Garlic has been used since ancient times. If the term wonder drug can be applied to any healing herb, Garlic deserves that distinction. It is the world’s oldest medicine (after ephedra) and is still among the best.
10,000 years of garlic healing. The first known garlic prescription chiseled on a Sumerian clay tablet dates from 3000 B.C. The entire ancient world loved garlic for their health, from Spain to China. The herb was even found in the tomb of King Tut, and 15lbs of garlic bought a healthy male slave!
Health Benefits of Raw Garlic
No standard medications can match garlic when it comes to acting on so many cardiovascular risk factors at the same time. Some drugs reduce blood pressure, others decrease cholesterol, and some reduce the likelihood of internal bloods clots, which trigger heart attacks and strokes. But garlic does all these things. How? Due to allicin and another chemical in it(ajoene).
In addition to keeping the heart and blood vessels healthy research has proved that garlic lowers you blood pressure, lowers your cholesterol, fends off respiratory infections, infections of the urinary tract and digestive tract.
Anti-cancer and anti-oxidant effects have also been reported. Garlic-rich diet appears to protect against various cancers, including breast, prostate and colon cancer.. In 2001 a review of global studies by researchers in North Carolina concluded that fresh garlic consumption reduced the incidence of stomach and colorectal cancers. However, there is no convincing evidence that those who eat a lot of garlic are generally less prone to cancer.
Medicinal
A clove of garlic is without doubt more effective than an apple a day to keep the doctor away.
Diseases that have been successfully treated by raw garlic or garlic extracts: high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, tuberculosis, diabetes, arthritis, cancer, hypoglycemia, bronchitis, asthma, whooping, pneumonia, common cold, allergies, intestinal worms, intestinal putrefaction and gas, parasitic diarrhea, dysentery and insomnia.
Fresh raw garlic cloves are a cornucopia of vitamins, mineral, amino acids, and sulphur compounds that cause the sharp taste and aroma, and also most of the medicinal properties.
Thousands of scientific papers have been published on garlic over the past 20 years. Herbalists and naturopaths also regard garlic as something of a wonder drug and use it as a remedy for dozens of complaints from asthma to arthritis.
Results support the use of garlic as an anti-bacterial, anti-infective and anti-viral herb, especially for the respiratory and digestive system. It can reduce the effects of cold, flu, bronchial and nasal congestion.
Since the 1920s, garlic’s antibiotic properties have been confirmed in dozens of studies. It is claimed to kill the bacteria that causes tuberculosis, food poisoning, and also may prevent infection by the influenza virus.
The best garlic remedy uses fresh, uncooked, crushed, organic cloves — used in a warm tea or mixed with raw, unprocessed honey.
How to take it
The sulphur in garlic is responsible for its pungent aroma, it contains hundreds of components, sulphur being involved in most of them. Allicin is the most notable of these and when chewed, crushed, bruised, or chopped the allicin comes in contact with a garlic enzyme, allinase, which transforms it into another chemical, which is a powerful anti-biotic.
To maximize the health benefits, you should crush the garlic at room temperature and allow it to sit for about 15 minutes. That triggers an enzyme reaction that boosts the healthy compounds in garlic.
For minor skin infections, garlic juice applied externally may prove sufficient, but it’s a mistake to rely exclusively on garlic to treat infectious diseases. No antibiotic, including garlic kills all disease-causing microorganisms.
You might ask your physician, however, to include garlic in a sensitivity test or simply take the herb in addition to standard medication.
Researchers have found that 1 medium-size garlic clove pack the anti-bacterial punch of about 100,000 units of penicillin. Depending on the type of infection, oral penicillin doses typically range from 600,000 to 1.2 million units. The equivalent in garlic would be about 6 to 12 cloves. It’s best to chew 3 cloves at a time, two to four times a day.
To help reduce blood pressure, cholesterol, and the possibility of internal blood clots, three to ten cloves of fresh garlic is recommended.
To counteract the odor take natural breath fresheners such as parsley and fennel.
The Safety Factor
Garlic with it anti-clotting action may help prevent heart attack and some kinds of stroke, but medicinal amounts could conceivably cause problems for those with clotting disorders.
If you have a clotting disorder, consult your physician before using garlic, our wonder drug, in medicinal amounts.
Garlic better than an apple a day to keep the doctor way. Everyone can benefit from regular consumption of raw garlic.