Garlic: Roto-Rooter for the Arteries?
Mon, 03/20/2017 - 17:52
One
of the most common kitchen staples could prove to also be one of the most
effective natural treatments for heart disease.
Heart disease is the #1 killer in the modern world. It’s the reason why millions pop aspirin,
blood pressure, or statin drugs daily in the hopes that they might reduce the
risk of a sudden and premature death. But pharmaceutical approaches to
prevention carry with them such profound health risks that, in most cases, the
jury is still out as to whether they do more good
than harm.
Here at GreenMedInfo.com, we have a strong belief (and therefore bias) that
natural substances are superior to synthetic ones in preventing and treating
health problems. We also focus on bringing to light research on the unintended,
adverse effects of these commonly employed pharmaceutical interventions, as
they are underreported in popular media. That said, as an “evidence-based”
platform we make a concerted effort to defer to the authority of peer-reviewed
and published scientific literature, which when closely inspected, lends
remarkably consistent support to our core advocacies. You can view literally
thousands of studies we have gathered on natural ways to prevent and
sometimes reverse heart disease via our newly redesigned Research Dashboard by searching any number of over 10,000
categories, from arterial calcification to high blood pressure to heart attack.
Why The Drugs (Patented Chemicals) Won’t Work
A quick word about commonly ingested and putatively
heart-friendly drugs for the primary prevention of heart disease…
First, let’s acknowledge that heart disease is not
caused by a lack of a drug. This point is so obvious that it often seems to
escape the attention it deserves. To the contrary, it is exposure to tens of
thousands of chemicals (many of them drugs) that did not pre-exist the
industrial revolution in the late 19th century that is one of the major, if not
the primary reason why we have a heart disease epidemic. Of course, nutritional
and lifestyle factors (e.g. smoking) play a huge role, but being exposed to chemicals
and drugs that shouldn’t be in the body (outside their occasional use in
emergency medicine where they can be life-saving) is a sorely underreported
part of the puzzle.
Aspirin, for instance, has been linked to over 50 serious side effects, the top 7 of which we documented in our previous
report, The Evidence
Against Aspirin and For Natural Alternatives. Statin drugs are even worse. Not only are the statistics
manipulated to
make them seem far more effective than they actually are, but we have
identified over 300 adverse
health effects linked to their use. Should we be surprised? The body is comprised,
molecule by molecule, cell by cell, of natural substances not synthetic ones.
Therefore what’s not natural is perceived by the body as xenobiotic (“foreign
to life”), rejected if possible, but almost always leadsing to a wide range of
adverse effects that are at the root of many health conditions that are, in
turn, treated with more chemicals to suppress or mask the symptoms of chemical
poisoning. It’s a truly vicious cycle. Some call it the medical merry-go-round.
Why Garlic May Save Your Heart (And Your Life)
Given the uncertainty that comes with taking
pharmaceuticals -- basically patented chemicals, ostensibly to “improve health”
or “reduce disease risks” -- natural alternatives are receiving far greater
attention today than ever before. And rightfully so! Literally thousands of
years of cross-culturally confirmed positive experience is backing their use,
including a glut of relatively recently performed scientific research.
We’ve looked at a wide range of natural
alternatives to drugs for heart disease in previous posts, with pomegranate, turmeric, and sesame seed demonstrating extraordinary cardioprotective
properties, to name but a few. Garlic, however, may be the most compelling of
them all from the standpoint of clinical research, given that numerous recent
studies now show this amazing herb can prevent and even reverse the accumulation
of calcified plaque in the arteries. This is, of course, the goal of root-cause
resolution medicine: to address and ameliorate the underlying pathologies,
instead of simply suppressing symptoms or surrogate markers of cardiovascular
disease risk such as LDL cholesterol. Take a look at one of our previous
reports on the topic of garlic’s artery de-calcifying properties here.
The most recent clinical study on the topic of
garlic’s heart-disease healing properties was just published in the journal
Nutrition and entitled, “Aged Garlic
Extract Reduces Low Attenuation Plaque in Coronary Arteries of Patients with
Metabolic Syndrome in a Prospective Randomized Double-Blind Study.” It looked at whether or not aged garlic
supplementation could reduce the volume of so-called low-attenuation plaque in
the arteries of patients suffering from metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome
includes a constellation of health problems, including high blood pressure, high
blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol levels.
This condition greatly increases the person’s risk for heart attack and stroke,
and often occurs alongside atherosclerosis.
Although several previous studies have demonstrated
that aged garlic extract (AGE) inhibits the progression of coronary artery
calcification, its effect on noncalcified plaque (NCP) has not been clearly
demonstrated to be effective in a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical
trial.
The new study involved 55 patients with metabolic
syndrome, with an average age of 58.7 and 71% men. They were divided into two
groups (27 orally administered with 2400 mg a day of aged garlic) and 28
placebo. The intervention lasted an average of 354 days.
The patients were maintained on current medications
such as aspirin, hypertensive, or hyperlipidemia medication, and did not change
medications during the study period.
The results showed a significant decrease in
low-attenuation plaque volume (-1.5% ± 2.3%), compared with an increase
of 0.2% ± 2.0%, in the placebo group. Low-attenuation plaque is associated with ischemia risk (inhibited blood supply) in
atherosclerosis, a factor in poorer prognosis.
The clear conclusion of the study was that aged
garlic prevented plaque buildup in the arteries. When compared to the increase in plaque
volume in the untreated group, clearly the intervention has life-saving
implications in that it actually reversed the progression of atherosclerosis.
How does garlic work?
The researchers surmised that garlic possesses a
number of therapeutic properties that occur simultaneously to stabilize
atherosclerosis. Those
primary properties are:
- Cholesterol-reducing effects
- Blood
vessel dilating effects (blood pressure lowering)
- Anti-inflammatory effects
- Antioxidant
effects (inhibiting LDL oxidation)
When you consider the diverse ways in which garlic
expresses its cardioprotective actions, it is what you could call a "poly
pill." For decades the pharmaceutical industry has been trying to
reproduce the spectrum of benefits witnessed in natural substances with a
patented chemical capable of doing the same thing. The industry has clearly
failed. In fact, drugs like statins carry over 300 distinct risks for adverse
effects. You can view the statin
database on our website to
see the evidence for this astounding evidence of its toxicity.
We have additional research on our garlic database
which reveals the cardioprotective properties of this remarkable herb. We have
created a public page for 16 studies on
the topic here, as
part of our professional membership tool set functionality called “create
public page.” [Learn more about Professional features here]
Garlic is a powerful, time-tested, safe, affordable
and easily accessible natural healing agent with dozens of documented side benefits. Those on medication, such as a blood thinner,
should be mindful not to take it in “nutraceutical” concentrations without the
guidance of a trained medical professional. For those who have opted out of
conventional, drug-based approaches we can only opine that the best thing would
be to let your food, and herbs like garlic, be your medicine, if you so choose
to exercise your free will.
Sayer Ji is founder of Greenmedinfo.com,
a reviewer at the International Journal of Human
Nutrition and Functional Medicine, Co-founder and CEO of Systome Biomed, Vice Chairman of the Board of the National Health Federation, Steering Committee Member of the Global Non-GMO Foundation.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical
advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect
those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.
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