The health benefits of garlic throughout history
In all cultures there have been dietary patterns that are believed to promote human health. For example, in general, a healthy diet has always been considered to contain the most vegetables.
In different traditions the Garlic is a prophylactic as well as a therapeutic medicinal plant and has fulfilled important dietary and medicinal functions..
Historically, a great many civilisations have spoken of the beneficial properties of garlic.
In Ancient Egypt, a proportion of the of up to 10 per cent of the fertile area to garlic cultivation, as it the Egyptians were aware of its health-promoting effects. But not only did they cultivate it, they also used it in embalming for its bactericidal properties.
Ancient Chinese (TCM) and Indian (Ayurvedic) medicine recommends garlic to aid breathing and digestion and to treat leprosy and parasitic infestation.
Yale Culinary Tablets dating back to 1600 B.C., which describe sophisticated recipes using garlic and leeks, are kept at Yale University in the USA.
But it was the Roman Empire that generalised its cultivation throughout Europe.
And it was the Spaniards who brought it to America before 1500, which has made countries such as Argentina and Mexico leaders in its production and has given garlic an outstanding place in their gastronomy.
Garlic's therapeutic effects have been largely attributed to:
- the reduction of risk factors for cardiovascular disease
- cancer risk reduction
- its antioxidant effect
- its antimicrobial effect, in particular its antibacterial and antifungal properties
- improved detoxification in the presence of a foreign compound and hepatoprotection.
The garlic plant, a bulbous plant that grows up to 1.2 metres in height, originates from Asia, specifically from the area around the cities of Samarkand, Tashkent and the Fergana Valley. One of its great advantages is that it can be grown in any type of soil and climate. In fact, it is grown in Mexico at an altitude of 3000 metres or in Tibet at 5000 metres.
Regarding the components of garlic, the main one is the allicin. However, it should be clarified that this substance is not found in a clove of garlic, but rather in the garlic itself. Garlic contains alliin, a sulphur-containing amino acid which, through the action of the enzyme alliinase and in the presence of oxygen, is converted to allicin when the garlic is crushed or cut. If a whole garlic is eaten, it is not consumed because allicin. As soon as the allicin is ingested, it is detected by the lungs, hence the excellent bactericidal action of garlic in the case of lung infection.
Allicin is a very complex and unstable compound that changes into different molecules when dissolved in water or when heated. When heated, it is converted to ajoene, an organosulphur substance with high pharmacological activity..
Anticancer, antifungal and antibiotic
Anti-cancer effect of garlic
Numerous studies have determined that garlic contains a large number of potent bioactive compounds with anti-cancer properties. The growth rate of cancer cells is reduced by garlic, with cell cycle blockage occurring in the G2/M phase (Capasso, 2013).
Research conducted by Dr. Dominique Boivin at the University of Quebec in Montreal in 2009 found that cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli slow the growth of some types of cancer cells, but garlic extract does the same for all types of tumour cells. and it is also a vegetable with an extensive antioxidant capacity.
Subsequent work has shown that organosulphur substances in garlic interfere with the metabolism of tumour cells by enhancing the repair of abnormal DNA strands or by blocking the growth of cancer cells.
Garlic has a variety of anti-tumour effects, including inhibition of tumour cell growth and chemopreventive effects. In rodents, garlic and its constituents have been reported to inhibit the development of chemically induced tumours in the liver, colon, prostate, bladder, mammary gland, and oesophagus.
Garlic has free radical scavenging properties, is an antioxidant and regulates cell proliferation, apoptosis (programmed cell suicide), and immune response.. Ajoene, a rich sulphur compound soluble in stable garlic oil and a natural compound derived from garlic, has been shown to induce apoptosis in leukaemic cells.
Similarly, the diallyl trisulphide in garlic prevents cancer cells from growing via intracellular pathways and is effective in prostate adenocarcinoma.
In addition, in the case of lung cancer, garlic slows tumour progression by 50%. and reduces lung metastasis.
Furthermore, allicin inhibits the proliferation of endometrial cells and colon cancer.
In conclusion, we can say that freshly cut or crushed garlic and its oil slow down the growth of all kinds of tumour cells and is also one of the vegetables with the greatest antioxidant capacity.
Garlic is antifungal and antibiotic
Already Louis Pasteur discovered the antibiotic properties of garlic in vitro by bacterial cultures.
But there have been many subsequent studies. In India in 1999, Dr. D.S. Arora and Dr. J. Kaur found that garlic kills two highly pathogenic bacteria, Salmonella epidermidis and Salmonella typhi, and is also more effective against candidiasis than the chemical antifungal Nystatin.
Candida adhesion is also greatly reduced in the presence of garlic extract. (Ghannoum, 1990). Again, this effect is diminished by the addition of thiol compounds. Addition of ajoene to some fungal growth mixtures, including Aspergillus niger, C. albicans, and Paracoccidiodes, has resulted in inhibition at lower concentrations than that experienced with allicin.
The other thiosulfinates in garlic also have bactericidal and antifungal properties but to a lesser extent than allicin.
In intestinal infections, and Candida albicans is one of them, garlic extract is effective against gram-negative bacteria as well as gram-positive bacteria.
As an antibiotic, garlic allicin is an antibiotic with penicillin-like efficacy. Just 0.09 milligrams of allicin dissolved in one litre of water achieves bactericidal effects equivalent to those of conventional antibiotics.
Aspergillus, a very aggressive mould, is also counteracted by garlic.. In 2010, at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, Dr. E. Appel demonstrated that allicin is effective in immunocompromised mice with pulmonary aspergillosis.
Antiparasitic
Recent tests have shown that Chinese experts in traditional medicine, who have been using alcoholic garlic extracts to fight intestinal worms since ancient times, were not wrong. Garlic tackles dreaded parasites such as Giardia intestinalis, Leishmania sp, Loa loa which causes filariasis and Trypanosoma brucei, which causes sleeping sickness or African trypanosomiasis.
