Garlic - The Aromatic Herb
By Clara Myers
Antipathy toward garlic's aroma started with aristocratic Greeks and Romans in ancient times. Nevertheless, Roman emperors couldn't eat enough of it, as it was considered an antidote to poisons which were very popular in certain political circles of the time.
Today, we know garlic is an excellent herb for creating and maintaining overall health, but it also has many lesser known, but powerful qualities. For example, many people don't know that it's a naturally powerful antibiotic. This natural antibiotic is effective against toxic bacteria, viruses, and fungus.
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Available in pills, capsules, liquid and actual raw cloves, garlic is one of the most popular healthy herbs around today. The most important part of garlic is allicin. Allicin is the chemical produced when garlic is chopped, chewed, or bruised. Allicin is quite powerful as an antibiotic. In fact, it's said that 1 milligram of allicin has a potency of 15 standard units of penicillin.
The more popular version of garlic unfortunately tends to be the "odorless" pills and capsules found in health food stores. Allicin, garlic's key ingredient, is what causes the odor, so buying odorless garlic ends up being a waste of money. Odorless garlic as an antibiotic or general health promotion herb is useless if it doesn't have its smell.
Garlic also has germanium in it. Germanium is an anti-cancer agent, and garlic has more of it than any other herb. In lab tests, mice fed garlic showed no cancer development, whereas mice that weren't fed garlic showed at least some. In fact, garlic has been shown to retard tumor growth in human subjects in some parts of the world.
Another benefit of garlic is it helps regulate the body's blood pressure. So whether you have problems with low or high blood pressure, garlic can help equalize it.
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Garlic also helps strengthen your body's defenses against allergies; helps loosen plaque from the artery walls; helps regulate your blood sugar levels; and is the best choice for killing and expelling parasites such as pin worms from the human body.
In addition to all these health benefits, garlic is packed with vitamins and nutrients. Some of these include protein, potassium, Vitamins A, B, B2 and C, Calcium, Zinc and many others.
Here are a few ways I've used it in the past 10-15 years:
1. For ear infections: Wrap a small piece of garlic in some tissue, and insert it into the ear. Leave it there overnight if possible. Pain is almost immediately removed and the infection tends to start clearing up overnight.
2. For scratchy throats: Put a small slice of garlic in your mouth and suck on it for 10-15 minutes. You can put it between your teeth and cheek, then scratch it with your teeth a little to help stimulate juice from the garlic slice. This juice slides down your throat and removes the pain.
NOTE: Statements in this article may not be approved by the FDA, and are not made by a licensed medical practitioner or physician.
© 2007, Clara Myers. Visit Mind-Mart.com for organic herbs as well as many holistic and alternative products to strengthen mind-body health.
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