Original article November 2011 Copyright Jaine Kirtley
The healing powers of garlic have been recognised for centuries; even now scientific research is confirming the great health benefits of eating garlic. Raw garlic works best. If you cook it, you destroy some, but by no means all of the health giving ingredients.
Naturopathic treatment includes recommendations on ways you can change your diet to improve your health. Treatment may also incorporate herbal remedies tailored to your specific needs. Garlic is considered both a highly nutritious food[1-4] and a powerful medicinal herb[1, 5, 6].
Some recent scientific studies show garlic to be helpful for sufferers of Alzheimer’s disease[6-8], bacterial infections[9-11], Bacterial infections not helped by drug antibiotics[12], prostate problems[13], cancer[1, 8, 9, 14, 15], high cholesterol[5, 16-18], cardiovascular diseases[5-8, 18, 19], stroke[8], diabetes[20, 21], helicobacter pylori[9], high homocysteine[17-19], high triglycerides[5, 16], high blood pressure[8, 16, 17], low immunity[1, 10, 18], and ulcers[9], Traditionally garlic has been used as an antibiotic[9], anti viral, anti parasite, fungicide, anti catarrhal and so this list goes on; it was even said to be affective against the bubonic plague! There is no scientific study to back the anti bubonic plague claim, but people did live to tell the tale; which was that where the whole village ate garlic every day no one got the plague.
With all these fantastic benefits why wouldn’t you eat garlic? Oh yuck I hear the cry it’ll give me smelly breath. The best way to tackle this is to always make sure the garlic is fresh, and have your nearest and dearest eat garlic too. You can also chew parsley after the garlic which is very effective in taking the smell away.
Some people find that eating garlic causes stomach pain, as they find it hard to digest. One way to tackle this problem is to use a garlic supplement, make sure it is a standardised herbal preparation. However, you don’t have to eat garlic to reap the benefits. Put a clove of peeled garlic into your sock at might. You body will absorb some of the special garlic oils through the sole of your foot. Just tread carefully when you get up!
Contact us to book your personal consultation to help you to improve your health.
References
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2. Malik MN, Fenko MD, Shiekh AM, Wisniewski HM: Isolation of α-Tocopherol (Vitamin E) from Garlic. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 1997, 45(3):817-819.http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jf960524b
3. Montaño A, Casado FJ, de Castro A, Sánchez AH, Rejano L: Vitamin Content and Amino Acid Composition of Pickled Garlic Processed with and without Fermentation. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2004, 52(24):7324-7330.http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jf040210l
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12. Tsao S-m, Yin M-c: In vitro activity of garlic oil and four diallyl sulphides against antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 2001, 47(5):665-670.http://jac.oxfordjournals.org/content/47/5/665.abstract
13. Hsing AW, Chokkalingam AP, Gao Y-T, Madigan MP, Deng J, Gridley G, Fraumeni JF: Allium Vegetables and Risk of Prostate Cancer: A Population-Based Study. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2002, 94(21):1648-1651.http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/94/21/1648.abstract
14. Pinto J, Qiao C, Xing J, Rivlin R, Protomastro M, Weissler M, Tao Y, Thaler H, Heston W: Effects of garlic thioallyl derivatives on growth, glutathione concentration, and polyamine formation of human prostate carcinoma cells in culture. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1997, 66(2):398-405.http://www.ajcn.org/content/66/2/398.abstract
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