Eating garlic is good for your health

Countless properties have been attributed to garlic. Since ancient times it has been used to cure several ailments of the human being. Medical science has researched some of them, corroborating some beneficial effects. Much remains to be investigated.

Scientific research has verified some of the curative properties that have been attributed to garlic for ages. Amongst them, that of reducing triglycerides, lipids and cholesterol in the blood. Nevertheless, there is still controversy with regard to its efficiency in the treatment of diabetes.

That is what Bibliomed stated through Doctor Luzmila Troncoso, Doctor in Education and Medicine, coordinator of the Master’s degree in Nutrition of the National University of San Marcos, in Lima (Perú).

The specialist explained that the chemical composition of garlic (Allium sativum L.) is allicine, ajoene, diallyl sulfide, vitamines A and C, saponines and steroids.

She declared that there was much research proving that consuming the right amount of raw garlic a week has beneficial effects thanks to the hypotriglyceridemia (which reduces the amount of triglycerides in the blood) and the hypobetalipoproteinemia.

According to this research, garlic reduces the levels of lipids and cholesterol in your blood, and has antithrombotic effects (due to ajoene) by means of the inhibition of fibrinogen in platelets. To the antiplatelet action we need to add the antithrombotic and antimycotic actions (diallyl sulfide), she points out.

With regard to consuming garlic to control diabetes, there is still controversy and research needs to continue, says Doctor Troncoso. On the one hand, it has components with hyperglycemic action; and on the other hand, allicine and diallyl sulfide act as hypoglycemiants both in animals and humans, as research shows. The specialist quoted some research carried out in the University of Wolverhampton (England), the same that concluded that garlic acts against the bacteria that provoke food poisoning in the human digestive system (Listena y Salmonella) thanks to its allicine component.

She said that the in vitro action acted against microorganisms: Candida albicans, Staphylococcus aureus, Trychomona, Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Vibrio cholerae, herpes simplex, influenza B, and some other Gam-positive and Gam-negative bacteria and fungi (dermatofites and yeasts).

Its efficiency in treatments for bacillary dysentery and amoebic dysentery has been clinically proved, showing 67 and 88 percent of efficiency respectively. When she was asked about garlic’s antibiotic effect, she replied that the investigations that have been carried out so far only seem to attribute a maximum degree of efficiency of 30 percent.

“The medicinal use of garlic, particularly of its bulbs or cloves if they are consumed raw, has been approved by the Regulatory Commission of Pharmaceutical Products, basically due to its hypotensor effect. That is why we dare to recommend it strictly as a natural antibiotic” she said.

Garlic is an herbaceous, perennial, bulbous plant with penetrating smell, which has been used for medicinal purposes since Antiquity. The Sumerians, for instance, used it 5 to 6 thousand years ago.

This plant grows nearly all over the world, mainly in warm mild climates. It is used as a condiment, as food and in traditional medicine; it is also associated with magical-religious rites in order to keep bad spirits away.

The list of properties that have been attributed to garlic in traditional medicine is very vast. The most familiar one is its hypotensor effect to fight flu, bronchitis and asthma. Doctor Troncoso said that garlic should be eaten raw, in tincture or juice, as it looses more than 90 percent of its therapeutic and microbiotic actions when cooked. She advised that a daily and continued consumption of garlic in big amounts can cause feelings of heat, burning and tingling in your lips and tongue, transpiration, bad breath, vertigo, burning eyes, nausea, diarrhoea, gastritis.