garlic as medicine

[theist 1]

 

 

Garlic Fights High Blood Pressure in Lab Rats

 

By Daniel DeNoon

WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Daniel DeNoon

on Monday, April 04, 2005

 

 

April 4, 2005 - Eating two cloves of garlic a day will keep your doctor away, animal studies show.

 

The finding has nothing to do with bad breath. It relates to a much more serious problem -- a potentially lethal form of high blood pressure in the lung's blood vessels called primary pulmonary hypertension. It's a major cause of fatal heart failure.

 

In primary pulmonary hypertension, blood has a hard time leaving the right side of the heart. The culprit: tight blood vessels in the lungs. Symptoms include: shortness of breath, especially during exercise; chest pain; and fainting episodes. The exact cause of primary pulmonary hypertension is unknown.

 

Garlic may be coming to the rescue, suggest David D. Ku, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.

 

Ku's team recently found that allicin -- a compound found in garlic -- prevents a mild form of pulmonary hypertension in rats. Now they find that the garlic compound prevents a much more severe form of pulmonary hypertension in rats.

 

Ku reported the findings in a presentation to Experimental Biology 2005, held April 2-6 in San Diego.

 

"These findings confirm our earlier reports and further demonstrate that garlic is also protective against the development of chronic pulmonary hypertension and that the preservation of [lung blood-vessel function] may represent an important mechanism," say researchers.

 

Human studies, of course, will be needed to see whether garlic keeps humans as healthy as it does lab rats. Meanwhile, it can't hurt to eat a little garlic every day, Ku says, in a news release. How much? He says the amount of allicin given the rats would, in human doses, come out to about two cloves of garlic a day.

 

 

[Guest guest]

Does that mean our teachers got it wrong?

[stonehearted 0]

In what way? I don't think any of them ever said that garlic doesn't have some medicinal effect. In fact, I heard Srila Prabhupada say (on a tape of a walk at New Vrindavan) that all plants, and many kinds of animal flesh, have medicinal properties.

 

"[A] class of men, they are called vaidyas (doctors). They know all these herb, which herb is medicine for certain disease, and they sell in the market. Every one of these is meant for some medicine. They know it. . . . There is a book. Dravya-guna. All kinds of herbs, metals, even different kinds of flesh of different animals, they are mentioned. Hundreds of different kinds of animals flesh, how it can be utilized for certain disease. . . ."

 

That doesn't mean he thinks we should be looking for reasons to eat goats.

 

 

[Guest guest]

Once I questioned Parivrakacarya about garlic use and he said it is a great medicine but not to be offered as a food.

 

One thing is it is not about one's spitiual master being right or wrong about a food item or not. If one wants to offer some preperation to Krsna they should ask themselves if they think Krsna will accept knowing that person's spiritual master has told him not to.

 

If guru says offer carrots and beets do so. If he says don't offer those items then don't.

[Guest guest]

I just login so I don't know why guest appeared. Perhaps it's a possession.

[Guest guest]

the basic flaw is the comparison of apples and pears, which we learned in primary school was wrong. those that test on animals have not yet entered the school of scientific logic. are animals more like people, than people are like people?

VdK.

[theist 1]

That is a flaw in all animal research. Although tests on garlic's effects on lowering blood pressure are easy to confirm just by putting a cuff on someone's arm and taking a reading.

 

It's two raw cloves a day for me. Chopped of fine and stirred in water or added to salads. Whatever is easy. I'm convinced.

[Guest guest]

The reason garlic is so toxic, the sulphone hydroxyl ion penetrates the

blood brain barrier, just like DMSO, and is a specific poison for higher

life forms and brain cells.

 

We discovered this much to our horror, when I was the world's largest

manufacturer of ethical EEG biofeedback equipment. We'd have people come

back from lunch that looked clinically dead on the encephalograph, which we

used to calibrate their progress. "Well, what happened? Well, I went to

an Italian restaurant and there was some garlic in my salad dressing!".

So we had 'em sign things that they won't touch garlic before classes or we

were wasting their time, and money and my time. I guess those of you who are

pilots or have been in flight tests... I was in flight test engineering in

Doc Hallan's group in the 1950's.

 

The flight surgeon would come around every month and remind all of us:

"Don't you dare touch any garlic 72 hours before you fly one of our

airplanes, because it'll double or triple your reaction time. You're three

times slower than you would be if you'd [not] had a few drops of garlic."

