Garlic for Health or Curries!

Another well known health remedy has been knocked on the head, well not exactly a remedy, but it is known for its powers to help keep our hearts healthy. Millions of people buy the pills believing that they will help to lower to their blood cholesterol and possibly their blood pressure.

It is added to curries and meals not only for the flavor but because people believe in its health benefits. Yes I am talking about Garlic that little creamy looking bulb that sells in their millions. It seems that different researchers have different results to others.

European researchers have a recently done a study on 90 overweight smokers. They found that People who took a Garlic powder supplement for three months showed no change in their cholesterol levels or other heart disease risks.

Conflicting evidence from the American Journal of clinical nutrition stated that a number of studies found that Garlic supplements may help to lower blood cholesterol and possibly blood pressure, while other studies failed to find any benefits.

Of the 90 adults that were selected for the tests a third received 2 grams of the garlic supplement each day, another third took 40 millograms of Lipitor each day, the rest were given inactive placebo pills. Compared with the placebo group, the Lipitor group had, on average, a 53% drop in (bad) LDL cholesterol, a 20 percent dip in CRP levels and a 42 percent decline in TNF-alpha.

The study found that the garlic group showed no clear differences from the placebo group. The findings suggest that garlic powder — and probably garlic in general — “has no relevant place” in preventing or treating high cholesterol or the inflammation that marks artery damage.