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Great Garlic: A Miracle Right Under Our Noses

I have always loved garlic. My fondness for it began in childhood when my mother, for unknown reasons, banned garlic from our household. Even in little ways I rebelled, and thereafter I ate garlic whenever and wherever I could. During my hippie period, I fantasized about making millions running a garlic farm in New Hampshire - but that's a story for another day.

Garlic has been touted as a folk medicine for fending off anything from the common cold to vampires. However, I found, in doing research for my clients, that references to garlic were pervasive. My curiosity made me run some database searches on garlic that I cross-referenced with broad disease categories. I was astonished to find a body of valid, medical research showing that garlic, or its components, has a positive impact on many body processes and is considered an effective chemotherapeutic agent by many researchers.

I would be happy to share the details of any of the following citations with you.

As antibiotic: A study at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Albuquerque, NM, reports that "Allium sativum (garlic) derived preparations are used alone or with amphotericin B in Asia to treat human systemic fungal infections and cryptococcal meningitis. This study lends laboratory support for the treatment of cryptococcal infections with concentrated garlic extracts."

As antiviral agent: Beijing Medical University reports: "It is recommended that clinical use of GE (garlic extract) against HCMV (human cytomegalovirus, a virus related to herpes) infections should be persistent and the prophylactic use of GE is preferable in immunocompromised patients."

Christiane Northrup, M.D., in her book, Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, says, "Garlic is a highly effective remedy for herpes recurrence, and it has no known side effects. It also works for cold sores".

As immune system enhancer: A researcher at Tongji Medical University, Wuhan, China says, "These results indicate that DATS (diallyl trisulfide, a compound in garlic) can augment the activation of T-cells and enhance the anti-tumor function of macrophages, suggesting that DATS may be potentially useful in tumor therapy."

In another study, UCLA researchers state, "Our results indicate that F4 ( a protein fraction isolated from aged garlic extract) is a very efficient immunopotentiator and may be used for immunotherapy."

As cancer preventive: There were many studies which found garlic effective against cancer development in rats, mice and other animals but, so far, little information is available regarding the effectiveness of garlic in the prevention or treatment of human cancers.

The Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing, in a study of dietary factors and cancer risk, concludes: "Garlic has been used for thousands of years in Chinese cooking and folk medicine. Epidemiological studies show that the dietary intake of garlic is inversely related to gastric cancer incidence in Shandong Province."

Researchers at the University of Limburg in Maastricht, the Netherlands, published a paper in the British Journal of Cancer called, Garlic and its significance for the prevention of cancer in humans: a critical view." The paper... "concluded that evidence from laboratory experiments and epidemiologic studies is presently not conclusive as to the preventive activity of garlic. However, the available evidence warrants further research into the possible role of garlic in the prevention of cancer in humans."

As cardiovascular guardian: Garlic has been shown to lower cholesterol in a number of studies. Neil A. Silagy of the University of Oxford, London conducted a meta-analysis (a systematic review) of published and unpublished randomized controlled trials of the effects of garlic preparations on cholesterol levels. He concludes that "these changes represent a 12% reduction with garlic therapy beyond the final levels achieved with placebo alone. The reduction was evident after one month of therapy and persisted for at least six months. Dried garlic powder preparations also significantly lowered serum triglyceride by 0.31 mmol/l compared to placebo."

A group at New York Medical College concluded, "Meta-analysis of controlled trials of garlic to reduce hypercholesterolemia showed a significant reduction in total cholesterol levels. The best available evidence suggests that garlic, in an amount approximating one half to one clove per day, decreased total serum cholesterol levels by about 9% in the groups of patients studied."

In 1993, the University of Kansas Medical Center made the following statement. "Interventions which make serum lipoproteins less susceptible to oxidation may be antiatherogenic. Because garlic has been reported to beneficially affect serum lipid levels, platelet function, fibrinolysis, and blood pressure, this additional effect of retarding lipoprotein oxidation may contribute to the potential antiatherosclerotic effect of garlic."

As reducer of high blood pressure: The Clinical Research Center in New Orleans reports: "A popular garlic preparation containing 1.3% allicin at a large dose (2400 mg) was evaluated in this open-label study in nine patients with rather severe hypertension. Our results indicate that this garlic preparation can reduce blood pressure."

As controller of diabetes: A study published in the Indian Journal of Experimental Biochemistry shows that a sulphur containing amino acid of garlic, which is the precursor of allicin and garlic oil, has been found to show significant antidiabetic effects in alloxan diabetic rats.

Penicillin, discovered in 1929 by Alexander Fleming, is one of this century's most important chemo-therapeutic agents. It is a metabolic by-product of a fungus and was discovered on a moldy piece of bread. How easy it would have been for Fleming to dismiss his observations as mundane. Isn't it time we paid more attention to garlic and encouraged its use in mainstream medicine?