Health Fact: Garlic Wards Off (Besides Vampires!) Many Health Threats

For thousands of years, humans have revered garlic as both food and medicine. Medical experts believe that regular consumption of garlic - as little as half a clove a day - may cut the risk of several significant health threats.

Chemists say that when garlic is crushed, chopped, or chewed, an enzyme is released that converts one of garlic's key sulfur compounds, called alliin, into allicin. Allicin gives garlic its unique odor (the reason why garlic is often called the "stinking rose") and provides much of its healing properties.

Garlic has been shown to have numerous beneficial effects. Consider the following:

1) Garlic kills many disease-causing microorganisms. Doctors say that although it is only about 1 percent as effective as penicillin, it works against a wide spectrum of bacteria, viruses, and fungi - including some that antibiotics can't destroy.

2) In test tubes, garlic inhibits the growth of 'Helicobacter pylori,' the bacterium that causes most stomach ulcers.

3) The numerous sulfur compounds of garlic may also protect against certain types of cancer. A major study conducted in Iowa showed garlic to be the single most powerful protector against colon cancer.

4) It's not only garlic's sulfur compounds that appear to fight cancer. Garlic increases the production of an enzyme known as glutathione peroxidase, which helps detoxify carcinogens. [Read Full Article]