Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Garlic - A Love Hate Relationship


Almost everyone has an opinion about garlic. They either love its lingering aroma or hate its pungent odor people either love it or hate it. I think even the greatest of garlic champions would admit that the little bulb has a not so pleasant odor. While many only see this herb as something to dress up an Italian feast or to help fend off the neighborhood vampires during Halloween. Due to it’s obnoxious smell it’s no wonder then, that folkloric shamans prescribed a necklace of garlic to ward off vampires. Love it or hate it, garlic can help protect our body from more than a mythic pair of sharp teeth. Garlic's renowned pungent smell comes from its sulfur-rich compounds, which are excreted through the lungs.

More than 2,000 years ago, Hippocrates, father of diagnostic medicine, listed garlic as a worthwhile treatment. But even garlic haters can take heart in the knowledge that garlic may be taken as a supplement known as Kyolic, which has a slightly altered chemistry and leaves no lingering smell to drive off loved ones. A dose of 1200 mg to 1600 mg of Kyolic every day should be sufficient to keep both heart disease -- and vampires -- at bay.

Today scientists know from a battery of studies that garlic contains several properties that may keep the cardiovascular system healthy. It has proven to be a powerful antibiotic if taken raw and crushed and can also be used as an anti-fungal agent. When cooked, garlic is beneficial for the cardiovascular system. These benefits are, at least in part, due to the sulfur compounds allicin and diallyl disulphide (DADS) (which are also found in onions, leeks and chives). These compounds help to induce the relaxation and enlargement of blood vessels, which improves blood flow throughout the body. In fact, eating from one-half to one clove of garlic a day may lower your cholesterol by up to 9 percent, according to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
Garlic is a great antioxidant, studies have shown that garlic may keep the cardiovascular system healthy. Like aspirin garlic also helps to thin the blood by preventing platelets from banding together, garlic may keep the circulatory system healthy.

Garlic however you choose to include it, in your dinner or pill form. Garlic a natural remedy is definitely worth including in your daily routine. An extra bonus if you choose to grow your own garlic is that you can eat the beautiful garlic flowers in salads or any other way you want to prepare them.
Visit Native Remedies to find out about other natural remedies.
Ion Exchange Inc.

No comments: