fresh garlic. Two to three cooked cloves per day will bring about the most benefits. Tip: Reduce garlic breath by stir-frying the garlic cloves for a few minutes. Your friends may thank you.
Storage
Keep garlic supplements in a cool, dry place. Fresh garlic does not necessarily have to be stored in the refrigerator as long as it is kept in a cool, dry area.
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How to Use Garlic Safely
The cholesterol studies cited in this article used from one to 10 cloves a day. Commission E, the German expert panel that judges the safety and effectiveness of herbal medicines for that nation's counterpart of our Food and Drug Administration, recommends the equivalent of 4 g of fresh garlic -- two to four average cloves -- per day or the equivalent in commercial preparations.
- For cancer prevention, studies show that the more garlic you consume, the lower your risk.
- If you'd like to use garlic as an antibiotic, the equivalent of six to 12 medium-size cloves packs the antibacterial punch of a standard dose of penicillin. If you do not show noticeable signs of improvement within a week, consult a physician.
- Consult your physician before taking garlic supplements if you have a clotting disorder, or take any antidiabetic medications or anticoagulant medications, including Coumadin, aspirin, or vitamin E.
- Pregnant women should talk to their doctors before taking garlic supplements. Also, garlic enters the milk of nursing mothers and may cause colic in infants.
- Eating garlic is good for you, but there is a limit. People who are sensitive to garlic may experience mouth burning, stomach upset, nausea, or allergic reactions. Also, for some people, eating more than nine cloves of raw garlic a day may cause adverse reactions, such as hive-like skin eruptions or blood coagulation problems (for example, cuts or nosebleeds that take a long time to stop bleeding). If you develop these side effects, reduce your garlic intake or stop taking it altogether.
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Sources & Further Reading
Books
American Botanical Council. The Complete Commission E Monographs: Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicines. Boston: American Botanical Council/Integrative Medicine Communications, 1998.
Castleman, M. The Healing Herbs. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1991.
Duke, J. The Green Pharmacy. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1997.
Pizzorno, J. and M. Murray. Textbook of Natural Medicine. Bothell, WA: Bastyr University Publications, 1996.
Tyler, V. Herbs of Choice: The Therapeutic Use of Phytomedicinals. New York: Pharmaceutical Products Press/Hawthorn Press. 1994.
Weiner, M. and J. Weiner. Herbs That Heal: Prescription for Herbal Healing. Mill Valley, CA: Quantum Books. 1994.
Werbach, M. and M. Murray. Botanical Influences on Illness. Tarzana, CA: Third Line Press. 1994.
Find more books on health and wellness at  barnesandnoble.com.
Articles
Anon. "Cholesterol, Garlic, and Blood Pressure," Nutrition Week (1997) 27:7.
Anon. "Garlic," Lawrence Review of Natural Products, 4-94.
Berthold, H. "Effect of a Garlic Oil Preparation on Serum Lipoproteins and Cholesterol Metabolism: A Randomized, Controlled Trial," Journal of the American Medical Association (1998) 279:1900.
Ernst, E. "Can Allium Vegetables Prevent Cancer?" Phytomedicine (1997) 4:79.
Kiesewetter, H., et al. "Effect of Garlic on Platelet Aggregation in Patients with Increased Risk of Ischemic Attack," European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology (1993) 45:333.
Neil, H.A., et al. "Garlic Powder in the Treatment of Moderate Hyperlipidemia," Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of London (1996) 30:329.
Nishino, H., et al. "Anti-Tumor-Promoting Activity of Garlic Extract," Oncology (1989) 46:277.
Raloff, J. "Aged Garlic Could Slow Prostate Cancer," Science News 4-19-97.
Silagy, C. and A. Neil, "Garlic as a Lipid-Lowering Agent: A Meta-Analysis," Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of London (1994) 28:39.
Sivam, G.P., et al. "Helicobacter Pylori: In Vitro Susceptibility to Garlic Extract," Nutrition and Cancer (1997) 27:118.
Steiner, M., et al. "A Double-Blind Crossover Study in Moderately Hypercholesterolemic Men That Compared Aged Garlic Extract and Placebo," American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1996) 64:866.
Tyler, V. in "Confused on Garlic," American Botanical Council (Austin, Texas) release, June 17, 1998.
Warshafsky, S., et al. "Effect of Garlic on Total Serum Cholesterol," Annals of Internal Medicine (1993) 119:599.
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