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Why Can Garlic Prevent Cardiovascular Disease? Garlic has been used in India to treat diseases some 5,000 years ago while it has been utilized as medicine in China for over 3,000 years. Being one of the oldest known medicinal plants, garlic can be eaten raw or cooked and used to make extracts or it can be dried to produce powder or capsules. Besides its anti-bacterial and antifungal properties, garlic has also been known to have positive effects in lowering cholesterol, preventing heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure), and stomach and colon cancers. Why garlic can possess such valuable health benefits? In 2007, a finding appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences can perhaps provide some explanations. Researchers from United States researchers from the department of environmental health sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that garlic boosts the body's own production of a compound that relaxes blood vessels, increases blood flow, and prevents blood clots and oxidative damage. Many of the past research have focused on the organic polysulphides, best known as Allicin, that garlic is rich in. When garlic is chewed, crushed or cut, it emits a sulphur-bearing compound called Allicin. It is this chemical that gives garlic its special taste and smell, and its therapeutic benefits.
The new research, however, suggested that Allicin and similar biologically active compounds are only partly responsible for its wonderful benefits. What is important is that a chemical messenger, called hydrogen sulphide (H2S), is produced when these compounds are metabolized. The laboratory tests conducted in the study found that H2S relaxes blood vessels to help enhance blood flow. In a series of experiments carried out, the researchers first extracted juice from supermarket garlic and added minute amounts of red blood cells. The cells immediately began emitting hydrogen sulphide. As shown in the subsequent experiments, the key reaction occurred mainly at the membrane of the red blood cells though a fraction of H2S was also produced inside the cells. Furthermore, when the researchers added a section of rat aorta, a heart blood vessel, to a solution containing organic polysulphides, the blood vessel began to relax as H2S was produced. While many studies showed that garlic supplements could actually prevent cardiovascular and other diseases, some studies still could not find any health benefits of taking garlic supplements. For instance, a government-funded study found that garlic had no effect in lowering cholesterol, while another study on the long-term consumption of garlic supplements had found no effect on the prevention of stomach cancer. The new finding can probably explain the contradictory results obtained from various studies on taking garlic supplements. As pointed out by the researchers, their results suggest that manufacturers could use the capacity to produce H2S to standardize their production of garlic dietary supplements. This will ensure the supplements will have the ingredients that produce H2S. Garlic seems to be safe for most people. However, it might have some side effects for others. For example, it may cause breath and body odor, and upset stomach, and it could be responsible for heartburn and flatulence. It has also known to interact with anticoagulants like Warfarin. As such, people taking blood-thinning drugs should consult their doctors before taking garlic supplements. It should also be avoided for at least 1 week before surgery. Meanwhile, it might interfere with the effectiveness of saquinavir, a drug used to treat HIV infection.
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