Well, we didn't know why for 20 years later, until I owned the Alpha-Metrics

Corporation. We were building biofeedback equipment and found out that

garlic totally desynchronizes your brain waves.

 

So I funded a study at Stanford and, sure enough, they found that it's a

poison. You can rub a clove of garlic on your foot - on the sole of your

foot - and you can smell it shortly later on your wrists. So it penetrates

the body. This is why DMSO smells a lot like garlic: that sulphone hydroxyl

ion penetrates all the barriers including the corpus callosum in the brain.

 

Any of you who are organic gardeners know that if you don't want to use DDT,

garlic will kill anything in the way of insects.

 

Now, most people have heard most of their lives that garlic is good for you,

and we put those people in the same class of ignorance as the mothers who at

the turn of the century would buy morphine sulphate in the drugstore and

give it to their babies to put 'em to sleep.

 

If you have any patients who have low-grade headaches or attention deficit

[disorder], they can't quite focus on the computer in the afternoon, just do

an experiment - you owe it to yourselves.

 

Take those people off garlic and see how much better they get, very,very

shortly. And then let them eat a little garlic after about three weeks.

They'll say: "My God, I had no idea that this was the cause of our

problems." And this includes the de-skunked garlic's, Kyolic, some of the

other products.

Very unpopular, but I've got to tell you the truth.

 

(Source: From a lecture by Dr Robert [bob] C. Beck, DSc., given at the Whole

Life Expo, Seattle, WA, USA, in March 1996)

Bob Beck also found in his research on human brain function in the 1980's

that garlic has a detrimental effect on the brain and researching this

further he learned that many yoga groups and philosophical teachings caution

against the use of garlic and onions as they are known to interfere with

meditation practices. Some aware individuals have actually described

themselves as experiencing brain fog after having garlic.

[shiva 0]

Guest: Bob Beck is not a medical doctor. The only people who agree with his garlic theories are people who sell his stuff. (bio feedback equipment etc)

 

From The Complete Garlic Handbook by Peter Josling

 

"Garlic is the only antibiotic that can actually kill infecting bacteria and at the same time protect the body from the poisons that are causing the infection. It is known that the most sensitive bacterium to garlic is the deadly Bacillus anthracis which produces the poison anthrax. Even the forefather of antibiotic medicine Louis Pasteur acknowledged garlic to be as effective as penicillin and late studies showed similar activity to a more modern antibiotic, chloramphenicol. Even the blood of garlic eaters can kill bacteria and it is also reported that the vapour from freshly cut garlic can kill bacteria at a distance of 20 cms!! Another once common, and apparently returning disease, tuberculosis was treated with garlic very successfully as the invading organism Mycobacterium tuberculosis is sensitive to several of the sulphur components found in garlic."

 

 

CHICAGO (UPI) - Microbiology researchers said Wednesday the active ingredient in garlic combats two of the nastiest antibiotic resistant microbes faced by doctors and patients.

 

The ingredient, a substance know as allicin, has been found effective in killing off methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- a microbe that has been especially troubling in skin and soft tissue wounds -- and in inhibiting growth of vancomycin-resistant enterococci, an intestinal bacteria that causes considerable illness and deaths in hospital settings.

 

"Allicin simply blows enormous holes through MRSA,' said Ronald Cutler, senior lecturer in microbiology at the University of East London, England. He has formulated allicin into skin products such as creams and soaps and has achieved success in destroying the microbes in laboratory tests.

 

He said he also tested the cream on healthy volunteers -- including himself -- and "we have found absolutely no adverse reactions."

 

Cutler, and his commercial venture Allicin International Ltd., are beginning human testing with the allicin cream on patients with stubborn skin infections caused by MRSA.

 

"What happens in a test tube may not occur when it is used in humans," cautioned Dr. Jaya Prakash, chairperson of the department of pathology, microbiology and public health at National University of Health Sciences, Lombard, Ill.

 

Prakash is experimenting with allicin in thwarting VRE.

 

"We have shown that we can inhibit the growth of these bacteria with allicin. Some of the isolates are more stubborn than others," she said, but at 150 micrograms of allicin the bacteria cannot proliferate.

 

She said humans can ingest about 25 grams a day of garlic without ill effects, and that much garlic contains about 15 milligrams of allicin -- about 100 times more than what she used to control VRE.

 

Methicillin and vancomycin both are powerful antibiotics that for many years were considered among the last medical defenses against vicious microbes such as S. aureus. In recent years, however, both S. aureus and enterococci have developed mutations that allow the bugs to escape the killing power of these antibiotics. Both organisms are multi-drug resistant.

