Garlic for flavor, garlic for health

An analysis of five separate studies indicates, for example, that eating one-half to one clove a day reduced cholesterol levels by 9%. Another study suggests that garlic may help maintain the elasticity of aging blood vessels. (Blood vessels, like old rubber bands, lose their stretchiness with time. This is why many elderly people have high blood pressure.) In one study, the average intake of garlic for health was five 100 milligram tablets (a little less than half a medium garlic clove) a day.

Other studies about using garlic for health indicate that garlic may lower high blood pressure, retard the growth of certain bacteria, reduce the risk of breast, stomach and colon cancers, serve as a diuretic, and help in the long-term treatment of intermittent claudication (restricted leg blood flow that causes pain while walking).

Taking garlic for health purposes has the added benefit of being an anticoagulant and could be helpful in protecting from clots that cause strokes. If you're taking aspirin to keep your blood from forming clots, garlic may be a more pleasant way. Mixing aspirin or other blood thinning medicines with garlic can be dangerous under some circumstances though, and should be done under a doctor's care.

It's been discovered that ulcers can be the result of viral infections, against which garlic can be a useful, internally taken, substance. It also is helpful against parasites, bacterial infection, cancer, and even slows the growth of existing tumors. Given its many positive properties, using garlic for health seems to add just the right ingredient.