Garlic for Health
Garlic for health the mythical acclaim
for warding off vampires and other evil spirits, garlic has a
centuries-old reputation for its health and healing qualities.
Today, this plant ranks as our most popular herbal cure-all. And it
may indeed have some untapped medicinal potential. Garlic for health
may well have a positive impact for you.
An analysis of five studies,
reported last year in the Annals of Internal Medicine indicates, for
example, that eating one-half to one clove a day reduced cholesterol
levels by 9%. Another study in Circulation, the prestigious journal
sponsored by the American Heart Association, suggests that garlic
for health may help maintain the elasticity of aging blood vessels.
(Blood vessels, like old rubber bands, lose their stretchiness with
time. This is why many elderly people have high blood pressure.) In
the Circulation study, the average garlic intake was five, 100
milligram tablets (a little less than half a medium garlic clove) a
day.
Other studies have shown garlic
for health may lower high blood pressure, retard the growth of
certain bacteria, reduce the risk of breast, stomach and colon
cancers, serve as a diuretic, and help in the long-term treatment of
intermittent claudication (restricted
leg blood flow that causes pain while walking).
Nevertheless, munching on garlic
for health cloves or taking garlic supplements is not now being
advised by the American Heart Association or any other national
health organization. The reason is that appropriate experimental
studies have not been conducted -- that is, long-term clinical
trials where individuals are randomly assigned to consume or not
consume garlic. Of the 1,000 or so garlic and health investigations
to date (including those mentioned above) almost all are of the
observational or questionnaire type (epidemiological) studies. Gold
standard experimental studies are essential to prove the real value
of a substance.
Furthermore, aside from an
antibacterial compound called allicin,
scientists do not know which of the many substances in garlic
garlic for health produce beneficial
effects. They also that is, long-term clinical trials where
individuals are randomly assigned to consume or not consume
garlic.that is,
long-term clinical trials where individuals are randomly assigned to
consume or not consume garlic. do not
know if there are long term negative effects from consuming large
amounts of the plant (although there is no indication that there
would be). Until all this is clear, health organizations will be
reluctant to make any health recommendations for garlic.
In addition, there is little
market control on garlic for health supplements. When you purchase
garlic pills, you can't be sure of exactly what you are buying.
These products, like other dietary supplements, are not viewed as
drugs by government regulators; therefore, they are not scrutinized
for content, purity or anything else so long as the manufacturers do
not make health claims on the package. Consequently, the content of
the pills can and does vary. One study found that the amount of
garlic ingredients released by different supplement brands varied by
as much as 18-fold.
Caution.
If you regularly take medications such as aspirin or other drugs
that thin the blood, see your doctor before taking garlic for health
supplements. Garlic has anti-coagulant properties.
Patrick J.
Bird, Ph.D.
Keeping Fit
Column 597
1998
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