 

The studies were presented at the annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a meeting sponsored by the American Society of Microbiology in Chicago.

 

In Prakash's study, allicin was tested against two normal strains of Enterococci fecalis and 24 vancomycin-resistant strains of E. fecalis. The allicin concentrations stopped growth of the microbes within four hours.

 

Cutler said concentrations of allicin at levels of 32 parts per million in a liquid or cream formulation were sufficient to inhibit MRSA. The cream he tested on himself contained 500 parts per million of allicin.

 

Prakash said that before calling the substance "Allicin Wonderdrug" a lot of clinical testing still must be accomplished.

 

--------------------------

 

"Herb-watchers are particularly excited by what the research has to say about garlic's antibiotic potential. One reason for this is that some pathogenic bacteria are becoming resistant to widely used prescription antibiotics, which are either naturally occurring or synthetically derived. Their strength was that they were developed to attack specific kinds of harmful bacteria. But some bacteria have developed their own ways of resisting attack, so the quest for more naturally occurring, less specifically targeted antibiotics has ensued.

 

Garlic is emerging as a clear alternative to prescription antibiotics. Research outlines its potential to create an inhospitable environment to a wide range of microorganisms, including at least eight types of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and some fungi, such as Candida, the microbe that causes yeast infections, according to information provided by the nonprofit Herb Research Foundation in Boulder, Colorado. Specifically, garlic extract surpassed penicillin, ampicillin, doxycycline, streptomycin, and cephalexin in fighting eight of nine strains of Staphylococcus, Escherichia, and Proteus, according to the foundation. Moreover, like the herb echinacea, garlic may possess the ability to enhance immune function, making the body more resistant to infection, some research shows."

 

 

 

by Carmia Borek, Ph.D.

 

Enhanced immune functions

The immune system consists of many types of cells and protective substances that fight infections, the common cold and help battle life threatening diseases, such as cancer. A strong immune system can defend against bacteria, viruses and fungal diseases. When immunity is severely damaged, as in the case of AIDS, the body cannot fight off invading infectious organisms. Immunity can be compromised by many factors, by a poor diet, stress, environmental pollution, disease and aging. Fortunately, science has identified dietary substances that help stimulate the immune system, and garlic is among them.

 

Human studies confirm immune stimulation by garlic. Subjects receiving aged garlic extract at 1800 mg a day for three weeks showed a 155.5% increase in natural killer immune cell activity that kills invaders and cancer cells. Other subjects receiving large amounts of fresh garlic of 35g a day, equivalent to 10 cloves, showed an increase of 139.9%. In six weeks, patients with AIDS receiving aged garlic extract showed an enhancement of natural killer cells from a seriously low level to a normal level.

 

In another human study, subjects were given garlic powder for three months. Blood samples tested for white cell activity, showed an increased capacity of the immune cells to engulf the E. coli bacteria. Garlic and garlic preparations increase the activity of immune cells, including macrophages, that kill infectious invaders.

 

Recent studies show that garlic powdered extract contains substances that kill Heliobacter pylori, a virulent organism that grows in the stomach and is thought to be associated with stomach ulcers and stomach cancer. Since 122 patients out of 145 people infected with H. pylori showed resistance to antibiotic treatment, treatment with garlic supplementation may be an essential approach.

 

Anti-cancer effects

Normal cells become malignant through stages, in a complex process that takes many years, thus enhancing cancer risk with age. Mutations in DNA by free radicals or by binding of chemical carcinogens trigger a loss in growth regulation, causing cells to replicate in an uncontrolled way and result in a cancer.

 

The anti-cancer effects of garlic have been recognized since ancient times, mostly in the form of therapeutic effects. New scientific methods enable us to confirm that garlic helps prevent cancer and stop cancer cell growth.

 

Epidemiological studies

The anti-cancer effects of garlic-rich diets have been shown in over 12 epidemiological studies in China, Italy and the United States. Diets high in garlic lowered the risk of stomach and colon cancer. Among the earliest documented evidence were studies in China that showed a marked decrease in stomach cancer in residents of the Gangshang province whose daily consumption was 20 grams or more. Cancer rate was thirteen times lower compared to people in another province who consumed 1gram a day. Studies in Italy showed a 50% reduction in stomach cancer in people who's daily diet was high in vegetables and contained large amounts of garlic. The protective effects of garlic against colon cancer were shown in a striking finding in the Iowa Womens' study, in which 41.837 women, aged 55-69, ate one or more servings of garlic a week, over five years. Garlic eaters showed a 35% lower risk of colon cancer, compared with women on diets that did not include garlic.

