I love garlic. A lot. Like, an unsociable amount. Hell, I stole one of Brust‘s laws of cooking: “If it doesn’t have garlic, it better be dessert!”
So I love it every time scientists find another way garlic does amazing things to protect your health. I’d eat it anyway, of course. Here’s this week’s example:
from Garlic combats arsenic poisoning
Keya Chaudhuri of the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology in Kolkata, and her colleagues gave rats daily doses of arsenic in their water, in levels equivalent to those found in groundwater in Bangladesh and West Bengal. Rats which were also fed garlic extracts had 40 per cent less arsenic in their blood and liver, and passed 45 per cent more arsenic in their urine.
The actual study is available at ScienceDirect.
So I guess I (and Steve, and Alex, and…) don’t have to worry too much about arsenic. And can’t you just see the episode of House where he diagnoses arsenic poisoning from thumbnail striations or something, and prescribes a hearty course of Lebanese food?
And, in case you, for some inexplicable reason, don’t know about all the other benefits of garlic, let me quote a couple of paragraphs from another story on this discovery:
Garlic has heart protective effect, reducing blood pressure, thinning the blood, preventing clots, and lowering bad cholesterol. The garlic chemicals (polysulfides) make the blood vessels release hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which relaxes them and thereby lowers the blood pressure. Selenium and manganese are involved in heart protection.
The anti-inflammatory effect makes garlic effective against cold, flu and asthma. Garlic is a bacteria slayer. It can even destroy the bacterium H.pylori in the stomach, involved in the development of stomach cancer. Researches made on garlic revealed a few servings weekly decrease the risk of colon cancer.
Garlic can even combat three diabetes complications: nephropathy, retinopathy and neuropathy. Allicin, a sulfur compound in garlic, even prevents weight gain. Ancient Greeks and the Egyptians regarded it as an aphrodisiac. And for good reason: improved blood circulation goes to that point. Some say garlic fights acnea and hair loss.
None of this is news, of course. Here’s a list of research into other positive properties that’s more than a decade old:
Garlic’s therapeutic properties are many, and these are just some of the ones that are being reported:
- a significant antiarrhythmic effect on the heart (J Ethno pharmacol 1994;43(1):1-8)
- cancer inhibition (Carcinogenesis 1994; 15(9):1881-5; J Cell Biochem Suppl 1993;17F:91-4; Pharm Res 1992;9(12):1668-70).
- radiation protection (Photochem Photobiol 1993;58(6):813-7)
- sinusitis relief (Vestn Otorinolaringol 1991;(2):62-3)
- cholesterol/triglyceride reduction (Arzneim. 1993;43(9):978-81; J Postgrad Med 1991;37(3):132-5)
- reduced incidence of gastric cancer (Prev Med 1993;22(5):712-22), and esophageal cancer (J Cell Biochem Suppl 199317F:91-4)
- treating parasites (J Egypt Soc Parasitol 1991;21(2):497-502).
The Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology reported the case of a patient with severe hepatopulmonary syndrome who failed conventional somatostatin therapy, and declined liver transplantation. This syndrome is believed to arise from disordered gut peptide metabolism. On her own, she took doses of powdered garlic, and experienced improvement (J Clin Gastroenterol. 1992;15(3):248-50).
I should totally make some aioli tonight.