Studies in Nigeria in 1996 by Dr. Nok found garlic to be effective against several types of African trypanosomes.
Garlic also blocks Plasmodium, a parasite that causes many deaths in malaria regions.
The effects of garlic on the cardiovascular system
Garlic consumption has significant effects in lowering blood pressure, preventing atherosclerosis, reducing serum cholesterol and triglycerides, inhibiting platelet aggregation, and increasing fibrinolytic activity. (Chan et al., 2013)
In in vivo animal experiments, intravenous administration of garlic extracts produced slight reductions in systolic and diastolic pressures.
As for high blood pressure, garlic allyls reduce it by 75% by converting to hydrogen sulphide.
Garlic also strengthens the protection of the heart by repairing damaged tissues in case of an acute myocardial infarction.. This is because garlic creates hydrogen sulphide and nitric oxygen, substances that have a beneficial effect on endothelial cells and cardiomyocytes.
To summarise the beneficial effects of garlic on cardiovascular diseases, an article published in Phytotherapy Research and coordinated by J.Y. Chan confirms that it is a vasodilator, reduces leukocyte adhesion and is hypoglycaemic and hypolipidemic. Chan corroborates that it is a vasodilator, reduces leukocyte adhesion and is hypoglycaemic and hypolipidemic.
Cholesterol and diabetes regulation through garlic
Research has shown that people with more than 200 mg/dl of cholesterol in their blood lower their blood cholesterol by an average of 17 mg/dl and their LDL, or bad cholesterol, by 9 mg/dl, provided they take garlic for at least 2 months.
In the case of diabetes, in 2006, an experiment in Iran by A. Eidi, using diabetic mice given hydroalcoholic extracts of garlic juice, showed that blood levels of glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, urea, uric acid, creatinine, AST and ALT transaminases were reduced and insulin levels increased.
Garlic and its anti-ageing effect
At the University of Pittsburgh in the USA, an experiment by Dr. A.A. Powolny's team showed that dialium trisulphide, which is abundant in garlic, increased the longevity of worms, provided that the treatment was started at an early stage. Further molecular studies revealed that this garlic compound strengthens the transcription factor of the skn-1 gene, a longevity gene.
How to eat garlic
Garlic should be consumed raw (one or two cloves of garlic daily). to convert the alliin into allicin on contact with oxygen. And it should be eaten chopped or crushed immediately for it to take full effect. A clove or two a day is ideal for good health. To alleviate the odour that allicin gives garlic and which manifests itself in our breath, we recommend drinking cold water as soon as we eat the chopped garlic to refresh our mouth and tongue.
If crushed garlic is applied to the soles of the feet it is effective because of its antibacterial properties, the problem is the bad smell it produces.
As there are different types of garlic, it is best to consume Spanish garlic.
A smart and very healthy way to eat garlic is to make an aioli..
The process is as follows. Crush a couple of large cloves of garlic in a wooden mortar and pestle, add a few drops of lemon juice, and after 3 or 4 minutes add oil to the mixture drop by drop while slowly stirring the mixture. Then, a pinch of salt and an egg yolk will complete this compound, which is a golden food for our health.
The Tibetan garlic cure
The Tibetan garlic cure is a ancient medicinal recipe created by Buddhist monks in Tibet which takes advantage of the many properties of garlic.
This cleansing therapy is very effective to treat various diseases and to lose weight healthily. It is also simple and inexpensive; anyone can prepare it.
Ingredients to make the medicinal recipe:
¢ You will need 350 grams of garlic, preferably of organic origin.
¢ One quart of 70 per cent alcohol.
Recipe development:
Place the garlic mixed with the 70 proof alcohol in a glass container such as a flask, bottle or jar. We cover it hermetically and put it in the refrigerator for ten days. Once this period is over, filter the result with the help of a mesh and put it back in the fridge for 3 more days, the resulting liquid may have a greenish tone. After this time we will have everything we need to start the treatment.
How to perform the cure:
It is vitally important to follow the preparation steps carefully.. We should carefully measure the drops that we include, diluted with water, 20 minutes before each of the 3 meals we eat every day. In order to control it, we will use a dropper that we will also keep in the fridge:
¢ Day 1: Before breakfast 1 drop, before lunch 2 drops and before dinner 3 drops.
¢ Day 2: Before breakfast 4 drops, before lunch 5 drops and before dinner 3 drops.
¢ Day 3: Before breakfast 7 drops, before lunch 8 drops and before dinner 9 drops.
¢ Day 4: Before breakfast 10 drops, before lunch 11 drops and before dinner 12 drops.
¢ Day 5: Before breakfast 13 drops, before lunch 14 drops and before dinner 15 drops.
¢ Day 6: Before breakfast 15 drops, before lunch 14 drops and before dinner 13 drops.
¢ Day 7: Before breakfast 12 drops, before lunch 11 drops and before dinner 10 drops.
¢ Day 8: Before breakfast 9 drops, before lunch 8 drops and before dinner 7 drops.
¢ Day 9: Before breakfast 6 drops, before lunch 5 drops and before dinner 4 drops.
¢ Day 10: Before breakfast 3 drops, before lunch 2 drops and before dinner 1 drop.
After the tenth day, add 25 drops 3 times a day to your diet.
It is vital that should not be re-treated within the next 5 years as treated in the manuscript.
Warning:
In this, as in any other cure, we can observe common symptoms, especially in the first few days, caused by the detoxifying action of garlic, such as skin rashes, headaches and other discomforts.
It is advisable to drink plenty of water between meals, and if these symptoms persist, consult a naturopath or doctor.
