Age Old Drug – Garlic

Garlic has almost 5000 years of stable history as a culinary element as well as a medicinal herb. The Sulfur elements (such as `Allicin`) present in garlic are the major reason for its burning taste and pungent smell. The Indic religions such as Hindu, Buddhist and Jain has cautioned of its excess usage in food. They felt that it would imbalance the temperature in our body and would heighten our desires. But `Allium sativum`- which is the scientific name of garlic proves to be a miracle drug if taken in small quantities.  It is indeed a major drug used in homoeopathic practice. A few of the benefits associated with a regular intake of garlic are…
 
Blood Pressure:

Garlic is known to control hypertension. It is often considered to be as effective as the basic drug administered for B.P in allopathy.  The extract of garlic found to stabilize the blood pressure of the patients just over a period of 6 months.
 
Cholesterol:

Garlic is found to decrease the LDL and increase the HDL cholesterol levels. HDL cholesterol in other words is called as the `good` cholesterol which would decrease the risk of a heart attack. It would not allow any plaque to be accumulated along the arteries, thus lowering the risk of a stroke.
 
Cancer:

A study in 2014 on Korean population showed enough evidence to prove that, people who intake garlic frequently has less risk of a gastric cancer. It’s also believed to work effectively on colon, breast, prostate and lung cancers as well.
 
Day to day:

A study showed that 60– 70% of the symptoms associated with cold have receded within a couple of days after having garlic. The extract of garlic is also found to cure the fungal infections on the skin. It’s also found to be effective in the cases of fever and cough.
 
Natural pesticide:

The extract of garlic if sprayed on the plants can prove to be a perfect pesticide. It’s a common belief for thousands of years, that garlic is a good repellent of insects. In fact, the pungent smell that garlic produces is to protect itself from being consumed by insects and animals.
 
A regular intake of 2-3 cloves of garlic is found to be useful in obtaining the medicinal benefits from garlic. However garlic is found to increase the body odor, which might affect our social relations. Having garlic cloves roasted or consuming them along with milk might decrease such odor.

-Nirjara