 

Experimental studies

The antioxidant effects that prevent DNA damage and cancer-causing mutations are essential to the cancer preventive effects of garlic and its components. In addition, aged garlic extract, and lipid soluble organo-sulfur compounds that are also found in garlic powder, prevent the binding of DNA and chemical carcinogens. They also increase the disposal of the carcinogens in animals, ridding the body of the cancer causing agents.

 

Other animal studies show that aged garlic extract protects against early and late stages of cancer development in the colon, mammary glands, skin, stomach and esophagus. Among the compounds in the garlic extract showing prevention of tumor promotion is allixin, a flavonoid that also prevents the formation of prostaglandins, hormone-like substances that are active in enhancing inflammation, platelet aggregation and tumor growth.

 

Cancer therapy

In ancient times, garlic was used to treat cancer of the uterus. Experimental studies with human cells in culture support garlic action in blocking tumor growth. Work at Sloan Kettering Memorial Medical Center showed that the water soluble S-allyl cysteine and S-allyl mercaptocysteine, which are high in aged garlic extract, stop the growth of human prostate cancer and breast cancer cells in culture. Other recent studies at Pennsylvania State University showed that the oil soluble diallyl sulfide prevented the growth of human colon cancer cells. These studies offer hope for adjuvant therapy with garlic compounds.

 

Preventing heart and liver toxicity in cancer therapy

Cardiotoxicity and liver toxicity caused by anti-cancer agents that produce free radicals is a concern in cancer therapy. Doxorubicin, which is used in treating breast cancer, ovarian carcinoma and other tumors, damages the heart muscle and leads to heart failure. Methotrexate and 5-fluorouracilused, which are used in treating a variety of cancers, produce liver toxicity. Aged garlic extract and the organosulfur compounds polysulfides protect mice and heart cells in vitro from Doxorubicin toxicity and liver cells against the toxic effects of methotraxate and 5-fluorouracil. These protective effects of the garlic supplement may have applications in the clinic, reducing the risk of toxicity in patients receiving anti-cancer treatment.

 

Anti-aging, cognitive function enhancement and life extension

The history of garlic tells us of its uses to promote well being. Recent studies on mice show that garlic may have important effects on brain function and in increasing life span. The research showed that aged garlic extract and its key sulfur compound, S-allyl cysteine, enhanced learning ability in mice that are genetically prone to early aging. Nerve cells exposed to these compounds showed an unusual ability to grow and branch, which may be associated with the enhanced memory function by the garlic compounds. Aged garlic extract prevented degeneration in the frontal lobe of the brain, improved memory retention and extended the life span of the animals.

 

Conclusions

Garlic contains a wide range of substances, including antioxidants, which are enhanced by aging garlic extract and act together to help prevent atherosclerosis, heart disease, stroke, cancer and aging, as well as boost immunity and help increase memory and life span. Garlic and garlic supplements as well as garlic components, notably stable organo-sulfur compounds, have been shown to influence cancer by several mechanisms. It prevents mutations and the binding of carcinogens to DNA, increases the destruction of carcinogens by producing enzymes that do the job, prevents later stages in cancer, enhances immunity and stops the growth for some human cancer cells. Garlic antioxidants are highest in the aged garlic supplement compared to fresh garlic and other commercial preparations. The antioxidants protect against toxic effects of free radicals from radiation, including sunlight, environmental pollutants and some anti-cancer drugs, and help fight cancer, heart disease, loss of memory and aging.

 

-----------

 

Don't use manufactured products like extracts, pills, etc.

 

Allicin (the antibiotic formed in garlic) is very unstable and once it is formed by the garlic juices combining it deteriorates due to oxidation within 4 hours and loses its potency. All products selling extracts etc. are scams unless they freeze dry the garlic at extremely low temps, surveys of these products have shown almost none have potency, use only raw unheated garlic. I haven't had a cold or a flu or an infection or virus of any kind last longer then 12 hours since I started taking garlic some 15 years ago. Whenever I feel something coming on i.e the beginning of a cold (congestion) or a flu (the flu comes on slowly, if you start to feel a bit sick then take garlic) or an infection (starts with mild pain) I take 5 large cloves of garlic twice in 12 hours and I am cured immediately. Garlic kills pretty much all viruses.