Garlic to the rescue

[Yaps]

Garlic Does It Again
April 03, 2005

An ingredient in garlic has been shown to be effective in preventing rats from developing a severe form of pulmonary hypertension, a kind of lung disease.

Consuming garlic or even supplements, has long been asssociated with medicinal properties, such as reducing blood pressure and cholesterol to treating different types of cancer. The new study, by University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers suggests small daily doses of allicin, the active chemical ingredient in garlic, appears to improve blood circulation in the lungs of rats and assist breathing.


The team reported their findings Saturday at the Experimental Biology meeting in San Diego.

For their study, researchers gave rats a chemical known to induce a form of high blood pressure in the lungs. Within three weeks half the rats had developed chronic pulmonary hypertension, with increased pulmonary arterial pressure.

However, the half that received small daily doses of allicin, experienced no such increase.

Study co-author David Ku said garlic isn't toxic, so adding it to one's daily diet is a reasonable approach, especially for people with respiratory and pulmonary ailments. Humans would have to eat two cloves of raw garlic a day to obtain the equivalent amount of allicin given to rats in the study.


http://www.healthtalk.ca/garlic_040305_3992312.php

I have to mention though ;Garlic does have a fairly high vitamin K content..love the pup

 

[Ross]

I loves me Garlic. Gots to have it in just about everything. Emeril would be proud.

 

[Yaps]

lol

lol

me too, was very dissapointed to find the high vitamin K content.. but just increased my coumadin..lol cause I give up trying to keep up with the K contents.. just too much..lol ,loves my sketti sauce lol

 

[Ross]

Ah Yaps, follow my sayings. "Dose the diet, don't diet the dose!"

I thought like a lot of others did at the beginning and was measuring all my Vit K and just chasing my tail all over the planet. It doesn't work, so throw that whole idea right out the window. I had to laugh at the nurses at my Cardiologists office. They were trying to recommend the Coumadin Cookbook to at patient and I stood their and told them the same thing. It virtually impossible to manage doing stuff like that. Just eat what you want and be consistent, dose accordingly and you'll be fine.

 

[tobagotwo]

Allicin is a component of all of the alliums, and plays a role in giving them their uniquely earthy fragrance: scallions, leeks, onions, chives, etc. It is most concentrated in garlic, though.

Allicin also acts as a natural antibiotic, although not sufficient to cure illnesses, and is reputed to lower blood pressure. In large amounts, it is also reported to act as a mild blood thinner/anticoagulant. Be aware of that, as its thinning properties, although mild, may not be accurately reflected by your INR.

Garlic "sweats out" through your skin, and can have an interesting effect on perfumes. Capsules are available with "odor-free" garlic, to avoid abusing your cube-mates at work. Although supplements have not been proven to provide the same good effects as eating garlic au naturel, I take a capsule every day.

Couldn't hoit...

Best wishes,

 

[Barry]

My standard procedure for dealing with recipes: Use twice the quantity of onions called for, four times the quantity of garlic.