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Top 15 Health Benefits That Come From this One Super Delicious Herb
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The father of Western medicine, Greek doctor Hippocrates, often prescribed this one herb for a wide variety of the medical conditions he saw. Modern science has proved he was right about this herb, anyway. It has more health benefits than you can shake a stick at. What is this magic herb?
That’s right, garlic. That tasty, very strong smelling herb that we love to cook with! Garlic has been used for centuries, in fact, it was probably the first “performance enhancing” substance used for athletes. It was given to Olympic athletes in ancient Greece but it was traditionally used in ancient cultures to help reduce fatigue levels and improve the work capacity of field laborers.
Take a look at the top 15 health benefits that we get from eating this tasty vampire bane.
1. Garlic reduces blood pressure
Some of the world’s biggest killers are stroke and cardiovascular disease. One of the important drivers of these two conditions is high blood pressure. Studies done involving humans show that taking garlic supplements can have a dramatic impact on reducing blood pressure levels in those with hypertension. In fact, one study shows that taking an aged garlic extract at doses of 60 to 1,500mg was just as effective as taking the blood pressure drug Atenolol over a 24 week program. Doses must be fairly high to achieve this type of effect, somewhere around 4 large cloves of garlic per day.
2. Garlic removes heavy metals from the body
The sulfur compounds in garlic can protect the body from heavy metals. A study that involved employees at a plant that built car batteries found that garlic reduced the levels of lead in the blood by as much as 19 percent. It also lowered many of the signs of clinical toxicity, including blood pressure and headaches. Just three doses of garlic every day outperformed the drug D-penicillamine, which reduces symptoms of heavy metal toxicity.
3. Garlic can help fetuses
Studies have shown that when the mother eats regular doses of garlic daily, babies in the womb were able to gain weight more easily.
4. Garlic helps fights illnesses
Taking garlic supplements, or eating about 3 cloves of garlic per day, are known to improve the functioning of the immune system. A rather large 12 week study found that consuming a garlic supplements on a daily basis reduced the number of colds subjects got by 63 percent, compared with group that received a placebo. In fact, the average length of the cold symptoms was also reduced by an incredible 70 percent from 5 days to only 1.5 days. If you tend to get sick often, try eating more garlic.
5. Garlic can help prevent Alzheimer’s disease
Free radicals in the body cause oxidative damage to cells, which is a main contributor to the aging process. Garlic has powerful antioxidants that support the body’s mechanisms that fight oxidative damage. The combined effects of lowering cholesterol levels, along with lowering blood pressure, as well as its antioxidant compounds, can help to prevent brain diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s.
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kc
Nov 18, 2014 at 8:59 pm
This article encourages the consumption of garlic for health benefits, and yet one can easily find articles where garlic consumption is discouraged because it causes health issues. Would the author of the NaturalOn article please comment on the validity of reports that garlic should be avoided? Path to one example article is below. Looking for some guidance here – Thanks!
http://dherbs.com/news/4566/4669/Garlic-Does-It-Eat-Up-The-Brain/d,ai.html#.VGuvjWdw2nA