Did you know that the Greek Physician Hippocrates actually prescribed garlic to treat a variety of medical conditions?
Dementia - Garlic, extracted and aged to form antioxidant-rich aged garlic extract (AGE or Kyolic), may help reduce the risk of these diseases. AGE scavenges oxidants, increases superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione levels, and inhibits lipid peroxidation and inflammatory prostaglandins.
AGE also may help prevent cognitive decline by protecting neurons from Abeta neurotoxicity and apoptosis, thereby preventing ischemia- or reperfusion-related neuronal death and improving learning and memory retention. Although additional observations are warranted in humans, compelling evidence supports the beneficial health effects attributed to AGE in helping prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and lowering the risk of dementia and AD.
Alzheimer’s Disease - Apart from its culinary use, garlic (Allium sativum) is being used to treat several ailments like cancer and diabetes. Herein we have discussed the effects of a specific ‘ Aged Garlic Extract’ (AGE) and one of its active ingredients, S-allyl-L-cysteine (SAC) in restricting several pathological cascades related to the synaptic degeneration and neuroinflammatory pathways associated with AD.
Thus, based on the reported positive preliminary results reviewed herein, further research is required to develop the full potential of AGE and/or SAC into an effective preventative strategy for AD.
If validated pre-clinically, dietary intervention with
herbal alternative such as AGE having pleiotropic useful properties and least
adverse effects may provide greater therapeutic benefit over a
single-ingredient synthetic pharmaceutical drug having serious side effects in
treating Alzheimer's disease.
(Article)
Immune System Boost - Garlic contains numerous compounds that have the potential to influence immunity. Immune cells, especially innate immune cells, are responsible for the inflammation necessary to kill pathogens.
AGE group showed reduced cold and flu severity, with a reduction in the number of symptoms, the number of days participants functioned suboptimally, and the number of work/school days missed. These results suggest that AGE supplementation may enhance immune cell function and may be partly responsible for the reduced severity of colds and flu reported. The results also suggest that the immune system functions well with AGE supplementation, perhaps with less accompanying inflammation.
Prevents Tooth Decay - The objective of this in vitro study was to assess the antibacterial effect of different concentrations of garlic extract against human dental plaque microbiota.
Antibacterial activities of four different concentrations of garlic extract (5%, 10%, 20%, and 100%) were evaluated against Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sanguis, Streptococcus salivarius, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and lactobacillus spp. using the disk diffusion method.
The 5%, 10%, 20%, and 100% concentrations of garlic extract had similar effects, so further studies seem to be indicated on the usefulness of the 5% extract.
Treats Ulcers - Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is the most common pathogenic bacteria in the stomach. The aim of the current study was to explore the effect of oral garlic administration on bacterial urease activity inside the stomach and its contribution to the treatment of H. pylori infection.
Raw garlic has anti-bacterial effects against H. pylori residing in the stomach and may be prescribed along with routine drugs for the treatment of gastric H. pylori infection.
Cancer Preventative - Previous investigations involving diallyl trisulfide (DATS), a garlic compound, indicated significant anti-cancer effects in glioblastoma in vitro. DATS has also been shown to inhibit histone deacetylase activity and impede glioblastoma tumor progression. We hypothesized that DATS would block ectopic U87MG tumor by multiple pro-apoptotic pathways via inhibiting histone deacetylase (HDAC).
Finally, histological assessment and enzyme assays showed that even the highest dose of DATS did not negatively impact hepatic function. Collectively, our results clearly demonstrated that DATS could be an effective therapeutic agent in preventing tumor progression and inducing apoptosis in human glioblastoma in vivo, without impairing hepatic function.
Allergies - Aged black garlic (ABG) is known to have various bioactivities. However, the effect of ABG on allergic response is almost unknown. In the present study, we investigated whether ABG can inhibit immunoglobulin E-mediated allergic response in RBL-2H3 cells as well as in vivo passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA).
this study demonstrated that EBG or BG10 possesses anti-allergic functions in vitro and in vivo systems. Moreover, BG10 may be concentrated with anti-allergic components that are extracted from ABG, because BG10 has more potent anti-allergic action than EBG. These findings revealed a beneficial feature of EBG in IgE-induced allergic responses.