Have you read about the incredible powerhouse of natural medicine? Garlic.
It has amazing benefits for women’s health.
Through the ages, humans have used garlic in various forms to solve medical problems.
They’ve brewed it, cooked it, and even smashed it into poultices to cure a multitude of issues.
And there’s a reason for that. Research has shown that garlic may help combat heart disease, diabetes, common infections, and more. It can even be used as a paste and directly applied on open wounds to cure infections.
The Natural Medicine – Garlic
In fact, garlic is so effective that studies show it to be beneficial even in treating some forms of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
In this study, the team found that 56% of 166 bacteria strains isolated from the urine of people with UTI showed a high degree of resistance to antibiotics. However, about 82% of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria were susceptible to a crude aqueous extract of Allium sativum.
Garlic for Your Blood Pressure and Heart
It also has a significant benefit for blood pressure and heart health. Compounds in the garlic relax the smooth muscle cells in your arteries. This lowers your blood pressure and reduces stress on your heart.
“When these garlic compounds are metabolized to H2S in the vascular system, the H2S targets membrane channels and causes smooth muscle cells to relax,” Kraus said. “So, a garlic-rich diet has many good effects, and H2S may be the common mediator.”
Does Garlic Help Metabolic Syndrome?
Garlic also helps improve Metabolic Syndrome.
Metabolic Syndrome is a broad name for a collection of symptoms. People with Metabolic Syndrome are likely to be obese, have high blood pressure, and have other risk factors for heart disease such as high cholesterol, and blocked arteries.
Any of those symptoms can be hard on your health, but together they’re devastating.
But garlic extracts help slow down hardening of the arteries, and other effects of Metabolic Syndrome.
“We have completed four randomized studies, and they have led us to conclude that Aged Garlic Extract can help slow the progression of atherosclerosis and reverse the early stages of heart disease.”
Despite centuries of use as natural medicine, no one in the scientific community understood how garlic could be so useful.
It contains practically no antioxidants.
But a recent study proved what we’d known all along.
Garlic may not contain many antioxidants, but it has one extremely potent compound called allicin.
Why is Allicin Good for You?
By itself, it’s not an antioxidant. But as it decomposes, allicin creates TONS of antioxidants. And it works fast!
“Basically, the allicin compound has to decompose in order to generate a potent antioxidant,” explains Dr. Pratt, who is Canada Research Chair in Free Radical Chemistry. “The reaction between the sulfenic acid and radicals is as fast as it can get, limited only by the time it takes for the two molecules to come into contact. No one has ever seen compounds, natural or synthetic, react this quickly as antioxidants.”
Should I Use Fresh or Dried Garlic for My Health?
To get the most from the garlic in your diet, stick to fresh garlic. It turns out that those handy bottles of preserved garlic aren’t nearly as healthy as the fresh.
This is because garlic that’s been stored in water or oil loses most of the allicin compound. Additionally, it can take up 10 minutes after chopping your garlic for allicin to form. Allicin forms when garlic cells are disrupted.
So if you’re using garlic for health benefits, you’ll want to get the fresh stuff. And, you’ll want to let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes before cooking with it.
Garlic stored in water at room temperature lost about half its allicin in 6 days and garlic in vegetable oil lost half its allicin in less than an hour. The garlic lost its antibacterial action as allicin broke down.
How Can I Avoid Garlic Breath?
With so many benefits, it’s hard to see why people would not want to include garlic in every meal. But some people are concerned with “garlic breath.”
The same compound that is such a powerhouse antioxidant trigger also causes that breath that makes date night so interesting.
Luckily, evidence shows that cooking lowers the bad breath-causing components of the allicin without a lot of damage to its health benefits. You will however want to use low heat when cooking garlic if you are after its healthful properties.
After boiling, baking and microwaving both crushed and uncrushed cloves of garlic and evaluating them for their antiplatelet activity, the scientists learned that lightly cooked, crushed garlic provides most of the health benefits found in raw garlic.
Another way to get around the bad breath smell is to take your garlic in capsules.
Capsules are super convenient. You get a stable dose of garlic’s benefits in a portable supplement.
Aged Garlic Extract is a powerhouse of benefits. And you can get all these benefits in a convenient capsule.
Citations:
Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). (2015, July 10). Using garlic to combat antimicrobial resistant urinary tract infections. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 25, 2018, from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150710101332.htm
US Department of Agriculture. (2007, October 10). Garlic’s Goodness Best Released With A Crush. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 23, 2018, from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071006084912.htm
American Chemical Society. (2008, June 12). Love That Garlic? Fresh May Be Healthier Than Bottled. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 24, 2018, from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080609092230.htm
Queen’s University. (2009, January 31). Chemists Shed Light On Health Benefits Of Garlic. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 25, 2018, from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090130154901.htm