We’re well into flu season and by now many of us have thought about what we can do to prevent, or at least minimize the symptoms of, getting sick. To improve our immunity we may consider getting more sleep and exercise, washing our hands more often and eating foods rich in vitamin C and zinc.
But a sure-fire remedy for preventing or curing the common cold and flu continues to evade modern medicine. Here we are in the 21st century and scientists and physicians still have no definite answers.
Enter Gene Stone, a man who obviously got tired of battling regular bouts with the flu and went out to find his own answers. Stone, an investigative health journalist and New York Times best-selling author, interviewed dozens of unusually healthy people world-wide and then selected 25 individuals who, he believed, each possessed a different secret of excellent health - a secret that made sense and was supported by research.
Stone, who experiments with almost every treatment he’s ever written about, shares his fascinating discoveries in his book, The Secrets of People Who Never Get Sick (Workman Publishing, 2010). And in an interview with Macleans' magazine, the November 29, 2010 issue, Stone reveals that if he had to chose just one tip that’s stopped him from getting sick it would have to be eating a raw garlic clove everyday.
The medicinal effects of the stinking rose date back to 3000 B.C. where it was used to treat fever and inflammation. In the Middle Ages people believed it would protect against the plague while soldiers in both World Wars ingested garlic to prevent gangrene.
Today most of the focus is on garlic’s cardiovascular and cancer-fighting benefits, not to mention its antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial properties. Interestingly, in 1858, French biologist, Louis Pasteur, discovered that garlic kills bacteria: one milliliter of raw garlic juice was as effective as 60 milliliters of penicillin.
Researchers purport that it’s the antibacterial activity of garlic juice that’s responsible for attacking bugs such as staphylococci , the bad-boy bacteria behind staph infections.
Believing garlic’s medical value is related to its pungent taste and smell, many scientists in the field discourage taking garlic in the form of an odourless supplement. When garlic’s active ingredient, allinin, is converted to allicin from chopping, crushing or chewing a clove, hydrogen sulfide is given off and that’s sacrificed when producing garlic in a pill form.
Garlic supplement brands are often marketed based on the amount of allicin they supposedly release after ingestion, but routine analyses of these products frequently reveal they vary considerably in their chemical composition. It doesn’t matter whether the pill contains garlic that’s been dried, powdered, or turned into a fermented extract or oily extract.
To boot, supplements may increase the risk of bleeding if taken with blood-thinning medications such as aspirin, warfarin (Coumadin), fish oil pills, or other anticoagulant drugs. They may also interact with some medications used to treat diabetes, HIV, hypertension, cancer and high cholesterol levels.
Some people may have allergies to garlic and other foods in the genus Allium plant family such as leeks, shallots, onions and chives. Always check with your doctor before starting to take garlic supplements or large amounts of garlic in its nature state, meaning more than five cloves daily.
It appears that the best way to have fresh garlic is either raw or cooked. Current research can’t recommend an ideal dosage or the healthiest way of eating it. But whatever you do, never consume garlic that’s been stored in oil at room temperature. This is a breeding ground for the bacteria that causes the foodborne illness, botulism.
However, go ahead and add more garlic to soups, sauces, condiments and marinades keeping in mind that high cooking temperatures most likely destroy its active components.
And if you’re worried that your breath and body odour will stop traffic, keep the mouthwash handy and bathe regularly. If these tricks don’t obliterate your ode de garlic, the good news is that you’re sure to get a seat on the bus.
published in the Vancouver Courier, December 3, 2010
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